As Marshall's eyes adjust to the darkness, he finds himself in some kind of underground cave. Without lighting, it is difficult to be sure, but the stale air and the rough ground supported the hypothesis.

[Okay. So, either I'm dreaming, or...]

Marshall rolls up his sleeve then pinches himself, until a red mark appears.

[Or I'm in a dungeon. How did I end up here? There definitely wasn't a portal in the parking garage. Did one instantly appear? Either way, I should be able to leave using the portal.]

With this thought, Marshall turns around expecting to see a blue portal, but he is met with darkness. A lump of fear begins to form in his throat, but he forcefully pushes it down by trying to rationalize.

[No portal, perfect.]

While releasing a flurry of curses, Marshall starts feeling around his location with his hands. As he assumed, he was in a cave, but from what he could gather at a dead end, with no hidden portal. Marshall begins to take deep breaths to calm his nerves. He was likely in some kind of special dungeon, he was alone, and he was powerless. The holy trinity.

Marshall had a significant amount of knowledge on dungeons thanks to his family company. He knew information that only A-Rank and S-Rank divers knew. However, that knowledge was useless for someone who couldn't apply it, aka him.

As much as he wanted to stay still and wait for a solution to appear, he knew that to find any clues on how to escape he would have to move forward. With cautious steps, Marshall moved forward while keeping his left hand on the wall. The cave started bending, and he soon saw light. He quickened his pace and after adjusting to the light, found himself in a massive room.

The room was at least 100 meters in all three dimensions. From the floor to the ceiling, the whole place was carved from stone. The light seemed to be coming from openings in the ceiling.

Marshall noticed a few details. First, there were massive doors on each side of the room, and turning around he saw that he came out from a such door. Next, the strange markings on everything, especially the walls. It appeared to be some ancient language. The last was that at the center of the room was a stone block. Marshall walked up to it and was surprised to see weapons. Swords, daggers, spears, and axes just to name a few.

His mind started working and was quickly drawn towards a worrying conclusion. As if on cue, ominous sounds could be heard in the entire room. Trying to locate the origin of the sound, Marshall soon realized that it was coming from the doors. He saw what could be only described as a skeleton come out of one of the doors. What happened next was vastly unsettling as more and more appeared from all four doors until their number reached 100.

The suspicious feeling that Marshall has was seemingly confirmed. For some reason, this dungeon was a trial, hence the weapons. Seeing that the doors were now sealed, it seemed like he had to defeat the monsters to escape. But would only defeating 100 skeletons be enough? Would the next wave have 200? or maybe 1000?

Marshall quickly shook his head to rid himself of these thoughts. For the moment he needed to survive, then worry about what would happen next. From the stone slab, he grabbed a longsword, and soon the slap sunk into the ground along with the other weapons.

He took a few practice swings not only to test the sword but to relax his breathing.

"Seems like Bertrand's training is really going to come in handy today. Just relax Marshall."

With steady breaths, Marshall observed the incoming skeletons. He was outnumbered so he needed to avoid being surrounded, but he couldn't waste his stamina. His best option would be to systematically dispatch them. Without a second thought, Marshall rushed towards a wall. With this his back covered and he would only have to focus on the incoming enemies. It also meant he had little room to escape.

Despite being in a life-threatening situation, he couldn't help but release a faint smile. The skeletons saw the act of the human wielding a weapon that must have riled them up. The undead increased their pace and rushed towards the young man.

The first attempted to throw a haymaker, but Marshall effortlessly sidestepped the punch before swinging his sword horizontally, thus cutting the foe in half. Without being able to verify if the monster was dead, he was soon assaulted by more skeletons that seemed to specialize in fisticuffs. While their numbers were overwhelming, they lacked coordination and they were using flashy moves.

With grace, Marshall sidestepped, ducked, and parried. Whenever he had the opportunity, he would cut them at the waist or behead them. Since he didn't see any skeleton torsos or headless bodies coming towards him, he assumed that cutting them in such a fashion defeated them.

Contrary to his initial plan, Marshall had to move frequently. The bones piled up and made it harder for him to move.

The 100 skeletons slowly but surely reduced. 90. 80. 70. 60. 50. 40. 30. 20. 10.

With 10 skeletons left, Marshall was visibly tired. He had taken a decent amount of hits. Turns out that the skeletons could also perform kicks, and they got in a few. He hadn't suffered serious damage, but he was lower on stamina than he would have liked.

[10 more, but what about after. If another wave comes right after...]

The remaining skeletons rushed towards Marshall without consideration for his worries. As he sidestepped another hit, he was caught in the calf with a kick. Despite the pain, Marshall clenched his teeth and kept his strategy. He moved in-between the gaps and cut down the monsters. Soon enough only a single skeleton remained.

"Not so brave now, huh? Unfortunately, I'm not much of a nice guy so don't bother surrendering."

The green fires in the skeleton flared up and soon it rushed towards the agile swordsman. With grace, Marshall sidestepped but the skeleton seemed to have improved. It used the momentum from the punch to throw a kick to where Marshall was dodging towards. With animalistic instincts, Marshall swiftly ducked the kick before sweeping the leg of the skeleton.

Soon he had his sword pointed towards the monster’s head. As he looked into the skeleton’s eyes, he saw the green fires flicker more intensely. It was a suspicion, but it seemed like the monsters weren't mindless.

"Hey, you obviously understand in some way what I am saying. What is this place? Who are you guys?"

Unfortunately, the skeleton remained silent. Sighing, Marshall swung his sword decapitating the monster. Suddenly, the monster's bones began glowing a green light before dispersing into the air. As he looked around, he witnessed a similar phenomenon with the other destroyed bodies.

"Seriously, what have I gotten myself into?"

Before Marshall could even sigh, he felt a trembling and the previously hidden stone slap reappeared. On it was the same weapons as before, the sword he currently held was also duplicated.

[So, it seems like this slab doesn't trigger the monsters. It's unlikely that it's the act of me taking a weapon either. Which leads to the most troublesome conclusion.]

Releasing the longest sigh so far Marshall decided to sit with his back on the stone slab to recover some stamina until the next wave. The trigger for the doors opening was time, and he had no idea how long he had to rest, but he planned on using it. He was exhausted from the last fight, but he had managed to minimize damage. This style of fighting was draining, but he had no other choice. He had not awakened and only had his practical skills.

Maybe it was an hour, but it felt like only a minute before he heard the doors opening. As Marshall stood up, he grabbed the copy of his longsword but panicked when the one in his hand turned into particles.

His worry turned to intrigue when the particles entered the longsword on the stone slab. Swinging the new sword, he immediately realized the changes. The balance was better, and the edge was visibly sharper.

[If the weapons get better, that means-]

From the corner of his eye, Marshall saw a projectile flying towards him. He only had a split second to weave his head out of the way.

"Archers? At least start with swordsmen."

While spitting curses, Marshall dashed towards the battle.

saturrn

I apologize for the spelling mistakes on the first release. I meant to save not publish. Thank you nonetheless for your time, I sincerely appreciate you. Laters.