[Nanya’s point of view]

“Nyahaha! A dungeon! A dungeon after such a long time! Feels like the good ol’ days, doesn’t it?!” I laughed as I gave Tuberculus a pat on the back.

I was so excited to finally be able to explore an unknown dungeon after so may years that I didn’t care if it was one with 400 floors or just two! Illsy said it had only two, so we were expecting to finish it in two hours or so, maybe three if we looked around a bit more and made a complete map of the place.

“You always were the first one to get excited from the little things.” commented Rufus with his usual monotone voice.

I swear, that man only showed excitement when he found a new book! He and Zertan made a perfect match, the other was happy only when his plants bloomed.

Well, I didn’t let his words keep me from having fun. I was quite curious as to what sort of bosses we would meet and how complicated he made the whole thing. So far, we were just descending on a pair of very long stairs. This alone was quite unusual. In most cases, the first dungeon was a building or a cave on the surface. I never heard of an underground one, but then again, Illsy was a Godlike Dungeon Lord. There were a lot of things to expect from him.

“When will these stairs ever end?” grumbled Angius.

“The center of the world?” I joked.

“Ugh…” he groaned.

When we finally reached the last steps, we arrived at a big, empty room made out of granite. It was the first one, so we weren’t expecting to face too much in there. None of us was on guard.

“Any signs of life?” I asked.

“None from what I see… Is this just an empty room?” asked Angius as he scanned the room with his eyes.

“Sigh… First room and no trap? Maybe giving it two hours to clear was a bit too long? How about half an hour?” commented Rufus in his usual monotone.

Apparently, he got bored and pulled out his book from his bag to continue reading. I simply shrugged and moved on. He was there with us only as an extra, just in case there was a mechanism that required multiple triggers to be activated at the same time. In general, those sort of traps could be found from the third floor down in certain dungeons. Normal dungeons usually didn’t have anything on the first floor, barely a summoned creature or two, in rest, they created small habitats for random wild animals. Even normal villagers could venture into them up to the first two or three rooms without worrying too much about it.

“A hallway…” said Tuberculus when we walked out of the room.

We paid extra attention to where we stepped, but the area was clear. Still, it was getting a bit exciting.

A few moments later, we arrived in front of a big empty wall with two passages leading to our left and right respectively.

“Toss a coin and pick a side?” asked Angius.

“Left. Always go left.” I said and went on that path without bothering myself to listen to the result of the coin toss.

Following the path, we encountered the first trap. Three spike traps were laid in front of us with a clear dead end on the other side.

“Now what?” asked Angius.

“Are you wearing your Magic Armor?” I asked.

“Yes, why?” he replied and threw me a questionable look right before I kicked him in the behind and sent him flying to the other side of the traps.

He slammed into the wall and fell down on the floor with a groan.

“See anything there?” I asked.

“Stars…” he replied as he pointed up.

After returning to his senses, he looked around and saw a lever on the wall. He wasn’t so sure about just pulling it like that, so after he checked for traps, he used his boot and tossed it on top of it. The lever went down, and no other trap was activated. Nothing happened though, and the spike traps were still active.

“It must be a fake.” he told us.

“Keep it like that.” I told him.

My gut was telling me that there should be another lever at the end of the other corridor. Angius returned by making a power leap over the traps. He had enough strength to reach Medium Godlike Rank, but only in strength. Because of that, his Magic Energy couldn’t reach the point where he could attempt to learn Godlike skills, but if he were to train his noggin long enough, he had a good chance of being able to.

On the other side was a similar path, but this time, Angius didn’t need my help to get across. He pulled the lever in a similar fashion, and we heard the gate opening up behind us.

“It must have been a concealed gate.” said Rufus.

“But those appear only after the 30th floor.” noted Tuberculus.

I had to agree with him, the dungeon’s first few rooms were quite unexpected, but they were fun!

Walking over to the opened door, we stopped and stared at the sight before us.

“That’s lava, isn’t it?” I asked.

“Yup, lava.” replied Angius.

“Those are timed platforms above the lava, right?” I asked.

“Yup, timed platforms.” replied Angius.

“Fascinating.” said Rufus, who finally put away his book.

Lava, in any form or shape only appeared after floor 50, and it was quite rare too. Few dungeons made use of it, yet right in front of us, at the very first floor of the dungeon, we were staring at a pit of lava over 6 m in length. The only way across appeared to be by jumping on the timed platforms, but the door on the other side was hidden as well, and there was no lever in sight.

We stared at it for over a quarter of an hour, trying to figure out how to get across. Angius went back to the first room to see if we missed anything, but he couldn’t find anything.

“Maybe it’s an optical illusion, and the other side only appears to be blocked by a wall?” asked Tuberculus.

“You might be fooled by that, but not me…” I replied.

Well done, Illsy. This is quite hard. I thought, but I was sure to scold him as soon as we went back. This wasn’t a dungeon for students barely handling beginner rank spells. Actually, even Master Rank adventurers would have had a problem with it.

“A hidden lever, maybe?” asked Rufus.

“Could be. I’ll give it a try. My Magic Armor can withstand the heat of the lava better than yours.” I offered.

“Please do, but look carefully for anything popping into view.” Tuberculus told me.

I nodded and prepared myself for the first jump. When the platform appeared, I went for it. They retreated fast, but I was faster. Keeping my eyes open, I searched for the button, but didn’t spot anything. When I reached the last platform, I jumped from it to the end. I couldn’t hold onto the wall, so I jumped from it to the other one. I jumped once more and landed on the second platform. From it, I took a powerful leap and reached the starting location.

“Well?” asked Tuberculus.

“Nothing…” I told him.

It was frustrating, but I didn’t give up. I tried three more times, but the result didn’t change.

“The Dungeon Lord sure built a surprisingly tough level. This isn’t something our students can handle.” said Rufus.

“I doubt they can even get past those traps back there.” said Angius with a sigh.

Looking back at the lava pit, I got angry and struck the wall. Because of the strength I put in the hit, the crack spread quite a bit, and the area where my fist touched the granite stone shattered. Somewhere on the other side of the pit, a small rock fell on the platform. I blinked and looked surprised at it.

Could it be? I asked myself.

With a smirk on my lips, I decided to give it a try. I timed my jumps well and reached the third platform. There was a hole in the wall and right behind it, a button. I grinned.

“Found it!” I shouted and pressed it immediately.

I thought I was safe, but then the platform slid from under my feet, and I dropped into the hot lava.

“KYA!” I screamed.

My Magic Armor was fading fast. When someone fell into lava, they usually got stuck in it like they would in quicksand. If they didn’t get out of there fast, it would stick to them and eat at their armor. Even for Supremes lava was annoying, but nothing they couldn’t handle. At least, it wasn’t enchanted with a Magic Energy absorption ability.

I pushed hard into it and jumped up, I struggled to reach the other side. It was getting to my boots, and it was getting hard to move, but I pushed it around me. Using my strength, I jumped up and landed on one of the platforms. I was safe, but my Magic Armor decreased considerably.

“Huff! Huff! Lava? Lava on the first floor? Seriously?!” I complained while breathing hard.

“Nanya… you lost a boot.” said Tuberculus while he pointed at something burning in the pit.

“Mou!” I puffed my cheeks.

“Hahaha! This is rich! Godlike Nanya lost a boot on the first floor!” laughed Angius.

“Grrr!” I growled but let it go and sighed “Angius?” I said looking up at him with a smile.

“Hm?” he looked at me.

“You stink! Take a bath!” I grabbed him by a boot and tossed him into the lava.

“Ah!” he screamed. “Hot! Hot! Hot!” he swam back to us as fast as he could and got out of the lava with the help of the other two. He had only one boot now, and his robe was a bit singed at the edges.

I grinned.

“I thought I was going to die…” he glared at me and started cleaning the lava off his clothes.

“It could have been worse.” I shrugged.

“How so?” he asked raising an eyebrow.

I showed him a big smirk and turned towards the opened door.

“Onward to glory and fame!” I said pointing at it.

They sighed and followed me on the timed platforms.

Illsy’s dungeon was really fun, but certainly quite dangerous. I was curious about what we would find in the next section.

Ten minutes later…

“Harpies… Flame traps… Spike traps… Arrow traps… Wind traps… Deadly chasm with spikes at the bottom… ARE YOU KIDDING ME?! THIS IS THE FIRST FLOOR!” I shouted at the top of my lungs.

We didn’t move away from the platform at the entrance. We were timing the traps and trying to figure out the path we needed to take. There were three rooms in there, but probably only one was real. Unfortunately, we couldn’t figure out which one was which. They all looked identical. Meanwhile, Angius and me were fighting the harpies.

“Indeed. This is something for the 100th floor and beyond!” said Tuberculus.

“I pity the poor bastards who would dare enter this dungeon… And he said this was easy?” said Angius as he parried a harpy and then struck it hard with his fist. The monster was thrown into the roof and then left to drop in the chasm below. “Have you figured it out?” he asked.

“Yes, just one moment… there!” said Rufus as he showed him a small parchment with the map of the platform maze in front of him.

“Good. Left?” he asked.

“Yup! It’s always left!” I smirked.

It wasn’t left…

The path led to a mini boss room. I smacked the brute once and sent it flying straight into the ceiling. It was very weak when compared to me, but against a Master Rank, it was a monster. There were also a bunch of imps and harpies that spawned and attacked me. I used [Fireball] to destroy their circles. With the room cleared, it was time to leave, but I noticed a treasure room. I grinned at the idea and rushed into it only to be welcomed by a bunch of arrow traps. There was nothing in there.

After we got out of that room, we went for the right side. We didn’t find any sort of treasure there, but we did find a bunch of imps and gas traps. Our Magic Armor was quite high, so we weren’t bothered by the stench. We destroyed the imp summoning circles and walked out of there. We reached a slope. After reaching the corner, we heard a click.

“What was that?” I asked.

Looking back, I saw a big boulder and gulped. I was the first to run to the end. Rufus and Angius followed, only Tuberculus was the slowest to act.

“Huh? UGYA!” he screamed as the boulder went over him and then rolled with him. “Stop… this… thing!” he managed to mutter as he rolled down after us. If it wasn’t for his Magic Armor, he would have ended up as a squishy meat paste.

“The exit!” said Angius and jumped “Huh? AAAH!” he screamed and then I heard him hit every wall until he reached the water bellow.

As for Tuberculus, I stopped him alright. I stopped at the wall, turned around and punched the boulder as hard as I could. It wasn’t enchanted, so it was shattered by my punch. The old man got tossed into the ceiling, then bounced off it and dropped down behind me.

“Ugh… the world is spinn… BLEARGH!” he vomited.

“Ew!” I grimaced and walked past him.

“I think Angius is drowning.” said Rufus as he looked down the hole leading to the next floor.

“Join him.” I said pushing him over the edge.

“Huh? AH!” he screamed.

I grabbed Tuberculus by the left leg and jumped in after them. The water was cold as ice, and I quickly swam up. After tossing the old geezer on dry land, I went after Angius. Rufus handled himself pretty well and dog paddled to the shore.

“Whew! I thought I was going to die!” said the warrior after spitting out some water.

“Boulder trap? That was unexpected… His traps are a mix of complicated and deadly ones with simple ones. I don’t even know what to expect next…” I said with a sigh.

To make a comparison to other dungeons, Illsy’s was simply crazy. For example, the Ancestral dungeon in the Paramanium Empire had a simple plant and bug first floor. There were about fourteen chambers in total and continued to the second floor, where you could find rats and some snakes. The difficulty increased in monsters and number of chambers, but usually, the traps were after the first ten floors. The first trap that Ancestral dungeon employed was a simple spike trap. The first mini boss was at the 20th floor, but by then you also got arrow traps. The things Illsy added weren’t even met from the 50th level up, but going by their complexity, I’d bet my money on the fact that he could rival the 120th floor with his first one alone. It made me shiver only to think about what I would find at the second floor.

“What… What’s this?” asked Rufus surprised.

We were currently sitting in front of 3 m high metallic walls with an undulating pattern on them like waves on a lake. They were beautiful to look at, but that beauty was what made them dangerous. If that was a maze, then surely… it was going to be hard to complete. The reflection on its sides made it very hard for regular adventurers to go through. The dungeon’s floor was already past Master Rank adventurers, it was going steadily through the Emperor Ranks and pressing into Godlike Ranks. At the very least, there weren’t any enchanted walls or traps. Those might have been more dangerous than anything else in there.

“What does it look like? A maze.” I told him.

“Technically speaking, it could be a labyrinth.” commented the old man.

I shrugged.

“We should continue.” I told them. We were way past five hours now.

“Let’s rest here for a bit, Nanya.” said Angius.

“Ah! My books!” shouted Rufus.

“What?” I asked surprised.

“My books are gone! I must have dropped my bag up there!” said the man as he looked up the shaft leading to the first level.

“Don’t worry, we’ll have Illsy get them for you when we return.” I told him with a smile.

“Sigh… very well…” he took a seat, and it was decided to take a moment to rest.

What a ridiculous dungeon… I thought to myself as I looked at the reflective walls.

It was quite amazing, but also very very dangerous. None of our students could finish even the first level. If they dared to try it, they would only end up as corpses. This dungeon was that dangerous.

Angius and Tuberculus slept for three hours, replenishing their Magic Energy and healing their wounds if they had any. Me and Rufus kept watch, but it was mostly me, seeing as how the man was more worried about his own books than anything else. Although I heard some wolves howling at one moment, only three imps dared to attack me. Unlike the ones I had to fight during Illsy’s moment of insanity, these ones went for the kill. They were easy to defeat, but they were certainly tougher than the ones we battled with until then.

Monsters in dungeons usually increased in power depending on the floor’s number and the dungeon’s level. The other factor was the dungeon’s experience with adventurers. Thinking about it from that point of view, this dungeon only had two floors. I checked and Illsy was barely level 53, not even 100 yet. At the first floor, we were supposed to meet no monster, maybe a few rats in the last rooms, but that was about it. On the second floor, we were supposed to meet wild animals: rats, panthers, boars, and maybe wolves. There weren’t supposed to be any traps or lava pits. Harpies and imps were for floors past five. Actually, harpies were in general found only after the fifteenth floor, but what was more disturbing was a first floor boss. The Minotaur was strong and certainly not something anyone barely entering the dungeon would expect.

Basically speaking, Illsy’s dungeon was abnormally dangerous, complex, and powerful. None of the rules we knew about dungeons applied to him. I was starting to believe it was a characteristic of Godlike Dungeon Lord, but it wasn’t that… I remember venturing into one together with mom when I was little. The first levels were identical to regular ones. The difference started from the 15th floor, which was similar in complexity and danger factor to the Ancestral one at the 50th level, then it got even harder.

Could it be that I’m mistaken? Mother is beyond any of the Supremes on the third continents, but still… Sigh… Maybe it was that easy because I was together with her? I thought as I waited patiently for the others to wake up. I pulled my legs to my chest and tried to push away the dark thoughts which told me Illsy was trying to kill us.

Angius was the first to wake up, then was Tuberculus. After a quick breakfast, we prepared to head deeper into the dungeon.

“It’s just the second floor, right? How difficult could it be to navigate this maze?” asked Rufus with a smile.

“It’s probably quite small. Dungeons never rely on long complicated mazes.” said Tuberculus almost certain about it.

“I don’t like those walls…” grumbled Angius.

I agreed with a nod. There was something strange about them. Those reflections and wave patterns weren’t placed there just for decoration. They were certainly meant to mess with our heads.

“Shall we?” asked Tuberculus as he took the lead.

We all followed him and ventured deeper into the dungeon. As usual, we took the left path and even when we heard wolves and imps on the other side, we stuck with it. The maze, however, didn’t prove to be easy at all. Rufus got a headache after the first half an hour. Tuberculus tried to map it, but it proved rather difficult. I was the only one who didn’t look at similarities and differences in the walls. They were meant to make you take those in consideration, to mess with you.

“If any of our students reached this place, they would have ended up lost in here until they were met with…” a powerful flame doused Angius from the top of his head before he could finish his words. “Puha!” he puffed out smoke.

“Fire traps? From the ceiling?” I asked surprised.

“Everyone! Be careful! There may be more of these concealed traps!” shouted Tuberculus right before an imp jumped on him.

He punched it hard, and we raised our guard, but nothing attacked us again.

Was it the only one? I asked myself.

“This dungeon isn’t for Master Ranks… How could a Heroic Dungeon build something like this? It’s impossible…” said Rufus as he shook his head.

It’s simple… he’s not a Heroic but a Godlike. I thought.

If Rufus decided to ask me later about the truth, I feared I wouldn’t be able to hide it from him. Out of all of us, he was the only one who could guess Illsy’s identity just by looking at his actions and this dungeon.

We pressed forward, but we were on guard of traps. I destroyed any I could find, but after one hour of walking around, we finally reached the exit.

Or so we believed…

Upon entering the room, we were faced with a wide floor and a plaque at the end. On it was written the following riddle:

There once was a forest,

That stood as a merciless test

For all those who claimed to be the best!

But merciless as it may be,

Three beasts offered to guide your way:

The Lion was the strongest.

The Wolf followed next.

The Duck was the weakest,

Yet always tried its best.

The Lion was the smartest.

The Wolf was the hungriest.

The Duck was the luckiest.

They all go with you, but only one may lead the way.

Pick the right one, and in your favor, fate shall sway.

Choose the wrong one, and you won’t see the next day.

“Hah! The Dungeon Lord knows how to rhyme!” said Angius, but that wasn’t the most important thing we should have noticed.

This was a puzzle room, something that appeared only starting from floor 150 in EVERY dungeon, yet here was one at the second floor. It was also of a type I had never seen before. The floor was paved with mixed up square tiles. Every tile had the face of an animal mentioned in the riddle: a lion, a wolf, and a duck. On the other side of the room was a door. At first glance, it looked like we could just skip it.

If you discover this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation.

“Why a Duck?” was what Rufus asked.

“Be careful…” I warned them.

It took us about three hours to figure out the riddle because we had no idea what a lion was. At first, we thought it might have been one of the beast folk, but I never heard of a beast of the duck kind, although the wolves were quite numerous. In the end, we made it to the exit. We couldn’t skip it either, the door didn’t budge when I jumped to the other side. We couldn’t just randomly step on things either. When we jumped on the wrong tile, it triggered either a trap or proved to be loose, and we would fall on a spike trap. Tuberculus was the one who tested this out.

We actually spent a longer time there because we wanted to analyze the way the puzzle room was made and what it meant by ‘you won’t see the next day’.

After we walked out of there, we were faced with another maze. It was getting quite frustrating and annoying, especially after imps riding on top of wolves attacked us out of nowhere. Even Tuberculus gave up on his map, the maze was too confusing. At the very least, he did manage to find the entrance to this floor three times and the first puzzle room two times. It was then when Angius, in his frustration, took his map and ate it. The man literally ate the map poor Tuberculus was trying to draw.

A bit later, while going past the room where we destroyed the summoning circles for rats, imps, and wolves, Rufus attacked a wall with a powerful [Fireball], melting it off. We all jumped when we heard the blast, but we soon realized it was a false alarm.

“I thought I heard someone…” he told us.

That was the first sign. He HEARD, he didn’t SEE.

At the end of the day, when we were too tired and frustrated to go on, we stopped in front of the entrance to the next puzzle room and set up camp. We didn’t pack much, so our food was kind of scarce. None of us suspected Illsy’s dungeon to be so hard. I was starting to believe he was intent on killing us. All those traps, the enemies chasing after us through the reflective walls, the optical illusions which drove us mad, they were chipping down at our patience and raising our frustration levels even higher.

I slept for only four hours, but when I woke up, they were all discussing what I feared the most: the fact that Illsyore was planning to kill us.

“I don’t see it any other way… This dungeon is too dangerous even for Master Ranks.” said Tuberculus.

“I told you, you can’t tame a Dungeon Lord! We have to destroy him once we reach the surface!” said Angius as he made a fist as struck the floor.

“I agree…” said Rufus.

“I don’t.” I said as I approached them.

Of course, all the evidence pointed at Illsyore being a mastermind villain who wanted to kill us in a cruel way by torturing us with his traps just like any other dungeon out there, but when I imagined actually destroying him, I remembered how he acted when he was under the effects of that stupid spell scroll. There was a bit of doubt in my heart, something that told me he was innocent and maybe, just maybe, all of this was a misunderstanding.

What if this is the only type of dungeon he knows how to build? He was quite convinced this was an Easy dungeon… It makes me wonder what he understands by Hard or Nightmarish. I thought as I looked at the three teachers who doubted me.

“Why? You’ve seen it too, right? Lava? Harpies? Traps? This maze? Everything is made in such a way to mentally torture us, drain our Magic Armor and then kill us.” commented Angius.

“Indeed… this isn’t normal.” said Rufus.

“Sigh… If he wanted to kill us, he would have come over and shot us with his spells while we were sleeping or trapped us in this maze by blocking the exit. It would have been an easy feat for him.” I explained, but there was something else that created doubt in my heart regarding his evil intentions. That thing or rather her was Shanteya. Why save the el’doraw and heal her if he was evil? I asked myself.

Illsyore’s trial wasn’t over yet. Once we got out of there, we were determined to investigate the matter thoroughly. They were determined to destroy him if they found him guilty of conspiring against us.

With a new weight on our chests, we entered the second puzzle room. This one was a bit simpler. All we had to do was pull some levers in the right combination. The problem was that if we were mistaken, traps were activated all around us. Rufus was in charge of figuring out the combination, while we defended him from the attacks of the traps. We allowed ourselves to stand in front of them because they weren’t enchanted. Illsyore wasn’t able to enchant traps judging by what we faced so far.

Fortunately, Rufus knew what he was doing, and figured out the combination in just four tries. With a smile on our lips, we left the room. The maddening maze continued, and we pushed forward.

Four hours later, we found the entrance to the next room. Illsyore made this section of the floor in a way that required us to finish both puzzle rooms if we wished to find and progress further into the dungeon. It was stressing, annoying, and curses for the dungeon lord kept flowing one after another.

This room looked empty at first, but when we reached the center, countless imps spawned all around us. We were quick to act and defeated the first wave. I rushed ahead and destroyed the summoning circles one after another. No traps were activated in this room, and we were able to proceed forward after we killed the last imp.

The endless maze continued…

For hours and hours we traveled through the endless, confusing, and maddening paths of Illsyore’s torture floor. The traps, imps, and occasional rats harassed us constantly, lowering our Magic Armors and pushing our tempers to the edge. Angius even started to punch the metal walls to relieve himself of the stress.

At one point, we reached what looked like the entrance to another room. We hesitated at first, but Rufus was the one who stepped in front of us and opened the doors. What we found there was another trap, but hidden in another form. Countless giant rats flowed out and jumped on Rufus.

“Rats?” I asked as I jumped back.

“Rats! RATS! GET THEM OFF!” shouted Rufus as he struggled with them.

“Kill them!” shouted Angius.

Rufus chanted the [Fireball] spell and aimed it at the rats, but just when he was about to release it, two of them jumped on him and bit his nose. The spell failed and was shot at Angius instead of the room filled with rats.

“Ugh!” the warrior groaned.

His armor shattered for a moment, and the fire burned his eyebrows. He raised it up before it spread, but the damage had been done. At least, he didn’t look into the flame when it struck him, otherwise, he would have gone blind.

“Argh! This burns!” he complained as he squashed a rat and rubbed his smoking forehead.

“GET THEM OFF!” shouted Rufus as he ran away from us.

“Stop!” I shouted.

The rats chased after their prey, but I knew I couldn’t run off after him.

“Go after him, I’ll destroy the summoning circles!” I shouted at the other two.

Tuberculus fired a few [Ice Spear] spells, killing off a few of the rats and then went after Rufus. Angius followed behind him, while I jumped inside the room.

“You stupid rats!” I shouted as I attacked the floor with my fist, shattering the granite and cracking the circles. Three of them went out in one hit, but four of them jumped on me. I rolled to the side and then smashed the fourth. I jumped again and smashed two more, five to go. The rats didn’t hesitate and continued to attack me, they stopped going after the others and made me their main target. It didn’t matter, I was going to kill them all!

Once I got rid of the last circle, I attacked the rats, and only after that did I go after my friends. I found Tuberculus groaning from a terrible burn to his face. Apparently, Rufus hit him at point blank with a fireball and singed his beard, mustache, and eyebrows. The poor bastard even managed to step into a fire trap and got the top of his head burned off as well. It was a bit funny to look at him, but it was no laughing matter. I picked him up and followed the trail of dead rats.

Rufus was in one of the small imps summoning rooms we cleared earlier. He was punching a few rats with his bare hands, but his Magic Armor was gone. If he stepped into a trap, he was done for. Angius was backing him up, fighting ten other rats.

“Nanya? You have a soft… UGYA!” said Tuberculus, but he didn’t have time to finish his words. For massaging my bottom with his hand, I cooled off his face by smashing him into the cold steel wall.

Leaving the perverted geezer there, I joined the fight. Their hands and clothes were stained from the blood they spilled. Unlike them, I was clean because I focused more Magic Energy into my Magic Armor as we traveled through the maze. Maybe they forgot about theirs?

“This is impossible! This is madness!” shouted Angius as he looked around.

“No! This is Illsyore’s dungeon! But indeed, this isn’t something you would see at the second floor of a regular one… If the students entered instead of us…” I shook my head and refused to think about what would have happened. “We should press forward! The exit can’t be far.” I said.

“I don’t care any more, Nanya, I will destroy this Dungeon Lord! He did it on purpose! I’m sure of it!” he pointed his blood-stained sword at me. He was furious.

“Easy there… we still…” I stopped and blinked surprised.

Something was missing. The feeling was one I knew quite well… Illsyore used Colly Tos again. My anger was spiking. Even if it was accidental, even if it was a misunderstanding, even if he didn’t mean it, to leave me pantyless in this dungeon… Once we got out, it was decided: Illsyore was dead!

[A few minutes before Nanya lost her panties.]

[Shanteya’s point of view]

“Shanteya? Are we done with the right wing?” asked Master as he looked over the list I made with all the things broken by the students.

“Yes, Master!” I replied with a smile.

“That’s about it then! Hm, I wonder what I should do now?” he asked himself.

“Whatever Master wishes.” I said.

“That would get me killed…” he said, and I tilted my head to the left.

Again, I couldn’t understand what Master meant. There were also many times when Master’s words were a bit confusing, especially when he used weird ones.

“I think I’ll upgrade Colly Tos!” he said and then something appeared above him. “Ah, crud… Nanya’s going to kill me!”

When I looked up at the item, it was a pair of pink panties with small frills around the edges. I jumped up and grabbed them. Indeed, they belonged to mistress Nanya, but I still found it a bit hard to believe that a spell with a random effect could have such pinpoint accuracy on her.

“Do not worry, Master, I’ll take care of it and clear your name.” I told him with a respectful bow.

Many people at the academy asked me these past few days why I was so servile and respectful to a Dungeon Lord, especially the teachers, but for me, it was a question of how someone couldn’t be when they had been healed, cured, and saved all at once without even requesting a single copper coin in return. Master even wanted to free me as soon as I was healed, but it was I who didn’t desire to be freed of him. With a kind and gentle master like him, how could I even think about leaving his side? Of course, the fact that I was sleeping with Master was still our little secret.

“Really? That will be great!” he said with a cheerful voice.

I smiled gently and returned to sweeping the floor. Meanwhile, Master took to upgrade his spell to the next tier. It was quite amazing that he could do that with any of his skills without being trained by a master of that respective skill. For everyone else, that was the usual path they had to take.

Maybe it’s something specific to his species as a Dungeon Lord? I wondered.

“Done! Now I have [Summon a Selected piece of Equipment Currently Worn by the Selected Adventurer]!” he announced.

“Congratulations, Master!” I told him.

“I’m going to give it a try.” he said.

“Master, please don’t summon mistress Nanya’s garments. She’s in the middle of a dungeon at the moment.” I warned him.

It would have been bad if he accidentally summoned her armor, especially since she had nothing to use to cover her bottom.

“Nah! I’m targeting you!” he said.

I blushed.

“Me, Master? If you wish to.” I said and stood still in front of him.

He concentrated for a moment and then shouted “Colly Tos!”

What vanished weren’t my panties or clothes, but Nanya’s panties I had in my pocket. The pink piece of fabric appeared between us and softly fell on the ground.

“Master?” I asked with a forced smile. I was a bit upset that he didn’t take something of mine.

“I swear I was targeting your apron! This stupid spell must be broken…” he grumbled.

“It certainly is outside of what I would call common sense.” I told him as I picked up the pink panties from the floor.

“Well, it could have been worse.” he said.

“How so?” I asked raising an eyebrow.

“I could have summoned Tuberculus’ underpants… Ugh, that would be just nasty!” he sounded as though he was afraid of something like that happening.

“Knowing you, Master, you would probably completely undress all the pretty girls in your dungeon territory before your spell even touched a man, or it will just refuse to be cast.” I told him.

“Indeed! This spell is more of a pervert than I am!” he declared.

I sighed and returned to sweeping the floor.

“Speaking of which, do you know what this thing is? I found it the other day on the floor. I think one of the students may have dropped it.” he told me.

“What, Master?” I asked as I turned around and looked at what he was talking about.

With the help of his [Telekinezy], he was holding a small bottle with a bit of brown liquid at the bottom. I recognized it immediately as the same one Nanya used during that night.

“That… that’s a potion master.” I said with a gulp.

Normally, I would have told him the full truth, but unless he asked me for details, there was no need to worry about the slave tattoo around my neck working against me.

“Hm, a potion huh? Must be from Zertan’s class. How can I find out what it does?” he asked.

“You can find out by asking Zertan, but unless you are an alchemist or herbalist, it’s quite doubtful that you would be able to find out without testing it on yourself or someone else.” I told him, which was true.

“Hm. I wonder…” he said and then I saw master move the bottle towards his crystal body.

“Master?” I asked.

“A drop shouldn’t hurt right?” he said and then I saw him let on drop fall on him.

I blinked surprised and for a moment nothing happened.

“M-Master?” I asked.

“Huh? Shanteya? When did you get here?” he asked me. “What’s this? Maybe one of Zertan’s? Meh, off in the trash bin with it.” he said and tossed the bottle with the remaining drops inside the basket I usually used to collect the dust and dirt.

It was probably because he used only a drop of the potion, but Master couldn’t remember anything about what happened in the past three hours and didn’t ask me about it either. I decided to keep quiet regarding that matter, but I did ‘randomly’ mention about what he shouldn’t do if he ever happened to find an unknown potion. He was lucky it wasn’t a poison…

[Back in Illsyore’s dungeon]

[Nanya’s point of view]

We moved away from the massacre scene and set up camp in one of the dead ends of the maze. The rooms were all filled with blood and monster remains.

I didn’t sleep, and neither did Angius.

Rufus muttered something in his sleep from time to time, and I applied some ointments on Tuberculus’ burns. Once we were awake, he could heal himself. I believe Zertan had a hair restoration potion of sorts.

“The Dungeon Lord is a monster…” said Angius at one point.

“A pervert maybe, but… we really don’t know yet. He said it was easy. Just think about it for a moment, Angius, what if he doesn’t understand what Easy means?” I asked him, although, I had no idea why I was taking up his side, especially after he Colly Tosed me. I should have let the stupid Dungeon Lord rot in a ditch somewhere!

I let out a sigh and tried to think about something else. Our current situation was a bit depressing, but we went through worse. This dungeon just took us a bit by surprise. We got used to the peaceful life as teachers and forgot our time as adventurers even if it was just for a moment. As a result, we got our behinds handed to us on a silver platter. I dare not think what would have happened if any of the traps we faced so far had been enchanted.

After Rufus and Tuberculus woke up, we had a small breakfast and then headed off, hoping we would reach the end in the following hours. We didn’t want to think of the possibility that we were currently in only the first quarter of the dungeon. It would have been a nightmare if that was true.

In the end, we reached the room of a mini boss. It was another Minotaur, but to our surprise, it was even stronger than the one we met a floor above us. Actually, the difference was rather ridiculous. Such bosses shouldn’t be at the second floor but at the 30th or a lower one. We defeated them easily, but I couldn’t understand how it was possible to see such diversity in difficulty in just two floors. It only made me wonder what sort of dungeon Illsyore could build if we let him reach 100 or more floors. Could a group of Supreme ranked adventurers even be able to pass the 20th or 50th floor?

That was a difficult question, but there was something else we found in that mini boss room that made Angius punch the walls and Rufus to talk with his shadow. Behind the unconscious Minotaur laid a lever.

“ARE YOU KIDDING ME?!” shouted Angius. “He wants us to find another lever in THIS maze?!” he shouted.

“Easy there, we don’t know if that’s true or not. Maybe the exit wall opened up somewhere else.” I said, but I feared he was telling the truth.

Judging by how this floor was structured so far, Illsyore seemed intent on mentally torturing his victims. It was already starting to show its effects on the three humans, but with me was a different story. I kept myself on the edge and didn’t lower my guard ever since I entered this dungeon. Mother once told me that only a fool ventured in a dungeon unprepared.

Sigh… Maybe I should have listened to her… I thought as I walked over and pulled the lever. No trap activated, and we didn’t hear any sliding wall.

I looked around for a few more seconds and then I told them “Let’s go.”

We left the room and continued to search for the other levers. Since we didn’t have anymore patience, we sped up our pace a bit. Now, we were running through the maze and ignored most of the weaker traps. We only needed to be careful of the spike traps.

Two hours later, we took a break to recover both our breath and Magic Energy. It was then when something strange happened. Tuberculus spotted a small imp, and he was about to attack it, but Angius stopped him.

“Let me see if I can tame it.” said the man with a smirk.

I raised an eyebrow and watched the man as he was starting to chant. In my mind, the following equation was being processed: Illsyore*Perverticus stupidicus+Imp+Angius’s spell=?

I have a bad feeling about this… I thought and watched the scene.

When the warrior finished casting the spell, he aimed it at the imp and let it rip. For a few seconds, it appeared as though it didn’t work, but suddenly, the imp dashed towards Angius.

“Agugagaga!” he screamed with his tongue out.

“I order you to stop!” shouted Angius.

He was expecting the little imp to stop and bow down to him, but instead it… well…

“Angius? Is that imp humping your boot?” I asked.

The man was simply shocked by the little thing’s strange behavior. He didn’t want to admit he failed so miserably.

“I don’t understand… what’s happening to it?” he asked as he tried to shake the little thing off.

“I don’t know, but you two look like a cute couple.” I smirked, and he glared at me.

“This is not a joke!” he declared.

I shrugged. It was pretty funny to me. The others weren’t paying attention though.

“Get OFF!” he shouted and kicked the imp away, but it returned to humping his boot.

Annoyed, he took off his boot and tossed it to the other side of the corridor.

“Mine! Mine Mine!” screamed the imp as it ran after the boot.

The critter snatched it and fled from our sight. I couldn’t help it and burst into a loud laughter.

“My… My boot…” said Angius when he realized what he had just done.

“Don’t worry, the stench alone will probably kill the imp in no time at all!” I said with a smile as I patted his shoulder.

“Ugh…” he looked down at his toes. He was barefooted now.

We continued our journey through Illsyore’s maze. However, we had no idea that was just the first of three mini bosses we had to fight before reaching the last boss.

The maze felt endless, the undulating reflections on the walls fooled us countless times. Rufus started seeing enemies with every step we took. He even shot a few fireballs at me and Angius, but we dodged them splendidly. Tuberculus remained quiet most of the time. He was still sane, but in a bit of a pain. He did heal himself, so he wasn’t in any immediate danger.

Unfortunately, Illsyore was losing favor with each step we took deeper into that infernal maze. They truly believed he was trying to kill us. Their main proof was the fact that he said it was an Easy dungeon. Indeed, I couldn’t deny it… he should have told us the truth, but what if… what if he actually didn’t know the difference between Easy and Insane?

Hours later, we finished off the last mini boss. I pulled the lever behind him, but nothing happened.

“Wha-what?” said Angius.

“It can’t be… there’s more?” asked Tuberculus as he dropped to his knees.

“ARGH!” screamed Angius as he lifted his sword up and used his slashing skills on the walls in the room.

The floor trembled from his strikes. He was enraged.

“I’m going to KILL HIM! I’m going to DESTROY HIM!” shouted Angius.

“Wait…” I said, but I couldn’t stop him.

The man rushed into the maze, chopping down the walls with his sword, not caring if he broke it or not. I was certain that once his Magic Energy was depleted, the weapon would shatter into a billion pieces. If in that moment, he stepped on a trap, he could end up dead.

“Tch!” clicking my tongue, I rushed after him.

He was fast, but not as fast as me.

“STOP!” I shouted at him.

“AARGH!” he screamed while hitting the walls.

One of the lost imps appeared before him, but it didn’t have the chance to attack. As soon as Angius spotted it, he squashed it like a bug. The red blood of the imp touched his armor and skin, showing that his Magic Armor was fading rapidly. I had to hurry.

“STOP IT!” I shouted and then struck him in the back of his neck.

It was an instant knock out.

He dropped to the ground.

“You idiot…” I said catching my breath.

Tossing him over my shoulder, I went back to get the other two. The newly opened entrance was probably farther from there. I just prayed it wasn’t a combination lock, meaning that I had to run between the three boss rooms to find out what lever had to be up and which had to be down. It would have been a real nightmare to walk between the them like that. Most of the monsters had been slain by us, but these walls were what made things extremely confusing. The maze was so big and with so many twists and turns, it was a nightmare.

Tuberculus and Rufus weren’t in the mood to keep going, but I pulled them with me. We couldn’t take a break now. Thanks to Angius’ rampage, there were plenty of walls that had been taken down. I decided to use them and stick to the north side of the maze. If I searched every section like that, there was a chance for me to find that blasted hidden door. That was how we found the other rooms.

Not even one hour later, I stumbled upon it. I saw a pair of stairs leading up.

“Finally!” I told myself.

With a smile on my lips, I rushed over there together with Tuberculus and Rufus. We were happy to have finally found the exit. I was hoping to see the sky, the grass, the trees, but what I found was something horrifying…

“What’s this? Illsyore… you didn’t, did you?” I said as I saw the new maze ahead of us.

I couldn’t believe it. We had ANOTHER maze ahead of us. It was terrifying.

Is there no end to this place? How could he build something like this? How could he think the students could go through this nightmare? I thought as I dropped to my knees.

“This is it… he really wants to kill us.” said Tuberculus.

There was no way to say it wasn’t like that. Everything pointed in that direction.

“Hisss!”

“What was that?” I asked.

Looking ahead, countless snakes were rushing our way. I gulped and got up. Even I was getting angry.

If I unseal my power… If I do it… I thought as I looked at the dirty ribbon on my tail.

“I’ll kill him… I’ll destroy him…” I thought as I rushed at the snakes and pounded them into the ground.

My friends were currently in danger with their Magic Armor so low. I couldn’t let even one of those snakes get to them. I struck them fast and pulled them towards me until every last one of them was dead. I doubted Illsyore started using wild animals for this maze, so I looked for their spawning circles. After destroying them, I returned to the entrance.

The walls here didn’t go straight then cut to a sharp corner. It was a new type of maze I never seen before, undulating and letting the walls slither like a snake on the ground. Fortunately, it was much smaller, and I didn’t encounter any bosses, just imps and snakes.

Once we reached the end, we jumped down through another hole and fell in a small pond. Angius went straight to the bottom, but the cold water woke all of them up, and we swum up to the surface.

“Where… Where are we?” asked Tuberculus with a cough after he dragged himself out of the water.

“The final boss room…” I said as I saw the large room and huge Minotaur in front of us.

It was three meters tall, covered in black fur, red eyes, and wielding a giant axe. That wasn’t a boss for a second floor, that was one for the 30th floor and beyond. I was certain of that because I once fought against one.

Illsyore just broke the common sense of dungeons… again! I thought as I looked at the monstrosity.

“GRAARGH!” the beast growled and then struck the floor with its hoof.

The ground trembled, announcing the beginning of the final battle.

“Fan out!” I shouted.

Rufus, Angius, and Tuberculus did just that. Although they were still waking up from their trance, they weren’t that out of it. The battle began, and I was the vanguard. Something as this boss wasn’t really a problem for me. As soon as it struck the ground, I slapped him once and sent him into a nearby wall. The others didn’t join and instead focused on replenishing their Magic Armor.

After the beast got up, it ran back to the center, ignoring us, but it was certainly grinning back.

“It’s a trap!” I shouted.

We all raised our Magic Armor and prepared for the attack. A few hatches opened from above, and we were ready to defend ourselves against an arrow attack, but instead, nine beams of light shot out and moved across the floor. I rolled to the side and jumped over one of them. I didn’t want it to touch me, but Tuberculus got hit by one. It lowered his Magic Armor at an incredible speed and forced him to dodge. When it shattered, it burned his robe, but luckily not his flesh. The same happened to Angius, and only Rufus dodged before he got hit by them.

I clicked my tongue and struck the floor with my fist. A tile was dislodged. I picked it up and tossed it at one of the beams of light. Something cracked or got smashed, judging by the noise, but there were no more beams shooting out of there.

“Nanya! Behind you!” shouted Tuberculus.

It was too late, the Minotaur took advantage of the moment and rushed at me. I was struck by his axe and sent flying into the wall. A part of my Magic Armor went down, and I fell on top of two beams of light. They lowered my armor even more, but I rolled away before it was completely gone. My clothes were smoking a bit from one or two places, but nothing dangerous yet.

“What a room…” said Angius as he dodged another beam of light.

I got up and started tossing the pieces of floor at the hatches. The Minotaur noticed me and charged at me again. I stopped his rampage with a single hand and kicked him in the ribs. Grabbing him by one of his horns, I tossed him over my shoulder and sent him flying into the wall. Two of those beams managed to hit me from behind at that moment, and I smelled the burning fabric. I dodged and then cracked the floor again. Using the pieces, I tossed them at the hatches and broke whatever was shooting at us. The boss was knocked out by my last hit, so all I had to do was destroy those things.

When it was finally over, we let out a sigh of relief. I couldn’t believe we just went through that fight at the second floor of a dungeon. If I told anyone about this back at the guild, they would have laughed at me and said I was making it up. No one would believe us if we were to tell them of what sort of dangers this dungeon held.

At that moment, only one thought crossed my mind. If we actually took his dungeon seriously and prepared beforehand, or at the very least went in together with him, then we wouldn’t have had so much trouble… Ara? Didn’t he offered to guide us through? If he wanted to kill us, then… then why offer to be our guide? the revelation struck me hard. The idiot actually doesn’t know what an Easy dungeon is, huh? I started to laugh.

It was a bit shameful of me to think that for the past two days even I was beginning to think about destroying Illsy. He was just born, of course he had no idea what was what. With so much Magic Energy to spare even I wouldn’t have wasted my time with petty little floors filled with wildlife.

“An exit! Look!” shouted Tuberculus.

“Finally! We’re out! Hurry! We must go and destroy his core before he attacks the school or tries to go for our life again!” shouted Angius.

What? Wait a minute… I thought when I saw the idiots running towards the stairs.

I ran after them. The stairs first went down, but then they went up a long way.

Right there, at the exit of the boss room, next to a wall was a message written on a granite plaque.

Thank you for testing out my dungeon. I’m sorry if it was too easy for all of you, I’ll try my best with the next floors! And if it’s no good, let me know how to make one so it wouldn’t be a danger for the students. Illsyore.

After reading it, I blinked surprised. All this time, the Dungeon Lord thought it was too easy and that we might be disappointed with it? And now those idiots were trying to kill him?

I clicked my tongue and rushed after them. I wasn’t going to let them touch Illsy.

Not on my watch! If he really wanted to kill us, then where was the black fog? Where was the evil intent?! I screamed in my mind as I realized the fact that the most important proof was missing.

Whenever a dungeon was mad, angered, or desired to kill anyone, a black fog would rise on its dungeon territory to limit the sight of the adventurers. The stronger it was the more powerful the traps and the monsters were. We saw it countless times in other dungeons, but it was completely missing from Illsy’s. It was a wonder neither of us noticed it until then. Maybe we got too used to the idea that we were living inside a non aggressive Dungeon Lord’s territory?

“You idiots! I said STOP!” I shouted and then struck Angius in the back of his head sending him crashing into the stairs. I punched Tuberculus in the stomach and slapped Rufus into the wall. They were all knocked out.

“Huff! Huff! Huff!” breathing hard, I picked them up and walked up the stairs.

I was going to explain everything to them after they got their medical treatment and woke up. Once the idiot trio was calm and relaxed, I was sure they were going to listen. In case they didn’t, they could always be my punching bags until they did.

Light… we’re finally out… I thought.