When the fuzz of teleportation faded, Solomon found himself standing in a hallway. Not just any hallway, either. The floor, walls, and ceiling were all made of dark, rough-cut stone. Torches fixed to the walls provided just enough light to see by, the flickering flames casting oddly shaped shadows.

The good news was that nothing tried to kill him right away. Almost as soon as the thought occurred to him, Solomon whipped his head to the side. He'd been sure he'd seen something, but a closer look showed nothing but a plain stone wall. It must have been a trick of the light. Looking behind him revealed a dead end. As expected, the only way out of the dungeon was through.

Solomon took a deep breath. Logically speaking, the second floor should be tougher than the first. Or, maybe it wasn't logical, but it seemed to fit with how the system worked. Just because he didn't know how it was trying to kill him didn't mean he was safe. Still, he wouldn't be doing himself any favors just standing in place and quivering in fear. He needed to keep moving, find out what the system had in store for him, and overcome it.

Once he finished his little self pep talk, Solomon took one last look down the hall. He was about to step forward when something caught his eye. Taking a closer look, he saw a tripwire stretched across the width of the hallway, about two strides away.

He sighed. While he'd been confident enough pitting his own intelligence and planning against the rage-filled monsters of the first floor, he didn't feel quite so sanguine about a direct battle of wits against the system itself. Trying to sneak through a literal dungeon without triggering any traps was going to be rough.

Although, come to think of it, maybe he wouldn't have to. Solomon glanced at the timer, relieved to see he still had a good while left before the second grace period was over. If the dungeon got more challenging over time, then it shouldn't start out with instant kill traps.

It was one thing to reason it out. It was quite another to make himself test the theory. Solomon hesitated for a moment, aggression warring with caution. Finally, he shook his head.

"The system's gonna get me eventually. Might as well do a controlled test."

Still, there was no need to be stupid about it. Solomon pressed himself up against the tunnel wall and reached out with the butt of his spear to hit the tripwire. His first tap didn't do anything. He put a little more muscle into it and the tripwire gave way. At the same time, one of the rough stones making up the floor flipped over, presenting a wicked looking spike.

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Solomon measured the distance with his eyes. If he had just stumbled into the tripwire and fallen, the spike would have gotten him in the gut. Yesterday, that would have been a serious wound that could easily be fatal. Even in the new world ushered in by the system, it would hurt. But all he would have had to do was pull himself off of it and let his HP healing do its thing. That was assuming the spike could get through his protective clothing and he couldn't get his shield arm around in time.

Well, this was going to suck. It wasn't going to suck any less if he stood around complaining about it, though. Solomon grit his teeth and started moving forward. He swept his spear back and forth in front of him as he did, trying to feel out any nasty surprises the system had waiting for him.

As he moved forward, the pool of light cast by the first set of torches barely reached the edge of the pool of light cast by the next set. The darkness along the edge of the hall where the light didn't reach was ominous, encouraging Solomon to stick to the middle of the hall. Up ahead, the end of this stretch of hall finally came into sight, terminating in a t-intersection that would present him with the choice of going left or right.

Just as he was pondering the upcoming decision, his left foot came down on a stone that sank down under his weight about an inch with a click. Solomon's eyes had just begun to widen in shock when there was a clang as something bounced off the shield that he was holding by his side. Solomon looked down, finally catching sight of the arrow as it clattered to the ground.

He swallowed. That arrow had been fired with great force from close range. As much as Mort had talked up his clothing's puncture resistance, he was pretty sure that the arrow would have punched right through if it hadn't hit his shield. He also knew from his own efforts on the first level that the system's healing was largely ineffective as long as something was holding the wound open. The torchlight gleamed off the barbed tips of the arrow as it lay on the ground.

He'd accepted that pain was the price he was going to pay to get out of this floor. That didn't mean he was eager to pay more than he had to. Solomon redoubled his efforts at testing the ground before him and managed to reach the end of the hallway without any further incident.

Now that he could take a better look, the dead end he was approaching wasn't completely featureless. There was decoration worked into the stone that almost looked like a doorway.

He took a look both ways at the intersection to make sure nothing deadly was barreling down the hallway, then moved closer to inspect the wall. Stones of a slightly lighter color than the rest outlined a door frame. Right where the doorknob would be was a pale green rock in the shape of a keyhole.

Unless he badly missed his guess, he was going to need to be on the lookout for a green key. Solomon kicked at the door in frustration, to no effect. If this really were a game, this was about the time he'd usually enable the no clipping mode.