"The Eye-Thorn dungeon huh? Why is it called that?" asked Jason as he saw the black void in front of him with interest. He had thought that a dungeon would be a cave filled with monsters or something, but he was so wrong.

"The dungeon is called that because it is inhabited with Eye-Thorns, which is a plant type monster. "

"Right..." Jason eyed the man and could help but feel something wasn't right. He couldn't put his finger on what is was, but even though he felt like that, he didn't think that the man was lying as he had already heard the description of this dungeon requirements from the guild receptionist.

' The reason that this dungeon is so unattractive to others is because it not only has a level restriction of 5, but it also has a restriction of how many people could come in at a time, which is two. Taking into account that a porter is definitely needed for the purpose of gathering and transporting the material collected from dead monsters, that only left one fighter to tackle the dungeon alone.

So this guy should be strong right?'

Seeing the lone man with him didn't portray the figure if a dungeon friendly party.

"Is something the matter?"

"No no, let's just go ahead and enter the dungeon."

Jason shook his head and hoped this wouldn't be his last adventure, but he was sure it wasn't. From the interaction of the guild receptionist with the man he clearly understood that the man was no rookie, but a veteran. Also, this was not the first time he had entered this dungeon.

*Ping*

'Huh....

As he was thinking about that a window apeared in front of him. It was similar to his status page, but it didn't have his status on it, it had the dungeon information.

Would you like to enter

'Eye-Thorn' Yes. No.

Jason was stunned , but only for a second. He felt the man staring at him so he didn't delay anymore and selected yes. As soon as he did that he was absorbed by the black void as was the man right after him.

........

"Hupp....

Jason landed on one foot and tried not to fall. It was very disorienting for him , like he had just missed a stair while going down. He slowly raised his head and saw that he was in a forest, but not the one he was before. The portal of the dungeon though looked and felt the same as the one outside

"Are you alright?"

Jason turned back and saw the man was also there, but he seemed fine and not disoriented at all.

' I wouldn't expect less from a veteran adventurer, he clearly is used to this. On the other hand I still have much to learn.'

"Yeah, I'm fine. Just a little disoriented, that's all."

"Good, because it's seems we have company....

Jason didn't have time to process the words that the man just said and could only see him take an arrow from his quiver and quickly shoot something behind him.

*Fshhfshhh....

He turned back and saw that the arrow had struck some kind of monster. It looked like someone had created a 1.5 m tall and 1m wide sculpture from sewed before placing a very realistic human eye in the middle of it.

*Fshhfshhh.....

The sound of its numerous sewed limbs rubbing against each other made the hair on Jason's arm stand on end, but only for a split second as a cool feeling washed over him.

"What are you doing, get back!" the man shouted, but Jason was already running before those words reached his ears. He was fast, but the arrow that flew past him was faster. It hit the monster again on its upper body making it flail again.

"Hah hah.... what the fuck is that?" asked Jason still shocked by the sudden apperance of the monster.

"That's the Eye-Thorn, the signature monster of this dungeon."

"The Eye-Thorn....

He turned back so he could get a better look at the monster only to see it laying on the ground. It's numerous sewed like limbs slowly twitching in vain , raising even more questions.

As he was lost in his thoughts someone taped him on the shoulder. "Come, we are going to collect the materials."

"Yeah..." answered Jason still wondering what just happened to the monster.

' Did it get hit with an attack I couldn't see, but with what? Was it some kind of magic?'

These thoughts rolled over and over in Jason's brain, but he didn't think about it to long, he had a work to do after all. He arrived before the body of the monster and saw the man removing his arrow from it's sewed like limbs. After he finished that, he pointed to the creatures eye and started to explain.

"Do you see the eye in the middle of the body? That's it's magic core that doubles as an eye. It's value is considered pretty good if it's in a good condition and can fetch a better price if there was a sudden basilisk raid, or an earth dragon decided to stretch it's legs.

Now, the way you extract the core is by slowly cutting the connections to the body, but you have to be very careful. You may not see it , but most of it's limbs are filled with numerous tiny thorns that you can't see. If you somehow slip up, I can guarantee you a slow and agonizing pain that may last for years to come.

There is also no cure."

"........

Jason looked at the monster body and then to the man, and sighed.

' I knew that 3 silver coins for a raid was a little to good to be true . I thought it was about the dungeon requirements, but it seems that they were other reasons.

Fuck it..... since I'm already here.'

Jason opened his backpack, took the dagger and slowly plunged it to the side of the eyeball. At first it was easy, but as he started to cut around it, he feel some resistance. It felt like he was cutting some thin and very strong strands that didn't end. It took him about a minute of careful cutting to cut all around the eyeball.

"Slowly.... slowly....

"I got it! There are no more strands to cut."

"Good, now slowly lift the eyeball with your other hand while lightly leveraging the eyeball with the flat side if your dagger. Be careful not to drop the eyeball though."

"I got it , I got hukkk....

Jason's hand slightly slipped as he was taking out the eyeball, but fortunately he didn't drop it.

' Fuck fuck fuuuuu....I almost dropped it!'

Jason could feel the glare from the man, but he didn't turn his head and concentrated on his task. After he raised the eyeball slowly with his left hand he noticed a greenish strand directly connecting the eyeball with it's cavity.

"Great! Now you only have to cut the main strand and everything is finished. Slowly this time....

"Mhmmm....

Jason nodded as he put the edge of the dagger on the strand , but didn't put much pressure in it. He slowly sawed at it and in about ten seconds he was done.

"Hahaha, I did it!"

" Congratulations, now let's go, we can't waste much time here! Your spirit can't handle it."

"My spirit?" asked Jason with a slightly concerned voice. The man saw the expression on Jason's face and frowned.

"Wait, don't tell me that you.....haaah.....

You know what, I'll explain it to you quickly. The reason we can't spend much time in a dungeon is because it slowly eats away at our Spirit, and if your spirit is very low you may loose conciousness or even outright die.

Don't worry though, a normal human can resist the dungeon for about 30 minutes without any side effects."

Jason heard the explanation of the man and calmed down a little. "Whew, that is great to know. Thanks!"

"No problem, just move as quickly as possible and don't fuck up! "