Very seriously, Harin said, “We’re going to die.” He was breathing rapidly, inhaling in short, fast gulps. Tugging nervously at the leather straps holding his armor in place, he continued, “Oh, God, what if we die here? The dungeon will Absorb our bodies, and everyone will assume we died, but they’ll never actually know-” Abruptly, Harin’s eyes widened, pupils dilated in fear. “I-it’s the perfect setup for a murder!”

He ran a shaking hand through his hair. “They’ve been trying for years, but-”

Inke tuned him out. “Status: Active Effects.”

Active Effects

Activated Bond: Soar

Stat Increase – AGI: +20

Stat Increase – END: +15

Stat Increase – STR: +15

Stat Increase – REF: +20

Gained Skill: Flight

Gained Skill: Compress Air

Gained Skill: Wall of Wind

Gained Skill: Suffocate

Gained Skill: Gust

Dungeon: The Dungeon-y Dungeon of Dungeons (without Dragons)

EXP Drain: 25/minute

EXP Absorption: 0.5x Gain

Not particularly unreasonable for a dungeon of its level. Considering that Harin was only Copper I, and Inke hadn’t put down her ranking, the dungeon could only be Copper III at most. Adventuring was a risky profession, but the Adventurer Guild didn’t let just anyone enter the most dangerous dungeons.

It was slightly on the high side, considering that the typically accepted formula was a loss of five per Copper ranking, with an increase at each successive tier. A dungeon suited to Inke’s ranking would kill Harin by draining all of his Experience within minutes, a major contributor to why lower-ranked Adventurers were forbidden from entering dungeons of more than two rankings higher.

Speaking of which, Inke turned to Harin. “Level?”

As people grew and changed, they absorbed ambient Experience from the world surrounding them. It wasn’t anywhere close to what could be gained by entering a dungeon or even going out and hunting down wildlife, but by the time they reached maturity, physical and mental growth generally at least gave people a level of seven.

“A-ah… four,” he muttered quietly, shoulders hunched.

Inke ran some mental calculations in her head. Experience requirements to reach the next level doubled with each successive level up, beginning at ten to advance from zero to level one. At level four, assuming that Harin didn’t have any excess Experience, he had a total of 150 Experience.

Six minutes in the dungeon before he died, then.

She nodded firmly. “Let’s find some monsters, then.”

Harin whipped his head up to stare at her, eyes wide and shining. “Y-you mean it?”

“I don’t care about you, but I’m not going to let an- a party member die on me.”

He looked slightly crestfallen at Inke’s opening words, but the latter half of the sentence caused him to cheer up slightly. “L-let’s go, then!”

The dungeon entrance was rather overdone: a set of detailed carved stairs that began the descent into the dungeon proper were adorned with shining geometric patterns of what appeared to be Light Crystal. If that were where it ended, the design would have been an elegant, understated entrance.

Instead, though, different colors and shades of Crystal were splattered onto what seemed every possible surface, illuminating the entrance to be almost blindingly bright, garishly so.

She paused. “Has anyone tried to take the Crystal out of the entryway yet?

Blinking, Harin bit his lip. “Uh, I’m not quite sure? Maybe?”

Higher-level dungeons had their own methods of protecting their structures, but Copper and Silver dungeons tended to be highly susceptible to simple damage to their walls and rooms. Presumably, though, the Dungeon-y Dungeon of Dungeons (without Dragons) had a way to protect itself from that, or the resource drain from constantly producing the Crystal would have been so great as to be unsustainable.

Yet another oddity in the abnormality that the dungeon was.

The door itself, however, was plain in comparison, featuring only an engraving of something. Inke couldn’t tell. A child’s depiction of a hand, possibly.

Carefully, Inke walked up to the door and placed her hand on the engraving, matching her fingers to the drawing.

Nothing happened.

With a slight frown, Inke applied more force. The door gave way with a sound of grinding stone, somehow swinging inward despite the lack of hinges. She squinted at the opening, noting the faint shimmer that appeared as an almost veil-like covering over the entrance. It really was instanced, then.

Inke tilted her head towards the entrance, beckoning Harin to the dungeon as she entered the dungeon proper herself.

Beyond the doorway, Inke stepped into a bare stone corridor, populated only by a single feathered creature on the far side of the hallway. Harin followed close behind her, glancing around nervously as he did so.

She drew Ignari from the sword’s sheath. “Do you have a weapon?”

“Sort of? I have a, well, that is to say, I have these two daggers.” Harin held them up. He carried two plain, steel daggers with no ornamentation.

Sighing, Inke said, “Just try to stay behind me.” Holding Ignari before her, she said, “Gust.”

Activated Skill: Gust (Soar)

Mana Drain: 3/second

Mana Activation: 200

Stat Increase – AGI: +30

Movement Modifier: x3

Evasion Chance: +15%

As she sprinted, quickly approaching the monster, she drew Ignari back, preparing to strike the monster. It turned, head twisting to face Inke, two beady, molten-red eyes glaring at her-

Inke squinted. Was that a chicken?

The chicken-monster cawed loudly, and five other chickens came stalking in from around the corner where the hallway ended, and a room began. Almost simultaneously, their feathers lit on fire. With a loud cry, the chicken-monsters charged at Inke.

Behind her, Harin mumbled something quietly and added, louder, “…Mana: Transfer.”

Transferred Mana

Harin transferred 30 mana from [???].

Mana Gained: 30

On her left, one of the chicken-monsters gave what might have been the equivalent of a sneeze, feathers fluffing out and dimming for a moment before flaring up again. A wisp of smoke trailed from its beak. As one, the mob of chickens halted and slowly turned their heads to stare at Harin, who was slowly inching his way backwards down the hallway.

Inke raised Ignari to the left of her body before bringing it down in a sweeping arc before her as the chickens leaped in a frantic rush at her- or, rather, the adventurer hiding behind her. Ignari cleaved through five out of six of them, but the monster on the far right managed to get past her.

Spinning, Inke was fully prepared to slaughter that one as well, but to her surprise, Harin stood there, trembling hand holding one of his daggers. The chicken-monster screeched, talons outstretched and aimed for Harin’s face, but before Inke could swing Ignari and take its head off, Harin stabbed it with one of his daggers.

If it could be called stabbing. More accurately, he broke slightly past the skin, causing several feathers to separate and float to the floor, slowly burning into particles of fine ash. When he withdrew the dagger, there was perhaps a drop of blood on its tip.

Despite the pitiful attack, the chicken fell to the floor, landing in a soft thump.

Glancing around, Inke took in the scene. Six chicken-monsters lay on the floor, all but one of them neatly severed in two.

Harin cut in, snapping Inke out of her quasi-meditative state, “W-wait. How did your sword manage to cut th-through those chickens like that?”

Inke focused on the important part of Harin’s question. “So they are chickens, then?”

He laughed with an edge of hysteria. There was a red flush slowly creeping its way up his dusky cheeks. “I, uh, I did mention that owned the land, right? And I happen to own a flock of chickens, which, uh funny story.” Harin scratched the back of his neck. “Th-that’s sorta how I found the dungeon in the first place? One of my chickens wandered in here, I followed it in just in time to watch it fall down a pit trap. And uh. Die. Then, I watched it get Absorbed! And k-kinda left. Like. R-really fast, y’know?”

Nodding seriously, Inke said, “Have you checked your Experience gains, yet?”

“O-oh! No, not yet. I guess I should get on that, huh?”

“Status: Combat Experience,” Inke stated.

EXP Gained

[???] x6 slain: 50 EXP x 6

EXP Absorption – The Dungeon-y Dungeon of Dungeons (without Dragons): 0.5x

EXP Split: 0.5x

Total: 75 EXP

By then, the chickens had been Absorbed by the dungeon, leaving behind gleaming piles of Crystal and loot. Inke kneeled, sweeping the Crystal into one of her many belt pouches and the assorted loot into another. Standing, she told Harin, “We can split the drops when we reach the end of the dungeon.”

Inke paused, a thought coming to her. “How is your Experience doing?” As Harin fumbled his way through another explanation, presumably actually checking at some point, she pulled up her own. “Status.”

Inke

Class: Architect (Bond)

Level: 16

Species: Human

Age: 29

EXP: 23,622/655,360

Health: 810/810 (360/360)

Mana: 2,856/3,360

Agility: 39 (19)

Endurance: 27 (12)

Intelligence: 56

Wisdom: 35

Strength: 25 (10)

Reflex: 38 (18)

Charisma: 6

Luck: 13

Titles: Shatter, Adventurer - Platinum VI, Feared III (Regional)

Traits: Dungeoneer, Bonded (16/16), Dungeon Slayer

Active Effects: Activated Bond – Soar, The Dungeon-y Dungeon of Dungeons (without Dragons), Gust – Soar

Passive Effects: N/A

Inke gestured at the room before her. “Shall we?”

Harin nodded, stammering, “I g-guess. Yeah. Yeah. L-let’s go.”

They entered deeper into the dungeon.