The heat was not unbearable but was to an uncomfortable degree. Both of the previous times I entered here, the temperature was cooler than the outside world. I was hoping that it wouldn’t be like the last run and get hotter every time I went down a room. More importantly, what sort of monsters would I encounter next? First was humanoid rats and then there were giant jumping lizards. In fact, there was nothing at all in front of me. Nothing I could see at least.

The walls were a slightly reddish brown color which reminded me of how things got colder in the bluish dungeon. But there was something strange on the right side, a hole in the wall. Until the monster that always spawns in a non-rest area room dies, I cannot progress forward. All I can do is go back from where I came, which isn’t much of an option that moment.

I approached the wall and waved my shield in front of the hole. In response, a rattling noise came from the hole as if someone gathered a bunch of pine cones in a basket then shook them. The noise was so unnerving and out of place there that I backed away from the wall. Then, I tried looking into the hole from a distance. Two glowing red orbs stared at me from within, but I couldn’t see what it was, nor was it inclined to come out. An unusual strategy for sure, just staying in place where I couldn’t reach it. One that could help me or hurt me.

Since it wasn’t coming out to attack me, I could just wait here indefinitely while Jerry and his friends get bored and enter the dungeon themselves, sent off to some other part of the dungeon, or go home to sleep. However, the longer I waited, the more likely another one these things would spawn in the wall. If by any chance, it just stayed in the wall like the first, then there’d be no problem. Therein lies the biggest issue, these monsters act differently depending on their numbers, like the second lizard waiting for the first to go so it could hit me while I was dodging and unable to move out of the way.

Give or take a few hours and I might have two or even three of these monsters sitting in holes until they get a funny idea and come out to attack me. So my only option was to try and bait it out of the hole. And I thought I knew the perfect plan. Waving my shield in front of the hole pissed it off, so it’d come out if I pissed it off even more. Not only that, but my shield would block any possible attacks.

About five minutes of shield waving later, the only result of my efforts was a constant rattling noise and the occasional hiss. While annoyed, the monster had no intention of coming out. I had half a mind to just stick my arm down the hole and drag it out by force. Also, half a bottle left with how much I’ve been drinking. So drunk that I was seriously considering using my hand, but settled for the tree branch instead. It was thick on one side and thin on the other side and the thick side was too big for the hole.

I shoved the branch with the thin side inside and pushed it as far as I could and hit something, but the wide part of the branch prevented me from going further. The rattling noise got much louder so I pulled it out and back in multiple times, poking whatever was inside with the tip of the branch until I felt something tug at the branch. Whatever the monster was, it was trying to pull the branch inside so I could no longer use it to annoy it. Thankfully the thickness of the branch prevented that and I yanked the branch out to see if I could pull the damn thing out.

With the branch came a snake biting on the end of it. A pure black snake as thick as my arm and as long as my foot to my shoulder. My shock at the size of this terrifying thing made me drop the branch and immediately stomped onto its head. Fuck fighting that thing fairly, its fangs were occupied with something else so my heel got intimate with the top of its head. Surprisingly, it refused to let go and kept biting the branch, so I could bring my foot down upon it several more times. Every time I did its body coiled up and wrapped around the tree branch as if it thought it was a part of me.

In the end, it died while causing only a tiny bit of damage to the branch, four holes towards the bottom of it. Turns out that the snake was pretty stupid for such a large monster. Actually, it wasn’t that big in comparison to the other monsters. It just resembled something that would be dangerous out in the wild. Perhaps it had some sort of venom that would really screw me over if bit, but at this rate, I was in no danger of being bit at all.

With that in mind, I took on the next few rooms the same way. First I’d find out where the hole was and wave my shield in front of it to grab its attention. The second step was putting the branch in there and poking it until it bit down. Third I’d fish it out and stomp its brains out. Worked out quite well at least until the fifth room.

When I walked into the fifth room I inspected the tree branch for damage and found some of the wood flaking away from the damage of getting holes put into it constantly. It wouldn’t last forever. Hopefully, the snakes would still latch on even if the branch wasn’t long enough to poke it. If not, then trying my luck with Jerry and his crew being gone by now wasn’t such a bad idea.

I was hungry with naught but the brew within my shirt to keep my hunger down. But constant alcohol without any food to weaken it or snacks to accompany it wasn’t fun. Felt like getting drunk for the sake of getting drunk rather than for enjoying the sensation. I was past the point of getting a buzz and more in the territory of wanting to pass out or throw up but being unable to do either. All I had to do was reach floor ten, a rest area wasn’t guaranteed but every floor past then was a chance to sleep off the alcohol and get a bit of food to settle my stomach.

Back in room two and four, the holes were in inconvenient spots, one being at my feet and the either being above my head. This time the hole was at face level, easy to work with and even easier to look into. Which is why I spared a glance inside and noticed something off this time. There were no glowing eyes inside the hole. Then again, normally I wave the shield in front of the hole so perhaps its eyes were closed.

Testing this out, I shook my shield in front and heard it rattling like before and then backed off and looked inside. Still no red eyes but it was definitely there and quite angry at me. Somehow I could feel it staring at me and it saw me as below it. It was overwhelming how much just looking into that hole was affecting me. Eventually, I snapped out of it and tore my eyes away, out of the corner of my eye I saw something flashing. My shield, the divine symbol on it was glowing off and on for some reason.

What in the hell did that snake do to me that a divine item had to rescue me? If not for the shield glowing and stopping… something from happening, I would’ve assumed that it was the alcohol getting to me. At that moment, I felt my body sweating all over and not from the heat. I underestimated these snakes because they were so easy to kill. No more looking into the holes, just baiting and bashing.

As I was still getting ahold of the situation, something unexpected occurred. The snake was no longer content to hide in the wall and came out of its hole. It slid down the wall and onto the floor in a twisting path, heading straight for me and lifting its head up. No eyes, this fucking snake had no eyes, just pits where they were supposed to be. I’m not sure which was worse, glowing red creepy eyes or nothing at all.

Once again, I was looking straight at it and a bad feeling from my gut surfaced. No more looking at it, I thought while bringing up my shield to cover my face. Which was probably a bad idea as it left my lower body open to attack. That attack never came as the snake hissed and backed off, then I saw it from the edge of my shield slithering across the ground around the perimeter of the room, looking for an opening. I followed it with my shield up, preventing the snake from distracting me with its foul magic.

We were at a stalemate as I couldn’t look directly at it and it was reluctant to come close to me without binding me with its gaze. Or possibly it was avoiding the shield itself. As it had the power to block the snake’s feature, it might have the power to turn the snake away as well. Dark creatures and undead were said to fear the power of the divine. This was probably the most dangerous monster I’ve faced in this dungeon yet, but I had the perfect item to counteract it.

To test this theory, I took a step in the direction the beast was heading towards to cut it off. In response, it turned around and rerouted around me. Not enough to prove the theory for sure, but enough for me. This was an opportunity, I could use the shield to keep it from attacking me and block its gaze while keeping track of it by its tail so I can strike it with the tree branch. I shall club a dark creature to death with a stick.

Within a few seconds, I had trapped the creature in somewhat of a corner. It hissed and lashed out a few times in my direction. All feints and nothing substantial. It dared not come close to me. On the other hand, I had free reign and started by trying to press down on the snake’s head. If I did that, it would be immobilized and I could just stomp on its head, dark powers or not it’ll die from a broken head. No such luck as it constantly moved its head around as if it knew what I was trying to do and I couldn’t look directly at it so it was nearly impossible to achieve.

Side to side it moved, trying to escape its predicament, but I kept blocking its attempt to escape with the shield while moving it closer. Soon enough it stopped lashing out towards me and focused on trying to escape and nearly did so when it started scaling straight up the wall, stopped only by me knocking it down with the branch. Then the shield got so close that all escape routes were blocked and it coiled on itself until it was a ball.

This made it unable to run and a perfect target as if it had given up on life. I took advantage of this and constantly hit the snake with the branch without as much of an effect as I had hoped. Unlike the other snakes, this one was as hard as a rock and it seemed like I was hurting my arm more than the snake every time I slammed down onto its body. Something finally gave with a loud snapping sound. The tree branch broke in half around the spot I was holding it at. All the damage from the holes and the repeated impacts from being used as a club finally caught up with it.

Now I could hold a tiny stick that would do nothing or grab the end part of the branch which was too thick to put my hands around and continue bashing it. Problem with that is having to hold it from the top to do any real damage, putting my fingers awfully close to the snake itself. Two options presented themselves to me, risk bashing it more at the expense of losing my fingers or even my life if it’s venomous, or take advantage of its defensive state and run.

Suddenly, it moved as if to escape its position while my weapon was broken and I was distracted. By reflex, I pushed the shield in closer and it pressed right up against its body with a sizzling noise. Smoke started to rise from behind the shield. This creature was taking damage just from touching the divine shield. So it was not just fear, but the real threat of the divine touch smiting it that kept it away.

I wasn’t going to let this opportunity go in vain and pressed the entire shield against the snake and pressed down hard to keep it from slipping away. Just a few moments ago it was in the perfect stance to shake off blows from the branch but now it was a deathtrap keeping it pinned down as the shield burned it. Smoke billowed out from below the shield and as I pressed down the shield lowered more and more as the snake was literally being wiped from existence.

Finally, I felt no resistance at all and moved away from the shield to reveal bare ground. No sign of the snake anywhere. Dead, smitten, destroyed or what not the damn thing was gone and I was happy about it. Screw exploring this dungeon further if this was the kind of thing I’d face. At this point, I’d rather face three normal snakes than one of these dark ones even with the tree branch broken. And with it broken, I couldn’t go any farther into the dungeon. The rest area would have to wait another day and time to test my luck on the surface.

Time to go back to the surface, or not. A swirling mass of smoke above my head disagreed with my proposal. Even after killing the snake, I now had to fight the smoke given off from killing it. Was it even a snake at this point or an evil spirit. The smoke gathered in the spot where I had killed the snake and congealed together. For a moment I thought it was the snake reforming its body but then I realized it was loot.

When the smoke cleared, there was a dagger marking the grave of the snake. The very sight of the dagger made me a bit uneasy despite the fact that it was only a bit longer than the bottom of my palm to the end of my middle finger. Emblazoned on its hilt was a skull and it was bad news. Everything about it screamed cursed from the skull to the fact it dropped from a beast wielding foul black magic. Logically, the best thing to do was leave it behind but it drew me in somehow.

No matter how cursed it was, it’d still be valuable as it looked pretty gnarly. I was drunk and easily influenced so I walked up to it. My last vestige of sanity made me place my shield against the dagger to see if there was a reaction or if my curiosity was from a spell that would be broken with this action. Nothing, no reaction at all. Against my better interests, I picked up the dagger with my free hand, not even trying to use a rag or something so I wouldn’t touch it directly.

Once I picked it up, I didn’t feel any different. No pain attacking me randomly, no voices speaking into my head trying to get me to kill myself or my friends, and no strange cravings for human flesh. Not that I had ever tasted human flesh so I wouldn’t know even if I had a craving for it. Didn’t seem like I was cursed at all but it was best to check with Jeoffry about this dagger later on.

With that, there was nothing left for me here. I left behind the tree branch as well. When leaving the dungeon, I didn’t have to kill enemies to make it to the next room so even if new snakes spawn they’ll just sit in the hole as well. Probably best for me to pick up a weapon or two at Jeff’s blacksmith when I trade in this rock. The tree branch was damaged beyond use and I doubt it would be wise to just find another one out in the woods. It worked surprisingly well but constantly broke with every room I entered and wouldn’t be able to last me long enough for room ten onward no matter what I faced in the dungeon.

I was thinking that I wanted something long range like a spear then something short range like an ax or bludgeon. Versatility was key in a constantly changing environment. Before any of that could be done, I needed to stop by Tom’s bar as it’s the only place I can grab dinner past the usual times and then pass out upstairs using the coins from Jeff. It was probably dark outside by now.

I stumbled through the rooms. This time it was only five of them. Seemed like I was doing worse every time I entered the dungeon but I hadn’t entered with proper equipment yet. Several times I caught myself leaning against a wall about to pass out and slapped myself to keep going. Keeping my thoughts on getting out of there and what to do next was the only thing preventing me from passing out cold, and likely dead by the time I would’ve woken up.

I prayed to the goddess blessing my shield that Jerry wouldn’t be there when I got out. And to my surprise when I left the dungeon, it wasn’t Jerry. But it wasn’t no one either. There was someone waiting for me. Tom, the owner of the bar was sitting on the ground just a ways away from the dungeon entrance.