Dungeon Diving (III)

Snow was a bit shocked to hear that Dairen was working for both the God of Light and Dark. Mostly because there weren't many people who wanted to ask for anything from the God of Darkness. The image of God of Darkness was a lot more terrifying.

Especially in the history books, many instances of the world, causing events that brought pestilence, war, and death brought fear.

But Snow knew better; she saw the balance between the two Gods as their nature needed one another. So, she didn't believe that the God of Darkness was evil.

"Why?" Snow asked, there weren't many who would turn towards the God of Darkness for a blessing.

Dairen curiously looked at Snow, unsure what she was asking.

Snow asked again in a different way.

"Why do you serve two Gods? Aren't you afraid?"

"Ah, I see. What you mean." Dairen nodded, realizing what she was trying to convey. "It was a choice, but more of a gut feeling. I just felt like it was right." He replied, trying to define it into words but was having a hard time.

"A feeling?"

"Yes." Dairen's eyes creased, he looked at the small god statue in his hand, trying to think of ways to explain it to her.

"But you do know that the God of Darkness is known for Fear and War."

Dairen thought what she had said and shook his head. "The God of Light and Darkness is one being." His words were like a crackling fire that would burn anyone's ear if they weren't opened mind. Many would have called him a false believer of the God of Light if they heard of such a statement. "It's because, without one or the other, the cycle of life and death wouldn't exist. They wouldn't be too far off from each other."

"I would be careful about what you say to certain people." Snow replied, she knew that what he would have said would get him into many troubles with the churches out there.

"Just be careful." She tapped him on the shoulder, silencing him from asking anymore.

"Then what about this dungeon, who do you think created it?" Dairen asked. "I was reading in on it and found out that dungeons aren't from this world in the first place. The history vaguely talks about how it came into being."

Snow sharply turned towards him; her eyes became wide at his statement. "You are right in that case that the dungeons are not part of this world. There aren't many accounts of such things happening, but each time they appear, chaos follows after. Some people believe that these dungeons are lost magic or ancient civilizations that came from the stars and brought it to this world. Others say it's from the God of Darkness who decided that humanity needed to be tested, which many wildly believe this is more of the cause. Then there have been saying that Dungeons are created with Black Magic to destroy the world."

"Those are all different theories." Dairen thought out loud, he crossed his arms, pondering over the theories until he stopped to face her. "Which one do you think is real?"

Being caught off guard by his question, she momentarily struggled to answer his question. It took a bit of time for her to piece together her mind, but eventually, she spoke. "I believe it's not from this world, the ancient glyphs and writings that I had been studying don't have any correlations with our writings. Not only that, black magic hasn't been born until the dungeon appeared."

"Really? Are you sure about black magic being made the same time dungeons appeared?"

Even Snow wouldn't have believed such a statement if she didn't dive into the histories, fables, and rumors on her own time and curiosities. Dungeon Theories were one of her interests for a very long time.

Snow nodded her head, reassuring him that what she had said was true. "The first recording of black magic happened at the same time as the first dungeon appeared, anything before that about black magic was all just hoaxes to scare people. The real black magic that caused destruction, pestilence, war, and curses started from the same source. A black mage in 734 Grand Magic Year. That is about over ten thousand years ago."

Dairen gaped.

"Still, I don't know too much about Dungeons and how it's exactly created, but there must be someone who does. I'm sure of it." She then left, leaving Darien thinking about what she had said. She knew that there was someone who knew how to create Dungeons from scratch. For what purpose and why? This was the question that bothered her immensely. Maybe going through to the final levels and finding the dungeon core would solve it, but first, she needed to make sure she had found a good spot for the Dragon Express to support the Players and Hunters as they went deeper.

She had a few theories on how deep this dungeon was, because of how new this dungeon was opened. A possibility of five to ten compared to the one hundred level floor that was opened for a good hundred years. The worst that was recorded in history was a thousand-floor dungeon that was opened for over five hundred years. Such dungeons brought immense population to the country as well as the destruction that wiped out a whole civilization.

Such thought made her shudder for such an old, and ancient dungeon meant one thing: stronger monsters that one would rarely see out in the world. She remembered reading about the Black Ancient Dragon that spawned in the last room, where over a hundred other lesser dragons were present. It took over one hundred Heroes and a large army the scale of a vast country to destroy the core.

Snow continued to explore the area, realizing the amount of small god temples and offerings that were present. She wondered how there were so many Holy and dark powers all mingled up in one area that it was giving off a unique feel. The only thought that came to her mind was that the Players had brought these artifacts into this area. Over time, the different Gods power was leaking through a crack of the dungeon itself.

She felt safe as well as in danger, but the overpowering energy coming from the God of Light and Darkness overshadowed the many other God's creating a wholly unique space.

If Snow could describe it, this place was a safe zone, and no monsters would dare come through this area for fear of retribution. Though she had felt and heard from Mike that strong monsters would dare encroach upon it rarely, she marked down this area for a possible stop spot for future Dragon Express secondary shops.

The jarring temples, tombstones, and offerings brought a sense of a ghastly feel of death, life, and hotpot of different magic. Many would have stayed for a brief moment and left quickly as it would make some people sick. Already, she felt the urge to get out and leave this place.

"Guy's, let's go." Snow wrapped up the team.

The others quickly finished their prayers, stepping out of the cemetery like place, a wave of relief washed over the group. It was almost as if a heavy burden was lifted from their minds as they continued through the decrypted forest.

Suddenly as if shot with a pang of energy, Snow felt a painful punch to her gut. She stood slightly hunched, her heart squeezing, making her clench her chest, groaning in pain. She felt if she moved, her legs would collapse. It took a moment for the wave of pain to come and go, confusing her.

The others looked back, wondering what was going on, but Snow waved her hand to stop them from coming closer.

"Snow?" Dairen was about to come over to help but was frozen in place by something. "What?"

"Magic." Red, the Flower Nation Magician, spoke out loud. Her fingers quickly shaped into different motions as magic swirled around her fingertips. A burst of magic spreads out, breaking whatever was ailing Snow.

Only Red was able to walk over, looking at her with concern. "Someone is using black magic." She hissed, rummaging through her bag as she pulled out a small candy wrap that looked like a lemon drop. "Luckily, I'm here, or it would have cursed you."

Snow was able to breathe better. "Thanks."

"It's a tracker," Red spoke, popping the candy in her mouth and giving one for Snow to eat. "Not the friendly kind too, but from my understanding…" She scanned around the group of people around them, "it only affects us."

Straightening up, she breathed deeply, gulping in the air with relief. "Why?" She asked, wondering who or what had sent out the curse. The only thing that she could think of was that one of the Gods might have disliked her and set a curse on her. But then looking over towards Red, she got it too, which was odd. She was glad that she brought Red with her.

"A virgin was sacrificed." Red hissed as she scowled. "How or who?

Snow realized what Red meant. Both of them was a virgin, and they were about to be marked. The others heard what she had said, and they instantly associated it with the Virgin killers that were taking women off the streets.

"We need to be careful; something in this dungeon is attracted to such things." Red sniffed the air, she walked a few steps and tilted her flaming red hair that seem to flicker like fire. Her cute petite face and body seem to scowl as she placed her hand on her hips. It was like she was challenging the dungeon to try that again because she was confident that she could dispel it without much worry.

"How are you so sure?" Snow asked, hoping that it wasn't who it was, but she knew that Levian was the cause.

"There aren't many target type curses." Red explained, "Virgin curses are strangely popular...we got some sick people out there."

Snow agreed most definitely. If she could smack Levian right now and punch him in the balls, so she could stamp out his genes from existence.

Satisfied that nothing was going to happen, she turned back to Snow. "The disturbance in the magical air is gone. I don't think it's going to happen again anytime soon. We are okay for now."

"Let's hope it doesn't happen again." Snow agreed with her as she didn't like the feeling of being trapped in her body, unable to move. She felt that once with Levian, and she hated it.

"We need to be careful." Red replied, "whatever is in this dungeon, it's going to hunt us down. I won't be surprised if others are affected as well."

Her words gave chills to Snow. She glanced into the dark foggy distance that beckoned her to move forward.