My Dungeon Life – Chapter 1602-1604

Chapter 1602

“Alright, we’re here. Now what?” I asked.

Calypso had been let free of her cage, but it was still night out. She said that timing was important, and to start the true Champion’s Gauntlet, we needed to leave in the middle of the night. We had gotten as much rest as we could, and then we left while it was still dark. An extremely sleepy Chance and Cici accompanied me, as well as the girls from Titan Fall. They weren’t the only ones there, unfortunately. There was another group who had butt into it.

“If this is some kind of trick, we will make sure to cleanse you from this world!” Anne cried out.

“Allow me to cleanse her! I will do it quickly.” The inquisitor happily reassured her.

The inquisitor had told the Prelate Anne, and she had arrived with five of her creepy paladins. I wanted to reject them, but Alysia reminded me that we were planning on going up against boss after boss in an attempt to overtake the Fae. A single S-ranked dungeon diving team might not be enough, so we had to take whatever help we could get.

It should also be added that paladins were extremely effective in dungeons. Their skillset lead toward attacking the miasma itself, so if there was anyone by my side, a group of paladins would be it. I’d have preferred Carmine, but she was captured. As for my other girls, I had considered calling them, but I ultimately decided it was better to wait. They were all still busy. Lydia was still healing from her soul merge. Terra was still missing her original body. Miki still had her family to deal with. It seemed like they all had been through a lot lately, and I wanted to give them a few weeks at least before they had to put their lives on the line again.

Why did that mean that Chance and Cici had to come? Well, I had made it abundantly clear that I was in charge, but those paladins wouldn’t take orders from me. However, they would listen to Chance. If she looked at them with tearful eyes, they responded to her orders faster than Anne’s orders. Her youthfulness seemed to trump seniority in their church. If she wasn’t alone, the power dynamic would have shifted and it would be a problem. That’s what Eliana had explained to me. I hated that I was having to play with politics inside a dungeon run, but I didn’t have any choice.

The reason that Cici was along, despite being a bit older and having a bit larger of a chest, but still acceptable to the paladins, was related to her hair. Calypso had explained that this pathway would only open to those native to Gaia, ie Fairy and Fae. Cici was magically altered with fairy magic, and so her presence would open the pathway. Eliana might have worked too, but that would have meant I’d need to bring my pregnant woman along and expose her lineage. I was already uncomfortable bringing Titan Fall, who should have been protecting Eliana. She insisted she didn’t need it now that she was in the city, and I reluctantly agreed that the bigger danger involved this dungeon.

According to Calypso, the Champion’s Gauntlet had two pathways. The obvious pathway was the islands, but there was also a second pathway that only opened to allies of the Fae. This pathway was a bit easier, which is why she believed that we could complete it. As for the Fae defeating this dungeon, they didn’t appear to be aware of this easier pathway, or they probably would have taken it. I wasn’t unfamiliar with such paths. A similar shortcut had existed in that laboratory dungeon in Dioshin that only the dungeon master was aware of.

Why did Calypso know about it though? I had no clue, but I was getting a distinct feeling there was more to this dungeon than I originally thought.

Chapter 1603

I recognized the place we had gone. It was the same beach where I had given the dungeon master my donation. In from of was a cover leading out into a dark, murky ocean.

When I had chosen this spot, it was because there were few people here. I never would have anticipated that this was the location of some hidden backdoor entrance through the dungeon. Would the dungeon master be angry now that I was going to seriously try to take their challenge? They might even consider it cheating. Hopefully, the nature of the dungeon meant they were looking for anyone who could beat it, regardless of their race.

The fact that the gauntlet had an easy path for Fae and fairy told me that the champion was probably on their side. It must have been the hero of the Fae I had seen glimpses of lore about. That said, the dungeon wouldn’t have included a second pathway if its alleged gift wasn’t for everyone. I mean, it probably had no choice in the matter, but hopefully, after all of these years, it wouldn’t take offense.

A few minutes had passed with nothing happening, so Anne spoke up in a whiny tone. “This is a complete waste of time.”

“Just wait for it,” Calypso smirked, looking up.

I followed her vision, and I realized she was looking up at the sky. The sky was currently overcast. I couldn’t see far enough to see whether the SS island was still covered in mysterious fog or not. As I watched, the moon started to come out from behind the clouds. As soon as I felt the moon, I felt a strange kind of resonance. I wasn’t the only one who felt this. Cici suddenly closed her eyes, as if she was feeling a gentle breeze on her.

A few moments later, I could feel a vibration in the ground. The vibration grew with increasing ferocity. The Titan Fall girls readied themselves while Anne grabbed onto the inquisitor to keep from falling on her face. The next thing I noticed was a churning of water in the bay. An object started to rise from the water. As it did so, waves struck the beach, reaching our feet and soaking our shoes. I felt Chance grab onto me worriedly, but Cici still stood there with her eyes closed, not even seeming to notice what was going on around her.

When the vibrations finally finished, a large cave entrance had seemingly risen from the water, directly in the center of the cover. It immediately dived down into the depths of the ocean. It was hard to say how it wasn’t filled with water because the entrance did not appear to contain any cover. Yet, the pathway did look dry.  There was a stone path leading straight to it so you didn’t need to swim out there. Under the light of the moon, it had a somewhat surreal appearance.

As the last of the tremors faded, Cici opened up her eyes. She made a surprised noise as if she only just realized a cave entrance had suddenly appeared. Everyone else exchanged looks. There was a hidden entrance. The only way one could enter it was to have a fairy or Fae present in the moonlight. It was no surprise why it had never been stumbled upon before now.

“Shall we go?” Calypso asked, a knowing smirk on her face.

Chapter 1604

Our goal was simple. We had to ender the hidden champion’s gauntlet and beat the Fae to the end. With the challenge and difficulty lower than the surface dungeon, plus the combined efforts of several paladins, a prelate, an inquisitor, an osterian S-class party, and myself… I had the confidence that we’d be able to defeat it. With luck, we’d be back just in time for the peace talks. As for those talks, Eliana was confident she could unite the Ost Republic. All it would take was exposing the threat from overseas, and most of the Ost Republic would unite instantly.

I said most because there was one group that was in a hard place. The fae that lived in the Ost Republic had managed to remain there for generations. They had believed their brethren had fallen, and the feeling was mutual. I hadn’t even known the fae still lived down here until I had come down here. They had done a good job keeping their tribe lowkey, as did most of the tribes of the Ost Republic. If a war was brewing, Eliana didn’t want the fae who was from the Ost Republic to feel like they were enemies.

I recalled many wars in history where people were treated poorly simply because they were the race of the enemy invaders. That hadn’t been the case in Chalm when Dioshin attacked, and I hoped it wasn’t the case now. This was the other reason it was so essential that Eliana stayed behind. Once word of the Fae invasion came out, people from Ost would start panicking. Some might even lash out at friends and minorities. Humans might flee to Aberis, where they would feel safer. It could potentially divide the Ost Republic completely, and create the perfect place for the fae to conquer and start their invasion on the mainland.

Thus, we were both fighting this battle in our way. Eliana would be preparing people and making alliances, while I would make sure they couldn’t get their hands on this weapon. Unfortunately, this was just the start. If this was an invasion, we had a long way to go. I had a feeling I would need to call on all of my girls, and maybe even my dungeon’s strength, but the time this was all over. I would give them as much time as I could before then, and that’s why we had to give it our best.

Chance and Cici followed close behind me as we crossed the rock path. The paladin and church girls came second, and the Titan Fall trailed in the back. Calypso was in chains, and she was placed behind me and in front of the paladins. I took the lead because I had Map and all of the danger senses. I guess Titan Fall also had dungeon diver jobs, as Alysia had explained to me, but I was more comfortable taking the lead until we had a better sense of what this dungeon was about.

As soon as we passed the entrance, there was a long stairway heading into the dark. I started moving down it, but I could not see the bottom. The Titan’s Fall had only just started heading down the stairway when the rumbling began again. The cave was lowering back into the depths. This time, Cici could feel it and grab onto me frightfully. I readied a Portal just in case water started coming down, but the water didn’t enter the cave.

When the rumbling stopped, I looked up at the others, who were all in various states of alarm, all except Calypso who was still grinning mysteriously.

“Let’s get this over with,” I spoke out loud.

We continued down into the depths of the dungeon path.