“I failed again, he'll surely kill me this time.”
My name is Kona which means snow. I was given that name for my natural snow white features in my black hair. I'm a 14 year old human who had just failed another quest given to me from the demon ‘Ignis’ to retrieve an artifact in a dungeon near the human country border. I was hired over a week ago to get it for about 70’000 (Juulz) paid in advance and I had already spent it to pay off my debts to other demons.
I mean how am I supposed to be able to find it when I was given no map but only a drawing of a box with a ruin symbol!
All he told me when i accepted this dumb quest was,
“It's somewhere in one of the dungeon rooms and it's a box that has this symbol on it and bring it back to me, you better not fail this time or else your punishment will be far worse then some beating.”He sounded more serious than usual which scared the shit out of me.
After I barely managed to escape that horrendous place I was lucky to get out and managed to get out of it with is bruises and sore limbs from running away from the monster that lurks in the dungeon. I can't kill any of them with this sore excuse of a dagger I was given to defend myself with. The dagger was half rusted with chips in the blade and a cracked wooden handle.
I sighed as I lay on the ground under a tree just outside the dungeon entrance exhausted in an oversized beige hoodie in some grey pants with old worn brown boots while rain poured over me. It's the dead of night and all I can think about right now is how I'm going to tell Ignis that I failed and wondering what he's gonna do to me, but for now the rain seems to be calming me down. I'm very tired so now I'm gonna get some sleep and worry about this tomorrow morning while I head back home.
I woke up in the morning feeling like shit but what do i expect after sleeping on wet grass and mud while it rained all night, but the tree did stop most of the rain from hitting me so it wasn't all bad i guess. I didn't have breakfast since I had no money for food and couldn't hunt an animal to eat to save my life. But I'm sure I could steal something to eat when I got back to town. The town was about a 3 hour walk but with me being all bruised and exhausted from the dungeon it took me over 6 hours to get home. But not all was lost since it looked like I arrived around an hour after lunch so there was still hope for some food stalls out and about for me to steal from.
This dump of a town I call home is called ‘Knavery’ the town built by the lowest of the low demons, who were exiled or outcasted from the demon capital or neighbouring cities for crimes or other reasons. Its population is about 99.99% demons and I am the only human to live here and for good reason too.
You see, for over 100 years humans and demons have been at war attacking each other at random either to secure land or destroy one of their cities, killing a part of their total race's population. Apparently 400 years ago there were many countries each separated by race and there were a total of 6 main races. Humans, demons, elves, fairies, dwarfs and monsters. Monsters who are a race composed of other races that lived wildly like animals for example dragons. There are subcategories of each race like for demons their orcs who live in villages in the demon continent separate from the demon capital or neighbouring cities. And same goes for each race except humans who don't have a subcategory race which makes them think they're the superior race above all. And with that thinking involved they started to attack the other races' countries trying to kill off the other races until only their race was left alive.
They didn't kill off every race of course, many of them went into hiding after they were defeated never being seen again. Many demons and humans started rumors saying they saw an elf or fairy in the forest or mountains, but all are just rumors because no evidence was ever found so many today believe they were all killed off. As for me, I couldn't care less as long as I'm alive and living this thing I call life.
I still haven't found any food carts out with any food left to steal so it looks like I'm going without breakfast and lunch today. “I should head home before any demon notices me and tell ‘Ignis’ I've returned”I thought. luckily I'm wearing a hood so as long as I keep quiet I should be safe.
And just as i thought that i just had to bump into a big ass hog demon with a pig like face and reddish skin in only some baggy shorts walking on his hooves who towered over me and didn't look too happy to start with even after i had bumped into him.
“WATCH IT! …. HUMAN.”He yelled.
With smoke coming out his nose In a deep voice sounding more pissed than he looked. Every demon around us suddenly then turned to look at us, some confused that he said 'human’ and others angry to hear there's a human nearby. All I could do in that moment was look straight up at him with my dead eyes with no words leaving my mouth.
I was about to say something when the hand of another demon suddenly grabbed the hog demon's shoulder.
“Hey ‘Doro, why don't u back off ok.” the other demon said in a friendly tone.
“Kuri,”the hog demon Doro said in an irritated tone.
“Fine then.” he muttered as he walked away.
The other demon then turned around to face me and it was ‘Kuri’ a tall buff demon with dark grey reptile-like skin with a round face and pointed round ears. He runs a popular bar here in ‘Knavery’ where demons go to drink and pick up quests from a board on the wall where they are posted. And it's the place I call home where he lets me live after he found me in the forest 5 years ago. I don't remember much when he found me and I could recall that I lived in a city in the human country when it was suddenly attacked by someone as I was running away to outside of the wall. That's all I remember from my past and he took pity on me and took me in.
“KONA,” he yelled in an angrily.
“Why do u alway start SHIT!” he said to me as he grabbed my shoulder and proceeded to shake me.
“Wasn't my fault.” I muttered while being shaked.
“Ok then,” Kuri sighed as he dropped me to the ground.”Let's go home then.”he said as we walked to the bar together.
We finally arrived at ‘Kuri's bar’ which on the outside looks like an abandoned building with the walls paint mostly peeled off and a big window by the door and with a sign that just says ‘bar’ in black on a big piece of wood he said he found in the forest one day. We went inside and it didn't look what you would have expected with 3 tables, a nice clean bar table with all the alcohol you could need on 3 shelves and with stools that don't look like he found them at a dump.
He walked behind the bar and put on a apron as he poured a drink.
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“Here drink this,”he said as she slid me a glass of water.
“Why should i old man?” I said annoyed.
“Cause it's been more than a week since you've been back and you look dehydrated.''he told me with a worried expression.
“Fine.” I remarked.
Just as I began to drink the door burst open with a loud bang with smoke surrounding the entrance. In the doorway stood the silhouette of a tall skinny black figure with a cone shaped head with two pointed ears with sharp glowing white eyes.
“WHERE …. IS …. KONA!” the black figure yelled, sounding out of breath.
I turned to see who it was and as the smoke settled, I spit out my water.
“Oh no, shit.” I whispered as I turned hoping he didn't notice me.
It was ‘Ignis’ a tall dark black demon with glowing eyes and sharp white pointed teeth that shined when he smiled and the demon who had hired me for the quest to obtain the artifact from the dungeon earlier. “I didn't think he'd find out this quick” I thought knowing I had only been back for a few hours now.
I felt an ominous pressure behind me and when I turned around there he was standing right infront of me.
“Hey there Kona,” he said, smirking while looking irritated.
“I believe you have something for me.”he told me as he placed his hand on my shoulder.
“i .. i .. i,” i stuttered
“I couldn't find it.” I said to him looking terrified.
He went from smiling to a frown in an instant looking confused to what I just said.
“U don't have it you say,” he remarked as he stood up and paused for a second.``AFTER I PAID YOU IN ADVANCE WHICH I NEVER DO, U DARE COME BACK EMPTY HANDED!”he yelled as he slammed the counter shattering a glass leaking beer everywhere. “I WILL KILL YOU!” he yelled at me with a back aura starting to surround his body.
“But you can't kill me.. Only humans can enter the dungeon right.” I said in desperation, trying to think of an excuse.
“That's true,”he realized. “And I can't just go find another human as well.” he sighed as he shook his head to clear it.”Fine then Kona, you get one more chance but if you mess it up, I won't hesitate to kill you the next time i catch a glimpse of you.” He threatened me as he stormed out of the bar laughing hysterically as every demon inside
watched him leave.
“Hey Kuri, who's that guy?” some demon sitting at the bar asked confused about the ordeal that just went down.
“Him?” Kuri said exhaling “that is Ignis, a upper class 2 demon who posts the majority of quests that people take here, and he's one of the strongest demons here in knavery.”
“If he hires lots of demons to do quests why is he so upset at the human?” the demon asked.
“Kona? Well ever since he arrived here in knavery 5 years ago Ignis immediately hired him for jobs where only humans could go so he wouldn't have to pay more to send some demons who had to fight and kill humans you see.”kuri explained.
“So he's a cheapskate, anything to save money aye. He sure is a demon.”he chuckled as he sipped his beer.
“He's only really mad because Kona hasn't failed that many quests and started to build trust with him that, as you saw, was just broken.”
“What did he hire him to get anyway?” the demon asked intrigued.
“Well it's to grab an artifact that supposedly has great demonic power that had sealed away in the dungeon near the border of the human country west of here. It's just a rumor but he doesn't want to take a chance of someone else having it before him.” he said, shaking his head.
“Why would he want that and pay up front then when it's just a rumor?” the demon asked, confused and worried.
“My guess is Ignis is worried,” Kuri said worriedly as he paused from what he was doing.
“ worried about what?!” the demon shouted, nearly spitting out his drink.
“Another war is starting soon near here.” Kuri said, staring out the bar's window across the room.
“A WAR,” the demon yelled, being skeptical.”You don't believe that, do you?”
“I do,” Kuri told the demon, sounding worried.”and I believe we will sooner than we think.”Kuri finally said as he got back to what he was doing earlier
“Finally, I'm back once again.” I sarcastically said as I arrived near the entrance of the dungeon, exhausted from running here after my encounter with Ignis at the bar.
“I really cannot fail this time.” I told myself to psych myself up as I started to head for the entrance of the dungeon.
“Last time I was here i didn't get a good look of the place,”I thought as I looked around to see if there was anyone else nearby.”It looks like people don't come here often probably cause the loot room was rumoured to be looted all ready, but the entrance doesn't even look to be over 200 hundred years old.” I told myself as I stared at the doorway maticusaly with my arms crossed.
The dungeon looked to be built on the side of a small mountain with the entrance's doorway looking to be over 50 feet tall with two massive stone doors with weird carving that were left open probably by the last person to enter it before me.
You wouldn't be able to tell it here, it is well hidden and I was only able to find it cause the doors were open. If it was closed it doesn't look that different from the side of the mountain other than the outline of the doors and the carvings on them. If you weren't looking out for it you'd miss it.
As I entered the dungeon I got a weird feeling that it had changed since the last time I was here.it was cold inside, i even had a chill go down my spine. “Uhhh…”I whimpered as a gust of wind made me shiver.
I kept walking down until I reached where the light outside stopped. I lit a torch I had stored in my hoodie and proceeded to walk down the tunnels keeping right to the walls so if I had to get out I just had to turn around and keep left to get to the exit.
I was told “the artifact is kept in a hidden room inside the dungeon.” by Ignis who was outside when I left the bar.
“I don't know how i'm supposed to find this hidden room without just stumbling upon it by dumb luck, but i can think of something before then” i hopped.
I've been walking down the tunnels now for about 45 minutes I think and haven't stumbled upon the hidden room or noticed anything out of place. I haven't run into any monsters yet because they live farther down the dungeon, but I feel ill encounter some soon.
I should be fine as long as it's one of the weaker monsters like the giant lizard. The weaker monsters live closer to the entrance because they're scared of the bigger ones that lurk deeper in the dungeon.
It's now been 5 hours since i've entered and i've killed and eaten 3 lizards and still haven't found signs of the hidden room. So not much has changed but I have been hearing loud banging that keeps getting louder the deeper I go into the dungeon. It's odd though ,nothing that big enough to make those vibrations should not be this close to the entrance.” I thought as I got scared the louder the noises got as I kept walking.
As the tunnels started to get bigger in size the louder the banging got that you'd think whatever was making that noise was right in front of you. I took a break from walking and sat down leaning on the wall. I started to wonder what monster could be making that noise “ a giant spider ? nah not heavy enough, the ghost of a knight dragging his word on the ground? Nope couldn't be it, ghosts don't exist.” i though as i laughed at my stupid theories. And then one more monster came to mind, “maybe a golem?” I wondered because there are legends of golems that protect treasures in dungeons. But that can't be because a golem hasn't been seen in over 70 years.
As I finished that thought I noticed the banging noise had also stopped. I quickly stood up and looked around as I slowly started to walk backwards towards the left side of the wall. But before my shoulder hit the wall I had hit my back on something very hard.
I slowly turned around sweating as I lifted my touch to see what I had just walked into. My eyes widened as I realized what I had run into was a gigantic square shaped cream coloured rock golem with a green gem stone for an eye .
My body froze and I couldn't move as I was terrified of the monster. It started to lift its foot. I then realized “if there's a golem the room its guarding must be nearby if the legend was true.” I then tried to run past it as I swung its arm at me as I barely managed to dodge it. Its failed attempt to hit me smashed the side of the wall making rocks fly everywhere. Making me stumble a bit but I managed not to fall. The golem then turned running after me. “How is it keeping up with me?” I said as I ran “it's made of rocks that weigh a ton.” I thought puzzled.
The golem was running faster now getting closer to me as we were coming up on a tunnel that parted two ways. I went for the one going downwards hoping there'd be a monster down there to distract the golem. As I entered the path going down I tripped on a rock and started to tumble down deeper into the tunnel.
I got back up and started to run again so the golem wouldn't catch up any closer. I still heard the banging of its feet as I ran but I didn't know how close he was to me. And in the same moment i went to look behind me to see how close he was i felt my foot go down farther than where the ground should be. I then realized I had just stepped into a hole In the ground.
I started to fall deeper into the hole and as i looked up to see the golem staring at me like he was mocking how idiotic i am for falling into the hole. I started to pass out as everything faded to black and my eyes began to close.