Chapter 118: Battles for survival
Dungeons.
In this world, it’s not just a place to trap the prisoners or the guilty, or a place where they are tortured for their crimes.
It is a similar place, though, not from the current era.
"Meowwwww...!"
In a past long forgotten, there were various civilizations that hid various treasures in various places.
They were much different from the civilization of the modern times. While they did not have the unique taming methods, ways to distinguish different creatures from a faraway land, or were mostly closed off to islands like these, there were times when they were more powerful than most other mainlanders.
They were cut off from much of the world, but with what they had, they sometimes developed things that were simply too unbelievable.
’I have seen dozens of them in the past.’
Death traps filled with deadly traps, places where the most dangerous of the monsters were trapped, a certain prison for not the human evil, but the evil of nature.
Dungeons were the places that fulfilled the role of those unique entrapments.
’In those times, there were many dangerous creatures that we do not see today.’
Closer to the demonic beasts than the creatures of nature, these beasts were not something the people of that time could defeat.
In fact, some of the creatures were so powerful that they had almost destroyed that civilization.
Throughout the known history, there have been many civilizations that were wiped out because of a certain kind of creature and the one that they had fallen into seemed like one of those fallen lands.
’Actually, this place is different from that.’
Dungeons were primarily built for three reasons: to trap monsters that cannot be defeated at that time; to safeguard a relic of that particular civilization; or in rare cases, to simply test the people of the new times.
’This seems like the work of the descendants of the fourth Ancient Kingdom.’
When the world was one and ruled by six distinct powers, there was chaos. But once the world was divided, the six powers did not fall completely.
Some of the descendants of the six kingdoms survived on the scattered lands. And on those lands, they started rebuilding what was lost in time.
Going forward, the descendants of the fourth fallen kingdom, the Kingdom of Ahuti, came to be known as Anahutians.
These people built large structures on scattered pieces of land. They weren’t settlers so they did not have a certain house of their own, but it was said that they built some of the first land-sea tribes by joining hands with the merfolks.
We don’t often see something like that even in today’s world so it’s simply unbelievable they achieved it back then, but however they may have done it, the place Sam and Felix had fallen into right now belonged to them.
Of that, he was certain.
"Wait wait! We have to go that way!" Felix was running beside him while he was running while holding the Az-map.
And running after them both were man-eating golem scorpions, beasts that were nearly immortal by nature and yet deadly in all aspects.
They threw acid at the opponents and they were going to kill them if they didn’t find a safer space to deal with them.
"SJKIIIIIII!"
"SJKIIIIIIII!"
"SJKIIIIIIIIII!"
There were three of these creatures and all three of them were also of (SR-rank) like Felix.
They were powerful beasts, large enough to cover the entire cave that they were running into, and they were not stopping.
The place they had fallen into was a deadly dungeon made to test the ones who fell into it, as well as a place full of many other beasts like this one.
The gems that were randomly scattered all around this island were the only way to get inside this entrapment which existed under the desert, and the only way to get out of here was through the very center of it.
However, even to reach that central area, one would have to pass through three more sections like the one they were about to enter, and while there, they would have to deal with whatever was present in that place.
And... they will have to do that on their own.
"SJKIIIIIIIIII!"
"Arghhhhhhh!"
They did not have any time to dodge when the leading scorpion shot another spray of acid at them.
Sam had to crash down to the side along with Felix to avoid that attack.
-Shrrrrrrrrr!
The acid burnt the ground that they were running on, creating an uneven absence. Things were getting too dangerous right now, but he knew he could not deal with things here on his own.
If he waited to put Felix back inside her essence card, those creatures might attack them again and, while they weren’t coordinated yet, he could tell they were becoming more and more used to fighting together as time passed.
They were smarter creatures, and they were not the only creatures in this damned place.
"PTSSSSSSSS!"
After much difficulty, when they stepped inside a room that would lead them to the next stage, to no one’s surprise, they found themselves inside of a pit full of venomous snakes.
"Meow!"
They were standing at the edge of a freefall of at least twenty meters that ended in a pool of deadly snakes. If anyone saw this, they would be Sam saw these creatures, the only thought in his mind was to bring a few of them with him.
They were rare on the continent he was going to but they weren’t some extinct species. He knew how to deal with them already so he first put Felix in her essence card and took out his modified LaVan jacket.
The pit full of snakes below him were all blind and extremely heat sensitive.
So, the only way to deal with them was through making himself invisible to them all.
-Swish!
Fog eyes would help him, but the skill would not affect the creatures that were outside of his range.
And from what he was seeing, the pit of snakes was several meters deep.
He needed to go through that deep pit to go to the next place, and it would not be easy with Felix, so, with her resting for a moment, he jumped inside the pit of snakes... or into a slimy pool of gooey mucus, in this case.