The vicious creatures had bright and colorful feathers painting their body. It was a mixing of red and yellow that reminded Elanore of certain parrots native to the rain forests on Earth. Each of them had a large curved dew claw on the bottom of their bird like legs.

  Elanore watched as the leader of their pack of four leapt into the air, feathers extending to the side for aerodynamics. She tapped her staff against the ground, remembering a fundamental part of the game.

  She had no idea if this memory was applicable here, but she was sad that she’d only had a brief foray into magic. “[Dark Witch Arts – Disintegration.]”

  In the instant she cast her spell, purple mist launched from her staff this time, and it touched the raptors’ bodies. Each of them turned into ash in less than a second, and their black specs floated to the floor.

  Naela swallowed while watching the scene. “Mistress, don’t you think that was a bit overkill?”

  “Naela, it would be unfair if I never get to use magic! This whole time I have been worried about destroying things, but it should be fine in a dungeon, right?”

  The wyvern sighed. “I have no idea where you get your knowledge from, but dungeons aren’t indestructible. Gods can and have destroyed them before. The dungeon is only as strong as its master.”

  Elanore raised a pink eyebrow. “It seems that you know even more than you said!”

  The vampire was about ready to ask further questions, but something else caught her attention. The ashes of the creatures turned into mana particles and sank into the floor. I see, so that was similar to the game…

  In the next instant, items appeared where their bodies used to be. There was a tiny mana core, and a couple of dew claws.

  “[Inspect].”

  The vampire grinned before reaching down and picking them up. She placed each of them inside of her inventory. Then a sudden thought occurred to her while she was looking at the stone walls of the hallway.

  “How come there are no adventurers inside of this place? Those monsters didn’t seem to be that hard.”

  The wyvern shrugged. “For most humans, even something like that could be a challenge. My wizard friend told me that most humans stay within the city walls and have other people protect them. Besides, I think that adventuring is not very common in this country.”

  Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

  “Oh? Why is that?”

  “It’s because of this forest. For humans, this place is dangerous. If they didn’t have their walls to protect them, they would not live long.”

  Elanore’s eyes widened, and she remembered the battle the wyvern had with those humans at that fortress. What were those people even doing there? Why make a fortress so far out into the forest?

  No matter how much Elanore tried to rack her brains to conjure up some kind of answer, she kept getting distracted with other thoughts. For example, there was the raptor mana crystal inside of her inventory, and she just realized her own hunger.

  The vampire resummoned it and pressed it against her lips. Her fangs clamped down, and sweet juice started to flow onto her tongue. Oh, this one is mango flavored.

  Though, the delightful taste came and went, the only natural effect of having a tiny mana core. Elanore sighed and frowned, but a certain cauldron was there to cheer her up.

  “It’s okay, your majesty. There are bound to be more of these things if we continue further.”

  Elanore nodded and started walking through the stone hall. Along the walls, there were torches that remained lit, despite there being nobody to tend to them. It didn’t take the group long to arrive at a completely different part of the dungeon by following the hall.

  In front of the group, the place opened up into a grassy room. Darkness covered the landscape, and above them stars shone their light to the ground. Green hedges started a maze, and on the other side of the place there was a tall white manor. One of these kinds of places?

  “Mistress, we could simply fly over this,” Naela said.

  The vampire witch shook her head. “There is no fun in doing that. You ever heard that saying, it’s all about the journey not the destination.”

  Pot’s singular pink eye sparkled, and he flapped his wings. “Such wisdom. I will take note of that one, too.”

  Elanore chuckled and walked forwards into the maze. It didn’t take them long to reach a right and a left path, but they weren’t given the luxury of looking down either of them for long. From the right path, another group of feathered raptors came screeching and running at the trio.

  The avian dinosaurs leapt into the air, but they were delivered the same treatment as their predecessors.

  Elanore waved her staff, and her spell disintegrated them on contact. Their ashes sprinkled down into the green grass below. The vampire witch expected them to disappear into particles yet again, but it was different this time.

  Sharp, thorny vines came out of the ground in droves, and each of them collected the creature’s ashes before sinking back down into the ground again. A cluster of the vines left behind items in their wake.

  Another mana crystal, another dew claw, yet something else was mixed in the bunch. This one was a thin, silver, and square object. Elanore picked it up and fixed her gaze on it, narrowing her eyes and performing the spell she’d cast many times since arriving in this other world.

  Her eyes widened. I guess the reality of these dungeons must be far crueler than I can imagine.

  Naela tilted her head at the object. “What is it?”

  “It’s a dog tag from a soldier or adventurer presumably. Though, I wonder why a dungeon would choose to store such a thing. Do you have any idea?”

  Naela shook her head. “I don’t know, mistress. This time, I am certain of that. I never investigated the nature of dungeons. It was all that wizard mostly.”

  Elanore stared at her wyvern in contemplation. “I would like to meet this wizard some day.”

  The wyvern frowned and looked down with a sigh. “I don’t know if that would be possible. There is no telling where he’s at now. I tried looking for him…”

  A deep groan cut off their conversation. From the left path, a new monster made its presence known. This one should have been expected by Elanore, yet she was still surprised to see it.

  A minotaur!