Dark Dungeon

The Horror Realm was a strange realm. It never had sunlight, therefore it was always night. However, the weather wasn't cold; instead, it was as if it were summer with an occasional wind breeze. There were other similarly gloomy realms; however, even they had signs of sunlight, which were seen through dispersing clouds.

It was often debated whether the Horror Realm should be renamed as the Crimson Realm or the Night Realm. However, the name Horror Realm was already so iconic and well-known that the idea was quickly snuffed out.

At the present time, a small flicker of light appeared in the middle of a gloomy forest. It belonged to a burning campfire. Around the fire, Perseus and the rest sat on top of fallen tree trunks. Some were eating their rations, others talked, and Jason silently looked at the dazzling flames.

"Perseus, I have a question." A muscular, short-haired man innocently clasped his hands. It looked rather odd when someone with his build acted like that, as if he were a shy maiden.

Perseus' eyebrow rose, but he was curious, so he nodded. The others turned their gaze away from their food or flames and turned to the man who just spoke.

The muscular man immediately felt shy, his cheeks changing shades. His name was Paul, and he was a solo adventurer. However, he often ventured into easier realms, which was why he hadn't entered System Veteran rank yet. However, Horror Realm had creatures that he needed for his percentage potion. He wasn't wealthy enough to buy from other guilds since all his money went to medicine and rent.

There were different kinds of percentage potions. Ingredients that were taken from stronger creatures were often more potent, giving more percentage. However, it also had another reason. Some creatures, when drunk as potions, gave extra strength, intelligence, vitality, etc. Paul was part of the strength pathway, which was why he came into this realm to acquire the heart of an Argh Tree.

Coming alone was far too dangerous. Therefore, he decided to join a party. Even if he didn't find the Argh Tree, he was certain that he would find enough ingredients to rank up.

"My name is Paul. Hello everyone." He awkwardly waved his hand at others as if he were doing a school presentation. After seeing the awkward expressions of others, he cleared his throat and turned toward Perseus. "I am curious. Why didn't you come here with the Golden Lion guild?"

It was the same question that many had in their minds. The Golden Lion had enough strength to clear this dungeon with ease. However, not only did Perseus have to recruit ten random people but also gather materials by himself. It sounded bothersome since he could have just asked members of the guild to join him. Also, joining with strangers was always risky. You could never know if one of them had malicious thoughts.

Perseus looked at the muscular man's innocent brown eyes. He soon sighed and looked away before replying.

"Golden Lion is busy during this period. They are preparing for a very important raid. I haven't acquired enough guild credits to receive the ingredients needed to rank up from the Guild Vault, so I had to come here alone." Perseus answered truthfully and turned his gaze back to the dazzling flames. He obviously had no intention to keep talking. Therefore, silence ensued at the campsite.

'Important raid... It must be very important if a guild the size of the Golden Lion doesn't have time to spare manpower for Perseus. I still wonder, why wasn't he needed there and was allowed to leave? Is he actually an important member of the guild? Well, if he was, the Guild Master wouldn't allow him to leave during a crucial period.

'But he is apparently close to rank up. Therefore, someone allowed him to leave. A higher-ranked member... one of his family members perhaps? If Perseus had joined the raid, I doubt he would have been given an important role and would have been forced to stand on the sidelines. That wouldn't allow him to gain enough guild credits to acquire his ingredients. It would slow down his progress by a month, at least.'

Jason thought inwardly and already had some sort of mental picture of Perseus' situation in his mind. At first, he felt wary of him since his situation felt odd. Now, he didn't feel as cautious, but he didn't drop his guard. Same was with other party members. He would never trust any of them since greed could blind any of them.

The night continued in silence. The forest was eerily quiet. Birds didn't tweet, bugs didn't chirp, and the wind didn't whoosh. It was as if the whole forest had frozen still.

Perseus ordered a few party members to stay on guard before going to sleep. They had agreed to rotate the guards every two hours. At the last rotation, it would be Jason's and Paul's turn. For now, Jason lay next to the tree trunk, and under him was rough ground. It didn't bother him, as he quickly fell asleep.

The crimson moon colored the dark sky with a darker shade of red. The distant clouds drifted along the horizon before disappearing. At the same time, a chilly wind appeared from the north and breezed past the campsite.

Then, a hand touched Jason's shoulder and shook him awake.

Jason's eyes snapped open, and his left hand was already caressing the grip of his black revolver. However, he only saw one of the party members waking him up. After waking both him and Paul, the previous guards went to sleep for a few hours.

Paul was happily awake, as if waking up suddenly didn't bother him. He already wore his armor and two-handed axe. He took the duty of the guard extremely seriously. He nodded to Jason with a huge smile before entering his post.

Jason combed his hair with his hand before standing up. He slept with the holster on in case something suddenly happened in the middle of the night. His hair stood up suddenly as the cold wind blew over. He shuddered slightly and put on his coat before walking over to his post.

The forest was still as dark as last night. The sky was pitch-black. It made him wonder whether he only slept for thirty minutes before being woken up. However, he remembered that the first pair of guards looked different than the ones who woke him and Paul.

The following hour, the forest was quiet. After another hour passed, they woke up others. Perseus and the rest groggily washed their faces with water found in their bottles and put on their armor under the chilly weather. They stomped down the campfire, which still had fire. The guards had also been assigned the duty of keeping the fire going so that others wouldn't freeze.

Then, they packed up their things before leaving the campsite. Jason followed behind while carrying two bags. His bag barely weighted anything, but Perseus' felt even heavier than yesterday.

They continued marching across the dark-filled forest, going over fallen trees and hills. They even had to cross a river with a powerful current. Luckily, there were firm-looking rocks that they were able to use as footholds and safely cross the river. However, one of them had dipped his leg in the river and drenched himself. Otherwise, nothing serious happened during the walk.

After five hours, according to Jason's wristwatch, they finally arrived at the entrance of the Dark Dungeon. The entrance was arc-shaped and made of rocks, and the interior was pitch black. It was as if light itself got swallowed up by the darkness. There was still a howl of wind inside the dungeon, hinting that there might be other entrances to the dungeon.

Before entering it, however, they carefully planned their formation. They soon decided. Paul would be in front, in the middle would be Perseus, and three other System Veteran rankers. Then Jason and the chestnut-haired navigator, Tina, were behind them. At the back were the five remaining party members, who would protect their backs.

After each role was decided, they stepped through the entrance and entered the darkness. They all immediately felt like something invisible had passed through their bodies. Their bodies turned cold, and it felt like their hearts stopped beating for a split second.

Ba-dump, ba-dump.

Jason frowned as he felt his heart beating in his ears. The cold feeling slowly disappeared. He raised his head and saw that others had equally strange expressions. They all had the same experience... as if they had embraced death for that split second!

Jason rolled his sleeve slightly and saw that his hair was standing up. His primal instincts told him that there was something dangerous inside.

'Is it because I am a mere Non-Systemer? Someone of my level shouldn't be here, I assume. Perseus and others don't look that frightened. They should have experienced their fair share of dangerous opponents, meaning that it is still possible to clear this dungeon as long we all stick together.'

Jason sighed in relief, but soon his words got stuck in his throat. That was because, as soon as they entered deeper into the darkness, he lost sight of everyone.

"Hello? Perseus?" He heard his voice bouncing across the rocky walls. There was even an echo. However, no one answered him back. Jason's throat went dry, and he reached his hand forward. He wished that his hand would touch something, but there was nothing there.

His expression turned serious, and he was about to grab his flashlight from his bag. But then, a flash of light appeared that engulfed him entirely. He lost all feeling in his body, and as soon as the light disappeared, he opened his eyes and saw something he didn't expect to see.

A long hallway.

He was standing in a hallway of what seemed to be part of a mansion. The walls were painted an ugly brownish color with a tint of red. However, the paint was slowly peeling off as if the hallway were rapidly aging. There were also paintings with faceless people. They didn't have a nose, eyes, or mouth. However, they had ears, which was surprising enough.

'Illusion or hallucination? If it was an illusion, we should be in the den of a Ghoul. If hallucination, then Wraith, which is far worse!'

Jason drew his revolver out of the holster before dropping both bags on the ground. It was iron-black in color with a long barrel. It looked menacing and powerful.

The chamber was filled to the brim. However, the bullets were rapidly changing colors. From blue to purple to red, then finally copper, before turning back to blue. This was the effect of the weapon known as the Myth Extinquisher!

He didn't need to bring his own Anti-Ghost, Purification, Regeneration Nullifying bullets. Anti-Ghost was a bullet in the color blue that was used to kill ghosts because it would nullify their phasing powers. Then, Purification was mostly used against zombies, ghouls, and wraiths. It was bullet that had color purple. Regeneration Nullifying Bullet was the color red. Copper was ordinary bullet.

Jason stepped forward and began to trek down the long hallway. However, as he passed the paintings, the faceless, who had no mouth, suddenly started smiling creepily. Since they didn't have mouths, their flesh stretched until it somewhat resembled a smile. Nonetheless, it was still creepy!

Jason saw something moving in his peripheral vision. He concluded that something in the painting moved. However, he didn't turn around to look and instead kept his gaze firmly on the hallway. This wasn't exactly the experience he expected from his first realm wandering opportunity.