Alright, so I guess that’s how dungeons stay clean, huh? I really wonder what the fuck those goblins… are they goblins? Sure as

hell don’t look like what I pictured goblins to be. Gremlins maybe? Tch whatever. Whatever those gremlins were, I have a pretty good feeling I shouldn’t mess with them. After all, if they are constantly cleaning the dungeon, and are confident enough in doing so in front of someone who could potentially be an enemy, then they have to be pretty confident in their ability to beat the shit out of anyone who interrupts their janitorial duties. Really tho, I don’t want to fight anything that’ll try to eat me. It was bad enough having the hellhounds trying to snack on me, I don’t want to face something that’ll genuinely try to eat me for countless hours.

Shaking my head to get the janitor-gremlins out of mind, I turned around and continued heading down the passage. Not soon after however, a pair of red-glowing eyes entered my sight. Since the dungeon corridor was darker than the cave, the glowing eyes of the monsters were a lot more prevalent than in the cave. And seeing the low height of them, I was able to immediately infer that it belonged to a hellhound. As the figure slowly moved towards me, I was able to fully make out its features. Sleek black colored fire with a dark red underbelly. A predatory look in its eyes that were locked on me. Its mouth was slightly opened as it began to growl, showcasing it’s rather fearsome murder tools. Although I wanted to say that after killing seventeen of these fuckers I wasn’t fazed by then any longer, the truth is I still felt very hesitant about having to start another fight with these ugly dogs.

Taking a deep breath, I calmed my nerves as I ran towards the hellhound as it lunged towards me in return. Stopping it in the air with my hand, I moved right and rapidly swung the shortsword down, cutting off the hellhound’s snout in the process. Thanks to the longer reach of the shortsword, I was now able to do more damage at a longer range, making this fight far more comfortable than any of my last ones.

With the hellhound left in a state of shock after having half of his face cut off, I quickly moved in and dealt the finishing blow, deciding to show it some mercy and not allowing it to continue to suffer, as I had some experience in being left moribund. Moving on, I continued to make way for a few minutes as the corridor became increasingly wider and the terrain more rocky. Finally, reaching a point where the corridor was around 10 meters wide as rocks that were big enough for me to hide behind became more common, a new sight entered my vision.

For a while, I had felt that the dungeon seemed rather empty. But thinking about it more clearly, if a dungeon constantly threw monsters at you without giving you a chance to rest, it wouldn't be long before you succumbed to the endless forces of the dungeon. After all, all it took was one mistake for everything to go south, and it wasn’t as if everyone else had the luxury of simply coming back to life as I did. That’s why I had grown to appreciate these times of peace where I could relax, and it also allowed me to have a better understanding of just how ridiculous the situation outside of the bossroom was before.

Right now however, it was time to fight again. Hiding behind a rock, I observed the bipedal almost human creature that was aimlessly moving around the passage. It’s eyes weren’t glowing red. Instead, they were a pale-yellow that was very eerie in appearance.

After being able to get a good look at the rest of his body in this darkness, I now knew that it was anything but human. It was hairless, and stood on two legs. But that’s where it’s comparisons to a human ended. It’s skin was pink. Not the pink hue that we often use to describe humans, but a genuine pastel pink with wrinkly skin, reminiscent of a naked mole rat.

Also, while it stood on two legs, its posture was awkward, unlike the more natural posture seen in humans or even the Minotaur. It was slightly slouched forward, the shape of its curved spine visible as it walked with a hunchbacked appearance. Its legs and arms were rather skinny, a great contrast to its rather wide torso. Its neck was thick and seemed to seamlessly blend into its head, which shape resembled a thumb. It had a crooked mouth with equally crooked teeth, and in the place where its nose should have been, two holes could be seen on its smooth face.

Hideous, that’s the only way to describe the creature in front of me, absolutely hideous. At least it was wearing some sort of rag to cover its nether regions. It didn’t look particularly impressive with its thin limbs, unlike the massive muscles that the Minotaur relied on for its mythical speed and strength. Instead its actions looked awkward and stupid, as it was currently moving with small steps while slouching forward, both of its hands on a simple wooden spear as it aimlessly wandered around.

I honestly doubted that whatever that thing was would pose too great of a challenge for me, and was simply trying to ascertain at the moment if he was alone. If he was, then I planned to charge at him and take him out quickly. After waiting for a solid minute in which the disgusting thing had stumbled towards my direction and was now only a few feet away, I stood up and quickly charged at it.

After seeing me charge, the naked-thumb let out a piercing scream before raising its spear in a rather pathetic attempt to block against my incoming strike. Despite its best attempts, which weren’t really all that impressive, I simply changed the direction of my strike to aim at his sides as I struck him and forced him to kneel. After this, I stared into his pale eyes before letting out a yell and driving the sword into his brain, ending its life rather quickly.

Seeing how easily I killed him, I was beginning to think that the difficulty of this dungeon was a lot easier than I thought… No wait, this dungeon isn’t easy at all, I’ve actually died a bunch of time. Yeah, I got to remember that all it takes is one mistake to end someone’s life. I’m definitely losing my sensibilities if I think not getting killed means everything is too easy. This isn’t a game me, it actually really fucking hurts to get hurt and killed. Come on, let’s clear this.

Getting my wits back together, I continued making my way through the dungeon corridor. However, as I made my way forward, I came across a sight that made my head hurt.

A large circular cave, with seven different passageways branching out from it. It was clear that monsters weren’t the only threats adventurers had to face, and that the confusing paths of dungeons also had to be taken into consideration. Unluckily for me, I had no map, and no pathfinding skills to aid me in this situation. Not only that, my shit luck was just going to make everything worse. And it’s not like I could rely on my previous logic of picking the other choice since there now were six other fucking options to chose from.

Releasing a large sigh, I began to spin in a circle as I tried to figure out what to do. Finally deciding upon a course of action. I went back to the passage I entered from, moved a few rocks to its entrance so that I could remember which one it was, and decided that I would simply have to check all the passages, starting from the first one to the right of where I entered.

However, before I could begin this long process, a strange running sound could be heard coming from one of the corridors behind me. Turning around, I looked into its direction before not too long after, another one of those naked-thumbs could be seen running in an awkward manner towards me. Once it entered the large open space, it let out a hallowing screech before attacking me. Once again, I quickly dispatched it as I dodged left and stuck out my foot to trip it before stabbing my shorsword to the back of its neck.

Thinking that this area might be filled with these rather disgusting fellows, I let out a sigh before turning back to the corridor I had planned to enter. However, I once again heard that strange running sound, only this time, from two different locations. Not too soon later, two of those naked-thumbs appeared as they once again let out their stupid screech before I was forced to engage two of them at the same time. Deciding to not let them sandwich me, I ran to the closest one to take it out quickly. This one managed to actually attack me, although its rather pathetic movements meant I was able to grab the spear and pull it in my direction, causing it to stumble forward and allowing me to strike at its neck, decapitating him in the process.

Then, turning around, I dodged the attack of the other one before driving my shortsword to where I hoped his heart was. Seeing him let out a strange sound before collapsing, I was able to infer that its inner organs had to be somewhat similar to those of humans.

Before I could even get a chance to rest however, a cacophony of steps could be heard from all directions, and thinking about the events that had just passed, I began to realize that I had most likely made a grave error.

Once again, I was reminded that all it took was a single mistake to end someone’s life. That’s why a dungeon couldn’t be taken lightly. It appeared that the screech of these hideous beings served to draw their kind towards the unfortunate location of an adventurer who didn’t know any better. And while one of them may not be much of a challenge, a large mob of them certainly would.

Returning to the corridor where I came from, I prepared to meet them in it, slowly moving back towards the tighter passage that should prevent me from being overrun by them. Another thing I did was put a reminder in my mind for when I survived this mess, that I had take out the stupid naked-thumbs before they could let out their screeches and attract a whole mob of them.

That last thought hadn’t even left my brain before the first wave of them made their appearance. Preparing myself, I let out a scream as I readied myself to deal with what could be, my greatest trial to the moment…