18 The last floor (I)
For the first time I descended without fear. My intuition kept telling me that the next floor would be just as empty as the last. The only thing that worried me a little was what kind of scenery awaited me at the bottom of the stairs. Still, there could be nothing worse than the previous one.
The sound caused by my descent echoed in the distance. The moment I fell down from the last step, I saw for the first time something completely different from what I expected. I found a jungle, a desert, a glacier, and finally… an ordinary dungeon.
‘Finally, this is what one would expect to find after entering a place like this.’
A straight dark hallway, made of the same shiny bricks as the stairs, stretched out in front of me. I wasn’t able to see the end, since the faint glow of the bricks wasn’t enough to allow me to see beyond a few meters.
‘This is what a real dungeon should be. I knew that those biomes weren’t normal at all!’
I began to move carefully through that dark passageway. Perhaps my intuition was good, but not infallible. Regardless, whether there were monsters or not, it was still a dangerous place.
Clack!
‘Eh? What was that noise?’
I looked at the floor. The tile I had just stepped on was slightly sunken.
Fiuuuu!
I faintly heard the sound of something cutting through the air. Looking back, I saw an arrow stuck in the ground a few centimeters behind me. I had just stepped on the typical trap that shoots an arrow.
‘I have been saved thanks to my small size…’
I started to roll again after recovering from the scare of the damn useless trap… but barely two meters later…
Clack! Fiuuuu!
… the scene was repeated exactly the same.
‘You’re kidding?!’
I moved aside.
Clack! Fiuuuu!
I moved forward again...
Clack! Fiuuuu!
I stepped back diagonally ...
Clack! Fiuuuu!
‘What the… How many damn traps are there together?!’
I jumped more than 10 meters...
Clack! Fiuuuu!
‘... Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!’
Tired of that nonsense, I started to roll at full speed, sending to hell all the care with which I had been going.
Clack! Fiuuuu! Clack! Fiuuuu! Clack! Fiuuuu! Clack! Fiuuuu! Clack! Fiuuuu! Clack! Fiuuuu! Clack! Fiuuuu! Clack! Fiuuuu!
Lots of arrows were shooted wherever I passed. Without exaggeration, I traveled for at least a hundred meters with arrows being shot relentlessly.
‘Ah, they finally stopped… Who was the asshole who set all these traps together?! Does he want to kill someone?! Wait… this is what the traps are for… But so many together go beyond the limits of insanity!’
Assuming that I had already passed the area full of traps, I continued on my way… until I encountered a problem greater than the annoying useless arrows… The road divided into three, straight and on both sides.
‘Great… Now what?’
Going straight is usually never the right option, so I decided to go right. A short time later, the road divided into two again, straight and to the left. This time I turned left… and shortly after, I found another fork...
‘This is going to be more difficult than I expected. If I continue like this I will end up completely lost… I wish I had a map like in the games…’
[Activating map.]
A map was opened in front of my vision as it happens with 80% of computer games when one presses the M key…
‘Since when do I have a map? Ah! Right, it was unlocked when Helpy got to level 4.’
However, the map was not complete. It only showed the places where I had passed and the level of detail was not exactly full HD. However, it was more than I could ask at that moment.
‘Without this I would have taken centuries to overcome this labyrinth. I only explored a bit and it's already clear how far-fetched it is… Ha… ha… ha… I will beat to death the creator if I find him…’
I made the map small and put it on the lower right side of my vision. Yes, I had that convenient option. It was a shame that it did not also incorporate a trap detection option...
Clack!
‘Not again!’
I stepped on another trap and a bunch of arrows started flying from the walls… more than twenty centimeters above me. Unsurprisingly, not a single one hit me. That scene, like the previous time, kept repeating itself throughout the corridor.
‘Well, whatever, just keep shooting.’
This time I completely ignored the traps and continued to explore the dark areas of the map. Little by little, I was able to make my way through the maze. Maybe it wasn’t exactly like the other biomes, but it was practically as big. After hours of hard road, I still felt that I had advanced almost nothing.
Clack!
‘Yes, yes, shoot whatever you want… Stop bothering with…’
However, not a single arrow came out of this trap. No, what came out was a strange green gas that immediately filled the corridor.
‘This is… poison gas? Pfft, okay.’
Although for me it was still just as useless… I continued in the middle of that gas cloud without caring about it… finding even more traps...
Overcoming many more traps of gas, fire, ice, and countless other nonsense, I arrived in front of a door. It was the first door I came across during the probably more than 24 hours that I spent inside the maze. I felt like it had to be the end.
As I approached the door, thick spikes fell, digging into the ground with a loud noise and blocking the way. Right after that, a voice started to sound from a face drawn on the wall.
“$% & * € $% & * € $% & * € $% & * € $% & * € $% & * € $% & * €.”
‘That should be your mother.’
I stood looking at it… I hadn’t understood absolutely anything of what it had just said.
‘Mmmm, I suppose this is the typical door where you have to give the correct answer to pass… Well, I don’t even know what the hell you just said, nor can I answer… So, fuck you off. I keep going on.’
I completely ignored the face and went through the opening between the bars. There was more than enough space between them for me to pass.
“$% & * € $% & * € $% & * € $% & * € $% & * € $% & * € $% & * €!!”
‘Yes, yes, whatever you say.’
I kept moving forward, while the screams of that weird face kept ringing from behind me.
‘It seems to be angry… Well, put a solid door next time, not these shitty bars.’
The next room was so much bigger and taller. At the bottom, it has stairs that led up to a kind of throne. Everything seemed to indicate that this was the boss room.
‘And it’s empty too…’
I carefully checked the room. Just behind the throne, a small door gave access to another room, which I did not hesitate to enter.
‘This is…’
It was a not very large circular room. In the middle of it stood a pedestal with a strange round gem on it. Its size was like that of a small beach ball.
‘Helpy, is that what I think it is?’
[Dungeon core: The most important part and at the same time the heart of the entire dungeon. If it is destroyed, the dungeon disappears along with its creations.]
‘I knew… Tell me, what will happen to me if I destroy it?’
[All intruders are transported outside in case a dungeon collapses.]
‘He, he, hehehehehe.’
I started laughing like a madman and walked into the room. I approached the pedestal and jumped on top until I was right next to that gem. At that moment we both made eye contact with each other.
‘Finally I find you, bastard. I’ve wanted to see you for a long time. Let’s see, what am I going to do with you?’
