“This is a dungeon?”

Other than Pait, Dav, and the Deep Dwarf leader, two other wagon hands were pulling the wagon. They didn’t use a horse or anything like that. There was also a group of five adventurers, all dwarves, which had the air of guards.  The old dwarf looked back at me once I asked such a question.

“Yes, this dungeon has two exits. One exit is on this mountain, and the other is within Dioshin.”

“So, dungeons can be like this as well.”

“It’s more than that,” Pait added. “It doesn’t just provide a straight and easy path. It also is shorter. It’d take a week to walk the distance we’ll cover in only two days.”

The men traveled down a dark cave for only a few minutes, then we came onto a large wooden platform. The two helpers moved the wagon out into the middle of the platform, and Pait and Dav found a seat on two benches. As soon as we were all on board, the dwarf pulled and lever, and the entire platform lurched. I grabbed onto the side to keep my balance, causing Pait to laugh at me. I could see the platform was lowering down, as the ceiling was falling away from us. It was a lever-based elevator. The dwarves were handy.

“Is this path safe?” I asked, taking a look at the guards who seemed to be standing around casually.

“Yes and no…” Pait responded. “We’ve found if people travel alone and unprotected, the dungeon will strike and attempt to kill them. They don’t usually bother with those that have a guard. So, guards usually don’t have much to do.”

“I see…”

Dungeons did need to eat, after all. Picking off easy prey while creating a service that kept a steady stream of people walking through was just like a dungeon. However, this one did have a unique feature that interested me. I had known dungeons to manipulate time, but this was the first dungeon I had seen that was able to manipulate space. I had done something similar when I had reformed my dungeon and stretched it into a long path to surprise the Demon Lord Aberis, but I wasn’t able to manipulate space to stretch it out. I was very curious about what allowed them to do that. It had to be a Blue Mage trick. I should ask Siti when I returned.

Then again, if I took the lore, wouldn’t I learn all of its secrets? Of course, that would be the equivalent of declaring war on the dungeon. I had been lucky with Matty’s dungeon. Matty was a child and also easily bullied. Other dungeons might not react so calmly to a rival dungeon master. I made sure to keep my mana inside so that I didn’t reveal my true nature. However, I also remained vigilant that the dungeon might attack us.

We sank for what seemed like miles into the underground. It had an oppressive feel to it. Dav shook and then clung on to Pait. He shrugged helplessly.

“Dwarves may enjoy the underground, but the esmere do not.”

“Hmph… scared of a little dark.” The leader of the adventuring party scoffed causing Pait to flush angrily.

However, before he could say a thing, the elevator stopped with a thud. We had reached the bottom.