The passage into the cave went just fine. No monsters jumped at them from the parted waters, and they didn't kill the boy on their way there. Once they entered the cave, the boy could see nothing; it was pure darkness, as if the light from outside would not come into the cave itself. It was then that the girls had lit some torches, allowing for the boy to see something strangely cool.

The walls of the cave's inside were just and underwater view of what was happening inside the lake. The boy was amazed, even though he couldn't really see anything floating around out there; but he still went ahead and touched the liquid. It felt like water, but solid, as the boy could not push his hands through the liquid.

"Oi, get a move on, ankle-biter, we don’t have all day and we can't stay in here for more than an hour."

"Why's that?"

"Because after an hour, the difficulty of the dungeon doubles."

The boy didn't need to understand what the girl meant by "the difficulty doubles" to know it meant that there was a higher chance he would die. So, he hurried up and took the up the front line, just as the bait in any group should. The girls didn't comment on this sudden movement, but the boy noticed how the rogue had quickly placed her hand on her dagger as he did, and the ranger reached for something hidden in her vest.

The boy and the girl's continued onwards for around five minutes before they had their first experience with a monster. It was red in color, and had gelatinous skin, through which the boy saw all of its organs. The monster also had some very sharp teeth, most likely indicating that it was a predator.

The group noticed the monster first after the boy spotted it, so the girls all tensed up and hid their torches, but without extinguishing them. The boy asked the girls how they did it, but no of them spoke, so he gave up on prying it open from them. It was then that the rogue told the boy to go and approach the monster, distracting it so the rogue can go around and get a sneak attack in.

The boy begrudgingly did as instructed, but not before noticing the rogue disappearing into the darkness, as if she wasn't there in the first place. The boy approached the monster, and once he got close enough, finally noticed what it was doing; it was eating another creature of some form.

As the boy got close enough, the creature turned its head and a light lit up inside its body, near the skull of the creature, illuminating a lot of its features far clearer than the boy saw earlier. He saw clearly through its skin how the eyes git into the skull, and how they moved around ever so slightly in the skull. He also noticed how the saliva was gathering in its mouth upon the sight of a new meal.

But then the creature caught scent of its new prey; and it cowered. As the boy came closer and closer, the monster cowered further and further, to the point where it was yelping. About two meters from it, the boy stopped; 'The rogue should be close enough now, right? Why isn't she attacking?' The boy waited, but yet the rogue did not attack. So, he came closer to the monster, fully prepared to counter-attack if it were to try and pounce him.

But yet, after getting to the one-meter range, only one thing happened; a dagger slid out from the darkness, in-between the boy and the monster. The monster, upon noticing the dagger and where it came from, tuned its head and growled; but the boy got its attention back quite easily. He growled at the see-through thing, making it even more fearful of him and getting its attention back at him.

The boy got very close to it, so close in fact that he managed to kneel down right in front of its face with the dagger in his right hand, ready to slaughter the "pig". The monster, upon realizing its demise was imminent, started to plea, as if asking a ruthless king for mercy. But the boy only heard unintelligible noises coming from the thing, so he decided to not drag this on any further and stabbed through its head.

Seeing the beast's blood spill down the blade, it was strange. Taking the life of another being felt weird to the boy, almost alien; it was something that couldn't be described. The boy, leaving the dagger stuck in the fallen beast's head, stood and turned to the rest of the group, a confused look on his face. But that look soon changed to fear, as he saw that the ranger and the barbarian were charging him, with the sorceress charging a spell behind.

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The boy did not understand why they had started to charge him, but he knew that he had to get ready for a fight. 'The one that strikes first wins.' As the girl came within five meters of the boy, he was preparing a plan in his head to defeat them; and it wasn't looking good. But thankfully, the rogue finally stepped out of the darkness in-between them, making the three girls halt their attack as he held out her hand.

As the boy was about to thank her, she suddenly threw two knives beside his head, and practically teleported in-front of him, bringing another dagger up to his neck. The boy still didn't understand why the girls had started to attack him, so he was surprised by this, afraid of the consequences of his actions.

"Tell me boy, who are you really?"

'Honestly, I don't know what the fuck you're talking about."

"DON'T BULLSHIT ME, BOY! You may not realize what you have done, but I will explain as thoroughly as your simple mind will understand. The thing you just killed, a fire-jicker, bows to no man. Many have come here since the dungeon's inception, and many a tamer have tried to tame a single variant of the jicker, yet all have come back with nothing, or haven't come back at all. Yet here you stand, not just forcing it to cower below you, but making it plead for its life with your mere presence. You expect me to believe your just a random nobody after that?!"

The boy now understood the consequences of his actions, yet he did not know why they had happened. He didn't know why the creature had cowered as he had approached, and honestly, he didn't even know why he hadn't drowned for the eight days he spent at the bottom of the lake. So, the boy responded in course.

"Again, I honestly do not know what had happened or why it happened."

The rogue then stared at him, narrowing her eyes, most likely deciding if she should really slit this strange kid's throat. In the end, the rogue begrudgingly removed the dagger, weighing that the pros of keeping him alive were better than the cons. And so, the girl told the boy to continue onward while she talked to the others.

'Ever since I came to this forsaken place, people have only tried to use me or kill me. I should really learn how defend for myself...' The boy thought as he walked, strangely seeing nothing living in front of him. Maybe the creature's "plea's", as the rogue had called them, told all the other creatures in the dungeon to run and hide. The boy didn't know, but he continued onward nonetheless.

Soon, the group had reached a pair of plain, large wooden doors. This confused the boy for a moment, as they had looked completely out of place with the rest of dungeons aesthetic. But then he remembered one particular trope he had heard back on Earth; such doors most likely led to bosses, and those were a whole other level of trouble.

The boy was stopped before he could open the doors by the rogue. "Wait here, we need to gear up for the coming fight with the boss." This had confirmed the suspicions that the boy had beforehand, and also gave him an idea.

"Hey, girl in the dark clothing, can you at least give me something to defend myself with?"

Upon hearing this, the group of girls all looked at each other. They said not a word, but the rogue nodded towards the sorceress, who had levitated a torch towards the boy. The boy grabbed the floating torch, looking at the group with a "Are you serious?" Look in his eyes, but they didn't care, and kept preparing.

There were red vials that were handed around, with the most given to the barbarian. Then there was a small number of blue vials that were all given to the sorceress, and finally some green vials given to everyone but the boy. The boy stood there, watching the group prepare, silent and waiting for the perfect to do something...he wasn't sure what yet.

The group was done soon and motioned for the bait to open the doors. The boy sighed, and proceeded to move the heavy doors, which took a lot of effort. Once the boy was finally done, he slowly entered the boss' room. It was a large cavern, with proper rock wall all around it. And in the middle of it all, sat a humanoid.

The humanoid wore green armor with inscriptions and runes all over it. The boy could not tell exactly what the runes were looking like or what the inscriptions were looking like, but he knew that the armor was most likely enchanted. The boy also saw a spear or polearm laying on the humanoid's legs; the boy guessed that the long weapon was the former, as depicted by one edge of the spear ending in a sharp point.

The humanoid waited till the entire group was inside of the cavern, before lifting its hand and forcing the doors behind to violently swing closed. The boy was surprised by this, looking back to the door and then to the boss. The boy then figured that it probably done this so the group could not escape; 'Why did I allow myself to be brought into this?'

"Hear me, ye who dare to enter the Devil's Blood. If ye want to fight me, Koran of the First Blood, stand tall and without fear. But ye want to leave, bow to me." The group, after hearing the humanoids speech, did not move a muscle. But yet the boy considered, thinking if it were best for him to leave before the group could use him even more; but his other side told him to stay, as beating the boss may bring him great rewards.

The torn boy stood, his indecision tearing him apart. The humanoid, seeing that nobody had bowed, stood with his spear in hand, revealing that he was some form of sea-creature mixed human. The boy, upon realizing he was too late to decide, sighed again, and gazed toward the sea-human; who he just decided to call a merman.

"Ye who come here are brave souls; but be wary, for I do not give mercy to those that start the battle."