Who Needs Magic in a Fantasy World Anyway?

Chapter 75: Path to the Dungeon

"Dungeon, dungeon, dungeon~!" Koko sang the words in an awkward song as she walked down the overgrown path along with Christina and Richard. Though while she was excited, the other two seemed to be anything but as the drug their feet, still attempting to fight off their drowsiness from waking up early that morning. And while both of them were effected, Richard seemed to have it much worse than Christina.

"Tell me again why we had to get up so early in the morning to do this?" Richard asked after yawning. "When I agreed to come with you, I didn't think that we would be leaving three hours before sunrise."

"Because Koko was impatient." Christina answered. "We should have been able to sleep for another hour..."

"Come on guys, how can you not be excited about this?!" Koko asked as she ran in front them before turning and walking backwards to keep their pace. "We're going to our first dungeon today! Just think of the loot and experience!"

"And monsters, awful smells, cramped spaces and possibly lethal traps?" Christina added.

"Do you think that any of the monsters will be strong?!" Koko asked excitedly. "There might even be a boss monster!"

"She's ignoring everything else you said..." Richard stated evenly.

"I'm used to it." Christina shrugged in reply. "Koko, you remember what the headmaster said, right? There shouldn't be anything inside of this dungeon that's larger than a wolf."

"I wonder how big the wolves here get?" Koko asked herself as she only listened to a few of Christina's words yet again.

"Is it too late to go back?" Richard asked.

"You can if you want to." Koko replied after a slight pause. "Sorry, I know I'm being a bit eager, but I can't help it! And if you guys dont want to, then we don't have to do this. I'll just find some other way to make money."

"I already volunteered, so I can't really turn back now." Christina smiled at her in return. "Besides. If we earn enough money, I'll be able to buy some more travel rations."

"You really do love those, don't you?" Koko asked before chuckling to herself as she thought of the hero's obsession over the flavored rations which everyone else hated.

"I'm coming too." Richard replied soon after. "You can't do the talent competition without two gold coins, right? I want to see whatever it is that you're going to do, so I'll help."

"Thanks guys." Koko thanked them. And, not for the first time, she thought that it was great to have friends.

"Richard, are you sure that you've been following the map right?" Christina suddenly asked as her head turned towards the sun that was only now beginning to rise in the distance. "Headmaster Conner said that it would only take two hours for us to reach the dungeon, and it's been almost three."

"I think so..." Richard answered thoughtfully as he took out the map again. "I'm at least sure that we've  turned off at all of the correct branches in the road."

"So what should we be looking for then?" Koko asked.

"The instructions say to keep an eye out for a small trail on the left side of the road." Richard replied as he quoted the instructions on the back of the map. "It also says that we might miss it seeing as the path is little more than a game trail, but I've been looking for one this entire time and haven't-"

"Found it!" Koko interrupted him excitedly as she jogged to the side of the road where a tiny path wound in-between some tall bushes.

"Yeah, that's it alright." Richard nodded his agreement as he stowed the map in a satchel that he carried at his side. "This should lead us directly to the Leaky Caverns."