*Tap, tap, tap*
Jisha's light footsteps echoed through the stairwell as she descended the steel steps. It was likely they were solid inside.
The lighting inside this small hallway was incredibly poor. Since the staircase didn't travel along a straight line, the previously well-lit room was no longer visible.
Mana crystals were jutting out from the walls at erratic intervals. It was likely that these were just naturally-occurring crystals and whoever constructed the tunnel decided to use them as lightning...
*So were they just stingy, or...? Seriously, a couple extra lights around here wouldn't help.*
The mana crystals were spaced so far apart that Jisha was relying on the echolocation skill more than her eyesight at the moment.
She'd never turned it off; it was still proving quite useful. She would have definitely run into a wall or two without it.
The staircase was winding downwards with no pattern, either.
*... Did the constructor just dig in whichever direction the subterrain was softest?*
It was inconvenient to travel through, but it was optimal for the construction cost... Jisha decided she couldn't really fault them for it.
Down, down, down...
The monotony of darkness shrouded her again.
---
*Are you kidding me? It's one of these?*
Jisha's eyebrows twitched in frustration as she approached the end of the staircase.
She was sure she'd traveled several hundred metron downwards. This took her at least 10 minutes. Now, she'd arrived in an empty room with a singular steel crate in the middle.
The only lighting in the room came from some mana crystals that were neatly laid around said crate.
The description of "suspicious" was an understatement.
It was so clearly a trap that Jisha felt like a prank had been played on her.
The most frustrating thing was... it was impossible to tell whether a path in a dungeon would lead to a dead end unless someone scouted it.
Many Synergy players wanted to be front runners, but no front runner wanted to encounter a dead end. Sometimes, it was a punishment worse than death...
*... Now what?*
Climbing the staircase would take another 10 minutes.
Jisha closed her eyes and massaged her eyebrows to calm down.
*Well, f*ck it.*
She made up her mind pretty quickly.
It was a tendency that had never gone away despite the years she'd lived; if there was a piece of candy in front of her, she would spare no effort to snatch it.
Of course, over time, she was able to restrain this habit.
But here, in the beginning of the game where the world was simple, she felt like she could go a bit wild.
The 10 minutes she'd spent to get down here would turn into 20 wasted minutes if she returned empty handed. Was she really going to let a level 31 dungeon treat her like this?
*This isn't like earlier, okay? I've learned from my mistake!*
Jisha approached the crate and flung it open. It was already unlocked.
... Actually, there was a very small chance that this "trap" wasn't a trap. Sometimes, simply by appearing like a trap, chests that were completely safe to open would be overlooked. It was like how a harmless bug's bright colors - its mimicry - would warn predators that it was "dangerous".
When she took the items...
Nothing happened.
*...*
But... the only items inside were a few rudimentary stamina potions...
*There's no way. One of these has gotta be something interesting, right?*
It was possible to get surprise-attacked by some delayed mechanism, so Jisha remained alert.
However, no matter how much she looked, the only information that was returned to her was that of the most basic stamina potion in the game...
She kicked the crate in frustration. It didn't budge.
After calming down, she scanned the room again.
Even now, no traps had activated.
*So these are probably the real treasures of this room.*
The mana crystals were beautifully refined into the shape of cubes and lay around the crate in a neat circle. And there were 10 of them! These were the only mana crystals she had seen thus far that were actually collectable.
With no hesitation, Jisha snatched one of the crystals off the ground.
And when she did...
She heard a door slide shut behind her.
*... Yeah...*
This was something she fully expected, but she was confident that she could survive any traps the dungeon threw at her.
She waited.
Vigilantly... ever so vigilantly.
But, even after waiting for a bit... nothing happened.
*Hm...*
Jisha relaxed a bit when she confirmed that no trap existed.
*There has to be something going on here.*
She looked around again and noticed that the mana crystal she'd taken had been lying on some sort of mechanism.
*Oh...*
She put the mana crystal back on top of this mechanism, and the door opened.
*Oh............*
When she realized the nature of the trap, she nearly fell to the ground out of exasperation.
This... was the most feared type of trap in the entire game!
The rumored "worse-than-death" punishment!
But... nothing was happening. How was it worse than death?
Well...
These mana crystals were insanely valuable at her current level.
It was obvious that anyone would want to take them.
But, if you tried to take them, you would break the mana circuit that was holding the door open.
So, you had a few options.
1. Leave.
This was a tragic option. It seemed like it was possible to smuggle the stamina potions out of the room, though, so it wasn't a complete loss.
2. Take the crystals and wait for someone to rescue you.
There were a couple of problems with this one.
Since this was an instance dungeon, Jisha was in a space that was isolated from the mainland. It was impossible for someone to come rescue her since she entered the dungeon alone.
And since the door was made of steel, it was unlikely any level 31 player could break through it, much less a level 10 player... (a/n: retconned last chapter, she levelled up to 10)
Now, this was where the sadism began.
There was indeed a third option.
3. Take the crystals and try to break out.
Though the door was made of steel, the rest of the room was just rock.
Jisha knew for a fact that this rock was actually softer than the steel the door was made of. This was because it was the same type of stone as the urns she'd sliced earlier.
Since the rock was weak to magic, it was possible to use spells to dig a tunnel.
But... a tunnel to where?
This secret room was hundreds of metron underground. Unless one could just swim through the terrain, reaching the surface would be an extremely laborious task.
Spells cost mana. Mana would deplete. And the destructive power of spells at level 31 was... well, let's just say that they wouldn't be mining efficiently.
The good news was that one's mana would naturally regenerate over time.
Stamina, on the other hand, would not regenerate naturally. If you ran out of consumables, you would just starve to death in this cave.
However, the crate contained many stamina potions.
If you thought this far, it was clear that the creator of the dungeon was saying, "just try to break out!"
But as mentioned earlier... break out to where?
With the absurd supply of stamina potions and the small rate at which it decreased in the low levels, you could stay in here almost endlessly.
It was logical for someone to try to break out for at least a little while.
And this is where it was worse than death especially for a front runner.
If one spent more time in this cave than they realized, they would fall behind in levels.
If you died once, you would simply lose one level and respawn in some nearby settlement. Though it would take some effort, reclaiming a lost level wasn't difficult.
And this was only in the wild. In an instance dungeon, punishment was usually even more lenient.
However, by digging around endlessly in this cave, how many levels have you effectively lost by not leveling up? A determined person might even sacrifice 10 levels...
Of course, it was possible to transport the crystals outside using some sort of warp magic, but that was simply overkill. 10 magic crystals were valuable, but that was only in the early game. Using this sort of magic here was like using 1 Gold to buy 1 Copper - not worth it!
So, breaking out was the only option.
Jisha collected all of the crystals and put them in her inventory. Then, she began thoroughly inspecting the room for any clues.
The first thing she did was inspect the door. She concluded that this was a blast-resistant and magic-resistant metal.
As expected, it wouldn't be possible for her to break through this door with any of her current methods.
She then began inspecting the walls.
This was another form of mana triangulation.
Since the walls were weak to magic, it was possible that the properties of it would vary greatly in areas where mana was denser.
She took the magic dagger and began poking the walls in various places.
*Tck, tck, tck...*
The sound of a sharp object hitting a rock resounded through the room.
*Not here... not here... Ah, here.*
Instead of a sharp sound, Jisha encountered a section of the wall that crumbled even with a soft poke.
For a few minutes, she dug through this weak rock with the dagger.
Even though this tool wasn't optimal for digging, the rock was so weak here that she eventually managed to make a small hole.
The preparations were nearly complete.
*Heh heh...*
Jisha suppressed the urge to giggle when she thought of this plan.
Why was the door blast-resistant? The tunnels were constructed of the same material as well. What was the reason for this?
Well... depending on the density, mana crystals were explosive. They were bundles of energy, after all. Disturbing them too much would force them to release this energy.
And if you "disturbed" them quickly enough...
Jisha ruefully glanced at five of the mana crystals she had just collected... and placed them in the small hole in the wall.
This was likely the only way to break out of this cave. It was quite the clever trap; it was possible to take the crystals out of the room, but to do so, you had to sacrifice several of them in the process.
At the end of the day, it was still a profit of five crystals.
A good percentage of the player population hoarded too many useless consumables. These players wouldn't even think of sacrificing some of the treasure they were working so hard to get. Here, that was a fatal mistake.
Jisha retreated behind the crate and equipped her Golden Slingshot.
*Goodbye, little ones...*
She took aim and fired!
She watched on in excitement as the pellet approached the mana crystals in the wall.
As if it were a baseball through a window, the pellet shattered the first crystal.
And when it did...
Jisha immediately took cover behind the steel crate.
*BOOM*
*BOOM*
*BOOM*
*...*
The explosions were loud. Deafening, even.
But Jisha attentively listened to each one with a smile on her face.
This wasn't the real world - she wouldn't suffer hearing loss from a virtual explosion. On top of this, the system mitigated the pain she would have normally felt.
*BOOM*
*BOOM*
*BOOM*
...
The explosions didn't stop.
The five crystals had long exploded by now, so how was this happening?
Since the area Jisha had dug out was weaker rock, it was likely that mana was denser in that area. The source of this mana was none other than mana crystals! In other words, there was likely a vein of mana crystals in this area.
The rest didn't need to be said.
*Haha... It's a success.*
Jisha poked her head above the crate to witness the pretty flashing lights of the mana explosions. Cool people weren't supposed to look at explosions, obviously, but who cared about that?
There was something satisfying about blowing something up.
Was it the destruction it caused? Was it the flashing lights? Was it the fact that something that took so much effort to prepare was gone in an instant?
She wasn't sure.
*I didn't think I was going to be like this...*
The pretty lights, the pieces of candy... her childish tendencies were on full display in this dungeon.
Was it because her physical body had reverted to that of a child?
*It is a bit refreshing, though.*
In the recent past, she hadn't been allowed to act like this. But now, she could chalk it up to her being "young".
Jisha watched as the explosions continued and chained upwards creating a convenient slope to climb.
It was enjoyable to watch, but explosions in a cave were always dangerous.
*RUMBLE*
*RUMBLE*
...
*Here it comes.*
A cave-in was beginning. There was only one way out!
Jisha booked it through the tunnel as the dust particles that were falling in the room turned into pebbles which turned into large rocks... which turned into the entire ceiling collapsing.
A "time trial" had begun!
It was a popular game concept.
How far could you run before the disaster that was chasing you caught up?
*This'll be good practice.*
This was by far the most extreme terrain Jisha had attempted to speed through in her Tier 0 body. It was the perfect opportunity to completely familiarize herself with it.
She climbed through the tunnel avoiding sharp rocks that jutted inwards on all sides.
The further she ran, the less friendly the tunnel became.
The tunnel that she could comfortably run through shrank considerably.
Eventually, it became as small as a crawl space.
Crawling through a space deep underground. Rock right above your back and right below your stomach. A cave-in was imminent. Stopping meant that you would be crushed to death.
Even a cat would be claustrophobic!
But Jisha calmly weaved through the obstacles. It wasn't a perfect run, but it was undoubtedly fast enough to outrun the cave-in.
With a combination of the weak light from several untouched mana crystals and echolocation, finding proper footing was not a problem.
She didn't have the grip or forearm strength of a rock climber, but the rocks she needed to climb weren't vertical.
Her hands and fingers immediately latched on to the optimal holds.
And memorizing this path allowed her feet to push off those same holds.
The crawl space grew smaller and smaller. Eventually, there was barely any room to move at all. Was there an accessible exit, or would she be stuck here? Jisha wondered if she'd messed up.
But soon after, she spotted a literal light at the end of the tunnel.
Unfortunately, it wasn't sunlight.
She popped out of the tiny hole in the wall and smoothly executed a parkour roll on the ground.
*Hm...*
She was still in the cave. There were... a lot of mana crystals here. And unsurprisingly, none of them were harvestable.
*This is probably the bottom of the other section... Well, now that I've seen this, it looks like I chose the right path in the end.*
If she spent her time to travel to the bottom of a cave with treasures that said "look, but don't touch," it would have been even more frustrating.
She didn't have any time to admire this crystal formation. The cave was still destroying itself.
Jisha continued up the only pathway that existed. It was obvious that this wasn't meant for human travels. One could only travel quickly through this terrain if they had a combined experience of spelunking, rock climbing, and parkour.
An ordinary player would have been crushed in the tunnel long ago.
Jisha had to get a bit creative with her exit approach.
When the ground was too jagged, she found footholds on the walls.
When it appeared to be suitable, she was able to parkour across several rock formations along the ground.
And if there was a shortcut that could be crawled through, she took it without hesitation.
Fortunately, there were no monsters around. They undoubtedly realized something was wrong and likely escaped.
Upwards, upwards, and upwards, the climb continued.
The farther up she went, the easier it became, and the faster she was able to progress to the exit.
Before long, she finally reached the fork in the road where she'd originally branched off. At this point, it was as simple as running a footrace on pavement.
No more obstacles were in the way.
There was another light at the end of the tunnel. And this time, it was sunlight!
Jisha slowed to a stroll, stretched her virtual body and yawned as if she hadn't nearly failed just earlier.
*That was a good workout.*
The cave-in was nowhere in sight. She'd outrun it by a mile. But...
*Hm?*
For some reason, she was allowed to leave even though she hadn't received a dungeon clear notification...
*What was the clear condition, then?*
At the end of the day, it didn't really matter since she'd made a profit of five mana crystals. Though she was curious about the true clear condition, a steady rumbling emanated from deep within the cave. She wouldn't be able to go back in there if she wanted.
*Well, whatever.*
Jisha nonchalantly walked out of the cave, and the system presented her with several dungeon exit options.
She decided to simply exit where she'd entered.
By selecting this option, a portal to an exact replica of the cave entrance in Synergy's mainland appeared. By stepping back into the mainland, this "instance" ceased to exist.
When she stepped out of the cave, she wanted to reminisce the time she'd first exited a cave with her best friend.
Out of breath. Adrenaline pumping. And the ridiculous decision to go back in.
Of course, this decision got them killed.
"Rejoice, Castle. Everyone, engage!"
But... a tiny inconvenience shattered this daydream.
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