The Survival of the Third-rate Villain

After about half an hour...

SLASH—!

-Garagh?!

Thud—

I killed the last monster wolf in the room with my dagger.

"Huff... huff... haaaaa..."

I was breathing heavily, and my body trembled with exhaustion.

Concerned about my condition...

-Meep!

Pyro urged me to rest.

Which is exactly what I did...

"Fuuuu..."

I exhaled deeply.

Thud—

And then I let my body collapse onto the floor.

’That hurts.’

I thought as my back slammed on the ground.

Anyway, I closed my eyes after that...

"..."

And I immediately fell asleep.

*****

Feeling hungry...

"Ugh..."

I woke up not long after.

Still, I felt like I had been asleep for an entire hour.

I recovered some of my stamina too.

Moving on...

-Meep!

Pyro greeted me, looking incredibly proud.

Then looking at him...

"Did you protect me while I was out?"

I asked.

And with a smug smile...

-Meep!

Pyro responded. He said yes.

’He’s really cute.’

I thought.

"Thank you."

And then I weakly said that while patting Pyro’s head.

Anyway, except that, I haven’t moved yet—I literally couldn’t.

I was too tired and too hungry to move.

And noticing this...

-Meep...

Pyro grew worried about me.

"No worries, I’m fine."

I assured him with a smile on my face.

And just then...

"Huh?"

I smelled something.

It wasn’t great, but it reminded me of the meat Kyle roasts back in the academy.

And because of that...

"..."

My mouth began to water, and my hunger intensified!

I weakly looked around, following the scent of it...

And there...

"...?"

My eyes landed on a monster wolf’s corpse.

Specifically, the one that had been set on fire by my skill earlier!

"..."

I stared silently at the charred corpse, wondering if it was okay to take a bite out of it.

And less than ten seconds later...

"Fuck it."

I muttered that, slowly sitting up.

"I’ll die of hunger sooner or later, anyway. Might as well try anything at this point."

I added.

-Meep?

Pyro chirped, curious about what I was talking about.

But I didn’t have the energy to reply.

I was saving my strength.

And so, I focused on standing, and after a while...

"Haaaa..."

I finally got to my feet.

My knees shook, and my whole body felt heavy.

Slowly...

"Ugh..."

I made my way to the burnt monster wolf corpse.

And upon reaching it...

Slash—

I cut off a chunk of its meat.

"..."

Then, holding the meat in my left hand...

"[Lit up]."

I said that.

Swaaa—

A small fire engulfed my hand and the meat after that.

Using mana right now for this only made me hungrier. I felt like I could pass out at any moment.

But nevertheless, I continued.

And when I thought the meat was roasted enough...

Pssh—

I canceled the spell.

And immediately...

Gulp—

I took a bite on the meat.

Seeing that...

-...

Pyro looked at me in shock

And as expected...

The meat was nowhere near as good as Kyle’s roasted meat.

Heck, it didn’t even taste like anything!

’It’s horrible...’

It felt like chewing on pre-masticated rubbery meat!

Which is disgusting, by the way!

But still...

’I think it’s edible.’

And so with that...

Gulp—

I kept eating.

With every bite, my hunger subsided a little.

I ignored the texture and the taste of the monster wolf meat...

All I focused on was recovering my strength.

*****

After a few minutes of eating the meat from a dead monster wolf...

"I’m full."

I mumbled that, tapping my stomach lightly.

I wasn’t hungry anymore.

I wasn’t exactly full, as I had just claimed...

But I at least had eaten enough to recover my strength.

"This’ll be my source of food for a while, huh."

I muttered, looking at the corpses of the monster wolves scattered throughout the room.

-Meep?

Pyro chirped, asking if I was feeling okay.

He was watching me with a worried expression earlier as I eat the monster’s meat.

’He’s not sure if it was safe to me, after all.’

And that led him to ask me that question.

Anyway, with now a bit more energy...

"Yeah, I’m feeling much better than before."

I responded to Pyro.

And this time, I wasn’t lying, I really did feel much better after eating.

Though...

’I’m still thirsty.’

My lips were chapped, and talking was a struggle.

Just like food, I don’t have any water on me when I fell into the hole and came here.

But now that I had realized I needed to use anything and everything around me to survive...

I started looking around the room.

"..."

And after a while...

"There."

I found a small cup made of metal rolling on the floor.

It was old and dusty, but it was to be expected if it is in this kind of places.

Anyway...

’With just a few cleaning... It’ll be good as new.’

I thought, looking at the cup and grabbing it.

"This is exactly what I need."

I muttered, the corners of my lips curling into a smile.

Then, curious...

-Meep?

Pyro asked me what I planned to do with the cup.

And instead of answering him...

"Heh."

I just smirked at him.

And while wearing that same smirk on my face...

"You’ll find out later."

I said that to Pyro.

*****

After taking the cup with me and piling the corpses of the monster wolves in one corner...

Creak—

I left the room.

And immediately after doing so...

Tap- tap- tap—

I walked back into the hallway.

Pyro and I had small talks along the way. They weren’t anything important—just idle chatter to keep ourselves entertained.

Then finally, after a while...

"Phew..."

I found myself back at the entrance of the dungeon mansion.

And without hesitation...

Tap—

I exited the place in a hurry.

...

Outside the mansion...

"..."

I saw the corpses of the monster wolves I had encountered earlier.

And since they’re now my main source of food...

"Let’s put them inside."

I started moving them into the dungeon mansion one by one.

...

...

After about half an hour...

"Haaaa... All done..."

I had moved all the monster corpses inside the mansion.

And with that task complete...

"It’s time for me to go back to the main objective."

The only reason I left the dungeon earlier was to find water.

And the reason I’m outside is because, when I first got to this area...

I noticed the ground on the left side of the mansion looked kind of wet.

I guessed it might be water that caused it...

And so, without further ado...

Tap- tap- tap—

I headed in that direction.

*****

After arriving at the left side of the mansion, near the far back...

"Haha..."

A small laugh escaped my mouth, and a full-on smile spread across my face!

-Meep!

Even Pyro seemed excited about what he was seeing.

After all, in front of us...

There was a small spring!

And it was full of water!

I didn’t waste any time after that...

Swish—

I immediately scooped up a cupful of water using the metal cup.

And while holding the cup in my right hand...

"[Lit up]"

I mumbled those words again, and a small flame instantly engulfed my hand!

This time, the fire didn’t swallow the cup like it did with the monster’s meat earlier—it just formed a glove of fire around my hand.

And using my hand as a makeshift stove...

I heated the cup and started boiling the spring water inside it.

That’s right—I was disinfecting it.

...

After a few minutes...

"This should be enough."

Psssh—

I stopped the fire and let the water cool for a bit.

And once it was cool enough...

Gulp—

I drank the entire cupful in one drinking.

"Huuu..."

It wasn’t as refreshing as I’d hoped, probably because it wasn’t cold.

But it still subdued my thirst!

And so...

"One more."

I repeated the process a few more times: scooping water from the spring, boiling it for a bit, and then drinking it.

-Meep!

I even gave Pyro a drink too.

Unlike me, he seemed to enjoy the fact that the water was warm rather than cold.

Anyway, just like that...

"Haaaaaaa..."

I finally quenched my thirst.

"Thank God, I thought I’d have to use water magic just to drink something."

I mumbled to myself.

Though the idea of using water magic to produce drinking water might sound practical...

It wasn’t a good solution.

Elements created by magic are primarily made of mana—they’re completely different from the real thing.

Drinking water created with magic wouldn’t help at all, it wouldn’t even refill my mana since that’s not how absorption works.

If anything, my body might reject it and cause complications!

Anyway, that’s that...

With the monster wolves’ corpses and this spring here, I now had the basic resources I needed to survive.

So now, all that was left was to clear the dungeon.

"Looks like I’ll be out of the academy for more than a week."

I mumbled, staring at the massive mansion in front of me.

There’s just no way I could clear that place before my one week vacation ends.