“Why are you running?” Penrin asked as she caught up with me.
“Because there was a slime back there! If we stayed, we would have all faced certain doom.” When I was sure that I was far enough away from the blue jelly monster, I stopped. Newmill was out of breath from the physical exertion, but Penrin was none the worse. “Anyway, shall we go report the completion of the mission to the guild?”
“You mean shall we go and commit fraud?”
“Oh, pish posh. You see fraud, I see a reward.” I waited for Newmill to recover and then commenced the journey home. There was only one problem; I was lost again. “Do either of you two know the way back?”
“Of course we do,” said Penrin. “Only an idiot would go adventuring without a map and a compass.” Both Penrin and Newmill pulled out their navigation tools and pointed out the direction we needed to travel.
This wouldn’t do. I couldn’t have Penrin and Newmill lowering their opinion of me even further. I didn’t want to be the dumbest in the group, especially at my age. “I have a compass too!” I pulled out the Wall Compass. “This one doesn’t even need a map. It will just point to the nearest wall. The city walls should be the closest, so it’s currently pointing towards home.” As I showed the compass to the others, I realised it was pointing in a completely different direction than they had pointed to.
“Are you sure about that?” Newmill chuckled.
I gave the Wall Compass several hard bashes. “The damn thing must be broken!”
While Newmill laughed, Penrin was serious. Her eyes scanned over her map. “There should be nothing in this area. Are you certain that thing points to the nearest wall?” she said. Her eyes had a strong glint of purpose.
“Yes, I think so. I haven’t really tested it out but that’s what the System says it does.”
“Amazing. That’s an incredible item!” The girl looked at the compass as if it was a sacred treasure. “How did you acquire it?”
I was quite taken aback by Penrin’s excitement. Was this item really that amazing? “I traded for it. I gave someone my Boots of Minor Lesser Speed in exchange for the compass.” It seemed a fair trade to me.
“How the heck did you manage to do that? You exchanged some crappy boots of speed for this? You surely have a silver tongue. To be able to swindle someone out of an item like this, you must be smarter than I thought, Yarm.”
Was there anything more delicious in this world than undeserved praise? “Yeah, I suppose I am pretty amazing. It didn’t even take any effort on my part.”
Newmill lifted his hand to interrupt. “I don’t quite understand. Why is this item so incredible?”
I scoffed. “Oh, come on, prince. You don’t know?” I patted him on the head, patronisingly. “Penrin will explain it to you.” And at the same time, she would be explaining it to me.
“If this compass points to the nearest wall, and it isn’t pointing towards the city, then that must mean there’s something else nearby. There’s nothing on the map that I have, so it must be pointing to undiscovered ruins or a hidden dungeon. An item that is capable of finding those places is incredibly valuable. You could sell it for tens of thousands of GP.”
My eyes spun like reels and turned into gold coins. “That much?”
“Shall we see where its pointing to?” Newmill’s curiosity was piqued. His foot tapped excitedly on the forest floor.
“Sounds like a plan.” I held the compass and walked 20 steps in the direction it pointed. The compass then spun around in the direction from where we came. So I started to walk backwards, but then the compass spun around again. “Oh no! It really is broken! Do you think we could still sell it by pretending like it works?”
Penrin ignored me. Instead, she was focused on our surroundings. She poked nearby trees. “Not here.” She inspected the overhead canopy for clues.
“Ah, you think we’re close?” I asked. I followed the compass until I found the exact point at which it would change direction. At this point, even a centimetre of movement would cause it to change direction, so I knew I was at the location it was pointing to. There was nothing above me or beneath my feet.
If there was a wall here, it had to be below, I thought. I got a large stick from nearby and dug at the ground. I repeatedly sticked the stick into the ground, but when I sticked the stick, it got stuck. There was something wooden under there, and it wasn’t my stick.
“Help me out here, guys.” The three of us unearthed a large wooden trapdoor. It was completely covered in dirt. At one end of it, there was a metal handle. I pulled it open to reveal a stone staircase underneath.
[New Location Discovered - Eastern Forest Hidden Dungeon]
[First Find Discovery Bonus: -1724 XP]
[+1 Level Up]
[+1 Level Up]
[For discovering an uncharted location for the first time, you have earned the Explorer title.]
“Woah.” Me and my comrades were the first to find this place? It was a strange feeling knowing that I had uncovered an area that no one else in the world had seen. “Hold on a second, if we are the first people to find this place, who built it?”
Penrin and Newmill were both too engrossed in their System’s to hear my question. Typical children, always on their Systems.
I repeated my question.
Penrin responded, “No one builds dungeons. They appear. Stop asking such mundane questions and be more amazed at this discovery! The Explorer title is so hard to get these days. I can’t believe I have it now.”
Newmill looked dizzy. “I’ve levelled up so much in just this one day. This is incredible.”
I was surprised at the progress we were making too. “If you two are done gawking at your screens, shall we enter and explore the inside?”
“No way!” both of them shouted in unison.
“A dungeon is a dangerous place! We don’t know what kind of horrors are lurking below,” said Newmill.
“The prince is right. We have no idea what threats there are inside. We need to report it to the guild so they can send a scout here to assess the difficulty. I guarantee you, we won’t be able to conquer it alone!” explained Penrin.
I looked above the dungeon entrance.
[Eastern Forest Hidden Dungeon]
[Recommended Level: 1]
“Uhm, guys. I think we’ll be alright,” I said as I stepped down the stairwell. Moss covered the cracked stone walls. Dim light-runes were etched into the floor. The stairs were uneven, so it was harder than normal for me to keep my balance.
When I reached the bottom, I saw a wooden door blocking the way. The doorknob had a keyhole for me to pick. It took no effort at all for me to unlock it. When I opened the door, it fell backwards. I realised it had no hinges, and so was not attached to anything. I could’ve just pushed it down from the very start.
“Yarm, are you sure about this? Dungeons are usually filled with traps and enemies,” Newmill said as he cowered behind Penrin.
“Enemies? Like monsters?” I asked.
“No,” Penrin clarified, “the enemies inside here are created by the dungeon itself; similar to a ghost possessing objects.”
“Then we’ll be fighting haunted furniture?”
“No. More like animated skeletons or phantom armour charging at you with weapons.” When those words left Penrin’s mouth, we all heard a scraping sound. It occurred once in the distance, and then another time a little closer. The distance between the sound and us was shrinking.
“I think we should leave now,” said Newmill.
The source of the scraping came into view. It was a footstool. The footstool slid across the stone ground, bit by bit. It was coming straight for me, very slowly. After waiting a minute, it finally reached me. With one weak movement, it nudged me.
“Ok, you were right. It’s haunted furniture,” Penrin admitted.
“Don’t underestimate it. Maybe its just pretending to be weak,” said Newmill.
The footstool didn’t have a level or any other information above its head. Going by Penrin’s explanation, the footstool was part of the dungeon, so it would probably be level 1. I shoved the footstool aside and continued exploring.
There were several rooms connected together containing decrepit haunted furniture. When travelling between the rooms, I stepped on a tripwire. It activated a trap and the floor opened in front of me to reveal a pitfall. I couldn’t prevent myself from plunging into it.
“No! Yarm!” Newmill cried out and tried to catch me.
The trap was filled with stinging nettles. My whole body made contact with them. “Ow, ow, ow!” A burning rash quickly formed on my skin. It was itchy and painful, but it could have been worse. At least the pit wasn’t filled with deadly spikes.
[-2 HP]
I thanked the System for its notice.
“Are you ok, Yarm?” Newmill asked.
“I’m fine.” I got out of the pit and took some nettles with me. They were technically classified as herbs, right? That meant they could be used in the tranquiliser recipe I had.
We carried on with our exploration until we reached the final room. Inside there was one singular enemy.
“It’s the boss,” said Penrin.
“You work for this guy?” I asked.
In the middle of the room was a training dummy. It was a sack filled with straw and tied with rope to resemble a human. It stood upright and moved.
“We’ll have to defeat this thing to clear the dungeon,” explained Penrin. “Shall we discuss our battle strategy?”
“Fireball!” The dummy was incinerated.
[Dungeon Cleared]
While my head was turned away, Newmill shot out a ball of fire and defeated the dummy in one hit.
“Okay…” Penrin and I said simultaneously, drawing out the ‘a’.
“Sorry, was that too anticlimactic?” Newmill wondered.
“I thought you were out of mana?” I spoke in an accusatory tone.
Newmill held his thumb into the air. He had a blue ring on it. “This is an MP regen ring.”
“I’ll let you off then.” Were thumb rings still in fashion within this world?
[Choose what to do with the dungeon.]
[Claim] [Revert] [Destroy]
“What’s this?” The System gave me a choice that I had no understanding of. “Are you guys seeing this?”
“No.” Penrin walked over to examine the remains of the dummy. “You set your System to camouflage mode, remember?”
“Oh, right.”
“But I know what you’re seeing. I’ve read up on it.”
I clicked the buttons in front of me for an explanation.
[Claim: Take ownership of the dungeon.]
[Revert: Return the dungeon to its original state.]
[Destroy: Demolish the dungeon for rewards.]
“I still don’t understand…” I said. “And why am I the only one seeing this?”
“You are the party leader,” Penrin said. “There are three things that one can do after clearing a dungeon. First, you can claim it as your property. This ownership is recognised by both the System and the King.”
“The King as well? Why would he allow it? Isn’t this technically his land? Why would he give it away?”
“The King wishes to incentivise clearing dungeons, so he allows adventurers to own them. If left unchecked, dungeons can be quite harmful to the area they inhabit.”
“That makes sense.”
“Second, you can revert the dungeon. This is by far the best and most commonly chosen option. In a certain amount of time, the dungeon will revert back to the state we found it in. If we sell the location of this dungeon to the guild, we will be rewarded handsomely. Known dungeons become spots for adventurers to farm XP in. A dungeon this close to the King’s city would usually bring in a pretty penny. Unfortunately, the dungeon is too low-level for any real money to be awarded.”
“Aww.”
“Still, I’d estimate you would get at least 20,000.”
“Yay!”
“The third option is to destroy it. The dungeon will disappear and you will be granted rewards by the System. The value of the rewards depends on the difficulty of the dungeon. I doubt you’d get anything good for a dungeon like this.”
“Seems like my best bet is to press Revert. The money is hard to refuse. The other two options don’t really benefit me.”
Newmill disagreed. With a sympathetic expression, he said, “I think you should claim it.”
“Why?”
“Do you remember your mimic friend?”
“How could I forget?”
“What do you think will happen if you leave it alone?”
“It’ll eat grass and form plaque on its teeth.”
“That is not what I was trying to get at. Monsters don’t survive for long in the Human Kingdom. When an adventurer or soldier finds the mimic, they’ll kill it.”
I hadn’t considered that possibility. It did make sense. This forest was very close to the city, so there was no doubt that monsters wouldn’t last long here. That goblin village did not even last a day before being wiped out. “What are you proposing, Newmill?”
“You should claim the dungeon and let the mimic shelter itself here.”
I did want to keep my friend safe, but I didn’t know if this was the best way to go about it. “What is there to stop a random person from just walking in?”
“This would legally become your property, so only a criminal would do that. Also, any intruders will receive a message on their System telling them they are trespassing.”
“I see.” This place was very hidden too. It would take a great deal of effort to find it. “Alright, you’ve convinced me. I’ll claim the dungeon.” I pressed the Claim button.
[Dungeon Claimed]
I expected many different popups to occur, but no, that did not happen. A new flashing menu appeared on my sidebar. I navigated to the tab.
[Property (1)]
[Eastern Forest Hidden Dungeon]
That was cool, I supposed. It didn’t really tell me anything, though. I clicked on the property.
[Residents (0)]
I wondered if I could add the mimic to this list of residents?
[Invitation sent.]
It looked like I could.
[Mimic has accepted your invitation to become a resident of the Eastern Forest Hidden Dungeon.]
That was fast. I wondered how I would give the mimic directions to this place. It couldn’t see my hand gestures, and it couldn’t understand my words. Maybe I could get Penrin to princess-carry it over.
“After making this dungeon your property, are you going to live in it?” asked Newmill.
“Ew, no way. It has no showers, no toilets, no heating. The furniture is shabby, the walls are covered in moss, and the lights are too dim. Why would I want to live here?”
“You can fix it up,” he suggested.
“With what money?”
“Good point.”
The three of us readied ourselves to leave but before we could, we heard footsteps. We all turned silent and waited. The footsteps resounded through the dungeon. “Where, oh, where has my little pet scurried off to?” The voice was distinctly feminine, and it was a voice that sounded familiar to me.
A tall woman with purple skin came into view. Along with her footsteps was the sound of sloshing water. “Not in here either. Just a bunch of kids.” The woman sighed. “Have you three seen a giant rat nearby?” The half-demon absentmindedly filed her horns as a human would do with their fingernails.
“Yeah, we defeated it,” I said.
She stopped filing. “You what?” She was obviously angered by my confession. “Why would you kill my dear pet?” The woman created dark fire in her hand. “I put so much work into augmenting it, and now you’ve gone and killed it.”
“Wait! We didn’t kill it. I used a skill to send it back to the Demon Kingdom.” I was sure the woman was seconds away from setting all our souls on fire.
The woman looked at me suspiciously. She had no reason to believe my words. “Wait, don’t I know you?” Her eyes opened wide and stared at me. “You should be dead. I’m sure I set your soul on fire.”
“You did, but I got better.”
She glanced upwards in confusion. “That’s not how that works.” The woman stepped a little closer. “You teleported my pet away, is that right? I remember you also took pity on a goblin, previously.” The woman crouched down to my level. “What is your game, little one?”
We were staring at each other, eye to eye. With complete honesty, I said, “I want to end the bloodshed between monsters and humans. I want there to be peace between the two.”
The half-demon laughed in my face. “What a childish ambition. You wish to bring an end to this millennia-old war? Do you really think you’re capable of that?” She wiped away a tear of laughter.
My ears heated up. “Deep in my heart, I know that it’s impossible, but why should I let that stop me?”
After her chuckling died down, she said, “You truly are fascinating. It is such a shame that I must kill you and your friends.”
Dread filled me. This woman would not carelessly allow me to live a second time. This time, she would make sure I was dead. I had no idea what to say. There was nothing I could think of that would convince her to spare me. I begged the Charmer title to activate and save me.
The half-demon did not rely on her flames. She conjured a large scythe out of air. Dark purple and black particles converged into a weapon. I could tell she was going to kill all three of us with one swoop. I looked at Penrin and Newmill. They were both petrified with fear, as was I.
Then a wooden chest came tumbling down and into the room. It rolled directly towards the woman who jumped out of the way. The chest then sprang open. It was my mimic friend. It stood between me and the woman. Its maw was wide open, and it growled at the half-demon. I had never seen it acting aggressively before.
“How peculiar.” The woman’s smile grew wider. “A human has befriended a monster to this degree?”
I pulled the mimic closer to myself. “She only wants to kill humans,” I whispered. “Don’t risk your life over this. There’s no need for you to die as well.”
The mimic couldn’t understand me. It continued to snarl at the horned woman. “Maybe your ambition isn’t so childish after all.” The woman was addressing me. “Want to make a deal? I’ll let you live if—”
“Deal! I accept,” I said promptly.
“You haven’t even heard the deal yet…”
“Sorry, go on. I just really want to live is all.”
“I understand. This dungeon is yours, is it not? I want you to provide sanctuary to this monster while I augment it.”
“I don’t know what that means, but deal.”
“Good. I’m glad of your eagerness. Invite me to your party and then you can be on your way.”
“You need to be in my party?” I asked.
“Well, I need to be in the same party as this mimic, but I don’t think it will accept my invitation, so I shall use you as my proxy.”
“That’s fine with me. There’s only one problem. I don’t know how to invite people to my party.”
The half-demon looked at me as if I was stupid. The number of people in this world who thought of me as an idiot just kept growing.
[Erith has requested to join your party.]
I accepted with great haste.
[Charmer Quest Completed: Add a half-human or half-monster to your party.]
[Reward: +4 Level-Up Slot Tokens]
Well, that was a pleasant surprise. I had completely forgotten about that quest while fearing for my life.
“By the way, thank you for the water balloon advice.” The half-demon jiggled her oversized breasts. “With that, I bid you all farewell.” She left.
Penrin collapsed to the ground and started gasping for air. “Finally, I can breathe.”
“Were you that scared?” I didn’t know why I was acting tough. I was terrified too.
“Do you know who that is, Yarm? That’s Erith the Transcendent. She’s one of the Demon King’s most trusted generals. She’s incredibly powerful. Her infamy even reaches countries far removed from this war. She would easily be placed in the top 1000 strongest individuals in the world.”
“Ok, I was impressed until the last part. She’s not in the top 10? That feels more fitting.” I looked over at Newmill. “What do you think?”
Newmill was still frozen. His vision was still directed at where Erith used to be. His lips took a while to thaw out and say, “Her boobs were ginormous.”
“What?” His mind was fixed on that? Could it have been that he wasn’t petrified by fear, but instead mesmerised by the woman’s bosom? “You know those were fa—” I held my tongue. I did not want to be the one to destroy a young boy’s dreams. I couldn’t tell him those breasts were fake.
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