"Well, what can I say? I'm quite unique. Besides, it's also not really fair; you're an old man, so I'm sure your tolerance has lowered since your youth." Replied Alexander lightly with a smile as he lightly shook Jenkins, who let out a loud burp before filling his empty cup with more alcohol.
"You haven't told a lie yet! Anyways, enough about this; the more we talk about it, the more I'll want to challenge you to a rematch, though now isn't really the time for that." Remarked Jenkins with a large grin as he patted his beer belly before nearly downing the entire cup again, only to wipe his mouth and glance at Alexander.
"Yeah, about that; why is the guild so packed? I know I haven't been here for a long time, but this doesn't seem like a regular occurrence." Said Alexander with furrowed brows as he observed the guild alongside Jenkins, eyeing the numerous adventurers.
"No, it's not a normal occurrence; the only time stuff like this happens is if, one, there is a large monster horde in the dungeon, which hasn't happened in over a century in Hyphen; two, a dungeon is about to experience a rampage, and finally three, If a large expedition is about to happen." Remarked Jenkins seriously as he observed everyone while finishing the remaining alcohol in his cup and surprisingly not immediately filling it up.
"Expedition, Monster Horde, and Rampage. Has any of those happened?" Asked Alexander with a frown as he glanced at Jenkins, who shook his head.
"If it were an Expedition, we'd have been told a week or so beforehand to prepare; as for a Rampage, there would be signs, like infighting within the dungeon and increased monsters, so it's most likely not that. Monster horde is the only thing I can think of since there aren't that many people who live in Hyphen that can survive the last five floors of the dungeon." Replied Jenkins with a slight frown as he furrowed his brows and folded his arms, gazing about while Alexander wore a thoughtful look.
'I wonder if it has something to do with the fact that there is a dungeon underneath the Graveyard dungeon? But that shouldn't be of concern; that dungeon has existed for a very long time, so why would it suddenly change now?' Mused Alexander with a confused yet thoughtful look as he rested his chin on his hand, only to widen his eyes and hit himself in the head.
"The hole." Muttered Alexander as he squinted and clenched his fist while Jenkins looked at him.
"Hmm, you say something, Kid?" Asked Jenkins curiously with a raised eyebrow as he looked at Alexander, who quickly composed himself and shook his head.
"No, just talking to myself." Said Alexander lightly with a hardened gaze as he used [Heroes Gaze] to look through several buildings before eyeing the dungeon's entrance.
"Anyway, I heard a loud roar coming from the dungeon when I was walking past. I don't know what it was, but whatever that monster was, it was definitely powerful. My ability to use earth mana isn't the best, but even I could feel the disturbance in the atmospheric mana." Stated Jenkins lightly with a faint frown, only to see Alexander standing up with a serious expression.
"Leaving already? You haven't even been here for 10 minutes." Added Jenkins with a raised eyebrow as he looked at Alexander, who nodded.
"Yes, sorry, but I've got to leave. Yuki got sick because she ate something poisonous, and I've got to take care of her; she's quite the handful." Replied Alexander lightly as he waved at Jenkins before quickly heading towards the door, bumping into someone along the way.
"Yo, Kid, haven't seen you in a few days-" Said Jackal with a slight smile as he looked at Alexander, who continued to leave the guild while cutting him off.
"Good to see you as well, Jackal. Though sorry, I've got something important to do; I'll talk to you later!" Yelled Alexander as he waved at Jackal while jogging down the street, heading towards the dungeon.
Jogging down the street, which was difficult since I was constantly evading numerous people since today, like most days in Hyphen, was busy; eventually, I reached the dungeon, though when I arrived, it was blocked off using tape along with what I believe is a magic formation.
'Tsk dammit, Master only briefly explained magic formations.' Thought Alexander with a frown as he approached the dungeon entrance, only to carefully put his finger into the magic formations.
Instead of something happening to my finger, I felt it press against something hard, causing me to frown slightly since it was touching nothing, well, at least when I looked normally; when I used Heroes Gaze, I could see that I was actually touching mana that had compressed itself so much it solidified into a physical structure. Pretty much the same as if the oxygen in the air suddenly froze to a solid form; it was just working slightly differently.
'If that's the case, could I not just cut right through it?' Mused Alexander curiously as he reached onto his back, attempting to grab Trina, who wasn't there.
"Ugh, they're still inside my body; stupid, I knew I was going into the dungeon; why didn't I have them ready?" Muttered Alexander in annoyance as he left the area, only to return a few minutes later with a pair of greatswords holstered like an X on his back.
Having returned with Trina and Zartha on my back this time, I grabbed one of them and put them blade first into the magic formations, and just as I thought, Zartha cut right through the solidified mana with ease, which allowed me to easily bypass the magic formation and hop over the tape, finally entering the dungeon.
"Ahh, I really love you two." Said Alexander as he kissed the broad side of Zartha's blade, which glowed brightly in response.
'I still won't be gaining a physical body Master.' Remarked Zartha calmly as he glanced at Alexander, who rolled his eyes before softly sighing.
"Haa, I-I know. It's a pity, too. It's like placing the tastiest dish in front of me and then saying I can never eat it." Muttered Alexander softly as he holstered Zartha on his back, her face twitching while she remained silent.
Heading deeper into the dungeon, once I reached the first floor, I would've usually run right through it without bothering much, but now that the dungeons are connected, I don't know what type of effects it will have; what if I ran to the second floor I happened to encounter a level nine-hundred alligator or something?
'With the dungeons now connected, the stronger one will eat the weaker one, Master.' Said Trina with a faint smile as he sat beside Zartha while enjoying the sun.
"Stronger one will eat the weaker one? I assume that means the monsters in the stronger dungeons will replace all the weaker ones? Is that what you mean, Trina?" Asked Alexander with a faint frown as he warily walked down the first floor while holding both Trina and Zartha.
'That, and the dungeon will slowly evolve to a Legendary tier as well; when I mean slowly, I mean over the course of a week.' Stated Zartha, her words causing Alexander to freeze momentarily while continuing to walk.
"I had thought that might happen; I was just hoping I was going to be wrong." Muttered Alexander with an ugly expression as he stopped wasting time and started sprinting while filling his body with mana, causing him to go even faster than before.
'Tsk, this is freaking great news! So we've essentially got one week before a rampage happens within Hyphen? That's not a lot of time for everyone to flee and escape.' Thought Alexander with an unsightly look as he dashed through the second floor of the dungeon, only to arrive at the third floor a few minutes later.
Once I arrived at the fifth floor, I was forced to face the gargoyle guardian, but, unfortunately for the monster, it was reborn in one of its weakest versions, so I was able to easily defeat it without much problem, not even taking a full minute. I arrived at the tenth floor several minutes later, and pretty much the same thing happened as before: the licker was taken care of swiftly, though it did take several minutes since the guardian specializes in agility.
However, from the eleventh floor onwards, I slowed down and took things more carefully as the monsters on these floors were somewhat dangerous, and I didn't want to fight a pseudo-monster horde when I was trying to leave. However, after nearly an hour, I finally arrived at the fifteenth floor, which is faster than when Yuki and I go together, but while I'm usually nearly full on mana, right now, my mana reserves were at just above a quarter, so they were quite low.
'Though that is partially because I'm being slightly reckless as I'm trying to hurry.' Mused Alexander as he looked up at the ceiling and looked at the massive skeleton guardian, who fell into the hole.
Observing the hole in the ground, nothing looked vastly different other than the hole looking more natural, which is hard to describe, but instead, it looked like the ground was broken off; the edges were smooth and rounded. However, I didn't have much time to think of that as I heard roars coming from the hole, only for silence to return a few seconds later while the sound of bones being crushed was heard.