The floors made not a sound as we walked on them, no creaking, no nothing. I don't know what's scarier; A horror movie with no sound or music so you'll never be ready for a jump scare or a regular movie. The first one being similar to this encounter.
As we turned the corner into the kitchen, we found a man sitting there drinking a cup of what smelled to be tea, as if he lived here. "Ah, so you've returned home, Reaper." He took a sip from his tea.
"Who the hell are you?" I demanded.
Can I not get a break for once? I just did a quest, I'm tired and want to sleep.
"It matters not who I am, but what really matters is who you are."
"I know who I am. I'm a nobody who everyone calls Reaper." I frowned. I'm nothing moew, nothing less.
"You are not a nobody, boy." The man stood up. He was cloaked in black, his face hidden. "You are more important than you think you are. More important than you could ever understand."
"Is this why you broke into my house?" I questioned. "To tell me how important I am?"
My reply got a chuckle from the man. His voice was deep, and his laugh only more so. "You are quiet amusing, I like that. But to answer your question, no. I came here to ask for a favor."
My eyes were narrowed as I had several questions for and about this man. He wants a request from me? I don't even know him. But…if he found this place…he must know more about me than he's letting off. "What favor?" I asked after an uncomfortable silence.
"Simple," he started. "The Dungeon of Ishtar in the Ishtarian mountains. I want you to clear it."
"The Dungeon of Ishtar?" Han's voice seemed rasp. It sounded as if Han knew about it.
Thinking about it, he probably does. He did tell me he was from the mountains, could these be the same mountains he grew up in? If that's the case, is that why he sounds so scared? He doesn't want to go back home. It makes since, what with all he's told be about the tribe he was born into.
"Yes, you must know about it, Han." The man spoke about Han as if he knew him. Knew his past, and even possibly his future.
"What's he talking about?" I asked Han.
"The Dungeon of Ishtar is what we call a trial."
"A trial?"
"Only one person can go in, and out of the hundreds that have gone in, none have come out."
Ohhhhh! A solo dungeon! They had these in the RPGs I played. They were definitely my favorite dungeons, as I didn't have to do the hassle of assembling a party to go into it with me. But at the same time, who knows the difficulties this dungeon may bring me.
"It seems your interest has been peeked." The man looked at me. Can he read minds? How did he know?
"I'll admit, clearing another dungeon has been on my list of things to do, but why should I? I don't know you, and the fact I don't know you and don't like you speaks volume."
"Haha, you truly are amusing. I guess the stories of how you treated the King and Queen are true then."
People are talking about that? Why is everything I do so interesting to the people of this world? Then again…I am different from them. I don't think the same as them. In a sense I'm my own person, not born into the system of this world.
"Well, either way, you wouldn't just be doing it for me," he looked over at Han. "You'd be helping the people of Lenaru Village."
"Wait, what?!" Han's voice went serious as he walked closer to the man. "What the hell are you talking about?"
"Don't think wary of me, boy. I'm no danger to your village, but the monsters escaping the dungeon are."
"Monsters are getting out the dungeon?" Rubellia said ghastly. "How is that even possible?"
"I do not know," the man replied. "But it has never been heard of. The village is not in any serious danger, at least not yet. The monsters escaping aren't that strong. Most being goblins and the occasional Trolls. But they fear that some more powerful monsters may escape sooner or later." The man turned his head to me. "That is why I ask for you to clear the dungeon."
I crossed my arms, thinking to myself.
If monsters are escaping the dungeon, maybe there's a reason for it. Obviously from Rubellia's reactions and what the man said, monsters escaping dungeons isn't normal, in fact it has never happened before. So why now are they escaping? Looking at it like a video game, it could be an event of some sort.
Just like how in most games, in order to progress to a new point in the game, you have to clear an event, or trigger a flag, to allow yourself to move on. Maybe completing the first dungeon was that flag. It would make sense. Completing the first dungeon in a game would trigger the event for the second, and even in some games there are time flags. Maybe after clearing the first dungeon, you were supposed to go to the next as soon as possible and clear it. But because that hasn't been done, the system is releasing monsters from the dungeon, forcing your hand to complete it.
On the other hand, it could be some sort of trap, if not set by this man, set by the creator of the dungeon. I did learn that the dungeons are created by heroes of old. But they were heroes, so why would they do something like this to put innocent people in danger? Then again, the dungeons in themselves are dangerous. And they were obviously made to be cleared. And from what I've been told, hundreds of people have died in dungeons. So why would the heroes care about the innocent people they're putting at risk when releasing the monsters.
"What do I get out helping? And more so, what do you get out of me doing this?" Although I couldn't see his face, I saw his white teeth as he smiled.