Mike slowly crept back towards the entrance to the tunnel, his muscles taught with the anticipation of a coming battle as his light slowly revealed every shadow. The knowledge that an unknown monster was between him and his escape was his every thought. But as he covered more and more ground without finding so much as a non-hobgoblin footprint, fear started to make its way into his thoughts. It had been a long time since he had felt actual fear–having become accustomed to the thought of dying on his first mission as a seal. It wasn’t his life that he worried about though, it was the village. He was their only real protector against anything stronger than the average adventurer, and he was afraid of the damage that a powerful enemy could do with every second he was in this cave and the monster

His thoughts were scattered enough that he didn’t realize his torch was going out until it was too late. Even with his high Dexterity, he couldn’t get his third torch out and lit in time. As the flames sputtered, darkness swallowed him. His training kicked in, and he regulated his breathing and rationalized his situations until his eyes began to adjust. Before long, he could see the small specks of blasting rock glowing purple in the walls, like stars on a nighttime canvas. Reaching out his hands, he blindly made his way to the nearest dots, his high stats making his footing sure even in the darkness.

After only a few steps, his hands made contact with the wall and he began following its curvatures back towards camp-he was more worried about getting turned about in the darkness than in being hurt by bumping into anything. His progress was the slowest it had ever been, his feet and hands cautiously searching out each step forward. Following the walls meant that his path now wound in and out of pockets rather than walking down the center of the aisle.

Even Tumble was ineffective as he fell into a space that was too small for him to maneuver, causing his shoulder to hit the ground hard. The sudden collapse of the wall had been a complete surprise for his leaning body, and he felt himself become wedged between two earthen walls. For all his strength, he was still unable to break free from the awkward position, one arm being trapped under his body and the other failing to find purchase in the crumbly dirt that surrounded him. His arms being ineffectual, he resorted to flailing his legs, which were still in the mine proper, as he fought to use them to obtain even the smallest amount of leverage.

It took the better part of a half hour, but eventually he was able to get himself out. As he eased his way back to his feet, he grabbed the pickaxe from his spatial storage bag. Despite having this bag for several months, being able to find exactly what he was looking for, even in the dark, brought him a large amount of satisfaction.

His excavation was slow going at first. He was able to widen the tunnel by feel alone since it was so narrow across. Over the course of the next couple of hours, he repeatedly wondered if it wouldn’t have been faster to leave the tunnel and light his torch, but he still had no idea how long it take to get out, and he had no idea where he was digging. It wasn’t like the mine was pristine, and it wasn’t inconceivable that he would lose his way.

The tunnel went back about 10 feet, and then veered sharply to the right. A faint glow coming from the floor below sped up the process of widening the walls, until eventually Mike stood on the lip of a square shaft that was about 4 feet to a side. A glowing light came up from the shaft, and as he peered downwards, a notification appeared in front of him.

[Congratulations! New Dungeon Found!

Dungeon Boss: #SRT%#STA

Dungeon Alignment: Hostile (killing dungeon spawn helps your advancement) ]

He had no idea what a dungeon was, other than a medieval prison, but apparently the boss was the beast he was looking for. Pausing briefly to make sure he had everything he would need with him, he braced his hands and feet on the sides of the vertical shaft and began to shimmy his way down.

…………………………………………………………………………………………

The shaft was much longer than he had initially thought, taxing his arms and legs even with his superhuman strength. When his arms got to the point that they were visibly shaking he locked his feet into place and took the pickax from his spatial storage bag, hoping to create some divots where he could rest properly, only to find that the walls had transitioned from dirt to stone as he shimmied down, thought he couldn’t say when that had happened.

The stone proved too thick to dig into properly, the pick ax throwing masses of small sparks, but failing to create any kind of major dent. Pausing he looked upwards, but the distance to the top was shrouded in darkness. Sighing in frustration, he continued to climb downwards.

At some point, the stone faded to metal, and Mike’s hands were soon covered in sweat from the highly conductive surface. Seeing that a fall was inevitable, he took two steel axes from his bag, and dropped down the shoot, posturing his body in such a way that he would be prepared to fight when he landed, then he activated Unflinching Meteor. He had been prepared to take this course of action all along, but not knowing what was below him, he had tried to make it to the bottom without announcing his presence.

The unforgiving metal floor met his immovable and invulnerable body, causing a loud noise to crack through the chamber he had entered. This was his first time landing on such a hard surface, and he was unprepared for his body to bounce as the ground beneath him snapped back with tensile strength, causing his rigid form to fall forward in a gravity defying pose. Hiis axes, held at head height in each hand, and the top of his forehead formed a tripod on which he balanced as he waited for movement to go back to his limbs. He knew regaining movement was going to cause him to sploosh spectacularly to the floor in only a few seconds, but was soon distracted by the metal floor beneath him. Was it some sort of oxidized copper, with its soft green hew? And yet it managed to reflect light like burnished brass. As his body slammed to the floor with another echoing thump, he found that the floor smelled like the molten steel from his arc welder.

Gaining his feet, he took stock of his current location: a huge cavern, a hundred yards across and spanning without end in front of him. Eyeing the walls around him, he was unable to find either crack or seem, making the cavern feel as if it was all made from one great sheet of metal. He proceeded forward, knowing that it would be impossibly hard to climb back up the shaft currently.

As the minutes ticked by without any change in scenery, his pace quickened from a cautious walk, to a slow jog that ate the ground behind him. Deciding he would never have such a perfect location to train Footsteps of the Wind again, he activated the skill and dashed forward, he speed seeming to continuously increase for the full ten seconds until without the need to dodge or anticipate obstacles in front of him, until his Dexterity dropped and he fell forward, sliding across the slick ground.

Once his Dexterity was restored, he continued jogging. After another 10 minutes, he was finally able to see the other side of the cavern. As he got closer, the flat ground changed to small rolling hills of 7-8 feet in height, although there was enough space between them that he was able to remain on flat ground. Turning around one hill, he stopped in his tracks. A miniature city stretched out in front of him, covering the hills and valleys in equal measure. There were building of various sizes and shapes, from small huts to large cathedrals that he could just make out in the distance.

Approaching the building nearest him, he was immediately shocked by the level of detail. The thatched roof seemed to be made of hair-sized strands of the same metal that made up the cavern. The windows were paned with sheets of metal so thin, he felt like he could see inside. Small cobblestones made a path that led from the front door to the main roadway on which he now stood. From the doorknobs to the rustic benches, everything was of a quality that left him in awe of the creator.

He wondered from one hillock to the next, examining each new dwelling with delight as he slowly advanced further into the cavern. Stepping over a waist high wall, he entered the next ring of the city. The space between buildings immediately decreased, even as the individual structures stood higher and with more adornments. Here, small metallic figures stood in the streets, frozen in the various tasks of daily life. While these buildings had as much detail as any of the buildings he had seen in real life, the statues were different. Their perfectly round heads had only slight indentations where their eyes should be and were devoid of mouths and nose. Their bodies were different in proportion to humans, the shoulders blocker, The hands and feet were just rough bulbous protrusions lacking in fingers and toes.

He was somewhat disappointed by the lack of attention that had been shown to the people when every single structure was a masterpiece in metal working. Was this some attempt on the part of the creator to emphasize the lack of human importance? Had they just had a passion for architecture and not physiology?

His thoughts were interrupted as a large structure caught his eyes, a large castle. As he approached, he realized that it dwarfed everything around it, standing around 12 feet high and on the largest hill in the area. Mike loved castles, the fascinating dichotomy between the different castes, the standards of honor and loyalty, and above all else, the pride that was given to creating new tools and weaponry.

The castle wall was 4 feet high, forcing him to use his enhanced strength to leap over it rather than disrupt the humanoid statues that stood guard upon it. The castle grounds put everything else he had seen thus far to shame. A sea of short metallic grass made up the gardens, with arching walkingways winding between them. A few large buildings stood to one side, which must be the stable and armories.

Approaching the castle entrance, a large body of statues stood at attention before a single metallic figure, who despite sharing the very vague features as all of its kin, wore an ornate crown on its head that burned with an amber light.

Mike approached the figure, squatting down to better look at it even as he used the System to analyze it, maybe he could find out more about the creator. As soon the explanatory window appeared in front of him, a flash of movement caught his eye, the king’s arm, which had been holding the aloft his sword came down, and the thousands of small figures rushed him in eerie silence.