-The Hidden Floor(2)-

Half an hour later, due to his high physique and Passive Regeneration Kenshin recovered from his internal injuries. After that he stood up and together with Maria, he walked towards the recently opened pathway.

The pathway was just a narrow corridor made of same material as dungeon itself. The walls had torches lined up, on which green fire was burning, providing fluorescent light to the otherwise dark corridor. The silence of the corridor sent chills down the Kenshin and Maria’s spines. But they persisted and walked slowly, covering each other’s blind spots. Kenshin had his sword out in front, ready to strike any danger approaching his direction.

As they walked deeper and deeper, the pathway became wider and wider.

Sling!!

A soft sound was heard somewhere before something speed towards Kenshin’s head. But he was no pushover, with his above 30 agility, his vision had also enhanced to a frightening degree. Kenshin instantly saw through the approaching object and swung his sword to engage it.

Ting!

A bell-like sound heard as the object impacted with his sword, creating a few sparks in the process. It was an arrow. Since they didn’t discover any living beings in front, this could only mean one thing, traps.

“Careful, there are traps here” Kenshin warned Maria who was walking behind him with averted eyes. She nodded in affirmation. Traps are the most basic thing one must be careful of when raiding a dungeon. There were some traps capable of killing an entire raiding party if not dealt with accordingly. Both Kenshin and Maria are experienced enough to handle traps like this.

After that, though they were careful enough, still they fell for more than ten traps on the way. Finally, after various twists and turns, they reached an open space where the single pathway had forked into three different but identical ways. Both stopped their advance and stared at the fork road intently.

“Which way should we go?” Maria asked as she inspected the fork roads. The roads lead to two dark tunnels. They were so dark that there was nothing visible.

“You are more experienced than me, so you decide,” Kenshin said as he inspected the tunnels with his system. Unfortunately, he found nothing.

“Huh! What do you mean more experienced? Even I have come across such a thing for the first time today”

“Really!?”

As he was answering Maria, he suddenly remembered the map function of his system.

“I got an idea, just give me a second” Kenshin said as he sat down. Checking out a map takes some time, so he sat down and closed his eyes. He can see his system even when he had his eyes closed. He also doesn’t want to be treated as a lunatic by Maria, who couldn’t see the system.

“What are trying to do?” Maria asked seeing Kenshin sitting on the ground. She had a profound impression of Kenshin in her heart. She had come to know that, although Kenshin tends to do some weird and reckless things, they are not without reasons.

“Trying to think, give me a minute” saying so, Kenshin closed his eyes and started browsing his system.

As he chose the map button, a window with two buttons popped.

[Local Map] [World Map]

Earlier, he had seen the world map option; but this was the first time for local map option. He selected the local map option. Suddenly the blue window cleared off before lines and arrays formed one by one. At the bottom right corner, a message popped showing the status of the map.

[Loading Local Maps…50%]

After the map completed loading; an arrow mark floated at one place, depicting his location in the map. It was floating above a plain white road, that was further forked into three different roads. Kenshin closely inspected those three fork roads. Two of them were interconnected, if you enter any one of those two, then you would come out of the other tunnel. As for the last one, it had a winding road that led to a closed-off space where the road ended abruptly. A green dot was blinking inside that closed off space. It must be an enemy, Kenshin concluded seeing the green dot.

Concluding this, he opened his eyes and stood up.

“You find anything?” Maria asked.

“Let’s go through the middle tunnel” the confidence with which Kenshin spoke, completely convinced Maria.

“Okay”

Unlike what they had initially thought, the journey was entirely uneventful. There were no traps, no monsters simply a narrow road that seems to be unending. Kenshin was a little relaxed because he was repeatedly checking the map to make sure he didn’t miss anything.

BEEP!!

Suddenly Maria’s Dungeon Watch beeped with a very loud noise. She hastily opened it and was surprised to find that it was blinking with red color. Generally, red color only appears when the radiation level was way above the norm. Even the appearance of the specter guardian hadn't elicited such response from the watch.

“Looks like a very powerful monster is waiting for us out there” Maria was looking pale, the radiation level was way off the charts. This monster was out of her league. Kenshin was also no different as he can already sense the impending dread. He had already seen the existence of this monster while checking out the map but he had disregarded it thinking that it wouldn’t be much stronger.

But, reality had given him a hard kick in the face.

“What do you say about returning from here?” Maria asked as she backed away step by step while pulling Kenshin with her.

“Impossible, the monster was already aware of us. It was moving closer as we speak right now” Kenshin who had his eyes glued to the screen said with a grave voice. Just now, when Maria’s clock beeped, it started coming closer.

“How do you know?” she asked, genuinely surprised.

“Its one of my skill set, more importantly, get ready. It's coming!” Kenshin half lied but warned her of the incoming arrival.

Click! Click!

Sounds of bone-rattling could be heard as something kept coming closer. The aura of death permeated the air, giving off a scary vibe. From beyond the darkness, a pair of green light can be seen coming closer and closer. Gulping their saliva, Kenshin and Maria waited with bated breath for the monster to come closer.

Finally, after a few seconds, the monster finally appeared under one of the torches. Both Kenshin and Maria had to double take after seeing the monster. It was a zombie, like many roaming on the first floor. Wearing shabby and torn clothes, it looked same as all the other zombies they had met till now. But the similarity ends there. Unlike other zombies, it doesn’t look like a mindless monster. It looked intelligent; that alone had sent several warning bells on Kenshin and Maria’s head.

Not only that, it was holding a glittering shield and a rusty sword in its hand; the stark contrast was quite intriguing. The previous green glow was from its muddy green eyes that had complete apathy towards life.

“This thing is dangerous,” Maria said, suddenly her throat felt dry as she sweated like a pig.

“Yes,” Kenshin nodded his head. Fear filled his heart as he regretted coming here. Clearly, this monster was way beyond his level. In fact, their powers were too far apart to be compared. His brain started working overtime as he tried to think of a way to escape.

But at that time the system did something that doused all his hopes of escape.

[Ding* Compulsory Quest 1: Kill Zombie Guardian Lv 40]

[Rewards]

4000 G X 50 EXP Zombie Guardian’s Glittering Shield 1 life

[You cannot decline this quest]

“Fuck me!!” Kenshin couldn’t help but curse at the system.