"All set to go now." I said after packing everything that I might need in the dungeon. I checked the equipments of my summons as well as my weapons, it all looked good. I even added some food and water in my inventory, I didn't planned on staying in the dungeon for long but if there was one thing I learnt after coming to this world is that it's better to be prepared for the worst than to hope for the best. Who knows what might happen in there, well I do have a feeling one guy knows all about it, but we are not on speaking terms...
"Are we Nicholas?"
No response.
Nice, so now I'm headed in a dungeon, and Nicholas isn't helping me anymore. Life couldn't get any better. I tried to forge some weapons from the items that were gathering dust in my inventory but for some reason, I wasn't allowed to do it anymore. Who knew an entity like Nicholas could get so upset about trivial things like bothering him to tell whatever he knew about the dungeons?
"Got everything?" Ashira asked stepping out of the shower.
"Yeah." I replied putting my backpack in my inventory.
"Looks like there's no stopping you now." She laughed. "How long are you planning to stay away?"
"Not for long I hope." I smiled.
"All right but be safe and try not to get yourself killed will you?" She said while kissing me.
"That's the plan. See you soon."
"By the way Kayla wanted to see you before you left, she said there's something she wanted to give to you, I don't know what but maybe you should visit her."
"Will do! Bye and please try to make the goblins behave while I'm gone. I don't want to any one to say, that goblins set their house on fire."
"Don't worry about it and get going already." She laughed again.
I called out Bruno, from his doghouse, I don't know what else should I call a place were a dog lived, even if it was an eighteen feet tall and ten feet wide customized house.
"Hope you had a good sleep last night, because I don't know whether we'll be back tonight or not." I said patting two out of his three heads. "Could you go and get the others so that we could leave? And come to Kayla's house after everyone has gathered. Okay?"
"Woof" He barked and ran off to get the others.
After that was taken care of, I went to Kayla's home. It wasn't far just a couple minutes of walking. I reached the door and a hologram appeared.
"Please state your name and the purpose of your visit." The hologram asked.
"Hey Kayla, it's me Zeroll. Ashira told me you wanted to me meet before I left?"
"Oh hey Zeroll, could you wait for couple of more minutes? I'll be right there." she hastily replied.
"Cool."
*TEN MINUTES LATER*
"Hey, sorry for making you wait outside." She said tucking her hair behind her ear.
"It's alright. So Ashira said you wanted to give me something?" I asked.
"Yeah, this." She said handing me something from her pocket. "It's the combat suit which you wore, when we went to meet President Niall. I know it might not be that useful but at least it'll provide you some sort of protection."
"Thanks for it Kayla. You're a lifesaver." I smiled.
"Stop pulling my leg okay? Just go and be safe, try-"
"Not to get yourself killed. Duly noted."
"Looks like your cavalry is here." Kayla smiled pointing at my summons.
"Yeah, I should get going now. Thanks for this again." I said and went towards my summons.
"How are your rooms? You like it?" I said asking them about the rooms which were specially made for them.
"It's very comfortable, my lor- I mean Zeroll." Arabella smiled, while Hades and Goliath nodded.
"Great then let's get going. RETURN." I said recalling everyone except Bruno. "You ready to go?" I said climbing on him.
"Woof!" He barked and we went towards this mysterious dungeon.
It took us ten minutes to reach there at full speed, according to the map we were at the location where this dungeon was supposed to be. The only issue was, there was nothing, no buildings or caves. Just barren land. Then a message popped up.
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YOU'LL NEED TO PROVIDE YOUR BLOOD SAMPLE TO OPEN THE DUNGEON.
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Always some condition to do something, why can't, for once, something normal happen in this world. Sigh. No time to think, I grabbed a blade from my inventory, put a small cut on my left forefinger and let the blood drop on the ground. I waited for sometime after that, but nothing happened. Maybe it was all useless. I turned around and just then the ground started to shake, and a crack appeared and started growing bigger and bigger. I quickly stepped back as the crack grew wider to reveal a staircase. I peeked inside but couldn't see anything, it was pitch black inside. Then a message popped up;
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PLEASE READ THE FOLLOWING INSTRUCTIONS CAREFULLY AS YOUR LIFE COULD POSSIBLY DEPEND ON THEM :
• ONLY YOU AND YOUR SUMMONS ARE ALLOWED INSIDE THE DUNGEON. ANYONE ELSE STEPPING INSIDE WOULD BE OBLITERATED IN A INSTANT.
• THE DUNGEON HAS 101 FLOORS/LEVELS. YOU'LL BEEN GIVEN 30 DAYS TO CLEAR ALL OF THE LEVELS.
• THERE WILL BE SOME CHECKPOINTS BETWEEN CERTAIN LEVELS. YOU'LL ONLY BE ALLOWED TO LEAVE THE DUNGEON ONCE YOU HAVE REACHED A CHECKPOINT.
• HOWEVER IF AFTER CLEARING ONE CHECKPOINT YOU DECIDE TO MOVE TO THE NEXT LEVEL, YOU WON'T BE ALLOWED TO LEAVE AGAIN UNTIL YOU CLEAR THE NEXT CHECKPOINT.
• TO PROCEED TO NEXT LEVEL/FLOOR, YOU MUST DEFEAT THE 'BOSS LEVEL' MONSTER OF THAT LEVEL, AND PERFORM THE SAME RITUAL WHICH YOU DID TO UNLOCK THE DUNGEON WITH THEIR BLOOD.
• ALL THE MONSTERS (Except the FLOOR BOSS) THAT YOU SLAY IN THE DUNGEON WILL BE ADDED AS YOUR SUMMONS (You wouldn't need special rings to summon them.)
• YOU WOULDN'T BE ABLE TO REMAIN IN CONTACT WITH ANYONE EXCEPT YOUR SUMMONS WHILE YOU'RE INSIDE THE DUNGEON.
DO YOU AGREE TO THESE TERMS AND WANT TO ENTER THE DUNGEON?
• YES OR • NO
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"Yes." I replied.
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THE DEMONIC DUNGEON IS NOW OPEN.
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