Another moment of silence... A flash of memories went through Five"s eyes, he could not help but clench his fists tighter but he quickly took a deep breath and calmed himself :"It is nothing... Just personal issues, I will deal with them myself later when I get my own dungeon," answered Five with an expressionless face.
Harriet sent him a doubtful look, but there was nothing she could do if Five did not want to share his past. "It does not look like a minor thing, so if you want to share the burden, I am here to help, I wish you no harm," replied Harriet.
"Yes thank you, but I think I will be able to deal with it by myself"
"Fine then, come with me to the communal room," said Harriet as she accelerated her steps
...
The two resumed walking, the atmosphere was weird between them as none of them knew what to say,
Eventually, Five decided to apologize for his behavior, he could feel that Harriet just tried to help him while he was roughly replying to her. After all, she was the only person he knew in the dungeon apart from Kroff, he did not know how long he would stay here so it was better to maintain good relations.
"I am sorry for what I said Harriet, I lose my temper when I think about those things" sincerely said Five," But these are private things that I will solve myself."
Harriet who was walking with a pensive expression turned around to look at him.
"No, it"s me who needs to apologize, I should not have asked such things. But there is something I should say, building a dungeon is not a solitary task, if you do not trust your monsters, you will never create a good dungeon, monsters are not born loyal to their masters, they choose to follow them out of trust. Even I can choose at any time to rebel against Kroff."
"I will think about it."
"Right."
"Let"s put all that behind us, come let"s go eat," said Harriet with a smile as she pushed open a double-sided door.
Five nodded and went in but he could not help but freeze for a moment. There was nothing dangerous, it was the exact opposite, the appetizing smell of food a.s.saulted his nostrils but that was not the important part.
In front of him, a group of 20 to 30 winged girls were happily eating and talking all over the place. Laughter, conversations, and sounds of cutlery hitting plates filled the room, while some were eating happily, some of the girls were just lazing around. The thing was that they all wore quite revealing dresses.
A thought crossed Five"s mind, "Is that girl"s paradise ?"
"Clap Clap"
As they entered, Harriet clapped her hands twice to gather their attention.
"Everyone, I will like to present you Five, he is the disciple of Master for now, please welcome him !" said Harriet while stepping to the side, allowing the girls to see Five.
They all turned to look at Five, while some just ignored him, the majority smiled at him and warmly greeted him. A few harpies even flapped their wings slightly and flew to Five :
"Wow, are you a human? It is the first time I am seeing one !" cheerfully declared a yellow-haired Harpy.
"Where do you come from? Can you tell us about the open world ?" asked a red-haired Harpy as she landed right next to Five.
The latter was just overwhelmed by the girls, although he once had a fiancee and was not a virgin, in front of so many winged girls wearing revealing dresses, his heart could not help but beat faster. His eyes feasted on the white cleavages for a moment, but he quickly recollected himself, recalling his training to not lose focus.
He politely introduced himself and answered the questions of the young harpies but these ones would constantly a.s.sault him with more, they were very curious about the world Five came from. Even the other harpies who first ignored him, turned their attention to him while finishing their plates.
"Cough Cough! I think that that"s enough, give him some s.p.a.ce girls, he won"t disappear after today. You should all go back to the village." said Harriet while laughing at the situation Five was in.
"Ahhh "
The harpies let out some complaints but obediently left the communal room, Harriet was after all their leader and they all respected her.
Five who recollected himself looked at Harriet"s teasing smile, "Was all of that necessary? Don"t they need to defend the dungeon ?"
"This is the communal room of the harpies, you don"t expect me to bring you to another race"s room right? They do defend the dungeon but since they are positioned on the 50th floor, there is no real need to remain there, adventurers are not strong enough to climb that high, only high-level commanders or heroes succeeded in reaching them, but that occurs very rarely," answered Harriet, while moving through the room.
She indicated Five to sit on one of the nearby seats and quickly brought 2 trays full of food, one for him and one for herself and sat in front of him.
"Bon appet.i.t " happily said, Harriet, as she readily sliced the sausage in her plate.
"Mmmm" Five nodded and attacked his own plate.
The two ate silently and actually, Five did not find it awkward, he was thoroughly enjoying the potato mash and salad in front of him, it was his third decent meal since he was imprisoned, it was not of the highest quality but the flavor did remind him of the good old times.
"You know, if you want to say anything, here is the right place, you are a smart person, I am sure you noticed that walls have ears, especially dungeon walls, but communal rooms and our personal rooms are different, Kroff does after all give us some privacy," said Harriet to break the silence, she was still resolute in finding out about Five"s past.
"Mmmm there is nothing to talk about, these are just minor things don"t worry about it." politely replied Five still avoiding the subject.
Harriet, obviously not satisfied with the answer stopped eating and looked at Five, she placed down her cutleries and took a piece of napkin to wipe off the sauce off her lips before speaking.
"Five, I am talking to you as a friend, you have a bright future ahead of you, why is it that you don"t want to join the Cyclone Alliance? Kroff is just very conservative and narrow-minded, if you are not his ally, then you can only be his enemy. You should have noticed his att.i.tude, he would be more inclined to help you if you agree... "
Hearing that, Five also looked at Harriet, "I did already notice that he won"t teach me much, but right now, I don"t feel like I need his help."
"Huh? Do you think it is just about learning about dungeons? You should be aware that your mentor also has the authority to gift you a certain amount of DP and a monster but these are all at the discretion of the mentor." quickly added Harriet.
"What? I am also supposed to receive such things ?" asked Five with surprise, this was something he did not expect.
"Yes, he can give you any amount of DP as long as it does not exceed 20000 DP and as for the monster, Kroff has to give you one that is at least above level 20. Else, how would you be able to protect your dungeon when you will get started ?"
"This...", this was something Five clearly did not expect, DP was essential for quickly improving his strength and a level 20 monster? They could be considered as mini-bosses.
Seeing Five"s expression change, Harriet quickly continued, "You see? Having a good relationship with your mentor can prove to be useful, sometimes, it is better to lower your head to gain greater benefits."
"I..."