Chapter 38 – Dungeons

The heavy scent of rotten fallen leaves winds around your face like a spider’s web. The dusty old dungeon created the illusion of bugs sticking to your skin just by entering, making any adventurer hesitate to enter from the entrance.

“I’ll go in.”

Leading by the unstoppable Elise, we entered the dungeon. A cold wind blows from inside. The death-like coolness made me nervous right from the start. Power goes into the hand holding the knife.

“I can’t see anything. I’ll have to light the lantern.”
“Where do you put the oil?”
“For a moment… I just need to put it in here.”

The inside of the dungeon was dark with no light. It was really fucking dark. There was no light whatsoever. Within 20 seconds of entering, Copson pulled out a lantern. There was no point in coming down this morning. It will be the same whether you come in at midnight or at noon.

Since it was underground, even the sunlight did not shine, so I had to rely entirely on a lantern to secure my watch.

“Okay. Now we have to light a fire.”

After adding the oil, I split the hwaseopja and lit the lantern with the embers. The orange light on the lanterns created a pretty cool and medieval atmosphere.

“Ohhh, the light is orange! It’s orange! Can you see it? Barbarian Shack! The light is orange!”
“Ji, calm down.”

Copson exclaimed with delight for reasons unknown to him. Also, this kid isn’t normal. Perhaps the ominous magic of the dungeon had driven him into madness.

Anyway, we went down to the basement, relying on that little light. Stairs made of stone endlessly. Not knowing what lurks beyond the darkness…

It was then.

“Kyaaak!”
“Sir!”

Meria, who had been following me, suddenly screamed and grabbed me by the shoulders, startling me! From her mouth, expletives like a primal howl burst out. Is it an attack! I quickly turned around and grabbed Meria by the shoulder and sent her behind me.

“What a bitch you are!”

Then, aiming at her sword, he thrust it menacingly into the place where the enemy might be. Seeing that sight, Copson and Elise also approached with their respective weapons pointed with hard faces.

“Barbarian Shack? What’s going on?”
“Is it red?”

But there was nothing behind. I slowly looked around, wondering if it was a flying monster or a black monster. I searched to the point where my eyes would fall out, but I couldn’t find anything.

I turned to Meria and asked.

“What, what is it. Meria. What’s going on… There’s nothing? You can’t say it’s a ghost, right?”

I was most afraid of ghosts in the world. It would look cool in its own way if I pointed out that it was because they couldn’t be cut, but I was always afraid of ghosts because I was just a fucking coward. My hands and feet started to tremble. The undead appear, but are ghosts also appearing? Ghost is also a monster that is included in the undead.

“Oh sorry.”
“Yes?”
“My foot got stuck…”
“Ah.”

Meria said as if she was embarrassed.

I think I overreacted because I was too nervous. Rather, I began to feel more ashamed than Meria. I made a loud noise on purpose to intimidate the enemy…

Hehe, the cheering sound was overflowing with energy. Barbarian Shack. This must be very believable.”
“Damn.”
“If it’s not a big problem, I’ll go down again.”

I went down the stairs again. I don’t know how far I’ve come down because I don’t have a watch, but I think I’ve come down to some depth. As she was descending in a slightly relaxed state, Meria spoke to her from behind.

“There.”
“Ok?”
“That… Thank you just now.”

Suddenly, she said thank you. What have I just been thankful for? All I did was swear loudly and slash a knife in the air.

“You reacted as soon as I screamed and pulled me back. If there was a real enemy, it would be like saving my life.”

Meria seemed to be grateful that I reacted immediately and pulled her out behind me. Isn’t it common sense to protect wounded comrades during battle? It was a half-reflexive action, so I didn’t expect to hear thanks.

“Ah, that’s it. With something like that. I pulled it back because I thought it might have been attacked after seeing the screams. The injured should be sent to the rear.”
“Thanks anyway.”

After chatting like that, we went downstairs, and the end was finally in sight. Did you arrive at the first basement floor? It was said that the scale was considerable, and indeed it was as it was said. Great depth. It must have descended several tens of meters.

“This looks like the first basement floor.”
“I guess so.”

The first floor was very spacious. Roughly holding a lantern and shining light on it, I looked around and it looked like a very huge cavity. Even if you open a market with a stall here, it will be a great success. Despite being in a place so deep underground, it was enormous.

“Are there traces of other adventurers?”

Feeling slightly overwhelmed, I searched the floor. All the used consumables were lined up like traces of other adventurers. Seeing as it hasn’t been that long, there seemed to be a high possibility of encountering another party during the exploration.

Anyway, among the consumables, I didn’t see anything that seemed reusable or worth money. Unfortunately, it’s all garbage.

“Umm… So many crossroads?”
“I know.”

The first basement floor here seemed to be a circular structure, and as I walked around and counted, there were 14 different entrances to the basement. In other words, this was a waiting area. A gateway to rest before entering a full-scale dungeon.

“There are 14 entrances.”
“Where do I go down? Barbarian Shack. Give me a sense of savagery.”
“This bastard is talking nonsense again.”
“Well, I think it’s 14, so it doesn’t really matter where it goes.”

It’s not something we really know, and it seems like it would be okay to just poke and go in anywhere. There may be traps, but isn’t it a situation where you don’t completely know where they are? There seems to be no other way to get in.

“Sister Elise. Where would you like to go?”
“…I do not know.”

Still, I asked Elise, who must be the most experienced of us. But she didn’t seem to have a clue either.

“Since our church’s lucky number is 4, how about the 4th entrance from the left? I’m attracted to that one.”

One cannot agree that 4 is the lucky number. In our culture, 4 is used as the number of death. Although there is no way that Korean superstition will work in this world. Copson seemed unconcerned, and Meria counted the entrances.

“It’ll be fine. Let’s go there.”
“One, two, three, four. Are you here?”

As Elise said, I chose entrance number 4 and headed deeper underground. This time she didn’t go down that much. Soon after, we arrived at the second basement floor. It didn’t look like a huge room, it looked like a passage that stretched out on both sides.

“This is the fork in the road again. Left or right?”

I want to keep a record of the way I came. Judging by the fact that the road stretches on both sides, if there is a sudden corner, this place literally turns into a labyrinth. Actually it will. It’s not called a dungeon for nothing. It was common knowledge that a dungeon was a maze.

“Is there anyone who draws a map? I think I should simply draw a road or something.”
“I will draw it. Please leave that part to me.”
“Oh, thank you.”

Elise’s map has a lot of questionable parts, but if only she could figure it out.

Since none of the party was left-handed, it was agreed to go right. As I continued toward Ozen, the road forked again shortly after. This time it was in three directions. Straight and left and right.

“Wow, is there another fork in the road?
“It’s a complete maze.”
“Isn’t this fucked up?”

I had a gut feeling that I was screwed. This dungeon was a complete maze.

After all, you have three options. Among them, the unusual thing is that in the case of going straight, it was the way to go underground again. Already on the 3rd basement floor, where is the end of this dungeon?

“If there were monsters on this floor, there’s no way we wouldn’t have seen them. I think it’s better to go underground.”

Elise was right. I couldn’t find any traces of monsters on the first floor, and I didn’t see any signs of that on the second floor either. Maybe the adventurers who came first cleaned up all the monsters at the beginning of the dungeon.

“Let’s go down. Hey. Copson. How’s the lantern?”
“How much did you spend? With this amount of oil, you should be able to use it for several more hours.”

It moved towards the third floor. What greeted us this time was a stone door. The party members looked at each other’s faces and nodded. The door barely opened after the four of us pushed it together. It would be impossible to open this door alone unless you are a fairly superhuman.

“Hmm… Rooms? There are a lot of rooms.”

When I opened the door and went in, I saw numerous rooms on both sides of the road.

Is this place actually like an ancient gosiwon? It may have been something like a lodging where soldiers waited. Each room was small enough to be thought of as a private room, strewn with signs of rotating furniture and boxes.

“Ohhh, this looks better than my usual inn room.”
“What kind of pigpen do you live in, you?”
“These days, there are a lot of things like this and that, so they’re saving money on lodging.”

It was the same with Copson as I was in distress over my life. The companions spit out their impressions one by one. Meria shook her head and looked around her room her, while Elise leaned against the wall and looked at the ceiling and said,

“Hmm, what are you doing here?”
“It smells like a place where people live…But it doesn’t feel like a prison.”
“It looks similar to our church’s dormitory. I don’t think there’s anything special about the ancients. It’s probably where people lived. Seeing that all of them were devout… Hmm, what kind of status were they?”

There seemed to be dozens of rooms on either side of the road. Still, since it was a place where people lived, wouldn’t there be something rolling around? Books of the ancients, or household items. If you can find such a thing, I have no doubt that it will be a good profit.

“Let’s search the rooms one by one.”
“Okay. Barbarian Shack.”
“All right.”

We started our search in the first room on the left. Actually, it would be nice to use two groups to search both sides at the same time, but unfortunately there was only one lantern. There is also an option to shine light with Elegy’s divine light magic, but it had to be reserved for emergencies.

“There’s nothing in particular.”
“Hmm… I don’t see any signs of being useful.”

Again, nothing else. I couldn’t see anything of any value, and there was nothing to be seen except mostly rotten wood. Contrary to expectations, there is no significant income. Maybe this is also the place where other adventurers robbed and left a long time ago.

It was when such a tedious search ensued.

“Ernie the fuck, what is this!”

A scream came out of my mouth! I was so shocked that I almost flew home!

“Did you find something?”

Copson asked. I pointed to the one in front of me with a trembling hand.
It was an old treasure chest.