The reason behind the quest! – Chapter 180

While grinding strength and fighting countless spirits that could no longer glow or react to anything else, we continued going deeper in this dungeon.

The dungeon itself was a lot easier than we had thought until now, that's why everyone decided on doing each floor without any support so they could have a little challenge.

That was until we finally reached the last floor of this dungeon, where we saw a significant hall where old and dusty furniture were laying around.

If I had to describe the exact image I had from this place, then it would be the main hall of a king.

"I never thought that a dungeon would create such things as this…" The first one to react was Chloe as we were looking around in a bit of confusion.

"This wasn't created by the dungeon." Hina immediately responded back to her.

"Why do you think that?" Chloe wondered about Hina's sudden statement.

"Because a dungeon can't create interiors in each of its floors. The other dungeons we completed were used by intelligent dragons, so it wasn't surprising that there were signs of such things. But in a naturally made dungeon, the only thing you'd find there are monsters." Hina explained to us.

"That makes sense…" Chloe let out a troubled sigh after agreeing with Hina.

But now, that leaves us with the one last explanation. Why was there an interior in the last floor of this dungeon?

"This is where the queen used to absorb the energy and spread it all around the forest, providing this world with fruits, herbs, trees, and life to us." The spirit began explaining before we could continue any further.

"Why didn't you tell us that before we got here?" Akemi asked after seeing how uneasy that spirit was feeling.

There was another gap of silica before she answered the question. "This was where all of us were born, raised and fed with life."

"But that doesn't explain why you didn't tell us."

"Akemi, stop that! She is standing right where her own family lost their senses. Of course she wouldn't want to tell us about it… or that's what I think…" Chloe tried stopping Akemi from asking any unnecessary questions with a bit of uncertainty.

Akemi looked back at Chloe for a bit before calmly closing her eyes and crossing her arms together. Chloe was glad that she didn't take this conversation too seriously and decided to take a step back from bothering the spirit.

"...." The spirit on the other hand seemed a little relieved and anxious as she was looking at the two quietly calm down.

But there were still a few questions unanswered that I needed to know before we could proceed any further.

"You mentioned that the queen used to stay in this hall, but… I think that something doesn't add up here…"

Everyone looked at me as I was looking at the spirit who was waiting for everyone to continue moving forward.

"I can see the queen getting prioritized with protection when the zombies barged in for the first time, but how come that I don't see any zombies in here? I don't know how spirits protect their queen, but wouldn't this place be filled with hundreds of spirit zombies who used to protect the queen?"

Confusion and sudden interest were going through everyone's eyes as I was saying all that.

"I find it weird that this place seems untouched for a long time, even though there should have been signs of blood, stench or broken objects."

I kept my guard up the whole time since I couldn't sense any other zombies around us.

"Now that you mentioned it, I can't see any signs of anyone forcefully breaking in. Did zombies really reach this deep in the dungeon?" Ichika wondered in surprise after looking around this hall.

I could see Akemi slightly grinning in excitement as she still had her arms crossed after being shut by Chloe a few moments ago.

That's also when we realized that something was definitely not right in this dungeon, no matter how you look at it.

We were not brought here to conquer this dungeon…

…but to die!

Everyone looked at the spirit who was supposingly guiding us in this dungeon.

She seemed really nervous and unsettled as she was trying to think of something. And we already understood that she was still hiding something from us.

"I-I'm sorry!" She apologized and she flew away as fast as she could without even turning back her head.

Neither of us bothered to catch her since she looked, not only so scared, but also guilty for bringing us here. But that wasn't the only reason why I didn't try to catch her.

*Creeaaaak*

From the depths of darkness, where light couldn't reach the ground, we heard a cracking noise which I immediately reacted to.

"Everyone! Stay on guard!" Akemi looked serious and cautious as she was looking straight into the direction where that sound came from.

Even though I could see during the night… I still couldn't see who, or what was causing that weird sound that echoed throughout the hall.

"W-what is it?" Ichika asked in a worry as we were embracing ourselves for any attacks.

"I don't know." Akemi responded with her still face as her hands were ready to brutally kill whatever it was.

So I wasn't the only one that couldn't sense that presence, but Akemi as well?

*Creak* *clack* *Creak* *Clack*

We heard the steps of something slowly coming towards us.

Everyone was a bit nervous about this since both Akemi and I were on high guard the whole time, and what's more, none of us could detect its presence.

"Whatever you do, don't underestimate that thing." I told them as we were waiting for that thing to reveal itself in the light.

And our wait didn't take long before we could fully recognize the appearance of the being that couldn't be detected so far.

"Isn't that…" Slight confusion was on Hina's reaction as everyone was shocked by what we were seeing.

"The queen?"

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