Ryan looked up at the night sky. The only light was the faint glow of a full moon. He took in a long, slow breath. There was a slight breeze that made him long for fresh air.

In the distance stood a large, decrepit castle. A fifty-foot tall curtain wall surrounded the fortress, but parts of it lay in ruins. There were towers and structures that peaked over the walls, but most seemed to be missing roofs or walls.

Ryan approached one of the damaged walls and made his way over the rubble. Buildings, or what remained of them, cluttered the ground, but Ryan didn’t see any dungeon mobs. That’s odd.

Every single dungeon that Ryan had ever been a part of, or heard of, had dozens of monsters protecting the boss room. Some of the more difficult dungeons were rumored to have hundreds. But as far as Ryan could tell for this particular dungeon, there were none. It felt like something was missing.

Something is wrong here.

Ryan made his way through the broken buildings, taking a few moments to look inside several of them. Most of the buildings contained only beds and kitchens. One of the buildings that Ryan inspected held dozens of weapons and sets of armor. Barracks and armories.

He went ahead and picked out two-foot-long daggers, and a small shortsword. He slipped the daggers into his vest and strapped the sheathed shortsword to his side. He had little experience with blades and even less experience with melee combat, but he only had four bullet magazines left. After they ran out the rifle was basically a useless chunk of enchanted metal. The blades gave him options.

He made his way through the deserted fortress until he reached the doors of the main castle. Deep lacerations covered the wooden doors. Burn marks and dried blood coated the walls and ground. Looks like someone might have already cleared this dungeon … or failed.

With a mental shrug, Ryan pushed the doors inward. He was surprised when he met no resistance. The doors swung open with a soft creak, revealing a grand hall. Red and gold tapestries hunt from the walls, and a red carpet led from the entrance to a throne at the far end of the hall.

Ryan tensed up when he spotted the throne. His mind and body raged with the grief that he had been suppressing. It took him a moment to settle his thoughts. His anger wouldn’t do him any good here. With a deep breath, he made his way towards the throne.

As he got closer to the throne he could see the outline of a man sitting on top of it. Black armor covered the entire body, except for the head. A hood hid his face. Ryan drew one of the daggers and launched it at the man.

The dagger spun through the air, the sharp steel tip reflecting the light from the torches nearby. The dagger stopped an inch from the man’s head, floating for a brief second before clattering to the floor. The man dropped his arm, the blue glow that had surrounded it only moments before fading away. Ryan watched as the man lifted his head and revealed a demonic skull head. Its eyes were glowing a bright blue. The same color as E-ranked portals. A death knight.

The knight stared at Ryan for what felt like an eternity before getting up from the throne. It pointed a skeletal finger at him and began to speak in a dead, raspy voice. “How did you get into my dungeon? How did you get into the Labyrinth?”

Ryan felt a bitter cold aura wash over him as the undead knight spoke. The cold seeped its way into his bones, but his face remained impassive. “I have no idea what you’re talking about. I came here through a portal.”

The knight seemed amused by what Ryan had said. It scratched its forehead with its skeletal fingers, as if deep in thought. “You are trapped then. I see. I see.”

Blue eyes gazed into Ryan’s. “I imagine you seek a way out? A way home?”

Ryan raised an eyebrow at the question. “I do. Can you help me?”

The knight chuckled in his raspy voice, before twisting its skeletal mouth into a grin. “No. I can not. Perhaps if you had come at some other time. But not now.” The knight stood up from its throne. “Yet, you are able to help me.”

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“Oh? How?” Ryan asked, placing a finger on the trigger of his rifle.

“Do you know nothing about dungeons, little dungeoneer?” The knight spat. “We feed on the energy released from your bodies when we devour them. Only by consuming that power can we grow in strength and ascend.”

Ryan took a moment to consider the knight’s words. He had never spent much time thinking about where or why the dungeons had appeared on earth. Everyone on earth took for granted the power and wealth that came from beating dungeons.

But there must be a balance. A reason.

It only made sense that the dungeons themselves benefited from the deaths of dungeoneers.

Ryan nodded his head in realization. “So your plan is to kill me then.” He whispered.

The knight smiled in obvious glee. “Yes! Yes! With the energy from your body, I can rebuild my dungeon! I can summon more powerful monsters! I can leave the Labyrinth!”

Ryan took a step towards the throne. Then another. In a single, fluid motion he raised the rifle and pulled the trigger. The death knight's skull exploded in a shower of bones, and the body fell to its knees.

Ryan continued advancing. He put six more bullets into the body of the fallen knight before reaching it. He kicked the body aside as hard as he could, watching it slam into one of the pillars that lined the great hall. Then he turned around and sat on the throne.

He cupped his hands together and rested his head on them as he looked out into the hall. “Not even the gods will stop me,” he muttered.

Minutes passed before Ryan finally descended the throne, grabbed the monster core from the death knight, and walked out of the hall. He headed back towards the portal that had brought him into the dungeon. Next.

* * *

Several weeks went by as Ryan cleared the E-ranked portals one by one. Most of the dungeons he entered had no mobs at all. But he would occasionally run into small packs or a boss.

Scrapes and bruises covered Ryan’s body. He used healing potions to treat the worst of the wounds but preferred to let the less mortal wounds heal on their own. The pain centered him in a way that he couldn’t explain. It allowed him to focus his thoughts on something other than his broken heart and shattered mind. The more it hurt, the better.

The constant fighting had honed his skills and strengthened his body. When he wasn’t clearing a dungeon, he was practicing with every weapon he could get his hands on. Daggers, spears, swords, axes, even staves. He had spent quite a bit of his remaining ammo in the first few days. But as time had gone on, and his ammo supply got smaller, he had been forced to rely on other weapons. He would never be as good with a spear as Ariel, or as skilled with a sword as Lee, but he was good enough.

As the days passed by, Ryan’s supply of food and water began to dwindle until there was hardly anything left. He had tried to cook some of the meat from one of the wolf monsters that he had killed during a dungeon run. But despite his best attempts, the meat had caused his body to shut down. It had taken him several days and healing potions to get over the sickness.

Ryan stared at the twinkling roof of the cavern lost in thought. He had cleared all the E-ranked dungeons and hadn't gotten any closer to getting back home. Even if he had the supplies to stay here forever, it wouldn’t matter. His best hope was to find an E-ranked dungeon with a portal back to earth. But now that he had cleared all the E-ranked dungeons he could find, he would have to tackle the D-ranked dungeons.

Even with all his newly gained combat experience, and training, Ryan doubted that he would be able to beat a D-ranked dungeon boss. He could probably clear a few of the dungeons if he relied on his rifle. But he only had a couple of magazines left, and they wouldn’t last much longer.

He sighed as he closed his eyes.

An idea occurred to him then. His eyes wandered to one of the pitch-black S-ranked portals. One thing that had become clear to him was that the E-ranked dungeons he had entered had already been cleared by a group of dungeoneers. From what he had gathered from the death knight, dungeons that had been cleared returned back to the ‘Labyrinth’ for some reason. It explained why the dungeons had no mobs, and why he had not managed to find one with a portal back to earth. The dungeons needed time to regrow and spawn new monsters before reappearing on earth.

But S-ranked dungeons were extremely rare. Only five had ever appeared on earth. The chances that one of them hadn't been cleared, and thus held a portal to earth was much higher. Wasn’t it?

Ryan grit his teeth as he gathered his things. There was only one way to find out. He would probably die. Actually, he was sure he would die. But this might be his only hope.

* * *

He stood in front of one of the obsidian black dungeon portals. The aura that radiated from the portal was overwhelming. Ryan had taken several hours just to crawl his way to it. Every fiber of his being was telling him to run. To live.

He took a deep breath and then leaped through the portal.