Rigel walked up the hill and to the location of the Undercliff Dungeon which was hidden under the cliff at the edge of the island. The dungeon was discovered when someone tried to get out of the island and then found a cave that was as big as the island itself.
The reason why people camped near the cliff was because they were waiting in lines. Some groups were waiting for days to get their turns, and that also happened to Anfer, Skola, and Ensen. They used to have the 4th Player, but he decided to give up on waiting to do something else more valuable. They had waited for a week, and today was the day they got their turn to enter the dungeon.
"So, we are going to climb down the cliff from here..." Anfer the bearded man said as he looked down the cliff. "The cave is at least 100 meters from here," he pointed his hand around the cliff below him.
Rigel looked down and saw how fierce the sea was when it hit the shore. He couldn't see the cave from there, so he jumped down and manipulated the Mana around him to make him float in the air. He saw the cave which was not at the bottom of the cliff, it was in the middle and the mouth was so small that he barely noticed it.
"I was right... He's amazing..." Skola said after she saw what Rigel could do. "Let's climb down and don't let him wait," she said as she started climbing down the cliff.
He flew toward the cave and saw Players coming out of the mouth. He landed in front of them and heard that they were confused by what had happened to them. They had their memories blurred as soon as they left the dungeon and couldn't remember much about what they encountered there.
"You're with Anfer?" A man looked at Rigel with suspicion.
"Yes, with Skola and Ensen. They should be on their way down here," Rigel nodded and didn't bother to look at the man he was talking to. "Are you the group before us?" He asked as he observed the cave and felt the ominous aura it oozed.
"Yeah, the dungeon is yours. Good luck in there..." He said as he rubbed his head and still couldn't remember much about the dungeon.
Rigel heard about people wanting to buy any information related to the Undercliff Dungeon. The 3 Guilds would pay 50 Gold Coins that were worth a rare up to unique rank equipment. So far, every Player that had entered the dungeon could only remember the same thing. They didn't remember what monster they fought, what kind of world inside the cave, or what made them fail.
Seeing how there were no casualties ever since the dungeon was discovered, meant the dungeon itself wasn't dangerous. The fact that it couldn't be cleared made the dungeon quite famous, especially among Players from high floors. Rigel just knew what high floors meant to Players, it meant Players who had reached the 50th floor.
The previous group had left the mouth of the cave while Anfer and the others arrived to look at the cave's mouth for the first time. They all stood there and realized the heavy atmosphere around the mouth and how it oozed an ominous aura. They hesitated to enter, but since they wanted to get stronger, they had no choice but to test their luck.
"Let's head in," Anfer said as he pulled out his battle axes and held them tightly.
The 4 of them entered the cave, and the darkness immediately embraced them, holding them so tightly that they couldn't get rid of it. Rigel cast fireballs from the Mana around, providing lights for the group like guardian angels.
They walked for half an hour and they didn't encounter anything, not even an insect or a bug that lurked in the cave. It was too quiet that they could hear their blood pumping. They didn't know where to go or what to do, the only thing they could do was keep moving forward.
"What's that? I think I see a light..." Ensen squinted his eyes as he looked in the distance.
Rigel extinguished the fireballs and everyone could see what Ensen meant. They could see a blue light in the distance, so they all walked toward it until they were right below the blue light.
"That's the lake, right? How can we stand underneath it while we can see the water above us?" Skola looked at a school of fish swimming in the water above her. "This is amazing..." She scoffed with a smirk.
Rigel felt something was watching them around him, and when he unsheathed his sword, the others looked at him with confused looks. They didn't ask but they immediately looked around because Rigel readied his stance and stared intensely at something.
A salamander charged at them, and Anfer managed to block its long claws with his axes. The Salamander was as big as Anfer who was at least 190 centimeters tall with his buffed body. Skola swiftly moved toward the salamander and cut off the front legs when it was trying to bite Anfer's head.
Ensen jumped and stabbed the salamander's head with his spear and pierced through its skull, killing it instantly. Before they could take a breather, 2 salamanders came in and almost bit Ensen's right arm if he hadn't dodged back in time. The other salamander tried to bite Anfer's head, but Anfer had already swung his axe up vertically and closed the salamander's mouth. Skola slid right under the salamander and stabbed the salamander's head from below, piercing it through its skull and up to its head.
More salamanders came and surrounded them, but that wasn't something that Anfer, Skola, and Ensen couldn't handle. Their synergy was perfect and protected each other's backs without having to worry about getting attacked from behind.
They were fighting 4 salamanders and it took them a while to kill them, but they wondered why there were no more salamanders that came to attack them. They saw a dozen of them before the fight, and when they looked at Rigel, they saw he had killed the remaining salamanders.
"Get down..." Rigel said as he created a small fireball.
They went down on all four, and then Rigel released the fireball, creating a slow wave of flames. They were speechless and amazed by the flames, and it was moving away to provide vision for them. That was when they saw dozens of salamanders lurking around and ran away to avoid the flames.
"Is it just me or do you guys see a tunnel over there?" Ensen asked as he pointed at the tunnel in the distance.
"Looks like we found our way deeper..." Anfer nodded in agreement as he walked toward the tunnel. "You're amazing, Rigel. I didn't know you could use magic as well," he looked at Rigel walking in front of him.
Rigel didn't say anything and focused on the tunnel where he felt something familiar coming out of it.
The tunnel was long, and they were cautious about it since the salamanders might be following them from behind. Rigel was at the front providing lights for them. The deeper they went, the colder it became, and their breaths started to vaporize because of it.
"Hmm?" Skola furrowed her eyebrows as she noticed a big and wide structure in the distance. "Is that stairs?" She squinted her eyes and saw the stairs that were carved from the cave itself.
They looked at the stairs in front of them and it was quite a long stairs to climb. They started to feel uncomfortable because it seemed like the cave was made by someone or something rather than a natural phenomenon. They then decided to climb the stairs to see where it led them.
When they reached the top, they realized it was an altar with a big square wall standing in the middle. They all approached it and tried to read what was written on it. Rigel surrounded the wall with fireballs so everyone could read it. But when Rigel read the first few words, he was shocked by the content of it.
"Those who can speak the name will find the light. Those who can speak the name will find peace. Those who can speak the name will find what you desire..." Skola read the writings on the wall. "Goddess Lara...emar?" She looked at the writings and couldn't pronounce the name of the Goddess.
"Sara...maris?" Ensen tilted his head and furrowed his eyebrows with a confused look on his face. "Why can't we read it even though it's right in front of us?" He walked closer to see the writings.
"No, I think it's Lsaraelma—" Before Anfer could finish his sentence, his head felt like being crushed.
Skola and Ensen who thought about the pronunciation that Anfer said out loud, their heads were hurt as well. The 3 of them collapsed and that was when they got teleported out of the cave. Rigel realized why Players lost their memories when they explored the dungeon, and it turned out they were trying to speak the name of the Goddess that all Gods feared the most.
"Lysara'elmaris..." Rigel muttered as he touched the wall.
A magic formation lit up the altar and it teleported Rigel somewhere. He didn't expect to be sent away, and when he arrived, he was disturbed by what he saw.
"How long have you all been hiding in this place..." Rigel looked at the bodies scattered in front of him in their persevered clothes. When Rigel touched the wrist of a man, he was shocked that it was hollow and cracked the skin, and could see the bones inside. "Looks like you were hiding here for too long..." he added.