CHAPTER 132: EXPLORING A DUNGEON FOR THE FIRST TIME [1]

"How can I serve you today, you two?"

A woman sitting before a desk asked, her voice echoing throughout the place as she looked at me and Selene with a forced smile.

’How did she get her job with such a smile?’

Instead of answering, I brought my bracelet before her, showing the code of a specific dungeon with the confirmation of renting it.

That was how to enter one of the academy’s dungeons. Just rent an available one and do whatever you want with it through that time.

And because the number of dungeons wasn’t that high, the academy made it so that an individual could rent a dungeon only once a week for no more than 3 hours. That way, everyone would have a chance to go there.

Obviously, that system made some students ask others to rent them dungeons for higher prices, but the academy ignored such acts.

As the woman scanned my bracelet, she suddenly took out 4 red, glass stones out of thin air and handed them to me.

"These are the returning stones you rented with the dungeon. Shatter one in emergencies to leave the dungeon instantly. Just remember, if you actually use or lose one, you will have to pay for them the full price instead of just renting."

I gave her a nod while giving 2 stones to Selene and one to Glutton.

The dungeon I had rented was the hardest Tier-3 dungeon I found available in my standards. Thus, I decided to be more cautious and rent those stones.

After all, even though they were safer than the undiscovered dungeons, they were still dungeons without any safety inside of them.

Even the bracelets wouldn’t help us inside. Contacting anyone when you are inside a dungeon is simply impossible.

Selene looked at the small stones on her hand with confusion.

"Why am I getting 2 stones?"

I raised three fingers and began to lower them one by one as I explained:

"One, Glutton is my spirit. He can just use the same stone with me if he was close inside me. Two, we can teleport. We are probably the best runners in this academy, so we may not even need to use them in emergencies unlike you. And three, I just want you to be safe."

"....Oh."

As a smile began to spread across her face, I immediately took her by the hand and took her to the dungeon shown in the map.

After a few minutes of walking and passing through some guards, we ended up standing in an empty room with only 3 red crack lines in the middle of air.

"So that’s how it looks when you’re close."

Selene muttered in awe, not because of the appearance of the cracks, but what they were doing.

They were absorbing large amounts of mana consistently, making me wonder about what would happen to the absorbed mana.

Was it used by the living beings inside the dungeon? Or maybe to keep the dungeon itself stable?

I didn’t know unfortunately. There were only fucking theories in the useless library!

"You will be teleported out of the dungeon when your time finishes," the guard beside us suddenly said, leaving the room and starting to close the door, "Don’t try to enter again after that. You will find me right before you."

"And remember to use the stones if you are in danger. No amount of coins worth more than your lives."

*Bam!*

As he closed the door, I began to observe the dungeon’s entrance.

[Can you feel it?]

’Yeah, it’s really weird.’

I answered Glutton while focusing on my spatial awareness.

This entrance wasn’t like spatial gates. They didn’t cut the space, but shattered it! I couldn’t know where it led to. It was genuine chaos.

But how could that even be possible? How could there be such a glitch in the fabric of space?

Wasn’t I experienced enough to understand it? Or was it related to something else entirely?

’Well, no point in thinking about that.’

I shook me head and looked at Selene, who was glaring at the dungeon’s entrance thoughtfully, and spoke:

"Let’s not waste much time. We only have 3 hours to explore that place."

"Mhm!"

Selene gave me a nod and held my hand firmly.

I gulped nervously as I kept looking at her before turning my head away and saying:

"Also, clench your clothes. I don’t want to see... cough... any incident."

"....R-right. Ahem, thank you."

Selene’s face flushed as she clenched her shirt and pants even firmer than my hand.

’Fuck, why does the dungeons in this world have logic?!’

The cracks only teleport what touches them. No more, no less. And they even teleport what touches them to random places inside the dungeon.

In other words, if I didn’t hold Selene’s hand, we might not find each other after entering the dungeon.

And well... if our clothes weren’t holding us firmly, we would teleport into the dungeon without them.

Obviously, this happened many times before. There was a reason why they included such instructions when I tried to rent a dungeon.

"I’m ready."

At Selene’s words, I nodded and extended my hand toward the red cracks.

Once I touched it, my vision changed in an instant.

[Holy shit!]

Glutton immediately shouted in my head, but I ignored him and scanned my surroundings in awe as an intense heat hit me.

’Let’s hope I don’t regret it.’

I looked right and left, up and down, front and back, but all I could see was rocks and lava... or maybe magma.

Honestly, I couldn’t know the difference considering the place I was in now.

The place I was in was like a large burning cave, with flames and molten stones being the only sources of light here.

There were many strange plants like some black and red trees that were dripping lava without being burned themselves.

There were also many lava pools on the ground, but fortunately, this place had enough stone platforms for us to move.

When I looked up, I didn’t see the sky, only dangerous molten stones that could fall on us anytime.

The place was big and vast literally as hell, with even some mountains that could be noticed by looking through the thick ashes in the air.

But the only problem here was the heat.

And I mean it by saying it was so intense that it could instantly cook an egg in my hand!

"Are... you okay with the heat?"

"Yes. It’s just a little annoying but that’s all about it."

Selene answered with a wide smile as if she wasn’t bothered by the heat at the slightest.

’Why couldn’t my trait give me a better heat resistance? I literally have lightning moving through my body!’

I sighed and took out 2 artifacts from my storage.

The first was a white scarf which immediately wrapped around my neck.

The second was a small blue ring which I instantly wore in my finger.

Those 2 artifacts cooled down my body, but that was still far from making me comfortable.

I rubbed my eyes, which seemed to be close to boiling, as I complained:

"We have to find a good place to cool down. I feel like I’m going to melt!"

"Wait, let me try something."

All of a sudden, I felt some coldness coming out of Selene’s hands and covering my body, cooling me down instantly.

It was a great feeling, like finding water in the middle of a desert, but I couldn’t be happy about this.

"Oh, thank you, but that’s a waste of your Aether. We still didn’t find any monsters yet — you have to remember that it’s a Tier-3 gate, so it’s more dangerous than the forest."

"Oh, okay... what about this?"

Instantly, she began to shift into her draconian form. 2 horns rose from her head, a long tail appeared, and a pair of large wings came out of her back.

One of her wings covered me, protecting me from some heat and leaking some coldness to my body.

"Yeah, that’s actually good. Thank you."

I thanked Selene, whose grip on my hand tightened for some reason, and yelled inwardly.

’Glutton, you fucking bitch! Come out and explore the area. Try to find a good place to rest.’

[Ehhh? Why would I do that? It’s too hot!]

’Be useful once in your life and do it!’

Glutton sighed and left my soul in his raven form. He glanced at me sharply before clicking his tongue and flying away.

I stopped the urge to laugh at him as I said:

"Now we wait for him. The guide showed that there are some places without much lava, so he must find them soon."

Selene nodded.

"I’m not in a hurry anyway."

She then glanced at her right boot secretly with some hidden annoyance.

I knew why, and I wanted to make a joke about what happened, but that would make me look like a creep.

’She lost one of her socks while teleporting.’

I didn’t tell her that I improved too much and could now know what her socks color was, and talk less about noticing the disappearance of one of them.

It was a cool ability, but too embarrassing to share, especially with a girl.

’I wonder if I shall just tell her. I think she deserves to know about it as the one who sleeps beside me.’

As I was considering telling her now, I suddenly sensed something falling toward us.

Immediately, I pulled Selene and took her away from it.

"Wh-what’s wro—!"

*Squish!*

Immediately, something liquid fell where Selene was standing, making a sound that cut her off.

The liquid was obviously lava. It suddenly began to gather around a mana core, forming a blob.

A small, lava blob that wasn’t even half my size.

And it was looking at me with its big, red eye as if I killed its mother.

"Curwak curwak."

"...."

"It looks so cute... what a shame."

Selene sighed before launching a silver ray at the blob, causing it to freeze instantly.

I teleported before it and took its core out of its frozen body then handed it to Selene before patting her head.

"Tier-2. Not a bad start I guess."

"Mhm."