Elf Village, Lunar Floria, dungeon: first floor.

In this place where the light of day cannot reach, time passes in an abstract manner. Down here, when you are hungry, you eat, and when you are tired, you rest. There will not be the buzz of crickets or the gentle pale moonlight to accompany you to sleep. As for using a time-telling device can only work at the upper levels of a dungeon, as the rules of Axis Mundi becomes increasingly eroded when one dives deeper, nothing can be trusted.

The party of eleven adults and ten children chance upon a strange village where the warm glow of oil lamps seems to guide them over for a restful stay. Delicious waft of food and drinks accompanied by the sporadic burst of laughter and toasting made this place… all the most sinister.

They had not forgotten the strange poem that promised death for those who stay outdoors late. Most of all, to find a place of residence in the dungeon is unthinkable. However, before anyone could ask the leader of the group about what they should do next, the elf who is a Circle 8 Arcane Swordsman is already trembling with a pasty white face and cracked lips.

The questions that were bubbling in everyone’s hearts turned into a deep sense of dread, even though not many understood why.

The elf, however, quickly gathered his senses and jumped into action.

“There’s no time to explain, we must do as the voice said. Find a shelter that can shield us from the night. Remember, we need a place where we can close all windows and doors. Everything else is obsolete. Quickly go now or do you all want to die?”

At first the elves were all stunned motionless by their leader’s uproar. Afterall, this person is an esteemed head instructor of the Royal Elf Institution and a powerful warrior, but as he screamed at them to hurry up, everyone started flooding into the village. Even as they ran, they heard their leader shouting at them to get a place to stay no matter the cost, as though their lives depended on it.

The elf then turned to the only person who remained by his side and frowned.

“Kid,” the head instructor said to Kairos, “We need to get going too. Find a place that we can stay indoors, or the beasts will kill us.”

Kairos has a dozen questions, but he quickly decides on the most important ones.

“This place sounds like the middle floors. The poems we heard just now, is that the rules we are supposed to follow?”

The elf leader nodded as he went into the sinister-looking village with Kairos on his heels. On the way, the elf looked up at the fading light of day and frowned. Nightfall seems to be only an hour away. The dungeon that is obviously underground could somehow see the sun. Kairos had long noticed this but assumed it to be the trait of the “zones” that the elf mentioned.

Judging there to be enough time the head instructor explained, “Somehow, we are dragged into what is called a zone or as some outworlders call a ‘dungeon instance’. A place like this should only appear at the middle floors. I did not explain about instances since we were not headed there.”

“I know, which is why I have not left yet.”

Despite the urgency, Kairos knew that staying to ask questions is the most important thing to do right now. As for the students and the others, they are all aware of what to do in the middle floors. If they were not taught in school, they would have learned if only out of curiosity.

The elf continued, “You are the only person I know who would enter a dungeon without knowing a single thing. I assume you are an outworlder?”

“I’m more often called an otherworld traveller. And I’m here to kill fifty crawlers to get out of this place.”

“The middle floors are not something an amateur like you can handle. Alas, you have no choice now. Listen, you have to find out the rules of the zone to survive.”

The rules that people learn from growing up are things like fires are hot and it hurts when you fall. Many of them seem natural or just common sense but in fact they are things that infants or even small children are unaware of.

In the middle floors, each zone has their own set of rules which may or may not coincide with what the divers already know, and this lack of knowledge makes them as vulnerable as children.

“How are we to leave this village then?”

They checked the surroundings thoroughly before entering the village and no matter which direction they took; they can never find a way to depart. This is similar to the time-space stratagems that Kairos had used before against the Frosthral death warriors but at that time, even with the full cooperation of an army, they only managed to slow down their foes’ approach. Yet, this place could completely trap them with ease.

The elf shook his head, “I don’t know, but we must find a way and fast or all of us will die. Boy, there is no time to talk. We must find a shelter immediately.

With that said, the elf grabbed Kairos’ arm and casted a chantless spell. Magic circle shone on his skin, forming an intricate mana pattern.

“This is a magical textbook that will help you understand everything you need to know about Blue Magic. I know one thing. You must at least have Blue Magic or Aura Arts to survive the middle and lower floors. With it you will have a slight chance. Now we need to get going.”

Kairos does not know what Blue Magic is nor did he stop to ask more questions. He went to a house and knocked on the door while all around him are elves trying to do the same.

In this village, the houses and their doors are made of heavyset stones and bolted down like the villagers are fearful of break-ins. Soon a few residents answered the knocks.

There are a few hospitable villagers willing to put up the elves for the night, even allowing them to even bring a friend or two over. Some are greedier, requiring payment for staying the night.

The person who opened the door for Kairos is a burly middle-aged human woman who greeted him with a stink eye.

“I’m not interested in anything you’re selling,” she said and immediately wanted to close the door.

Kairos’ first reaction wasn’t about the door-to-door salesman who thought a backwater village will be a good idea but the relief that the person who answered the door seemed human. Little did he know that this happened throughout the village, but instead of relief, the elves who saw the villagers turned grim.

As a rule of the dungeons, anything that seem ordinary is the opposite. The creepy village, the fading light of day, and beasts that hunt in the dark are all dangerous, but they are nothing when compared to seeing regular villagers.

Still, the elves knew that if they do not get a shelter, it is certainly death that awaits them. Like their lives depended on it, and indeed it is, they haggled with the villagers to be put up for a night. Many of them, being young and thoughtless, went about it in an insistent and inconsiderate manner and soon received the irk of the houseowners.

It is not that the elf children talked that way without knowing the dangers, but they did not know any better and being students of the most prestigious elf institution did not help. If Kairos heard the way they spoke, he would have been hit with waves of nostalgia.

Over at his side, things are proceeding exceptionally well. Maybe it is because in his inexperience, he did not understand the peril of the seemingly ordinary in a dungeon, or because he grew up in a village himself. Kairos quickly struck a conversation with the woman.

“Oh, no ma’am, I have nothing to sell you. I seemed to have lost my way and need a place for the night. If you’ll put me up, I will certainly make it worth your hospitality!”

Having a stranger in her village at her doorstep – and at this hour – asking for a place to stay is cause wariness but the lure of curiosity stopped the lady from shutting her door in his face.

Seeing the woman hesitant, Kairos immediately reached into his pockets and pulled out some trinkets. There is a small gold coin, a couple of expensive mana gems, and a tiny sip bottle with his homemade brew. If these things do not work, he has other items to offer in his item storage box.

The woman took one look at the items and became visibly disappointed, even though her eyes did stay on the mana gems a tad longer. When she observed the sip bottle, she looked at the lad with a mystified expression.

Kairos caught the hint and immediately unstopped the bottle and gave the woman a whiff. Almost before bringing the container to her nose, the woman already smelled the scent of a beautiful field of flowers under a cheery sky. The look of greed and amazement overtook her face even as she reached out to take it from Kairos, but the lad quickly moved back.

“Ma’am I have some friends with me, can you put them up for the night too?”

The woman frowned. She did not like his bargaining, but she really wanted to try that precious liquid. Contemplating a little, she finally relented but limited it to only three people.

Kairos nodded and turned around to find the head instructor and soon spotted the man going about the village aimlessly. That elf, despite everyone else, stayed behind to teach Kairos about the dungeon instances and now is the time to repay him. When the head instructor heard that Kairos had a spot for him, he gave the lad a thankful look. It had not been as successful for him when he asked around. Although he was not thrown out like some of the elf children, the villagers rejected him without hesitation. Even when he offered things or used the lives of little children as a moral high ground, he was only met with dismissal. It was almost as if the villagers are heartless, but given that this is in the dungeon, the elf did not dare to make a racket.

However, when Kairos pulled him towards the middle-aged woman’s house, the elf stopped the lad.

“My students can have my spot. Their safety is my responsibility.”

Kairos shook his head, “If you died, then who will protect them?”

The elf gritted his teeth. He knows this is true but still refused. Kairos thought about it then finally gave in. He asked the elf to call everyone who had not found a place to gather, and soon almost everyone came. Counting the numbers only three people managed to get a place to stay and none of them children. With barely a quarter of an hour left before nightfall, needless to say most of them will die tonight.

Despite the children’s ridiculing of him before, Kairos generously aided them. He summoned the personal portal to his item box and from it took out dozens of little sip bottles as well as some mana gems and a few other things.

He wanted to hand them over to the elves, but a sharp voice stopped him. Lunaria scoffed with disgust, “Old man, why are you wasting our time? It took five minutes to gather us all, some of us would have found a place to stay already.”

As the last light of the day dimmed threateningly, the others lost their cool and chimed in. All kinds of insults and derogatory terms were shouted at Kairos, but the latter did not respond. Watching the minutes tick away, the head instructor decided to interrupt the commotion, “Waste any more time and we will all die.”

Kairos also did not bother to relent and added, “Do you really think that you will succeed in the next couple of minutes by yourselves? If any of you think so, you can leave now.”

With that said, he left the items on the floor and turned away. Kairos considers the favour he owes the head instructor had been fully paid, but at this time, the elf pleaded him to stay, “Lad, at least tell them what these things are for.”

Sighing, Kairos turned around and explained, “Try the mana gems first, then the bottle. It contains a brew I made. If that does not work, open one of the paper-wrapped sweet meats I smoked. You can also use one of the smaller bags that keep fine salt, sugar, and spices to exchange for help if you really need.”

Saying so, Kairos invited the head instructor to follow him back to the middle-aged woman’s place. The elf looked at his students and furrowed his brows. The veteran divers in the group did not hesitate to pick out their share from the item pile, nodded their thanks at Kairos, and left. Even the other instructors of the Royal Elf Institute quietly followed suit and chided the students, but even at this last moment there is someone who refused.

Lunaria Frowth Cecifia proudly stood by the side and watched the others with disgust then without taking a single item, she turned towards the nearest house. By now it will be sundown in ten minutes. It is hard to tell if the girl’s persistence is confidence or impudence, but the head instructor decided to stay a little longer to watch. After all, the girl’s parents are people he cannot deal with if he lost their daughter in the dungeon.

Kairos, noticing the elf’s delay, did not chase the man and stood by as well to watch. He too is curious if the girl’s stubbornness stemmed from any good reason. When Lunaria knocked on the door, it was a young boy who answered. Without any form of introduction or greetings, the elf girl summoned her item box portal and took out a bunch of mana gems – each of them fuller and more precious than the ones Kairos handed out.

“Let me stay for the night and these will all be yours.”

The boy looked at the gems and a dangerous glint flashed across his eyes as his lips curved into a smile, “I will more rather hear you being opened up outside my house.”

This frightening scene caused panic to rise in Lunaria uncontrollably. She will much rather try another house, but for some reason her pride and stubbornness refused to let her give up. The girl reached into her item box once again and took out juice packs and candies and offered the boy, but this time she is only answered with a smile. Time trickled down mercilessly, but the girl appeared to be paralysed. Something she saw in his eyes made her immobile.

On seeing so, the head instructor came up from behind her and dragged the girl away, “He is trying to waste your time. We got to go.”

Somehow or rather, Kairos found himself in the middle-aged woman’s attic with the head instructor and the obnoxious girl.

The trio looked out a tiny window at the village and saw that in the distance there are still elves running around trying to get a place to stay but only a few. Needless to say, the items that Kairos handed out had worked like a charm, but the rest were not selected. Whether it is because the nearby houses are filled up or the occupants wanted to see bloodshed, no one can tell but as the hour darkens, the middle-aged woman shouted for them to shut the windows and thereafter they cannot see anything outside of the house.

Not even a minute later, screams erupted throughout the place accompanied by the gnashing of teeth. Then, there was silence.