Chapter 155: A Campfire Meal with the New Allies

"So..."

Liam remained seated across from the leader of the raxan.

"This isn’t your world?"

The gray humanoid slowly shook his head.

"No."

He looked toward the entrance of the cave.

"This place is nothing like our world."

His eyes turned toward the blue sky visible from inside.

"Our home was completely different. We didn’t have a sky like that."

Liam nodded.

"So you don’t know where we are either."

"No."

The leader looked at the meadow again.

"I don’t know where we are."

Lydia, who was sitting beside Liam, raised a hand.

"Do you know anything about dungeons?"

Liam glanced at her.

The raxan leader tilted his head.

"Dungeons?"

"Yes."

"I don’t know that word. I don’t even know what you’re referring to."

The gray humanoid looked confused.

"What does it mean?"

Lydia looked at Liam.

He sighed.

There wasn’t much point in hiding it now.

"Dungeons are special places that appear in our world."

The leader listened attentively.

"Some have monsters, treasures, and a boss at the end."

Liam pointed outside.

"We entered a dungeon that was undergoing an evolution."

"Evolution?"

"Yes."

Liam continued explaining.

"From what we know, dungeons connect our world to other dimensions."

The raxan’s eyes widened.

"So there are other dimensions..."

"Exactly."

Liam pointed at the ground.

"When we entered, we ended up inside a different dimension."

He paused.

"And that dimension turned out to be yours."

The leader remained completely still.

"Then..."

"Yes."

Liam nodded.

"I think we appeared in your world."

Lydia chimed in.

"Then the flash happened, and you already know the rest."

Liam remembered the light that had engulfed the dungeon.

"When the evolution ended, we all ended up lying in this meadow."

The leader lowered his head.

"So we..."

He placed a hand against his chest.

"We mistook you for our enemies."

Liam didn’t respond.

"We attacked you."

The leader closed his eyes.

"I apologize on behalf of all the raxan."

For several seconds, no one said anything.

Until Chuck raised his food can.

"I forgive you."

Everyone looked at him.

Chuck smiled as he chewed.

"The fight was fun."

Liam let out a small laugh.

Jordan gave a thumbs-up while continuing to eat from his can.

"I agree."

Emily shook her head.

"They were pretty tough."

She looked at her arm.

"They almost killed me."

Then she smiled.

"But I can understand."

One of the smaller raxan nearby stood up.

He slowly walked toward Emily.

The young woman watched him curiously.

The little one knelt in front of her.

Then he lowered his head.

"I’m sorry."

His voice echoed inside Emily’s mind.

"I hurt you."

Emily’s eyes widened, and she smiled.

She moved closer to Lydia and wrapped an arm around her shoulders.

"It’s okay."

She pointed at Lydia.

"My friend healed me."

The little raxan slowly raised his head.

"Your friend?"

"Yes."

Emily gently pulled Lydia closer to her.

"She’s an excellent healer."

Lydia blushed.

"Emily..."

The little raxan looked at Lydia curiously.

"Thank you."

Lydia smiled.

"You don’t have to thank me."

The raxan returned to the others.

The tension inside the cave had decreased considerably.

But there was still one question.

Lena raised her hand.

"So..."

She looked at Liam.

"What happens next?"

Carol also looked at him.

"Yeah. What’s the plan?"

Liam stood up, walked to the entrance of the cave, and looked out at the meadow.

The flowers swayed in the distance despite there being no wind.

Liam narrowed his eyes.

’The tremors are still happening...’

He remembered Pix’s words.

That sub-boss possessed power equivalent to that of an S-rank dungeon boss.

And that meant they couldn’t defeat it.

Not alone.

Not even with the raxan.

The humanoids were still far too weakened.

"First, we’ll rest."

Everyone listened.

"We need to recover our strength."

Liam looked toward the mountains.

"Then we’ll look for a way out."

Chuck raised his can.

"What if there’s no way out?"

Liam frowned.

"There has to be one."

’Somewhere.’

Lydia approached him.

"Liam..."

"Yes?"

"Are we going to leave the raxan behind?"

Liam looked at her.

Before he could answer, the leader of the humanoids intervened.

"Don’t worry about us."

He stood up.

"We can survive here."

He pointed toward the inside of the mountain.

"We can build some kind of home inside these caves."

Liam looked around.

The cave was dark.

The leader smiled.

"This darkness..."

He closed his eyes.

"...makes us feel at home."

Liam watched the smaller raxan.

Some were playing with the stones inside the cave.

Others simply sat together in the darkness.

It was hard to believe that those little beings were the same humanoids who had seemed like enormous, muscular monsters earlier.

The same ones who had hurled massive chunks of debris at them.

Now they looked like malnourished children playing with rocks.

Liam couldn’t help but worry.

’Will they really be able to survive here on their own?’

The leader approached him.

"Thank you."

Liam looked at him.

"For what?"

"For helping us."

The raxan slightly bowed his head.

"And for forgiving us."

Liam remained silent.

"If you hadn’t appeared..."

The leader looked at the little ones.

"...our race would have gone extinct."

Liam’s eyes widened slightly.

"You are our heroes."

Liam shook his head.

"You don’t have to call us that."

"For us, we do."

The leader smiled.

"But trust us."

He patted his chest.

"We’ll survive here."

Liam smiled.

"Then we’ll come back."

The leader raised his head.

"We’ll be waiting for you. And if you need anything..."

The humanoid pointed toward his people.

"We’ll help you."

Liam extended a hand.

"Deal."

The leader shook his hand.

"We are indebted to you."

Liam looked at the campfire.

The food cans were still sitting near the flames.

"By the way..."

He pointed at the food.

"If you’re hungry, you can eat."

The raxan looked at the cans.

But none of them seemed to understand what they were.

Liam sighed.

"I guess you don’t know what this is."

Suddenly, one of the smaller raxan approached the campfire and picked up a burning branch.

Liam’s eyes widened.

"What is he doing?"

The little one raised the branch and sniffed it.

Then he opened his mouth and took a bite.

"What?!"

Lena abruptly stood up.

The little one calmly began chewing the burning wood.

The flames disappeared into his mouth.

Liam was completely paralyzed.

Chuck dropped his spoon.

Jordan stopped eating.

Emily stared at the little one with her eyes wide open.

"Is he eating that?"

The little raxan happily nodded.

Another one approached, grabbed another branch, and ate it as well.

Then another.

And another.

Within seconds, several raxan began approaching the campfire to grab the burning branches.

"What the...?!"

Liam began laughing.

Chuck clutched his stomach.

"These guys eat fire!"

Jordan raised his can.

"And we were worrying about whether they had any food!"

Emily couldn’t contain her laughter.

Lena stared in complete astonishment.

"Boss..."

"Yes?"

"I think we found something they can actually eat."

Liam looked at the raxan.

They all seemed happy.

Some even made little sounds of satisfaction as they ate the burning branches.

The leader picked up a branch and began chewing it.

Then he looked at Liam.

"Thank you."

Liam shook his head, still laughing.

"You’re welcome, I guess."

The campfire continued burning.

And as the raxan devoured the burning branches as if they were a genuine feast, Liam and his squad could do nothing but laugh and wonder what kind of creatures they had truly encountered inside that strange dungeon.