Chapter 373: Tunnels

Violet stared down at the unconscious man for a prolonged moment, her annoyance at how apparently ’fragile’ this man was to have fainted twice is just as many minutes palpable.

Still she paused and took a deep breath to calm herself down. She realised that she had been a touch hasty in her actions, "perhaps rushing over here with my domain on full blast wasn’t the best ideas?"

Violet sighed as she realised that was probably a large contributing factor to the man’s reaction towards her.

So she decided that she would be a touch kinder to the obviously troubled man.

As such her body flashed purple, a moment later she stood besides the unconscious man in her humanoid form, her black and purple kimono once again covering her.

She took a moment to admire the outfit, it covered everything that Luna insisted that she cover, it even had the nifty ability to allow both her tail and wings to extend out without getting snagged.

That didn’t even take into account the powerful magic’s woven into it. She took a moment to admire the runes threaded through the item, it had only been recently that she was even able to fully understand what all of them did, it truly was an impressive outfit.

Whilst it didn’t quite match up in durability to her scales in her true form, it was still quite the durable item. Although trying to compair anything to dragon scales was a touch silly given their strength and resilience.

Still she liked the outfit and given it was her most powerful item she didn’t have to bother changing clothes which got Luna to stop pestering her or make her change outfits daily. A true win win from her perspective!

Looking back at the unconscious jackelkin Violet let out a sigh, she ’poked’ him with her presence again to wake him back up. He jolted upright whilst letting out a squeal of shock and fear.

His eyes were wide as he rapidly looked around, when his eyes fell onto Violet he almost passed right over her, obviously looking for her dragon form. However, Violet released a short and soft pulse of her domain and the man’s eyes locked right back onto her body.

This time he had a look of surprise instead of fear, although that fear did seep back in as he simply sat there staring at her blankly for a prolonged period of time.

Eventually Violet simply raised one eyebrow and asked in a fairly flat tone of voice. "Are you just going to sit there like a fish all day or get up?"

That seemed to finally snap him out of his funk and he jolted up to his feet, he instantly bowed low towards Violet, his limbs trembling slightly as he spoke.

"My apologies lady dragon! I was merely surprised at your humanoid form. Please take no offense from my indiscretions!" He practically shouted out in fear, obviously expecting her to simply kill him.

Violet frowned, thinking that they would be getting no where any time soon if this continued on, so with a sigh she spoke up to reassure him. "Relax, I’m not going to harm you, I just want you to lead me towards the exit of this area. Iv been stuck in this maze for far too long and I would quite like to get out. If you help me then no harm will befall you."

Whilst her words didn’t seem to entirely convince him he did seem to relax at least a little, Violet figured she would just have to accept that the man would remain somewhat jittery.

"I-oh course lady dragon. I will endeavour to lead you." He still remained bowed at nearly a 90 degree angle as he spoke.

Violet sighed internally once again, already begining to regret this course of action. She was already slightly reluctant to get help due to the nature of this trial, yet after spending so many hours just wandering in circles she no longer cared if there was some downside to getting some help. It would only be for navigation so she hoped it would be alright.

"Alright get up, let’s get going, the sooner he set off the sooner you can be away from me. Also what is you name?"

Finally the jackelkin straightened up however, he still seemed reluctant to meet her eyes. "My name is Kalvin oh honoured one."

Violet’s face scrunched up at that honorific, not liking how it sounded. "Just call me Violet, it’s my name."

The man, Kalvin, seemed to pale slightly at her words, his almost scared voice spoke up hesitantly. "Oh, of course Lady Violet, my apologies. I meant no offense."

At this Violet really did sigh dramatically, not enjoying how meek this man was acting. Where was the fierce fire archer she had seen when first arriving?

Waving him off she just decided to move on. With a grandiose nod and bow the beastkin moved forwards, mana swirling around his eyes as he carefully observed everything around him.

Violet curiously watched on as he seemed to stare at random parts of the tunnel for a few moments, then he decisively turned in one direction and began walking at a reasonable pace.

Well reasonable for a humanoid, it felt quite slow to Violet yet she simply took the time to practice manipulating her domain and presence in subtle ways.

Time passed swiftly, minutes turning into hours as the man took her on a lengthy journey through the seemingly endless tunnels. It took so long that Violet was almost sure that he was just as lost as she was, thankfully she began to notice that her bond with Luna was steadily getting stronger and stronger as time passed.

By the time it got to what Violet believed to be the end of the second day since the trial started she stopped him. "Let’s take a break, I’m starting to get hungry."

The man paled dramatically, he once again began to shake like a leaf in a storm as he stared at Violet with dawning horror. Before Violet could figure out why he suddenly became like this when she thought he was steadily improving as the day went on the man suddenly threw himself into the ground and prostrates towards her.

"Please don’t eat me! I swear I am taking you the right way. Please don’t eat me!" He practically sobbed out his words.

Violet just looked flatly at the man, unamused she replied in a flat tone.

"Why on earth would I eat you? No I have beast sovereign meat that I’m going to cook." Then she muttered under her breath. "Besides you look far to skinny and stringy, probably taste bad anyway."

With that she promptly summoned out her portable stove and a massive slab of tier 5 meat. Then she got to work preparing her dinner all the while the jackelkin looked on in surprise still laced with a slight helping of fear.

Violet just shook her head at Kalvin’s silly behaviour and focused on her cooking.