The 'Dungeon of Fury' (1)

Enzo looked at her before looking at the corner of the store again. He pondered for a while before finally making up his decision.

"Rose, you should go back to the gymnasium now." Enzo said as he continue to look at the enclosed space in the corner of the store.

"Huh? And leave you alone here?" She asked, a little surprised by his sudden choice. "I know that you're strong, but overestimating yourself will only let you die."

"I know that very well... but I want to continue exploring the store. However, I can't let you continue with me, especially when everyone is waiting for our return. I'm sure that you still remember the hope in the eyes of everyone when they saw us off, right? And now that you have all the supplies, you should try and get back to them."

"Can't we come back when we will be stronger?" Rose asked, making Enzo look at her directly into her eyes.

With a sigh, he finally answered. "Listen. Even if we go back and leave this place alone to come back another time, we don't know what could happen. We both know that the other stores are too far away from the gymnasium, and they must have been scavenged as well. So we can't let this place be destroyed. That's why I want you to go and bring back some supplies to the other. If things go well, I will be just behind you, albeit a few hours late."

Even though Enzo said that, it was mostly to convince Rose. After all, if they were to go back now, it means that he would be able to fight only much later.

Indeed, in reality, he just wanted to get stronger and fight more monsters. While he knew that being alone wasn't the greatest idea, he couldn't help but feel obliged too. As time passes, his family would most likely die at the hands of monsters. And what he wanted above all else was to find his family back and be reunited with them.

And what was the only way for him to one day find them? To get stronger, of course, so that no one could stop him during his search. That was why he wanted to go deeper into the store.

After all, the giant flower must be a very strong monster, and by killing it, he was sure to get a lot stronger than he currently was.

Rose looked at him for a long time before sighing, her delicate blond hair swaying against the gentle wind coming from the hole in the roof. "Don't die, Enzo."

She knew that there wasn't anything that could be done. Enzo looked to be the stubborn type, so she resigned in the end. She just hoped that he wouldn't have to fight to the death.

After all, if he were to die, there was a high chance for them all to die not much later.

"Yes, you too."

Just with that, Rose turned back and started running, her copies following right behind her. Enzo looked at her for a moment before turning his head toward the vines.

***

It didn't take Enzo long before entering what the vines were hiding.

The room he was currently in was the back of the convenience store where the supplies were supposed to be. However, strangely enough, there was nothing. All the boxes were empty as if something ate them already.

Just in case, Enzo took his swords into his hands and kept his butterflies close to him.

At some point in exploring the room, he found a hole in the ground. He couldn't see the end of it but guessed that it should have been pretty deep. Taking a small rock, he tossed it inside and waited for a while before finally hearing a noise.

'Since I can hear something, it must mean that the hole isn't that deep, right?'

With a bit of uncertainty, Enzo decided to go down the hole. He looked around to see if something could help him but found none.

'Guess it'll have to do.' Enzo took his sword and thrust it deep inside the wall of the hole and slowly descended. He didn't know if it was the right thing to do. After all, he could fall if his sword weren't deep enough. But taking his time seemed to be the solution as after about thirty minutes - at least from what he thought was thirty minutes - he finally felt the ground under his feet.

'God I never thought I would miss the ground so much in my life.' Enzo thought with a smile, before furrowing his eyes as he didn't expect the next thing to happen.

After all, he was quite deep in the ground, and as such, there wasn't any light for him to see what was in front of him.

Enzo clicked his tongue before walking. It wasn't as if he could get any source of light anytime soon, anyway, so it was better to get over it as quickly as possible.

He couldn't see it, but Enzo guessed that he was going down. His feet were slightly bent downward, meaning that he was descending further into the ground.

'Surely it's not the giant flower that made this hole, right?' Enzo thought as he continued walking cautiously. 'I mean, it wouldn't make much sense. Why would a flower need such a profound hole to take root? But then again, if it's not the flower, what can it be? A monster? Surely no monster could have done such a thing, right? I mean, who could even survive down there? Or was it an ancient bunker just in case something unexpected happened above?'

Enzo didn't know but expected to get his answers soon as he was getting closer to a source of light.

And what he saw there was something unexpected.

Or rather, something unexpected greeted him.

[Welcome to the 'Dungeon of Fury']

[Would you like to challenge the dungeon?]