The First Wave

It wasn't until a few days later that I was able to prepare myself to go and attempt the Solo Dungeon Quest. In case the Solo Dungeon took longer to clear than expected, I had to make sure that the orphanage had enough food for when I was gone.

Luckily, almost as if it was meant to be, I managed to get more than normal trappings to sell to Pon, which meant that I was able to slowly stockpile some more vegetables in the orphanage, as well as have a couple of pieces of small game jerky for me to munch on while doing the quest.

On that day, I said goodbye to the younger kids and made sure that Saito (now the second-oldest since Gorou left) would be responsible and help Obaa-san look after the others. He took on that responsibility earnestly and before I left, I made sure to visit Obaa-san once more.

"I'm going now," I said when I went into the living room. Obaa-san was sitting near the fireplace resting after she was done sweeping.

She minimised a Window and smiled, "is it already time? Are you sure that this is what you want to do?"

I nodded heartily. "I would have gone straight away, but I didn't want to abandon you and the kids with no food."

"Yes, well, thank you for thinking of us," Obaa-san said in an odd tone that felt awkward coming from her smiling face. It was like she was smiling, but there wasn't genuineness in that smile. She sounded like she was a little bit indifferent.

"There should be enough food for three days. I'm hoping that I won't be away for that long, but I have told Mr. Pon and Farmer Zohei that I'm going away for a bit and they're willing to help the orphanage out." I explained as I tightened my grip on my satchel slung across my shoulders.

"I'm sure it won't get to that point, but I'll thank them nonetheless," Obaa-san commented.

"Anything from Kei today?"

I had asked about Kei daily since getting the quest. I wanted to see if I could write to him to ask for some advice, but so far there had been no communication. Like always.

Obaa-san sighed, annoyed at my incessant asking, "I'm sorry Ryuu, but there's still nothing from him. I've said that I would tell you if we received word, didn't I?"

"I'm sorry. I'm just really nervous. It would have been so good to be able to write to him before going to this quest..." I mumbled.

I looked down away from her gaze and I heard her sigh once more. "Come over here."

I approached the seat and stood next to it. She motioned me to lower myself, to get on around the same level as her, and I knelt on my right knee.

She grabbed my head pulled it closer to her shoulder and embraced me in an awkward hug. This took me by surprise since in all the years I've been at the orphanage with her, I never saw her hug anybody. Awkward as it may be, it kind of filled me with a warmth that helped me calm down from my nervousness.

When she pulled back, she patted my shoulder and said, "we'll be waiting for you when you get back and we'll use some of that reward money for a big dinner to celebrate you completing your first proper quest, understand?"

I felt tears welling up behind my eyelids and tried to imbue some sort of confidence in my nods of understanding. I straightened up and after rubbing my eyes I thanked Obaa-san for her words of encouragement and left.

I had to make my way through the town like I was on my way to check out my traps, but luckily Saizo was not yet back from the quest he was on. He probably would have been against me attempting the Solo Dungeon.

But almost straight away after the talk with Obaa-san in front of the fireplace that night she came back to the orphanage late, and I made up my mind that I would at least attempt my quest. I had a weird blind faith in the System about the glitched quest. It was either that I trusted the System not to screw me over on the first proper quest in my short life, or I was unreasonably stupid. Either way, like when I announced that I would try trapping animals to provide for the orphanage, I knew that I couldn't just let this opportunity to expand the limitations of my existence slide.

It didn't take me long to get to the entrance of the Solo Dungeon. A mystical hue covered the dungeon door. It was similar to the stories that Saizo told me about the dungeons he'd visited.

One point for "legitimate dungeon", I guess. I looked up at the augmented sign above the dungeon door.

[HIDDEN TOMB]

[WOULD YOU LIKE TO ENTER?]

[YES] [NO]

No glitches. Maybe only the notification message was glitched. That's another point in favour of this being a "legitimate dungeon". Maybe there was no need for the nerves after all? Although, it seems like I was still struggling with that even with all these signs that it was a legitimate dungeon.

I had a moment of hesitation before steeling myself. I breathed in and out deeply and slowly and when I felt like I was calm enough, I reached out and pressed the [YES] option.

A Paradigmatic chime played and locks behind the dungeon door could be heard unlocking in a series of loud clanks. Slowly the heavy-looking door opened silently. No creak of wood, no squeal of old metal. An otherworldly silence.

Beyond the door was a blackness that I'd never experienced before.

All the nerves came back once more, but I swallowed hard, trying to bury the butterflies right to the bottom of my stomach, and stepped forward. The door shut silently behind me, blocking the only light source and leaving me in the darkness.

***

The bald man had followed the eighteen-year-old diligently. He didn't understand the importance of why he was doing so, but he was told to follow the boy, so he did.

He made sure that the boy didn't recognize he was being tailed and kept an eye on where the boy went.

Shortly after the boy entered the forest outside of Ohda Town, he went to the side and walked up to the cliff wall edge of the forest. The lack of trees and brush as the landscape changed from forest to cliff wall meant that it made the bald man's job slightly more difficult to stay hidden. But the bald man continued to follow him anyway.

At some point, the bald man saw where the cripple was heading towards. He saw the translucent door of the dungeon. This so-called 'Solo Dungeon'. The bald man could not believe that there was such a thing.

The boy hesitated. He stood in front of the dungeon door and looked at it, seemingly bewildered by its sheer existence. The bald man had managed to find a hiding spot behind a large boulder a little distance away.

All of a sudden, the dungeon door opened and the boy briskly entered it. The bald man dashed forwards towards the door once the boy's body disappeared past the event horizon of the doorway into the darkness. However, once he was about a step away from the door, a notification Window popped into existence in front of the bald man's face and warned him that the User Limit of the dungeon had been fulfilled.

The bald man felt an invisible force pressed against him and prevented him from crossing into the darkness before the door swung back to its closed position softly and shimmered out of existence.

He hadn't expected that the dungeon would be so literal. Disappointed in his failure to complete the job, the bald man cursed under his breath.

The bald man waited for a solid hour to see if the dungeon door would reappear. It did not and he was forced to give up on the tail.

***

From within the darkness that I stepped into, a warm light appeared out of nowhere. Two torches, strapped onto opposite walls were lit automatically giving my immediate surroundings some light and warmth.

I strained my eyes to try and see what was beyond the reaches of the torches' light and only saw more darkness.

From what I could see, I stood at the end of a basic cave tunnel. It looked like it was naturally-forming, but also seemed like it was a manufactured tunnel like miners had excavated the earth to find veins of minerals and ores.

I took a couple of steps forward to see if the darkness would lessen if I got nearer, but just before I reached the edge of the light, another two torches a couple of metres away lit up automatically.

The suddenness of the torch lighting made me jump a little. I cleared my throat to calm my nerves. The new torches showed more of the same. Just a tunnel.

I steeled myself more and continued to walk forward. As I did, more and more torches lit up in regular intervals. The tunnel seemed to go impossibly long. I turned around and looked at the end of the tunnel that I originally found myself in. It looked so far away by now, though oddly, the torches were still alight. I half-expected the torches to turn off once I walked away far enough, but they didn't.

I swiped the Quest Window into existence and reread the quest message. It said nothing of a tunnel. Is this part of the tomb? Or is this a separate structure to the hidden tomb? Without any answers, I kept walking forward.

Not long after, I found myself at a three-pronged fork in the tunnel. One way going off to my left, one straight forward, and one to my right.

I made sure to light the first section of each pathway to see if there were any differences in the tunnel structure, but unfortunately, there were no discernible differences.

As I tried to decide on which pathway to take, I took another look back at where I came from. The torches were still lit and I could no longer see the end of the tunnel that I started from. If the torches stay lit the whole time, it would mark which places I've explored if it ends up winding about the place.

With no other way to decide which way to go but an odd pull inside me, I decided to go down the left path first. The path was more of the same. The same old tunnel with torches placed on opposite walls lighting the way one small section at a time.

I don't know how long I walked down the pathway, but the deeper I got, the tighter the grip I had on my hunting dagger. The one I used to end a Qrell if one was unfortunate enough to not be dead when I checked the traps.

I don't know when it happened exactly, but I noticed that the width and height of the tunnel got bigger and bigger slowly until I found myself entering a great big and domed clearing. I could tell it was domed by how the shadows from the flames of the torches bent in the angled rocky roof.

Loud sounds of the earth getting dragged were heard behind me, and when I turned, I saw earth and rock were shifting into the opening I had walked through until the opening disappeared as if it had never existed there ever.

I approached the wall that had formed and tried to feel any seams, but there were none. My breathing began to become ragged as I nervously unsheathed and grabbed onto the grip of the weapon in my right hand.

A familiar Status Window popped up in front of me.

[WEAPON: {HUNTING DAGGER} EQUIPPED.

{EQUIPPED IN NON-DOMINANT HAND EFFECT} USER'S CHANCE OF INFLICTING 100% OF DAMAGE BASED ON THE STRENGTH AND PROFICIENCY OF THE WEAPON IS SEVERELY LESSENED.

ATK: -35%]

I cursed under my breath as I swiped the Window away. I'm pretty proficient with the dagger as a tool, but not really as a weapon. This was going to be interesting.

Another Window popped up from the System that made me chuckle in disbelief.

"Of course, it's not going to be that easy," I mumbled as I prepared myself, getting into an amateurish version of a defensive pose that Saizo had taught me once.

[ROOM 1A

WAVE 1 OF 5

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