Carrot Dungeon, one of the most dangerous dungeons in the Aegis Kingdom.
[Name: Carrot Dungeon]
[Danger Level: Diamond]
Outside of the Carrot Dungeon, Sol and Valor arrived.
"So this is Carrot Dungeon, huh?" [Sol]
"Looks like there's no one here, that's good." [Valor]
Since this was a Diamond-Rank dungeon, not many demons would come here because they're not willing to risk their life to raid it. Usually, most of the demons would spend their time raiding low-rank dungeons for materials. Thanks to that, Sol can raid this dungeon peacefully without anyone interfering with him.
What are materials used for? Materials gained from killing monsters are usually used for crafting armor and weapons. Naturally, the stronger the monsters are, the higher quality the materials drop will be. In other words, if Sol wants to craft a Diamond-Rank weapon, then he would need to collect Diamond-Rank materials. Which was why Valor recommended this dungeon to Sol in the first place.
"Anyways, this is all I can do for you, the rest is up to you from here." [Valor]
"What you mean?"
"It means I won't go in with you because it's too dangerous for me. But fear not, no matter how long it takes, I'll wait for you outside."
"Hmm. If that's the case, then one month."
"One month?"
"If I don't make it out in one month or roughly 30 days, then you are free to go. You don't have to wait for me."
"Ahem," Valor cleared his throat in disapproval, "I appreciate your consideration, but until I get you to Azurion City as promised, I won't go anywhere because I'm man of my word."
"Alright then, see you later."
"Good luck."
Without wasting any time, Sol waved goodbye to Valor and entered the dungeon portal.
After entering the dungeon portal, in an instant, Sol was transported to a whole new dimension.
He arrived at a place or environment that looked like a tropical forest.
Unlike the tropical forest on Earth, the tropical forest here was much denser, not only that, everything here was dinosaur size, which means the trees, grasses, flowers and even the monsters here are all gigantic. Something like Earth during the prehistoric era.
As Sol scanned his surroundings, he couldn't help but was amazed by the extremely rich nature here.
'Amazing…'
It was at this moment, out of nowhere:
Ding!
[A new side quest has appeared!]
[Side Quest: Collect 10 Diamond-Rank materials]
[Reward: 1 Red Crystal]
'A side quest for this? Well, that was unexpected.'
Feeling motivated, Sol immediately started exploring and searching for Diamond-Rank monsters. And not even a minute passed, he already heard birds and insects chirping.
CHIRP! CHIRP! CHIRP!
BUZZ! BUZZ! BUZZ!
45 minutes later…
"What the hell? Why are all these monsters so weak? Is this even a Diamond-Rank dungeon?" Sol was confused.
It turned out all the monsters he just killed were low-rank monsters, that's because he's currently still in the safe zone area, which was why the monsters were weak.
In this world, a dungeon usually has two zones, a safe zone and a danger zone. A safe zone usually consists of low-rank monsters or sometimes even none, and the danger zone is where the real battle starts.
One hour and a half later…
By now, Sol has already exited the safe zone and is currently in the danger zone, in other words, it's just a matter of time before he would start encountering Diamond-Rank monsters.
Out of nowhere, Sol heard a loud powerful roar ahead of him.
ROARRR!!!
ROARRR!!!
ROARRR!!!
'Hmm, what's that noise?'
A few seconds later, he heard the same roar again, but it sounded much weaker this time. Then another few seconds later, he heard a loud cry and after that, everything went silent.
'It sounded like the monster was killed by someone,' Sol thought, 'Wait, does that mean I'm not the only one in this dungeon?'
Out of curiosity, Sol went to find out.
Eventually, he arrived at the scene and found a couple of gigantic monsters laying dead on the ground. To be precise, these monsters were killed in a way their bodies were sliced into pieces, in other words, it wasn't killed by other monsters, but rather it was killed by someone, maybe a player, or an adventurer.
Without delay, Sol began inspecting the monsters' bodies and what he had found surprised him.
"T-This!" Sol guessed right, "I was right, I wasn't the only one in this dungeon."
Out of nowhere, at lightning speed, an adventurer appeared behind Sol and placed her dagger on Sol's throat.
"Don't move! If you don't want to die!" [Luna]
'That was fast… I didn't even see it coming.'
Sol was amazed by this beautiful young lady's speed.
"Speak! Who are you?!"
As Luna looked at Sol's forehead, she realized Sol didn't have horns, that was when she immediately put her daggers aside and calmed down.
"Oh, sorry! I thought you were a demon, my bad!"
[Name: Luna]
[Title: Adventurer]
[Class: Assassin]
[Race: Local Human]
[Rank: Diamond]
After the demons conquered and took over the Eon Continent, Luna went into hiding inside this dungeon. Up until now, she didn't dare to leave this dungeon because she thought it was safer to stay here than going outside.
***
Inside a cave, sitting near a campfire, Luna offered some food for Sol to eat.
"Oh, thank you." [Sol]
"You're welcome! There's still more if you need it."
Luna was extremely excited because this was the first time in such a long time she had ever talked to someone.
With that, Luna and Sol began enjoying their time chatting and eating.
Not too long later…
"I see, so that's what has been happening outside." [Luna]
Deep down in Luna's heart, she really wanted to leave this dungeon and go outside, but at the same time, she was scared of taking the risk.
"So do you have any plan of leaving this dungeon and going outside in the future?" Sol asked curiously.
"Outside?"
The moment Sol said the word "Outside", Luna felt shivered down her spine as she remembered the time when all her friends died while fighting against the 12 Demon Knights and the demon general, Odeus.
The 12 Demon Knights, they are the 12 most powerful demons under Odeus's army. The rank of the 12 Demon Knights are somewhere from low to mid Diamond-Rank, while Odeus is peak Diamond-Rank, almost reaching Master-Rank.
Master-Rank, a rank higher than Diamond-Rank.
"What happened? Are you alright?" Sol was a little worried when he saw Luna's terrified face.
After a short while, Luna responded and said, "I'm fine, I just remembered something terrible in the past."
"I see. Well, I'm sorry for reminding you of something traumatizing."
"It's fine, I'm okay now."
It was at this time, Sol saw Luna's Diamond-Rank daggers and was curious.
"That dual daggers of yours, is it Diamond-Rank?"
"Yeah, do you want to see it?"
"I'm okay, just curious."
Luna was proud of her dual daggers and wanted to show it off to Sol, but unfortunately, Sol rejected it.
'Weird, why would he ask if he's not going to at least take a look at it.' [Luna]
Deep down in Sol's heart, he really wanted to steal those Diamond-Rank daggers, but at the same time, he knew it was the only weapon Luna had for protecting herself. So in the end, he changed his mind about stealing the dual daggers.
"Thanks for the meal, I'll be taking my leave now."
After saying that, Sol got up and began leaving to go outside the cave.
"Wait! Where are you going? Are you planning to leave? It's dangerous outside."
"Yes, I'm planning to leave, but not right now as I still have some things to do in this dungeon."
"Ah, okay…"
The truth was, Sol actually wanted to borrow Luna's power to join him and together kill Odeus, but then he remembered he was just a tank, and there's no guarantee he could protect Luna in case of danger. Thus, he decided it's better to solo everything by himself without getting anyone involved since he doesn't want people to die because of him.
***
Outside of Carrot Dungeon.
"Y-You! Why are you here?!" [Valor]
Valor was terrified for his life, almost as if he had seen a ghost.
"Heh, I never thought you would betray your own kind and team up with a human." [Ingrid]
"Haha, betray? I have no idea what you are talking about." [Valor]
All this time, Ingird's assassins were spying on Sol and Valor, so she knew everything.
"Idiot! We have been spying on you the whole time, so don't even think about lying to us," said one of Ingrid's assassins.
Knowing that he can't lie anymore, Valor admitted, "So what?! Kill me then if you're not happy!"
"Kill you? Nah, I have no interest in you, so consider yourself lucky." [Ingrid]
"Then why are you here?" [Valor]
"Do you even need to ask something so obvious? I'm sure you already know the reason why I am here." [Ingrid]
'Fuck this bitch…' Valor couldn't help but was worried for Sol.
A short while later…
The 9 Elite Demons arrived.
Upon seeing them, Valor became even more worried and almost fainted. He felt like his soul had left his body temporarily.
'This is bad… this is really bad…!'