Penalty

Staring at the scorching landscape before him, Zane wasn't sure whether to be relieved or annoyed.

On one hand, he'd been—temporarily—saved from the angel's wrath, but on the other, he was now going to be stuck in this place for 24 hours. He didn't know what exactly this mysterious domain held, but since it was called the 'penalty Dungeon', he assumed that it can't be good.

His suspicions were (quite unfortunately) confirmed in the next instant, as he suddenly heard the sound of something rumbling through the sand behind him.

Slowly, Zane turned around.

There, a massive worm stared down at him, rows upon rows of eel-like teeth chattering in hunger. It had no eyes and ears, but Zane would have to be stupid to assume that meant this crawler could not sense his location.

He checked its stats—Level 12, the same level as himself. He figured he could take the fight.

"Sorry, but I don't feel like being worm food today."

Reaching down to his pockets, Zane pulled out his [Twin Shade] daggers—or rather, that's what he expected to pull out. Instead, what he held in his hands when he looked down were not those midnight black daggers, or even any weapon for that matter.

What he held in his hands were toilet plungers.

"…"

Still playing cool, Zane slowly lifted his hand up to the massive sandworm's mouth, and opened his palm. So what if the Dungeon took his weapons? He still had his skills.

Concentrating his mana, he waited for the powerful burst of flames to come shooting out of his hand, incinerating the worm and reducing it to ashes instantly.

"…"

Zane and the sandworm remained in their respective spots, waiting for something to happen. But even after several seconds, nothing did.

'The Dungeon… sealed my skills as well?'

The realization dawned upon him at the same moment that the sandworm decided it didn't want to wait any longer.

The chase began.

As fast as his legs would take him, Zane ran, while the sandworm burrowed through the sand and traveled underground behind him. The two moved at roughly equivalent speed, but only because Zane wasn't a normal human. Thankfully, his physical attributes still stayed with him, which meant his vampire strength and stamina could still be relied on.

Unfortunately, even a vampire didn't have infinite energy.

So began the 24 hour timer of this hellish nightmare.

*****

After several hours of a mixture of running away and exploring the desert, Zane found a good hiding place to settle down. Without any weapons or skills, he couldn't afford to take on a fight against these creatures who all were either massive or terrifying—sometimes both.

Now, he sat beneath an archway of some sort, contemplating the life choices that led him here. He had no idea how much time was passing in the real world, or if time flowed differently here compared to outside. What he did know, however, was that there would be an enormous Angel several times more powerful than anything he could find in this place waiting for him when he returned.

Running away all this time has gotten him thinking—no matter how strong he became, there would always be something stronger that could hunt him down. Even if he slaughtered all the enemies in the catacombs outside, he'd still be only Level 20 or so at best. Being a Hunter was still the only really viable way for him to make decent money to support his little sister and himself.

On the day their parents died, he'd once promised her that he would give her a good life once he became stronger—and now that he had the strength to do so, he wasn't going to let it go to waste. Despite having obtained quite a bit of treasure, this money wouldn't last him forever. Considering how common treasures like these were nowadays, the price for them had gone down.

That would mean Zane needed to go back into more dangerous, higher-rank Dungeons, with stronger enemies to face and monsters to kill. To be able to survive within those environments, he'd need to get stronger—more and more, until nothing could beat him and he was truly at the top of it all.

Not to mention… Dungeons was the cause of why Leo died. And until he exterminated every Gate, slaughtered every monster, the burning fire of revenge in his heart would never wither.

Within this scorching desert, Zane made up his mind.

After conquering this Dungeon and returning to Earth, he would continue going on Raids, and slowly climb the Hunter's Association's ranking ladder. The infamous Porter of Porters would soon be no more, and in its place, a true demon of strength motivated by the most primal instinct of all—survival.

And at the moment that thought crossed his head, the scenery all around him changed.

The sand beneath his feet changed into a snowfield of white, and from the sky came falling hail. The scorching sun transformed into nothing but a blurry image hidden behind the freezing blizzard, and the coldness took the desert by storm as the arch above his head dissipated into nothingness.

In an instant, what was once a landscape of dry, unfettering heat turned into a frozen wasteland of ice and snow. Zane still had no clothes to cover the upper half of his body, but he was too shocked at that moment to even notice the blistering cold.

He did, however, notice the sound of a growl coming up behind him, and quickly turned around to find a massive snow-white wolf there, staring straight at him through hungry blue eyes.

"… Shit."

The amount of emotion coursing through that one word was incredible. Quickly, Zane scrambled to his feet and attempted to run, but the deep snow made that difficult and made him fall. The wolf, on the other hand, had no problem at all, and snarled in anticipation before making its jump.

"Ngh!"

Zane let out a groan and shut his eyes as the wolf landed above him, powerful legs trapping his body and shadow completely covering him. Snow fell from its face and landed on Zane's, hence his closed eyes, and he threw a couple of blind punches with no other way to defend himself.

"Give me… a goddamn break already!"

Surprisingly, a few blows managed to land—and thanks to his vampiric physical prowess, they hurt quite a bit even against this wolf.

"ARWOOOO!"

The wolf let out a terrible howl, not pleased with how its prey was acting, and opened its gaping jaws to bite Zane's head off whole. But just as his heart rate increased and he felt panic surfacing to his mind, the scenery all around him changed again.

He was back in the desert.

Slowly, he got to his feet, left in utter shock. The wolf was nowhere to be seen, despite the snow on his face that melted almost instantly.

Clearly, the penalty Dungeon was messing with him—and to that, he raised a middle finger towards the sky.

"To whoever designed this System—sincerely, fuck you."

'… Still, this can't be a coincidence,' he thought to himself. 'These changes… they aren't random. Think, Zane… think. What made the landscape change to the frozen wasteland, and what made it change back to the desert?'

After several seconds of pondering, he realized.

Both times that he'd been sent to a desert, he'd been on the verge of dying. The first was when he was initially teleported into this penalty Dungeon, and the second was just now when the wolf had been about to bite his head off. As for when the scenery changed to the frozen wasteland, that had been when he was calm and determined, while thinking about his future plans.

The answer was right there, before him.

The scenery and environment of this place changed with his emotions—which meant that if he learned how to forcibly control his emotions, he would be able to control this Dungeon.

'I get it now… this is no penalty Dungeon. This is a training hall… and the first test is my own emotions.'

The instant that realization hit, the toilet plungers that had been attached to his waist transformed back into his normal [Twin Shade] daggers, and a System notification appeared before him.

[Congratulations, Progenitor.]

[You have successfully unlocked the <Training Dungeon>. While you will not be able to gain any real EXP, items, or skills here, you can learn the attack patterns and tendencies of various Dungeon mobs found in real Dungeons, as well as practice your current abilities and attacks. In addition, you can now enter this place at any time using your will, allowing for training whenever you need it.]

[Remember, your emotions dictate and control everything here. Adjust the environment as you desire.]

Zane smiled.

"To whoever designed this System—sincerely, you are a genius."