It seems that I’ll have to pretend that I’m going to help her clear the first stage. Even though I have a better plan.

But looking at her now I feel weird. Like I’m not looking truly at her. What’s going on?

“I’m going to throw you over the wall. Is that alright with you?” NO!

Are you crazy? Just let me climb on you and you climb over the damn wall.

I shook my head and climbed onto her shoulders.

Now go!

“…Alright then.” What’s with that tone? You don’t like it? You think I don’t know what you’re doing? You’re trying to harm little me so you can use your damn demons to do something bad to me! I may be a failure but I still did study a lot! I know a lot about strategies.

Now climb. I nodded my head indicating that she can start climbing.

…

…

That was slow as fuck. You’re the worst climber I ever saw. Who needs 5 fucking minutes to over that damn wall!?

Still…good job. Let’s see what’s over here on this side of the wall. I want to know where the water comes from.

“Where are you going?” Find the source of the green water. Oh yeah…she can’t understand me. If only I could speak…

Just follow me. I moved my head a bit and tried to tell her that she should just follow me.

It seems that she managed to understand my meaning.

The other side of the wall is still a bit weird. The water is somehow being pulled up to the ceiling and the walls are all slippery and wet. The pictures on the walls are also more preserved, now I can see what each of them represent clearly.

The first ones have a bear painted on them, a cub to be precise, it was black in color with white runic patterns on its fur. I think it looks awesome and mysterious as well. The pictures after that seemed to represent the bear’s life. How it had hunted, its battles and its friends.

The pictures of the bear ended and new pictures appeared after we went deeper into the labyrinth. The pictures were of a weird reptile like being with horns. It stood on four legs and had dark brownish red scales and black eyes that had a weird keen light in them that could be seen even in the pictures. I was scared stiff! How menacing would the real thing then look like?

I continued to observe the pictures. The reptile like being grew more and more, on one picture it was fighting against short looking humans with beards. With my little knowledge of games I deduced that those humans were actually dwarves. They wielded axes and giant hammers that were out of proportion with their small bodies.

The reptile like being seemed to have been in a battle with the dwarves. The next picture showed the reptile like being without a horn and an eye. But it didn’t show any dwarves. It seems that the reptile like being won with some casualties. The being used its body to dig out a cave and ordered its subordinates to make a labyrinth on top of the cave.

Looking at this it seems that the reptile like being is the Earth Dragon that died in this dungeon.

As we went even deeper we saw something that shocked me. I guessed that the girl also observed the pictures up until now.

The bear from the first picture was displayed here together with the reptile like being from before. They seemed to have been protecting something. The picture was damaged by someone or something. The only thing that I could notice are those devilish bone wings behind the bear and reptile like being.

I was shocked stiff. What is this? It has such an aura.

I looked at the girl and was even more shocked. She had almost no life in her eyes, her legs were shivering and she seemed to have been on the verge of collapsing.

What is going on? I tried to wake the girl up but she didn’t react.

I then heard a familiar *ding* sound and an unfamiliar black screen appeared in front of me.

[ Corruption shall rule this world. Listen and obey my fellow servant, the queen has spoken. This is a fate painted in blood.]

[Obtained the skill [Appraisal Lv.1] for understanding the basic history of the dungeon ]

[Obtained 10 skill points.]

[Obtained the title [Messenger of Corruption]]

[Messenger of Corruption – One that shall serve the queen of corruption and disease in conquering the mortal world. Skill [Corruption Magic Lv.1] is given to anyone who has the title.]

[Obtained the skill [Demon Language]]

…

What the hell!? What’s going on...?

I became a what? What’s with this dumb childish name? What’s next? I will become the king of corruption? Like hell will I!

It’s enough that I became a rat and now this? Just imagine it. A rat ruling over thousands of dragons and strong demons! Actually now that I think about it I really want to see that scene now.

But…who is the queen of corruption? The one with bone wings? That means that I am in the tomb of her subordinate.

Right, has the girl woken up? She has. She’s staring at me like she saw a ghost. A rat ghost! Is she alright?

“You…do you know what these pictures represent?” She asked me with that weird technique.

I shook my head. Who knows what she would do to me.

“Good…It’s better if you don’t know. Let me give you a warning though. Anyone who can understand these pictures are the enemies of the whole Underworld and Central Continent.”

What is the Central Continent? I still nodded my head indicating that I understood and continued to go deeper into the labyrinth. Towards the core and center of the labyrinth.

“Listen. There’s something I need to tell you. When we get to the core. Don’t do anything and just stay behind me. I will speak with the boss first.”

Speak with the boss? The boss is 100% a demon, so how can she speak with him? With the technique that she’s using right now to speak to me? No way will that work. The boss will attack on sight.

I’ll let her do as she pleases. Not like it can hurt me. I want to test something before we get to the boss.

Appraisal!

[Race:Elf] [Profession: 3-star Beast Tamer, Soul Magician, Illusionist]

It works! It shows less than my status screen but that’s enough. What’s a profession though? A job? Weird…

Can I level [Appraisal]? Let me see…

I need 1 skill point to level it up to level 2. Alright, I’ll do it.

[Appraisal Lv.1] became [Appraisal Lv.2]

Let me try it again now.

Appraisal!

[Name: Sena] [Race: Dark Elf] [Profession: 3-star Beast Tamer, Soul Magician, Illusionist] [Title: None]

It is like my status screen right now. Let me level it once more. Now I need 2 skill points.

[Appraisal Lv.2] became [Appraisal Lv.3]

It should display more information now.

[Name: Sena] [Race: Dark Elf] [Profession: 3-star Beast Tamer, Soul Magician, Illusionist] [Title: None]

Mental Status : Frightened

Strength: 10

Agility: 34

Lifespan:25

Vitality:10

Intelligence:52

Wisdom:13

Stats…a lot of them. It seems that I won’t need to level the [Appraisal] skill anymore.

Now…let me appraise myself.

[Name: Xiao Lan] [Race: Aquafang Rat(variation)] [Level:15] [Title: Dungeon Explorer(main),Rat of Mischief(secondary)]

HP: 220/220

MP: 84/84

Mental Status : Excited

Strength: 25

Agility: 25

Lifespan: 45

Vitality: 110

Intelligence:42

Wisdom:14

What’s with my abnormally huge Vitality stat? Do all rats have this kind of abnormal stat? On the other hand my wisdom stat is somehow weird. How does this even grow? Do I need to train or something?

Well…now that I have stats I know what I should do.

Let me see the Corruption magic I got now.

[Corruption Magic Lv.1 – you possess the power of corruption. Control it and cover the world with the veil of corruption.

Available Magic: Lv1 [Tainted Touch]]

So…how does this work? It uses mana right?

Let me try it.

[Tainted Touch]!

!!

Fuck…it hurts.

What’s going on?

My HP, now, display it!

HP: 100/220

…I lost 120 HP! How!? Why?

Corruption magic you are an asshole. Appraisal-san is a god though. Thank you Appraisal-san.

I should just act like nothing happened.

“Did you hear something?”

I shook my head.

“Alright…” She looked at me weirdly and continued to go deeper.

After an hour or so we managed to find the center of the first stage. Finally…I would’ve really like to be happy but there’s something I didn’t expect to see here.

A fountain. The fountain looked ancient and archaic in every sense. But there was no boss around here.

I looked around and tried using appraisal on the fountain.

[Appraisal didn’t work.]

Why? I don’t know but I can tell that this is not an ordinary fountain.

“What’s this? A fountain? Great! I was getting thirsty after all this walking…” Are you fucking retarded girl? This is clearly a trap! You little bitch of a dark elf!

No! No! Don’t you dare go near that fountain. And you touched it. Great. Now what?

Lights…my night vision stopped working. The burst of light blinded me.

“Who dares to wake me up from my slumber? I’m Silver, the keeper of the Labyrinth of Truths!”

I heard a voice and then I heard something that the girl shouldn’t have said.

“Silver? No wonder your shooting skills are so damn bad! You missed me by at least 2 meters!” What has gotten into your head girl? Are you crazy?

I finally managed to see what is going on. The girl was standing in front of me bad-mouthing a 3 meter tall giant with white skin and a horn.

Did she go crazy from the water right now?

“Y-you dare! I shall kill you right now!”

…You know. Now that I think about it I had enough of the girl anyways so you can kill her.

“HAHA! With what? Your shooting ski—“Die!!”..”

I heard the girl’s voice stop in the middle of her little speech and heard an ancient voice that seemed to come from the depths of hell.

I closed my eyes for a moment and noticed that I was in some kind of liquid. I opened my eyes and saw blood and brain matter splattered all over me. I wasn’t scared though.

“You…what are you doing here? Who told you that you can enter the labyrinth?”

The voice was directed at me?

“ I….I don’t know.” I tried talking for the first time in my new body. For some reason I could understand everything I wanted to say.

“You are?” The giant looked at me.

“I am an Aquafang Rat.”

“Aquafang? I didn’t see that one in a long while. Tell me…how is your race doing right now?”

Why would he be asking me about my race? I am a loner. I was taken to this world alone. There’s no one with me.

“My race?” I asked.

“Yes…the rat demons from the Eastern Chaotic Ocean. How are they doing? Is that old man Blue still alive?”

This guy has connections to the rat demons? Lucky!

“Sir…I’m nothing more than an orphan. I don’t know a lot about my race.” I lied. I hope he doesn’t see through my lie.

“Orphan? What kind of parent leaves their child in the area of the great Tombs? Tell me. From which entrance did you enter?”

Great Tombs? Chaotic Ocean…? Too much damn information you giant.

“I entered from an entrance in a forest.” I still answered.

“You were on the Central Continent!?” The giant was shocked for some reason.

“Y-Yes…” My stuttered a bit and answered.

“It seems that your parents were not normal commoners in the rat demon kingdom. Let me guess. You want to go outside of this dungeon? Am I right?”

“Yes!” You’re still pretty smart for a giant.

“Haha! You’re not the first one that accidentally entered the dungeon. Let me tell you something. You can’t leave the tombs if you are a normal demon. Only servants of the queen can enter and leave freely.”

Servants of the queen? You know nothing giant! I am a servant already!

That means that I just need to leave the dungeon normally…wait… I didn’t mark my path or anything. How should I find the way out?

“Hmm? It seems that we have company little rat.”

Company? Who?