-The Boy Inside The Red Crystal-

The hidden chamber from which the zombie guardian came from was very big in the inside. It was so massive that, more than 10,000 people could easily fit inside. The whole chamber was empty, save for a massive tree that had taken half of the room's space. It was truly a massive tree as the only thing Kenshin could see was its trunk. Its branches and leaves were nowhere on sight, probably above his vision limit.

In the trunk of the tree, there was a hollowed space, sort of like a cave. Inside that cave lay a crystal, inside which a boy was floating.

While entering, Kenshin had expected to see some seriously horrific stuff, like an unseen monster or maybe dismembered body part. But never in his dreams had he expected to see something like this.

Confusion and wonder were written all over his face as he approached the blinking red crystal. The system was also useless here as it only provided with the name of the crystal. Curiously, he closed on to the crystal while mindful of his steps. Who knows what kind of traps hidden in here!?

Weirdly enough, the crystal had stopped blinking ever since Kenshin had entered the tree hollow. Though he was curious about it, he could do nothing since it was his first time seeing something like this.

Just when he was a few inches away from the crystal, suddenly it lit up and glowed very brightly. The light was so bright that, Kenshin had to close his eyes to prevent himself from going blind. A few seconds later, thinking that the effects of the light had subsided, he slowly opened his eyes.

Limitless white expanse greeted him.

“What!? What is this? Where am I?” he started to panic. He looked at his surroundings in anxiety, trying to figure out what had happened. In the end, he came out blank. He couldn’t make head or tail of anything; whiteness was all he could see.

After a few minutes of panicking, he gradually calmed himself down. With his rationality back on track, he finally began to observe his surroundings. Now that he had calmed down, he saw a black square shaped patch not too far from him. Having nothing better to do, he decided to go near it.

After a few minutes of walking, he frowned as he found that he was not getting closer. He could see it was near; but no matter how much he walks, he couldn’t get near.

“What the hell is happening?” Kenshin asked loudly. He was getting frustrated as the time passes.

“You are not moving at all” a cheerful came from his back.

“I am running with all my might you know!” Kenshin tiredly said while standing head down.

“But you are not trying at all!” the same cheerful voice continued to pester him.

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“Who the hell…!!” suddenly Kenshin realized that he has been chatting with someone inside a place where no one supposes to exist. He whipped his head back to see who he was talking with; only to find a little boy who resembles the boy he had seen inside the crystal.

“You are the boy inside that crystal!” he asked, looking at the smiley boy.

The boy was very small, around 44.2 inches. He had orangeish yellow hair that extended all the way to his feet. His eyes were heterochromatic, with one side red while other being blue. There was an ahoge like hair sticking out, appearing quite cute with his baby like face.

“Hai! Hai! You are right!! You get a…I don’t have anything to give you” the boy was unusually cheerful while he danced around Kenshin. He noticed that the boy wasn’t wearing anything and was parading completely naked, without a shred of shame.

“Who are you?” Kenshin asked, fully on his guard. He tried to summon his power but came out empty as he couldn’t feel anything from his body. Even his physical strength was unavailable to him.

“You can’t use your powers in here. Don’t worry, this place is very safe” the cheerful boy said as he made a princess twirl around Kenshin.

“You haven’t answered my question yet!?” Kenshin skillfully ignored the boy’s words.

“Boo! Boo!! You are not cool at all” the boy stuck his tongue out, behaving like a little girl. But Kenshin remained unmoved at his antics.

“I am S1123. The personification of the dungeon you are currently at” the boy’s cheerful demeanor didn’t change at all.

“What?” the boy’s answer seriously freaked Kenshin out, as well as making him confused.

“Big brother, you must be a low leveled hunter for not knowing anything about us Dungeon cores!” his words, coupled with his cute and innocent appearance, pierced his heart like an invisible arrow.

“Did I say something wrong?” the boy questioned seeing Kenshin's slumped up figure that had black clouds hanging over his head.

“No…nothing…don't mind me” Kenshin answered painfully.

“Is that sooo!?”

“So, you are saying that you are this dungeon’s core? What is that?” Kenshin asked. As the boy had said, he was a low-level hunter until recently, so the amount of information he had access to was limited. It was no wonder that he didn’t know about dungeon cores.

“Haa!! Basically, if the dungeon is considered as the body; then we, the dungeon cores, are the brain. We keep track of everything that happens inside the dungeon and keep balance with the outside. In the first place, the dungeons are made to accommodate or imprison, some of the high-level monsters that couldn’t be allowed to roam outside. My dungeon contains all the specter type monsters, which cant survive in daylight as well as cant be allowed to go among the living.” The boy patiently informed him about, probably one of the biggest mysteries till today.

“Ehh!! So you are not doing solely for us!?” Kenshin asked. He had the wrong impression that dungeons exist to make humans stronger and get rewards.

“Of course not!! We are not on anyone’s side. We dungeons are specifically made to maintain balance. The Specters can’t live in daylight and at night living beings couldn’t fight them. That’s why they live inside this dungeon, where light could never reach them at the same time, they couldn’t get out of this place. You, the humans, kill the monsters and become stronger. At the same time, the monsters also kill you humans and consume your soul to become strong. We, the dungeons, take no one’s side. We always remain passive and maintain perfect balance” the boy was unusually grave when he spoke about it.

Kenshin was too much in shock to notice his unusual tone. He was trying his hardest to not faint at the amount and quality of information he had just received. Sometimes, knowing too much was a curse in itself. The fact that this boy gave out such information without being prompted means there was something serious going on here.

Kenshin could see himself getting dragged into some serious troublesome situations.