The only remaining Knight slashes at me. It must be some kind of skill because it doesn’t look like a normal attack.

I try to avoid it, but it’s already too late.

The sword hits me. At the same time, lightning appears around me and shoots against my aggressor, pushing the knight away and stunning it for a short while.

“Hah! At least it didn’t kill me. This was a very close call…” I say, looking at my status window. My HP is currently in the danger zone. I take this chance to run away and ask for help. “Can somebody take this knight off of me? I’m about to die!”

“Sure thing. I’m on it!”

“I’ll help you too, brother!”

Both Laura and Clara rush at the knight to save me. The poor knight is now being restrained by tentacles at the same time as a succubus hits it with a whip… I don’t ever want to be in that position.

Note to my future self: never aggro both of them simultaneously.

Meanwhile…

“Hahaha! How did you like it!? You bunch of pathetic humans can’t reach my supreme level! Hahaha!”

Ricard is spouting bullshit again. Though this time it only lasts until he remembers he won’t get any souls in the dungeon, and his sullen expression returns.

It’s like watching an emotional rollercoaster. He’s switching from depression to happiness faster than I ever imagined possible.

A short time later, after the last knight is killed, I bring order to the chaotic situation.

“Hey, hey! Let’s calm down everybody! We can’t waste time here, we must move forward!”

“Can I go in front again, please?”

“Um…” I hesitate for a moment, but then I look at Ricard… “Ok, you can go in front, Lemon.” I think it’s the best option.

“Yaay!”

Laura comes next to me and whispers.

“Are you sure about it? It was fine until now, but you know she can be quite unpredictable.”

“I know. But…” I nod. I completely agree with her point of view, but… I then make a gesture pointing at Ricard and say. “...do you think he’s a better option right now?”

She then looks at Ricard and frowns. “You’re right. It might be for the best.”

So we continue moving forward in the same formation as before.

“Hey, hey! Look there! There’s the dungeon core!” Clara shouts as soon as she turns around the corner. “And there’s nothing else in the path! I’ll be the one to crush it! Hehehe!”

“Wait! Stop!”

Laura tries to stop my little sister before it’s too late, but she dodges the succubus and rushes ahead.

“What’s going on, Lily? Did she run ahead because we’re at the dungeon core?” I ask.

Isn’t it too soon? But now that I think a bit more about it, the previous group with the Knights and Heavy Warriors must have cost quite a lot of cp, so we might be close to the end.

Stupefied at Clara’s actions, Laura’s reaction is late. She doesn’t answer my question and stays there for a moment. When she recovers, she follows my little sister.

“...Hey! I said wait! It looks dangerous!”

I don’t hear Clara saying anything in response, so she must be ignoring Laura.

Omg, she’s doing it again… I sigh at my little sister’s behavior. It’s already too late to stop her. I hesitated because I’m in the back and can’t see what’s ahead, and now she’s running amok…

I, too, pick up my peace and turn around the corner. The first thing I see is Clara crossing a gigantic bridge, and Laura chasing a few meters behind.

“I said stop right there!”

“No! Brother is going to praise me for destroying the dungeon core, hehehe!”

Yeah… I don’t think so.

Below the bridge, there’s a very deep chasm. I can’t see the bottom of it at all… If you exclude the bridge and the brasiers illuminating the way, the rest of the room is empty.

The walls and floor have the same engravings and geometric patterns as before, but the bridge is amazing. It puts to shame all bridges I’ve seen in real life.

And, as Clara said before starting to run, there’s the dungeon core at the other side of this bridge.

Decorations you already have in your dungeon don’t cost any cp to use in Dungeon Battles. You can use something like this if you want, and there’s no detriment for the tournament at all, this is why you can go as far as you want with decorations.

I chase after them, but, about the same time my little sister crosses the halfway mark and Laura is a few meters in, I hear a loud noise and stop.

Rumbling sounds.

At first, I think it is some kind of trap activating, but when the noise increases in volume, I see the bridge collapsing. Several parts of the bridge fall into the chasm, and the other parts soon follow them.

Laura tries to run back to our side, but the ground collapses before she can make it. Luckily, she has Blink, so she uses it and barely makes it to the chasm’s edge.

If you find this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the infringement.

But Clara, who was in the middle of the bridge when it started to collapse, can’t do anything. She’s too far from both sides, and she has no mobility skills.

She turns around before falling into the chasm, looking here in a panic and waving at me. Is she saying goodbye!?

“...you really…” I can only put a hand on my face and sigh at what’s happening.

The only thing me and Ricard can do is watch the spectacle. I must say it looks quite amazing from our position.

“...hah… I was lucky there… If not for the Blink skill I would be dead right now!” Having barely made it, Laura looks down from the edge. “...there’s no way Lemon survived.”

As Laura said, my little sister can’t survive this. Not too long after, we can see Clara’s champion come out of the chasm, in her phantasmal form.

“...what the hell did you do, Lemon?” I admonish her. “Did you want to kill yourself so much!?”

“N-no! I didn’t do anything! The bridge suddenly collapsed. I didn’t touch anything! I swear!”

“Hmm…”

“That was… an instant death trap, I think.”

Oh, did you recover from your human soul obsession, Ricard? Nah, what am I saying, that’s a chronic illness.

“I’m sure it triggered when somebody reached the halfway point.”

“I see…”

“But it doesn’t make sense!” Still angry because of what happened, Laura complains. “I understand everyone’s trying to kill the player teams that invade their dungeon to earn extra points, so putting an instant death trap makes sense… but there’s no other way around the chasm! How are we going to cross it now!? And why did you charge ahead without listening, Lemon!?”

“No, I’m sure there’s another path somewhere. There must be. If the only path was the collapsing bridge, the dungeon wouldn’t be valid because there’s no direct and permanent path between the entrance and the dungeon core.”

“Yeah, what Baldy just said. Also… Lily, please calm down. If Lemon didn’t run ahead and triggered the trap on her own, all of us would have been on top of the bridge when it collapsed and everybody would be dead right now! What a nasty trap this is…”

“Hehehe! Yeah! You should thank me instead of complaining.”

I glare at her, who’s laughing after getting herself killed.

“...Lemon, you and me are going to talk about this later. I know you unintentionally ended up saving us, but still…” I sigh. “Also, we need to find the real path now.”

You might ask why don’t we destroy the dungeon core with a ranged attack and be done with this, right? We don’t do it, because we can’t. There are two restrictions put on invaders that can prevent the destruction of the dungeon core.

The first one is that there can’t be any enemy - from the dungeon defense mobs - in the same room as the dungeon core and within twenty meters. This is to prevent somebody to destroy it when being chased by monsters or to destroy it in the middle of a fight.

But there are no enemies anywhere, at least no enemies I can see right now, so we can ignore this one.

The second one is that you must be within arms reach to destroy it. Yeah… as much as my little sister can extend her tentacles, there’s no way to grab the dungeon core if we don’t cross this chasm first.

I ask the others if they saw another passage when coming this way, but they shake their heads except for Clara, who rises her hand with enthusiasm.

“Oh, oh! I know!”

“What do you know?”

I’m not in the mood for stupid things right now… I swear, if she spouts nonsense I’ll explode.

“I saw it when I came out of the chasm! There’s another passage there!” She says, pointing near the edge of the room, where the chasm and the engraved wall meet.

“What are you saying…? There’s nothing there…”

The only thing there is the wall, reduced to rubble. It looks as if the original room was split by a tectonic shift or something similar. Both room halves have the same style, and the engravings and floor patterns continue from one side to the other.

And the only thing connecting both sides was the bridge.

“Yes, there’s a path! Come on, believe me!”

“Ok, ok… I’ll come.”

I decide to let her drag me away. I mean, there’s nothing to lose even if it's a lie… Laura and Ricard shrug their shoulders and follow us.

“As I was saying, there’s nothing…”

We’re now close to the chasm’s edge, but we can’t see anything.

Before, because of the lack of light - all the brasiers are on the path to the collapsed bridge - it was hard to see and I couldn’t be sure of it. But now, I can clearly see there’s nothing at all.

“No! Come closer! You must come here and look below!”

“Look below? You mean, into the chasm?”

“Yes!”

I follow her instructions. The chasm is so deep I can’t see the end of it. The darkness is asphyxiating. But I also see what Clara was talking about.

“Ugh… that’s very nasty.” I say. “It’s so nasty it puts my dungeon’s gimmicks to shame!”

“What do you mean, Mad Rat?”

“Let me see it too!” Laura pushes me so she can see it too.

Right below our position, there’s a staircase that goes down. It’s camouflaged into the cliffside and it’s impossible to see it from any other place… unless you can fly, or you jump into the chasm.

Then, there’s a pitch-black and very narrow bridge that crosses the gap to the other side, so dark I can only distinguish its contour because I’m close to it right now.

I can’t see it from this position, but I’m sure there are more stairs on the other side of the bridge.

“So it is like this, huh…? You see the dungeon core and get excited. The only path is the bridge, so you cross it. Assuming that even if it’s trapped, it’s the only way forward. Then, it collapses and you die. The end! But then, when you come back up in your phantom form, you can see there was another path that crosses it… and you are filled with despair. Not even I have something this nasty in my dungeon!”

Maybe I can use something similar in the future? Something that screams ‘this is the only way forward’ when it’s a trap and the real path is hidden right next to it. Fufufu! Hahaha!

“Mad Rat, what do we do?”

Laura’s question brings me back from my delusions.

“H-huh? Um… oh, yeah! We cross it. This must be the good path.”

“Ok. Then, I’ll go first.”

She takes the lead and goes down the stairs, followed by Ricard, and me in the last place. Clara’s flying around me, making noises and trying to scare me so I misstep and fall.

But it doesn’t work because I’m too busy making plans.

Ooooh! I have an even better idea! A path that seems like the only way forward but in fact, it’s a trap. And then, right next to it, another path that’s hidden that looks like the real one, but it’s also a trap! Hahaha!

We reach the other side of the chasm without any more trouble and quickly break the dungeon core. Meanwhile, I keep planning my next dungeon gimmick.

Fufufu! Hahaha! It’ll be LEGENDARY!

[https://i.imgur.com/ZGSK4Pl.png]

“Sometimes, you’ll need to know if what’s ahead is a trap or not. In those cases, ask yourself this: DOES IT LOOK LIKE A TRAP?

If the answer is NO, it’s probably a hidden trap trying to take you by surprise. Try to avoid that area if possible, they are usually very dangerous.

If the answer is YES, it’s also probably a trap, only that it isn’t as hidden as the other ones. It’s best to avoid them if possible too, as they tend to be very dangerous.

By now you might be thinking: then, how am I supposed to proceed if EVERYTHING’s a trap and EVERYTHING’s dangerous? To this, I must answer: welcome to THE MAD RAT’S LAB!”

- Extract from the Chapter ‘Before we get into the serious stuff’ from ‘How to Stay Sane in The Mad Rat’s Lab’.