Dungeon [1]

-Blaaargh!

As soon as I regained my senses, I felt my stomach churning and before I knew it I was on the ground barfing.

Fortunately, I didn't puke on my mask as I slightly tilted it upwards to allow the barf to escape from my mouth.

"First timer, huh?"

Looking at me, who was on the ground barfing, an amused smile appeared on the middle-aged man's face. 

It was only after five minutes had passed that I was able to pick myself up. 

Even then, I felt like crap.

After having vomited so much, I could barely stand up.

"Sit down for a bit"

*Puff* 

Leaning against a nearby rock, the middle-aged man held a new cigarette between his fingers and puffed. 

"Haa...haaa..." 

Heeding his words, I sat on a rock. Taking advantage of the small break, I turned my head and looked around. 

An expansive green field with oak trees everywhere appeared before my vision. On the backdrop of the scene were towering mountains that penetrated the clouds in the sky. 

The air felt extremely fresh and it reminded me of the time when I was in Clayton ridge.

Looking around, I could see a massive warp gate behind me. Five white-clothed individuals patrolled around it.

'How did they manage to hide such a huge thing?' 

I wondered. 

"You're probably wondering how we can hide the gate from the government's sight"

Taken aback, I looked at the middle-aged man.

'How does he know?'

Blankly staring at the sky where the clouds were slowly darkening, indicating that it was going to rain soon, the middle-aged man casually said. 

"There's a barrier that covers a 5km radius of everything here."

"The barrier prevents the energy coming out from the dungeon from being leaked, and it also blocks electromagnetic waves preventing any radio communications or detection devices from finding this place."

Listening to him, I silently nodded.

This was a smart choice.

If the government were to find about this dungeon, they would swiftly take it over.

No matter how strong the black market was, they wouldn't be able to fight against both the government and the union.

Since dungeons, monsters, and demons fell under the union's jurisdiction, if an unclaimed gate was discovered, the union would do anything within its power to claim it. And since the black market was not as strong as the union, they could only resort to hiding dungeons that they found.

But I was curious.

Couldn't the union just send spies and find the location of the dungeon?

"ku ku, your expression is so easy to read kid." The middle-aged man chucked. "It's not so easy for spies to find the location of the dungeons." Tapping on the butt of the cigarette, he continued. "In the first place, the reason why we use warp gates is so that they can't find where the dungeon is. Moreover, with the barrier, which prevents any communication to the external world, it's almost impossible for them to find this place"

"I see..."

What he said made sense, but a barrier alone was not enough to prevent the union from discovering this place.

Actually, before that, was my expression that easy to read? It was fine if only Grandmaster Keiki could read my thoughts...but now another person, whom I just met, could easily read what I wanted to say―was my face that easy to read?

Moreover, I was currently wearing a mask. Apart from my eyes, everything else was covered. Does that mean he could read my expression solely based on my eyes?

I need to make a mental note to myself to start practicing my poker face...

Looking at my surroundings, I thought for a bit before saying out loud.

"If it were me, I would just look at the surrounding geology and narrow it down to possible locations"

With the technology of this world, it wouldn't be too hard to narrow places down according to the details of the surroundings.

"Huhu, you're a smart one eh?"

Laughing at my comment, the middle-aged man stood up.

"That's true. But, since we are strong, both the union and the government won't really spend that much effort in finding the dungeons we secured."

Suddenly the middle-aged man's eyes narrowed, as he spat the next words coldly.

"That is unless they want to start a war with us...."

Standing up, I followed the middle-aged man.

"By the way sir, how should I call you?"

As we were walking, I couldn't help ask him for his name.

Although he may look completely unrefined and crude, when he spat those last words, my heart shivered for a split second.

"Me?"

Puffing the cigarette in his mouth, the middle-aged man smirked.

"Just call me Thomas"

"Okay, Mr. Thomas"

"Do it without the honorifics, please. It makes it sound cheesy"

"uh, okay"

After walking alongside Thomas, and chatting with him for a bit, I suddenly felt tremendous energy coming from the distance.

"You feel it?"

"Yeah"

"That's the accumulated energy of all the monsters inside of the dungeon..."

Staring ahead at the source of where the energy was coming from, I couldn't help but feel slightly nervous.

Looking at me, Thomas grinned as he said

"Nervous?"

"I'd be lying if I said no..."

"Don't worry too much, although it is indeed scary for a first-timer like you, you'll get used to it eventually. "

Slightly pausing, he looked at the gate which was becoming clearer by the minute, and lightly said.

"Moreover, wait till you see an S-ranked gate"

"An S-ranked gate huh..."

If the energy coming out from an F-rank gate was this much, I wonder how much energy would come out from an S-rank gate...

Just the thought sent shivers down my spine.

"Yo Timothy 8, Timothy 9"

Greeting two individuals clad in white masks and armor, Thomas handed them a card.

"..."

"..."

Ignoring Thomas, the two guards took the card and scanned it.

After making sure everything was alright, both guards stepped to the side and made way for him and me.

Taking a step forward, I could feel the tremendous energy bursting out from the gate.

"I guess this is where we part ways kid"

Momentarily startled by Thomas's voice, as I was too engrossed on the enormous gate before me, I could see Thomas standing beside the guards.

"Thank you for everything Thomas"

"Haha, Don't worry about it. Just doing my job. Take care of yourself kid"

Nodding my head I turned around and faced the dungeon.

"Huuu..."

Taking a deep breath, I took my first step into a dungeon.

...

As soon as I felt my eyes regain their usual clarity, I felt a blast of hot air engulf my body.

The dry environment instantly caused my lips to tight up, prompting me to repeatedly lick them to keep them moist.

The ground beneath me was full of cracks, and signs of skirmishes could be seen everywhere in the surroundings. Evidently showing that battles had occurred in this place.

At the very end of my sight, I could see sand dunes made up of red and black sand cover the landscape.

"Just like its description, there really is no source of water nor food here"

It was a completely desolate place.

The surrounding vegetation was all withered, and there were no signs of animal or living creatures on sight.

Aside from monsters, who don't need to eat or drink, the only other living beings were the small insects that hid beneath the cracked earth.

Staring at the light red skies that enveloped the surrounding area, I felt like it created a stronger sense of dread in this desolate world.

Taking a moment so that I could adjust to the harsh environment, I sat down and quickly checked on my equipment.

Carefully placing my hand on my hips where my newly acquired sword rested, I made a recount of the things that I brought.

"Let's see... the sword is here, food is inside my newly acquired bracelet and should last me for about a week"

"There also shouldn't be any problems regarding potions as some cheap [Stamina recovery] are carefully stored in my bracelet"

"What else....hmm, I think that's it"

Seeing that I didn't have anything missing, I stood up and decided to venture deeper into the dungeon.

"Alright, to my very first dungeon!"

...

-Keuka!

Stopping in front of a dead tree, I paused and stared at my opponent.

Just like any novel with dungeons in them, my very first opponent was a goblin.

Yes, a globin.

Do you even need me to describe its features?

I mean it was a fucking goblin.

-Khuek!

...and it sounded like a goblin too!

Tapping on the handle of my newly acquired sword, a white streak appeared before the goblin.

-Click!

-Khuuuuaak!

Before the goblin could even have enough time to react, a red dot appeared on top of its forehead which resulted in the goblin lifelessly slumping on the ground.

'How sharp'

I thought as I admired my new sword.

It felt exactly how someone would feel when cutting a block of butter. Smooth with little to no resistance.

Puu!

Arriving before the goblin, I quickly spat on its body.

Soon after spitting on its body, I kicked its body to the side, while also making sure I cursed at it.

"Fucking goblin"

In short, I was totally abusing the dead goblin.

But there was a good reason for my unreasonable actions.

I didn't have any grudges against goblins or anything like that per se, it was just that I had to do so that I could trigger a certain event.

...and

-Khuek!

-Khuek!

-Khuek!

Yup.

A horde of about 20 or more goblins was madly running with blood-red eyes towards my direction.

Although dungeons have been with human society for 10+ years, not a lot was known about the monsters residing in them.

For example, out of all the monsters known to mankind, the number of monsters for which we knew detailed information could be counted with one hand.

Because monsters were not used to the earth's atmosphere, bringing live samples back to earth was an extremely difficult and arduous task that simply wasn't worth the cost.

Because of how hard it was to get access to live samples of monsters, it became very hard for researchers to find out more about dungeon monsters.

The research was extremely crucial in aiding humanity in getting a better understanding of the monsters which resided in the demon world.

Researchers have predicted that one day there might be the possibility of the demon world suddenly attacking earth.

If we didn't put a lot of effort into finding more about the monsters that resided in the demon world, it might be too late when the time that monsters can enter earth arrives.

Professor Theodore Rombhouse, the one who questioned me last time, was a leading figure in the research of monsters and beasts.

Not only was he a fanatic in analyzing a beast's behavior and weakness, but he also loved to analyze and dissect monsters so that he could find out more about them.

Monsters were weird creatures.

They not only behaved irrationally but sometimes when certain conditions were met they could trigger an unexpected event.

Such as what was currently happening right now with the goblins.

Because of my action of spitting and abusing the goblin, I managed to trigger a goblin horde.

Actually, this was a little joke I put in the novel, but on several occasions, similar unexpected actions could cause certain monsters to do something you would least expect.

In the case of goblins, because they always tended to be the first monsters the protagonists faced when entering a dungeon, I decided to add this feature so that I could bring justice to them.

In actuality, I added it because I needed to meet a certain word count, and I couldn't come up with anything.

That aside, goblins were basically the most useless monsters out there.

For those who wanted to become stronger, goblins were considered training dummies, and for villains and demons, they were considered cannon fodder.

They truly were the most abused species in all novels.

In the story, Kevin alongside another party enter the academy's dungeon.

At first, the other group wanted to make things difficult for Kevin's party, but because he was too strong they could only silently endure.

They later took out their grievances on a nearby goblin, which triggered their hidden feature where all goblins within a 100-meter radius turned berserk and attacked anything on site.

Since goblins were so weak and easily died when entering the earth's atmosphere, it was very hard to get proper information on them.

And on the off-chance that they managed to retrieve a live sample, this unique ability of theirs would've never been discovered as who would just spit kick and abuse a goblin for research purposes?

Moreover, even if some deranged scientist did the following if there were no other goblins around their special feature was essentially useless.

...right now though, I couldn't help but pat my back for adding such a feature.

-Khuek!

-Khuek!

-Khuek!

With this method not only did I not need to find the goblins who were spread across the terrain, but I could also save a lot of time and train efficiently.

Tapping the handle of my sword, I prepared myself for a long and challenging battle.