We didn’t use the balloon this time but walked to the city while invisible. Half a kilometer from the city, Rue suddenly tensed up, growled quietly, and shot forward. We ran after him and had to halt abruptly. He was in a fight with a creeping cat. It was strange to see because Rue was invisible, but the cat was not. It looked like the cat was fighting the air. The fight didn’t last long—a minute, and Rue tore the cat’s throat. I turned the cat into a crystal and felt Rue’s intense smugness. His mood improved dramatically, and he announced, “No more bad cat!”

When we reached the first line of buildings in the city, I told them, “Wait here. I’ll let you know when we can continue.”

I rose into the air and looked for slime or something else that could be good bait. After ten minutes, I found a plump, juicy slime, picked it up, and threw it in the middle of the cats’ territory.

Only three cats pounced on the slime, and I didn’t even need a scroll. I shot them with a crossbow, turned them into crystals, and flew off to look for more slime. This was how I cleared the other cats from the territory. In total, I had to kill seven cats, and the last slime continued to crawl peacefully, unbothered by any cats.

I returned to the group, and we began combing the area. It was so annoying that my Luck didn’t work on dangerous things. It could’ve made finding dungeons so much easier.

I need some unique Trait that helps find dangerous things. Maybe Hazard or Danger Detection?

“Mahya, do you know if there’s a special trait like Danger Detection?” I asked.

“Huh?” She looked at me with furrowed brows and a gaping mouth. “What are you talking about?”

“I’m thinking of ordering a special Trait like that from the system when my Gate Traveler reaches level 10—something that helps find dungeons.”

She gave me the look, shook her head, and said, “You’re an idiot.”

So, no such Trait exists?

We searched for over an hour before Al finally found the Portal of Doom buried under a pile of rubble. Only a tiny sliver of the portal was visible, and we had to move a ton of rubble and debris to reach it.

How the hell did the cats even manage to get out of there?

The other side of the portal led to a small cave, and when Rue squeezed in to join us, the space became even tighter. Mahya and I stood at the front, with Al behind us, and Rue occupied nearly every inch of the remaining room, his bulk pressing against us and pushing us against the walls. The cave opened into a barren expanse of cracked earth, about two hundred square meters, with dozens of tornado-like twisters swirling furiously across the area. The twisters reached up to the dungeon’s ceiling, churning like a chaotic dance. They twisted and spun around one another, and every so often, two or more merged into a massive, menacing vortex before splitting apart again into smaller, erratic spirals, flinging sand and earth into the air with relentless force.

The gritty particles flew into the cave, stinging my skin and making breathing hard. The sand seemed to seep into every gap, scraping against my lungs with each breath. We all quickly put on our gas masks, and Rue put on the muzzle with the magic circle. Unfortunately, the muzzle wasn’t enough against the swirling sand. I tied a bandana tightly around his muzzle for extra protection, hoping to filter out at least some of the airborne grit.

Mahya turned toward the portal and said, “Let’s leave. This dungeon’s a bust. We can’t fight—” She stopped mid-sentence, her words trailing off as she glanced back at me. Her hand moved to her chin, and she regarded me for a few seconds, her eyes narrowing. “Hmm, maybe it’s not a bust after all.”

“What do you mean?” I asked, confused.

“It’s an elemental dungeon, and we can’t fight the elements. But you’re an elemental wizard—maybe you can do something with it.”

I shrugged. Worth a try.

I split my mind and reached out to connect with the wind, letting my awareness expand into its current. But the moment I made contact, I had to sever the connection immediately. She was nothing like the wind I was accustomed to. Even in her chaotic moments, the regular wind had a sense of freedom—a playful, unpredictable energy that was wild but not genuinely hostile. It swirled and danced with a lightness, as if teasing and challenging you to follow her path.

But the wind here? It was roiling chaos incarnate. She was violent, malicious, and filled with relentless fury and hatred. Charged with malevolence, she thrummed as if each gust carried a grudge that demanded resolution. She lashed out with a savage will, a force that sought to tear apart, rend, and shatter anything in her path. It was as though the very air seethed with hatred, anger, and raw hostility—a swirling maelstrom of threat and a deep, abiding hunger to annihilate everything within reach. The difference was unmistakable, and it sent a chill through me. This was an ill, polluted wind at its finest.

Find this and other great novels on the author's preferred platform. Support original creators!

Clean it, maybe?

I waited for a twister to get close to the cave entrance, and when it was near enough, I cast Aggressive Clean on it. Piles of sand and soil flew out of the twister, pelting us like bullets from an automatic rifle. But when I connected to the twister, it felt exactly the same as before—still the same evil, hateful wind.

I was pretty sure Cleanse might help, but since it was a channeled spell, I had to figure out how to stay in contact with the twister to use it.

I took a deep breath and stepped out of the cave. Mahya’s hand clamped onto my shoulder, and she said in a worried voice, “What are you doing? It’s going to tear you apart!”

“I have an idea. Don’t worry.” I gave her a quick reassuring glance before turning my focus back to the storm.

I connected to the wind and rose into the air, immediately struggling to keep the link steady. The wind was so steeped in negativity that every instinct screamed at me to break free and retreat, but I forced myself to hold on, gritting my teeth as I floated higher. The twisters seized me like a rag doll, hurling me from one end of the dungeon to another, twisting and spinning in a relentless, chaotic dance. I closed my eyes, hoping it might lessen the dizziness, but I could still feel myself spinning wildly, caught in the throes of the storm like a leaf in a tempest. The twisters tossed me, pulled me, and spun me in every direction, yet I kept my arms pinned to my sides, palms outward, determined to hold my focus.

Throughout the chaos, I channeled Cleanse, pouring my mana into the spell whenever I contacted a twister. It felt like an endless battle, and as time dragged on, I could sense my mana reserves dwindling—dropping below two thousand units. But then, gradually, I noticed the storm’s fury ebb. The violent spinning grew less intense, the gusts less ferocious, until I felt a strange stillness. I opened my eyes and hovered in the eye of the storm, suspended in the air as a colossal vortex surrounded nearly the entire dungeon. It swirled around me like some mythical force while I floated in the center, stable and untouched.

I eased back the flow of Cleanse until my channeling rate matched my mana regeneration, holding the spell at a steady pace. I remained in that state for over an hour while the vortex gradually diminished. Its boundaries drew closer, tightening around me, shrinking inward as the storm gradually lost its strength. Finally, I was in the eye of the storm, with the vortex so close it almost brushed against me. Then it did—spinning me in a frantic whirlwind. I shut my eyes again, bracing myself against the nausea, but the spin wasn’t as bad this time. Slowly, the rotation eased until I could no longer feel any movement.

When I opened my eyes, the space was empty. The air around me seemed to hum with a soft chuckle, and I felt an overwhelming wave of gratitude and appreciation directed toward me. She playfully tried to ruffle my hair, sending a faint sense of annoyance at how short it was, then brushed against my face with a tremendous wave of friendship and affection before disappearing. I couldn’t tell if she had dissipated or exited the dungeon.

I landed and took in my surroundings. Applause erupted behind me. I turned, and Mahya and Al clapped while Rue howled in celebration. He trotted up and said, “John bestest wizard.”

Mahya and Al hugged me, and Al said, “That was amazing!”

Mahya grinned. “I knew you could do it. Did I tell you I was a genius?”

Al looked at her. “How are you a genius if John did all the work?”

“Because I thought about it...” she began, but her voice trailed off, losing confidence as the words faded.

“Mahya smart but sometime Mahya silly,” Rue informed her, nodding for emphasis.

We circled the entire dungeon—which took exactly five minutes—and found neither stairs down nor the core.

“What the hell?” I muttered to no one in particular.

The three of us exchanged puzzled looks. One floor made some sense, but where was the core?

“Let your core absorb the material from the dungeon. Maybe the core will pop up,” Mahya suggested.

I took out my core and immediately felt an intense, familiar hunger emanating from it. It was the same sensation I’d felt the first time it was close to another core. I held it forward, letting the feeling guide me. The sensation intensified after a few meters, right in the center of the space.

I stored my core and said, “It’s here somewhere. Have you ever heard of an invisible core?”

“I don’t think it is invisible. I think it is buried,” Al said.

We started digging with shovels but quickly realized the ground was too compacted. It didn’t take long before we had to switch to picks. After two grueling hours and a hole over five meters deep, we finally reached the core. It was relatively small, maybe six or seven centimeters in diameter.

“Have you ever heard of a buried core?” I asked, glancing at them.

They both nodded, and Mahya said, “It’s rare, but it happens.”

I touched the core and received a spell scroll.

Wind Blade

This spell condenses air currents into a razor-sharp blade, slicing through targets with precision. The blade can cut through most materials, leaving a clean, seamless edge. You can cast it silently or with a gust of wind for added impact.

Mahya, Al, and Rue received the same spell. Al’s face lit up, and he exclaimed, “An offensive spell. Perfect!”

“Should I feed the material to my core, or do we want to run this dungeon again?” I asked, glancing between them.

“Feed it to the core,” Mahya said without hesitation. “The next run, the reward will be much worse. Not worth the effort.”

It took my core ten minutes to completely drain the dungeon’s energy.

This time, we didn’t store the core but exited with it in hand, remaining invisible. The outside was too dangerous to just pop back out suddenly—or at least it was supposed to be. On the other side, there was nothing but rubble and debris, not a monster in sight.

Judging by the sun, it was already afternoon, so we returned to the clearing. I opened my house and went all out for dinner, making an especially fancy beef stroganoff using the dungeon beef with wine, cream, and mushrooms. We enjoyed a splendid meal, accompanied by three bottles of wine.

For the first day and first dungeon, it wasn’t bad—not bad at all.