Chương 63: (B2 chapter 14)

I felt Lucas's hand gripping mine tightly as the world changed in an instant. One second, we had been crowded in the alley near the portal holding hands – which I suggested so that the system wouldn't place us in different iterations of the dungeon. The next, we were in a gloomy room lit up by soft blue-glowing crystals in the ceiling. The air was extremely stale, and the silence in the room was absolute. My gawking of the surroundings was interrupted by a system message.

You are now inside the Dungeon: The Hollowed Maw. I waited for the system to give some more information, but as was the norm, it didn't offer any further information. I dismissed the screen in the hope that another would take its place, but no new screen came up. I let out a sigh at the system's stinginess with information sharing, and then continued examining the dungeon.

The good thing was that I could still feel Lucas's hand, and turning around I saw that Lucas, Marcus, Omar, Madelline, Hannah, and Sam, had all arrived safely. I had a fear that there may be a limit to how many people were allowed inside the dungeon at a time, but now we at least knew the limit wasn't seven. We found ourselves in the center of a circular room with one exit directly in front of us. Turning around, I saw it was just an empty wall with no portal in sight behind us.

I let go of Lucas's hand and approached the wall, trying to see if touching it or nearing it would allow us to get back out of the dungeon. But, even with me touching the coarse wall, no system screen popped up, leading me to believe that we would have to complete the dungeon before being allowed to exit. We are trapped here then… I examined the wall more carefully. It had looked like the walls all around were made of rock, but touching it, it didn't feel like rock.

It felt like something else, though I wasn't sure what it was. It was hard to tell in the dim light, but it was of a slightly yellow shade rather than the brown that it looked like from afar.

"What is this place?" asked Omar in a low voice. He's speaking in a low voice… looks like he's learning. No one answered him though, as we were all busy staring around. The ceiling was covered in small crystals that were glowing the same shade of blue that I had come to associate with neutral or element-less mana. It felt like they were mana crystals, and I wanted to pry one out to see if they could be looted.

Unfortunately, the ceiling was at least four stories high, and there was no place that I could use to reach that high up. Hopefully there are some a bit lower up ahead.

"Let's go, staying here won't do anything. I'll scout ahead," I spoke up. The others all nodded, and I moved to the head of the group close to the exit from this place. Once I was in position, the others all turned around, allowing me to go under concealed presence. From there, I started moving towards the exit. As I got closer, I could see it led to a small hallway that curved to the right.

"Our first dungeon, this is so exciting!" exclaimed Omar from behind, still speaking in a low voice.

"It really is! I just wish Sara and Ben were here…" said Madelline softly. I turned around in time to see the grimace on Lucas's face, and the realization on Madelline's that she had said something that she shouldn't have. There had been an unspoken agreement between all of us not to mention their names aloud, especially in front of Lucas. He had been the hardest hit, as both Sara and Ben had been closest to him out of all of us.

I let out a sigh as Madelline started apologizing in a panic and Lucas kept repeating "it's fine" over and over again. Confident that they would have this handled, I turned back around and started moving forward. As I was about to enter the hallway, I struck the wall, making a loud sound in an effort to bring the group's attention back to the matter at hand. I entered the hallway, which looked the same as the room before, and carefully started moving forward.

I had a feeling that the room back there was a 'safe area' that was classically present in most dungeons. However, this system had repeatedly broken my assumptions, so I would keep my mind open to all possibilities until I had some confirmation. The hallway kept turning at a sharp angle, and soon I could no longer hear the group's voices from behind.

I turned back around and backtracked at a fast pace till I could hear them again, feeling relieved that I didn't get separated somehow through some kind of dungeon shenanigan. I made my way forward again, moving in the oppressive silence and emptiness, before it suddenly opened up. The hallway abruptly expanded to about thirty times its previous size, both in height and width. I stopped at the boundary of the change, trying to see ahead before entering what was clearly the actual start of the dungeon.

I saw something up ahead strewn about towards the side of the now much larger hall, but couldn't quite make out what it was. Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences. I still couldn't hear the others, so I passed the time and checked the boundary as much as I could in all directions, trying to see if there was some kind of a trap. Not finding anything, I then used my ability to make some noise like I was moving as far ahead of me as I could manage.

The hallway suddenly came alive. The ground and walls, which I had assumed were made of solid material, parted smoothly and without sound, making numerous holes everywhere that I could see. These holes were absolutely dark, the light seemingly unable to pass through the boundary. What did pass through were small, nightmarish creatures.

About the size of a housecat, they crawled on two large front arms that ended in sharp claws, and had tiny back legs that looked to be built for one purpose only – to jump high and fast. Their mouths were perpetually open and lined with small, serrated teeth in multiple rings that were visible.

A fish-like long, thin body and large, bright yellow eyes rounded up the monsters horrifying appearance, as they flitted back and forth in the area where my ability had made the sound in search of something to sink their teeth into. After a few seconds of finding nothing, they suddenly went rigid for half-a-second, before they all went back and entered the holes through which they had crawled out of.

Once they had all disappeared, the holes vanished as smoothly as they had appeared, leaving behind an innocent and unassuming hall. Was that a signal from the dungeon that made them all turn around like robots…? Whatever it was, one thing was for certain, we needed a real plan to get through this long hall. I turned around and sped back down towards the group, hoping they were still far enough away to not be heard by these monsters. What if they have already been attacked…?

I went through the smaller hallway under concealed presence, which masks any sounds that I make. I wasn't sure if it did the same with vibrations through the ground, but it was my understanding that it would mask vibrations too, as my movement didn't cause any air to move when I pass through with the skill, so it made sense it would do the same with vibrations in the ground. But they didn't have any such a skill… I sped up even more.

Soon, I heard the relieving sound of their hushed conversation coming through the bend ahead. Taking a last look back to make sure nothing was behind me, I undid concealed presence and approached everyone.

"We have trouble," I immediately announced. Understandably, the group collectively groaned. Well, everyone apart from Sam and Hannah did, who were looking around in confusion at everyone. Madelline noticed them too, and patted Hannah on the back while muttering "You'll understand soon enough" in a low, consoling voice. I sighed. This is going to be a long dungeon, isn't it…?

I was back at the start of the wider hallway, alone again. The group hadn't come up with a viable strategy to fight yet, so I left them behind to do a few experiments. Firstly, I tried to understand what kind of noise would lure the monsters I was mentally referring to as crawlers out once again. Earlier, I had used my ability to make noise like I was moving about. But was there a threshold that would make the crawlers come out, or did they come out at any noise no matter the decibel level.

The next few minutes I tested exactly that. Turned out that the softer the sound, the fewer the crawlers would come up. There was a point where I made the ability make a very low sound, where the dungeon didn't react at all. I quickly realized that staying silent was the key to going past this hall. Secondly, I wanted to know if these crawlers were infinite, or if there is a limit. Thus, I made a loud bang noise with my ability, making hundreds of crawlers crawl out of their holes.

I paused and let them search around, and just when the signal passed and they turned around, I had my ability make another loud noise a bit further away. The crawlers turned as one and swarmed the location of the sound, moving swiftly with the help of their two large arms. However, no new crawlers emerged from within the holes. I tested it once again with the same result.

Then, I waited for all the crawlers to disappear within the ground again, and made as loud of a noise as I possibly could with my ability as well as released a wind bullet to crash against the ground in a separate place. I know I didn't have the ability to exactly count how many crawlers appeared, but it looked like they were about the same number as before. So, they can probably be defeated. Lastly, after all the crawlers had disappeared into the ground again, I prepared for my riskiest test yet.

Making a very small noise, I managed to lure out just a single crawler as close to me as possible. While it was searching, I continuously made noises with my ability, luring it towards me with each noise. It kept snarling and getting closer, and was soon at the point where the hall narrowed down. I stepped back and made another noise, this time within the narrow area. I wanted to see if these crawlers could enter the smaller hallway or not.

The crawler stepped through the 'boundary' between the halls without any problem, continuing to search through the hall. Once it went past me, I raised my dagger and activated piercing strike at the point critical sense had highlighted – right at the base of its neck. The dagger sunk through its body easily, passing through it and decapitating the thing with ease.

I took a step back and concealed myself again, as I heard the head of the crawler hit the floor with a thud, followed by its body a couple of seconds later. What was important was that no other crawler climbed through the floor. I was pretty sure that if I tossed the dead carcass over, the whole colony would surge out and go on a rampage, and I didn't want that to happen and risk being swarmed. Instead, a plan had already formed within my mind. I made my way back to the group, intent on explaining my plans to them.

One thought kept surfacing in my mind… This is so exciting!