I fall over, hitting the ground like timber with my shoulder first. My entire body feels like it’s been paralyzed, with barely any feeling coursing through it.
“You ancestor-forsaken idiot!” The old man appears in front of me, shouting murder.
“What—”
Before I can even process what’s happening, Magister Mulligan hoists me up, my feet hanging above the ground as he keeps shouting.
“You almost gave it away! You almost gave it ALL away!”
“Old man, I—” I try to speak, but the man shakes my whole body like a ragdoll.
“Do you have ANY idea what you were doing?! I have been watching you since you entered here! The power of this Dungeon is enough to cut my connection with you even while I’m in your stupid soul, Joey Luciani! Even there!”
I stare at him, about to say that I don’t really know what it means, but there’s a big, pulsating vein on the man’s forehead that’s about to pop, so I don’t say anything.
As he tries to calm down, he lowers his voice and lets go of me. I almost fell again before taking a few steps backward and steeling myself.
“Those things,” Magister Mulligan takes a deep breath, “you have no idea what those are. Those were the Canti.”
“Cuhn-tee?” I frown. “Like the Latin word?”
“This can’t be happening,” the old man mutters. “You have no idea what this is…”
Magister Mulligan starts pacing back and forth while I’m still reeling from what just happened. That… Goddess? Canti? Wait, Canti is plural, isn’t it? So, that Cantus offered me a Grandmaster Golem capable of leveling up and everything…
“You are still thinking about it?!” Magister Mulligan turns to me, and his words shake up the entire Dungeon chamber. “I had to expend so much Mana, Joey Luciani! Do you have any idea what the price of saving you was?!”
“Magister Mulligan,” I say, clearing my throat, “I am sorry, but…”
“BUT?! But what?! You stupid Earther! You were about to give it all up! You managed to slay a monster that was much stronger than you! You are not supposed to behave like this! Not after killing that monster! How can you invalidate so much progress with such a foolish choice!”
“I was under the influence of that woman,” I try explaining myself, “I didn’t know what was happening. She just said she wanted me to have faith in her. It didn’t sound that bad.”
“You were trifling with powers beyond our understanding! Even I have nothing but obscure snippets of what they are and what they can do! I am not a forsaken Dryad!”
“Dryad?” I frown.
“Joey Luciani,” Magister Mulligan speaks with a deep baritone that rattles my bones, “do you know what it means for you to have faith in one of them? Let me explain to your childish mind what you were about to do. There are upper limits and boundaries to our world that are defined by our actions as much as by our mind and soul. The Vanedeni boats could fly thanks to our understanding of it. What you did to gain an Inheritance Skill—that was faith.”
“Can’t I believe in more than one thing?” I ask, confused.
Magister Mulligan seems frustrated by my question and turns to the wall on the other side of the Dungeon.
“No, Joey Luciani. You cannot. If you gave up your beliefs, you would have cut your future off. That is what they want. Why, I don’t know. But I have perused enough texts to know these things have happened before. These… Dungeons… They have never been appearing above ground before. This is not good, child. When those entities descend into our world, it’s never good for anyone.”
“I’m sorry, Magister Mulligan,” I say, swallowing. “It’s just that it was very tempting. I’m… sorry, yeah.”
The old man turns to look at me with a feebler voice and disappointed eyes.
“You have failed, young Luciani. You have failed yourself, me, and everything I stand for.”
“I—”
“You were ready to give yourself away for crumbles of what you could already be by yourself. I thought you were growing—I thought you were almost ready.
“I was wrong.”
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The words hit me like an arrow piercing my chest.
“You are not ready—I’m not sure you’ll ever be, young Luciani. You are… broken. I do not have experience with fixing people. I’m sorry. We should go. I have broken through the protective spells on the first layer of this Dungeon. I can teleport us outside right now.”
With a heavy heart, I nod.
“We should first collect the bodies, if you don’t mind,” I say, turning away from Magister Mulligan to hide a few tears coming out of my eyes.
“Yes,” I hear the old man reply as he sighs.
I open and close my eyes rapidly, hoping to push back the tears, but they just keep coming out, unabashed. I take a last look at the three empty columns in the middle of this luxurious room when I see something shimmering in the center.
I move a few steps forward and frown.
“Huh,” I cough, “Magister Mulligan, excuse me, could you come and check this? Is this…”
I hear the man’s footsteps approaching. He stops by my side, also frowning.
“The Mana density is very high for…” His words trail off.
“Can I?” I say, pointing at the floor.
“It is highly magical but not dangerous. There’s no divinity attached to it, either. Pick it up. It’s safe.”
I take a few steps between the columns and pick up a very large bundle of wheat spikes. They are golden in an almost metallic way, with a slight shimmer close to their head.
“Ugh, this is quite heavy. There must be sixty or seventy pounds of it,” I say.
“Peculiar,” Magister Mulligan says in a mutter, “it looks like this is a Dungeon of old. Rather than a temptation… This—this is its reward for you.”
…
[Captain] Drusillus stares at the bodies I carefully laid out on the ground in his office. He even moved his desk to make space for them. The morning light doesn’t have any way to enter his underground bunker. I can see a myriad of emotions on his face as his stare is still, examining each face even before getting closer to them.
“A Dungeon is swallowing the patrols,” the man says slowly, looking up at me.
“That’s my hypothesis,” I explain, “it opened when I used my [Light] spell. The monsters down there seem very reactive to [Light], too. I saw the patrols carrying some [Light]-Enchanted lanterns. They might have triggered the entrance.”
The [Captain] scans me from head to toe before shaking his head. I came here fully expecting to receive one of those hyper-extensive questioning sessions that you would hold with a terrorist. I even told Magister Mulligan that I might need his help to get out of a bad question or two.
However, [Captain] Drusillus catches me by surprise.
“Thank you for bringing the bodies with you, Human.”
That’s all he says before touching his desk thrice and having a few [Guards] enter.
“Take the bodies to the [Healer]. Establish the cause of death and bring me the list. I recognize them all, but I don’t want to make any mistakes—bring me the addresses of all their families. I’ll deliver the news myself. Patrols are not to use any [Light]-lanterns or [Light]-based spells outside the walls until we know what we are dealing with. There’s a Dungeon. We’ll escalate the security threat with the [Mayor] and deliver the news to the Military as well.”
The [Guards] nod and start carrying out the bodies, leaving the [Captain] and I alone.
“Human, I need you to provide me with as many details as you can,” the man says, not even taking out a truth-stone.
“Sure, [Captain],” I sit down as the man moves his desk back to its place.
“Do you think you can draw a reliable map?”
“Yeah, do you have some paper? My memory has been working slightly better lately.”
As I diligently sketch the Dungeon layout, the silence in the room is palpable. The only sound is the scratching of my quill against the parchment. Captain Drusillus's unwavering gaze bores into me, seemingly attempting to unravel something. The tension grows, adding an unseen weight to my shoulders. I can't shake off the disappointment in Magister Mulligan's eyes, his words echoing hauntingly in my mind – a reminder of my failure, a painful lesson learned. My hand falters for a moment before resuming its duty, carefully plotting all that darkness I have kept at bay.
As I finish drawing all that I can remember, I pass him the map.
“It’s pretty big,” I say, noting the frown in his eyes. “I was down there all night. There’s no easy way back, either. I had a safety measure to get out, but anyone going down there should know that I have not found an exit. Not even in the final room on the first floor of the Dungeon.”
“Human, define final room and first floor,” the middle-aged man speaks curtly.
“I cleared most of the Dungeon,” I say, knowing that I’m exposing myself to a hardcore line of questioning. Not that I care. This is a threat. A big one. They need to know. “I killed the biggest, baddest monster on the first floor, but there are more floors. I had a type advantage—er, that means my Light Magic was extremely effective against those creatures. But I know for a fact that there are more floors. The Dungeon Guardian said so.”
[Captain] Drusillus looks blankly at me.
“Human, the what told you so?”
“The Dungeon Guardian? I mean, that’s how the monster called itself.”
I see [Captain] Drusillus put down the map I drew up for him before joining his hands together.
“There is a sentient monster down there—a monster with enough intelligence to entertain a conversation with you. Allegedly, on the first floor of the Dungeon. A Dungeon that you fully cleared alone?”
“Wait, I didn’t say fully cleared. I’m sure there are more dark hounds there. But I did kill the strongest guy. Again, I had a very big type advantage.”
[Captain] Drusillus opens a drawer and takes out some papers, scanning them briefly.
“The last time you were here, Human, you were a level four [Light Mage]. Your strongest skill was [Lightbolt].”
“Yes…” I scratch my head. “I leveled up for the duel, you know. I needed some more strength.”
The [Captain] doesn’t say anything and simply goes back to staring at the map, observing every line I drew with attention.
“How big is one of these corridors?” He asks me after a minute.
“Pretty big, honestly. More than 50 yards long, if I had to guess. And the ceilings are really tall. [Featherfall] or high physical resilience is needed if you don’t want to break your legs over the fall.”
[Captain] Drusillus nods again and shakes his head.
“I’ll need more details, Human. You should rest now, but I’ll need you to come back with me. We’ll meet again at the Adventurers’ Guild. They’ll want in on this. From the looks of it, it’s going to be a Gold-Rank minimum entry level.”
“Ok, huh, this afternoon?”
The gruff man nods back at me, and I get up, ready to leave.
“And one last thing, Human,” [Captain] Drusillus says.
“Yeah?” I turn over my shoulder.
“You have changed. You looked like a kid when you were here last. Now, I see an adult. I hope you’ll be able to help with this. I couldn’t say anything after your duel for political reasons, but your presence in Amorium is clearly doing a whole lot of good. Well done, son.”