Arriving in the Jacksonville metropolitan area, the car stopped and then the doors opened. It was hot inside, plus someone smelled unpleasant. Lukas wanted to get out of there as fast as possible.
So after the doors opened, he pushed Noelle out of the car and then got out.
"Hey, why are you pushing me?" Noelle said, a little confused, but she didn't sound angry.
"It's nothing." Lukas scratched his nose before being called out by Karen.
"We need to walk two more blocks to get there. Let's go." The car had stopped in a supermarket parking lot a few feet from the dungeon.
Lukas had never been to this place before.
There were many buildings and quite luxurious stores, and in the middle of two buildings, there was a plot of land with a large rock that guards were protecting. The area around the rock could easily be 200 square meters.
The whole place also had security grilles that prevented unknown people from entering.
Inside the terrain where the dungeon was located, there was also a tiny house that seemed to be where the guards stayed at night. Other than that, there was nothing else. Just an ample land with a giant rock one in the centre and a small house in the left corner.
Then they approached the grilles. Two guards in suits stood in front of the door.
"ID, please." As soon as Karen approached, the guard asked. Then she handed over her association ID and a strange piece of paper that Lukas could not identify.
'Maybe permission to enter the dungeon?' It was probably something like that.
After the guard had read, everyone was allowed to enter. The guards looked at Lukas looking a little surprised because of his appearance.
"Hey, Karen."
"What is it?"
"Is it common to have hunters as young as me venturing into dungeons?"
"It's a little rare. Usually, teenagers your age are in school, and their skills haven't developed enough." She put her finger on her chin.
"I see."
"Okay, are you guys ready?" Karen said after arriving at the rock. There was a large entrance there.
"YES!" Everyone answered positively except Lukas.
"Shouldn't you guys be carrying something? Weapons? Materials to get the crystals?" He said while looking at Karen. After hearing this, she finally realised that something was wrong. So she approached Giovan.
"You idiot, didn't I tell you to bring the picks and bags?" She yelled as she grabbed the back of his head and pulled him out of the dungeon.
"Go get everything we need in the car. I'll wait for you here." Giovan looked at Ember with tear-filled eyes, but she just turned her face away.
Then he quietly left the dungeon area.
"You guys can go in. I'll stay out here and wait for him."
"Are you sure?"
"Don't worry. There's nothing dangerous in there. You guys won't need me." Karen replied to Noelle.
"I understand..." But the idiot girl still looked worried. Then Ember held her hand. "Come on. You've done this many times before, haven't you?"
"Well, yeah..."
"Then it's all right. Take it easy. And you, don't get in our way." Ember said as she looked at Lukas. He just smiled bitterly and nodded.
'I feel like she doesn't like me very much.' Lukas walked through the door, and before he could take a few more steps forward, the back of his neck was grabbed by Karen.
"Eh? What?" he said, surprised.
"I know I said there's nothing dangerous, but be careful."
"Oh, sure."
"Aren't you scared? Usually, people get nervous when they enter a dungeon for the first time. Besides, I rushed things too much. What do you think about staying out here today?"
"No need to worry. I'm not afraid or nervous. For some reason, I'm excited."
"..." Karen smiled. "That's fine, but don't do anything reckless. Those girls will protect you if anything happens anyway."
"Are they that strong?" Lukas could see their numbers, but he hadn't seen the numbers of a high-Rank hunter to be able to compare.
"I wouldn't say they are strong enough to conquer a dungeon by themselves, but they are quite competent. In a D-RANK dungeon, they'll just be having fun."
"I see."
[ Note: The user's sanity is gradually decreasing due to the emotional factor: Anxiety ]
[ Note: User's sanity is gradually decreasing due to emotional factor: Worry ]
[ Note: The user's sanity is gradually decreasing due to the emotional factor: Fear ]
[ Due to low sanity, the system will use its methods to stabilise the user emotionally. ]
[ Applying changes ]
[ 0%...50%...80%...100% ]
[ Sanity restored ]
####
Lukas entered the dungeon and found a long corridor with a few torches. At the bottom of the hallway, he could see Noelle and Ember standing in front of a smaller sized door.
"What took you so long? Let's go!" Ember complained.
"Karen wanted to talk to me." Lukas walked toward them with his hands in his pockets.
"Haaa~~ Right. It's the first floor of the dungeon. Maybe we'll run into weak monsters like rats or lizards."
"Right."
"Noelle, could you use that?"
"Okay!"
Noelle raised her two hands, and then the three of them began to glow. Lukas felt a warm sensation enveloping his body. It was welcoming.
'Nolle's unique ability [ Barrier ]' Lukas looked at his own hands.
"Right. I don't think all that care is necessary but better safe than sorry." Ember stuck her hand in her pocket and then pulled a dagger from there.
Unique skill [ Creating Sharp Weapons ]
It was something terrifying. Ember had created a dagger with a red blade that looked quite dangerous.
Then Ember opened the door. As soon as they took a few steps forward, they found a small room with an earth-covered floor. The small room had many different corridors.
"If we had more people, it would be good to split us up. There's some interesting stuff in that other hallway." Ember pointed to the left corridor.
But she didn't walk toward it. She walked toward the hallway across from them, the main hallway.
"Are you sure you are going to the right place?"
"Don't worry. I studied the dungeon structure with Karen and Noelle yesterday. Everything is fine."
"Right..."
Walking down one more corridor, they came to a brightly lit room. There was plenty of greenery on the walls: grass, flowers, roots, and small trees. And walking over the vegetation, some lizards stared at them.
They all looked like komodo dragons, reduced in size. Their skins were a mixture of green and red, and their tongues were purple.
As the three of them took another step forward, all the lizards ran towards them simultaneously. More than 20 lizards came out of holes in the wall and from the middle of the vegetation.
"Be careful, Lukas. They can't hurt you with attacks, but you will have problems if they inject a large amount of poison into you."
"Right!" Lukas took a few steps back, watching a group of three lizards approaching with front paws raised. He was startled by that sudden approach.
'Pyrotechnics.' Then Lukas created a giant fireball in his hand and compressed it. He made a small 'concentrated' fireball. The small fireball, the size of a marble, flew at high speed and crashed into the lizard.
After the ball collided with its body, the lizard was engulfed in flames and screamed.
[ You killed a 'Poisonous Lizard' ]
[ Would you like to suck out its soul? Y/N ]
He ignored the message for the moment. The other two lizards were approaching him.
'Take this!' Lukas had plenty of muscle strength, so he used his foot to kick one of the lizards. It flew towards the wall and crashed into it.
[ You killed a 'Poisonous Lizard' ]
At the same time, the second lizard had stopped moving. Lukas held its body using his ability [ Telekinesis ]
After 'locking' the lizard's body, Lukas lifted it. Since he didn't have a weapon to kill it, Ember approached and stuck her dagger into the lizard's chest.
Lukas looked around and noticed that all the lizards were already dead.