I checked the interior of the dungeon and confirmed that it had some lights around. The place had some lamps attached to the walls. It would be better if I had a torch with me, but my planning skills weren’t that advanced. I learned my lesson and made a mental note to buy a bunch of them in the town.

I had no idea how that kind of structure could remain intact in the middle of a swamp, but the walls, ceiling, and the floor were completely dry. It made sense since everything was made of brick, but there were some parts that were falling apart.

‘No signs of monsters, huh? This is odd… is this the other type of the dungeon? The type that I don’t like?’

That would be disappointing, but in the end, I would guess that those who created this kind of place would know that only those confident in their skills would come here, so they would try to test other things.

I began to advance after thinking for a while. I decided to keep my knives in my hands in order to react to trouble at a moment’s notice.

While I was thinking about that, I heard the sound of something clicking under my feet. I immediately curved my body to jump backward.

‘Don’t move!’

It took every ounce of strength from my being to stop my movements, but in the end, that had been the right choice… in the next moment, several holes appeared on the walls and they fired spears in front of me and behind me. I felt a shiver as I felt the sound of those weapons piercing the air.

‘Shit… I didn’t find any signs of traps in the ground.’

‘Can I hear my thank you first?’

‘No. You only acted to save your own existence… I can’t deny that you saved my skin, though. Still, for this kind of trap to do this… it seemed that the creator of this place knows a bit of human psych.’

‘Just stay focused on listening to my commands if I say something. If you were half a second slower, you would have become a porcupine.’

That couldn’t have sounded even more nasty… In any case, I nodded and then resumed my exploration.

My reflexes acted as soon as I heard the sound of chains above me and then I jumped to the side. The massive iron ball could have turned me into a pancake. Before long, it was pulled by the chains and then the hole in the ceiling closed.

‘I can’t imagine what kind of job this kind of challenge would offer… Hopefully it won’t be anything related to traps.’

I imagined that the jobs would be similar to the ones of the people in the town… information broker, alchemist, clerk, barkeeper and so on. It was hard to imagine how those aside from alchemist would be helpful in combat.

It was also weird to think why the people of the town didn’t come here to get this class… wasn’t that possible for them?

‘Get down!’

I followed the other guy’s lead and then I saw a large iron pillar filled with spikes passing above me. The thing went back and forth for a while until it was finally pulled back to the ceiling.

‘This one didn’t make any noise… the other did, but it was on purpose.’

‘Maybe this place doesn’t have any rewards, and that guy told us to come here just to get us killed and receive a lot of money without offering anything of value.’

‘I wished that I could deny that, but my mind was working right now to be suspicious of anything and everything.’

In any case, I could tell at least that the traps were testing my reflexes, so perhaps I would get a job related to that… it would help me a fair bit, considering my fighting style.

After walking for a while longer, I noticed that the corridor was getting larger and the fact that I just walked in a straight line. That made me realize that getting lost would be hard, but that still made me feel weird.

While I was thinking about that, I saw a large round boulder falling from the ceiling ahead… before long, it began to roll toward me. That one was a classic… What wasn’t a classic was the fact that I heard the same sound coming from behind, and then another large round boulder began to roll toward me.

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‘Well, good luck…’

I froze on the spot… given the size of the massive boulders, I could tell that there would be some room to escape being smashed in the ground when they collided against each other, but since they dropped at different times, I couldn’t tell exactly where they would hit each other. Moreover, they began to gain speed.

“How is this possible? They can’t move in different directions when the floor is completely flat!”

The boulder ahead was a bit closer, so I ran in the opposite direction and then tried to find the place where they would connect. Still, looking at them getting closer, I couldn’t tell at all.

“Fuck!”

I stopped moving where I thought that the boulders would collide and then dropped on the ground… Still, when the boulders were five meters away, I rolled back a bit since I felt that would be the best place to be.

A large powerful thud echoed in the area, making the whole dungeon tremble… I didn’t see that happening since I closed my eyes out of reflex. I slowly opened the right one and then saw that the first boulder was a few millimeters away from me. I didn’t have the chance to turn around, because when I tried, I hit my back against the other boulder.

The ground shook a bit, and then the large boulders slipped backward on a slope that appeared behind them… this whole place was basically filled with such things. It looked old, but it was working as the damn architect had built to work.

‘This place is terrible for my heart… Still, why did Lain tell me to stock up on healing items? This place is dangerous, but if I fall for a trap, I don’t think that I will have the chance to use healing items.’

The only possibility was that there were things even more dangerous than the traps. It was hard to imagine, especially considering how close those traps had come to killing me. The near-death experience made it almost impossible to believe that anything could surpass the sheer threat posed by the traps.

But deep down, I knew, there had to be something else lurking in the shadows, something far worse than these mechanical death traps. Maybe they were just the first layer of defense, a mere warm-up to what was to come, and the real dangers were further ahead, hidden and waiting to test every bit of my resourcefulness.

‘Well, here we go again…’

I advanced through the corridor of the dungeon, waiting for the next trap, but I didn’t find any other along the way. Still, I couldn’t help but frown when I saw a dead end ahead. I was pretty sure that I didn’t miss any other possible path.

When I reached the wall, I immediately understood what was waiting for me and I dreaded thanks to it… there was a pool of water in front of it. To reach the other side of the corridor, I had to swim in that dark water.

‘Well, this will be fun…’

‘I don’t think that seeing a hammer sink is fun.’

‘I never saw you eager to swim.’

‘I am just entertained enough to see you trying that and failing miserably.’

The fact that he didn’t say that he wanted to take my place showed that he wasn’t much better… Regardless, this was something I had to get over with, eventually. I stopped to think for a moment if I should increase my parameters to help with this… Dexterity certainly would help me swim better, but adaptability probably would do the same, or perhaps make me stay underwater for a longer time without suffocating.

‘Once you start, you shouldn’t stop and go for it. I have the feeling that this entrance would close as soon as you jump in. That kind of surprise will make you waste time and also breath.’

‘You really had to remind me of that possibility, huh?’

I was trying to avoid thinking about that, but in the end, ignoring that would be a terrible mistake. In the end, I decided to store most of my gear in my inventory and then psyched myself up to swim. Once that was done, I jumped in the water without hesitation… Even without turning around, when I began to swim, I was able to sense the entrance closing.

I moved forward, propelling myself through the cold, dark water of the corridor. My strokes were steady, my pace strong, and I felt calm despite the weight of the surrounding water. My lungs held steady. Their strong capacity was a source of confidence as I moved through the pitch-black space, the walls a suffocating presence just out of reach on either side.

Time felt slippery here, distorted by the silence and the blackness. Minutes passed, or was it just seconds? I didn’t know. What I did know was that there was no sign of the exit, no glimmer of light to promise an end to this passage. Just the endless stretch of shadowed water.

My chest started to tighten. The first pang of discomfort rippled through me, a warning that I couldn’t ignore. I forced my strokes to remain steady, my mind to stay calm. Don’t panic, I told myself. Panicking wastes air.

Another minute. Maybe more. The air in my lungs began to feel less like a reservoir and more like a dwindling lifeline. I could feel it vanishing, bit by bit, with every movement of my body. My calm began to weaken, giving room to something much more terrifying.

I swam harder, desperation starting to get into my rhythm. My thoughts raced as my vision swam, not with images, but with the growing sensation of my body’s need for oxygen. Where was the exit? Was I going in circles? The pressure in my chest grew sharper, more annoying, and I clenched my teeth against the instinct to gasp. There was no air here. Only water and the endless darkness.

I began to feel my body growing cold and weaker, and the agony started to become unbearable. When I began to feel that I was done for, I saw a bit of light in the distance… it was probably the light of my life ending, but I still used my last reserves of strength to swim faster and with all my might.

At the last moment, my hand left the water and then I touched the floor on the other side of the pool, but soon my mind went blank and I lost control over my body.