This didn’t leave much else to do. At this point – Kent wasn’t sure quite how long he had spent in the dungeon – he only wanted to leave. His hunger wasn’t even painful anymore, instead he just felt empty and less energetic than he usually did. A stark contrast to before the boss fight. For what it was worth, by the time it had mattered the pain had only been a slight distraction, trumped by the adrenaline pumping through him. Now he didn’t even feel hunger whatsoever, only emptiness and sometimes he convulsed oddly. The main issue though, he felt less energetic than he had days before, and could already feel the apathy coming.

Food should be a priority, and for that Kent needed to find the dungeon exit. Something that was easier said than done.

For the next while, he searched everything around where he had found the boss while constantly waving a branch in front of himself to deal with potential traps. Wherever he went he found nothing abnormal, besides the occasional string of saliva spun between trees. Kent doubted the core would be in one of the pits the turrl had dug out at one point. It felt too much like an unfair outcome.

Having to dig through a hundred odd holes just to find the exit didn’t sound fair whatsoever. More like a waste of time.

Then again, as far as he was aware, there was nothing that said a dungeon had to be fair. Even his uncle who had been in two didn’t mention anything of the sort.

Slowly his way wound back to the pond, pondering what other options there were. The couple options he could think of felt too artificially difficult to be likely, but he had nothing else to do now that he had found nothing.

The first, and most likely option, was also the one he liked the least. Tranquil Pond was the dungeon name, and if there had ever been a clearer indicator of where an exit could be, he couldn’t imagine it. The name of the dungeon suggested it was an important part of the dungeon, but he had barely interacted with it at all. Merely for positioning turrls disadvantageously and for getting in and out of the entry cave.

The next was a bit more obvious but he had found no indication of it being the case thus far. Maybe there would be an exit in the dungeon's liminal zone, but there hadn’t been any pathways and nothing had been barred. Maybe walking through the compressed space was the way out, but it felt to uncomfortable to be the real option.

Furthermore, he hadn’t entered the dungeon on the edge. He had started out in the middle, and even the deepest part of the cave should still be several dozens of paces away from the liminal zone.

Then there was the option of a timed-release mechanism in the entry cave, but as he had not observed something like that as of yet it felt like a stretch.

The last option was that the dungeon core would be somewhere else inside. Secretly Kent hoped it would just appear in the cave, which was why he was currently heading there. In the likely event of it not being there, he would not make a tour through the entire dungeon. He had neither the energy nor the nerve, instead he would take a dip into the freshwater of the pond. With any luck, the core would be there. Visibility though would be an issue. The water at the shore was very clear from the looks of it, but he had never seen anything further in, and even worse was an idea which he had just recently begun considering.

Could there be monsters in there?

Best to not find out, I don’t think I could do anything against them.

***

The march finally led him back to the cave and left him with a final thought before entering.

I should definitely check out whatever is on top of this hill.

Inside the cave, he didn’t find anything that could be a dungeon core. In fact, nothing had changed from how it had looked when he had last left the place. There wasn’t much else to do besides packing everything he had back into his knapsack. He filled his remaining canteen in the pond and left the cave again.

This time he tried to keep his feet dry by climbing the wall, with medium success. At least one shoe stayed as dry as it had gotten in the last few minutes, the less said about his shirt, pants, and knapsack the better.

The journey upwards went by quicker than Kent had anticipated. While his physical stats were by no means great, they were better than what he had used when he started the climb. Within a few minutes, he had reached the top and was able to overlook the expansive dungeon area at a glance.

Looking down on his whole world for the last few days was odd. It felt freeing but, in a way, also showed how narrow his horizon had been, his power had grown, but on the outside, it was still just the strength of a child, maybe even worse than that of someone with a trait and the same level.

The edge of the dungeon was clearly discernable from up top, contrary to how it had been on the ground, and it felt constricting. The three-dimension structure looked plastern from his vantage. He felt caged.

Kent's torso constricted and his breaths became harder and shallower until he managed to tear his gaze from the pond’s surrounding area, back onto the plateau he was standing on.

This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.

There was nothing tranquil about this place.

It was an area of roughly twenty by twenty strides with a small depression situated in its center which was halfway filled with water. The water surface was contrary to common convention not smooth, rather bulging outwards a bit, in the round form of a partial sphere.

Another pond at least explained where the water in the cave was coming from.

It didn’t take a genius to figure out what that sphere was.

He had found his exit. He pulled his shoes off and stuffed them in his knapsack before approaching the blob. Surprisingly enough the water was pleasantly warm and just a few spans deep, not even reaching up to his knees.

Without hesitation, he placed his palm on the smooth surface extending from the water.

Instantly, as his hand touched the soft yet firm surface, a notification appeared.

Note – There are multiple ways of interacting with dungeons cores available. Forcing a dungeon open, to shatter a dungeon core, or to release the dungeon core.

Note – Dungeons can be forced open which allows for every current individual inside to leave the construct. Once a dungeon is forced open it can be exited in the interval of the shortest dungeon completion.

Note – Shattering a dungeon results in the complete destruction of the dungeon.

Note – Unaspecting a dungeon core causes the core to temporarily dissolve.

Dungeon Interface – Tranquil Pond

Level 16 Dungeon – Tranquility Aspect – Unclaimed

Charge: 7%

Reopening Schedule – Eight Days

Current Group Size - One

Dungeon Interaction – Tranquil Pond

Forced Open/Shatter Core/Release Core

There were a couple of possibilities here. Surprisingly many. From the stories of his uncle, he knew of only the first two but the last one was a surprise.

Does that mean they can’t do that, or that they aren’t allowed to do so? The fact that a prompt appears for my action implied that interacting with a dungeon happened through the system, does that mean I have an opportunity here?

Shattering the core is out of the question. I don’t know what I could do with the shards and selling them would just get me killed. Heck maybe people can detect them on my body, they are bound to have a large mana signature. Selling them surely would get me into trouble.

“Hmmmm,” he dragged out his considerations for a good long while, ignoring his rumbling stomach.

The first option would be decent. It would in fact allow him to rerun the dungeon at a later time and it would keep the local monster population in check, not altering the existence of many turrls in the region. Having a dungeon all for himself would no doubt be a boon. The level was a bit low and going beyond level thirty or so would probably be impossible with the opponents that could be found within, but it could offer a rather safe way to more power.

Level thirty was about where his mother was in level, and higher than his sister and probably his brother as well.

But what would happen if he were to sell the cores in a city? He would have to in order to afford food and better equipment for future delves. And that was ignoring that this region might soon be inaccessible to him. For all, he knew it was already under the control of whichever state had decided to invade Issar.

There was one last thing to consider. The charge of the dungeon was at seven percent. With his increasing proficiency in understanding percentages, Kent knew for a fact that seven percent was more than zero percent. Which implied that there was something else going on in the dungeon. There hadn’t been any more monsters he was aware of which only left one other option.

With a few steps, he was again overlooking the dungeon. He glanced down at the pond, squinting.

This is a royally stupid idea.

The reflected artificial light from above blinding him almost completely, preventing proper inspection of the water. He could somewhat examine the region right below him, but that didn’t help much. He had inspected the entirety of the shoreline during his endeavors.

Kent tried to come up with reasons on why to not dive into the pond and look for whatever potential secrets it held. There was his steadily growing hunger which wasn’t really a fan of waiting any longer before getting food and the rather large size of the body of water was telling him that he would spend a long time searching.

There was the added bonus of finding out how his metal magic would perform underwater, which was something that was bound to come up eventually. Doing so in a controlled environment would be prudent, but wasn’t a unique opportunity of this dungeon. But maybe it would be better to test that someplace safer. Because if there really was something dangerous down there it would be best to not test his luck there as well. The boss encounter had been too risky already.

Or maybe there was just a base amount of charge the dungeon required to keep operational. Yup, that’s it. That’s what I’m rolling with.

I really hope I can get used to Metallic presence without relying on turrl venom for my sleep.

And with that, he chose the system prompt to release the dungeon core – whatever that would mean. A notification flashed over his eyes but he only spared it a glance.

New Notification Log Entry:

You have gained the Avowal of the Tranquil Pond

Avowal of the Tranquil Pond – Gain complete control over your own non-magical sleep. Sleep related skills and poisons can have a 50% reduced effect on self, and an increased effects on others when infused with your own energy. Gain minor awareness during sleep when desired. Sleep is more effective.

What attracted his sight was the orb slowly coming out of the water, shimmering in light blues, greens, and yellows. Colors intermixing and creating a wonderous display of color all over the plateau.

The slow shifting of color was almost rhythmically and very pleasing to the eyes, releasing the strain he had felt from looking around under constant stress.

Slowly the mass stopped being a solid structure and the motes of light spread throughout the dungeon.

Before he could completely absorb what was happening another notification flashed and the ground rumbled. The edges of the dungeon began to fuzz and occasionally Kent was able to catch a glimps of the outside.

As the first trees cracked and outside sounds reached his ear he realized his future would be short, if he were to watch the display of colors further.

Time to get going.