Dungeon

The entrance of the cavern was not that big. It was a hole in the earth barely big enough for a single person to get inside at a time. Even though the sun was up in the sky, it wasn't enough to drive the darkness and coldness away from the surroundings, indicating this cavern wasn't something natural.

All Rin could see was two metres into the hole, and then the complete darkness looming inside the cavity of the cavern.

Supposedly, this cave was a dungeon, of the lowest grade, but still one. That's all that mattered to Luke.

"How did you find this?" Rin couldn't help but ask.

"Istn't the temperature evidence enough?" Luke asked, picking his brows.

"Fair enough."

"As for my certainly, I found huge rats coming out of it when you guys were logged out."

The supposed dungeon was near the farmhouse and seemed to be full of overly grown rats and hamsters. Luke supposedly had killed all that came out of it when they were logged out, but it was far from being the end.

So, instead of killing when the monsters get out, they decided to clean the dungeon from within. That was what they do in other games, and it was the same here.

Rin couldn't say he was looking forward to it. Elise was with the same mind as him.

"So, who's going to enter first?" Luke asked. The way he said it led others to think it definitely wouldn't be him.

Rin looked at him and Elise and snorted. He advanced towards the hole, wrapping a cloth around his face. "You two ladies, wait for your turn, then."

Rin saluted towards the two of them and jumped into the hole without looking. The mana cloak formed over his clothes, enveloping him in a semi-transparent glow, giving him a much freer fall.

The cloak seemed a little more constructive than before as Rin raised his mastery over it, reaching 24% on the progress bar.

The cloak protected him from violent physical contact against the walls as he fell into a wider region where he wouldn't have to fear a collision.

Rin landed easily on his feet, thanking the weight reduction function of the ability in his heart, making his movement easier.

This function might look something small, but there was no lack of its effectiveness. This might be the one effective ability that would remain effective no matter how many stat points he gained.

"Rin?" Luke's voice came, "did you find anything?"

"Sure did," Rin answered, looking around. "It's all darkness here. Good thing we brought a fire torch with us. Let's just hope there was no natural gas here that would combust in contact with the fire. That would simply be too tragic for you."

Rin waited as a figure dropped from the hole and fell on her butt, wailing.

"Ouch," Elise screamed. "You didn't tell me it was this deep."

"Yet, you're fine," Rin said, pulling her arms to help her stand. She sure has a durable body to receive no serious injuries. "You can come in now, Luke."

Elise lit up the fire torch she brought with her, while Rin examined the area.

"This dungeon stinks," Elise commented.

Rin raised an eyebrow and found Luke climbing down the wall carefully. But even with all his carefulness, the rich guy fell on his butt after coming down a few metres. Even though Luke tried to display all the manliness he could afford, they could see the pained expression on his face, even in the dark.

Luke wasn't much of a tough guy.

"We all here," Rin said as the three stood side by side, Elise holding the fire torch while most of their supplies were on Luke. "Let's kill some monsters."

"Rin," Luke called, handing him the quiver, and bow, "keep them. They are better with you than to let them waste on me."

Rin nodded, equipping the items. "So, you're going to fight in close quarters?"

"That seems like the plan." He had a quarterstaff on his back, which he got from the farmhouse. There were a bunch of other useful items too, like a hoe, sickle, and other farming tools.

"Really, dude," Rin sighed. "Without mana, that's a sketchy plan. Well, I guess you'll be fine against these rats."

He then turned towards Elise to find her nostrils were sealed with duct tape, with the girl trying to sniff around. She had a proud look on her face at her brilliance. However, she blushed the moment she found the other two were looking at her with bewilderment.

"What?" she said, advancing to hide her embarrassment. "This is in order to avoid vomiting."

"Are you sure this is going to work?" Luke asked as they advanced.

"No," she said, "but I can only try. I don't have any trauma with blood, but whenever that disgusting blood smears on me . . . I had the urge to vomit. Perhaps because of my uncontrollable senses. I sure can't smell anything about this. Let's see what happens."

That was another sketchy plan. And even if Elise didn't have any trauma with blood, she would likely have some psychological effect with blood, or the game was creating it.

Then again, the way they formed the game to be, it wouldn't be long before it would turn into a trauma if she didn't learn to get over it.

'Ranking up doesn't fix problems like this, does it?' He wondered.

"You know," Rin said, "if the duct tape doesn't work, I might have a way to fix it, though I'm not sure if you will like it."

"What is it?" Elise asked. "If it's workable, I have no issues. You do not know how much I want to stop vomiting."

Rin didn't answer her question, but held out his hand towards the other two. His intuition was tingling.

"Incoming," Rin yelled.

Luke took a stance with the quarterstaff while Elise looked around, trying to find out what that was about.

"Where is it?" she asked, finding nothing.

"There." Rin turned his bow and released the string. The arrow shimmered in a halo of white light and sprang into motion. It struck something in the darkness as it combusted, killing whatever it hit.

[You have defeated a giant Hamster (Common).]

"How did you know it was there?" Elise asked, clearly the one with better eyesight. "You can see it in the dark?"

"No, let's just say, I have a very good intuition," he shot again, killing another one. "Let's begin. A lot of them are coming this way."

"Alright," Luke said, gesturing to everyone to come together, "we're going to do this together. Elise and I will be at the front. While Rin, you're at the back. Make sure none of us gets any serious injuries."