Mimic Awakening

Chapter 31: Dungeon

It has been over an hour since Geoffrey and the expedition group began exploring the dungeon in search of the missing Great Sorceress. Nine men have already perished, and the number of the group has been greatly cut.

However, Geoffrey and his party still move forward and are determined to fulfill the mission. It is true that most of them are tired from the previous monster encounters, but Geoffrey holds true to his goal of increasing his chances of getting together with Shirley.

Click. Click. Click.

As they are descending through the spiral staircase, Geoffrey takes glances at his companions. On the surface, they seem fine and easygoing; however, Geoffrey is not entirely sure if his friends are thinking the same as him. He is not certain if they wanted to do it willingly or if they just wanted to join him just because they are friends.

As Geoffrey’s mind is drowning in thoughts, David’s words break the silence.

"Hey, I just noticed it, but isn’t this staircase quite long? I already maxed my senses, but I still could not detect the ending of these stairs."

"Now that you’ve mentioned it, you are right." Agatha follows up. "We should have landed by now, but the stairs are still going. Just how big is the next floor?"

"The deeper we go, the hotter it becomes," Shirley notes. "I hope my buffs can still handle it."

Hearing Shirley’s worries, Bashel snickers, "Don’t think about it, Shirley. Your support can even protect us from fire. There’s no way it could be that hot down there."

"If you think so..."

After the heroes’ party exchange of words, Russell chimes in. "Set aside the heat; the threat we have to be wary of is the monsters. If we already encountered a basilisk earlier, there is a chance that we might come face-to-face with a dragon or any of its kind."

"A dragon, huh?"

The leader of one of the adventurers’ parties mutters with a grin. His name is Sullivan Gislaz, and he is a muscular middle-aged man with a bald head. Currently, he is one of the best and strongest adventurers in the kingdom.

"I have yet to face one. I thought our party had defeated a drake, but I can’t count it."

"Even if it’s a dragon, Lord Sullivan can kill it in one blow!" One of his party mates exclaims. fгeewebnovёl.com

"But still, we have to be cautious," Geoffrey warns. "We cannot afford to lose more lives. No matter what lies on the sixth floor and below, we will face it all together."

"Okay, fine."

"Since it will take long before we reach the floor, let’s brainstorm ideas and make strategies out of them..."

◆◇◆◇◆◇

Finally, after more than an hour of taking the unusually deep staircase, Geoffrey and the group get a glimpse of the floor.

"At last. We finally reached the floor," David expresses his relief. "Thankfully, we have boosted our resistances, or else we would be scorched by the temperature hotter than the Ashir Desert."

According to David, the temperature on his floor is higher than that in the Ashir Desert. It is a vast desert located in the eastern part of the continent. Even though he cannot measure how hot this floor is due to the heat resistance, David is sure that the temperature here is not even close to boiling water.

"Here it is sure hot," Agatha says. "But take a look at this."

Right after she says that, Agatha raises her staff and summons another Illumination Dome. She then guides it to float higher and higher. The others are shocked that the light continues to rise without stopping.

About a minute later, the dome of light finally touches the ceilings of this huge dungeon floor. Just like the staircase, the ceiling is approximately a thousand meters high.

"No way..."

"That is several times higher than the previous floors."

"You could even fit a town in here..."

Some people peer up and open their jaws in disbelief. The previous floors already made some people dizzy looking at the ceilings. Seeing the vast and empty hallways in the absolute darkness of this floor causes slight strikes of fear and panic in them, making them unsure whether they should continue forward.

The hero’s party is no different from them either. They cannot just believe that a place this gigantic suddenly popped out of the kingdom’s soil. ƒreewebɳovel.com

Dungeons emerge from time to time through the corners of this world, including the oceans. These mysterious structures were said to be the origin of the monsters roaming on the surface.

The process of how dungeons are formed is vague, but there are signs to notice, like repeat earthquakes. Since this dungeon is in the middle of the forest, no one noticed it before it was discovered by the lumberjacks of the nearest village.

The reasons for their existence are still yet to fully unfold. There are some theories, like dungeons are the gateway between hell and the world. Some say that dungeons are the trials set by the gods that humanity needs to overcome.

According to the ancient scriptures in the temple, dungeons are the desperate attempts of the evil god, Vordoth, to come back to the physical world after being sealed by the Magic God, Veleriz, which is also the god the temple reveres, twenty thousand years ago. Dungeons are said to be the malignant energy from the evil god leaking through the cracks.

Once the existence of a dungeon is spotted, nations tend to send combatants to subjugate the monsters in them. Later on, all kinds of people would come and eventually create a community. In addition to giving adventurers jobs, keeping the dungeon in check prevents disasters from occurring.

If the dungeon was left unattended for too long, the monsters would eventually make their way to the surface. It is called a dungeon outflow. Since they fought and consumed each other in the dungeon, stronger and more powerful monsters would emerge and wreck havoc on the surface.

Geoffrey and his friends recognize that this dungeon is too huge and dangerous to be left alone. A dungeon outflow of this dungeon might be a bigger threat than the invasion of the Siafran Empire.

After examining the ceiling, David bends his knees and touches the ground. "Not only is the ceiling high, but the space of this floor exponentially increases as well. From my radar, I could assess that this floor has turned into a maze-type floor."

"Meaning, we have to find a way out to go to the next floor," Bashel adds. "It’s going to be a lot more difficult than before."

David then stands before he tells them more info. "In addition, the hallways we have to pass are exponentially expanded in width. But the big question is, what kind of monsters need this much space?"

Everyone goes silent trying to comprehend David’s statement. They are wondering what kind of being they have to encounter today and thinking about if they have the capabilities to overcome it. As everyone else is thinking, Geoffrey notes something to the group.

"Listen, everyone. Aren’t the monsters supposed to be coming at us by now? For some reason, this floor is... silent. Eerily silent."

"..."

Monsters are expected to welcome them, unwelcomely, but no one has come so far. Not even a shadow of a nonhuman can be seen. That silence adds up to the anxiety that the group is fighting.

"But whatever, we will still move forward. Let’s go, everyone."

On Geoffrey’s lead, the group ventures into the unknown.

◆◇◆◇◆◇

The group has been walking for several minutes expecting an ambush, but not a single monster jumped at them. They take turns to find the exit, passing a few supposed spawn points but finding nothing. Some of them are questioning if this floor could even spawn monsters at all.

Everything seems fine until they find a very unusual room.

"Hey, isn’t that a... treasure chest?"

Standing before the opening of a five hundred meter by five hundred meter square room, one adventurer points his finger at something that looks like a wooden chest at the center of the room. The chest stands on a raised wooden platform, which adds to its strangeness.

"A treasure chest?" David voices his confusion. "When did dungeons start giving rewards? This is just so strange."

"It’s indeed strange," Agatha agrees, pressing her thumb on her chin. "I never heard of a dungeon giving such things. Perhaps it’s a unique dungeon after all."

"Sir Hero," one of the adventurer party leaders turns to Geoffrey with a sarcastic smirk. "Do you mind if we take the risk of taking a look at it in reward for claiming the loot for ourselves?"

Sensing their desires of taking the treasure, Geoffrey let out a sigh and permitted them. "Alright. Go on, but please be quick."

"Thanks, Sir Hero."

The man’s adventurer party steps in the spacious room and approaches the chest. However, right before they can put their hands on it...