After Salicia joined our group, Calypso gave me a nod and a disarming smile before she turned around and left. She didn’t need to be there to see what we were doing. She had somehow become the master of this dungeon. Her awareness could spread throughout the entire dungeon. She’d be able to tell what we were doing no matter where we were. Unfortunately, I didn’t know how far that went. Was she able to hear every word we said or was she only able to see our location?

Although I had built my own dungeon, I wasn’t the master of it, so what she could do and what she couldn’t do was hard to say. I could only assume she could hear everything. I’d have to ask Elaya more about what it was like to be a Dungeon Master. I had never asked her prior, and now it was too late to acquire this kind of information.

Lydia acted as the lead, given that she had the highest perception. With a wave of her hand, we all started to enter the dungeon. Even so, I was still communicating with them using Slave Communication, directing when I felt it was necessary. However, we were all very familiar with dungeons at this point, and the girls were already familiar with their roles. In other words, even without speaking, everyone went into their role pretty smoothly.

We entered the cave, which dipped down in a declining path. To my surprise, it quickly leveled out and after only about a hundred feet, it rose back up. A light appeared in front of us, and then we ended up walking out another cave entrance into what appeared to be a giant forest. Compared to the one we had just left, this environment was completely different. The bandit camp was in a clearing surrounded by a lightly forested area. This area was humid, and the trees were much thicker, closer to a jungle.

Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

“Eh? Is there more to level one?” Lydia asked in confusion.

Looking around, I was quickly able to ascertain that we had left the first level.

“So, dungeons look like this as well.” I let out a breath.

“What is it, Mas… ahem… Deedee.” Miki’s cheeks turned red as she realized she almost gave away our secret.

I decided to not make a big deal of it and spoke earnestly instead. “Most Dungeons consist of levels. They either build down into an underground labyrinth or up into a tower. The levels themselves get bigger, but only from the base, like a tree. This dungeon has been built differently, with each level horizontally next to the other. She said that she had entrances all over southwest Aberis. I had wondered how she was expanding her territory. Now we know. The dungeon is all over southwest Aberis, just under the ground.

“So, this is level 2 then.” Lydia breathed. “When I entered this dungeon and saw a sky, I had thought I was seeing things or had slipped into a valley without seeing it.”

I shook my head. “The space in dungeons is strange. They are truly their own little world. Even what I said isn’t necessarily right. Even though this dungeon is horizontal, I can’t say that every level is equivalent to the same area on the surface.”

“I see… well, let’s move quickly, the first few levels won’t be much of a challenge for us,” Lydia responded, giving me a look. Her look said what her words didn’t. We needed to break through to the 5th floor as quickly as possible.