19- Exploring the Dungeon

A refreshing breeze came into Vincent's direction, moving his dark cape. He was standing in front of an abandoned castle. It's walls were filled with moss, and it had cracks everywhere. The place that once was magnificent now could fall into pieces at any time. It was a sad sight to be seen.

Vincent walked slowly towards it, entering using a huge door. It looked empty at first sight, but Vincent knew that beneath it, at the Corrupted Prison, monsters were waiting for him.

He didn't rush towards it. Vincent talked to his mercenaries, assembling some sort of formation. It was a basic one but far better than having none. They listed to him carefully. He was a noble and was the one paying them after all, so they were focused on the task in hand.

The insides of the castle were just as bad as the outside. A huge throne stood at the main hall, it seemed the only thing that was still in one piece. Vincent slowly walked towards some sort of basement, at the back parts of the castle. He couldn't see anything. The entrance was fully dark, not even a single torch could be seen. Vincent and his mercenaries walked down the stairs, carefully to not misstep. Soon after a huge dor could be seen, with some information above it.

[Corrupted Prison]

[Dungeon level 10-15]

It was the Dungeon's entrance. Vincent stepped forward and a message appeared in front of his eyes.

[Select Difficulty: Easy - Normal - Hard - Hell]

Without thinking he chose the hell difficulty. To complete that quest this was the only thing he could do. A strange light appeared beneath him and his mercenaries, and all of a sudden they disappeared, getting inside the Dungeon.

Vincent found himself inside a prison. He noticed that the walls has nail marks, as if someone had scratched it non stop. Cold ran through the mercenaries spines, and they wondered if coming with Vincent had been the right choice.

The Dungeon was separated into floors one to three, and three being the lowest and also where the boss was. Vincent knew everything about that Dungeon. He once completed it in the hell difficulty as well, but he did so with a proper party and not with NPCs.

It was not the time to complain, so Vincent walked forward. He wasn't the tank to take the lead but as he knew the path, he felt that it was right for him to go in the front. When an enemy shows up all he had to do was step back and let the tanks take the front.

It didn't take long for the first monster to appear. It was a prisoner from when the prison was still active. But it wasn't human anymore, but some sort of zombie. Its clothes were all torn apart, and its body was only skin.

[Zombie (Level 10)]

Vincent stepped back and his two tanks took the front. He immediately started to cast his Fireball spell, and the two mercenaries blocked the monster with their shields. Both of them didn't receive much damage, but the zombie quickly had been take care of. Vincent along side the other mercenarie who used a bow didn't give the zombie a chance, eliminating it. They didn't receive any XP, that was a thing inside Dungeons. One would only receive the XP after completing the Dungeon. This meant that they couldn't level up while inside of it to give them advantages, and if they failed to complete it at the end, they still wouldn't receive the XP. Items on the other hand would drop withing the Dungeon and not after.

The clerics casted a basic heal for the two tanks, and they wall went back to full health. Vincent once again took the lead, more focused than ever. He knew that things would get worse, so killing a zombie didn't improve his mood.

While Vincent was already at the Dungeon, everyone else was try harding to get that level 10. The second ranked player was level 9, one level behind Vincent.

It didn't matter that much for Vincent. He knew that after completing this Dungeon he would gain at least 1 full level.

More zombies started to come at each time, making things more difficult to Vincent's party. They still managed to kill all of them but took more time than usual. The first floor was the easiest, so they managed to clear it. Vincent knew where all of the chests were so he looted all of them.

Two were Bronze Tier and one Silver. The Bronze Tier chests only dropped Vincent some rare materials. He didn't complain as he intended to use them to create his own items in the future. The Silver Tier chest dropped a necklace, which was a pleasant surprise for Vincent.

[Corrupted Necklace(Evolving Item(Current Bronze Tier, Low Quality)

Description: a necklace used by a strong mage for ages ago. It got corrupted with the passage of time.

[Boosts user spells by 5%]

[It has a chance of draining the user's health by a certain amount]

"What is this item? Evolving Item? I never heard of something like that. The spell damage boost is good but it contains a drawback."

"Let's use it for now. The more damage I can output the better my chances are in completing this Dungeon."

Vincent walked towards the second floor. A feeling of danger was tingling at his back, and he felt as if someone was watching him.

"What is this feeling all of a sudden? I don't remember this Dungeon having a monster that follows you around, so why am I feeling there's someone watching me?"

He put that thought at the back of his mind, and entered the second floor of the Corrupted Prison, where things would finally start. The second floor was totally different. Stronger monsters, various types of them and also in more quantity. Vincent honestly didn't know if he could pass it, but he had to try...