Chapter 13: You Can’t Let Your Guard Down on the Seventh Floor

The Hidden Dungeon Only I Can Enter — LNCrawler · All chapters

Chapter 13:
You Can’t Let Your Guard Down
on the Seventh Floor

I WAS SO HAPPY when I found the staircase leading back up to the sixth floor that I started skipping. But when I got closer, I froze—a shrub near me was rustling. As I got closer, I saw the culprit: a silver wolf. And not just one, but a whole pack. Six, no, seven of them were fighting over a corpse. I was in trouble.

The silver wolves might not have looked all that different from regular wolves, but their shimmering, silver coats suggested they were far from normal creatures. They were obviously monsters, but I used my Discerning Eye to be sure. They were all pretty similar, but the one that seemed to be the leader was the most dangerous.

Name: Silver Wolf

Level: 158

Skills: Sharp Fangs; Reflexes (Grade C); Agility (Grade C); Leadership

Not only were they stronger than that pillbug, they were in a group. Things couldn’t be worse. I held my breath and tried to put some distance between us. I wasn’t even confident I could handle one of them. Taking on a whole pack was pure insanity. When I got to a safe distance, I let out a sigh of relief.

The hidden dungeon was nothing to laugh at. The wolves were still working on their carcass, so they’d likely stay put for a while. It was too dangerous to try to head back up the stairs until they were finished. I’d just have to wait it out on the seventh floor until I could use my Dungeon Elevator skill again.

Or maybe, since I was stuck on the seventh floor anyway, I could look for the stairs down to the eighth. However, this floor was less a dungeon level and more of a forest. There were all sorts of plants and animals, and it’d be easy to miss the staircase. That meant it was the perfect time to use my secret weapon!

Great Sage, where are the stairs to the eighth floor of this dungeon?

Blunt much? Though, I had a feeling I’d get an answer like that. They say the hidden dungeons were given to us by the gods. I should have expected that the stairs couldn’t be sensed, even with this generally excellent skill. While the Great Sage knew a great deal, he didn’t know everything. He was particularly useless when it came to personal information. I once got basically the same answer when I asked it what Emma was keeping secret from me. I couldn’t rely on it too much.

On the positive side, I hardly had a headache, so I kept moving in the opposite direction from the wolves. I noticed other animal tracks as I went, so there were no doubt as many animals here as in any other forest. As such, I wasn’t surprised when another golden pillbug appeared.

It rolled out, looked me in the eye, and launched straight into one of those Somersault Attacks. The thing about this particular attack was that, while it could rip through trees and shrubs once it got going, it wasn’t really that powerful at the start of its roll. Last time around, I didn’t even suffer any serious injuries. I got proactive and knocked the wind out of its sails with a Lightning Strike.

You know what’s important? Learning from your mistakes. I flipped the electrocuted pillbug over and thrust my sword right through its underbelly. It only took me one stroke to split it in two. It reminded me that I really had to adapt my strategy to each specific monster.

I continued on the path. After a while, the repetitive scenery started to make me feel a little dizzy. I had no idea where I was going, and then I heard some kind of rumbling crash. Just ahead, a pair of those pillbugs were locked in battle.

Maybe I was in pillbug territory or something. I hid and watched. The pillbugs crashed into each other with Somersault Attacks, pushed each other back, and attacked again. Could it be a turf war? Then one of them ran out of stamina and unrolled and—splat! Pillbug everywhere. It was revolting.

But the winner seemed to be exhausted too, because it stopped moving. I took that as my cue, ran up from behind, and kicked it over.

“Hiyah!”

Another one down! Once I delivered the finishing blow, I ran away—a hit and run of sorts. You need to be pretty tough to live as a dungeon seeker, after all.

“This really is exhausting.”

I found a group of trees to lean against and take a breather. I just needed to hold out a little longer, until I could use my Dungeon Elevator skill to escape.

I checked to make sure the beetles were still in my bag. Thankfully, they weren’t fighting with each other. Secure in that, at least, I started to nod off. Maybe it was just relief from escaping all those enemies, or maybe the twittering birds lulled me to sleep.

I had a dream where Luna and Emma were tickling me. I pleaded with them to stop, but then Lola and Alice joined in. Was I always ticklish there?

Suddenly, I woke up.

“Huh?”

I wasn’t immediately sure what was going on. Why was I floating?

My arms were wrapped around a branch and my body was hanging from it…and at the base of the branch was an open mouth, with fangs like some kind of predator. It was trying to eat me.

“Wait, is that a monster?!”

I used my Discerning Eye. It was called a killer tree—either the thing was haunted, or it had always been some kind of monster. In any case, thankfully for me, it was only Level 20. Not that I was in any position to take it easy.

I frantically held open the creature’s mouth with my legs and struggled to keep it from closing. Branches wrapped around my wrists, but my fingers were still free, so I fired off Holy Flame.

Bark singed and leaves crisped. It did a ton of damage! The branches released me and, as I landed, I used Magical Fusion to fire a Flaming Stone Bullet into the tree’s gaping mouth.

It seemed painful, because the branches flailed violently until the killer tree suddenly stopped moving. I was afraid of starting a forest fire, so I used Water Drop to extinguish it.

Ugh. I’d really screwed up there. I had to remember that not all enemies were that obvious. I resolved to use my Discerning Eye before resting next time.

I’d used quite a bit of magic by then, so I was feeling even more tired. Luckily, it was near the time that I could finally use my Dungeon Elevator skill again.

“Given your great strength, I have a request to make of you.”

“Excuse me?”

That was the only answer I could muster. When I came to my senses and turned around, no one was there. Or at least, I didn’t think there was, until I lowered my gaze and found a girl of about seven or eight. She was so adorable I instinctively dropped my guard, even though the seventh floor of a hidden dungeon really wasn’t the sort of place where a normal, innocent little girl should be.

As such, I used my Discerning Eye on her and I found some information that should have been obvious—yes, indeed, this girl was not human.