~ Side Story: What do you mean LAVA on the FIRST FLOOR?! ~ (Part 2)

Once I got rid of the last circle, I attacked the rats, and only after that did I go after my friends. I found Tuberculus groaning from a terrible burn to his face. Apparently, Rufus hit him at point blank with a fireball and singed his beard, mustache, and eyebrows. The poor bastard even managed to step into a fire trap and got the top of his head burned off as well. It was a bit funny to look at him, but it was no laughing matter. I picked him up and followed the trail of dead rats.

Rufus was in one of the small imps summoning rooms we cleared earlier. He was punching a few rats with his bare hands, but his Magic Armor was gone. If he stepped into a trap, he was done for. Angius was backing him up, fighting ten other rats.

“Nanya? You have a soft… UGYA!” said Tuberculus, but he didn’t have time to finish his words.

For massaging my bottom with his hand, I cooled off his face by smashing him into the cold steel wall.

Leaving the perverted geezer there, I joined the fight. Their hands and clothes were stained from the blood they spilled. Unlike them, I was clean because I focused more Magic Energy into my Magic Armor as we traveled through the maze. Maybe they forgot about theirs?

“This is impossible! This is madness!” shouted Angius as he looked around.

“No! This is Illsyore’s dungeon! But indeed, this isn’t something you would see at the second floor of a regular one… If the students entered instead of us…” I shook my head and refused to think about what would have happened. “We should press forward! The exit can’t be far.” I said.

“I don’t care any more, Nanya, I will destroy this Dungeon Lord! He did it on purpose! I’m sure of it!” he pointed his blood-stained sword at me. He was furious.

“Easy there… we still…” I stopped and blinked surprised.

Something was missing. The feeling was one I knew quite well… Illsyore used Colly Tos again. My anger was spiking. Even if it was accidental, even if it was a misunderstanding, even if he didn’t mean it, to leave me pantieless in this dungeon… Once we got out, it was decided: Illsyore was dead!

[A few minutes before Nanya lost her panties.]

[Shanteya’s point of view]

“Shanteya? Are we done with the right wing?” asked Master as he looked over the list I made with all the things broken by the students.

“Yes, Master!” I replied with a smile.

“That’s about it then! Hm, I wonder what I should do now?” he asked himself.

“Whatever Master wishes.” I said.

“That would get me killed…” he remarked, and I tilted my head to the left.

Again, I couldn’t understand what Master meant. There were many times when Master’s words were a bit confusing to me, especially when he used weird ones I had never heard of before.

“I think I’ll upgrade Colly Tos!” he said and then something appeared above him. “Ah, crud… Nanya’s going to kill me!”

When I looked up at the item, it was a pair of pink panties with small frills around the edges. I jumped up and grabbed them. Indeed, they belonged to mistress Nanya, but I still found it a bit hard to believe that a spell with a random effect could have such pinpoint accuracy on her.

“Do not worry, Master, I’ll take care of it and clear your name.” I told him with a respectful bow.

Many people at the academy asked me these past few days why I was so servile and respectful to a Dungeon Lord, especially the teachers, but for me, it was a question of how someone couldn’t be when they had been healed, cured, and saved all at once without even requesting a single copper coin in return. Master even wanted to free me as soon as I was healed, but it was I who didn’t desire to be freed of him. With a kind and gentle master like him, how could I even think about leaving his side? Of course, the fact that I was sleeping with Master was still our little secret.

“Really? That will be great!” he said with a cheerful voice.

I smiled gently and returned to sweeping the floor. Meanwhile, Master took to upgrade his spell to the next tier. It was quite amazing that he could do that with any of his skills without being trained by a master of that respective skill. For everyone else, that was the usual path they had to take.

Maybe it’s something specific to his species as a Dungeon Lord? I wondered.

“Done! Now I have [Summon a Selected piece of Equipment Currently Worn by the Selected Adventurer]!” he announced.

“Congratulations, Master!” I told him.

“I’m going to give it a try.” he said.

“Master, please don’t summon mistress Nanya’s garments. She’s in the middle of a dungeon at the moment.” I warned him.

It would have been bad if he accidentally summoned her armor, especially since she had nothing to use to cover her bottom.

“Nah! I’m targeting you!” he said.

I blushed.

“Me, Master? If you wish to.” I said and stood still in front of him.

He concentrated for a moment and then shouted “Colly Tos!”

What vanished weren’t my panties or clothes, but Nanya’s panties I had in my pocket. The pink piece of fabric appeared between us and softly fell on the ground.

“Master?” I asked with a forced smile. I was a bit upset that he didn’t take something of mine.

“I swear I was targeting your apron! This stupid spell must be broken…” he grumbled.

“It certainly is outside of what I would call common sense.” I told him as I picked up the pink panties from the floor.

“Well, it could have been worse.” he said.

“How so?” I asked raising an eyebrow.

“I could have summoned Tuberculus’ underpants… Ugh, that would be just nasty!” he sounded as though he was afraid of something like that happening.

“Knowing you, Master, you would probably completely undress all the pretty girls in your dungeon territory before your spell even touched a man, or it will just refuse to be cast.” I told him.

“Indeed! This spell is more of a pervert than I am!” he declared.

I sighed and returned to sweeping the floor.

“Speaking of which, do you know what this thing is? I found it the other day on the floor. I think one of the students may have dropped it.” he told me.

“What, Master?” I asked as I turned around and looked at what he was talking about.

With the help of his [Telekinezy], he was holding a small bottle with a bit of brown liquid at the bottom. I recognized it immediately as the same one Nanya used during that night.

“That… that’s a potion, Master.” I said with a gulp.

Normally, I would have told him the full truth, but unless he asked me for details, there was no need to worry about the slave tattoo around my neck working against me.

“Hm, a potion, huh? Must be from Zertan’s class. How can I find out what it does?” he asked.

“You can find out by asking Zertan, but unless you are an alchemist or herbalist, it’s quite doubtful that you would be able to find out without testing it on yourself or someone else.” I told him, which was true.

“Hm. I wonder…” he said and then I saw Master move the bottle towards his Crystal Body.

“Master?” I asked.

“A drop shouldn’t hurt right?” he said and then I saw him let one drop fall on him.

I blinked surprised and for a moment nothing happened.

“M-Master?” I asked.

“Huh? Shanteya? When did you get here?” he asked me. “What’s this? Maybe one of Zertan’s? Meh, off in the trash bin with it.” he said and tossed the bottle with the remaining drops inside the basket I usually used to collect the dust and dirt.

It was probably because he used only a drop of the potion, but Master couldn’t remember anything about what happened in the past three hours and didn’t ask me about it either. I decided to keep quiet regarding that matter, but I did ‘randomly’ mention about what he shouldn’t do if he ever happened to find an unknown potion. He was lucky it wasn’t a poison…

[Back in Illsyore’s dungeon]

[Nanya’s point of view]

We moved away from the massacre scene and set up camp in one of the dead ends of the maze. The rooms were all filled with blood and monster remains.

I didn’t sleep, and neither did Angius.

Rufus muttered something in his sleep from time to time, and I applied some ointments on Tuberculus’ burns. Once we were awake, he could heal himself. I believe Zertan had a hair restoration potion of sorts.

“The Dungeon Lord is a monster…” said Angius at one point.

“A pervert maybe, but… we really don’t know yet. He said it was Easy. Just think about it for a moment, Angius, what if he doesn’t understand what Easy means?” I asked him, although, I had no idea why I was taking up his side, especially after he Colly Tosed me. I should have let the stupid Dungeon Lord rot in a ditch somewhere!

I let out a sigh and tried to think about something else. Our current situation was a bit depressing, but we went through worse. This dungeon just took us a bit by surprise. We got used to the peaceful life as teachers and forgot our time as adventurers even if it was just for a moment. As a result, we got our behinds handed to us on a silver platter. I dare not think what would have happened if any of the traps we faced so far had been enchanted.

After Rufus and Tuberculus woke up, we had a small breakfast and then headed off, hoping we would reach the end in the following hours. We didn’t want to think of the possibility that we were currently in only the first quarter of the dungeon. It would have been a nightmare if that was true.

In the end, we reached the room of a mini boss. It was another Minotaur, but to our surprise, it was even stronger than the one we met a floor above us. Actually, the difference was rather ridiculous. Such bosses shouldn’t be at the second floor but at the 30th or a lower one. We defeated them easily, but I couldn’t understand how it was possible to see such diversity in difficulty in just two floors. It only made me wonder what sort of dungeon Illsyore could build if we let him reach 100 or more floors. Could a group of Supreme Rank adventurers even be able to pass the 20th or 50th floor?

That was a difficult question to answer, but there was something else we found in that mini boss room that made Angius punch the walls and Rufus talk with his shadow. Behind the unconscious Minotaur laid a lever.

“ARE YOU KIDDING ME?!” shouted Angius. “He wants us to find another lever in THIS maze?!” he shouted.

“Easy there, we don’t know if that’s true or not. Maybe the exit wall opened up somewhere else.” I said, but I feared he was telling the truth.

Judging by how this floor was structured so far, Illsyore seemed intent on mentally torturing his victims. It was already starting to show its effects on the three humans, but with me was a different story. I kept myself on the edge and didn’t lower my guard ever since I entered this dungeon. Mother once told me that only a fool ventured in a dungeon unprepared.

Sigh… Maybe I should have told this to the men as well… I thought as I walked over and pulled the lever.

No trap activated, and we didn’t hear any sliding wall.

I looked around for a few more seconds and then I told them “Let’s go.”

We left the room and continued to search for the other levers. Since we didn’t have anymore patience, we sped up our pace a bit. Now, we were running through the maze and ignored most of the weaker traps. We only needed to be careful of the spike traps.

Two hours later, we took a break to recover both our breath and Magic Energy. It was then when something strange happened. Tuberculus spotted a small imp, and he was about to attack it, but Angius stopped him.

“Let me see if I can tame it.” said the man with a smirk.

I raised an eyebrow and watched the man as he was starting to chant. In my mind, the following equation was being processed: Illsyore*Perverticus stupidicus+Imp+Angius’s spell=?

I have a bad feeling about this… I thought and watched the scene.

When the warrior finished casting the spell, he aimed it at the imp and let it rip. For a few seconds, it appeared as though it didn’t work, but suddenly, the imp dashed towards Angius.

“Agugagaga!” he screamed with his tongue out.

“I order you to stop!” shouted Angius.

He was expecting the little imp to stop and bow down to him, but instead it… well…

“Angius? Is that imp humping your boot?” I asked.

The man was simply shocked by the little thing’s strange behavior. He didn’t want to admit he failed so miserably.

“I don’t understand… What’s happening to it?” he asked as he tried to shake the little thing off.

“I don’t know, but you two look like a cute couple.” I smirked, and he glared at me.

“This is not a joke!” he declared.

I shrugged. It was pretty funny to me. The others weren’t paying attention though.

“Get OFF!” he shouted and kicked the imp away, but it returned to humping his boot.

Annoyed, he took off his boot and tossed it to the other side of the corridor.

“Mine! Mine Mine!” screamed the imp as it ran after the boot.

The critter snatched it and fled from our sight. I couldn’t help it and burst into a loud laughter.

“My… My boot…” said Angius when he realized what he had just done.

“Don’t worry, the stench alone will probably kill the imp in no time at all!” I said with a smile as I patted his shoulder.

“Ugh…” he looked down at his toes. He was barefooted now.

We continued our journey through Illsyore’s maze. However, we had no idea that was just the first of three mini bosses we had to fight before reaching the last boss.

The maze felt endless, the undulating reflections on the walls fooled us countless times. Rufus started seeing enemies at every step we took. He even shot a few fireballs at me and Angius, but we dodged them splendidly. Tuberculus remained quiet most of the time. He was still sane, but in a bit of a pain. He did heal himself, so he wasn’t in any immediate danger.

Unfortunately, Illsyore was losing favor with each step we took deeper into that infernal maze. They truly believed he was trying to kill us. Their main proof was the fact that he said it was an Easy dungeon. Indeed, I couldn’t deny it… he should have told us the truth, but what if… what if he actually didn’t know the difference between Easy and Insane?

Hours later, we finished off the last mini boss. I pulled the lever behind him, but nothing happened.

“Wha-what?” said Angius.

“It can’t be… there’s more?” asked Tuberculus as he dropped to his knees.

“ARGH!” screamed Angius as he lifted his sword up and used his slashing skills on the walls in the room.

The floor trembled from his strikes. He was enraged.

“I’m going to KILL HIM! I’m going to DESTROY HIM!” shouted Angius.

“Wait…” I said, but I couldn’t stop him.

The man rushed into the maze, chopping down the walls with his sword, not caring if he broke it or not. I was certain that once his Magic Energy was depleted, the weapon would shatter into a billion pieces. If in that moment, he stepped on a trap, he had a high chance of ending up dead.

“Tch!” clicking my tongue, I rushed after him.

He was fast, but not as fast as me.

“STOP!” I shouted at him.

“AARGH!” he screamed while hitting the walls.

One of the lost imps appeared before him, but it wasn't offered the opportunity to attack. As soon as Angius spotted it, he squashed it like a bug. The red blood of the imp touched his armor and skin, showing that his Magic Armor was fading away rapidly. I had to hurry.

“STOP IT!” I shouted and then struck him in the back of his neck.

It was an instant knock out.

He dropped to the ground.

“You idiot…” I said catching my breath.

Tossing him over my shoulder, I went back to get the other two. The newly opened entrance was probably farther from there. I just prayed it wasn’t a combination lock, meaning that I had to run between the three boss rooms to find out what lever had to be up and which had to be down. It would have been a real nightmare to walk between them like that. Most of the monsters had been slain by us, but these walls were what made things extremely confusing. The maze was so big and with so many twists and turns, it was a nightmare.

Tuberculus and Rufus weren’t in the mood to keep going, but I pulled them with me. We couldn’t take a break now. Thanks to Angius’ rampage, there were plenty of walls that had been taken down. I decided to use them and stick to the north side of the maze. If I searched every section like that, there was a chance for me to find that blasted hidden door. That was how we found the other rooms.

Not even one hour later, I stumbled upon it. I saw a pair of stairs leading up.

“Finally!” I told myself.

With a smile on my lips, I rushed over there together with Tuberculus and Rufus. We were happy to have finally found the exit. I was hoping to see the sky, the grass, the trees, but what I found was something horrifying…

“What’s this? Illsyore… you didn’t, did you?” I said as I saw the new maze ahead of us.

I couldn’t believe it. We had ANOTHER maze ahead of us. It was terrifying.

Is there no end to this place? How could he build something like this? How could he think the students could go through this nightmare? I thought as I dropped to my knees.

“This is it… he really wants to kill us.” said Tuberculus.

There was no way to say it wasn’t like that. Everything pointed in that direction.

“Hisss!”

“What was that?” I asked.

Looking ahead, countless snakes were rushing our way. I gulped and got up. Even I was getting angry.

If I unseal my power… If I do it… I thought as I looked at the dirty ribbon on my tail.

“I’ll kill him… I’ll destroy him…” I thought as I rushed at the snakes and pounded them into the ground.

My friends were currently in danger with their Magic Armor so low. I couldn’t let even one of those snakes get to them. I struck them fast and pulled them towards me until every last one of them was dead. I doubted Illsyore started using wild animals for this maze, so I looked for their spawning circles. After destroying them, I returned to the entrance.

The walls here didn’t go straight then cut to a sharp corner. It was a new type of maze I never seen before, undulating and letting the walls slither like a snake on the ground. Fortunately, it was much smaller, and I didn’t encounter any bosses, just imps and snakes.

Once we reached the end, we jumped down through another hole and fell in a small pond. Angius went straight to the bottom, but the cold water woke all of them up, and we swum up to the surface.

“Where… Where are we?” asked Tuberculus with a cough after he dragged himself out of the water.

“The final boss room…” I said as I saw the large room and huge Minotaur in front of us.

It was three meters tall, covered in black fur, with two, mean-looking red eyes, and wielding a giant axe. That wasn’t a boss for a second floor, that was one for the 30th floor and beyond. I was certain of that because I once fought against one.

Illsyore just broke the common sense of Dungeons… again! I thought as I looked at the monstrosity.

“GRAARGH!” the beast growled and then struck the floor with its hoof.

The ground trembled, announcing the beginning of the final battle.

“Fan out!” I shouted.

Rufus, Angius, and Tuberculus did just that. Although they were still waking up from their trance, they weren’t that out of it. The battle began, and I was the vanguard. Something as this boss wasn’t really a problem for me. As soon as it struck the ground, I slapped him once and sent him into a nearby wall. The others didn’t join and instead focused on replenishing their Magic Armor.

After the beast got up, it ran back to the center, ignoring us, but it was certainly grinning back.

“It’s a trap!” I shouted.

We all raised our Magic Armor and prepared for the attack. A few hatches opened from above, and we were ready to defend ourselves against an arrow attack, but instead, nine beams of light shot out and moved across the floor. I rolled to the side and jumped over one of them. I didn’t want it to touch me, but Tuberculus got hit by one. It lowered his Magic Armor at an incredible speed and forced him to dodge. When it shattered, it burned his robe, but luckily not his flesh. The same happened to Angius, and only Rufus dodged before he got hit by them.

I clicked my tongue and struck the floor with my fist. A tile was dislodged. I picked it up and tossed it at one of the beams of light. Something cracked or got smashed, judging by the noise, but there were no more beams shooting out of there.

“Nanya! Behind you!” shouted Tuberculus.

It was too late, the Minotaur took advantage of the moment and rushed at me. I was struck by his axe and sent flying into the wall. A part of my Magic Armor went down, and I fell on top of two beams of light. They lowered my armor even more, but I rolled away before it was completely gone. My clothes were smoking a bit in one or two places, but nothing dangerous yet.

“What a room…” said Angius as he dodged another beam of light.

I got up and started tossing the pieces of floor at the hatches. The Minotaur noticed me and charged at me again. I stopped his rampage with a single hand and kicked him in the ribs. Grabbing him by one of his horns, I tossed him over my shoulder and sent him flying into the wall. Two of those beams managed to hit me from behind at that moment, and I smelled the burning fabric. I dodged and then cracked the floor again. Using the pieces, I tossed them at the hatches and broke whatever was shooting at us. The boss was knocked out by my last hit, so all I had to do was destroy those things.

When it was finally over, we let out a sigh of relief. I couldn’t believe we just went through that fight at the second floor of a dungeon. If I told anyone about this back at the guild, they would have laughed at me and said I was making it up. No one would believe us if we were to tell them of what sort of dangers this dungeon held.

At that moment, only one thought crossed my mind. If we actually took his dungeon seriously and prepared beforehand, or at the very least went in together with him, then we wouldn’t have had so much trouble… Ara? Didn’t he offered to guide us through? If he wanted to kill us, then… then why offer to be our guide? the revelation struck me hard. The idiot actually doesn’t know what an Easy dungeon is, does he? I started to laugh.

It was a bit shameful of me to think that for the past two days even I was beginning to think about destroying Illsy. He was just born, of course he had no idea what was what. With so much Magic Energy to spare even I wouldn’t have wasted my time with petty little floors filled with wildlife.

“An exit! Look!” shouted Tuberculus.

“Finally! We’re out! Hurry! We must go and destroy his core before he attacks the school or tries to go for our lives again!” shouted Angius.

What? Wait a minute… I thought when I saw the idiots running towards the stairs.

I ran after them. The stairs first went down, but then they went up a long way.

Right there, at the exit of the boss room, next to a wall was a message written on a granite plaque.

[Thank you for testing out my dungeon. I’m sorry if it was too easy for all of you, I’ll try my best with the next floors! And if it’s no good, let me know how to make one so it wouldn’t be a danger for the students. Illsyore.]

After reading it, I blinked surprised. All this time, the Dungeon Lord thought it was too easy and that we might be disappointed with it? And now those idiots were trying to kill him?

I clicked my tongue and rushed after them. I wasn’t going to let them touch Illsy.

Not on my watch! If he really wanted to kill us, then where was the black fog? Where was the killing intent?! I screamed in my mind as I realized the fact that the most important proof was missing.

Whenever a Dungeon was mad, angered, or desired to kill anyone, a black fog would rise on its Dungeon Territory to limit the sight of the adventurers. The stronger it was the more powerful the traps and the monsters were. We saw it countless times in other dungeons, but it was completely missing from Illsy’s. It was a wonder neither of us noticed it until then. Maybe we got too used to the idea that we were living inside a non-aggressive Dungeon Lord’s territory?

“You idiots! I said STOP!” I shouted and then struck Angius in the back of his head sending him crashing into the stairs. I punched Tuberculus in the stomach and slapped Rufus into the wall. They were all knocked out.

“Huff! Huff! Huff!” breathing hard, I picked them up and walked up the stairs.

I was going to explain everything to them after they got their medical treatment and woke up. Once the idiot trio calmed down and relaxed, I was sure they were going to listen. In case they didn’t, they could always be my punching bags until they did.

Light… we’re finally out… I thought.get. It didn’t matter, I was going to kill them all!