We arrived in a huge room that is much bigger than that trijunction room from before.
There are holes on the ceilings, as well as on the walls. At the far end of the room, is another path I'm assuming is the exit. That's the path where we are going towards, so we began to move forward.
But before we even got that far deep into the room, my ears picked up something.
From above… something is coming.
Some… things. There's a lot.
"Get moving!"
I shouted, and everyone rushed forward towards the area that doesn't have holes on the ceiling. And just as I guessed, multiple shadows exitted from those holes and landed inside the room.
A ton of them had arrived in the room, and everyone here was quite startled by their appearance.
"What in tarnation are those?"
Well said, Brown. I have no idea. But I think those are the so-called Lizards.
Their skin is pink. Like, it's actually a skin without any scales, like a gecko. It's very disgusting to look at. Imagine a crocodile with a new-born skin, all pink and slimy. Their teeth are sharp, and they make this hissing sound, like a snake.
And they have six fucking legs… What??
"Those are lizards! Careful, they can bite off your legs easily!"
Joyle said as he pointed his sword forward, and the lizards began to attack.
FWOOSHH!!!
The lizards can jump. I learned this knowledge within half a second when one of them jumped straight to my face. Luckily, I had summoned my sword already. By the time the lizard realizes, it's in the air with half of its body disconnected.
I dodged so that the blood didn't splatter to me, and the sound of its blood and gut falling to the ground made Joyle shivers his spine.
The fight lasted for ten seconds, until we decided that this battle is neverending. There are just so many lizards, but we have to keep moving.
"Let's keep going! There is no point in fighting these lizards!"
Joyle shouted as he pushed forward, and we all followed behind him.
Everyone turned back towards the exit, slowly killing lizards that stood in our way. I turned around last after slicing ten lizards, then I left the room alongside everyone else.
The path then leads to another trijunction. But on the right path, there is a sign saying 'safe zone'.
It's the safe zone the examiners are saying. Joyle saw it, and he turned towards everyone.
"Let's stay here for a while. There is no time limit for this test, so we could take our time."
I'm glad he said that. I do want to finish this mission quickly, but I guess I am kind of hungry and tired. Being on edge all the time really puts your mind on a string, so I followed him and everyone else to the safe zone.
.
"How can you guys even eat??"
Joyle looked at us while we were eating. I'm eating my cooked chicken that I bought this morning, though it's the only food that I have.
The others are eating their own lunch too. They brought their own lunch box and even structured the food in such a manner. Such kiddy boxes must be prepared by their moms...
The only one not eating is Joyle, who sat crossed-legs and his arms folded. He looked at the others with a grumpy face, as if not believing how his friends were able to eat after seeing all that gore scene.
"Basically, you are the only one who couldn't stand blood, Joyle."
Brown said with his mouth full, so I thought I should answer too.
"Yeah. Plus, I am getting hungry."
"You guys..."
Gruruuukkk...
Joyle looked upwards, pretending he didn't make that sound. But everyone here knows he is hungry already, and he finally gave up.
"Bah, fine!"
He took out his lunch box from his ring and started eating. The glimmering light from the light crystal on top of the safe zone shines his food.
The safe zone is just a small room, enough for at least 10 people to stand on the floor. There's a small blue stone at the end of the room, sticking to the wall.
It could be the monsters repellent. The ceiling is just as tall as the cave corridors.
"Take your time. I feel like sleeping first."
Heckle said as he slowly lowered his body down on the ground. Is he seriously thinking of sleeping inside a dungeon like this?
"Yeap. Me too."
Brown also lowers his body and lays on the floor. Joyle was still eating, while I stood up and sat at the wall.
I took my sword out and grabbed the towel I bought specifically for the sword. From my last encounter with the wolf, the blood on the sword will not be easily cleaned, so I should clean it up now while it's still wet.
"Say, that sword..."
Brown said while his head was on the floor.
"It's from the back arena, isn't it?"
"Yeah. Jrake gave it to me, so that one day I can protect myself with this."
"Well, it's certainly a good thing that he did. I saw you killing those lizards. Jrake trained you well, didn't he?"
Why does everything have to do with Jrake for these guys?
"... He did."
"Hmm..."
I kept on wiping the sword. The towel is now red due to blood, so I threw it away. I didn't sheath my sword after that fight, so my scabbard isn't filled with blood. But there are a ton of signs of blood on the sword.
It's probably from yesterday with the wolves. There are also signs of yellow liquid, which is from the bugs. Damn, I have killed a bunch of monsters. It's crazy to think that I will only kill even more in the future, which means I will have to be very diligent in cleaning my weaponries.
"All right, we should get going."
Five minutes later, Joyle finally finished his meal. He stored his lunch box back in his space ring, then stood up announcing that we are going to continue.
Brown and Heckle slowly stood up, while I summoned my sword from the ring again. I put it in the scabbard this time, so I can be ready any time. I put the scabbard on my hips and followed the others, leaving the safe zone.
There's traces of blood, right outside of the safe zone. Looks like someone else has come in and fought the lizards.
"These bloods must've belonged to the lizards. Otherwise, they would have stopped at the safe zone."
"I wonder who it could be."
Joyle then continued walking to the left path, towards the deeper dungeon. The path is getting steeper and steeper as we walk, and we finally arrived at a huge ravine.
The bottom is dark, so we can't see anything. But the trail of blood marks that the person must've jumped down.
"Damn, crazy guy must've jumped down."
Bron looked down from the edge of the ravine. It's truly dark, so he can't see anything at the bottom.
"Let's just keep going."
Joyle continued walking to the path on the right, leaving the ravine. The path kept on getting lower and lower, until we arrived in a large room.
The room is multiple times bigger than any other rooms here. It's almost as big as the Office lobby.
There are signs of battle here. Blood and dead lesser orc bodies are on the floor, but not one adventurer has fallen here.
There are paths from other places that lead to this room. Must be the path where the other adventurers take. I wonder if those armored guys also came here.
The battle scene gives a bad impression to everyone who just came here. Joyle especially, gulped before he spoke.
"Let's keep moving..."
Everyone else agreed silently.
We walked past the sea of blood and dead orc bodies. Our shoes are tainted red, but we kept on moving. Joyle covered his mouth with his hand, holding off the puke that was urging to run outside. Everyone else is just focusing on walking and holding their breaths.
There really isn't anyone else here, just our team. Everyone else must've already gone to the boss room, since this is the last challenge. I'm glad nobody in this group got hurt, which was probably because every other group has already hard cleared the paths from any monsters.
We finally arrived at the end of the corridor. But before we continued the walk, Joyle had to puke, while everyone else was controlling their breaths once more. After a while, we continued walking.
After the long-long walk, we finally arrived at the boss room. It's a very large open room, multiple times bigger than that orc massacre room. And from the looks of it, there are a lot of adventurers already here.
Some of them are on the floor, sitting down, while others are talking... No. Debating.
Something… seems to be up.
"You think we should just cower down like this?!"
"No! I think we should think this carefully! I wouldn't want to leave those guys either!"
Leave those guys? Who?
Hearing the commotion, we can't help but get curious. Joyle, as the leader, stepped closer to the discussing group and began asking questions.
"What's going on?"
Joyle asked the two squads who were arguing, and they quickly turned their gaze.
"Oh, newcomer."
The guy in glasses turned to us and greeted us. Meanwhile, the guy with the long beard he was arguing with turned around and left, followed by his friends.
Now it's up to the guy in glasses to tell us.
The guy in glasses was wearing full armor. His body was cladded in shiny metal that looks like new. He looked at us while his left hand was holding his helmet, and his friends followed his gaze.
"Welcome to the boss room. Grab your badges over there."
He pointed towards the large bucket at the end of the room. There are at least a hundred badges inside the bucket, which was the goal of this test.
"Okay... What is everyone else doing?"
Joyle nodded and asked again, but the glasses guy shook his head worriedly.
"Everyone already took their badges... But, there is an issue."
"An issue?"
He took a deep sigh before explaining.
"My biggest guess, this dungeon is actually just a simple Gray ranked dungeon…"
He then turned to the wounded guy at the right side who was being treated by the bearded guy's squad and other people. Seeing him, everyone on the team opened their eyes wide, including me.
That person lost his left arm while his mouth was coughing blood. His stomach is being held by the other adventurer, and it seems like he got stabbed.
"Until last night."
"L-Last night?"
He looked at us again. He let out a deep breath.
.
Meanwhile, at the top level of the dungeon, the same level as the goblins. The examiner, the one with the farmer hat, was strolling down the dungeon. As he walked, he found something he had not seen from yesterday. As soon as he recognized it, his eyes opened wide, in shock.
This thing most likely came out during the time Jrake told them not to go down the dungeon, last night. That something, is a new path that seemed to be newly dug.
Most importantly, it has a mark of the goblin king on the wall.
The same path that the armored guys took.
"What in the world..."
.
"What is it? What happened last night?"
Joyle couldn't wait for the answer. The adventurer in glasses looked up again while fixing his glasses.
From how dramatic he is being when answering, I can tell that this must be something serious.
"Have you ever heard of the term… 'Double Dungeon'?"