The moment Mark crossed the entrance of the building, the entire space around him shifted, morphing into the dark, sprawling expanse of a vast cavern tunnel. The damp floor was crisscrossed with jagged cracks, snaking across the stone like serpents, while stalagmites jutted up from the ground below and towering stalactites hung far above, lost somewhere near the lofty, unseen ceiling. The surrounding walls looked weathered and rough, thick clusters of cobwebs gathering in every corner.
After taking a few cautious steps forward, hands tucked into his pockets, Mark stopped in his tracks, noticing several figures emerging from the shadows ahead. He raised an eyebrow the moment he realized they were fully human, each one dressed in armored adventurer’s attire.
There were three of them in total. A large man, appearing to be in his late thirties, wore an eyepatch and stood positioned at the center of the group. Beside him stood a slender woman in her early thirties, pink haired and dressed in a fitted, zipped top, a faint smirk already curling at her lips. On the opposite side stood a lanky man with a gaunt, hollow face, a green beanie pulled low over his head, a lit cigarette dangling loosely from his mouth. All three carried daggers strapped securely against their thighs.
Mark felt an immediate, sinking sense that something here was deeply wrong. Their posture, their expressions, none of it sat right with him. It was then that the blue sedan parked outside the building suddenly clicked into place in his mind. It must have belonged to these three. The vendor, it seemed, had lured him straight into some kind of carefully arranged trap, one these very people had likely helped design. There was simply no other explanation that made sense.
He glanced back over his shoulder, only to find solid cavern wall staring back at him. No visible route of escape, no way out. This was, after all, a Lost Dungeon, a place no one could leave until either the dungeon itself was fully cleared or every last person inside was dead.
The pink haired woman licked her lips slowly, a slow smile spreading across her face as the group advanced closer. Her eyes flickered with dark amusement. "I have to admit, I wasn’t expecting our next victim to be quite this young. It’s been a while since I’ve gotten to work with fresh hands. This should be fun."
Mark shifted into a defensive stance the moment they stopped advancing, his eyes sharpening with clear, wary threat. "Care to explain exactly what this is supposed to be?"
The eye patched man smiled, arms folding across his chest. "Ah, I do love this particular moment, when the victim finally asks what our whole plan is really about."
His single visible eye narrowed sharply. "You see, these dungeons really are the private, secret kind the advertisement promised, but the deal you thought you were making certainly wasn’t. We’re all trapped down here together, and the dungeon boss is far too strong for any of us to handle alone. The only way any of us walks out of here is through cooperation, offering blood sacrifices to appease it through ritual. Plenty of others have already fallen victim to this arrangement, though none of them proved enough to complete the process. And now, it seems, you’re next in line."
"Oh, okay. I think I understand now. Thanks for the clarification," Mark said, straightening slightly out of his stance.
"We don’t have time for this, Larry. I’m sick of waiting around. Let’s just skip the pleasantries already!" the lanky man snapped irritably at Larry, the eye patched man, who gave a single, silent nod in response. That small signal alone was enough to send the lanky man surging forward, unstrapping his sharpened daggers as he moved.
"Sorry, kid. There’s really no other way through this except for your blood to spill." The lanky man slashed his dagger straight toward Mark’s chest, only to find nothing but empty air where he had been standing. He turned just in time to see Mark already beside him, driving a high kick that slammed him hard into the jagged cavern wall with brutal force.
Watching the exchange, the pink haired woman’s smile only widened further. "Didn’t realize we had a fighter on our hands. I like that, though. Gives us a little more room for actual fun."
Two portals flared to life with distinct bursts of light beside her and the eye patched man, releasing their respective summons into the open cavern. The woman reached out to stroke the head of her Komodo Dragon, a creature standing a full five feet tall, its yellow eyes narrowed into sharp, piercing slits. Its long, lashing, thickly scaled tail was broader than an average human torso.
This particular summon possessed remarkably fast reflexes and heightened senses, powered by its strong, coiling legs. Visible veins pulsed just beneath its scaled hide, carrying a potent, flowing venom capable of paralyzing, and eventually killing, even an Elite tier opponent through a slow, agonizing death.
The eye patched man stood beside his own summon, a six foot tall Spotted Hyena with a striking red mane running along its neck and dark, scattered spots across its gray coat. Its burning crimson eyes gleamed with open malice, long, sharp fangs visible within its snarling mouth. Its mocking, shrill laughter echoed unpleasantly off the surrounding cavern walls. The lanky man, meanwhile, skipped summoning altogether and instead activated Echo, an attribute granting him temporary access to his own summon’s traits, evidenced instantly by a thick cluster of sharp quills sprouting across his back and portions of his arms.
His eyes gleamed with the same hunger and killing intent that clearly belonged to his summon. Sharp, animalistic fangs became visible within his own snarling mouth.
Mark only smiled faintly as he activated Echo of his own. Silver vambraces trimmed with golden accents materialized around his forearms in a sudden, bright glimmer of light. He crossed his arms into a solid blocking stance just as the Spotted Hyena’s jaws slammed against them with tremendous force.
The instant the impact landed, glowing runic symbols flared brightly across the surface of the vambraces, releasing a sharp burst of reflected feedback that struck the beast backward, hitting it with the very same force it had just unleashed. Mark felt barely a hint of recoil from the exchange, which could only mean the vambraces had somehow nullified the impact entirely on his end.
Sparks of magical energy swirled gently around him like a passing breeze as an Amazon materialized beside him, her magnificent frame standing a full seven feet tall. She launched herself forward almost instantly, moving with such explosive speed that the ground beneath her original position shattered outward from the sheer force of her departure.
Mark could only assume she had developed some kind of adaptive skill, likely a direct result of the shrinking potion’s lingering effects. Unlike innate skills, which were inborn and fairly common across most summons, an adaptive skill was something uniquely forged in response to a specific weakness, her size, in certain tight quarters, being a clear example here.
It was also proving to be a remarkably efficient technique, noticeably reducing the mana drain typically associated with her enormous natural size. Right now, very little of his own mana reserve was being consumed at all, thanks to whatever clever adjustment she had made.
The Komodo Dragon lashed its sharp tail forward like a whip of living flame, aimed squarely at Cassandra, only for her to catch it firmly in her grip. She swung the reptile upward over her head before slamming it down hard against the opposite wall, the impact landing with a heavy, cracking thud that shattered several of its teeth. Planting one foot against the base of its tail, she pulled hard with a low grunt, tearing it free entirely in a splutter of thick, green blood.
The severed tail thrashed violently against the stone floor before being tossed aside like discarded trash. The pink haired woman’s eyes widened in genuine shock at the sight of her now tailless summon, blood pouring freely from its mouth. Something inside her seemed to snap in that very instant, her own mouth suddenly bulging before erupting with a fresh spray of crimson blood as she collapsed hard onto her knees.
The Hyena lunged, its jaws aimed straight for Cassandra’s throat, but she caught them cleanly with both hands instead. She strained against its powerful, lever like bite force, slowly forcing the jaws apart through sheer, muscular effort.
With an irritated grunt, she finally snapped the clamped jaw apart with a sharp, crisp crack, the Hyena letting out a pained whimper like a wounded dog. Her knee shot upward, striking hard against its throat and sending it crashing into the cavern wall, which crumbled visibly under the force of the impact.
The eye patched man clutched at his own throat, coughing violently as blood spilled freely from both his mouth and nose in thick, streaming rivulets. His eyes widened to their absolute limit as Cassandra calmly crushed the skull of his summon beneath the pressure of her heeled boot.
Mark raised both hands to block a volley of sharp quills fired directly at him by the lanky man, each projectile striking harmlessly against his vambraces. With every impact, fresh wounds and bruised, punctured holes began appearing across the lanky man’s own body instead, the direct result of the vambraces’ reflective enchantment sending each attack straight back at its source.
After launching several more rounds of spikes toward Mark, the lanky man found quills protruding from multiple points across his own body instead, including both of his eyes. He remained standing for a brief, final moment before collapsing to the ground with a heavy, final thud.
Cassandra walked calmly over to his fallen body, raising one foot and crushing his skull beneath it, reducing it to a mess of shattered bone and gore. The other two members of the group lay sprawled in their own spreading blood, eyes glassy and unfocused, their final screams already fading into silence.
"Well, they started it, not us. And I suppose everything here counts as mine now, seeing as there was never actually a deal in the first place," Mark said with a light shrug as Cassandra came to stand beside him once more. His eyes drifted deeper into the darkness stretching further down the tunnel. "Let’s go track down this ritualist of theirs."
Just then, numerous figures began emerging from the shadowed depths of the cavern passage ahead. Red skinned and heavily built, each one carried a broad, robust frame. Wolf like ears rose sharply above their heads, and thick tusks, some pierced with dangling rings, jutted out from their gaping, ugly mouths. Each orc carried either a heavy cudgel meant for crushing or a lit torch to help track down potential prey.
Spotting the sprawled corpses scattered across the floor, and seeming to recognize them, one of the orcs let out a low grunt toward the one standing beside it. The largest among them, positioned at the center of the group, remained silent for a long moment, staring down at the three bodies before finally lifting its gaze forward.
Every set of eyes among them locked onto the auburn haired young man in the green hoodie, its color matching his eyes almost perfectly, standing calmly beside the towering, imposing woman at his side.
They surged forward as one, bloodlust and open malice burning in their collective gaze. The largest orc raised its weapon high overhead, letting out a violent, commanding roar. "Khesi sasahu frumky hri!" Recognizing their fallen servants at the hands of what could only be their intended target, something primal and enraged ignited deep within their mindless, instinctive fury.
The entire swarm surged forward like a crashing ocean tide, their guttural, roaring cries echoing violently off the surrounding stone walls. The ground itself trembled beneath the sheer force of their charge, a violent tremor rippling out across the cavern floor.
Mark glanced toward Cassandra from the corner of his eye. "Go ahead and hit Super Mode, Cassie."
A/N: I hope that you’re enjoying it so far. Don’t forget to support with a powerstone or two, golden tickets and adding to your library.
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