- ORIS PRISON, BOSS CHAMBER -
A group of guards filled the chamber and surrounded Darrel and his party, Greyan and Luca were on the ground poisoned by the Greater-Webcrawler's venom, Darrel and Orimik stood in the center pleading to the guards for help.
"They will die if you don't do something!" Darrel exclaimed.
"Won't that be great for Oris then, one less criminal breathing our air!" One of the guards barked sarcastically.
Darrel grimaced at the guard, but one of them immediately pulled out his sword and then pointed it at him.
"Don't try any funny business now," The guard smirked. "Lots of prisoners die out here in the dungeons."
"I said; restrain them, not kill them!"
A booming voice suddenly blew through the entrance of the chamber, then an individual with a gleaming aura walked through the Ingress and approached the circle of guards.
"Have you strayed so far from your heritage that you would take on this barbaric persona?"
"Lieutenant Vedial, we were only joking-"
"Silence!"
The man walking beside the Lieutenant repelled the guard's attempt to feign ignorance, Darrel immediately recognized the two when the air cleared and he could see them.
"I remember you…" Darrel tried to walk towards the holy knight but was immediately blocked by Reginald, Vedial's squire. "My friends need help, but your people won't help them."
"I see…" Vedial walked past Reginald and Darrel to the boss-level monster that lay on the ground. "The Captain did not believe that you would be able to survive your first endeavor."
Vedial wandered around the monster carefully examining the large webcrawler's carcass, Darrel's gaze followed Vedial around as he skipped over the monster's long legs. Darrel clenched his fist trying his hardest to hold back the bubble of fury that was slowly boiling up inside of him.
"Don't move,"
Reginald whispered to Darrel and a stern silence ensued among the mortals, even the noisy guards held their breaths expecting Darrel to go on a rampage again, however, to everyone's surprise, Darrel stood stiff as a block until Vedial was satisfied.
"Well done," Vedial stated as he walked past Darrel once more. "Take them back to their cells."
"Hey! What about…"
"Darrel wait!"
Before he could stop Vedial, Greyan called out to Darrel and when he turned to face them, they were both standing on their feet.
"We… we are fine."
Greyan seemed as surprised as everyone else as he examined his arms in shock.
"How did he…?"
- ORIS PRISON, CELL -
The following day, Darrel woke from his slumber early as glimpses of his first dungeon experience flooded his mind. Luca was the only one who admitted that his intervention had saved everyone's lives, unfortunately, he wondered if the outcome would have been better if he had acted earlier.
Darrel recalled his former world and the games he used to play with others of his kind, this memory reminded him of one particular individual, someone that was very dear to him.
'My younger brother?'
The guard's chatter could be heard from afar as they approached, Darrel realized it was around the same time that they were sent to the dungeons yesterday.
"Luca, wake up we are going to the dungeons again," Luca murmured to himself and continued snoring.
"Come on Luca-"
"Hey, you!" The guards called out to Darrel. "Why aren't you in the dungeons?!"
"I was-"
Darrel knew it was pointless to argue so he sighed and then remained silent.
"That's a good prisoner, get over here we will escort you there." Darrel walked over to the cell door and allowed the guards to cuff his hands.
The guards led Darrel through the same stairway as the day before and sure enough, it led them back to the dungeons. This time a dozen prisoners were queued in front of the ingress, each one cuffed in iron on both arms and legs, Darrel also noted that unlike his earlier cuffs the chains on these were longer.
"Stand here," The guards shoved Darrel towards the other prisoners and snickered.
"What's so funny?" Darrel asked but the guards merely looked away.
Darrel then noticed that the prisoners were going through the entrance to the first dungeon they had cleared a day earlier, but this time each prisoner was equipped with a pickaxe and adorned with chains.
"Hey, this place looks sketchy?"
Darrel tried to signal the guards from earlier to no avail, the two guards feigned ignorance as Darrel's fury started to build up.
"Hey, you! Get back in line!"
A heavily armored guard standing in front of the Ingress shouted at Darrel as he saw him moving away from the queue, Darrel looked back at the guard with an angry gaze but returned to the line of prisoners as his turn came to receive a pickaxe.
"Stand in the circle,"
A hooded figure suddenly ordered Darrel, the man was dressed in a hooded robe and held a staff in one hand. Darrel was surprised that he had not seen the mage earlier as he stumbled into the magic circle.
A light flashed from the circle.
"So what? Another binding spell? Scared I will run away into the dungeons?"
Darrel scoffed at the mage but was greeted with an abrasive glare as the guard standing beside the mage shoved a pickaxe into his hands.
"Good luck," The mage gestured at Darrel as he stared at him with a scornful glance then added. "You will need it this time."
As Darrel walked through the Ingress he wondered what the mage had meant by what he said, however, such thoughts were immediately forgotten once he came out at the end of the tunnel.
"What the hell…?"
Darrel was stunned by the large egg-like shape of the first chamber of the dungeon, the webcrawler's webbings that once covered the chamber had been burned away exposing the roof and walls of the chamber which had been arrayed with various symbols that looked like ancient writings.
'They all look like weird letters to me,' Darrel mused.
The symbols seemed to swirl around the chamber as each segment was divided by how each rock was placed by the ancients.
"Incredible huh," A prisoner walked over to Darrel and admired the writings. "Stories like these are what tell us more about the divines…"
"Yes, that's true."
Darrel agreed in a heartbeat, he did not want anyone to find out that he was illiterate in this world.
"Well not all of it is true, but they aren't wrong either," The prisoner commented once more. "By the way, the name's Wasen, I have heard so much about you Dar-rel."
Wasen was a slim middle-aged man with a grey mop of hair stuck on the top of his head, he was slightly taller than Darrel but he had the demeanor of a teenager.
"Not all pleasant, I am sure," Darrel replied warily.
"Well, even the most favored Emperor Gherial met a few hardships through his journey." Wasen empathized.
'Emperor Gherial? I have heard that name a few times.' Darrel recalled how every time great historic exploits had been stated the same name came up in most instances.
"You know much about Gherial?" Darrel decided to ask.
"Shhh!!!" Wasen shushed Darrel and then looked around to see if anyone had heard them. "It's Emperor Gherial, and we can't speak his name so recklessly either."
"Hey you two, get back to work!"
A guard spotted the two standing still and scolded them for being lazy, Darrel and Wasen immediately returned to work. Wasen quickly chose a location far from the other prisoners, it would be hard work to mine the rocks on this side of the chamber with just the two of them, but Wasen seemed eager to speak with Darrel privately.
"I didn't see these rocks yesterday…" Darrel noted.
"Well it took a while to prepare this chamber for mining since the webcrawlers had been here for so long," Wasen explained. "Oris is a large place, and these dungeons have recently been discovered."
"Wait, other dungeons are being cleared right now?" Darrel asked surprised.
"Yes, there should be two more dungeon mining teams,"
"Dungeon mining huh? How's clearing monsters from a dungeon considered dungeon mining?"
"Well if monsters dropped gold and jewels when they died like in the local fairytales it would be much easier, people would probably make monster farms," Wasen explained. "But the real treasure is usually in the dungeons themselves and it's our task to dig through the precious areas to find it."
Darrel stared at Wasen after he had said this, it made sense that organic creatures should not have been able to drop inorganic loot like gold or weapons, it also made sense why there were no loot disputes after they killed the Greater-webcrawler yesterday.
"That makes sense," Darrel agreed. "But don't monsters have valuable parts on them?"
"Plenty, but the guards won't let us have anything, especially now after what happened with the Greyhearts."
"The Greyhearts? I heard that name a few times when they interrogated me, who are they?"
Wasen seemed even more surprised at Darrel's recent query that he paused for a moment, Darrel eyed the man cautiously hoping he had not said anything threat worthy.
"One of Oris' earliest dungeon miners," Wasen finally replied. "The only ones to ever survive Oris' first dungeon and escape its prison."
"The Greyhearts did that?"
"Yes, they are the ones that caused the breakout here in Oris where many prisoners tried to escape," Wasen struck the rocks harder. "It took the help from the mighty Holy Knights to recapture the prisoners and stabilize Oris."
"So the Greyhearts are here now?"
"No, they all managed to escape," Wasen stated. "It happened a few weeks ago, right before your arrival."
Everything was starting to fall into place for Darrel, he was beginning to understand how he had ended up in Oris, it was all just a big misunderstanding, unfortunately, he was already in too deep and Oris would not let him go that easily.
'Wrong place, wrong time…' Darrel pondered. 'But, I was not part of the Greyhearts…'
"If the Greyhearts were so renowned, how come the Knights captured me instead of them?" Darrel's eyes widened. "Unless they don't know what the Greyhearts looked like!"
"Shhh!"
Wasen hushed Darrel.