Dungeons, miniature worlds that exist on a separate plane all connected by a large dimension, the dimension of dungeons. However it is that they’re ranked, only the demon lord and the Spirit of the World know. In these miniature worlds exists dungeon beasts, evolving magic beasts that roam the dungeons. They’re mindless magic beasts that gain intelligence as they continuously evolve and become a part of the demon realms like all the other creatures who inhabit the realms. In fact, there are a few races that evolved from dungeon beasts who left the dungeons at some point. One of those races is the ubiquitous beastmen race.

In the dungeons, dungeon beasts live by one rule and one rule only: To devour is to evolve. It’s the same as the law of the jungle, but a twist. Sure, the strong eat the weak but what’s stopping the weak from ganging up on the strong to devour them and get stronger. All dungeon beasts seek to reach perfection; the stage where their ravenous hunger and instincts are suppressed by the ability to make rational thoughts. Some of these dungeon beasts reach this point while inside the dungeon, meaning that it wouldn’t take long before they’re allowed to leave after they reach the highest class achievable in the dungeon. To that end, dungeon beasts seek to devour everything. Adventurers, other beasts, and even themselves are all a means to achieve that end goal and so, whenever any creature enters the dungeon, their constant instincts to devour intensifies and lower-level monsters enter a frenzied state that only disappears either when their prey leaves the dungeon or they’re killed. They attack without hesitation and a single mistake can lead to an adventurer becoming fuel to continue their evolution. It’s a very gruesome cycle.

Dungeon beasts live in this cycle and it only ends when they leave the dungeon and a part of themselves is stripped away from them, then they forget everything about their time in the dungeon as a mindless beast. It’s the only thing that the Spirit of the World can do for creatures who came from another’s domain, although to dungeon beasts, it’s the start of a new beginning.

One of the dungeon beasts who’d gained enough awareness to leave the cycle of constant devouring was the B-class Golden Lion in the illusory dungeon Marcel cleared a while ago. He was very arrogant and tried to eat a witch he wasn’t supposed to, leading to that witch coming back to kill him with a bunch of other witches, then he was unlucky enough to not have his soul disappear along with his body when he died, which led to his soul being caught and put into a device that then became the illusory dungeon that gave Marcel his [Golden Lion’s Roar] skill.

Now, a normal dungeon's setup. A dungeon is an entirely different world albeit its small size. It’s usually divided into floors or rather, circles that different monsters with different strengths live on. Usually, there are about five to ten circles in a dungeon, but it sometimes increases depending on which type of dungeon it is. These circles are separated from each other by a thick wall of pressurized magic energy that’s monsters can cross after they reach a certain rank. The weakest monsters live on the outermost circle and the strongest, the innermost circle at the center of the dungeon. Adventurers, however, can cross them even when they’re not strong enough.

At the end of every circle, close to the magic barrier, the strongest monster can be found, at least, most of the time. That monster is usually of the highest rank on that circle and soon to cross over to the inner circle. They find it convenient since if they can get the right prey to devour before entering the next circle, their chances of evolving might increase faster than other dungeon beasts and someday gain the hope of leaving the dungeon domain for the Spirit of the World’s domain. To enter the next circle whose entrance is being guarded by probably the strongest monster on that particular circle, adventurers must either slay the monster waiting for them in front of the barrier or distract it long enough for them to enter the next circle, although, it isn’t exactly recommended to cross the barrier if the adventurer can’t even defeat the monster guarding the barrier since the likelihood of even stronger monsters on the other side of the barrier is high. It’s something only a brainless or incompetent weakling would do.

Okay, now let’s check on Marcel and Allan to see how they’re doing.

Well, a moment ago, Marcel and Allan sensed a dungeon beast heading for them, and so... they swiftly dealt with it. It was a vine serpent, a type of dungeon beast living on the first circle of the dungeon. They’re serpentine plant-type beasts of the lowest level of D-rank. Their bodies are made of vines and are 50 cm in length and 5 cm in width. Like most serpentine monsters, they can create venoms from their bite, although their venom comes with a twist. Whoever’s bitten by them has a psychic link established between them and the serpent. This link absorbs a small portion of their victim’s magic power and vitality which is then sent to the vine serpent to aid in its evolution. They aren’t too much trouble to deal with when it's just one, but when they’re more than that, they all create psychic links with their prey and suck them dry. They’re one of the low-level dangerous beasts in plant-type dungeons albeit their lack of strength.

When Marcel and Allan sensed one of the vine serpents approaching them, Allan casually left it to Marcel because of how weak it was, and Marcel struck it with Sigurd, killing it in one strike. Marcel felt so disappointed by how weak it was and wondered if he was just too strong. He didn’t even activate Sigurd’s primary freezing ability to deal with it.

Marcel and Allan continued to go deeper into the forest after the vine serpent had been dealt with. They walked deeper into the forest, feeling bored since it was far from what they’d expected of an adventure into a dungeon. They continued their journey when they came across a crawling plant wiggling its thin long body around. Marcel found it cute and was about to approach it when the crawling vine instantly grew thorns, startling him in the process. He watched as the thin vine began growing until it was about 30 cm in width and three meters in length and its body was covered in spiky scales, then it grew a big gaping mouth with teeth-like sharp thorns covering the entirety of its mouth.

The thorny vine monster, after transforming, began spewing teeth-like thorns in its mouth at Allan and Marcel. Claude and the guards weren’t anywhere to be found as they had already masked their entire presence and hid as not to scare Marcel and Allan's target away. This was a dungeon after all. They said that they were going to help only when it was necessary, so they did just that. They watched as the monster released the sharp spiky scales from its body and shot them at Marcel while Allan faced the thorns it was spewing from its mouth. Marcel blocked the spike attacks with Sigurd and cut them down while Allan burned the ones that approached him when he couldn't evade with a low-level fire spell, incinerating them to ashes.

Marcel continued to block the attacks coming at him, but it was getting harder as the spikes from the thorny vine monster began increasing after each attack, making it harder and harder for him to fend off the wave of attacks. Allan then cast a mid-level fire spell, [Incinerating Flames], and attacked the monster with it, then he cast another mid-level spell, [Fire Cage], to surround the thorny vine monster with a towering cage of fire, thus limiting its movement to about only a meter radius because of its weakness to fire, enabling Marcel and Allan to gain control over the battle.

“Marcel, use Sigurd’s freezing ability! What are you waiting for?!” Allan urged Marcel as the monster, although afraid of fire, had started putting out the fire by sacrificing a portion of its body to the flames of the cage. It could regenerate again if it was given a bit of time, so the monster didn't hesitate to use it as the rewards would be worth the risk if it succeeded in defeating the two. 

“I know!!! It’s just that this monster keeps focusing its attack on me! I need to cut it with my sword to do that, but it doesn’t give me any chances to get close to it! Can you distract it for a while?!?” Marcel asked, struggling with the spike attack that he was still in the middle of cutting apart.

“Got it!” Allan said and then he conjured up a high-level magic spell, [Pyroblast], and readied himself to set the monster on fire. He then attacked the monster with the spell and a significant amount of damage was done to it. While that was happening, the monster stopped generating spikes to attack Marcel with and focused more on healing the wounds it had gained from Allan’s spell and when it did, Marcel quickly went in for the killing blow. He poured magic power into Sigurd and then slashed at the vine monster. The monster, after the attack, began slowly freezing up until it was solid ice, although not before spewing a dozen thorns from its mouth at Marcel, who dealt with them effortlessly. Marcel then hit the ice with a vibrating sword move, shattering the monster's body encased in ice and ending its life.

Marcel, after the monster had been defeated, thought of how powerful Sigurd was when its freezing ability was used. Up until now, he’d only done things like … um, nothing with it. He was always practicing his sword skills and never actually thought to freeze any of his practicing targets. This was the first time he’d used its magic ability. Marcel thought of how useful it would be and how it would minimize the amount of danger he’d be facing in the future and unconsciously thanked the demon lord for the splendid gift that is Sigurd.

They continued their journey that became calm after the thorny vine monster was slain. All the other monsters in the vicinity, although in a frenzy, seemed to have taken notice to their abilities and how they’d be slain if they showed themselves, well, except for one more tenacious than the others.

It approached from the south, about 100 meters away from Marcel and Allan. Allan used his tracking magic and deduced which kind of plant-type beast it was. He stared in utter shock when he got a full look at the approaching enemy. Unfortunately, and surprise-surprise, it was the exact same species of dungeon monster that people dreaded meeting in plant-type dungeons, including him, the Vine Grabbers.

The Vine Grabbers are a type of plant-type dungeon beast usually living on the middle circles of the dungeons although, it isn’t unusual to meet them on the lower level floors like Marcel and Allan were about to. Their appearance is that of a collective group of long thin vines all bound together. They’re vigorous and tenacious and they’re most defining feature is their ability to manipulate their vines for things like attacking, defending and the most disturbing one, molesting. They’re natural molesters who drain their target’s vitality and magic energy like the vine serpents, albeit through skin contact. They drain until there’s nothing left of their target and then they leave their victims for the other monsters to deal with. This makes them the worst nightmare of anyone who visits plant-type dungeons since they also evolve much faster than regular plant-type monsters because of the energies they steal. They also don't usually end up in conflict with other dungeon beasts since unlike most beasts who need the entire body of their victims to gain power for evolution, they only need the vitality and magic energy of their victims to continue evolving, thus the reason why they leave what's left of their victims after their energy is drained to the other beasts as it prevents them from getting into any fights over targets that might endanger them.

When Allan noticed that the monster approaching was the infamous Vine Grabbers, he immediately told Marcel to prepare himself to deliver a big slash to the monster the moment it came in sight. He also told Marcel that this was a battle that they needed to finish quickly as the Vine Grabbers also possess considerably high stamina compared to even high-level adventurers.   

Marcel listened and took a stance, preparing himself to deliver an instant freezing slash to the monster the moment it came in sight. Allan however, cast a pressurized wind barrier about twenty meters from the approaching monster to slow it down for a little while, then he prepared himself to use his strongest fire magic spell, [Ifrit]. Ifrit is a fire attribute magic spell created by one of the Archlen family’s ancestors upon witnessing the power of the mythical fire spirit, Ifrit. It’s a high-level spell that creates fireballs as hot as 2000 degrees Celsius and then shot at one's target, thus incinerating them until there's nothing left, not even ashes. It’s something taught to all the Archlen family members who possess the fire attribute as a natural affinity. The fire is pure golden in color and what’s distinguishes it and other high-level fire spells is its special curse that inflicts burning on its target even when the flames have been snuffed out. The special curse’s effect increases depending on the amount of magic power the caster possesses, so taking into account the magic power of Allan as of late, it’s probably enough to make the monster go full berserk on the pain, but that wasn’t something Allan had accounted for. He just thought that he wasn’t going to allow him and Marcel to get touchy-feely with the natural molester of a creature that is the Vine Grabbers and so, he cast Ifrit without any hesitation.

The Vine Grabbers broke the wind barrier that Allan had cast in a few minutes, and that was also the time required to fully cast and amplify the abilities of Ifrit, so it was perfect. The Vine Grabbers ran toward them at full speed and reached their location in a few seconds. Marcel was already standing in wait for their approach and unleashed the giant freezing slash from Sigurd as he’d promised. The freezing slash instantly took away many of its vines and slowly began corroding the rest of the monster with its icy cold chill. The Vine Grabber began losing its vigorousness after that attack and Marcel let out another attack, then another and then another until he’d cut off about a third of the Vine Grabbers' original size, which had been about as thick as a tree trunk. He continued slashing at the monster which began retaliating. It launched its vines towards Marcel, trying to grab him, but Marcel cut them all as fast as he could, ensuring that none of them got close enough to put him at a disadvantage in the battle. Marcel let out another freezing slash attack towards the Vine Grabbers, and it incapacitated the vigorous vines that were approaching Marcel. After the icy chilling effect of the sword attack had begun invading the Vine Grabbers body, Allan unleashed his Ifrit on the Vine Grabbers and they began burning away at the monster and brought about an unexpected effect.

The Vine Grabbers, after it had begun burning alive, started swinging its vines around. The vines, at that moment, were so strong that it mowed down trees as if they were made of paper. It seemed to be in even more of a frantic rage than when it first appeared. It launched its vines at Marcel and Allan, who was a distance away from Marcel. The vines came full force at the two with enough power to cause tremendous damage to them, and the two stayed vigilant and focused on the monster’s vine attacks. Marcel, thinking that he’d had enough of the pesky vine, launched another freezing slash attack, although even stronger since he put a bit more magic power into it, at Vine Grabbers, finally bringing an end to its life by freezing its entire body with the icy cold chill of the attack as it slowly burned under the painful curse effect of Ifrit's flames even after most of it had been extinguished by the continuous powerful freezing attacks launched by Marcel, and then Allan used a low-level wind spell, [Heavy Breeze], to smash its body into pieces.

The two, after defeating the Vine Grabbers, congratulated themselves with a celebratory fist bump and after that, an important question concerning the Vine Grabbers popped up in Marcel’s head.

“Allan, do you know why the monster suddenly went berserk as it did? It was kind of strange when it suddenly began using way more power than it had at the beginning of the battle.” He asked.

Allan thought about Marcel’s question for a while and then he remembered the special curse of Ifrit’s fire. Here’s what he said to Marcel, “Well... it kind of might have been my fault. Hehe~ I may have forgotten a teeny tiny detail about my fire spell, Ifrit, when I used it. It has a special curse that inflicts agonizing pain that makes its targets feel like they're dying even when the fire is snuffed out. The fire’s curse might have made the Vine Grabbers go berserk, leading to them suddenly being able to muster up so much power even as they were dying.” He answered and then he let out an awkward laugh.

“What!! Curse?!!” Marcel shouted, then his eyes had this special gleam that made Allan think that he was about to suggest something incredibly absurd.

“Curse... I want to learn about curses. Can you teach me how to use Ifrit? I heard from Claude this one time that exposure to some things might make one acquire resistance to it. Maybe me being exposed to fire that makes one want to die might increase my level of fire resistance. I’m also very interested in the curse of Ifrit.” Marcel said with a gleam in his eyes. Claude who was watching from a distance away then suddenly sent Marcel a telepathic message saying, “Knock it off!!!” and so Marcel calmed down and they continued their journey towards the second circle.

Marcel and Allan, after the Vine Grabber had been taken care of, had a pretty uninterrupted stroll through the forest, well, until a bunch of other impudent plant-type dungeon beasts similar to the Vine Grabbers came to prove that they were stronger than the previously defeated Vine Grabbers. They all got wiped out by the two who were on a roll because of teamwork and thus, they made it to the end of the first circle. They defeated the supposed boss of the first circle with ease thanks to the almighty Sigurd and Allan’s Ifrit, which both destroyed and strengthened the plant-type dungeon beasts until he began figuring out a way to decrease the special curse’s effect and so, they made it into the second circle without any problems. It was almost nighttime when they passed through the first outer circle and into the second and after that, they began setting up camp for the night. Claude and the four guards came from wherever it is they were hiding to congratulate the two and then go on to reprimand Marcel for getting distracted in the middle of a danger zone. Claude was in the middle of reprimanding Marcel when he zoned out. It was a notification from his Informer. They then wondered what it was notifying for. 

[A/N: Hello! I won't be updating for a while as I've been met with a bit of unfortunate and saddening news that has left me grieving these past few weeks. I'll be stepping away from my novel for a while and will be back as soon as I can get over it. I've already prepared material for future chapters, so it won't more rapid updates to this work can be done in the future after I come back. I wish you all better fortune than I'm having and I hope you'll bear with this impudent guy for a while. Bye!]