Chapter 20- Endless Tunnels

The map was naturally not that clear and the paper was so thin it felt like it could tear apart at any second. But, still, that was a very valuable find. This place was completely foreign to him so a map was certainly going to make it easier to navigate it.

However, there was a very small problem. Malice had no idea where he was on this map. In fact, he didn't even know where is where and how it even worked. As far as he was concerned, it was just a bunch of black lines interconnecting and expanding everywhere like a complex system of tree roots.

There were no starting points indicated on the map that told him where to go or where he was. 

"..." Rubbing the back of his head, he tried to at least understand where the tunnels end. Surprisingly, that wasn't too hard as he quickly noticed that all these tunnels merged into a single tunnel at the very top of the map. That was the single most noticeable detail about it.

'That certainly looks suspicious…' He thought to himself as he looked up. 'I don't know where I am right now, but I should be able to figure it out at some point, right?'

His only choice at this moment was to continue forward and try to pinpoint any particular areas that might resemble a section of the map and then start from there. But, there was another confusing thing he noticed.

'Why did this guy have a map to begin with?' He raised an eyebrow. The map was lying next to the dead corpse, almost resting in its hand. That naturally led him to believe that this monster was using the map. But, then again, how could it do that when it had no actual consciousness or intelligence to begin with?

Looking down at the monster again, Malice fell into deep thought. 'It does look humanoid to a certain extent… Could it be that these monsters weren't originally like this?' 

The first possible explanation that came to his mind was related to the name of this place 'The Dungeons Of Madness'. Perhaps these were conscious creatures before but this place turned them into monsters.

Then, he remembered the description of this place. 'What lies in a dark world certainly turns one into a monster… That makes a lot of sense. Perhaps the darkness made them change. But, what were they before? Humans? Perhaps another type of creature I don't know about?'

The more Malice understood what was happening, the more he was mortified. If what he was thinking of was true then he was in a huge problem. 'Am I going to turn into one too?!'

Rubbing his chin, he tried to calm down. There was no reason to panic yet when nothing happened that could be dangerous. At least, he can now be more careful and aware if he feels a change.

'Yeah, I cannot let it get to my head yet. Maybe that's the dungeon's way of trying to make me lose my mind.' He thought to himself.

So, he put the map to the side and started moving again. His eyes were still burning from the blood but he was able to restore his full vision rather quickly.

For the next few minutes, nothing else happened and the tunnel continued stretching for as far as he could see. But, Malice was certain that at some point, it was going to expand into many routes.

But, before that, he ended up stumbling upon two of the same monsters he had seen before. This time, both were alive and both were roaming the tunnel aimlessly like mindless puppets.

'Ugh, two is so inconvenient…' Malice frowned as he stayed out of their vision while trying to think of a solution. The first kill had indeed increased his strength, but the increase was so miniscule, that it might as well be considered nothing. He knew that he couldn't really fight two at the same time.

"..." The boy's mind worked for a few moments before he got an idea. 'What if…'

The more he thought about it, the more it felt like the best way to go about doing this. So, he pulled his sword out and then slowly moved next to the wall and waited. The monsters continued moving around, not caring about anything. 

Meanwhile, Malice patiently waited for the perfect opportunity. Then, when he saw it, he started crawling toward the two monsters with a focused gaze. In a sense, the situation he was in was quite familiar. Stealth was one of Malice's best abilities. To steal from people, he had to be patient, smart, and very sneaky so this came naturally to him in this situation.

In a matter of seconds, he found himself right behind one of these clueless monsters. Then, without hesitating, he stabbed the monster in the nape using all his strength. The creature screeched loudly in pain before it fell to the ground dead.

[You have killed an Unranked Monster.]

[You have gained 1 Soul Essence.]

[Your power has increased subtly.]

Malice ignored the messages as he pulled his sword out and faced the second monster that was staring at him now. 

'I did it once, could definitely do it twice.' Clenching his teeth, Malice decided to simply full-send it. Fear was a secondary thing now that he killed two of these things.

"AAAGH!!!" With no time to hesitate, he rushed toward the monster and yelled at the top of his lungs. Then, he stabbed forward, and the sword ruthlessly pierced through the monster's neck as it tried to grab Malice. The latter didn't see its arm and it scratched him in the face.

"Ouch!"

The monster fell dead as Malice grabbed the injured spot. Blood sipped through his hand as he wiped it.

'That was bad on my side. I can't just recklessly attack and not consider what could happen.' Even as he was standing there, he recalled what he had done a second ago and tried to pinpoint what was wrong and what was done well.

That was his way of learning and improving. Deducting a mistake from each move he made was crucial in avoiding disaster in the future.

[You have killed an unranked monster.]

[You have gained 1 Soul Essence.]

[Your power has increased subtly.]

[You have gained a Weapon Legacy.]

"Oh!" Reading through the notifications, he noticed a new thing that caught his attention. "A weapon legacy!"

This was the first time he received something from a monster and it was the third one. He expected it to be a little harder at first.

'Well, I can't complain. Let's see what this is.'

[Weapon Legacy: Maddening Slash

Description: Using the legacy adds a layer of aura around the blade that inflicts 1% madness on the target. Could be stacked up and costs Soul Essence to activate.]

"Oh! This is good! Wait, what does it mean by inflicting madness?" He asked himself. "Does it like… Make the target crazy?"

That was the most obvious answer and it certainly sounded quite useful. However, there was a little problem.

'I can understand if the target is an intelligent creature. But, what if I'm facing a brainless monster? Would that still work?'

His immediate theory was that it probably wouldn't work since well, how crazier an already crazy creature could become? They have already lost all senses of logic. The maddening slash might just be useless in that regard.

'Well, I can experiment with it on my next target if I can.' He mused before he closed the window and started moving again. The burning pain on his cheek was a little annoying, but it wasn't too bad as it already stopped bleeding a while ago.

For the next 30 minutes or so, Malice didn't come across any other monsters. The entire place died down again as the tunnel returned to its, dark, humid, and quite frankly boring state. At first, it felt so suffocating to be there, but now it was suffocating, nerve-wracking, and boring at the same time. A part of the boy wanted to just stop caring and try to calm down a little. But, Malice couldn't relax as he stayed on edge the entire time. Not even boredom can make him compromise his safety over some ease of mind.

Eventually, he was rewarded with something. A change in the scenery. Halting in his place, he saw that the tunnel finally diverged into three different paths.

"Here we go. That took way longer than I expected." He muttered as he pulled out the map. There was naturally no way he could determine where he was now. But, he still decided to mark down all the places where the path diverges into three different paths. Using his bloody fingertips, he put points wherever he saw a possible location.

The work was intensive and required a lot of focus. Sweat kept dripping down Malice's face as he wiped it.

By the end of it, he had at least 50 different spots where he could be. Which was not that much better than before but he at least knew what he was working with.

'The more I move, the more I can narrow it down. It might take a lot of time, though.' Putting the map away, he finally stood up again and stared at the three paths.

"Now, the most important question… Where should I go?"

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