I had to try my best not to roll my eyes. For me it was more than obvious it was miasma and I just called him to fake it as if I didn’t know, even so, I find his reaction a bit too much. Yea, yea, its miasma so what? Is a dungeon going to burst out of the ground because there is a spot with a bit higher concentration than usual? Actually that may be a possibility, I don’t know jack shit about dungeons and stuff so I might as well ask.

“Miasma? is that bad? And if it is bad, how bad?”

I tried to sound concerned but I was more curious than anything else. Everybody looked at me as if they were looking at an uncultured person, well, I kinda am so I can’t complain too much.

“Yes, it is bad. Why would miasma concentrate here? Miasma only concentrates around dungeons or powerful miasma fueled monsters. If miasma is concentrating here it’s either a dungeon will grow here in the future or a monster with enough miasma was here before”

Isa was the one to explain, such a good girl. Anyway, I doubt a dungeon would decide to spawn here of all places, so that leaves us with a strong beast roaming around. However, that is also unlikely. I spent a week being messed up by miasma back in the dungeon and if I learnt anything back then its that miasma makes those that come in contact with it supper aggressive. Then, could it be something like contaminated clothes? or something of the sort?

If my guess is correct then instead of a dungeon birthplace or a monster roaming around it could be that someone that is constantly in contact with miasma was here before. Now, where could someone get in contact with such dense amounts of miasma? Where else but a dungeon of course.

“Okay, I doubt its a dungeon that will just burst right here and I don’t think it was a monster either otherwise you would have heard of a monster rampaging. Then it’s probably someone that has been in contact with a lot of miasma and got some of it stuck on them. So where could such a volume of miasma be around”

This game of playing dumb is getting to me, I swear I won’t be able to take much more of this. Also, now that I think about it, what would happen if I come in contact with miasma again? Will I just go bunkers and start attacking anyone? Moreover, even if that doesn’t happen I am sure with absolute certainty that my eye will react to it. What to do? Well, I will cross that bridge when I get to it.

“A dungeon, that’s the only place I can think of”

“Well, let’s go then, there must be a dungeon nearby let’s investigate it”

This time the other human girl was the one to talk, Eleonora if I am correct. Well, her name is a bit long so let’s call her Eli. Anyway, now that I have managed to play dumb and get them to investigate a dungeon I think we are a step closer to solving this mess. However, as I was celebrating in my mind I was told that there are three dungeons near Olandel, well fuck. After discussing for a while we decided to go to the most likely one which was the second nearest to town. It is also the one that stands in the middle in terms of danger from the three. If anyone wanted to hide, that would be a good place, well as long as they can survive inside.

We bought a few supplies that should last us for at least three days, maybe a week if we were to try and extend them as much as possible. Anyway, after a three-hour walk, we were at the entrance of the dungeon. Unlike Ingracia’s dungeon, this one looked less like a cave and more like, an underground castle? To put it simply the walls were made out of dark purple bricks, and the only lighting source were torch-looking sticks that protruded from the walls and gave a soft and flickering cyan blue light.

The procedure to enter was the same as Ingracia’s, get the pendant strap it somewhere within your body, preferably somewhere you could easily see, and you are good to go. Thankfully we also took our time to tell the guild master about this otherwise there was no way an F ranker could enter. He had made a letter on the spot and handed it to me, so that was that.

As we entered the dungeon I could feel a tingling sensation over my skin, something similar to how you feel warm and a bit energised after receiving the first rays of the morning sun. However, the sensation didn’t last long since not too long after we set foot inside Isacc chanted a spell and a bubble of magic surrounded us. From the looks of it, this is to keep the concentration of miasma inside the bubble as low as possible.

It didn’t take long for the first monsters to appear. A mess staggering bodies with rotting flesh, yup, you guessed it, its the undead or to be specific zombies. It took no time at all for us to get rid of the rotting group, twenty zombies total against six people and yet they were crushed completely without any trouble. I think these zombies are about the same strength as the monsters in Ingracia’s dungeon. Well, it’s not like I can compare them properly, I have grown stronger since then, so I might be wrong.

As we kept walking, more undead would appear from time to time, skeletons and zombies. Easy to deal with but a pain due to their numbers, they slowed our pace quite a bit. Well if I were to be serious they wouldn’t even last a single second but why would I waste energy like that? Anyway as we kept walking we did our best to look for clues. However, there was no need for that. Ever since we came inside this place I could tell we were in the correct dungeon. I don’t know how or why but my senses were telling me where to go. It wasn’t all the time but when I was going to do a wrong turn I could feel something like a pull towards the correct direction or at least I hope it is the correct direction.

As we kept advancing I could feel like we were getting closer to our objective, however, we came to an abrupt stop as my senses pointed to a dead end. Well, it’s not really a dead end, as of now we are in a passage and there is room to go forward, however, my senses are telling me to turn left and right there is a wall. As I inspected said wall the others waited while looking at me with intrigue. After having to deal with my weird behaviour for a while it seems they have gotten used to it, good.

I must be sincere. I didn’t find any switch or anything of the sort that could lead to a secret passageway, so I did what any sensible person would do in such a situation. I placed my hands on the wall, concentrated mana in my palms and blasted it forwards with as much force as I could. Mana blast baby! And just like that, the wall crumbled into a million pieces. In front of us, a passageway barely lit.

“How, how did you know?”

The beast-man looked at me with both curiosity and caution. I just shrugged and walked in while having a slight sensation of Deja Vu. I swear if I get teleported to a deep shithole inside this dungeon by a trap I will collapse this entire place no matter what it takes. Fortunately for us, Isacc sensed said trap and we avoided it. It didn’t take to long for us to look around the entire hidden passage. It wasn’t all that big, only six rooms alongside an L shaped hallway. This entire time that feeling that had brought us here didn’t react so we were going blind.

It took me some time to realize as we discussed what to do now that maybe, just maybe, whoever was hiding in this dungeon used this trap as a way to travel around. If this trap works anything like the one that gave hell to me, then it will transport us to another hidden part of the dungeon. I sighed at the idea of this being the case, it was truly a gamble but what could we do by now. I decided to tell the others, and after some convincing, we did some preparations.

Everyone from Isa’s party took out a white pill and swallowed it. From my understanding, this pill will gather any miasma that infiltrates their body and purify it. Its effects can vary depending on the amount of miasma and what not but I guess its better than nothing. However, as they gave me one, I refused it. I was going to accept it but as soon as the words came to mind they were denied by an intense urge that crawled from within me. I didn’t mind it that much but the others looked worried about my safety, I still didn’t take it tho.

Now that all our preparations had been finished, we stepped into the trap. Just like that The symbols that had been engraved into the ground shone with a faint light for a second before bursting into a blinding light. Well, here goes nothing, now that I think about it, does every dungeon have this kind of teleportation traps and hidden rooms? With those thoughts in mind, the light dissipated and with it, a cracking sound was heard here and there. Looking at the pendant that I had tied to my wrist a somewhat familiar sight got to my eyes. The pendant had cracked and what little of it was left had been dyed in a purple so deep it wouldn’t be wrong to just say its black.

In the next instant, I could hear dry coughing behind me. As I turned to look at Isa’s party every single one of them had pained expressions with a bit of blood coming out of their mouths. Amid all this, Issac was chanting and a second later a magic bubble like the one before covered everyone. Their coughing stopped so from the looks of it, the combined effort of the pill and the bubble had made things bearable for them. On the other hand, there was me. As soon as the light had disappeared I felt a surge of energy coursing through my body like electricity, however, it had disappeared as soon as Isacc had cast his magic bubble.

“Is, is everyone alright?”

That was Isa, who had a worried expression on her face. Everyone else nodded as confirmation and then they all looked at me. I smiled and began walking in a random direction. I wanted to get out of this bubble, I want to feel that energising feeling once more.

“Amelia, wait, where are you going?”

This time Isacc was the one to talk. His breath hadn’t stabilised yet but it was good enough for talking. However, as the caster of the bubble, he was the one with the best perception of where it started and where it ended since the thing was invisible to the naked eye.

“wait for me, you are about to walk out of the boundary of the bubble”

“Don’t worry, I just want to breathe some fresh air”

I couldn’t help but grin as I stepped outside the bubble. I could feel the miasma from the atmosphere invading my body with absolutely no resistance as it gathered in my core. Not long after, as my core couldn’t absorb it all, I could feel the miasma invade every cell in my body. It was such a nice feeling, like finally being able to drink water after wandering in an endless desert without anything to drink in sight. I enjoyed it for a few seconds before it was gone again. Turning around I could see that Isacc had moved nearer to me so the bubble would cover me once again.

“That was unnecessary you know”

I couldn’t hide my displeasure at having such a nice feeling robbed from me for the second time. However, as soon as Isacc and the others saw my face they became extremely wary of me, to the point where they were trying to stealthily grab their weapons. Well, then it seems like we have a slight misunderstanding here. I should fix that before things get out of hand.