“The portal is ready for you, young man.” An older lady shared. She gave me an inviting smile and gestured to the centre of the chamber, where a mirror-like portal shone brightly. I said my hurried goodbyes to Emeri, who wouldn’t be joining me on this delve and followed the elder to the portal.

I wondered for a moment why an older person like this lady would join Dalius. Judging from her hunched back and grey, tattered hair, it didn’t seem like she a good fit for this wild group of rebels.

“I’m not as spry as I used to be, I’ll admit.” She suddenly said, breaking the silence.

I jumped. Had I said that out loud? No, I was sure I hadn’t!

“I can tell what you’re thinking from your facial expressions, boy. You should keep a straighter face. That being said, shouldn’t your little girlfriend be joining us? This portal won’t stay open forever, you know. And don’t forget to bring a torch. The dungeon is pitch black on the inside.”

“Ah, right. Well, Emeri won’t be coming with me. She’s delving into an undead dungeon, since it’ll be better for our overall experience gain if we split up.” I explained, trying to do as she asked by maintaining a neutral expression. I wisely stayed silent about my vision in the dark, not willing to share too many of my cards with strangers.

She scrutinised me for a moment, an inquisitive eye staring back at me as she looked back.

“Is that a good idea? I’ve faced these ‘Garbador’ myself, at one point. They might as well be giant cockroaches! Good for exp, to be sure, but such a pain to take down. I don’t think you’ll even kill a single one by yourself, you know?” she said teasingly.

I could tell that she was only half-joking.

“Don’t worry about that. I have some methods to deal with them one at a time.”

By this point, we had arrived at the portal.

“One at a time? You better hope they don’t surround you, then.” She continued with a wry smile. “Come on, off you go! Just call Dalius’ name when you’ve left the dungeon. Our teleporter will open up a portal for you afterward.”

She lifted her cane and slammed it into my back full force. I almost lost my footing and stumbled through the portal. By the time I turned around, hoping to give her a piece of my mind, the mirror-like surface had already disappeared into thin air.

Left to my own devices, I took a look at my surroundings. A large nondescript cave loomed in front of me, carved into the side of a rocky cliff. Behind me, a truly beautiful expanse stretched up until the horizon.

“Where am I…?” I couldn’t help but mutter, staring at the azure sea that touched the coast. The sound of waves hitting the beach was contrasted by the rustling leaves of the few trees that dotted the edge of the sand.

I inspected my left and right a little more closely, but found no sign of civilisation. I couldn’t imagine why, though, because the slightly warm breeze would have made this the perfect place to live for many. Wasn’t this cave a quarry, too? Where did all of the people go? It made no sense…

At least I wasn’t being harassed by strangers. The quarry was completely empty. Apart from the obviously man-made cubic holes that had been dug into the cliff, there weren’t any houses or temporary accommodations. Whatever had been quarried here all those years ago had long since been transported to its destination, as well. The presence of such a deep cave in this quarry raised some questions, though. Maybe they had found a valuable vein of ore at one point? Why create a mine in the middle of a quarry, though?

Unfortunately, I didn’t have much time to admire the scenery. If I stalled for too long, Emeri would catch up to me and, inevitably, surpass my level. Currently, I was still ahead because of the war in the between lands that had netted me a large amount of experience. The goal this time was to reach level 100 in one go. Either I achieved that benchmark, or the dungeon ran out of monsters. Whichever happened first would be the deciding factor.

With a sigh, I gave the view one final glance before giving up on it and stalking into the cave.

Wooden beams stopped the tunnel from collapsing. Something about them was odd, though. The wooden beams were spotless. Brand new, even. Was this entire tunnel made by the dungeon, rather than the people?!

It had to have been, I quickly realised, because the tunnels were far too large for humans.

The ceiling of the tunnel was at least ten meters high and the cave itself was twice as wide. On top of that, these distances were only increasing as I went deeper and deeper.

As I walked further and further, the light that filtered in from the outside started to dim, eventually disappearing altogether, even though I had been walking in a straight line the entire time.

The cave started to shake ever so slightly, announcing the impending arrival of my first target.

A smile crept onto my face.

“Finally. Took you long enough…”

The shaking intensified a bit as the monster got closer. Soon enough, I started to hear the rumbling. In the distance, a dark-blue blur was fast approaching. It took up the entire tunnel, which had grown even larger than before, filling up the space.

Once it got close enough, I realised that the garbador was rolling! Had it noticed me yet?

I decided to test its awareness by hiding to the side of the tunnel. Because of the creature’s size, there was enough space to crouch under the rolling ball as it rushed past, I thought.

Sure enough, the monster didn’t seem to be aiming for me, necessarily. Just as the giant ball was about to roll over me harmlessly, I drew my sword and held it up like a spike. I squeezed against the wall right as it passed by, but cringed when my sword bounced off of the creature’s armor, the blade cracking in the process. I winced, not having expected my long-time weapon to ever break.

The resulting clang had alerted it of my presence, though, so that was that. I was now stuck fighting this thing, until either I or it died.

As soon as it noticed me, the giant ball started to slow down, grinding to a halt a few dozen meters past me. Then, it spun around its own axis and opened up, revealing two hind legs and two sharp claws as well as one tiny head.

“An igneous armadillo!” I exclaimed, remembering one the monsters Cerion had tried to ram down my throat during monster lessons a few months ago. Well, these monsters weren’t the same ones, obviously. For one, they were far larger than the kind Cerion had tried to teach me about. For another, these were blue rather than the red I remembered. A variant, then. A stronger, bigger variant.

The armadillo made a show of smelling the air, sniffing loudly a few times. Could it not see me?

After a particularly loud sniff, the armadillo turned to me, staring me dead in the eyes. Its beady black orbs held my gaze for a few moments, before the beast reared back and released a furious roar that shook the earth beneath me.

I had expected this reaction, though, and had taken the opportunity to rush towards the armadillo’s underbelly, where my sword finally found purchase. Unfortunately, even its underbelly was tough. I tried to leave a deep cut, but the leather-like skin hardly parted at all. To make matters worse, my sword finally gave up under the stress. Two-thirds of the blade broke off where it had previously cracked, leaving me with a small dagger.

Only a single, tiny red drop of blood seeped out of the wound I had left… but that was enough. I had activated [Curse mark] the moment I felt my sword pierce the skin and the corrosive sigil had instantly taken hold.

Mouldy green lines spread from the wound, digging and growing underneath the skin of the creature. It screeched in pain and rolled itself back into a ball, before catapulting itself at me. Stubbornly, I tried to block its charge with my onyx chains, but was sorely disappointed when the monster crushed them underfoot. Or ‘underball’, in this case. Not even [Crawling road], the poetic upgraded form of my aura could keep a strong enough hold on the chains to keep them in place.

On top of that, the chains broke apart as they strained to wrap around the creature. The attempt was futile, as it didn’t even slow down.

Out of options, I blasted myself to the right with aura step, hoping to dodged the incoming ball of destruction. I was just in time to dodge a dead-on hit, but was still dealt a glancing blow. The armadillo crashed into the tunnel wall with a resounding rumble, catapulting me to the side with its immense bulk and momentum.

I flew into the other wall, denting the tough rock as I hit it. My bones broke as the dungeon-reinforced stone refused to give under the pressure, leaving me dropped to the floor in a crumpled heap. Though I could feel my body mend, there wasn’t much room to move, let alone escape…

I needed an opportunity to get away. Before I could think about a strategy, the armadillo opened up again to take a sniff. It leaned down to my previous position, trying to find my corpse. Once it realised that I wasn’t there, it turned around. It must have smelled the blood seeping out of my wounds.

Slowly, with deliberate steps, the creature lumbered over to me. Confident in its victory, it ignored the dull pulse of the curse nestled above its stomach.

I waited.

Once it was within a few meters of me, it snorted and reared up, lifting a single elongated claw to the roof of the tunnel. The claws dug into the stone, making noise as the stone parted. Then, right as the claw was about to come down, I apparated in front of the creature’s stomach. With my broken sword in hand, I held onto its tough skin and stabbed into the small wound I had left previously.

The way my curse mark worked, that would intensify the curse substantially. The creature screeched in pain, but I gave it no time to recover and pulled the sword back out. Then, I stabbed it back in.

Enraged, the armadillo hunched itself back into a ball and prepared to roll. Only this time, I hadn’t let go. Stuck inside of the ball, I became squished under the monsters roiling muscles, which clamped down on me as hard as they could.

Unfortunately for me opponent, I had just enough room to repeatedly slide my sword back into its wound, increasing the curse’s power with each attack. Soon enough, the presence of my curse became so powerful even my mana sense could feel it.

Stuck in this battle of attrition, the monster and I competed over who could survive the longest. The armadillo rolled around at insane speeds, lurching me from side to side and crashed into whatever it could. More of my bones broke and I was sure a few of my organs had been pierced by some ribs by now. Even my skull felt like it was cracking… but I held on. I kept going. In and out, in and out…

After a certain amount of time, I don’t remember how long, the monster started to slow down. Its hold weakened, and its roars quietened. At some point, it stopped moving.

Ding! Combat finished. Congratulations on reaching [Hollow essence Knight] level 78!