Stray Soul

Looking at the entrance of what was clearly the fabled dungeon I’ve been dreaming of for the past few days... I started to wonder if it was even a good idea to go inside it and explore it as I wasn’t so sure of what could be inside it.

Were the ‘dungeon monsters’ inside just like the other animals I’ve met in the forest? So, just big and sometimes with some magical properties?

Or where they more magical, like elementals and such?

Or was this place even a dungeon, and not the home of a very strong monster?

Sadly... there was no way for me to know as, like I said before, I just didn’t know anything about dungeons... and using my knowledge from other bits of media from earth might not be the most intelligent thing as while this world has game like mechanics, its not entirely game like, so a dungeon doesn’t necessarily have to have rules like a set number of monster per room, or even rooms to begin with.

Hell, for all I know the moment I step inside, a thousand xenomorphs will start attacking me!

And, while I think a dungeon would be the perfect place to level up because... duh, it’s a dungeon. I am also not sure if I want to risk my life that much...

...Eh, fuck it. I’ll just go in and explore a bit, and get out as quickly as I went in, no reason to not explore this potential treasure trove of exp and maybe a literal treasure trove just because I was being unnecessarily cautious, after all, fortune favours the bold!

Then, I just entered the dungeon.

And after I entered the dungeon... nothing happened.

No system window saying ‘You’ve entered the dungeon of XXX’ or ‘Congratulations! You’ve discovered the dungeon of XXX’, or something similar, none of that.

But I could feel the higher ambient mana in the air, which would probably make my mana regenerate a bit faster... wait, what?

Sensing the mana touching my skin, I could say with confidence that, even though the mana in the air was much higher inside the dungeon... I didn’t seem to be getting more mana regeneration because... fuck me, I guess.

But why? Is that because the mana in the air is the dungeon’s mana or something like that?

...Eh, no clue, not that I want to delve deep enough to find the core and test out why I can’t absorb most of the mana in the air... at least, not for now.

Slowly starting to walk forwards, I put my vines on the rock next to me, and put a horn forward, using it to smack the ground every so often so I didn’t fall for the pit trap that every new adventurer was fated to fall into... at least I hoped that doing this would help me locate a pit trap before I stepped on it... if there is a pit trap, or any traps in this dungeon.

I mean, dungeon cores are just shiny rocks, right? So, it wouldn’t make much sense for it to be able to come up with any traps without it being intelligent to some degree, and while this world is a magical world... I frankly find the idea of a thinking rock to be offensive.

After a bit more of walking, darkness overtook my surroundings as the sun’s light didn’t quite reach inside here, but thankfully my hybrid eyes, which were barely holding on to life at this point, were pretty good at seeing with no light!

...Somehow... not going to question it... nope, not gonna!

Before long the tunnel started to diverge into more and more tunnels, so I started using the tested and trusted method of leaving a hand on the right wall... well, a vine, but you get the point.

Oh, and there were no rooms for typical encounters one would expect from a dungeon, so I just assumed that I would soon get swarmed by a group of very friendly xenomorphs.

But I didn’t, which just made me more paranoid, and made me think of leaving the dungeon, but, as I was wondering about what to do, I started hearing noises from the tunnel in front of me, which sounded like skittering of feet.

And after a few tense seconds of me slowly backing up and preparing my horns to attack whatever was coming this way, the monsters finally showed themselves and they were... bugs.

Just large bugs. They were not the same ones from the river, and looked more like centipedes but... they were still just large bugs, and even though I didn’t know if they were poisonous or something... I didn’t really care as, even though there were like a dozen of them, they were, at the end of the day, just bugs.

Then I started slowly inching forwards while preparing to use my horns as clubs, and squash anything that got too close to me under my hooves, and I just... started hitting them, and squishing them under my foot, which ended the fight after a few minutes.

“...That was... dissapoi—” Probably sensing that I was talking bullshit, a bug that was hiding on the ceiling dropped on me while giving a horrible screech.

*SCREE*

“HOLY!!!” Quickly, the bug started biting me, but to it dismay, it was getting its mouth full of leaves and bark, but it was still causing a bit of trouble on my back, so I did the best thing I could think of and... dropped down, and started rolling around, trying to get it down from my back.

*SCREEE*

Giving another screech, the bug finally managed to bite into a part of my flesh, and gripped it tight, and didn’t let go of me even though I tried to get it off of me after dropping to the ground.

“You son of a—JUST GET OFF!” I tried to make my displeasure known at the bug, which was not doing much... oh wait, I feel something in the area its biting so... it’s really poisonous?

Well, jokes on you, you overgrown centipede, I AM AN UNDEAD!

So, I cannot get poisoned!

...Well, from conventional poisons like what you are using, because I’ll bet 3 dabloons that there is at least one poison of some kind that works on undead... not that I am going to encounter that said poison any time soon though... if it exists of course.

After an honestly... embarrassing battle, I finally managed to kill the last centipede, and the system message appeared after a few seconds of me standing triumphant over the corpses of the dungeons valiant defenders.

*ding*

Congratulations! You have defeated 9 Dungeon Centipedes (H) Level 3-5!

23 exp gained!

Congratulations! You have levelled up and become level 11!

Well... that was fast... who knew that actually defeating opponents instead of wandering around all day gave you a lot of exp?

...At least I don’t have to worry about killing of a lot of animals in a dungeon... I hope.

I mean, they are dungeon monsters, yeah? So, the dungeon must have some kind of way to replace them, be it be with something like centipede breeding rooms, or just through spawning them from... I don’t know, mana, I guess?

Anyways, I should probably spend my stat points on something...

Looking at my mana counter, I just decided to dump all of the stats into intelligence as I didn’t have enough stat points for me to try and separate them into intelligence and wisdom.

I mean, I could do that but that wouldn’t be really efficient now, would it?

Mana Points: 260/442

Intelligence: 21 (19)

Wisdom: 19 (14)

Hmm... my mana is not as high as I would’ve liked it to be... but at the same time, I don’t have to worry about having high or low mana if I am careful, and if I ever want to get out of the dungeon, I know how to do it so, no problem there.

Deciding to delve deeper into the dungeon, I gave a glance at the mushed-up corpses of the centipedes, and decided to not touch any of them as I just didn’t have a use for them.

Maybe some of their brains were still usable but I wasn’t so sure about that so, I just ignored them.

Delving deeper into the dungeon, the tunnels got more and more sprawling, but I continued to use my genius tactic of kissing the right wall, so I didn’t have to worry about being lost.

O, what a genius I am, aren’t I? Truly, my genius, its sometimes frightening.

After delving deeper, and deeper into the dungeon, I finally saw a weird hole in the wall that didn’t seem to be connected to another wall.

“Oh? A boss room perhaps?” I thought to myself.

Hmm... there is no harm in taking a look inside, right?

After all this dungeon really seems like just a nest of monsters instead of the traditional dungeon with rooms, mazes, and traps.

And most of the monsters I’ve fought hardly give me any exp, so I don’t know if I will even bother coming here after this but a boss... now, that should be interesting!

And if it seems sketchy, I’ll just fallow the right wall out of the dungeon, and don’t come back here again until I am confidant in beating anything here without trouble!

Proceeding forwards to the weird opening, I can only express what I saw there with 3 simple words.

“What the fuck?” I said in surprize and wonder, as I just wasn’t sure of what to make of what I was seeing.

Instead of the hole opening into a chamber with a centipede mother or something, it just looked like an office.

Or, well, a modern looking building, because this place lacked the cubicles people were so fond of, at least I assumed so because I only could see the tiled floors, painted walls, and wooden doors separated by 2 meters at most.

The tiles themselves, while dusty, didn’t seem to be too damaged, and after a small renovation this place could be used for the exploitation of the proletariat!

But seriously, what the ever-loving fuck?

In a daze, I took a step inside the... office or whatever this place was, but in the far distance something caught my eye.

It was a large figure with something giving off a muted blue light on its head, with long arms and legs, its body seemed like it was always tilted down, looking at and searching for... something.

But it also seemed... wrong. Though I couldn’t be sure from this distance, its body could be best described by the words crude and misshapen.

And the moment my hoof touched the tiled floor, its head turned up with a speed that didn’t fit something of its size.

Taking my que, I then quickly started making my way towards the dungeon’s entrance, not wanting to deal with whatever bullshit that was.

Now, you may call me coward, which I most definitely am, but ask yourself this, do you see any world where I am capable of defeating a stone golem?

No, I am not!

Maybe after I rank up once or twice but, for now, I am going nowhere near that golem, nor what lays deeper in the dungeon.

Troves of treasure? A dungeon core? A monster that’s using this place as its nest?

None of that!

I am not going there, and that’s the end of it!

While I was quickly retreating deeper and deeper into the dungeon, trying to get back to its entrance as fast as possible, I suddenly heard a familiar ding.

*ding*

Side Quest: What Lays Beyond? (C)

Quest Description: Through your exploration of a dungeon, you’ve discovered something that shouldn’t be. But what will you do now? Will you face the dangers that lay deeper into the dungeon, and discover the origin of the thing you’ve found, or forget about?

Quest Completion Conditions:

- Delve deeper and discover why an office was built inside a mountain, and its purpose.

Quest Failure Conditions:

- Death

- Not being able to find any conclusive evidence even after searching for answers.

Quest Rewards:

- 200 exp

Accept / Reject?

...Haaa... I have to do it now, don’t I?