Edited by: Flubbykin

I have reached the entrance of the cave. Upon my arrival I got another notification saying... exactly, it was saying nothing. Bunch of question marks. Either it was a dungeon that had level and grade beyond my understanding, or it was surrounded with cloaking magic. Yes, magic was strong in here, or maybe it wasn't magic? Power has many form and shapes. Mana, emotions, blood, desires, each and every kind could have its own manifestation. Was the shivering down my spine caused by magic? Or something else? Something older? Magic so ancient that no-magic?

Mental feeling aside, the air brought from the deepest part of the cave a warm, sweet and suffocating smell of death - of rotting bodies and decaying blood. The smell was very weak, thinned by dozens of curtains of moss and vines that were dangling from the ceiling, normal people could never sense it thus continuing their journey toward their doom. Oh, if someone could feel what I was feeling!!! They would be struck by terror for sure! Yet in my mind, something different appeared. No terror and no fear for sure. Excitement? Oh, yesss. I felt my pupils turning into vertical slit almost without my will, I had to dig my fingernails into my own palm to stop them from morphing into claws.

THE HUNT! Awaited for me! Called me from the deepest part below! There is nothing to be afraid! I am the ultimate predator and the place below shall be my new palace! Castle! Stronghold! I shall be its new king! From this place, I shall flood this realm with my minions! YES! But first things first! In the end, I am a perfectionist! My dominance must be absolute! I shall prepare myself accordingly to my god-like presence! First, the equipment!

Tsk, those robes will barely do. Was I always dressing in such a primitive way!? What was I thinking!? Plain, black, cheap, dirty! I should be walking dressed in gems and gold!... Or in mighty armor. Curses, I have left armor of Jackal back in the capital. Silly me, the only thing worthy to be worn by me! At least my sword is enhanced and the spear was made with somewhat decent quality!

Now, my status! I don't want to be viewed as... wait what was it? Down there, in my status effect section?

You are now [Hexed] You are now [Charmed] You are now [Allured] You are now [Bewitched] You are now [Cursed] INT - 50 WIS - 50 SPI - 25 RFX - 25 You were touched by [Ego of King]:

Your leadership abilities are being drastically reduced

Likelihood of being betrayed is being drastically increased

I blinked twice as if not believing my own eyes. Then, I raised my hand to my mouth and painfully bite myself.

You are no longer [Charmed] You are no longer [Allured] You are no longer [Bewitched]

I tried clearing my mind as much as it was only possible, before sitting in a lotus position.

You have entered [Meditation] state You have cast [Detoxication] upon yourself You have cast [Viper's blood] upon yourself You have cast [Dispell] upon yourself

I watched remaining effects perish one after another till I was completely "clean". It almost made me feel like a junky.

Sweet baby Jesus, mighty Allah, brave Thor, and quick-footed Hermes. This place is nuts! I was pretty much dead in the moment I put my feet inside! I didn't get notifications about being treated with this curse-cocktail! No, wait, I did get notifications, they are in my change-log, but they didn't pop up like they used to do...

Most likely effects of [Alluring] and [Bewitching] that were cast first. They greatly reduced my Reflex and Intelligence thus lowering my ability to notice changes around me.

Shit. Should have prepared better! Should I go back and rearm? I definitely should! Spending shitload of money on magical accessories, getting higher grade equipment against curses, hexes, charms and shit! What else! Maybe poison too!?... wait a moment.

I quickly inspected the curtains of moss

[Dajabolical Poison Ivy]

Valuable alchemist material and component. Extremely toxic.

Constantly releases quickly-evaporating oils that may cause hallucinations.

Touching it is even more dangerous

Caution!

Extremely flammable

May cause:

- Numbing

- Sleeping

- Paralyze

- Damage over time

Sure. Why not poison. This place is not a dungeon. It's a death pit.

The questions remained: when did it appear and why?!

Vanishing of people has been reported fairly recently, and the mortality (for I have no delusion of hope that people that get in there were still alive) skyrocketed from 0 to 100%. Such places would surely drag attention of guild.

This place was not meant for a single-man quest. It's supposed to be a full S rank raid of few dozen people! It should be aimed for S ranks from the whole continent!

... Yet, I want to enter it. I know it's madness, but there is something, like at the bottom of my heart, forcing me to step into it. I checked my status screen few dozens of more times, just to be sure that this desire was not caused by weird cave. It wasn't.

I reminded myself what Sebastian, no Bachoru, told me when I was leaving the capital. That the times were changing, the order was being shattered. That I had to get stronger... Yet, he wouldn't praise foolishness. I can already hear him saying or something similar. At least it sounds very Sebastian-ish to me.

- "Hear me out, children of the Night,

Answer my prayers before the dawn,

Step out from the shadows,

So ancient and dim,

Give me guidance, your strength, and grief,

And I promise you blood - relief so very brief..."

My words slipped right away into cracks of hungry nothingness creating a portal through which smudges of darkness rushed into our world. They danced, twisted and cumulated creating a chunk of liquefied, boiling dirt that withing next dozen or so seconds turned into a material creature.

- "My-my, look who finally decided to call" Garuda taunted me after stretching his wings

- "I may, or may not, but I am still doing this anyway - require your help..." his brow twitched ".. well, is a wrong word, opinion, would be better I think."

- "You have encountered a place imbued with such thick magical powers that you can't see through it and wish to know if it is safe to go in?"

- "More or less, but yes."

- "The first thing that a strategist does when he is lacking data for planning is gathering the data. Otherwise, it is no risk, but foolishness and foolishness kills beggars and sages equally."

I knew that he wanted me to ask how can sage be foolish so he can scold me and then give another lecture, this is why I didn't ask. The proud devil looked actually disappointed. It would be rather cute if he wasn't a monster.

- "The fastest and most efficient way of gathering data is asking someone that may possess this kind of knowledge."

- "To have the knowledge is one thing, to share it - completely different. Why should I just tell you?"

- "Sebastian, we are too old to play these games. We can do it a nice and fast way or..."

- "Ooor?" he sensed a threat in my voice and smiled widely. He actually enjoyed the fact that a mortal challenges him.

- "Or I will summon rest of my birdies and using my familiar-contract I will force ALL OF YOU to go down and scout the area. You will most likely die, but then I will just wait twenty-four hours waiting till I can re-summon you again just to scan your memories. Then I would go down, reach the point where you died and repeat the action. It may take weeks, months even, but it will be you who will be dying over and over again. You may be the hell's veteran so you are not afraid of no death nor pain, but I wonder what other devils would say knowing that Bachoru blood-feathered is dying over and over again in a mere dungeon."

- "Threatening me with my sense of pride? It could work on lower-rank devils obsessed with glory, it's just as you said - I am too old for that, Zariel."

Yet, regardless of what he said, he approached the entrance to the dungeon, for a moment or two he closed his eyes, just so they could beam with dark violet light after he gazed into the entrance of death-pit.

- "I... Have no knowledge of this place. It's new. It should be wild, twisted, merely learning how to grow and operate, like a toddler merely learning to walk, still crawling on all fours... but something is different. As if it was shown how to do a more complex task. Like a young student was given formula, he does not understand - he can perform an operation without being able to predict the outcome nor to know how to use it. Highly effective at the beginning, yet there is a threat that he will not be able to look past that, drunk with new powers he will not learn anything new...."

- "I have already seen a similar place before."

- 'You did?" devil turned around.

- "On our way here, together with Gis, we destroyed a dungeon with organic dungeon core. The creature became highly aggressive, started attacking animals and humans around it and kidnapping them. It was using their body and emotions to study - to create a new form. If you asked me, it was quite similar to... to me."

- "Times are changing, the tide is being reversed. The cycle is being stopped, broken. Someone somewhere is doing things he or she is not supposed to. The question remains: are YOU it's part, it's a consequence or reason?"

- "I wish I knew..." I pouted "... The world went nuts. Dungeons being born like mushrooms day after the rain, angels are being born, devils started roaming the world. Inquisitors are hunting me days after I came here... I can believe in coincidence or two, but when three or four coincidences are appearing one after another I name it ."

- "If you are aware of that, then maybe you will be living a bit longer than I presumed."

Did... Sebastian praised me?

- "Answering your question - this place is both deadly and childishly easy at the same time..."

- "... so Schrodinger-Dungeon?"

- "It posses a set of deadly tools but is rather bold - not to call it savage - in a way it uses it. Every experienced Dungeon would be more skilfull in using its curses. It would cast numbing status effects in a room with poisonous plants, it would combine alluring and bewitching in trap-corridors to make adventurers fail to notice the pitfalls, and would save that [Ego of the King] curse for treasure room, so party members would kill one another. Yet, it decided to throw everything right at the doorsteps - as if hoping that you will die on the first line of defense, that it didn't prepare the second one."

- "Are you sure about that?"

- "That's the problem. No. It could always make us think this way, so adventurers would lower their guard after storming through the entrance... but then again, why would you threaten the prey on the start? It... wouldn't make a sense. Unless it was an ambush set for a specific party or person."

- "You mean - on me?"

- "Chances are very slim, but you always have to pay in mind, that this dungeon appeared a few days before you reached the city."

- "In this case, I should never enter it, am I right."

- "Yes, that is correct." Garuda nodded

- "Or I should at least get back to the city, get some potions and equipment against negative effects."

- "That would be the only logical conclusion."

- "But we are not going to do that."

- "Appears that not."

- "We are going in, right?"

- "If that would be a campaign I would care about, I would absolutely never do this, but, as long as it's only you..."

- "Thanks, Sebastian, I knew I could count on you. Well, what are you waiting for? Go on first, don't be shy."

- "You are not going to summon rest of your familiars?" He asked me tilting his head to the side. Indeed, summoning them now would be the best possible idea as summoning takes time.

- "Not just yet."

- "That's not even pathetic. Just childish." Devil shake his head in disbelief

- "If that would be a mission I would care about, I would surely prepare myself accordingly, but as long as it's only you..." I repeated his words from seconds ago.

- "Why was I even forced to be chained with you?"

- "Mostly because Heira wanted an agent to report about my development as well as have some tools to pressure me into acting accordingly to her will?"

- "Since when do you know that?" He was angry or even surprised

- "Since I discovered you were a devil. Heira doesn't do a thing out of good will, only if she will benefit from it - mostly by getting a good spectacle. I believe that this is also why you "warned" me and told that I need to get stronger. Is your goddess becoming bored by me?"

- "Assumption justified and correct in logic, you have all reasons necessary to believe in it, but Zariel..."

- "Yes?"

- "Back then, I met you because of my own free will. Heira never knew nor approved our meeting. When she found out... she was not exactly pleased."

- "Little dog Sebastian disobeying Heira?"

Once again, he gave me annoyed but not angry gaze.

- "I am doing what has to be done, I am doing what Lady of the Night needs, even if she would not approve it."

- "Then why did you bother with me? One silly mortal? Why do you want me to become stronger so desperately that you decided to suffer punishment from the hand of your beloved lady?"

- "You are underestimating mortals in general, and you are underestimating yourself. You killed an angel, you banished a devil. This alone is more than enough to earn respect and curiosity of celestials. If you managed to do that with luck and trickery - then what will you be capable of with pure skill and power? We, celestials, are corrupted, almost incapable of learning and becoming stronger in any other way than promotion. This is why mortals fascinate us. You can become anything you want, and that's why you are angering us - because you chose to remain passive. Zariel, don't become passive. Don't become dull. If you ever would, I would be a force to tear you off your lethargy. You better show me your passion down there... Or...."

- "Ooor?" it was my time to act surprised

- "Or I would use my connections and cause more devils to appear on your path. One way or another, Zariel, I will make you stronger."