Walking through the dark caverns, Rain took the front with Dante right behind her, carrying Alicia on his back. They had been walking for hours now, and still never reached anything meaningful. Thanks to Dante's soul sense, they avoided all of the big abominations, but the lack of progress was already taking its toll of them.
"Should we take a short break?" Alicia asked with a worried look. "Dante has been carrying me for hours now."
"I'm tired, yes. But that doesn't mean we need to rest. It's been hours, but we haven't made any progress yet. That's concerning." He looked back at her. "What if someone else cleared the dungeon without us?"
"We can't rest in the middle of nowhere." Rain looked back. "We should try to find a wide cavern, one where we can sleep on dry ground. Sure, Dante will be fine, but you'll get electrocuted if you sleep with me on wet ground."
"Rain... the live wire." Dante smiled. "We're walking with a living hazard." Even now, as they simply walked through the caves, Rain's feet were discharging an electric current into the wet ground, shocking and killing all Mundane Beasts that gets close, and the only reason Alicia wasn't dead was that Dante carried her on his back, and he wasn't affected.
"There is nothing I can do about it." Rain looked at them with a pout. "Biri can stop it, but she never listens to me." The tiny spark flew out of Rain's hair and into her hands, and then back to her head, clearly disapproving.
After hours of walking, they finally reached an open room that didn't have any flowing water and was suitable to camp in.
They sat down, rested for a while, and decided to camp for a while. They were exhausted and needed to rest, especially Rain, who had just survived death. They now needed several things. Warm food, warm shelter, and safety.
Rain decided to go hunt a Mundane Beast and bring it back, and Dante spent his time forming a large tub of stone with magic, then directed the cave's water flow to it, and used fire magic to heat it up. "Is that magic similar to the one you used to heat the stone we grilled the meat on?" Alicia asked, and Dante nodded. "Bingo, just modified it a bit."
By the time he had filled and heated it fully, Rain had returned with an Achesoul and gave it to Alicia to butcher it. Dante approached them and pointed at the now-filled tub of boiling water. "You can wash from it. Try to keep it clean."
Rain approached the tub, looked at the water for a moment, and then turned back toward Dante, who still stood there. "Want to watch?"
He smiled, "Of course, the problem is that I shouldn't do it." He then turned around and left the cavern to stand guard outside. In less than an hour, both Rain and Alicia had washed their bodies. Then Rain went outside to stand guard, and Dante washed himself. Alicia stayed inside and turned to look away, as making her sit outside was a huge risk.
When the three of them were clean and Dante had recovered enough of his mana, he heated a stone, and they cooked the meat on it, having a feast. It was simple unsalted meat with distilled water, but far better than the burned meat that Rain ate yesterday, which she made by shocking the meat with her electricity.
"It's bland." Alicia complained, looked at the other two, and sighed. They were like hamsters with their cheeks full. "Well, you two don't care."
Dante forced himself to swallow all the meat he had in his mouth, almost choked, so he had to push it down with water, and then coughed. "Yeah... this is the best we can get here. We're the royalty of the dungeon. Eating cooked meat instead of raw meat."
Rain nodded. "Not many can use magic like Dante to heat stone and grill meat. All they could do is throw fireballs that burn everything to charcoal. I bet we're the only ones here getting to eat cooked meat..." She looked back at the hot tub. "And we even got to take a warm bath."
After getting their fill, the three were feeling sleepy, so Dante went and locked the small entrance and used what little mana he had left to warm a path of stone for them to sleep on.
Each one slept on their own, about a meter apart, and Dante was between the two girls so they wouldn't roll into each other and end up frying Alicia. As expected, the moment they put their heads down, they fell asleep like logs.
Only now could Dante notice how exhausted he was. His entire body hurt, his mind burned, and he felt frustrated that he hadn't killed more abominations since Rain took care of them all passively.
She had killed a Cursed Monster, and considering that he gets double souls from every rank above him, then... one that Monster would've given him eight souls. What a waste.
He slowly drifted into sleep and immediately woke up to someone screaming. As he jolted up, he could see the confused Alicia by his side, and it was Rain who had screamed. She was pale, drenched in sweat, had wet herself, and even threw up. "What is it? Are you hurt?"
Dante immediately dragged Alicia closer and shook Rain, who looked as if her mind was stuck somewhere else. She looked at him with dazed, tearful eyes, and then took a deep breath, hugging herself. "I'm... fine."
Dante shook his head. "Rain... you aren't fine. Look at me. What is it?" She stared at him. "What if I said that I don't want to talk about it?" She mumbled.
"That's fine by me... but is it fine by you? Whatever hurting you, we can't help if we don't know what it is. Believe me, no one here will judge you."
Looking at his white eyes for a long moment, she quickly sighed. "It's a dream... when I fought that cursed monster. How I got hit, how I almost died, that pain, agony, fear... all of it." Just thinking about it made her look paler and start shaking.
"That..." Alicia looked at her. "We can't do anything about it."
Dante stared her in silence for a while, then shifted his gaze to the buzzing lightning spirit. "What was your name, Biri? Listen here, you little shit. Can you make it so Alicia won't get shocked?"
Alicia blinked. "It says... "Who are you calling a little shit?" ... with an angry growl."
Dante shrugged. "I'm calling it a little shit, or is there another spirit here called Biri? Now, stop your baby crying and listen. Make it so Alicia won't get shocked. We'll have them sleep together so Rain can feel warmth, and that might help her calm."
Alicia translated. "I'll do it. If you sleep with them. Rain needs to feel safe, and Alicia can't provide that, but you can." She then threw a sharp glance at the spirit. "Thank you for wording it nicely, instead of calling me weak."