22 Exploring the Dungeon (1)

Sam headed towards the dungeon with lightning speed, wasting no time. After a few hours of travel, he arrived at what looked like an ordinary cave entrance.

He stared at the entrance, and a feeling of nostalgia hit him. When he signed up to become an adventurer many years ago, his first assignment was to raid a small dungeon near the kingdom he lived in. It was extremely weak, but he remembered how terrified he was, even wetting his pants at the sight of a single baby whelp that appeared suddenly.

Sam chuckles at the memories and began his preparation before heading into the cave.

"Status!"

Status:

Name: SAM

Level: 15

Title: Lord of Hope Village

Rank: Village Leader, Commoner

Attributes:

Strength - 59/65

Dexterity - 47/65

Constitution - 40/65

Wisdom - 25/65

Intelligence - 25/65

Charisma - 65/65

Skills: Intermediate proficiency with Sword and Shield (Shield Slam, Parry), Thunder Clap, Basic Weapon Proficiency (Can use Swords, Axes, Hammers, Polearms)

Inventory: Crimson Fire Greataxe (Do you wish to adjust the weapon to fit the player?)

'I forgot about the great axe!'

Sam smiles as he remembered the loot from Mankirk, with this great axe, fighting enemies would be a cakewalk due to its enchantment.

Soon, Sam summons the great axe from his inventory which appears out of thin air into the ground.

It was large, and Sam knew he couldn't hold it at all. Luckily, the system would adjust weapons that are too large for normal humans to human size.

'If this was a game, I'd applaud the developers for adding such a quality of life!'

"Adjust the weapon!"

A golden glow then covered the weapon and slowly it shrunk in size until it reached a size where Sam could pick it up with two hands.

"I feel its power…"

Sam gripped the handle with two hands and soon fire began to spout out of the weapon.

[[SYSTEM NOTIFICATION: You replaced "Thunder Clap" with "Whirlwind"]]

"Amazing…"

Sam decided to test the skill out and began to spin around the forest in a 360 motion continuously, causing fire to spout out at the same time.

"HOLY CRAP!"

The trees surrounding Sam were burning to a crisp, and Sam was shocked at the power of the great axe.

Although it wasn't the most powerful weapon in this world, it sure is one of the best for Sam at the moment. He felt much more confident going into the dungeon now with this weapon at hand.

He grabs a lamp from his backpack and heads into the cave, lighting up the surrounding darkness.

Soon, almost instantly when he went into the dungeon he was met with his first mob.

Spiderlings.

They were extremely weak when alone, but in mobs, they could swap anyone with ease.

Sam killed the single spider that jumped on him with a single swing of the axe and began treading lightly as he explored the dungeon.

The walls were rough, with Sam spotting some ores embedded within the rocks.

As he headed forward, more spiders appeared before him.

This time, some looked much stronger than the ordinary spiderlings, and they weren't alone but in groups of more than twenty spiders behind it.

Sam looked at the mobs that were charging forward toward him with a screech and decided to showcase how powerful this Crimson Fire Greataxe can be.

"WHIRLWIND!"

Sam began to spin around, and around, and around. Fireballs dealt AOE damage to the spiders that were afar, and the axe sliced those that were close. The spiderlings that once gathered and charged at Sam were now burnt and sliced into bits.

As soon as the ability wore off, Sam felt groggy but soon gathered his bearings.

'Again… awesome!'

Sam raised his great axe towards his face and saw all the spiderling blood staining the axe.

'If only you weren't dirty, I'd kiss you!'

He continued moving forward, looking for the mini-boss of this floor so that he could head to the next.

Again, he spotted more spiderlings and he dealt with them appropriately.

'What's that?'

After killing those spiderlings, he spotted something in the distance.

It was a door, something which Sam has never seen before in a dungeon.

It was metallic and had strange writing on it that Sam could not understand.

'Let's find out what's behind that door…'

Sam opened the door slowly, preparing himself for a sudden ambush.

It was rather difficult to push, with Sam using all his strength to push it. Even though his class was spec'd on strength, he felt that if he was but a single point lower than what he has now, he wouldn't have been able to open it.

He looked inside the dark room and raised his lamp which showcased an office of some sort.

Bookshelves covered in cobwebs and dust with no books, a table with a single sheet of paper and ink to the right of it.

The flooring was smoothed, and under the table was a carpet that was so dusty that a single breath of air could cause a dust storm.

'I have never seen a room like this ever…'

Sam was fascinated, and headed towards the bookshelf first, seeing if there is any secrets he can find.

Sadly, there was nothing. Sam pushed the bookshelf to the side, seeing if there was some sort of secret door he should be aware of, but nothing was behind it. Just empty plain cave walls.

Sam turned his head and walked towards the desk, and slowly sat on the chair, half expecting it to be some sort of trap mechanism. He sighed in relief as nothing happened, and he looked at the sheet of paper on the table that was written in common, the language everyone including Sam speaks in the Other World.

It read:

"To anyone who reads this message,

I am Prince Alek of the Charon Kingdom, and it is the year 552"

'552? The year now should be 810… which means this was written 258 years ago?!'

"This sheet of paper is so that I can document my story, my life. Kings and queens for hundreds of years had written diaries of what happened in their life which immortalized them. I want to not only be one of those immortalized tales, but I also want to have one that people shall remember for thousands of years to come. Because it is I, Alek, who last year just made history. What is that you may wonder, well… I married a dragon, my wife Lissandra."

'A dragon!'

Sam stood up from his chair, shocked to read that a human could ever communicate or even marry a dragon.

Dragons were the pinnacle of this world, and because of this, they were hunted by lesser beings who wanted to prove themselves by killing such a powerful beast.

Of course, the dragons did not want to fight. But the races saw them as a threat. So they made up false stories about how dragons would murder kids to their children, and soon a generation that had a strong hatred and fear of dragons was born.

Dragons soon were forced to retreat to another land further away from the continent and all the races at the time rejoiced at the fact.

'To marry a dragon… the balls of this guy!'

Dragons did not speak common tongue, as they saw it to be lesser than them according to rumors. They spoke draconian which translated into the person's mind.

'What else does he say?'

"I met her once during the Battle of Gandria, on a mountain. She was injured, and I was tasked to execute her. But I couldn't, for I didn't see Dragons as enemies. How could I, since they never once attacked a city of ours, but we continued to chase them and attack them.

Feeling sympathy, I healed her. I fully expected her to kill me, after all, I am a human, and she's a dragon. My people are hunting down her kin like dogs, if I was in her shoes I'd murder me 10 times over. But she stayed by my side.

There, I learned the truth. How dragons do not want to fight us, yet my side wants to continue the fight and eradicate them in the name of this so-called 'peace' they are striving for.

I soon helped her escape to this cave, and we settled here for a while. It has been extremely enjoyable, but it is time for me to now confront my father and ask him to stop this attack against the dragons. If I don't do this, then I am not a worthy husband to my wife. "

'… And the letter ends here…'

Sam sat on the chair rubbing his head questioning why this prince would do such a thing.

His plan did not work of course, since the war would continue for another two hundred years after this point.

'Let's continue traversing the dungeon, maybe he has more notes in the dungeon?'

Sam stood up and headed back to the dungeon and continued to traverse forward, killing any spider-lings in his way.

Soon, he spots an entrance to a huge open area. He recognizes it as the boss area for this floor, and he slowly walked forward, ready for combat and awaiting for the boss to notice his arrival.

"SKRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!"

A loud screech causes Sam to cover his ears, but he did not see anyone in front of him.

He looked up and saw something crashing onto him. He quickly rolled away before staring at the thing that tried to ambush him.

It was an extremely large spider, with green moss covering its backside. It had multiple eyes, all flashing a bright red.

'Spider Matriarch!'

Sam has dealt with them before, they are extremely good at spawning offspring in the middle of combat to distract their foe while they spit poison at them.

The poison is extremely potent, with one hit causing a paralysis effect which would mean death in a lot of cases.

Sam knew his game plan was to focus on the Matriarch, so he readied his weapon and charged toward it without a single second of waiting.

SPIT SPIT SPIT

Large green goo came out of the Matriarch's mouth, and Sam dodged and rolled, causing the attack to miss.

Sam jumps, and with an overhead slash, he targets the Matriarch who dashed away before the attack could hit.

Soon, Sam heard sounds cracking around him.

'She's laying eggs!'

A bunch of spider-lings popped out from all sides and began to swarm Sam's leg.

Sam slammed the Greataxe's handle on the ground.

"System! How do I use the enchants on the Greataxe!"

[[DING! I don't know. Figure it out]]

"You shitty system!"

Sam sighs and began kicking and swinging away, killing the baby spider-lings as fast as possible.

SPIT!

A green goo targeted Sam once more, and Sam dodged out of the where looking at where the spit came from.

Sam charged that location, and the Matriarch realizing Sam knows its location then jumped towards him with all its leg trying to wrap around Sam's face.

Sam side steps out of the way and slams the great axe on the back of the Matriarch.

SKREEEEEEEEEEEECH!

It hits the Matriarch, who limps away from Sam and tries to hide from him.

Sam, who saw that the Matriarch wants to get away gives chase, but more spiderlings charge him.

In front of him was the Matriarch, and behind him were the spiderlings.

"WHIRLWIND!"

He began spinning once more, round and round which kills all the baby spider-lings and damaged the Matriarch to the point where it could not move.

Sam stopped spinning and knelt on the ground in exhaustion, he used the ability twice in a short period which was a stupid move. But luckily, the Matriarch was too wounded to punish him.

He stood up slowly and walked towards the Matriarch with a smile on his face.

"Free xp."

SLASH!

He slashed the Matriarch's head, causing black blood to splatter all over his body.

[[You have leveled up!]]

Sam slumps onto the ground, and he soon realized that an entrance to what looks like to be the next level of the dungeon appeared before him.

'Let's rest here for now, and head when I am ready.'