“Let’s leave her and get out of here,” said a young boy. “Yes, she is a useless adventurer after all. Let’s leave her to death in this dungeon,” a young girl added. “Please, don’t leave me! We are a party!” a girl far behind them shouted as she tried to catch up to them. As she was running along the dimly lit tunnel, she saw the two other party members, who had left her, cutting a string. All of a sudden, a huge boulder crashed in front of her from above, blocking the way.

The impact sent a shockwave and knocked her up. She fell on the ground and started crying. “Please, why are you doing this to me? We’re supposed to clear this dungeon together as a party,” she wept as she spoke. The two other party members from the other side started laughing and mocking her. “You’re so weak and useless. We don’t need someone like you for our party. Good luck fending off the monsters by yourself,” the girl said in a mocking voice. “Come on. Let’s get out of here,” the boy suggested. And they both ran out of the dungeon.

The girl who was left behind stood on her feet. She turned around and saw red eyes staring at her. Monsters lurked in the darkness, looking for a chance to launch an attack at any time. She weakly held her sword in an attempt to defend herself. At the meantime, the two members ran towards the entrance of the dungeon, leaving her behind.

They were greeted by the rest of the party members at the entrance. “Where’s Elena?” asked the young boy who had been waiting at the entrance. “We trapped her in the dungeon. She will make a nice meal for the monsters there,” the young girl who came out of the dungeon answered with a laugh. “Come on. Let’s get out of here before anyone catches us,” the young boy suggested and ran away. “Yeah. Let’s report to the adventurers’ guild that she was caught in a trap and die,” another boy said, and the group ran away from the dungeon.

Inside the dreadful dungeon, the ominous dark energy was flowing through the dense air. Monsters lurked in the shadow of the dungeon. From the inside of the dungeon, the sound of the swords clashing can be heard. In a narrow tunnel of dungeon, Elena, a young girl with a torn leather tunic, holding a blunt iron sword, was fighting against waves of monsters. The monsters varied from cave rats, skeletons and cave bats to goblins and spiders. The monsters could be slain easily but even a fierce predator is powerless against the swarm. The endless number of monsters swarmed towards Elena and continuously attacked her.

A goblin leaped towards Elena and hit her with its wooden club. Elena tried to dodge by swiftly rolling her body, but she was not fast enough to dodge the attack. It hit her on the shoulder which sent her falling to the ground. Despite grievous wounds, she stood up and held her ground, raising her sword once again to continue defending herself from the ruthless monsters. She quickly dashed towards the goblin and slashed its neck. The goblin dropped to the ground as it took its final breath. Although she had slain a goblin, there were still many other monsters trying to take her life away.

­­She stood her ground, holding her sword to defend herself from the cruel monsters. They rushed towards her as she wielded her sword in order to fight them back. Time flew by as she faced what seemed to be endless waves of monsters. The sound of clashing swords echoed throughout the tunnel of the dungeon. Decayed bodies of the slain monsters piled up upon each other. The environment turned silent as the last body of the monster dropped to the ground. It seemed that the waves of monsters had stopped. There seemed to be no sign of any monsters left. She was also badly injured from fighting against countless monsters. Her tunic was torn. Her sword was broken and there were also many bruises on her. It appeared that she didn’t bring any items to heal herself. She dropped to the ground and leaned against the wall of the tunnel.

“It hurts. Please, end this suffering. I cannot take this any longer,” she muttered to herself. Her wounds were bleeding. She didn’t have anything left to defend herself from danger. Fortunately for her, there were not any monsters left around. She was groaning from the intense pain, her breath shallow and rapid. She gripped her broken sword tightly with all the strength she had left. Her vision was starting to blur but she was doing her best to not lose consciousness. With all the strength left in her, she struggled to get up on her feet. But it was in vain. Her legs gave up and she collapsed to the ground as she slowly lost consciousness.

The crows were cawing outside the dungeon. Darkness loomed and the dreadful sensation could be felt even from the entrance of the dungeon. All of a sudden, a young man stepped into the dungeon. He had decent iron chest plate armor, and a pair of nice leather leggings put on. His short blonde hair reflected sun light at the dark entrance of the dungeon. He had a small pouch worn around his waist and was carrying which seemed to be a powerful sword by the look of the aura around it.

He took another step into the dungeon. There were not any signs of monsters in the dungeon. The dungeons are usually filled with dangerous monsters. But to his surprise, this dungeon oddly felt quiet and peaceful. Despite the calm situation, he did not let his guard down. He tightened his grip on his sword and carefully went further inside the dungeon. Although the darkness enveloped the interior of the dungeon, the aura from his sword lit up the place around him.

He went into chambers after chambers. He took path after path but didn’t find any signs of monsters or living creatures.

“This is odd. I couldn’t find any monsters and this dungeon has not been marked as ‘cleared’ yet. Also, nobody went into this dungeon in the past few days,” he murmured to himself.

As he was walking through the tunnel, he saw an enormous boulder blocking his path. He observed the surroundings. The boulder was completely blocking the way and there was no other way around to get past it without breaking the boulder. He approached the boulder and inspected it carefully. He found a triggered mechanism with a string which had already been cut.

“Some poor souls triggered the trap. They’re either dead or still trapped in this place,” he spoke to himself. He stood up and raised his shiny sword against the rock. He struck the rock with a strong swing which unleashed a torrent of radiant light, breaking the rock. As the rock blocking the way was cleared, the path to the next chamber was revealed. He put his sword back into the sheath and took a step into the next chamber.

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After taking a few more steps, he noticed some corpses of monsters on the ground. He inspected one of the corpses and found out that it had been killed at least one day ago. He got up and walked further into the dungeon. As he walked deeper into the dungeon, he found more and more dead monsters. He came to the conclusion that someone was in the dungeon with him. The culprit of these dead monsters might also be the very same person. He held his sword ready and took more steps. He could see a faint light before him. He slowly approached the light source with caution.

Once he reached the vicinity, he could make out a silhouette of a woman. He carefully approached the figure. As he got closer, he realized that it indeed was a lady. She was sitting down on the hard ground while leaning against the rough wall of the dungeon. Her grievous wounds were clearly visible, and her weapons were destroyed. He rushed to the girl and gently shook her.

“Hey! Wake up! Are you still alive?” he asked in panic as he continued shaking her. He pressed his ear onto the girl’s chest to check if she was still breathing. He could hear her heart still beating in the chest. He let out a relieved sigh. He slowly placed her back to her previous position and rummaged through his pouch. He took out a bottle of red potion from his pouch. He pulled out the cork and poured the red elixir into the girl’s mouth. Although unconscious, the girl gulped and swallowed the elixir. Just then, her wounds started to heal themselves. Slowly and weakly, she opened her beautiful brown eyes.

The first thing she saw as soon as her eyes opened was his blue eyes staring at her with concern. She found herself in his arms, which made her blush. She gathered all her strength to sit up straight. She looked at herself and found out that her wounds had been cured. She fixed her short red hair and shifted her gaze at him.

“Who are you? Did you tend to my wounds? Or are you here to hurt me?” she spoke in panic and grabbed her sword only to realize that it was already broken. She looked back at him in terror. Seeing her panic, he tried his best to reassure her.

“My name is Cedric. I am an adventurer like you. I’m here to clear this dungeon,” he talked to her in a soft and calming voice. His blue eyes made Elena skip a heartbeat. After hearing his introduction, she seemed to calm down a little. She looked at him with uncertainty but deep down, she had a gut feeling that she could trust him.

“I am Elena,” she said with a shaky voice. “I am an E-rank adventurer, ­and this is my first time trying to clear a dungeon,” she added.

Cedric was shocked to hear what she had just said. His expression clearly showed that he was astonished. “An E-rank adventurer coming to the dungeon alone? Didn’t anyone stop her? Did the guild let her come here by herself?” he thought to himself. Instead of trying to figure it out by himself, he decided to speak up.

“Are you here alone?” he asked with concern. Elena looked down to herself. She seemed to become sad after hearing his question. Despite being in despair, she looked up to him.

“No, I came here with my party,” she answered. “But they trapped me here and ran away. I’ve been here for a while. I’ve been killing these monsters for who knows how long. It hurts so much. I was alone and helpless,” she started crying as she continued to speak.

Cedric was flabbergasted after hearing her talk. He felt both anger and pity in him. He realized that the giant boulder blocking the tunnel could have been the deed of her previous party members. How could they trap a weak girl alone in the dungeon? He gently patted her shoulder in an attempt to comfort her. Elena wiped her tears with her hand and calmed herself down. “Thank you for saving me. I would have died if I were alone,” she said to Cedric.

Cedric shook his head. “You’re welcome. How are you feeling at the moment? Does it hurt anywhere?” he asked her with concern. Elena tried to move and stood up. To her surprise, all the wounds had been healed, and she couldn’t feel any pain. Cedric picked up his sword and stood up as well. His radiant sword emitted light in the darkness. His blonde hair reflected the light making it easier to see his face. Elena looked down and tried to avoid eye contact. Cedric averted his gaze towards her and saw her beautiful red hair.

All of a sudden, the ground started shaking violently as if there was an earthquake. The rocks fell from the ceiling of the dungeon, and it blocked the way they came from. They had no choice but to run deeper into the dungeon. Cedric grabbed Elena’s hand and quickly ran into the next chamber. Elena swiftly followed him since there was no other choice. As soon as they were inside another chamber, a huge boulder crashed down the entrance they came from. They were blown away by the shockwave of the impact and fell to the ground.

After a while, everything returned to normal once again. The ground stopped shaking and the environment seemed to be calm. Cedric and Elena slowly got up from the ground and stood up.

“Was that an earthquake?” Elena asked.

“It might be. I guess we’re trapped here now. I can use my sword and blow up this boulder, but it will make the entire dungeon collapse,” Cedric said as he inspected the boulder blocking their previous path. He walked back to Elena and said, “There’s no choice. We will have to go forward and clear the dungeon. It’s the only way to get out of here.”

Elena tensed up as soon as she heard that they would be clearing the dungeon. “But I’m just an E-rank. I don’t even have a sword with me. My sword is already broken,” she said in a panic voice. Cedric gently patted her shoulder. “You do not need to worry at all because I will protect you. Follow my steps and stay behind,” Cedirc said to Elena.

Hearing his words, Elena felt a bit more confident. “But I don’t want to hold you back. I do not have any weapon with me,” she complained. Before Cedric could even reply, the ground started shaking again, but more violently this time as if something below them was moving. Suddenly, the floor beneath them started to crack. Cedric tackled Elena quickly to dodge to the side. The crack became bigger until it turned into a giant gap from where a giant lizard emerged.

Cedric and Elena stood up again and maintained their posture. “What is that thing?” Elena asked. “A crystal lizard. They live underground and in mines which are rich in minerals. They feed on ores which results in the development of their crystalized tough skin on their back,” Cedric replied. The crystal lizard sensed their presence and turned towards them. Cedric pulled out his sword and stood in front of Elena.

“Don’t worry. I will protect you. Stay behind me and don’t panic,” Cedric reassured her. Elena nodded. Fear and anxiety were visibly present in her eyes. Cedric turned his head towards the lizard which had become more hostile after discovering their presence. The lizard emitted a loud roar and charged towards them. Cedric stood firm and maintained his position with his sword held high. “Run, Elena! To the left!” he shouted. Without hesitation, Elena quickly leapt to the left and collapsed behind a boulder. The lizard bashed towards Cedric who remained in his position. When the lizard hit Cedric, there was a huge impact. The collision sent out a thick cloud of dust which made it hard to see the surroundings. Elena turned back to look at Cedric but all she could see was a thick pile of dust.