Into The Dungeon

Ritzy, Gerhart, and Talia were so close to the dungeon that they could sense the difference in the air. Well, Ritzy and Gerhart could. Talia wasn't conscious.

The air, despite the cold rain and the dark night, seemed to possess a vibrancy that they hadn't felt back in town or at the cabin. The air they breathed in seemed to be a little fresher than before, and the raindrops weren't quite as cold.

Ritzy's grumpiness that had replaced his enthusiasm over the decision to go to the dungeon was slowly starting to fade as they neared their objective.

And then, before they knew it, Ritzy and the others had stepped into a glade filled with a soft bluish-green light. The light didn't reach past the first tree as if it was trapped in an invisible dome.

But neither Ritzy's nor Gerhart's attention was on the weird light, even if it was shocking.

Their gazes were locked on the swirling mass of something resembling gelatinous moss floating a tulip's height above the ground.

"Woah…! Is that the dungeon ball?"

Ritzy gaped as he moved toward the dungeon with bright eyes.

Gerhart readjusted his grip on Talia's legs and his bow. The rain made everything so slippery.

"It's not a ball. I don't even know how you could think that. But yes, that's the dungeon entrance."

"What do you mean? It's like a large green, soft, fluffy ball, is it not?"

"I don't know what kind of balls you're thinking of, but the ones I know, the ones that the other children in town played with, were hard, almost perfectly round, and not hovering in the air like that."

"Eh! Details, details, Gerry."

Ritzy didn't look away from the dungeon entrance as he stopped not far from the forest line to grab a stick that was almost as long as his bone club. Gerhart followed him forward as they approached the dungeon entrance.

Ritzy tentatively raised the stick to poke the wobbly and moving surface of the dungeon entrance.

"Why aren't you using the bone club?"

"No way. What if something happens to it?"

"Since when were you this cautious?"

"I'm always cautious. What are you talking about?"

"Sure…."

The dungeon entrance didn't react to Ritzy's stick poking it. In fact, it didn't even look like the stick made contact. It was as if the moving liquid-like mass that was the dungeon entrance didn't exist.

However, the faint tremors in the surrounding mana that matched the dungeon entrance's movements and the light were more proof than Ritzy and Gerhart needed.

"So… Do we just try to dive in?"

Ritzy looked away from the dungeon entrance for the first time since laying eyes on it. He looked at Gerhart and waited for an answer. Since Gerhart's ranger practice had brought him to the forest and dungeon more times than Ritzy had ventured into it, he should know more.

"I… I think so?"

"What? You don't know?"

Gerhart shook his head.

"No. Lenny said he would tell us, the other ranger apprentices and me, how to enter once we were reliable enough to enter with him."

"Well, that's not going to happen anymore."

"No. It isn't."

Ritzy tried throwing the stick at the dungeon entrance, but it just passed straight through and ended up on the other side.

"Huh. Should I try summoning something and sending it through? Or should I summon something after we try and enter?"

"Up to you."

Ritzy nodded and grabbed Gerhart's arm.

"Let's go, then!"

Ritzy stopped suppressing the grin and let it blossom on his face as he pulled Gerhart along and jumped into the dungeon entrance that didn't look that unlike a slime.

Ritzy and Gerhart both expected a wet or sticky sensation to envelop them as they came in contact with the dungeon entrance. But they didn't feel anything of the sort.

Gerhart, even though he knew he shouldn't, closed his eyes out of reflex as they jumped into the dungeon entrance, afraid that he would get something in them.

Ritzy, on the other hand, didn't have any inhibitions like that, and his eyes shone brighter than the dungeon itself as he led Gerhart into the dungeon.

"Gerhart, open your eyes."

Ritzy told Gerhart to open his eyes as soon as they passed through the entrance, and Gerhart, a little surprised at not having felt anything despite entering a dungeon, complied.

"This…."

"There's no way the dungeon looks like the outside world, right?"

Gerhart shook his head at Ritzy answer as the two turned around and looked at the dungeon entrance behind them.

"Nope. Lenny might not have told us how to enter. But he did tell us what to expect. A seemingly endless grass plain with a small village a short walk away. A bright, cloudless sky but no sun."

"I see… I guess we failed, then."

Ritzy's grin of childish excitement faded, and a frown of irritation took its place.

Gerhart readjusted Talia on his back to check and make sure she was still breathing. He couldn't even heave a sigh of relief, despite confirming that she was still alive since it was so faint. He looked anxiously at Ritzy, who was glaring at the dungeon entrance as if it had taken his money.

"Gerry, you can use mana, right?"

"A little. Why?"

Ritzy's eyes didn't move from the dungeon entrance.

"You said Lenny wouldn't bring you along before you were reliable. What if he couldn't bring you along?"

"You mean…?"

"Yep. I think we need to use our mana to enter."

"Yeah. That does sound like something would blame us for, not being able to use mana." Gerhart shook his head slightly as he lamented Lenny's habits.

"But what do we do? Should we just poke at the entrance while using mana?"

"Let's hope it's that simple."

Ritzy's frown eased a little as he concentrated and gathered the mana sleeping around his body toward his hand as if he was going to send it toward a summoning circle. But he didn't release it toward the dungeon entrance. Instead, he kept it locked in his hand.

Gerhart could very vaguely sense what Ritzy was doing. Even if he couldn't, Ritzy's actions were obvious since he raised his hand and it started glowing.

Gerhart changed his grip on Talia so that he could stop her from sliding down with one hand and raised his now free hand just like Ritzy had done.

And then, Ritzy and Gerhart walked into the dungeon entrance with their outstretched hands full of mana