~ Side Story: What do you mean LAVA on the FIRST FLOOR?! ~ (Part 1)

[Nanya’s point of view]

 “Nyahaha! A dungeon! A dungeon after such a long time! Feels like the good ol’ days, doesn’t it?!” I laughed as I gave Tuberculus a pat on the back.

I was so excited to finally be able to explore an unknown dungeon after so may years that I didn’t care if it was one with 400 floors or just two! Illsy said it had only two, so we were expecting to finish it in two hours or so, maybe three if we looked around a bit more and made a complete map of the place.

“You always were the first one to get excited from the little things.” commented Rufus with his usual monotone voice.

I swear, that man only showed excitement when he found a new book! He and Zertan made a perfect match, the other was happy only when his plants bloomed.

Well, I didn’t let his words keep me from having fun. I was quite curious as to what sort of bosses we would meet and how complicated he made the whole thing. So far, we were just descending on a pair of very long stairs. This alone was quite unusual. In most cases, the first dungeon was a building or a cave on the surface. I never heard of an underground one, but then again, Illsy was a Godlike Dungeon Lord. There were a lot of things to expect from him.

“When will these stairs ever end?” grumbled Angius.

“The center of the world?” I joked.

“Ugh…” he groaned.

When we finally reached the last steps, we arrived at a big, empty room made out of granite. It was the first one, so we weren’t expecting to face too much in there. None of us was on guard.

“Any signs of life?” I asked.

“None from what I see… Is this just an empty room?” asked Angius as he scanned the place with his eyes.

“Sigh… First room and no trap? Maybe giving it two hours to clear was a bit too long? How about half an hour?” commented Rufus in his usual monotone.

Apparently, he got bored and pulled out his book from his bag to continue reading. I simply shrugged and moved on. He was there with us only as an extra, just in case there was a mechanism that required multiple triggers to be activated at the same time. In general, those sort of traps could be found from the third floor down in certain dungeons. Normal dungeons usually didn’t have anything on the first floor, barely a summoned creature or two, in rest, they created small habitats for random wild animals. Even normal villagers could venture into them up to the first two or three rooms without worrying too much about it.

“A hallway…” said Tuberculus when we walked out of the room.

We paid extra attention to where we stepped, but the area was clear. Still, it was getting a bit exciting.

A few moments later, we arrived in front of a big empty wall with two passages leading to our left and right respectively.

“Toss a coin and pick a side?” asked Angius.

“Left. Always go left.” I said and went on that path without bothering myself to listen to the result of the coin toss.

Following the path, we encountered the first trap. Three spike traps were laid in front of us with a clear dead end on the other side.

“Now what?” asked Angius.

“Are you wearing your Magic Armor?” I asked.

“Yes, why?” he replied and threw me a questionable look right before I kicked him in the behind and sent him flying to the other side of the traps.

He slammed into the wall and fell down on the floor with a groan.

“See anything there?” I asked.

“Stars…” he replied as he pointed up.

After returning to his senses, he looked around and saw a lever on the wall. He wasn’t so sure about just pulling it like that, so after he checked for traps, he used his boot and tossed it on top of it. The lever went down, and no other trap was activated. Nothing happened though, and the spike traps were still active.

“It must be a fake.” he told us.

“Keep it like that.” I told him.

My gut was telling me that there should be another lever at the end of the other corridor. Angius returned by making a power leap over the traps. He had enough strength to reach Medium Godlike Rank, but only in strength. Because of that, his Magic Energy couldn’t reach the point where he could attempt to learn Godlike skills, but if he were to train his noggin long enough, he had a good chance of being able to.

On the other side was a similar path, but this time, Angius didn’t need my help to get across. He pulled the lever in a similar fashion, and we heard the gate opening behind us.

“It must have been a concealed gate.” said Rufus.

“But those appear only after the 30th floor.” noted Tuberculus.

I had to agree with him, the dungeon’s first few rooms were quite unexpected, but they were fun!

Walking over to the opened door, we stopped and stared at the sight before us.

“That’s lava, isn’t it?” I asked.

“Yup, lava.” replied Angius.

“Those are timed platforms above the lava, right?” I asked.

“Yup, timed platforms.” replied Angius.

“Fascinating.” said Rufus, who finally put away his book.

Lava, in any form or shape only appeared after floor 50, and it was quite rare too. Few dungeons made use of it, yet right in front of us, at the very first floor of the dungeon, we were staring at a pit of lava over 6 m in length. The only way across appeared to be by jumping on the timed platforms, but the door on the other side was hidden as well, and there was no lever in sight.

We stared at it for over a quarter of an hour, trying to figure out how to get across. Angius went back to the first room to see if we missed anything, but he couldn’t find anything.

“Maybe it’s an optical illusion, and the other side only appears to be blocked by a wall?” asked Tuberculus.

“You might be fooled by that, but not me…” I replied.

Well done, Illsy. This is quite hard. I thought, but I was sure to scold him as soon as we went back. This wasn’t a dungeon for students barely handling Beginner Rank spells. Actually, even Master Rank adventurers would have had a problem with it.

“A hidden lever, maybe?” asked Rufus.

“Could be. I’ll give it a try. My Magic Armor can withstand the heat of the lava better than yours.” I offered.

“Please do, but look carefully for anything popping into view.” Tuberculus warned me.

I nodded and prepared myself for the first jump. When the platform appeared, I went for it. They retreated fast, but I was faster. Keeping my eyes open, I searched for the button, but didn’t spot anything. When I reached the last platform, I jumped from it to the end. I couldn’t hold onto the wall, so I jumped from it to the other one. I jumped once more and landed on the second platform. From it, I took a powerful leap and reached the starting location.

“Well?” asked Tuberculus.

“Nothing…” I told him.

It was frustrating, but I didn’t give up. I tried three more times, but the result didn’t change.

“The Dungeon Lord sure built a surprisingly tough level. This isn’t something our students can handle.” said Rufus.

“I doubt they can even get past those traps back there.” said Angius with a sigh.

Looking back at the lava pit, I got angry and struck the wall. Because of the strength I put in the hit, the crack spread quite a bit, and the area where my fist touched the granite stone shattered. Somewhere on the other side of the pit, a small rock fell on the platform. I blinked and looked surprised at it.

Could it be? I asked myself.

With a smirk on my lips, I decided to give it a try. I timed my jumps well and reached the third platform. There was a hole in the wall and right behind it, a button. I grinned.

“Found it!” I shouted and pressed it immediately.

I thought I was safe, but then the platform slid from under my feet, and I dropped into the hot lava.

“KYA!” I screamed.

My Magic Armor was fading fast. When someone fell into lava, they usually got stuck in it like they would in quicksand. If they didn’t get out of there fast, it would stick to them and eat at their armor. Even for Supremes lava was annoying, but nothing they couldn’t handle. At least, it wasn’t enchanted with a Magic Energy absorption ability.

I pushed hard into it and jumped up, I struggled to reach the other side. It was getting to my boots, and it was getting hard to move, but I pushed it around me. Using my strength, I jumped up and landed on one of the platforms. I was safe, but my Magic Armor decreased considerably.

“Huff! Huff! Lava? Lava on the first floor? Seriously?!” I complained while breathing hard.

“Nanya… you lost a boot.” said Tuberculus while he pointed at something burning in the pit.

“Mou!” I puffed my cheeks.

“Hahaha! This is rich! Godlike Nanya lost a boot on the first floor!” laughed Angius.

“Grrr!” I growled but let it go and sighed “Angius?” I said looking up at him with a smile.

“Hm?” he looked at me.

“You stink! Take a bath!” I grabbed him by his boot and tossed him into the lava.

“Ah!” he screamed. “Hot! Hot! Hot!” he swam back to us as fast as he could and got out of the lava with the help of the other two.

He had only one boot now, and his robe was a bit singed at the edges.

I grinned.

“I thought I was going to die…” he glared at me and started cleaning the lava off his clothes.

“It could have been worse.” I shrugged.

“How so?” he asked raising an eyebrow.

I showed him a big smirk and turned towards the opened door.

“Onward to glory and fame!” I said pointing at it.

They sighed and followed me on the timed platforms.

Illsy’s dungeon was really fun, but certainly quite dangerous. I was curious about what we would find in the next section.

Ten minutes later…

“Harpies… Flame traps… Spike traps… Arrow traps… Wind traps… Deadly chasm with spikes at the bottom… ARE YOU KIDDING ME?! THIS IS THE FIRST FLOOR!” I shouted at the top of my lungs.

We didn’t move away from the platform at the entrance. We were timing the traps and trying to figure out the path we needed to take. There were three rooms in there, but probably only one was real. Unfortunately, we couldn’t figure out which one was which. They all looked identical. Meanwhile, Angius and me were fighting the harpies.

“Indeed. This is something for the 100th floor and beyond!” said Tuberculus.

“I pity the poor bastards who would dare enter this dungeon… And he said this was easy?” said Angius as he parried a harpy and then struck it hard with his fist. The monster was thrown into the roof and then left to drop in the chasm below. “Have you figured it out?” he asked.

“Yes, just one moment… there!” said Rufus as he showed him a small parchment with the map of the platform maze in front of him.

“Good. Left?” he asked.

“Yup! It’s always left!” I smirked.

It wasn’t left…

The path led to a mini boss room. I smacked the brute once and sent it flying straight into the ceiling. It was very weak when compared to me, but against a Master Rank, it was a monster. There were also a bunch of imps and harpies that spawned and attacked me. I used [Fireball] to destroy their circles. With the room cleared, it was time to leave, but I noticed a treasure room. I grinned at the idea and rushed into it only to be welcomed by a bunch of arrow traps. There was nothing in there.

After we got out of that room, we went for the right side. We didn’t find any sort of treasure there, but we did find a bunch of imps and gas traps. Our Magic Armors were quite powerful, so we weren’t bothered by the stench. We destroyed the imp summoning circles and walked out of there. We reached a slope. After reaching the corner, we heard a click.

“What was that?” I asked.

Looking back, I saw a big boulder and gulped. I was the first to run to the end. Rufus and Angius followed, only Tuberculus was the slowest to act.

“Huh? UGYA!” he screamed as the boulder went over him and then rolled with him. “Stop… this… thing!” he managed to mutter as he rolled down after us. If it wasn’t for his Magic Armor, he would have ended up as a squishy meat paste.

“The exit!” said Angius and jumped “Huh? AAAH!” he screamed and then I heard him hit every wall on the way down until he reached the water bellow.

As for Tuberculus, I stopped him alright. I stopped at the wall, turned around and punched the boulder as hard as I could. It wasn’t enchanted, so it was shattered by my punch. The old man got tossed into the ceiling, then bounced off it and dropped down behind me.

“Ugh… the world is spinn… BLEARGH!” he vomited.

“Ew!” I grimaced and walked past him.

“I think Angius is drowning.” said Rufus as he looked down the hole leading to the next floor.

“Join him.” I said pushing him over the edge.

“Huh? AH!” he screamed.

I grabbed Tuberculus by the left leg and jumped in after them. The water was cold as ice, and I quickly swam up. After tossing the old geezer on dry land, I went after Angius. Rufus handled himself pretty well and dog paddled to the shore.

“Whew! I thought I was going to die!” said the warrior after spitting out some water.

“Boulder trap? That was unexpected… His traps are a mix of complicated and deadly ones with simple ones. I don’t even know what to expect next…” I said with a sigh.

To make a comparison to other dungeons, Illsy’s was simply crazy. For example, the Ancestral Dungeon in the Paramanium Empire had a simple plant and bug first floor. There were about fourteen chambers in total and continued to the second floor, where you could find rats and some snakes. The difficulty increased in monsters and number of chambers, but usually, the traps were after the first ten floors. The first trap that Ancestral Dungeon employed was a simple spike trap. The first mini boss was at the 20th floor, but by then you also got arrow traps. The things Illsy added weren’t even met from the 50th level up, but going by their complexity, I’d bet my money on the fact that he could rival the 120th floor with his first one alone. It made me shiver only to think about what I would find at the second floor.

“What… What’s this?” asked Rufus surprised.

We were currently sitting in front of 3 m high metallic walls with an undulating pattern on them like waves on a lake. They were beautiful to look at, but that beauty was what made them dangerous. If that was a maze, then surely… it was going to be hard to complete. The reflection on its sides made it very hard for regular adventurers to go through. The dungeon’s floor was already past Master Rank adventurers, it was going steadily through the Emperor Ranks and pressing into Godlike Ranks. At the very least, there weren’t any enchanted walls or traps. Those might have been more dangerous than anything else in there.

“What does it look like? A maze.” I told him.

“Technically speaking, it could be a labyrinth.” commented the old man.

I shrugged.

“We should continue.” I told them.

We were way past five hours now.

“Let’s rest here for a bit, Nanya.” suggested Angius.

“Ah! My books!” shouted Rufus.

“What?” I asked surprised.

“My books are gone! I must have dropped my bag up there!” said the man as he looked up the shaft leading to the first level.

“Don’t worry, we’ll have Illsy get them for you when we return.” I told him with a smile.

“Sigh… very well…” he took a seat, and it was decided to take a moment to rest.

What a ridiculous dungeon… I thought to myself as I looked at the reflective walls.

It was quite amazing, but also very very dangerous. None of our students could finish even the first level. If they dared to try it, they would only end up as corpses. This dungeon was that dangerous.

Angius and Tuberculus slept for three hours, replenishing their Magic Energy and healing their wounds if they had any. Me and Rufus kept watch, but it was mostly me, seeing as how the man was more worried about his own books than anything else. Although I heard some wolves howling at one moment, only three imps dared to attack me. Unlike the ones I had to fight during Illsy’s moment of insanity, these ones went for the kill. They were easy to defeat, but they were certainly tougher than the ones we battled with until then.

Monsters in dungeons usually increased in power depending on the floor’s number and the dungeon’s level. The other factor was the Dungeon’s experience with adventurers. Thinking about it from that point of view, this dungeon only had two floors. I checked and Illsy was barely level 53, not even 100 yet. At the first floor, we were supposed to meet no monster, maybe a few rats in the last rooms, but that was about it. On the second floor, we were supposed to meet wild animals: rats, panthers, boars, and maybe wolves. There weren’t supposed to be any traps or lava pits. Harpies and imps were for floors past five. Actually, harpies were in general found only after the fifteenth floor, but what was more disturbing was a first floor boss. The Minotaur was strong and certainly not something anyone barely entering the dungeon would expect.

Basically speaking, Illsy’s dungeon was abnormally dangerous, complex, and powerful. None of the rules we knew about Dungeons applied to him. I was starting to believe it was a characteristic of Godlike Dungeon Lord, but it wasn’t that… I remember venturing into one together with mom when I was little. The first levels were identical to regular ones. The difference started from the 15th floor, which was similar in complexity and danger factor to the Ancestral one at the 50th level, then it got even harder.

Could it be that I’m mistaken? Mother is beyond any of the Supremes on the three continents, but still… Sigh… Maybe it was that easy because I was together with her? I thought as I waited patiently for the others to wake up.

I pulled my legs to my chest and tried to push away the dark thoughts which told me Illsy was trying to kill us.

Angius was the first to wake up, then was Tuberculus. After a quick breakfast, we prepared to head deeper into the dungeon.

“It’s just the second floor, right? How difficult could it be to navigate this maze?” asked Rufus with a smile.

“It’s probably quite small. Dungeons never rely on long complicated mazes.” said Tuberculus almost certain about it.

“I don’t like those walls…” grumbled Angius.

I agreed with a nod. There was something strange about them. Those reflections and wave patterns weren’t placed there just for decoration. They were certainly meant to mess with our heads.

“Shall we?” asked Tuberculus as he took the lead.

We all followed him and ventured deeper into the dungeon. As usual, we took the left path and even when we heard wolves and imps on the other side, we stuck with it. The maze, however, didn’t prove to be easy at all. Rufus got a headache after the first half an hour. Tuberculus tried to map it, but it proved rather difficult. I was the only one who didn’t look at similarities and differences in the walls. They were meant to make you take those into consideration, to mess with you.

“If any of our students reached this place, they would have ended up lost in here until they were met with…” a powerful flame doused Angius from the top of his head before he could finish his words. “Puha!” he puffed out smoke.

“Fire traps? From the ceiling?” I asked surprised.

“Everyone! Be careful! There may be more of these concealed traps!” shouted Tuberculus right before an imp jumped on him.

He punched it hard, and we raised our guard, but nothing attacked us again.

Was it the only one? I asked myself.

“This dungeon isn’t for Master Ranks… How could a Heroic Dungeon build something like this? It’s impossible…” said Rufus as he shook his head.

It’s simple… he’s not a Heroic but a Godlike. I thought.

If Rufus decided to ask me later about the truth, I feared I wouldn’t be able to hide it from him. Out of all of us, he was the only one who could guess Illsy’s identity just by looking at his actions and this dungeon.

We pressed forward, but we were on guard of traps. I destroyed any I could find, but after one hour of walking around, we finally reached the exit.

Or so we believed…

Upon entering the room, we were faced with a wide floor and a plaque at the end. On it was written the following riddle:

There once was a forest,

That stood as a merciless test

For all those who claimed to be the best!

But merciless as it may be,

Three beasts offer to guide your way:

The Lion is the strongest.

The Wolf follows next.

The Duck is the weakest,

Yet always tries its best.

The Lion is the smartest.

The Wolf is the hungriest.

The Duck is the luckiest.

They all go with you, but only one may lead the way.

Pick the right one, and in your favor, fate shall sway.

Choose the wrong one, and you won’t see the following day.

“Hah! The Dungeon Lord knows how to rhyme!” said Angius, but that wasn’t the most important thing we should have noticed.

This was a puzzle room, something that appeared only starting from floor 150 in EVERY dungeon, yet here was one at the second floor. It was also of a type I had never seen before. The floor was paved with mixed up square tiles. Every tile had the face of an animal mentioned in the riddle: a lion, a wolf, and a duck. On the other side of the room was a door. At first glance, it looked like we could just skip it.

“Why a Duck?” was what Rufus asked.

“Be careful…” I warned them.

It took us about three hours to figure out the riddle because we had no idea what a lion was. At first, we thought it might have been one of the beast folk, but I never heard of a beast of the duck kind, although the wolves were quite numerous. In the end, we made it to the exit. We couldn’t skip it either, the door didn’t budge when I jumped to the other side. We couldn’t just randomly step on things either. When we jumped on the wrong tile, it triggered either a trap or proved to be loose and made us fall in a spike trap. Tuberculus was the one who tested this out.

We actually spent a longer time there because we wanted to analyze the way the puzzle room was made and what it meant by ‘you won’t see the following day’.

After we walked out of there, we were faced with another maze. It was getting quite frustrating and annoying, especially after imps riding on top of wolves attacked us out of nowhere. Even Tuberculus gave up on his map, the maze was too confusing. At the very least, he did manage to find the entrance to this floor three times and the first puzzle room two times. It was then when Angius, in his frustration, took his map and ate it. The man literally ate the map poor Tuberculus was trying to draw.

A bit later, while going past the room where we destroyed the summoning circles for rats, imps, and wolves, Rufus attacked a wall with a powerful [Fireball], melting it off. We all jumped when we heard the blast, but we soon realized it was a false alarm.

“I thought I heard someone…” he told us.

That was the first sign. He HEARD, he didn’t SEE.

At the end of the day, when we were too tired and frustrated to go on, we stopped in front of the entrance to the next puzzle room and set up camp. We didn’t pack much, so our food was kind of scarce. None of us suspected Illsy’s dungeon to be so hard. I was starting to believe he was intent on killing us. All those traps, the enemies chasing after us through the reflective walls, the optical illusions which drove us mad, they were chipping down at our patience and raising our frustration levels even higher.

I slept for only four hours, but when I woke up, they were all discussing what I feared the most: the fact that Illsyore was planning to kill us.

“I don’t see it any other way… This dungeon is too dangerous even for Master Ranks.” said Tuberculus.

“I told you, you can’t tame a Dungeon Lord! We have to destroy him once we reach the surface!” said Angius as he made a fist and struck the floor.

“I agree…” said Rufus.

“I don’t.” I said as I approached them.

Of course, all the evidence pointed at Illsyore being a mastermind villain who wanted to kill us in a cruel way by torturing us with his traps just like any other Dungeon out there, but when I imagined actually destroying him, I remembered how he acted when he was under the effects of that stupid spell scroll. There was a bit of doubt in my heart, something that told me he was innocent and maybe, just maybe, all of this was a misunderstanding.

What if this is the only type of dungeon he knows how to build? He was quite convinced this was an Easy dungeon… It makes me wonder what he understands by Hard or Nightmarish. I thought as I looked at the three teachers who doubted me.

“Why? You’ve seen it too, right? Lava? Harpies? Traps? This maze? Everything is made in such a way to mentally torture us, drain our Magic Armor and then kill us.” commented Angius.

“Indeed… this isn’t normal.” said Rufus.

“Sigh… If he wanted to kill us, he would have come over and shot us with his spells while we were sleeping or trapped us in this maze by blocking the exit. It would have been an easy feat for him.” I explained, but there was something else that created doubt in my heart regarding his evil intentions. That thing or rather her was Shanteya. Why save the el’doraw and heal her if he was evil? I asked myself.

Illsyore’s trial wasn’t over yet. Once we got out of there, we were determined to investigate the matter thoroughly. They were determined to destroy him if they found him guilty of conspiring against us.

With a new weight on our chests, we entered the second puzzle room. This one was a bit simpler. All we had to do was pull some levers in the right combination. The problem was that if we were mistaken, traps were activated all around us. Rufus was in charge of figuring out the combination, while we defended him from the attacks of the traps. We allowed ourselves to stand in front of them because they weren’t enchanted. Illsyore wasn’t able to enchant traps judging by what we faced so far.

Fortunately, Rufus knew what he was doing, and figured out the combination in just four tries. With a smile on our lips, we left the room. The maddening maze continued, and we pushed forward.

Four hours later, we found the entrance to the next room. Illsyore made this section of the floor in a way that required us to finish both puzzle rooms if we wished to find the exit and go deeper into the dungeon. It was stressing, annoying, and curses for the Dungeon Lord kept flowing one after another.

This room looked empty at first, but when we reached the center, countless imps spawned all around us. We were quick to act and defeated the first wave. I rushed ahead and destroyed the summoning circles one after another. No traps were activated in this room, and we were able to proceed forward after we killed the last imp.

The endless maze continued…

For hours and hours we traveled through the endless, confusing, and maddening paths of Illsyore’s torture floor. The traps, imps, and occasional rats harassed us constantly, lowering our Magic Armors and pushing our tempers to the edge. Angius even started to punch the metal walls to relieve himself of the stress.

At one point, we reached what looked like the entrance to another room. We hesitated at first, but Rufus was the one who stepped in front of us and opened the doors. What we found there was another trap, but hidden in another form. Countless giant rats flowed out and jumped on Rufus.

“Rats?” I asked as I jumped back.

“Rats! RATS! GET THEM OFF!” shouted Rufus as he struggled with them.

“Kill them!” shouted Angius.

Rufus chanted the [Fireball] spell and aimed it at the rats, but just when he was about to release it, two of them jumped on him and bit his nose. The spell failed and was shot at Angius instead of the room filled with rats.

“Ugh!” the warrior groaned.

His armor shattered for a moment, and the fire burned his eyebrows. He raised it up before it spread, but the damage had been done. At least, he didn’t look into the flame when it struck him, otherwise, he would have gone blind.

“Argh! This burns!” he complained as he squashed a rat and rubbed his smoking forehead.

“GET THEM OFF!” shouted Rufus as he ran away from us.

“Stop!” I shouted.

The rats chased after their prey, but I knew I couldn’t give chase.

“Go after him, I’ll destroy the summoning circles!” I shouted at the other two.

Tuberculus fired a few [Ice Spear] spells, killing off a few of the rats and then went after Rufus. Angius followed behind him, while I jumped inside the room.

“You stupid rats!” I shouted as I attacked the floor with my fist, shattering the granite and cracking the circles. Three of them went out in one hit, but four of them jumped on me. I rolled to the side and then smashed the fourth. I jumped again and smashed two more, five to go. The rats didn’t hesitate and continued to attack me, they stopped going after the others and made me their main target. It didn’t matter, I was going to kill them all!