Valtheril was quick to descend the stairs and beckoned us over, confusing me at first, but then I realized that there was a rune-locked door that we hadn’t seen yet, which meant that this wasn’t the entrance quite yet. I was about to ask for a torch to pierce the darkness, but the general instead used his sword to shine a light. It was like Velariah’s spell, but of a completely different magnitude.

I saw the white-haired knight looking at it in both amazement and longing. From what we’d seen so far from her own inherity, she seemed to follow in her father’s footsteps, and it was incredibly easy to tell just how excited she was.

Vymar remained at the bottom of the steps as the general led our party forward and further down through a damp, black tunnel. However, It was nothing like Arch’s dungeon as the sides and ceiling were neatly shaped like an arch.

Heh, funny.

There were no bricks or anything of the sort. The entire way before us appeared to be made from one single enormous rock. Not just that, but they were also adorned with engravings. It was just that, decoration. There were no ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs or anything of the sort, just patterns that kept repeating as one would find on wallpaper in the form of waves, both triangular and smooth ones.

There was a distinct lack of torches, even extinguished ones. At least those had been present where we’d gone so far, but down here, anyone would have to bring their own. Then again, I imagined any proper adventurer would do so anyway.

After half a minute of walking, we came to a halt as a door barred our way. At first, I thought it was steel, but then I saw an eerie blue glow like a wave, from the bottom to the top, rippling through the metal. Magic was the only word I had to explain the phenomenon.

Then, I noticed there was no keyhole, or well, there was something that somewhat resembled it, but it was a half-spherical hole, like a dent in the metal where one would be.

“Typical rune lock,” The general said after bowing forward to have a closer inspection. “Nothing that sets this place apart so far.”

“How do we open it?” Nira asked softly.

I heard the general chuckle once in reply.

“Normally, you’d use a runed orb, but those aren’t available in this place, so we’ll have to do it the good old-fashioned way.”

I was about to ask what it meant, but when I saw him retract his sword in a motion ready to stab with it, I knew exactly what it meant. The blade shone even brighter and then with a single stab, like a hot knife through butter (or a lightsaber through a steel door was probably a better comparison) he cut through the metal, removing the lock mechanism, and pushed the two large doors over, sending a reverberating clunk through the hallway.

“And we’re in,” He said before assuming a combat stance and gesturing for us to stay put as he took one step forward and then immediately backed off.

The reason became known to me a mere second later as I heard a high-pitched noise caused by a projectile that flew from right to left a few inches in front of Valtheril.

“Poison darts,” He muttered. “How predictable.”

Poison you say?

I wondered if it was worth getting hit by one, just so I could add another different type of poison to my arsenal. Then again, the poison that had affected me was extremely potent according to Pylanor, so there was a good chance this was weaker, in which case it would be pointless.

Also, poison darts? Was this an Indiana Jones movie or what? Next thing I know we’re gonna have a giant stone ball rolling down this tunnel.

…

I just jinxed it, didn’t I?

I heard a clicking sound and for a moment I feared my thoughts would actually come true, but then I heard it again, and again, and saw Valtheril tapping down his foot on a stone tile which sank slightly into the ground before bouncing back. Each click was followed by another dart flying across the room. He repeated this until the darts stopped.

“And that’s that. Hey, Elania, are you ready to do your thing?”

“Uhh, I, uh.” I stumbled over my words as the question came unexpectedly. If I had to be honest, I was kind of excited about seeing how Valtheril tackled a supposedly high-level dungeon and I’d been completely captured by his moves so far.

Nevertheless, we weren’t here to take on this dungeon. In fact, we were here to try to do the absolute opposite.

“Yeah,” I said with a nod when I’d found my composure and walked up right behind him, preparing to speak, but unsure of what to say.

“Hello dungeon,” was the best I could manage. “We would like to speak to you. We know that you somehow created a massive version of a borer. It was sent to a nearby village where we stopped it from attacking. We know there is someone that asked you, or perhaps forced you to do this.” I took a moment to catch my breath and think about my next words. “If it’s the latter, we are here to help. We’re after that person.” I decided to just be honest about this.

I didn’t know if dungeons had some kind of lie-detecting ability, but I reckoned it best to not withhold any information. Besides, whom was the dungeon going to rat me out to? As far as I knew, I was the only one that had the gift of being able to communicate with one.

“If you’re listening and wondering how we can even speak to you, well, I have an inherity that allows me to communicate with arachnids. There’s another dungeon not too far from here that has a large, sentient spider that it uses to convey its wishes to me.”

I waited a few seconds, but there was no response or anything happening.

“If you’d like to talk, then that would be the way to do it.”

There was still no reaction, not the sign of getting any from the darkness that lay ahead. We waited a minute or two for anything to happen, but ultimately, the general stepped forward again, prompting me to ask, “Now what?”

“Now we move on. Remain here, I’ll clear the way.”

I was slightly saddened by the fact that the dungeon hadn’t responded. The silver lining about all this was that I’d at least get to see Valtheril in action, even if it was from a safe distance.

His sword gave off enough light to see quite far around him, more than any torch I’d seen. He used it to constantly look around to spot anything coming for him. At the same time, he slowly advanced while checking for traps as he had before, and he did set off a few more dart ones, exhausting all ammo before continuing.

At one point he was pounced on by what appeared to be a giant sloth with claws that could tear a man in half, but he seemed to simply shrug at it as he swung his blade to the side, cleaving the beast in half with the raw power of his inherity-enhanced blade.

Ok. That looked cool as hell… even from here.

Then, he appeared to trigger another trap as I heard a loud clunk followed by a torrent of flames sprouting from the ground, completely engulfing the general. I was worried for a few seconds, but then saw him step backward and out of the flame. A thin layer of transparent white surrounded him like an eggshell, and I imagined it was some sort of magical barrier that had completely nullified the attack.

Ok, he was looking cooler by the second.

“You guys are going to need to be careful about that one,” He called out before stabbing the stone that had triggered it twice. For a second, I was confused about why he did it, but he gave the answer himself.

“There, now it’s marked. Doubt anyone’s going to fall for it now.”

He continued forward for a bit until the room he was in converged into another hallway. He then took a turn and started exploring to the right, triggering a bunch more traps before running into another giant sloth which was just as quickly dealt with as the first. Then, when he almost reached the entrance to the room again, we all spotted a treasure chest sitting against the wall.

“Well, would you look at that,” He commented. “Seems I earned myself some loot after all that. Unless, of course…”

The tip of his sword slowly traveled to the padlock and pulled it slightly upward to get a better look. He then let it drop, and with an incredibly swift strike, thrust his blade into the wooden box. When he withdrew it, I saw it covered in blood.

What the hell was in that chest?

He saw me staring at his sword as he walked back to us, ready to take on the other half of the room.

“A mimic,” He said calmly as he passed us. “A creature that disguises itself as treasure to lure adventurers to then attack them when they’re close, using the element of surprise. Generally considered a fairly low-level creature, but there are many variants, including ones that pose a threat to more experienced adventurers.”

“Happy to find out about them before having them attack me,” I commented before turning to Velariah. “Did you know about them?”

“Nope. This is my first time hearing about them as well.

“Should have spent some more time in those books,” Her father said in a bit of a mocking tone, yet he was somewhat serious too, that much was obvious.

“Perhaps,” Velariah replied, knowing full well that her father had a point. “But there are so many different dungeon creatures, keeping track of them all would be tedious.”

“There aren’t that many that disguise themselves as a treasure chest.”

That retort managed to completely silence the white-haired knight.

Velariah’s reaction was quite predictable, but she hadn’t thought it through. At least, there was no way it was convincing to someone with this much experience. I knew what she truly meant, though, and so did her dad. She had just been too occupied with the other aspects of being an adventurer - the more interesting parts - such as actually fighting to evolve her inherity and of course, before that, training.

“How can you recognize them?” I asked while the general pressed onward.

“You don’t. Their disguise is immaculate, but I have a fair deal of experience with dungeons, and that chest was almost too easy, which can be a giveaway.”

He cleared the rest of the room, killing one more sloth that hid in the furthest corner before circling back to us.

“So far so good. Let’s continue forward. Just be careful of that flame trap.”

We heeded the leader’s words and walked around said trap with a wide arc, following him through the next corridor which wasn’t nearly as well-decorated as the first. In fact, it was completely devoid of any.

“Please,” I spoke softly as we walked onward. “We just want to talk… possibly help.”

Just like before, there was no reaction, leaving me feeling hopeless. This was our best, and so far, only lead in regards to the attack on Dawnleaf, and through it, getting a better understanding of why I had been targeted.

“What if the dungeon doesn’t want to talk?” I asked Valtheril.

“We make our way to the core room to check if there’s anything out of the ordinary there. Hopefully, seeing it will tell us more.”

“What could be the problem with the core?” Velariah then asked.

“All sorts of things of which you know the worst possibility.”

He didn’t elaborate further on those other possibilities and instead, assumed a combat-ready stance when we reached the end of the corridor, once again shining a light in the darkness before us. He tested for traps, but the floor here was made of one solid piece of stone, almost like concrete, so it made me doubt if there was even room for such a mechanism.

“An empty room…” The general said softly, barely loud enough for me to hear. “That can only mean one thing.

Where have I heard that before…

A tremendous roar echoed through the room, forcing me to cover my ears as the sound cut into them. After the noise had quieted down I could hear… was that pounding? Was this some kind of gorilla we were up against?

The general didn’t seem to be affected in the slightest and before I knew what had threatened to attack, he extended his sword forward, creating a white ball at the tip of his blade which grew until it was the size of a soccer ball. Then, with lightning speed, Valtheril slashed the thin air before him, seemingly missing, nay, not even getting close to the enemy, which was still far away in the darkness before him, concealed from view.

Though, when I looked again, the ball of magic had disappeared.

What was that?

I heard a loud thud, followed by another as the creature’s face was revealed only when it hit the floor before Valtheril’s feet. It was indeed some kind of enormous gorilla, and now it was dead, felled by whatever the hell that attack was.

How many more tricks does he have up his sleeve?

“Low Ruby at best,” Valtheril said calmly, collected, as he simply walked by the beast’s head.

I was going to assume he meant the rank of the dungeon with those words. It being ruby would mean that it was at least one whole tier lower than his skill level, quite possibly more if one considered that Valtheril might very well be of Abyss level. There just hadn’t been a quest that would have allowed him to advance.

“It’s safe to continue,” He then added.

I was still left with amazement and I could tell that the others were as well. The ease with which he’d killed this… I was going to assume it was some kind of boss monster, had had quite the impact.

“And there’s a treasure chest over there,” He said, pointing his sword to his northwest. “Feel free to take its contents. That is, after you check if it’s a mimic, which I highly doubt.”

“And why is that exactly?” I asked, making my way to the chest, now illuminated by Valtheril’s light.

“Because it would be a bad move to not reward adventurers for their troubles, especially after they manage to slay a boss. That is how dungeons usually work. The issue here is that nobody knew about this one’s existence until not so long ago, so caution is advised.”

“In that case,” I replied as I walked up to the box, my polearm at the ready. Velariah copied my movements and held her sword ready to stab in case this inconspicuous object turned out to be hostile.

There was a padlock, but it wasn’t actually locked. I used my weapon to slowly move it up and out of its hinges before carefully opening the top with my blade.

What was inside wasn’t some sort of monster in the slightest. Instead, there was a piece of red cloth at the bottom of the chest, with on top of it several shiny gemstones. I counted four small red ones, one large red one, and a small turquoise one. Then there was a small chunk of what appeared to be some kind of unrefined metal, but it was a strange shade of purple.

Now, if I recall correctly, my blade was made from lightning steel, of which the ore was found in dungeons. It made me curious as to whether this metal also had some sort of effect, and this was probably true, but I was left wondering as to what. As for the gemstones, well, as far as I knew, the red ones would increase fire damage. I imagined the larger red one would have greater effect, but it was the turquoise one that I was unsure about,

“Looks like some actual treasure,” Velariah commented as she wrapped all the items in the red piece of cloth before putting it away in Draco’s bag. “Not sure what all of it is, and from your stares, I think you are in the same boat as me, but we’ll figure that out when we’re done here.”

Her father was still waiting and watching in front of him without showing a hint of impatience.

I sure admired that about him.

As soon as we had regrouped behind him, he moved forward again, through the next corridor.

“Odd thing to ask, but I don't suppose we’ll need Vymar, do we?” I asked softly, as politely as I could.

“As far as I can tell, no,” The general said. “If this is truly a ruby tier dungeon, and everything points towards me being right in that assessment, I can easily take out anything it can put in my way. Besides, I’d much rather have Vymar in the position he is now, in case anything unforeseen happens on the outside.”

“Understood.” I nodded.

As usual, he’d accounted for a couple of things. I just hoped that this unforeseen stuff outside the dungeon wouldn’t come to pass… whatever that could be.

Since we were in another long corridor that connected floors, and there wasn’t a whole lot going on here, there were no traps or monsters in sight, so I decided to ask my earlier question.

“So what about the entrance now? Can anyone walk inside?”

“Not quite,” Valtheril responded. “And I suppose it’s partially why there has been no response from the dungeon. If what I’m thinking is true, then you can blame me for it, although I had little choice in the matter.”

“Huh?” I let out, confused by his words.

“Allow me to explain.”