The dungeon was divided into five floors. The first two floors were grasslands with the first floor being filled with many herbs if you knew where to find them. There are no monsters on the first floor, only poisonous plants, that range from mildly annoying like the poison ivy plant to the deadly death cap mushroom that can kill you in minutes if eaten. The second floor consists of monsters named horned rabbits and larger lizards.

The horned rabbits as the name suggests are large rabbits with sharp horns in their forehead and the lizards are the size of medium size dogs with tough hide that act as armour.

The third and fourth floor were forest themed. The third floor was populated by large carnivorous plants and birds that traveled in groups of five. The fourth floor was home to roaming packs of wolves and prowling tigers. The last floor was just an arena that contained the boss monster that was decided at random.

My party and I were being led by a D-ranked member of the guild, in total we 6 would be exploring the dungeon today. The first three floors of the dungeon were easier than the last two. We had just found the door to the fourth floor when the guide turned to us and asked us if we wanted to continue towards the fourth floor.

We had completed the first three floors with ease as such we decided to continue towards the fourth floor and see how it would go.

“Ok trainees we are now on the fourth floor. The main danger on this floor are the wolf packs and the tigers. Stay alert as the tigers like to stalk their prey and attack from the shadows” the instructor told us as we entered the floor behind him.

The floor was laid out similar to the third floor but it seemed to be a lot darker in here. We crept forward slowly and took note on where we stepped. As we made progress we could hear the howling of the wolves. The instructor froze as the noise and gave us a sign to get into formation. I had a sword and shield and got in front of the group. Behind me were our main damage dealers 1st equipped with a long sword and the 2nd with a spear. Behind them were the archer and the thief.

As soon as we got into the formation we could see a pack of 3 wolves coming at us. I thought that it would be easy to defeat them but that thought went away as I say the real number of the pack there were not 3 wolves but 20 that were coming at us.

“RUN!” shouted our instructor as he also saw them fear creeping into his eyes. Even though you could consider him a vetern member of the guild, one cannot take on 20 wolves with only trainees as backup.

As soon as I heard him say that I ran as fast as I could towards the third floor stairs. The monsters seem to have gained speed as we ran away from them. I looked behind to see if the instructor was following us and nearly ran into a tree that had somehow materialized in front of me.

This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

Dodging the tree I ran in blind panic as the wolves had gained ground on me. I ran around the trees using them as springboards to change direction randomly. They chased me for some time and it felt like they were herding me towards a certain direction. As I got further and further from my party members, the more fear began to creep in my mind. So blinded by the fear I was that I did not see the wall in front of me and ran head first into it.

I blacked out for a bit and came to when one of the wolves bit me on my left hand. The pain jump started my brain and I lashed out with my free hand. The wolf yelped but did not let go. The pain addled me as I frantically searched for my sword.

I heard the other wolves coming near as I found the hilt and swung it at the wolf biting my hand. The sword bit into the wolf’s neck and freed me. I jumped out of the way and put my back to the wall. Swinging my sword to keep them away. The wolves growled as they encircled me, cutting off my escape route.

I looked around to see if I could somehow escape them. One of the wolves jumped at me, I swung my shield to block it but its weight pushed me back against the wall. The wall behind me cracked and I fell through. I was weightless for a few seconds and then the ground introduced itself with a very painful hello.

I got up with the support of my sword and looked around. I saw the wolf that had fallen with me a few feet away from me, breathing but unconscious. I dragged my beaten body to the wolf and stabbed it in the head. It yelped and stopped moving as its life left it. The body then simmered and vanished leaving behind a pair of fangs and its pelt behind.

I collected the loot and looked around the room that I found myself in. The room was circular with smooth stone walls. The room had no opening to indicate from where I had entered. I carefully inspected the room trying to find the exit. I crawled on the floor and ran my hand all over the room trying to find any kind of switch or keyholes.

At the end of the day I found nothing, the floor, walls and even the ceiling was clear of any markings only clean, white and smooth stone. The only thing that was peculiar about the room was the stone pedestal in the center of the room. I did not want to touch or go near it as I could feel something from it, an intangible force that was pulling me towards it, sweet as a siren’s song.

The call was gradually increasing in intensity, I could almost see it playing the piper's tune calling me. I fought it for two days, for two days I did everything I could to stay away from the pedestal. I could even hear it in my sleep calling me, whispering its sweet call to come closer, to touch it, to hold it. I fought it and lost in the morning of the third day in the room.

As I awoke on that morning I found myself standing in front of it, my hands on either side of the crystal atop the pedestal, chanting words that had no meaning to me. Words that were gibberish to all that were listening but that seemed to have activated something in that room.

I spoke the words, chanted them slowly at first but gaining speed as I felt it near its end. By the end I was shouting the words, and as I spoke the last few words I felt the crystal crack. The last words that I had begun to speak lost to me. The room began to shimmer then, it shone with such bright light that it blinded me for a few seconds.

The light finally dimmed and I found the room to be silent once more. The pull that I had been feeling was also gone. Looking around the room I found nothing that had changed other than the crack that ran through the crystal. Finding nothing new in the room, I sat there with my back to the pedestal and slept, the three days of excitement finally catching up to me.