Zachary stared at the system message in front of him for several seconds. With no choice, he accepted everything that was happening. It wasn’t much of a stretch actually. He had already determined that his so-called “dreams” were real. Now that it was here in front of him in waking life, he wasn’t that shocked.

He opened his status window, checking to make sure everything was there. He even opened his inventory and saw all the same items he obtained from Vera, everything from the desserts to the clothing to the myriad of rocks. The only thing he didn’t have were the clothes he was wearing when he went to sleep.

The scent of chocolate tickled his nose again and suddenly, he realized he had a very big problem.

‘Please don’t tell me that’s what I think it is.’

He followed the scent away from the bleachers, away from the football fields, and back to the school. He followed it, to his relief, around the side of the building toward where the cafeteria was located, and then back to the dumpsters.

‘Oh. Thank God. Someone must’ve thrown out the food from today.’

Just as he sighed from relief, the dreaded message that he hoped wouldn’t appear suddenly did.

[You have discovered a dungeon]

[Limestone Mine of Death (level 3)]

He could see the name of the dungeon through the walls and dumpster bins. When he walked out to get a better look, he saw a familiar object suspended in the middle of the courtyard.

[47:58:55]

[47:58:54]

[47:58:53]

[47:58:52]

And just like before, a timer was slowly ticking away.

It wouldn’t open for another two days, but it would be a miracle if it wasn’t discovered by then. Zachary was currently behind the cafeteria’s kitchen. The staff used the dumpsters twice a day to dispose of the leftover school meals that weren’t eaten. There was no way they would miss it.

So in that case, he should call the police.

But then what would he tell them?

Earth wasn’t like Vera, where magic was commonplace and adults took every report of monsters seriously. No. The police wouldn’t believe his story, and Zachary knew it.

The events of yesterday, or last night rather, were still fresh in his mind. A dungeon had opened up on Vera, and the authorities there had taken him seriously, yet they still had six casualties. Those were six human lives, soldiers no less. The devastation was bound to be more profound if they weren’t prepared. But then again, Earth had powerful weapons… Perhaps they could deal with the monsters more easily.

And then Zachary remembered that Vera had magic and centuries of monster fighting tactics, and he pulled at his own hair in frustration. He started pacing back and forth and circling the black orb.

He was in a predicament. He couldn’t figure out if he should tell the police about the dungeon or not.

And even with the slight possibility that they did believe him, he was certain people would still die due to inexperience.

But then Zachary narrowed his eyes.

‘Perhaps there’s a third solution,’ he thought. ‘But if I wait, and someone sees me, then I’ll have to go with my first two options.’

He considered it for a moment, finding very few flaws with the new plan.

‘With this plan, no one will die. No one will even be at risk, except for me of course. And with this I can buy some time, more than just a few days. I could mail an anonymous report to every police station afterward, detailing everything I saw in the dungeon along with real, physical evidence of the encounter. I could even make copies of Jamela’s report for extra credibility, though I’ll have to translate it.’

Satisfied, he took a step back from the black orb. He summoned his daggers in a shimmer of light and prepared himself.

[47:44:23 until Dungeon opens]

- [Open Early? yes/no]

‘I will take it on by myself,’ he thought with determination, ‘and clear it before anyone can discover it.’

He selected yes.

The construction site was in a state of chaos. Paul watched soldiers erect walls of sandbags around the STA, which had now transformed completely from the harmless black orb it was previously.

Struggling to do his job because he was both excited and truly terrified, Paul examined the STA with the only equipment he was allowed to keep near it: his tape measure, a pen and pad, and his own two eyes.

The overall shape was a triangle, so he measured it diligently, finding that it was exactly 180 centimeters (or about six feet) tall and 60 centimeters (or about two feet) wide at the base. Any of the burly soldiers would have to crouch under the edges in order to pass through into the world beyond. However, a child could pass through easily.

Paul stared in amazement at the forest on the other side of the strange window. It was night on the other side. And a silver barrier like fog covered the surface. When Paul tapped it with his tape measure, it held firm.

‘What is this strange barrier? Where does the window lead? Somewhere dark, so the other side of Earth?’

But no matter his questions, Paul figured that nothing would be passing through it anytime soon.

He crouched down to get a better look at the stars on the other side, but the fog barrier was too thick. He couldn’t make out anything except for the two moons…

‘Hold up!’

Paul squealed in shock as he stared at the celestial bodies on the other side of the STA. One was red while the other was white, like Earth’s.

He got up and ran away screaming, settling down just long enough to tell the soldiers not to get too trigger happy, and then continued screaming.

The football team was just finishing their warm up drills and were about to break out into special teams when suddenly a flash of light accompanied by a thunderclap resounded across the whole field. Everyone went dead silent.

“That scared the crap outta me!” Higgs, the athletic director said finally.

Many of the boys nearby chuckled and went back to practicing. There were no thunderclouds in the sky, so it was truly a bolt from the blue. They quickly dismissed it as a strange phenomena and nothing more. And even if it was thundering, they would still argue to keep practicing. That’s just how the football team was.

Higgs saw the boys’ enthusiasm and didn’t immediately dismiss them to go inside. He jogged over to the other coaches, to take their opinions.

“That was pretty weird. Probably only happen’ once in a lifetime,” said the linemen coach.

“Sure, but seeing how close it was, I’m inclined to bring the kids in,” Higgs reasoned. “What are your thoughts?”

“Nah. If there gonna be danger, I ‘spect to see some clouds first,” responded another.

“Shoot. You have worse English than that Chinese dude, professor Wang.”

“I don’t need to know no English. I just need to know one thing. Football.”

The coaches hollered. A few of the students who overheard hollered too.

“C’mon guys. What’s the word,” Higgs tried to get them back on the subject. “Bring them inside, or no?”

“I say no.”

“Me too.”

“If there’s any more thun’er, then we’ll bring ‘em in. But not any sooner.”

Higgs nodded. “So be it. Now let’s get back to practice. We gotta beat them Holyoke Dragons this year!”

The whole team hollered their battle cry of agreement.

“Cougars! Cougars! Cougars!”

Zachary charged into the dungeon and took in his surroundings. In order to complete the dungeon before the after school clubs got out, he would have to hurry. The dungeon entrance was very noticeable right now. If anyone found it while he was still in there, he could expect a warm welcome when he walked out. For now though, he worried about the dungeon.

He was in a cave. Stalactites hung from the ceiling and stalagmites rested on the ground. There was a thin layer of soil sprinkled around the cavern’s floor, allowing for bare spots and loose rubble. Small holes in the ceiling let in sunlight, allowing certain grasses and mushrooms to thrive in the harsh environment.

‘This is different from the dungeons on Vera,’ he noted. ‘There doesn’t seem to be a trace of civilized structure.’

His eyes came to rest on what looked like a sheet of plastic. Walking over to it, he realized in shock that it was the husk of an enormous snake. It was so big he figured he could wear it like a coat. And once that popped into his head, he transferred it to his inventory.

[Item Acquired: Glabian Serpent’s Shed Skin (Rarity E)]

‘Looks like I’ll be fighting snakes and snake-like monsters in this dungeon. I’ll likely have to deal with venom and squeezing attacks. That means it’ll be very hard getting close enough to use my daggers.’

He briefly cursed himself for not pushing Lydia to teach him even one spell. Ranged magic would have been very useful in this situation. And now he could only rely on his regular attacks.

He pushed farther into the dungeon, jogging slowly so as to complete the daily quest while he was at it.

Eventually he heard a scraping sound, like dead leaves rolling across pavement. The largest snake he had ever seen was coiling up, staring in his direction. He activated [Observation].

[Glabian Serpent (level 9)]

Although it was a lower level than he was, he didn’t underestimate it. He watched it carefully, studying its movements and waiting for it to attack first.

Suddenly, it seemed to grow impatient and sprang outward. Zachary dove to the side, just barely dodging the giant head as it snapped the air next to him. Now that it was in range, Zachary activated [Long Slash] with both his daggers. Two cuts appeared across the throat of the Glabian Serpent.

The scaly skin was pretty tough, even when he aimed at the softer underside. Even the high quality military knife only made a one-inch deep cut. Thankfully though, it was enough. The neck started gushing blood and didn’t stop.

Zachary retreated backward, outside of the serpent’s attack range and maintained that distance even as it started chasing him down in fury. That fury soon turned sluggish as it lost more and more blood, and eventually the snake stopped moving all together, as if it had simply gotten tired and decided to go to sleep.

[Defeated: Glabian Serpent (level 9)]

The “level up” message didn’t come, however. Zachary moved on quickly, leaving the carcasses for the sake of time and defeating another two serpents. Still, the message didn’t come. Only after defeating a total of ten serpents did he finally get it.

[Defeated: Glabian Serpent (level 9)]

[Level Up: +1 to all Stats, Full Recovery]

All the damage he had sustained previously, including from the beat down with Frank, was gone in an instant. He was now at level 13. And he decided he would only challenge the boss at the pillar when he reached the next level. But he was concerned.

The serpents didn’t seem to give him much experience. Before, he could easily kill the Zerean Wolves and level up easily. But now he had to fight harder for less payoff. It sometimes even took him two shots with [Stones Throw] to put them down.

Zachary pushed deeper into the dungeon, beating every serpent he came across with increasing familiarity. He even saw the dungeon monolith. But he didn’t get anywhere near it just yet. He doubled back to continue hunting and increase his level. He looked for treasures too, but didn’t see anything resembling a chest or a pile of loot. Eventually though, he settled for the delightful system message.

[Level Up: +1 to all Stats, Full Recovery]

With his health and stamina topped off, he checked his daily quests.

[Daily Quests:] (2)

- {Running for Fun: 1 / 3 Miles ran}

- {Equipped: 0 / 10 Articles of clothing purchased}

- {The Wealthiest Pawn: 0 / 5 Items sold to a pawn shop}

He hadn’t made enough progress on his daily quests in order to earn the rewards. It seemed to differ from Vera’s daily quests too, suiting his situation and time period better.

He sighed. ‘I guess I just have to fight the boss as I am now. I can’t wait any longer. The dungeon will take a while to close after I destroy the monolith, and I can’t risk anyone seeing me walk out of here.’

He made his way back to where he saw the pillar, putting away his flint dagger, keeping only the military knife in hand, and summoning the largest rock he could throw.

Zachary slowly stepped into the room, looking for the boss. His feet snapped the bones of long-dead animals, and he vaguely spotted several strangely shaped snake husks. He heard the sliding of scales over stone, and detected movement from the corner of his vision. He instantly turned and threw the rock in his hand. There was a plume of dust and a creature emerged. Like he had expected, his [Stones Throw] wasn’t going to be enough.

He stared in horror at the woman in front of him. Her skin was pale and green, scaly in some places. Her eyes were yellow and had vertically slit pupils. Her lower half was a writhing mass of twin snake tails. She looked nearly identical to Medusa from Clash of the Titans. Fortunately though he knew they weren’t the same, otherwise he would be already dead just by making eye contact. Also, her hair was normal.

“Who are you? Medusa’s sister?” he asked.

The snake woman hissed. Even though she was more human-like in appearance than Elmarud had first been, there was no intelligence. She was completely gone.

A bow appeared in her hands. She even… licked an arrow before notching it in the bow.

Panicking, Zachary sprinted in a zig-zag motion toward the nearest cluster of stalagmites. He dove behind them just in time. The arrow hit the rocks and bounced over the wall into his lap. He briefly examined its craftsmanship.

‘Good enough to kill me,’ he concluded. ‘And the tip is laced with some sort of green liquid.’

He transferred it to his inventory. And peeked out at the snake lady. Except she had moved! He ducked just as another arrow whizzed past where his head had just been.

Pressing himself to the ground, he cursed. ‘Okay! That’s it. I won’t let you use that bow anymore.’

He summoned three more rocks from his inventory. They wouldn’t do any damage, but they would help him get close enough to where he could use his dagger skills. He also summoned a cape off one of the servants' uniforms. When he was prepared, he took a deep breath and threw the cloak to his right.

When an arrow punched through the fabric, he sprang up to his left. He wasted a precious millisecond to locate the snake lady and then used [Stones Throw] while charging straight at her. Each time she moved out of a plume of dust, Zachary would create another, sometimes even knocking the arrows out of her hand with the jarring impact.

He used up all three stones, but fortunately he had judged the distance correctly. The snake lady came into range and he activated [Intimidation] and [Long Slash] simultaneously. The snake lady froze for just a moment, paralyzed by the sudden use of his skill, while he used his military knife to draw a line across her torso, but more importantly, her bow. His mana dipped but the damage was done. The string snapped, becoming a useless stick until it could be repaired.

Suddenly, Zachary’s feet were swept out from under him by one of the snake lady’s tails. Being a boss, she quickly recovered from [Intimidation] and attacked him. She used the broken bow like an improvised club to bash at him, but he quickly rolled to avoid it.

‘This one has more varied attacks than Elmarud,’ he realized quickly.

Seeing that he got away, the snake lady hissed with frustration and tossed the bow. She uncurled a whip from her back that appeared to be made from a snake’s spine. The tip of it was like a wicked fish hook. It was obvious what she had hunted to make the morbid weapon. And she used it like an expert. She cast it outward and reeled it back in with deadly accuracy.

Zachary ducked and dodged as best he could, but his stamina was slowly depleting, and the cavern floor was hard to walk on. He also had to watch out for another one of her leg sweeps, otherwise he would be done for.

The snake lady, however, had stable footing no matter how rough the terrain got. The two snake tails that made up her lower half slithered over the stone floor, finding solid places and gliding right over holes and cracks.

‘Damnit. How do you beat an opponent you can’t reach with melee attacks? I really wish I knew some spells,’ he thought frantically.

He looked at the dungeon monolith with hope. He was only able to beat Elmarud when he knocked out the monolith, destroying the power source of the dungeon. Perhaps he could do the same here.

He approached the monolith with his military knife already imbued with power. Glowing runes covered its surface and he thrust his knife into the centermost one. The snake lady screamed in alarm, quickly replacing the bone whip and drawing two daggers from a holster on her waist. Faced with the suddenly ferocious melee attack, Zachary had no choice. He backed away from the monolith and now struggled to stay away.

The snake lady chased him through the boss room, which was actually quite spacious and multi-layered. She occasionally touched the daggers to her mouth too, lacing them with fresh venom and forcing Zachary to avoid them at all costs.

‘Damnit. Now how do you beat an opponent who can reach you with melee attacks?’ he thought even more frantically. For the umpteenth time since he entered the dungeon, he wished he knew some ranged spells.

He dodged attack after attack, struggling to maintain his footing while not being cut. He quickly memorized the terrain and was soon able to keep pace, but the snake lady’s wild slashing couldn’t be deciphered. That’s when he saw the broken bow laying in a small crevice.

‘I have an idea!’

He dove toward it, tucked into a roll, and popped up with it in his hand. He sprinted away as fast as he could out of the boss room. Shortly thereafter, the snake lady suddenly stopped chasing him.

Zachary took that time to catch his breath.

‘It’s just as I thought. Bosses can’t stray too far from the monolith.’

He searched around and found a nice location with plenty of light and started using his meager level 2 [Weapon Making] skill to fix the string. When he came back to the boss room, he was armed with the monster’s old bow in hand.

The snake lady glared at him, recognizing her old weapon in his hands, and started slithering his way.

‘I wonder what will happen if I use [Input Fire] on this arrow,’ Zachary thought with a smile. As for why he hadn’t used a regular rock, he had just been too caught up in the heat of the moment.

He notched the only arrow he had in his inventory as the snake lady charged at him again, the bone whip back on display. When he was confident he couldn’t miss, he released. It flew in a straight path through her heart and lodged itself in the rock behind her, still charged.

With a shocked expression, the snake lady looked down at the tiny hole the arrow had created. As blood started to pour freely, she tried to move towards Zachary again, only making it a few metaphorical steps before collapsing.

[Defeated: Glabian Gorgon (level 12)]

[Level Up: +1 to all Stats, Full Recovery]

Zachary sighed from relief, only remaining standing because the level up had restored his stamina and cured his mental fatigue.

‘If the boss hadn’t been restricted to the boss room, who knows what could’ve happened. The game masters are stupid for putting such a restriction on its residents.’

He turned his attention back to the corpse of the snake lady, or Glabian Gorgon, as his system had named it. He looted the snake whip, two daggers, and a quiver of arrows, transferring everything including the new bow to his inventory for safe keeping. Then he looked at her head, forked tongue, and slender neck.

“Like Perseus defeated the Kraken, so too must I defeat the state’s disbelief. I’m sorry snake lady, but I’ll be mailing your head very soon.”

His knife moved hesitantly.

Finished with the gruesome work, he faced the monolith. A few of the runes had flickered out from his attack earlier. But many of them were still on. He had plenty of mana to use on [Input Fire], but he didn’t get the chance last time to examine the runes in action. He had been too busy fighting Elmarud to worry about those things. But now that he had defeated the snake lady, he could take as much time as he liked.

Like the one in Elmarud’s dungeon, the rune’s didn’t resemble any language, so much as geometrical shapes. There was a kind of mathematical perfection to them. And he studied them for quite a bit, focussing on one rune which was the simplest, a straight line. He thrust his knife into the rune, snuffing it out, just to see what would happen.

A few runes flickered out on each of the four faces. But it seemed random to Zachary. Some of the symbols that went out matched the one he just hit. Other matching runes stayed on. And no matter how much he studied it, he couldn’t find a pattern.

He checked his wrist watch, noticing he had already been inside the dungeon for an hour and a half. Time was running out.

He suddenly wished he had a camera, so he could study the monolith later. But since he didn’t even have a pen, Zachary decided to carve out as many runes as he could. His imbued military knife cut into the monolith like it was bread. Tough bread. He was only able to extract two runes before he felt he needed the rest of his mana for closing the dungeon.

From then on, he carefully located and stabbed the centermost runes on each face. Doing this turned off the majority of the runes. All he could do after that was stab randomly, since he didn’t know the pattern. Thankfully it worked. He snuffed out the last rune and the system message announced his victory.

[Destroyed: Dungeon Monolith]

[Dungeon will close in two hours. Please exit the dungeon.]

[02:00:00]

[01:59:59]

[01:59:58]

[01:59:57]

[01:59:56]

He looked at the timer counting down and cursed. Two hours was a long time. He would have to defend the entrance and hope to God the school clubs would try and stay late. If they spotted him or the dungeon, his plan would be ruined.

Jacob walked out of the locker room past a group of boys who were still talking about the lightning bolt. It had been a good practice. He made his daily goal of 200 passes and became more familiar with the freshman center. Now it was time for some team bonding. He went to the personal trainer and thanked her again for using her fridge.

“Listen up everyone!” Jacob announced to all the football players standing in the hallway. “Just like usual I brought chocolate milk and trail mix. First come first serve but be considerate!”

The room erupted in cheer.

“Hot damn!”

“That’s the stuff.”

“You can lead us to victory any day QB.”

“Yeah, just don’t forget the food!”

Everyone laughed at that.

Empty water bottles were refilled with chocolate milk and trail mix was passed around.

Jacob looked at his friends Michael and Frank, noticing how Frank was more solemn than usual, and even refused to take part in the snacks.

‘What’s up with that?’ he wondered.

“Hey Frank. Are you injured? You seem kinda out of it right now.”

“I’m fine. Just leave me alone and let me deal with it,” Frank retorted.

“Okay, okay. Cool, cool.”

Unlike most people, Jacob knew Frank’s situation. His family was in bad shape and his father was an alcoholic. But despite this, Frank always tried his hardest at football, earning a starting position on the ‘A’ team. It was the biggest reason Jacob tried to stay friends with him. Otherwise, his patience would’ve worn thin a long time ago. Frank’s antics in every other area of his life were well known through the school. It was a miracle Jacob hadn’t dropped to a ‘A-minus’ in English.

Somebody passed the empty milk jug and trail mix bag back to Jacob and he gladly accepted.

“Okay. I’ll be right back,” Jacob said while handling the trash, and left the team to horse around and enjoy themselves.

When he got out of the building he took the familiar route toward where the dumpsters were.

‘Them dragons are just a bunch of little lizards. They won’t know what hit them. We will crush everyone in the league and take state this year, easy!’ he nodded to himself. ‘What team has a culture like ours, a top of the line coaching staff, AND a cheerleading squad full of babes? No one! That’s the answer!’

He rounded the corner, ready to throw away his trash when a strange sight made him drop everything.

Zachary Trenner was dragging a giant snake through a portal!

[End Chapter 16]