Marcus knew the banner carrier would cause problems, if he left him alive. So he planned to focus on him first with a skill, then he could finish the rest off. He went through the list of skills he could use, and eventually settled on a dash followed up by an empowered sword slash to murder it quickly, without the rest coming to help it.

The plan was fool-proof Marcus thought to himself, as he made himself ready to pull it off. But the goblins had other plans. The mage had used its shielding light on the banner carrier, protecting him from damage until the mage could be killed. Marcus bounced off the shield, which got himself surrounded by all 9 goblins in an instant. Because of these circumstances Marcus knew something was not right. A goblin party of this level so close to the entrance is almost unheard of and would need to be told to the local fortification. Because of this Marcus decided to immediately turn back to the entrance.

But before this could be done safely he needed to kill some of these goblins.

He could outrun those with swords and spears, but the archers were another story.

He quickly closed the distance to one, while he was preparing to stab it in the stomach, he got stabbed on the left side by a spear. This could not stop him from

Stabbing the archer and it quickly fell to the ground. Before being able to decide what to do, he got stabbed again by a spear. This made it clear he did not have enough time to kill the other archer. He prepared to dash out and run back to the previous splitsing, to apply some first aid.

And thus he did. But he was not careful enough. When he prepared to cross the trap again he got shot in the back by the archer he left. This caused Marcus to trip and trigger the trap. A wall closed behind him ,making him separated from the pursuing goblins. He plopped down on the ground and took out some bandages to stop the bleeding. Yet while applying the bandages the second part of the trap triggered. A hole 4 by 4 meters appeared straight below him. Marcus went into free fall for 2 minutes, going down 20 meters. When he finally landed he felt one of his ribs break. without having the strength to stand up Marcus kept laying there. trying to reach the potions he was carrying. He quickly gulped down the potion. Most of the injuries quickly disappeared. It also partially healed his broken rib, but walking or even running still hurted a lot. shuffled over to look where he landed. He spotted a maze of halls and rooms, but also a chest near the far end of the room opposite of him. He knew he could not waste a potion right now as he will need it later to make it out. Thus he sneaked to the other room with a limp to not be in too much pain. Because he could not spot any monsters nearby he continued to the chest and started doing normal procedures on it, to make sure it is not trapped or a mimic. Lucky for him, no sign of either of this could be found. He quickly opened it afterwards. He immediately spotted 2 potions, he could not be for certain what one was, as he did not have an appraisal skill, he had however seen enough healing potions from dungeons to know he just found an extra. He quickly drank it so that his last injury could also be healed. The potion clearly was very potent, as it would take at least 3 potions he had to heal his rib. After this he inspected the rest of the items in the chest. He spotted an amulet which is most likely enchanted, A metal sword, which is in a better state then the one he currently is using, and a scroll with a wax seal on it. Inside it there was presumably a spell that would activate by breaking the seal and unrolling the scroll. he left the sword he carried with him, when he entered the dungeon and took the one he found, this was common amongst adventurers as dungeon loot was almost always better than things made by people. only the best skill users could make something better, and even that required items from dungeons. After this he started wandering the halls. The walls and grounds seem to have been eroded by water. This however did not help Marcus figure out where he was, as there was no description of a layer like this, in any of the books he researched about the dungeon. As stress started to set in, because Marcus had no idea where he was, he heard some stones falling from the hallways. He Suspected a monster was coming this way and tried hiding in the room while preparing to figure out where he could be. The sounds were clearly coming closer and closer, Until the monster passed the entrance to the room he was hiding in. Marcus quickly sneaked over to the doorway and looked through the hall to look what just came past. and there he saw it. A giant cube of blue slime spanning wall to wall. This helped him figure out where he was as he knew what they were.The Devouring Depths.

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Devouring slimes

These slimes are shaped like a cube of 5 meters. commonly found in lower levels of dungeons. Because of the amount of mana absorbed they have evolved to dissolve anything entering their gelatinous body. This came at the cost of their speed being easily outrun by most adventurers.

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With this info he at least knew what layer he was, and that would be the 3rd and final layer of the dungeon. It is unheard of for a person to make it down here, at least a party of 8 is needed to do so. He knew he would not make it out. Going back up would require him to fight a boss that needs a ranged weapon to take it down quickly, and going further to the teleport point to the top, it would be necessary to defeat another one and this one has slayed many people. Because the devouring slimes were patrolling these halls he knew he could stay in this room for a while. He decided to rest here for a bit. If he ever wished to make it out alive he needed all the strength he could muster. He grabbed the sleeping bag he had with him and laid it down in one of the corners on the side of the entrance. After that he took the chest and started breaking parts off to gather some wood, this way he could light a fire and cook some food. He grabbed some Broray meat. Brorays are a land animal very common in the kingdom of Nerlim, and normally taken with adventurers as it is rich in energy. After he ate a little he prepared for a quick nap to regain his strength.

**time skip of 1 night**

Now having fully rested Marcus was ready to go forwards and try to survive down here until someone came to help. He knew a strong party would come down here in a few days to collect monster parts for craftsmen. While waiting for them he started mapping out the surrounding region, whilst also looking out for any chests or monsters nearby. Finding another chest could keep him warm for a few more days, or even find something to distract monsters with.

Stat's of Marcus.

not known by Marcus himself.

Name

Marcus Kasgover

Race

Men (Nerlimian culture)

Level

3

HP

MP

18/18

7/7

offensive ability

defensive ability

Magic Ability

Resistance Ability

15

7

2

3

Skills

[Swordmenship lv. 3] [Health lv. 1]

Titles

N/A