I’ve read about them in countless fantasy novels. Hell, these are one of the things that made fantasies fantasies.

The target of almost every explorer, a place of mysteries, traps and wonders. One could lose their lives in this place, dying as a unfortunate fool that stepped on a trap, or as the lucky ones. Ones who survive such tribulations and gain the treasures contained within. Typically they were represented as caves. Long twisted cave networks, containing monsters, traps and boss monsters too.

Dungeons.

And I am trapped in one.

What are the odds?

I wondered as I sat there, gazing at the blazing inscriptions above the foreboding entrance. The letters illuminated the place where I stood, but its light did not reach beyond. For all I knew, the entrance was blocked. That was how dark it was.

WELCOME TO MY DUNGEON, EXPLORER!! FORGET ABOUT LEAVING, FOR YOU ARE ALREADY TOO DEEP INSIDE MY CAVE! MY MAGIC RULES HERE, SO THE PASSAGE YOU FOLLOWED HAS ALREADY BEEN ERASED!! SO EXPLORER, VENTURE FORTH AND OBTAIN MY TREASURES, OR DIE TRYING!

Well, that’s simple enough. Enter, kill some monsters, get the treasure and get the hell out of here. Wait, if exiting is impossible for me, how do I get out of here? Let’s just hope that there is a short cut at the end of the dungeon…

My Detect is blocked here, but whatever is blocking it is gradually weakening. I can feel that because the vision from my left eye has already expanded a bit from before. Is the dungeon preparing something? I hope it’s not some insta kill magic or something.

I tentatively step in to the pitch blackness, my breath quickening. This deep in the cave, oxygen should be limited. But I could breathe comfortably enough. Perhaps some air holes prepared by the dungeon? What a good dungeon. The person who controls the dungeon is a dungeon lord right? Perhaps I should thank him.

As soon as my body passes the dark barrier, light greets me. I gasp from the sudden brightness and step back, stumbling into a wall.

I turn back, shocked to see that the entrance had been replaced by a wall. I looked forward, the light greeting me again. A pale blue light, emanating from some crystal like thing embedded in the wall.

I sigh and plop down, deciding to check my equipment first. I had forgotten to do that before entering the dark door… thingy, since I was overwhelmed that I had actually found a dungeon.

A dungeon! I mean, they were one of the most needed things in a fantasy world!

Wait, that means there are traps right? And I don’t even have my left eye fully functional, let alone my Detect. Finding traps is gonna be a pain…

I take out the three most important stuff that Master gave me before leaving. Three cylinders of parchment wound over a tube. Two of them glowed  white while the other had turned black.

The last thing that my Master gave me. My trump cards. Three legend class spell scrolls.

I had to use one of them on the rabbitman, and now I can’t help but feel regret, thinking that I wasted such an important thing on a small fry monster.

Nether sword, a Dimensional magic which partially summons the sword of the Nether. A sword that can pierce through almost everything. And I used it up on that stupid rabbit.

I check the other two scrolls, turning them around in my hands, checking that the containment enchantment on them hadn’t weakened. That would be a problem, since it could release the contained spell within, wasting them.

“All right… let’s do this”

I switch to the passerby hero attire, including the mask. Not for the sake of hiding my ability, but for protection. This mask is hard. Super hard. Tough enough to take a stab to the face and not even take a scratch.

As I donned the hood, covering my head, I remembered Maria’s advice to get the armor. Man, I regret not listening to her now.

Wondering whether there were trap detecting apparatus or something, I took my first step, beginning my dungeon adventure.

*******************************

“Sin of wrath?”

“That’s right~! What might your name be, oh lovely maiden?”

“I’m Maria, Artemis’ arrow.”

“A wonderful title~ If I may—“

“Tal!”

A voice called out, one interlaced with irritation. The dark blue haired man turned, the smile on his face faltering a little. The girl that stood before him, confusion etched on her face, turned along with him, towards the source of the call.

“What is it, knight boy~? Can’t you see me talking here?”

The man questioned the other man, his smile not fading from his face. The other man was a bit shorter than the blue haired man. He had spiky red hair and his eyes were the same, red as blood. He wore a long coat, pieces of silver armor decorating his shoulders and chest. The other man rubbed his stubble with his short fingers as he regarded Maria, his blood like eyes running over her.

“We have to go now. No time for chit chat”

The man spoke, his eyes moving back towards Tallios, disregarding Maria.

“Ara~ It seemed I have to go now! Well, see you later, Maria~!”

Saying that, Tallios walked away, patting Maria’s cheek as he did so. Maria had no time to bat it away, the speed of the movement overwhelming her. It was almost like the hand vanished, reappearing next to her face.

The two men walked away, disappearing as they mixed into the crowd.

“Just what is happening..?”

*****************************

“Tei!”

I twist around the stinger of the monster and kick it away, narrowly missing the pointy tip. The liquid sizzled as it dripped to the ground, and the worm twisted around to keep its big red eyes on me. Almost 3 meters in length, this worm-with-a-poison-stinger frequented the dungeon, constantly attacking me as if in a rage.

“This is bad…”

I muttered as I observed my Rebellion stuck in the side of the worm. I had stabbed it when it suddenly moved away, pulling my sword along with it.

If that thing runs away with my sword, I’m gonna have a hell of a time finding it…

Another blob of deep violet liquid falls to the ground, and I step away from it. It splashes around, burning-no melting the rocks along with it. A Drooler. It literally drools acid, sticking to the roofs to attack me. With the worm to support it, I can’t even send an attack towards the stupid thing. Hiding in the shadows of the roof, I can barely even see it.

I pick up a rock and haphazardly  shoot it towards the roof. The sound of stone hitting rock echoes across the cave, and I click my tongue in irritation.

“Damn it…”

Another blob came flying at me, this time from the side, surprisingly. I duck, dodging it, and turn my eyes towards the culprit.

It looked like an overweight man with a big nose, except the man is blue and the nose is red. Its face looks like it’s smiling lecherously; with drops of the acid near it mouth. It climbs back up into the shadows, using the six legs on its back.

Not willing to let it escape, I quickly shoot a rock into its big red nose. It wails in agony as it crashes to the ground. Taking advantage of this moment, the worm tackles my side. I barely move away, but it still grazes my back. Maybe it didn’t want to waste this great chance, so it sent its tail like a whip towards me, the sting glinting in the pale light.

Royal Road is the home of this novel. Visit there to read the original and support the author.

I catch the fat tail and twist it, using the sting to stab it. Then, I pull it upwards, tearing a huge gash in its side. I wrench of the sting along with a piece of the tail, poison and some fluids flying around as I did so.

I dash towards the Drooler and bury the sting into its nose, listening to it wail in despair as it dies.

Wiping my hands on the coat, I return back to the worm to retrieve my sword.

“Oh come on…”

The worm was gone.

With my sword.

Dammit all.

I look around and sigh in relief, spotting the trail of goo.

Taking a deep breath, I head deeper into the dungeon, following the worm swiftly.

It’s been almost 2 hours since I entered the dungeon, and I climbed down the stairs almost 4 times. That makes 5 levels now…

Oddly enough, or maybe luckily, all the traps were already activated, or they were dismantled. Some other raiding party must have taken them down because there were a LOT of traps.

Quickly heading into another passage, I try to avoid getting the goo on my shoes. Damn, how far did this worm go?

And then I noticed some stuff.

Dead bodies.

Of monsters of course.

The floor was littered with dead worms and Droolers. Annihilated, to be precise.

Carefully, avoiding the entrails and all other stuff that looked quite disgusting, I get to the other side of the passage. Oh great, the trail’s gone now.

I check around the passage, hoping to find a secret passage or hole. But thankfully, it was still here.

It had already died, and was lying belly up in the midst of the bodies. My sword stuck out from it like a unicorn’s horn, except from the side. I got closer to it, stepping on my toes, to see how it had died.

It was the sword. It had eaten away at the flesh of the worm, slowly killing it from the inside. I drew it out and stared into the hole the sword had made and enlarged.

“Quite the glutton aren’t you buddy?”

I wiped the sword clean with a towel when inspiration struck me.

“Glutton…. Yes! I got a name! Sword, I name you Gluttony!!”

I held the sword up to the roof, overjoyed at the name I had given it. I slashed with it once or twice, enjoying the feeling of it cutting apart air.

“That said… Maybe gluttony wasn’t that good a name… Well, whatever”

Putting the matter to rest, I sheathed the sword again, and left the passage, heading in to the dungeon. Even deeper into it.

A few minutes past, there were still no monsters. No monsters, no traps. This was starting to lose the feel of a dungeon right now. It seemed more like it was a leisurely stroll in a monster graveyard. By now my Detect was almost back, with whatever blocking it fading away. Suddenly, the cavern widened, opening up to a bigger room.

A crystal.

The first thing that greeted me was the crystal that lay shattered in the middle of the room, with little green pieces scattered around. The room was well lit, with lots of activated traps around.

I walked closer to the crystal cautiously, half expecting an ambush of sorts.

“Battle ?”

I observed the charred ground, noting to myself that someone fought here. Was this crystal the boss?

As I got closer to the crystal, I could see that there were inscription patterns on the ground. Overjoyed, I headed to the half broken crystal, and began studying the inscriptions.

“Th-this is?!”

I almost squealed in delight as I understood the inscriptions.

“Flight? No floating. Kind of a flight… I need to copy this and make modifications too”

Overjoyed at the prospect, I quickly copied the patterns onto a parchment, stowing it back into my ring after that. Deciding that it might be useful, I took some of the crystal pieces, intending to experiment with them.

But it was not the end of the dungeon exploration. My Detect had already found something. In the back of the huge room, there was another passage, half hidden in shadow.

I went closer to it, still feeling happy at the great find.

As I got closer, I could hear something. A song? Something similar. There was a lot of noise coming from down the hallway.

By the time I stepped into the passage, I could clearly make out the sound. Chanting. People chanting something.

“People here?”

Muttering to myself, I immediately move along the passage, intent on finding out what was happening.

Inside a dark but dimly lit room, lots of people stood around. Almost a thirty of them. All of them wore suspiciously familiar clothes. White robes with the design of a snake as the emblem.

“The Margistra family?”

They all wore masks, long ones with pointed tops and holes for seeing and speaking. Like real cultists. And based on the chanting, they were cultists.

I couldn’t make out the language, but based on the words, it was something for magic. Something old. That was the feeling I got from their words. But a word they said rang a bell. Something someone had told me.

“Of course, as you can guess from my last name, this is the Margistra family. It’s sort of like a religious cult, with us worshipping the great snake god Kuniyaltre. See? That’s the snake on our emblem!”

Kuniyaltre. The snake god. Niviel san told me about it.

I peeked a bit more in to the cavern, wanting to see where they were looking at.

In the far end of the room, there was something like a stone stage. On it, a fountain was placed, and it spouted suspicious violet water. For some reason, that fountain looks exactly like the one in Ugras. Don’t tell me… This is a huge flag.

As I watched, a man, I think? A man climbed onto the stage and stood before the fountain. He turned around to look at the people who had stopped chanting.

“MY BRETHREN!!! FOR YEARS WE HAVE TOILED UNDER THE TYRANNY OF THE KING!!! OUR LEGENDARY MIGHT HAS BEEN REDUCED TO A MERE SHADOW OF ITS FORMER GLORY!!! BUT TODAY… TODAY, WE SHALL REGAIN IT!!! TODAY, WE SHALL BRING BACK OUR GOD, AND REGAIN WHAT IS OURS!!! TODAY, WE SHALL REVIVE KUNIYALTRE SAMA!!!!!!”

He bellowed with his huge voice, but even that was deafened by the ear splitting roars from the crowd.

He raised an arm, and the roaring died down.

“MY BRETHREN, TODAY WE SHALL BRING GOD BACK WITH A SIMPLE SACRIFICE!!! WE SHALL DOUSE THE GROUND WITH OUR BLOOD, TO DO IT!!! FOR KUNIYALTRE SAMA!!!”

The crowd roared back, and everyone pulled out some dangerous looking knives. This seems bad. Alright, time to stop this. I’m not good with mass suicide.

“What might you be doing here?”

I froze at the sudden question. Someone had crept up on me, and I couldn’t even feel their presence. Sweat beaded on my forehead as I slowly turned towards the source.

Crap.

AUTHOR

The once in a blue moon update is here!! *expects applause*

Ahem. Sorry for the late updates, but there's a lot of problems with my PC, and I'm fixing them one by one. I hope I can return to regular updates soon.

On a more interesting note, I used to name chapters as Chapter X: Blah and now it's Chapter X-Yada

Yeah i know ... It's not really interesting.. *sulks*

Thanks for reading! And please point out any mistakes if you see one! Constructive criticism is very welcome, and as you might know, it is kinda necessary!

*bows and leaves*