My legs refused to move. The laughter from the college group kept me glued to the floor. The moment their footsteps faded, my lungs finally worked again.
I pushed Toby's hand away while trying to stand. My hands were shaking, and the walls around me gave no comfort at all. They felt cold, reminding me that the group we heard earlier had no warmth in them whatsoever.
If the dungeon's aim was to create fear, then congratulations. It worked.
But fear would not keep me alive. I had to push forward.
I pulled out my phone and examined every detail of the map. Using what I remembered from the intersections, I narrowed down our location while taking the mirror trap into account.
Yes, I found it. That intersection was on floor five, and a circle was marked in the center with a spike symbol. The mirror. But it was listed as a trap. Strange. It only showed the reflection from one side while blocking the other.
At least we found where we were. Progress.
My fear eased little by little.
"We go to the right. Stick to the plan," I whispered.
Toby nodded. "Right behind you."
We walked, and the air around us became colder. The temperature had shifted, and so had the corridor. The clean black bricks were now covered in moss, and the smell changed from incense to wet grass.
"I know you're on edge, but I found something useful," Toby whispered.
"My title heightens my hearing. I managed to catch the footsteps of the group. I also have another part, but that bit is in question marks."
"What's it called?" I asked.
Toby smirked.
"Untrained thief."
The unexpectedness of that answer made me freeze for a few seconds. Then I giggled because of how weird the name sounded.
That made me realise I still had not checked my own title properly. I tried to open the screen, but nothing happened. Toby noticed and told me to say "Code" in my head and then say the section I wanted to open. I tried it, and it worked.
It said my title allowed me to become ambidextrous. That was useful because my left hand was noticeably weaker. The rest of my title was filled with question marks.
Still, useful enough.
"By the way, one of my intros mentioned that you can form duos," Toby whispered.
"Is it really? We should do that," I replied.
"All right. Bring out your Codex so we can do it. Now repeat after me. Toby Jones is great."
"Toby Jones is great," I said with a confused look on my face.
My Codex displayed a notification.
Notice you have been offered to duo with the person Toby Jones
Accept or Decline
I chose accept. Another message followed.
You are now a duo, would you like a name or do it later
Name / Later
"At least we're partners now," Toby said proudly.
"Agreed," I replied, giving him a fist bump.
We continued walking until I realised our first trap was close. I expected spikes or something simple. I was very wrong.
Carved into the walls ahead were messy letters forming two repeating warnings:
DONT LOOK AT IT
WITNESS IT AT YOUR OWN PERIL
At that moment, I was genuinely worried. What exactly was "it"? A statue? A monster?
My question was answered quickly.
Mist rose from the floor. It was not smoke; it was too soft. It smelled sweet, almost like perfume. Water dripped from the ceiling, and each drop made a ripple sound against the tiles, calming yet unsettling.
"I'm confused," Toby muttered.
You should be, I thought. None of this matched the map.
Then I saw a figure. Around nine feet tall. Its back turned toward us. A sword for a tail, and another sword in its hand. The fear it radiated was far worse than anything the group had made me feel. It made my body accept death without protest.
Then things got worse.
The figure turned and appeared in front of us instantly.
I saw Toby's arm move, and I recognised that motion. He was about to swing.
"STOP. Don't throw hands and DO NOT look it in the eyes."
Miraculously, Toby froze. His hand was only a few centimetres from the creature.
I leaned toward him and whispered, "Walk forward at a normal pace. Don't do anything stupid."
He mouthed a very annoyed "Fine." Normally he would have ignored me, but I was glad he listened.
We walked past the creature with our heads down. Five steps later, a sword suddenly blocked my path. Instinct made me jerk upward to see what happened.
My brain screamed at me not to, but my body moved faster.
Luckily Toby came to the rescue by questionable means. He noticed my situation and in his mind the best way to prevent me from making a mistake was to slide tackle me.
Yes slide tackling me. I may have avoided death but I couldn't avoid a face injury.
"Close one, right K?" Toby said.
His smile was trembling. Mine would have too.
The creature did not chase or attack. Its entire existence was like a Medusa trap. One glance and you die.
We continued moving. Toby whispered, "He turned around. He is looking at us. Be careful."
I nodded.
The creature appeared in front of us again, this time it crouched, lowering its head to our height.
Trying to force eye contact.
Too bad for him; we still looked at the ground.
We took a few more steps and then—
A roar. An earth-shaking one.
The sound tore through my ears. My hands flew to my head but it did not help. My eardrums felt like they were ripping apart.
When it finally stopped, I felt dizzy. My Codex opened itself.
Notification
Status Condition:
You are now unable to hear due to the ????
To stop this you must gain escape the ?????
Great. Now we were deaf.
Toby grabbed me and tried to speak, but I could only shout, "I cannot hear you."
He shrugged and tapped his own ear. He could not hear either.
Furthermore I felt raindrops on my head, the intensity of it increased.
The mist now once calming now switched to a depressing downpour. It was certainly annoying but it wasn't a huge deal apart from our clothes getting absolutely drenched.
I signalled to him to continue to walk with our heads down. Our situation was okay until I started to notice that puddles were forming.
We then saw a shadow looming over us, it then suddenly struck me, the creature definitely noticed us looking down to avoid his gaze.
So it must have roared to trigger some sort of rainfall which made puddles, so looking down reflects what's above.
Therefore if it appeared in front of us looking down as well whilst we're also facing down looking at the puddle.
Then. That would lead to us seeing his reflection and most importantly his eyes.
Upon realising this once it appeared in front of us, I yanked Toby away and forced him to face backwards avoiding the creatures confrontation.
He looked puzzled but I gave the aggressive no and listen to me signal.
I looked down on the side and saw its shadow so we decided to move around it and walk past it.
Eventually we got to an area of no mist. Success. We passed. My hearing also managed to regain itself so that added on to the success.
I turned around.
"Hey, nice one Tob—"
I stopped, because my man was looking back. I refused to follow his gaze because I knew exactly what he was doing.
Was he insane?
"Enough. You have a death wish," I cried out desperately.
The creature made a sound that almost resembled a chuckle. I heard its footsteps moving away, the mist fading as it retreated like it had never existed at all. Its presence vanished completely.
My Codex appeared with another message.
Notice
You have successfully cleared a trap
Reward 10 MP
The individual known as Toby Jones unlocked and completed the trap's hidden meaning
Holding eye contact with ????????????????
Reward Drawer Key + 20 MP
One thing was for sure: rewards really did require risks.
"Are you trying to die? Do you not feel fear?" I cried out furiously.
"Respectfully K, the only people I fear are my parents. The creative punishments they come up with make me question if they are even human," Toby chuckled.
I rolled my eyes as we moved on, taking a right as the map indicated.
The moss on the bricks gradually disappeared, and the dungeon returned to its usual clean, polished black stone.
The only difference was the torches which now glowed an eerie blue. Their soft crackling was the only sound in the silence.
We approached another trap, a basic pressure plate. I traversed safely, but Toby almost blew himself up by trying to test his long jump abilities.
His athletic ability was way above average for his age, but his survival instincts were the same as a fish.
He nearly fell backward, which could have been the end of us.
We cleared the trap and another Codex message appeared.
Notice
You have successfully cleared a trap
Reward 5 MP
Eventually, we arrived at an intersection and had to choose our direction.
If we wanted to explore more, we could go right.
If we wanted to head toward the lower floors, we had to go left.
Toby checked his map and of course wanted to go right. A complete time-waster.
We moved forward, and the dungeon changed again. The floors were wooden tiles now, like the inside of a house.
Torches were replaced entirely by flickering electrical lights.
What struck me as strange was the scent of food. Bread? No… meat.
Fortunately, I wasn't hungry, and because the smell wasn't sweet, Toby didn't feel the urge to sprint blindly toward it.
At the next left-right intersection, we chose right again because a circle was highlighted at the end of that corridor. It made me wonder what it represented.
The food smell came from the left, where the map marked a treasure room.
I still imagined treasure as piles of gold, not… whatever this smell was.
We walked, and our surroundings grew even stranger.
Some bricks were scratched with the word HELP.
Dried blood stained the walls. It looked like a battle had happened here, but for some reason the air did not smell like blood at all.
The food smell lingered, and a humming sound kept buzzing faintly. Probably electricity.
The fading and flickering lights did not help.
We reached the end of the corridor. A dead end.
"What a waste of time. Let's go back," Toby sighed.
I ignored him and moved closer to the wall. That was when I noticed a small notice board, about the size of a notebook.
"Hey, I found something," I called out.
Toby rushed over and a screen popped up beside it, visible to both of us.
Clue #6
Before I could even process what it meant, a sudden bang echoed through the dungeon.
My body shivered instantly.
That sound was unmistakable.
A firework.
Someone had died.
This was a harsh reminder of our situation.
Either survive…
Or this dungeon would become our home.
Permanently.