The First Dungeon
The sun was setting from the sky, a beautiful orange sky with few clouds dot sky.
'What a lovely sunset,' I sighed as I looked into the darkening sky. It would be more perfect...if it wasn't for this dungeon portal appearing near me conveniently.
I sat up, glaring at the dungeon portal, which was still there.
'Why is it still here.'
I literally left this thing alone for at least a week, and it still won't go away. What's frustrating is that I know it can't go away unless I clear the dungeon, based on the Internet. I also tried to use my powers... to no avail.
What sort of power is this? It wasn't like any others of which I've seen before...
How interesting.
*Sigh*
I might as well check what this dungeon is. I've never heard of this phenomenon in my previous life...
And so I got up unwillingly, stretching, and slowly walked forward to the vortex of a portal. After staring at it for a few seconds, I touched it...
*Ting*
A clear blue screen appeared before me.
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[A World of Fire] - [?] Tier
Occupants that can enter: 6
Would you like to enter?
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'Are we in a VRMMORPG game?' I stared at this blue screen, confused.
...no...this is actually real life. If only I was reincarnated in this world as my second life, with the techonology that closely resembles my first one, I would've been so happy...but now...
"..."
If the name of this dungeon is an actual fact, then its about to get hot. There are several different ways of interpreting this, but fire is the most common. And also, tiers?
Each dungeon has a rank of difficulty. The lowest rank is [F], then it goes up to [D], then [C,] and so on. The highest difficulty known is [SS] tier. There could be more beyond it, but its either unknown or undiscovered.
But what is this [?] Tier? Looking online, there never seemed to be a tier that's different from the tiers listed online. Like I mentioned, it could either be unknown or undiscovered.
Still, there's one thing that confuses me. If this world is gamelike, then is there a status screen or something?
On the Internet, the awakened ones, hunters, say that in order for one to check on their progress they have to think of the word 𝘴𝘵𝘢𝘵𝘶𝘴 to open it.
I mentally thought of the word 𝘴𝘵𝘢𝘵𝘶𝘴, and a blue screen appeared above the dungeon screen.
*Ting*
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[Tacitus Bardsley]
Title: The Silent One
Class: ???
Rank: [F](???)
Skills:
-???
-???
-???
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...It seems my powers have indeed been transferred over, but it has been weakened since I have awakened in this body.
Even more troublesome.
I closed my 𝘴𝘵𝘢𝘵𝘶𝘴 screen, and looked at the dungeon screen.
I guess I'll make this quick. As I mentally said yes, and in a flash of light, the portal pulled me in.
...
Darkness surrounded me, not unlike the one that I have once existed in earlier.
And so I waited...until words suddenly appeared in my vision.
*Ting*
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[A World of Fire] - [?] Tier
Occupants: 1/6
Description: Many years ago, a fire started at an orphanage, and the the orphans who lived there were trapped, never being freed form their torment. Now they exist once more in a different form. Your task is to get rid of the evil in this dungeon.
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Teleporting hunter...
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I looked deadpanned at the screen before me
...A dungeon that taks place in an orphanage. Wow, what a coincidence.
As the world brightened before me, I woke up...in a rather large western-style old building. I appeared to be in the main room, with many debris littering on the ground. The main door leading outside blocked behind me, and as i looked around, I saw many hallways and stairs. Adjusted to the setting, candles from the walls started to flicker, and then I heard something around me.
""Giggle""
Children, boys and girls, ranging from 4-9 years old appeared from the hallways and stairs, and they began walking towards me with a smile. As they approached me, candles started dropping on the floor, starting to light the building on fire.
Taking another look at them, they did not seemed affected by the fire at all, as they continued walking up to me.
And then, they started talking.
"Hello Mister, do you want to play a game?"
"How about hide-n-seek?"
"Hey, Mister-!"
They asked me whether to play with them or not, even when the fire starts catching things on fire around me.
At this rate, this whole building will be lighted on fire.
...and that won't be a problem for me.
The fire flickered on to me, but I didn't react to it at all. I'm immune to it after all.
An ability of mine, to silence the fire trying to engulf me into its flames.
*Ting*
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[Title: The Silent One]
One of three, he who embraces the silence. Silence always comes before and after, the beginning and the end. The silence draws close to him, silencing everything in his surroundings. It wraps around him in a tight embrace. He walks the world, searching for endless silence, to fill the void inside of him.
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...that perfectly describes me. Whatever this gamelike system is, it's terrifyingly accurate in its description. If this system is that terrifying, could it be made by...?
It could be, but I'm not sure.
While I was reading the description, the dolls became surprised.
"He's not burning?"
"Is he not hurt at all?"
"That means he can play with us, right?"
I observed one of the orphans. He seemed to look like a normal child, but when I approached him, I touched his face. His soft skin was not what I felt, but hard porcelain. Realization washed over me.
They were all dolls, every single one of them. They had such emotions, such bright eyes...how could they be dolls?
"Hey mister, do you want to play hide-n-seek?" The boy asked me.
I looked at him, pondering his question, and after contemplating, nodded.
"Sure."
The dolls giggled.
...
Trying to find thousands of dolls in a huge orphanage being burned by an unordinary fire is not easy by any means, but it was simple. There was no time limit.
With my silent presence extending across the whole building, nothing in it can hide from me.
Hours later, I've found 4,999 of them. They were all crowded in the main room, watching me. One of the dolls, a little girl, tugged at my sleeve.
"Hey mister! There's one of us left, and he's super good at hiding! Even we can't find where he plays! Can you find him?"
The little girl, although she was smiling and talking in a happy voice, I felt it was fake. I then saw a look of sadness flickered in her eyes for a short moment. A look that children should not have at their age.
I nodded at the her, and moved to one of the hallways on the left side of the main room. The rest of the dolls followed.
As I arrived at the hall, I saw a corridor of paintings, but I didn't bother with them, walking towards one. It was just a painting of the sky and trees. I touched the painting, and ripped it off, tossing it to the side.
Where the painting once was, was a dark corridor in which there were many curses and traps littering around it. The fire flickering behind me didn't even move towards the corridor, as if it was afraid. The dolls seemed afraid as well, staying far behind me.
Before I walked inside, a blue screen appeared before me.
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[Hidden Task Unlocked]
-Find out the truth behind the evil of the orphanage.
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That's was all for the task. Interesting.
I walked into the corridor unperturbed, the traps and curses not bothering me in the slightest, leaving the dolls behind to watch my back as I faded into the darkness.
...
Footsteps rang across the dark corridor. I slowly walked past the traps and curses, silencing them.
My abilities to silence whatever I want can be powerful in its own right, if used properly.
I arrived in a large room of stone walls, and saw a sight that even I find disgusting in all my years.
Blood and body parts littered everywhere, the stench of decay lingering in the air.
Scrunching my face slightly at the sight, I looked to the end of the room.
On the farside of the entrance, there were nails and hammers littered on the ground around a small child chained to the wall.
"..."
Walking towards the tiny child, I saw the scars and wounds on its body. I stopped in front of it, but it didn't even look up or seem to notice me.
I stared for a bit...and then sighed, my shoulders drooping.
I knelt down in front of the the child, who was a boy, and gently grabbed his chin. As I touched his skin, I realized it wasn't hard like porcelain at all, but soft skin. I lifted his chin up slightly, gazing into his distant, hopeless eyes.
As I looked into his eyes, I found what I was looking for. After a few seconds did I finally dropped my hand, not looking away from his eyes.
"...I found you, so that means I win this round, right?"
The boy's eyes seemed to barely light up, and his pupils shrinked, focusing on me.
"Have you come...to...free me...sir?"
"...yes I have."
"..then, please..."
I looked at him, conflicted. To think that my stress free life would end here. This dungeon is really...
After toying with a thought in my mind, I sighed again.
'This child really reminds me of..'.
As the child looked at me in confusion, I broke the chains wrapped around his wrists and ankles with my hands like sticks, and carried him up. He was awfully light, and at his size, one would think he was four years old.
"I have come to release you from this awful place, not to kill you all, and bring you back to my sanctuary. There, you and your friends will live in my orphanage, and we shall live our days in peace. Those who dare come to harm the sanctuary, shall be punished."
I slowly carried him witha hand, and walked out of the room. As I entered the corridor, I flicked my hand, and the room where all manners of curses and nightmares that once plagued the children, disappeared in silence.
...
Walking out of the corridor, I spotted the many dolls looking at the boy in my hands, and ran towards us, crying in joy.
"He brought him back! He found him!"
"He actually did it!"
Then one of the dolls seemed to realize something.
"So...the game is already over?
"It's time we go, right?"
The dolls looked at each other sadly, accepting their fate.
"...no, it's not time for you to leave."
"Hmm? What do you mean mister?" one of the dolls asked.
"I'm here to complete a task, to 'get rid of the evil in this dungeon.' I already did get rid of the evil, in that cursed room. Now the only 'evil' left is this building, where terrible memories still exist."
Almost everything in this building can be considered a bad memory to the dolls,
"But doesn't that include us? Aren't we deemed 'evil?'"
"No, you're all unfortunate children, children forced to accept the corruption from those of blackened hearts and souls. I'll free you, yes, but from this place. I have an orphanage just outside this place, and it is big enough to house all of you. It just needs repairs."
The dolls stared at me with a look that probably translates to 'who is this guy.'
One of the dolls, the same little girl from before, stepped up from the dolls.
"I believe in him. If we can't trust one more time, who else can we trust? Plus, he saved him!"
The dolls looked at each other, and after a few moments of silent conversation, they turned to look at me-no the boy, and then at me.
They smiled.
Then one of the dolls asked a question many others were probably thinking.
"Aren't we dungeon monsters? How can we leave?"
I smied at them, and looked upwards towards the ceiling.
'I've completed the task, did I not? I got rid of the evil in this mansion. Now there are only these dolls with me, and I'll take them as my reward. That is the only reward I need from this dungeon. Is that acceptable?'
A notification of some sort appeared in my vision seconds after the mentally asked request.
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[...]
[Processing request...]
[...]
[Accepted request]
[Task completed!]
[Hidden Task Completed!]
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[A World of Fire] - [?] Tier
-The evil in this mansion was not the dolls, it is the memories and actions of monsters looking like humans! The dolls living in the building only wished to be free, to find happiness. You have freed them from their prison.
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[Dungeon has been cleared!]
[Distributing rewards...]
[Reward: The Dolls of Purgatory (x4999)]
[Hidden Reward: The Hateful Dollmaker]
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[Teleporting hunter now...]
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As a flash of light came over me and the dolls-no, children, I tossed my hand, flicking a tiny dark seed onto the floor of the house.
Just as we disappeared, the seed suddenly lit up, and the building started to disintegrate...until there was nothing left on that plot of land...
...
When I teleported outside, the moon was already high rising over my-no, our heads.
I looked around me...seeing 5000 children looking around in wonder. Even with that number, it wasn't even close to a quarter of the size of the prarie.
"Wow, it's so big!"
"The stars are so bright tonight! How pretty!"
"So much open space!"
"So this is our new home? Our sanctuary?"
"We can have lots of fun!"
""Yay!""
The dolls-children started laughing. Some ran off into the distance, some stayed around, and some went into the broken orphanage to explore. It seems I have to get that fixed soon.
I then looked down on the occupant in my hands. The boy was looking around in wonder and relief. Although his face was blank, his eyes seemed to have brighten.
While he was looking around, I thought back to my previous meeting with him.
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When I stared into the boys eyes, using my one of my powers, I saw glimpses of his memories.
A time before they were sent to the orphanage.
These children were wandering about, hungry, begging.
It wasn't until they met a seemingly kind man who took them all into an orphanage. They were happy...for a while. Then it started.
The torture. Those who resist were starved and beaten, and when they accepted whatever the man gave them, they were given food.
'Oh, thank you sir...'
'Thank you, kind man...'
Brainwashing children. How disgusting.
As time passed, their sense of view distorted, believing that their caretaker is a kind man. They were only children after all. Who else could they believe or learn from?
Monsters in human skin.
In the end, the sick, the tortured, the brainwashed, it didn't matter. They were all burned in the orphanage.
'Please, help us sir...'
'Please, I'm so hungry, so hungry...'
'It hurts so much...'
They begged to be free, to eat, to live, but their cries weren't heard. They were all burned up in the flames, becoming ashes. The all died one by one, leaving only one survivor left-the most tenacious and resistant of all.
The boy was weakened from starvation, his growth stunted, but his anger remained. He grew sick of the world, and his hatred filled his every soul as he died.
Then the dungeon came, took them, and placed them within itself, turning them into monsters.
The boy brought the orphans back with his power, retrieving their resentful souls, and placed them into the vessels; the dolls.
And from that day on, they haunted the abandoned orphanage, waiting for the day they can be free.
'How unfortunate these children are.'
Even after all this time, humans would always be capable of such actions. How I wish I could stay away from it all...
I could've just destroyed everything in the dungeon and call it quits...but...
Something in me called out to them, something I once suppressed a long time ago...
The reason I saved them all, the reason I took them in...was...
'They were just like me.'