“Still nothing?” Levi asked.

Susan shook her head.

“Nada. I thought you said this would be dangerous? So far there is a distinct lack of, well, anything really. I’ve been focused on my skill but...”

Susan gestured toward the tunnel, still as empty as it had been for the last twenty minutes. The tunnel had been slowly sloping down, but aside from a few slight turns, so far their expedition hadn’t turned up anything dungeon related. If Levi wasn’t so sure that the System said this was a dungeon he would have assumed they were in an ordinary cave. An ordinary cave that they entered by walking into a ginormous tree.

“How long do you want to continue with this?” Susan said. “I agree that exploration is good, but at some point enough is enough. Finding other people should still be our priority, and the further we walk down this tunnel, the farther we will have to walk back.”

“At least an hour,” Levi said. “We’ve barely started. And you have to admit, there’s definitely a reason we can walk into a tree and suddenly appear in a cave. Maybe it’s some kind of secret tunnel and if we walk far enough we’ll come out on the other side of the mountains?”

“Unlikely, but possible I suppose. The mountains I could see in the distance did look rather imposing, so maybe people wanted to go under them rather than over.” Susan had completely missed his reference, but that didn’t bother him. Her not being up to date with pop culture actually allowed him to squeeze in some rather bad puns without the accompanying groans.

“There could be other reasons too,” Levi said, now pondering on exactly why this dungeon was just one long tunnel. “Maybe it’s some sort of speed or timing thing? Like, if we don’t reach the floating blocks in time they start falling into the lava. Or maybe we’re stuck in an illusion? We think we’re walking in a tunnel but we’re actually under the sway of some psychic creature and we need to figure out how to wake up.”

“Or this could all be a dream and we’re in some secret underground government facility being experimented on.” Susan was walking in front of him so Levi couldn’t actually see her expression, but it was easy to imagine. He decided to move on to something else.

“Okay, okay, I’ll try to be more serious here.” This wasn’t Levi’s first musing on the dungeon, but after Susan realized he was basically talking out of his ass she started to shut him down pretty quickly. Her previous interest in his stories turning to annoyance at his continued insistence they smash any pottery they came across. “But I do think…”

“Think what?”

“Shhh,” Levi whispered. “I think I heard something.”

They both paused, straining to catch the slightest sound. At first it was quiet, with not even the sound of dripping water to echo in the tunnel. Levi tried to still his breathing. He had heard something, he was sure of it. Five second, ten seconds, ten, twenty. It was a slow build, so he almost missed it at first. But then it dawned on him as he parsed out the slight echo of rock against rock. It was coming.

“Run!”

Levi moved past Susan, sprinting down the tunnel, confident she would follow him. If he was right, and he was sure he was, they needed to move. And move fast.

Susan quickly caught up to him as he dashed down the tunnel.

“Levi, you have exactly ten seconds to tell me why we are sprinting blindly into a dungeon. Starting now.”

“It’s a boulder trap.” He was trying to conserve breath for running, but from glancing at Susan’s questioning face that clearly wasn’t enough. “A boulder trap? You know, like from Indiana Jones? It’s a dungeon classic. Just look at the tunnel we are in. It’s been mostly straight and is almost a perfect tube. Just right for a boulder to squash us flat.”

Susan paused for a second, digesting. “So you’re saying there’s a giant stone ball rolling behind us, and because of the shape of the tunnel we’ll get squashed like flies if we don’t find someplace where the tunnel turns?”

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“Basically. Any turn would be good. As would a hidey hole of some kind, or really anything that would stop the rock from smashing us or let it pass by us safely.” Levi could have gone on at length, waxing poetic about the allure of the classic boulder trap, but he decided to save his breath. Literally, as even that short conversation has noticeably winded him. There needed to be more running and less talking.

Soon the noise from the rumbling rock overtook the sound of their rapid run. Levi was too scared to turn around, more from worry that he would actually see the boulder than anything else. If he could see it, it was too close. The tunnel was fairly long, and so far, there was no end in sight. He could only fervently pray to whatever power brought him here that the tunnel didn’t lead to a spike trap or a pitfall. He could picture his tombstone; here lies Levi, who met his untimely end by running screaming into a dungeon chased by a giant boulder. He refused to go out that way. His name was Levi, not Leroy damnit.

The rumbling was uncomfortably loud by now, and Levi was debating what their backup plan would be. They were already on plan Q, so what was next, plan R? Somehow that also sounded like running. He really wasn’t sure what to do now that his plan of an expeditious retreat looked like it was starting to fall through.

“Stop!” Susan said, suddenly slowing down her previous sprint. Her shout was unexpected, but Levi assumed she had a plan and did his best to stop his forward momentum. The noise of the boulder was becoming all-encompassing, and if they wanted to try something other than running now was as good a time as any.

Just as Levi was about to stop all movement, his foot met with something other than the expected floor. That something was air, and it didn’t hold his weight nearly as well as the floor did, causing him to fall forward face first as the tunnel suddenly moved downward a meter or so. Before his brain caught up with his situation and recovered from the shock of falling face first Susan jumped down where he was and pulled him back against the wall behind them.

Levi thought Susan was saying something, but between the ringing in his head and the rumbling of the rock rolling towards them he couldn’t make it out. Luckily some amount of rational thought must have remained, as he didn’t move from his position against the wall, allowing the boulder to harmlessly roll over the lip above their heads and into the void of space in front of them.

The silence was abrupt. One second the rumbling boulder was compounding the ringing in his head, and the next all Levi heard was blessed silence. One second, two seconds, three, five, ten. It was hard to know for sure, but Levi estimated it took around twenty second before a faint splash was heard, presumably the boulder finally ending its free fall. They sat there like that, the both of them, calming their breathing after their harrowing flight. Levi was certain they would have been flattened had they not started their frantic sprint when they did, but now, shining his flashlight into the gaping hole before him, it really hit home just how dangerous this dungeon might be. Scratch that, how dangerous this dungeon was. If Susan hadn’t figured out what was ahead of them, likely with the help of her skill, they would both be swimming with the fishes.

“Well,” Susan said, “that was an experience. Are you alright?”

Levi nodded, still not trusting himself to speak. He had never been one to worry about his own mortality, but he needed to stop treating this whole thing like a game. He had every reason to assume death was permanent. No respawn points or bonfires here.

“I’m fine,” Levi said, his voice cracking a little at the end.

“You sure? Here, let me see.” Susan reached over to feel Levi’s head, probing for injuries.

“Tell me if it hurts anywhere. That looked like a nasty fall.”

“Don’t worry, I’m fine,” Levi said. “I think my extra points in constitution helped me out there.”

“If you’re sure then,” Susan said, backing off even though Levi thought she still wasn’t satisfied.

“I’m sure. Besides, we need to figure out where to go from here. There has to be more to this dungeon than just one tunnel and a boulder trap.”

Levi got up and swept his flashlight around to get a better view of their surroundings. A few passes were all he needed to figure out what was going on.

“It looks like this hole is meant to stop the boulder. That, and catch unsuspecting people like us who are running away from it. I think we actually solved the trap correctly. This ledge we’re on is perfect to hide from the boulder. It feels like the main way to evade the trap. Just crouch here and let the boulder sail above you. It’s pretty ingenious, really. The trap isn’t meant to kill people who are paying attention, just those who don’t look where they’re going. As long as you can safely get here, you’re home free.”

“What people was it meant to catch again?” Susan asked knowingly.

“Erm, well not us obviously. We passed it after all.”

Levi stewed silently under Susan’s gaze for a good minute before she let him go. They were both clear on the reason they managed to evade the trap.

“Anyway,” Levi continued, “There is a ledge over there on the left side. We can scoot along it and pass this hole. It looks like the tunnel continues to the left after that.”

Susan held her breath for a second before letting it all out in a long sigh. “Let’s get going then. If we’re going to continue we might as well get to it.”