253 Emergence
The morning after, Minya and I got woken up at the same time. By the loud roaring sounds of rumbling grounds.
"Wha! What's going on!? It's like there was a huge landslide..."
I could hazard a guess from the smell of soil drifting into the hut.
A cave in of an enormous scale, that flashed in my mind.
"Panicking will do us no good. Let's calm down."
I stopped Minya who looked like she was going to rush out of the hut right away.
"Gramps! ...Ah... No..."
"We can't conclude he's dead yet. Regardless of whether he got caught in it or not, us rushing out without any preparations would accomplish nothing. Compose yourself."
I may have taken up this commission, but I'm still a stranger at the end of the day. I can afford to keep my cool. But not Minya, so the job falls on me.
Minya clenched her fists while looking downcast to endure. First thing first, we had a simple breakfast. The cloud of dust hadn't settled down outside.
That was when Minya muttered in wonder.
"...Mana flow...? Why? It's not an ordinary landslide?"
Something clicked in my head hearing the word mana.
(Could it be, but really? At this timing? You can't be serious...)
Goblins, cave and mana crystallization immediately crossed my mind.
We carefully approached the source of this cave in.
Minya brought this town's map with her, her steps were steadfast as we made our way there.
We arrived at the site to verify by sight.
There was no sign of any landslide despite all that loud noise, instead we found a huge cave.
I'm convinced after seeing this abnormality.
"Dungeon, we just witnessed the birth of a new dungeon huh... well damn, nothing to this but well damn."
"Wha!? Then what about gramps!?"
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There were traces of people around this cave entrance. A campfire and remains of someone having meals.
Proof that the gramps has gone inside for sure.
"At worst, he's dead. Got caught in the dungeon emergence. Or he might be killed by something inside."
"N-no... Gramps..."
"It's too early to tell. That's the worst possible outcome, not the only one. He might barely scrape by."
I tried to console Minya, but it wasn't enough as she fell down on the ground.
"I'm going inside. You stay here. Chimera. Keep Minya safe."
I couldn't see Chimera but I spoke to it nonetheless knowing it must be nearby.
Sure enough, it showed up next to me in Tiger Mode.
'Gau', it cried once and plopped down next to Minya.
I saw that as a confirmation and left the place slowly treading into the dungeon.