There was a bunch of heavy breathing echoing in the darkness. The entire group was fine except for some bruises here and there, but they were out of breath. Jason though wasn’t out of breath; he was panting because of what he just saw.

A level twenty-eight. If it was alone and I killed it then I probably could’ve broken through then and there. Just ate its heart and moved on. If I don’t find anything in the dungeon which I can breakthrough with then I am definitely going to try and kill that damn thing.

“Alright, Selene since I don’t think we’re in the dungeon proper you want to plan now,” Jason asked as he got up and tried to peer around in the darkness. Suddenly a flame lit up as Caleb used one of his arrows as a makeshift torch. Looking at the walls there was row after row of torches. Wanting to get some light Caleb reached up and lit a torch.

“NOO!” Selene yelled right as the torch lit up. Caleb and Jason looked at her in confusion. “That… was the starting mechanism.” She brought out a book titled Introduction into Dungeons. “Some dungeons have starting mechanics and a pretty common one is lighting the dungeon up.” As she spoke all the torches lit up.

Dungeon Discovered

Congrats on being the first to discover this particular dungeon. This gives you the right to name it. Would you like to name it now (Y / N)?

Any experience earned in this dungeon will be increased by 25% for your party for the next three days.

“So do we want to name it now or later?” Jason asked the most pertinent question he could think of. Looking back at the entrance it was now covered in a black shell preventing anything from getting out or in.

“Later… let’s name it later.” Selene sounded defeated as she got up and started inspecting the surrounding walls and floor.

They looked to be basic sandstone walls and a basic sandstone floor. Up ahead there was a spiral staircase leading downward that Jason couldn’t see the end of. Mostly because it was spiral. On the ceiling, there was a symbol repeated over and over again. It looked like a Taurus sign that held an eye in the middle of its two horns. Not like a round eyeball, but more of the football shaped eye that was reminiscent of the visible parts of the eye when it’s in the eye socket.

“We should probably head down right. From what I know we have to find the densest part of the dungeon right.” Caleb nodded at that. Probably not talking out of embarrassment. Poor man. Selene also nodded and so with both of their agreements Jason started down the staircase.

At the bottom of the staircase which wasn’t that long at all was an open room with three more exits leading into hallways. Each corner of the room had a stone statue. Each statue was wearing full metal plate armour and had a glaive in their hands. The chest piece of their armour was emblazoned by the Taurus-eye symbol that had been on the roof in the hallway.

The room itself was mainly bare. There were the remains of a rug in the middle of the room and at the far edge of the room there was an altar with not a statue on it, but that same symbol.

“So this was what a prayer room?” Jason asked as he inspected the statues. Selene on the other hand was inspecting the symbol on the altar. Caleb was keeping watch for anything that would come out of the hallways. One thing that they were all in agreement over was that being in a dungeon required extreme caution.

Selene used her hand to brush away some of the dust on the altar so she could inspect the symbol better. That proved to be a grave mistake. The statue's eyes immediately lit up with the two on the right having red eyes and the two on the left having bright white eyes. Stepping from their pedestals the guards advanced on Selene.

All but one guard at least. The guard which Jason had been standing in front of barely got to move before its glaive was taken away and thrown across the room. Without the glaive, the guard couldn’t really put up a fight as it was overtaken by Jason.

Level 24 Living Statue

It was only after they had been activated did Jason’s passive skill pick up on them having levels. The guard Jason was wrestling with threw a knee to Jason’s stomach and although going through two separate layers of defense it still managed to send his stomach in a frenzy. Resisting the urge to throw up Jason rolled and made sure the statue was in between him and Selene.

Selene between the time the statues had activated and Jason had rolled his opponent between him and Selene had already half taken down a statue. They were made of stone so they weren’t vulnerable to the full effects of the poison, but the corrosive damage could still help. Typically her poison spears and spheres also traveled through the bloodstream to end the creature's life quicker, but for these opponents who didn’t have blood all the poison abilities could really do was slowly corrode the stone.

Caleb was also trying to help although he had arrows which were not the best for this type of enemy. He used his corrosive arrows tandem with Selene’s poison spear and they together managed to take an arm off of a stone guard. Thankfully the guards were slow or else the three would’ve died in an instant.

Jason was at first going to have Selene kill the guard but seeing that her and Caleb were actually having trouble killing the others stopped him. Little Cub on the other hand was completely free.

“Little Cub over here!” Jason yelled at the top of his lungs. He had no clue where Little Cub even was so he just tried to keep the enemy where they were. Although even that was difficult as the stone statue could easily throw Jason around if it got to use of all its limbs to attack. Jason was mainly just trying to prevent it from using its legs and right arm. He couldn’t even try to fight the statue or it would just throw him around.

Little Cub had apparently heard him as the coyote slammed into the side of the statue. That had to hurt. The statue tilted a bit and Jason took the opportunity to send his fist careening towards the statue’s face. On contact the statue had its head knocked back. Taking advantage of this opportunity Jason sent another fist toward its face. Then another and another.

The statue tried to fight back but only a third of its punches or kicks even hit Jason. Jason wasn’t focused on defense in the slightly just full offensive, but the reason that the punches and kicks weren’t hitting Jason was simply that at random times the other fight would affect their own personal fight. A ricocheted piece of stone would slam into the statue that Jason was fighting which forced its punch to waver and miss Jason slightly. Caleb or Selene would miss a statue they were fighting but end up hitting Jason’s statue. Coincidences of pure luck would occur making it so that Jason was actually winning a fistfight with an enemy he had no right to beat.

The fight occurred for a long time. It took Selene and Caleb a lot of running, shooting, and drinking mana potions before they destroyed their opponents. Jason and his opponent were still duking it out in the background when they were done. The statue was on its last leg, literally, it had one leg left, and only had use of one arm. Jason had multiple broken bones and was panting with blood all over his mouth. He had a heart still in his mouth that he was chewing even now.

“Cmmm Ohh.” Jason yelled at the statue. His mouth was still full of heart so he couldn’t be understood all that well. Selene and Caleb started firing their projectiles at the statue's last leg. Once they had destroyed its leg they destroyed its arms. Then leaving it for Jason to smash to bits the two of them collapsed onto the ground another round of panting starting. After Jason finished off his enemy he too walked over and sat down near them.

“They had all their points in endurance and fortitude I swear. Like literally all their points. No regeneration stat at all. Just health and defense.” Caleb nodded at Jason’s analysis of the statues. “Also. There are traps. That brings back old times. I will say this. Don’t touch anything. Also always inspect everything if you have to touch it. The last thing… let me do the touching. I have the highest luck stat. So… I got this.” After uttering those famous last words Jason brought out another heart and ate it without care for the blood splashing all over his mouth. After bringing out his water skin and cleaning his mouth Jason waited for the other two.

“Come on guys. We still got exploring to do.” Jason prodded the two along with words. Not that they appreciated it. When they were all up and ready to go Jason once more led the way. “Maybe we’ll get to fight something that won’t be made of stone ya know. Then we could actually do something.” Jason gave the two his most encouraging words before turning around and inspecting everything with a keen eye. Looking for traps and monsters. The entire action of it made Jason remember his times in the caves

“Oh ya. Good times,” he mumbled under his breath.