Oscar didn’t know what he expected upon entering the Dungeon.

The circular stairway was large enough to fit dozens of people and it wasn’t just a single flight of stairs either. It must’ve been close to 10 minutes since he left the receptionist—whose name he forgot to grab—and started making his way down. Oscar’s patience was admirable when it mattered, but when you’re continuously walking only with the odd torch to break up the monotony of the little journey, even he was starting to grow slightly restless.

Which is why he was thankful when the stairs finally ended and the room opened up into a large cavern.

He dragged his green eyes across the roof of the cavern, noting the large purple crystals. Their glow was illuminating the otherwise pitch-black cave, saturating it in a dull purple color.

Although a vast majority of adventures were on the surface getting some shut-eye. It seemed that some opted to operate at night. There were two other groups of different sizes in the cavern. One had 4 members, while the other had easily more than 8. However, that was all Oscar counted with a glance, but he knew there were more.

The larger group drew his attention though. Particularly how tall they were. Maybe this body was just shorter than his previous one, but the height of every single one of that large party was comparable to the mountain-looking man from earlier, maybe even taller too.

With that, Oscar filed everything about the group away. He could worry about others later and decided to run a quick check of everything.

The body he was currently inhabiting wasn’t his own, and while it was similar in looks and overall build—due to both of them being farmer’s sons—it severely lacked the conditioning Oscar once put himself through to build his stamina. That short walk down the stairs was already enough for Oscar to understand how pitiful his current state was.

He wasn’t exhausted or fatigued, you couldn't even say he was out of breath, but it was undeniable that he was winded.

Sure, his situation wasn’t helped by his current attire. A leather chest plate adorned his upper body and overall, it wasn’t too bad. Its weight was negligible and it barely affected his movement at all. The pants, on the other hand, were the opposite.

Instead of fitting him with armor to wear over his clothes. These pants were made of some sort of synthetic material that makes it extremely resistant to being cut. Oscar wasn’t an armorsmith, so he didn’t understand much more than the fact that they should protect his legs from smaller-bladed weapons like knives or daggers and possibly even arrows

Now Oscar wasn’t criticizing the security these pants gave him. Losing your legs—your mobility—in any fight will get you killed every single time, unless the enemy decides to take pity on you or if an ally bails you out.

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The problem with these pants wasn’t the protection they provided, but just how heavy they were. It would be an exaggeration to say he was dragging his feet down the stairs, but walking was making an effort.

This is embarrassing, Oscar thought with a sigh.

However, Oscar didn't entertain the idea of simply changing. He valued the protection these pants provided too much to warrant a change. He just had to suck it up.

Traveling through the cave, Oscar found that the purple crystals continued lining the rocky roof. The crystals produced enough light for Oscar to have zero trouble with visibility. It was, dare he say, convenient.

While the cavern he was in was large enough to probably fit a giant, that wasn’t all the dungeon had to offer. There were multiple, much smaller off-shoots from what Oscar has decided to call the “main cavern,” lining the walls at random intervals.

Oscar exhaled and closed his eyes. He wasn’t a wizard by any stretch of the meaning—thoroughly lacking the talent to even think of attempting any magical spell—but even he could feel the ambient mana in the world.

And this place was full of it. Colorless energy appeared in his mind’s eye, a white haze that suffused the cave as if it were early morning. The mana coursed through every inch of this place, and not just in the rock, but also through the air. It ebbed and flowed, pulsed in and out of existence in a rhythmic, almost hypnotic way.

After gazing upon the mana for some time, Oscar finally opened his eyes. That colorless energy was nowhere to be seen, naked to the human eye

Or at least, that should’ve been the case, as for some reason, that colorless energy—which could be likened to wisps of smoke—was still visible. It was faint, but it was undeniable that it was still there.

This was wrong.

Mana was an energy that could be found in all living things. Kind of like the blood that flows through his veins, mana originates from the heart before traveling to every part of the body.

However, that was the catch. Mana was an energy that existed within all living beings. And at first glance, the Dungeon was the farthest thing from living, but that was at first glance.

Oscar’s seen a lot of things in his short life. And while the thought of a living structure was weird, it wasn’t weird enough for him to lose his composure. He didn’t know a lot about the Dungeon in the first place, so this new information was just that to him—information.

Still, Oscar found himself looking at the cavern walls in a new light. If the walls are the inner tissue of the Dungeon. And the mana in the air is its blood or even oxygen. Then what does that make the adventurers that venture through its insides?

Oscar glanced at the golden, sword-shaped mark on his arm.

“Altar, I’m trusting you here,” he said to the sword. “Better have a good reason for bringing me here.”