"M-Master... th-this might not be such a g-good idea..." Breena mumbled while she continued to stare at the large entrance to the dungeon. She was obviously scared and had been shaken up by the appearance of the door.
"Why's that?" Lone didn't dismiss the girl immediately as some might have. Clearly, she had more information pertaining to the matter than he did, hence his calm response.
"W-Well, like I said before, dungeons have different ranks. This one is a B-rank like you said. You can see that from its size, ten feet. B-But, the colour of the glow, is different. Only extremely tough dungeons have a glow, and the colour of that glow has a different meaning depending on what it is," Breena explained the very basics of dungeon knowledge to Lone.
Lone had a thinking expression on his face, and he was obviously quite happy about something. As it so happened, Lone was ecstatic. The whole reason he had avoided giving himself a power related to infinite knowledge was for moments like this. As a history teacher, Lone loved knowledge to some extent, but what he enjoyed more than that was the pursuit of it, the journey, not the destination. He couldn't have been happier than he was now. Learning about the nature of dungeons when he had actually discovered one was very appealing to him.
"Well, what do the runes on the door mean and what does the yellow glow symbolise?" Lone asked with some eagerness in his voice.
"T-The runes are a test. You need to light up at least one for the door to acknowledge you as a challenger, the more runes you light up, the weaker you are to the dungeon, so you'll get better rewards. If you're too strong, it won't let you in," Breena said to which Lone nodded. She then took a second to recollect herself before she continued. "The colour can mean many things, but the colour yellow is very special. It means that this dungeon was created by the God of Games, Clicker."
"I'm sorry? Who now? Another God? Clicker?" Lone asked in a rapid flurry. He was amazed that there was a god who specialised in something that wasn't a form of combat. This gave Lone the idea that there might be other ways of gaining experience rather than simply killing things. Lone was also astonished by the God's apparent name. It was just as odd as his own chosen name.
"Clicker is the God who created the whole blue screen thingy. At least, that's what we got taught at the slave house. He's supposed to be one of the most powerful gods in existence," Breena informed Lone of her limited knowledge regarding Clicker.
"Heh, so he's probably an XX-Ranker or an XXX-Ranker. To think someone actually made this system, and it wasn't a natural part of this world. Although, I did always wonder why Vihaan's messages were nothing but direct text and not blue screens. So Vihaan was some sort of administrator for a completely different system?" Lone began mumbling to himself and Breena couldn't make any sense of what Lone was saying, but Sophie could and it was nice for her to see Lone figuring things out. She always found him thinking to be very appealing.
"Anyway, that means I'll get really good rewards for beating this dungeon, right?" Lone asked Breena before he cracked his neck and walked closer to the door.
"Y-Yeah... if you beat it..." Breena whispered in response. She obviously wasn't overly confident in the abilities of Lone regarding this dungeon. Sure, he was powerful, and she respected him for his strength. But killing a couple of hundred Minotaurs was different to completing a B-Rank dungeon created by the God of Games himself.
Lone ignored the lack of faith he could sense from his bodyguard and placed one of his hands on the towering door. The yellow glow surrounding it immediately converged on the door and shot straight into Lone's palm. Lone could do nothing to stop it and just allowed it. After a few seconds, it returned to where it previously was, and almost simultaneously every single rune on the door lit up.
"PERFECT! I'm as weak as possible, or so this door thinks. Really, my ten powers are too useful. I wonder what rewards I'll get for beating this dungeon?" Lone began mumbling once more before he realised that he was letting his greed show. Lone coughed to collect himself before he tried to move through the door. However, it wouldn't budge.
"What the hell? Why isn't it opening?" Lone asked with frustration evident in his voice.
"M-Master... Kyuubi is in your summoning room, right?" Breena asked Lone timidly. She didn't want to embarrass him, but the obvious had to be stated sooner or later. "Everyone has to pass the door's trial unless you want to leave Kyuubi here..." Breena finished.
"Ah, I guess I got a little bit excited," Lone quickly replied while he tried to mask his growing blush. He then summoned Kyuubi and held her left paw out forcing it to touch the door. She struggled for a moment upon the yellow glow entering her paw which caused both Lone and Sophie to cry internally. Kyuubi was just far too cute after all. When the light returned to the rim of the door, Kyuubi returned to sleeping in Lone's arms, and every single rune lit up once more.
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After that, Lone unsummoned Kyuubi and both Sophie and Breena repeated the same action as Lone had which resulted in all of the runes lighting up for both of the girls. The group of three then made their way through the door, and they were immediately met by a blue screen.
Greetings brave Adventurers and welcome to the one and only B-Rank dungeon created by the magnificent I, Clicker! No point dilly-dallying, let's get straight to the crux of things, shall we? Point 1: It's impossible to leave this dungeon unless you clear it! Isn't that spectacular? Now you can fully focus on beating it, yay! Point 2: I don't really care about this dungeon, so there's a simple level system to it. The dungeon has 200 levels to it; each one has a boss, simple, right? Hehehehe Point 3: Now the fun starts, I bet you entered this place as a party, right, right, right?! Well, for every player, by the way, you guys are players, for every player you kill, you get to skip an entire level! Yay! Point 4: And finally, the reward... NOTHING! Ahahahaha the look on your faces, ahahahaha, priceless. The real prize? Tch, fine. Freedom and a small update to the system. Happy now? Point 5: ... Are you still here? Get clearing! The dungeon won't clear itself! Oh, I almost forgot, you have a 500-year time limit to clear this place. Don't say I'm not fair! Have fun! Love the God of Games, Clicker <3
"... What the fuck?" Lone said to the agreement of Sophie and Breena. It would seem that there were most definitely beings far more insane than Lone in existence.
Meanwhile, in the small room that held nothing but a round table and twelve chairs which Astera was previously in, an old man with absolutely nothing but a Wizard's hat on, was sitting in the middle of the table.
"Eh? A new challenger? FINALLY! I can't believe everyone avoids my dungeons nowadays. Huh? His entire party activated all of the runes? WHY? WHY MUST YOU FILL ME WITH SUCH HOPE ONLY TO TEAR IT AWAY! AHH, SUCH TEASING... such teasing... .pleases me... .ehehehehe," the nearly naked elderly man claimed to himself while his body shivered. Whether this shiver was due to the cold, or due to his excitement wasn't clear.
At that exact moment, a rift suddenly opened in the room, and a woman stepped out of it who was adorned in nothing but battle armour. Her face was icy-cold and clearly held little to no emotion. However, as soon as she saw the old man sitting on the table, her face turned into one of utter disgust and rage.
"CLICKER! HOW DARE YOU DISRESPECT THE COUNCIL WITH YOUR BODY IN SUCH A SHAMELESS MANNER!" the armoured woman screamed before she waved her hand causing thousands upon thousands of weapons to instantly appear behind her which all began rocketing towards the Wizard hat-wearing man.
"Oho, what a surprise, if it isn't Kiria," Clicker said with a chuckle. He then slowly stood up and bowed. "To what do I owe the pleasure of feasting upon your visage, malady?" he continued just before the weapons had reached him. When these tools of death were just about to pierce his wrinkled and worn out body, they all turned into flowers simultaneously.
"Oh my, really, trying to court me at your age? I'm still rather young, so I'll have to decline," Clicker said with a blush creeping on his face. The rage that Kiria was showing on her expression was almost enough to kill a man.
"Now now, stop teasing her, she's still a young Goddess," a sudden voice said. Kiria turned to look at its owner, and upon seeing him, she instantly beamed a smile which you would think was impossible to have come from her usually expressionless face.
The owner of the voice was a tall and average looking man whose only distinct features were the mole under his left eye and his blue robes that were adorned with countless stars. His robe was oddly enough, a perfect match to the pointed hat that sat atop Clicker's head.
"Ah, Merlin? Here for your hat? Too bad, it's mine now!" Clicker exclaimed in a childish manner before he snapped his fingers and instantly disappeared.
"Why do we put up with him, Lord First?" Kiria asked Merlin with ample amounts of curiosity in her voice. As Clicker had said, she was relatively new to the Council, at least by their standards and this was the first time she had taken the initiative to ask about the apparently insane member of their ranks.
"Clicker is... unique," Merlin claimed before he sighed. "If I told you that were he to chose to do so, he could kill every other member of the Council with just a snap of his fingers, would you believe me?" Merlin continued with a complicated expression on his face. This question left Kiria speechless. To her knowledge, Merlin was the strongest amongst them, hence his title of Lord First.
"But-but he owns the eleventh seat, the second weakest one!" Kiria replied in an almost defiant tone. It was true that Clicker was the owner of the eleventh seat, so her confusion wasn't exactly misplaced.
"Indeed, but only by choice. He has always occupied that seat. And when I say 'always', I mean always," that was the final statement Merlin was willing to make on the topic before he sat down on one of the middle-sized seats and placed a hand on his chin while the other scratched his head of loose black hair. He missed his hat.
Kiria stood there dumbstruck for a few moments before she too sat down. However, her seat was the second largest of them all.
It would seem that the two were waiting for the other owners of the various seats to arrive for whatever reason.