Sien and his master ended up in an unusual situation. Both were being chased by huge boars that wouldn’t let them be. They were most likely angered by the spicy scent of the food they were preparing. Sien was slowly losing strength after running nonstop. Sam noticed that Sien was struggling and the boars weren’t stopping their chase.

“Can’t you use magic?!” Sam desperately asked not knowing what to do, turning around every second to check how close the boars were.

“I can’t!” Loudly answered Sien.

“I thought you royals can do magic-” Sam shouted but his voice became distant as he fell into a hole in the ground. Sien didn’t notice his master falling and ran into the same gap.

The boars stopped and only took one glance down, seeing how far it was to the bottom they backed away and stopped their chase.

The fall was short but hard. Sam hit the cold stone with his back and wiggled with pain to the sides as if his back was on fire. He heard a scream coming his way but he didn’t look up. More pain was brought to him as Sien softened his landing by falling on Sam.

“We escaped them.” Sien said as he looked up, but he didn’t see the boars through the hole.

“Great… Can you get off me?” Sam grunted as the pain was surging through his whole body.

They looked up to see the hole they fell through. There was a single gap in the ceiling of the cave with no way of reaching it as the cave was in the shape of a sphere and the hole was so high that they weren’t able to reach it.

“Well… Let’s hope there is another way out…” Said Sam trying to find some source of light or another path that could lead them out of the cave.

Sien felt a soft wind brushing his face. “There is a crack in the wall we can fit through.” Sien found a crack that he would easily go through. “There is light on the other side!” Added Sien as he took a look into the crack in the wall.

“How convenient it would be to be small as a kid right now…” The crack was twice as small as Sam. He had to squeeze through the gap by crouching, he cursed under his nose as they walked through it.

On the other side, they didn’t find a light coming out of the cave but there were flowers that gave a dim blue light and showed the path ahead. Not having any other options they followed the path.

The cave was cold and humid, a condition that only moss could grow in, except for the mysterious blue flower that both of them had never seen. Sien tried taking one but once he snapped the stalk the light disappeared. Only the sweet smell remains.

The path was blocked by a square double door made of stone and illustrations engraved on the walls. Sien wanted to open the doors but Sam stopped him.

“Hey! You know what you’re doing?” Sam asked with his hand forward to stop Sien, he was visibly stressed.

“Opening the doors?” Answered uncertainly Sien, not understanding why Sam was worried about the doors.

“Boy. Do you know where those doors lead to?” Asked Sam as he kneeled down to be at Sien’s eye level, taking Sien’s hand away from the door.

“To the exit?” Said Sien, not sure about his answer as Sam's face changed after he said that, he was serious.

“No… Those are the doors to a dungeon.” Answered Sam, both of them looked at the doors thinking of what might be behind them. Sam imagined the worst possibilities why Sien saw adventure behind them.

“What’s a dungeon?” Asked Sien, curiously watching the doors.

“Umm... You don’t know what a dungeon is? I thought they would tell the stories about them to kids… A dungeon is a dangerous place. This one doesn’t have a mark on it from the army or the adventurers. So it wasn’t explored yet or… No one left this place alive! So we are not going in there.” Sam explained as he was about to leave this place through the crack and find another way out but Sien ignored his warning and opened the doors.

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“Adventure!” The boy shouted as he ran through the doors.

“No… You did not…” Sam couldn’t believe that Sien opened them after he warned him. “You’re lucky that I have a good heart…” Whispered Sam as he slowly walked to Sien, disappointed in his action.

“If it’s a dangerous place, what can we expect here?” Asked Sien as they walked forward through the tunnel, looking around the walls that were still looking like a rough stone of the cavern.

“Everything. From traps to monsters that lay down in here. The only good thing is that dungeons hold treasures in them. It’s the only thing keeping me going through it right now…” Answered Sam, breathing heavily but steadily.

“A treasure?! We could use some coins for the travel!” Said Sien as he showed how much space he had in his pouch.

“We could use our lives to the fullest…” Sam could only imagine him dying in a place like this.

“It is living to the fullest!” Sien ran forward to the next room.

The room was small and almost empty. It had three chests. One of them was open and held coins and the other two were closed. Sien approached the chest and took the coins from it.

“Hey! What are you doing?! It might be a trap!” Sam shouted as he looked around in fear, looking for some kind of trap that Sien might have activated. Then he saw a text on the wall “Humans are greedy but heroes think of others.”

Once Sien took all the coins from one chest. He counted them and left a hand of them back in the chest as they didn’t fit in his small pouch. He ran up to Sam to show the coins.

“We have enough money for the journey!” Gladly announced Sien as he lifted the pouch and showed it to Sam.

“Don’t you want to open the other chests?” Asked Sam as he pointed his finger at the remaining chests.

“Why? There are three and we have enough coins. We can leave something for others who might come here. Like the adventurers.”

“Yeah… but if there is no trap why don’t we-” Sam wanted to take more but the hidden passage opened as they passed the test. “Looks like we passed the test.”

“What test?” Asked Sien, not understanding how the dungeons work, he was able to pass the first test.

“There are many different types of dungeons. We got lucky because it's a testing dungeon. That means we are tested if we are worthy. There are also battle dungeons which are pure battles with monsters and the unknown.” Explained Sam as they walked along another path with glowing blue flowers.

“Cool! So what are they testing us for?” Asked Sien as he hid the pouch in his bag.

“Good question… Maybe the answer was on the gates but we didn’t have time to check them.” Said Sam as he gave a sarcastic look toward Sien.

“You didn’t want to check them in the first place. You wanted to try another way out. I think that is the only way out.” Answered Sien as he moved forward without looking at Sam.

“You’re saying that because you want to explore the dungeon…” Sam let out a sigh and followed the boy.

“Maybe…” Sien said playfully as he ran to the next door. This time he read the sentence above it.

“Helping others can drag you to the death.” The doors opened as Sam finished reading the text. “I don’t like that. There is death in there. And I don’t agree with this…” Sam looked back thinking of leaving this place but on the other hand the text mocked his values. “Helping others doesn’t bring death. Let’s go.”

This time Sam was the one leading. The room was spacious with metal cages that could fit a whole person. There were five of them in total and one of them had a skeleton inside.

They first approached the cage with a skeleton inside. He had the clothing of a peasant and nothing with him. The others, on closer inspection, had only a single bone inside. Like a single rib or a finger.

“I don’t get it.” Said Sien as he scratched his head, confused with a puzzle left for them without much information to solve the puzzle.

“Check the skeleton once more, maybe we missed something…” Said Sam as he kneeled in front of the cage and looked at the bones, hoping for an idea to pop in his head.

Before even checking the corpse Sien noticed a sign on the floor. Each cage had a small sign under the cage door. The one with a skeleton had written death on it. The other three had death too and the last one that was empty had life.

While they tried to figure it out some kind of gas slowly spread around the room. They watched as the gas spread around the ground and slowly filled the room.

“What is that?” Asked Sien as he kicked the cloud of gas near his feat.

In a panic, Sam entered the cage with a “Life” sign and the cage doors closed as he fell an inch down. He noticed that there were pressure plates inside the cages. Once he raised his legs the cage opened. His eyes moved from Sien and the gas back and forth. He could already smell the unpleasant smell of a gas like rotten meat.

“Maybe they are right. Helping others will bring me to death.” Sam pushed Sien inside the cage “Save your family, Sien.” and quickly entered the cage with a death sign. Once Sam entered the cage all the doors closed and a hole opened under Sien’s cage. The cage fell with Sien inside it.

Sien screamed Sam’s name as he fell down and his screams echoed through the tunnel. The falling slowed down as he was reaching the bottom of the hole. His landing was gentle which surprised him. Once the cage hit the ground the door opened but he remained inside.