Zidden Dungeon

Han stands in front of the party, as he leads us to the entrance of the gate. As we approach, I notice guards standing beside the entrance.

Why are there guards here? 

I look to the rest of the dusty knights and see them unfazed by the guards as they continue walking. 

This must be a common occurrence then.

When we reach the entrance, just an arm's length between the dungeon, Han and the rest of the party stops before the gatekeepers even shout

"Halt!"

Quickly afterwards they take out their money bags as the guards reach their hand out.

"Pay the fee before entering the dungeon, one silver coin."

So this is what that receptionist meant when she said it was more like a landmark than a dungeon. It's more like a tourist destination for people searching for the hidden dungeon room.

While the guard finishes his sentence, Han and the rest of the party already have their silver coins out. They drop the coin into the gatekeeper's hands as they pass through the entrance.

Oh, I should pay as well.

Just before getting too far, Han turns back to me, seeing me grab my money bag, getting ready to pay.

"Hoho, there's no need for our young new party member to pay the fee."

The rest of the party wait for us, just barely in the dungeon as Han walks back to the guard, reaches into his money bag and places another silver coin into his hand.

"This is for him."

Then he waves at me to hurry up. I hurriedly rushed towards him and entered the dungeon.

"Thank you for paying the fee for me, party leader."

"Haha! No worries, nameless, there's no way I could let a child like you pay the fee yourself when this is your first time in a dungeon!"

He's so kind, but he really does act like an old man… 

"Here, I'll carry that bag for you."

"I'll take you up on that offer then. It'd be bad if my shoulders were sore when it was time to fight."

The dungeon on the other hand is really… dark.

We get back to the rest of the party as Han gets to the front and starts leading the way again. 

"Nameless, please light the path for us."

A voice in the dark that sounds like Tin says, as I struggle to see anything.

Again, I pretend to chant in the mystic language before I cast Dawn.

After casting Dawn, the dirty worn down interior of the dungeon is shown. There is green moss on the black stone walls and the sound of dripping water could be heard from many directions.

This dungeon really is old, after the countless adventurers that walked through here. 

Rachel stares at Dawn with amazement in her eyes.

"It's so round and bright, like the sun!"

I should have expected a priest of Pyro to recognize Dawn… I can't let them find out that I can't have anyone find out about my attribute yet or my powers will be revealed.

"Yeah– I'm a devout follower of Pyro so I got inspiration for my magic from the sun…

That should be pretty believable right?

She stares at me intensely, as if trying to figure out my thoughts.

Then, Han speaks to break the silence.

"Nameless, you must be wondering why this dungeon has no torches and is worn down despite being called a monument right?

I hadn't paid attention to that before since most adventurer stories situated in dungeons are always dark, with a few torches but only around the boss room. Are dungeons normally well lit?

"Uh– yeah I was curious. Why is it that it's so dark?"

The rest of the party turns before Han begins to preach in anger.

This must be a regular occurrence if they're turning away that quickly…

"It's because this cheap Adventurer's Guild Branch that's managing this dungeon says they don't want to break out immersion and damage this historic monument or so they call it but they just don't want to spend a little more money on torches and keep them lit. They're already making us pay a fee for the dungeon, yet they can't even pay for lights!!?!?!"

He seems really mad and passionate about this…

He continues,

"But that's why we have you here. A fire attribute mage is a must for a dungeon like this, to light the way for us to see."

So that's why he didn't ask what my rank was or how many mana circles I had. As long as I could create a light, I could join their party.

What's this feeling?

I suddenly sense danger coming my way. Just as I am about to warn the party, Sara grabs Han's shoulder and makes a hand sign. Then, the entire party comes to a halt and stops all noise.

I take back what I said about this party, they have great teamwork and understand each other well. To the point where they can communicate even without words.

Then, Sara looks at me and points her finger toward the darkness.

She must want me to move Dawn to where the darkness is. 

I increase the brightness of Dawn and slowly move it to the darkness residing in front of us.

There is nothing but dirty, black stone and completely clean bones for a time.

This is weird, even if a monster ate the flesh off of a human, there should still be rotten flesh left on the bone but, this– this is completely cleaned off.

Then, a round blue organism comes into light.

"There it is! I see it!"

Han shouts, before turning to us.

"Get into your battle positions!"

Sara pulls her daggers out, Han unsheathes his sword, Tin moves to the front and takes his giant tower shield off his back and holds it steady. And Sophia nervously holds her staff tightly and moves to the back. 

I should do my part as well.

I summon three more Orbs of Dawn and place them over the heads of the party members.

"Thanks for the lights Nameless!"

Tin shouts as he charges forward.

Dawn eventually reveals the entirety of the organism.

It's a… Slime? So cool!!! Slimes are the weakest monsters who normally have no combat potential and just decompose and eat remains.

The rest of the party are still focused and don't put down their guard.

"Don't let your guard down! There could be more!"

Adventurers sure are careful, but I understand what they mean. Anything could happen in the monster territories and veteran C rank adventurers don't have the luxury of letting their guard down.

Tin continues to charge at the slime, and the slime stays still.

Then, 

"SPLAT!!!"

The slime was completely crushed by the force of the shield and died.

Han sheaths his sword into his sheath.

"Alright, good work guys."

Tin fits his tower shield back onto his back and Sara walks up to the remains of the slime, kneels down, and takes out a small red crystal from the remains of the slime.

Tin wipes the sweat off his head.

"Thank you Sara, this heavy armor makes it hard for me to bend my knees."

"No worries, just keep up the good work Tin."

After that, the protocol repeats multiple times as we continue to kill more and more monsters, but we still didn't find the hidden room.

Dammit, I haven't found any clues about where the hidden dungeon room could be! There were only three different monsters that we saw in the dungeon today: Slimes, goblins, and skeletons. Sigh– this is getting nowhere. 

We get to a small stone room where there were no monsters and some kind of flowing water construct, so we decided to rest here.

Tin places his tower shield at the entrance of the room and I take the bag off and unload it. Then I set the orbs of Dawn in the corners on the ceiling of the room.

Rachel sits in a corner with Sara.

They seem to be close.

Han approaches me and reaches out his hand.

"Good work today, let me help you out with unloading."

We took out some sticks and dried meat and bread. 

Han hands some bread and dried meat to the party members and sits down next to me before he hands me a piece of bread and dried meat as well.

That looks disgusting…

I feel my stomach start to rumble and quickly take it out of his hands and take a bite of the meat.

Ugh, it's super tough and chewy… and is so salty!

"It tastes terrible right?"

Han says with a smile on his face.

"All the new adventurers think that way, because it does. But it's the only food we can trust since it won't become rotten easily."

I can understand that, but you could also season it with other spices other than just salt!

I hit my chest as I struggle to swallow the dried meat.

Han laughs.

"Haha, I had the exact same reaction as you did. I don't know about the other two, but Rachel especially hated it.

"Han! I told you not to tell anyone else about that!"

The whole party laughs, even Sara.

They're just like a happy family.

I stare at the dried meat and feel like throwing up.

Lets– not eat that anymore…

Then, I look at the dried bread in my hands

Maybe the bread will taste better? … hahaha definitely not. It's as hard as the rock we're sitting on…

Still, I take a bite of the bread.

"CRUNCH!!! My teeth!!!

Oh– it's fine, it was the bread that broke.

The party is silent for a second, trying to find out if my teeth actually broke, but bursts out into laughter and I laugh with them.