First Instance (5)
*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.