"You see, the style on the upper floor of this dungeon is an abandoned mine tunnel. We will find passage after passage. Then the monster that spawns here is Giant Rat, only that."

Luis and Zea are now inside the dungeon, they walk side by side with Luis on the left side.

"The dungeon is different from what I imagined. I thought it will be a dark place, like an underground tunnel. But it is surprisingly bright."

"Ah, that is because there is someone that is tasked to place torches in the upper floors. In the deeper floor, if there is a floor with a similar style like this one, it should be dark," explained Luis.

"Also, I never thought that there will be this many people inside." Zea looks around and indeed there are many people here. In front of Luis's group, there is another group fighting a giant rat.

"Let's try to move to the deeper floor, I think we can go until the 6th floor today. The first 10 floors all have a similar style, they are constructed with many passages like this one here." Luis paused a bit before continuing. "The difference between the first and tenth floor is only on the number of giant rats you will encounter. On the tenth floor, there is a chance to find a group of five giant rats. Meanwhile, you can only find a lone giant rat at one time on the first floor."

"Is it okay to go that deep today?"

"It is okay, but no need to go there now… We will look for a place that is not as crowded so that you can try fighting."

They keep going looking for a place that is not crowded. Along the way, they see many groups are battling the monster spawned. It is on the second floor when Luis found a single giant rat standing on the passage.

"Zea, look there, there is a giant rat. Want to try battling it?" Luis pointed at the giant rat while asking Zea. "Don't worry, I will cover if something happens."

Zea took a deep breath steeling herself. She then moves toward the giant rat. The giant rat noticed and started running toward Zea. Zea saw this and prepared her machete. When the giant rat almost reached Zea, it jumped and aimed its attack around Zea's abdomen. Zea sidestepped a little to dodge the attack and then swing her machete toward the giant rat.

The attack hit and give a serious injury to the giant rat. Despite the injury, the giant rat keeps moving albeit a little slower than before. It tried to attack Zea again with a similar move. The giant rat charged toward Zea and again, it aimed at her abdomen. Zea having known this move before, dodge the giant rat again and then swing her machete.

"Is this rat… done?" Zea looked at the now motionless rat. Not long after, the giant rat turns into particles. On its place leaving only a small translucent stone.

"Yup, it is dead. Good job, are you sure this is your first time battling a giant rat?" How the battle goes impress Luis, he can't help but praise Zea. "I thought the first charge from the giant rat will connect. But you dodged it without a sweat. A very good performance for your first time."

"Is this the thing called as mana stone?" Zea picked up the translucent stone and showed it to Luis.

"Yes, that is mana stone. It dropped from a dead monster."

Mana stone is a special stone that dropped when a monster died. Mana stone stored mana or magic energy. Using a special device, the energy inside can be converted to other energy. Electricity, heat, even kinetic energy are some of the energy. It can also be used to replenish mana on humans, but it is not very effective. Other than that, the mana stone is also used for dungeon-related item crafting, and potion-making.

"Seeing this in real life feels weird. It feels… I don't know… Like a game? A monster dead then it disintegrates into a particle and dropping a mana stone?" Zea voiced out what she feels.

The dungeon has been around only for seven years so this kind of thing is still not seen as common sense. Luis himself also feels the same as Zea, this kind of thing is weird. A dead body disintegrating… Why? Where is all the body of the giant rat? This does not make any sense. Then again, a dungeon appearing out of nowhere does not make any more sense.

"Well… I don't know more than you, but it is what it is. There is a different physical law inside the dungeon. We can only accept it and study it more." Luis thinks for a bit before continuing his explanation. "Did you know that before the dungeon appeared, there is a subway system right below the dungeon entrance? But until today the subway is still operating without any accident, and there is not a trace of the dungeon on the subway. This indicates that the dungeon is not located here, but in another place altogether. The dungeon entrance is like a portal that connects the two places together."

"I also heard about that… Hmm, well then, there is no reason to keep being bothered by this. Let's just move forward." Zea decided to forget about all the weird things.

Luis nodded, "Sure, let's go. Do you want to keep exploring this floor? Most we can find is a single giant rat at a time here. Only if we are lucky that we can find a pair of giant rats."

"For now, I want to keep exploring this floor first."

✦✦✦✦✦✦

After a few battles, Zea becomes unexpectedly good at using the machete. She now can kill a giant rat in one hit. Because of that Luis suggests going deeper, at least to the fourth floor. He thinks that Zea can now win against a pair of giant rats by herself.

"The fourth floor is larger than all the three floors before this combined. So people get lost easily in this place, especially the newcomer. That is why we need a map if we want to explore this floor," Luis explained a little about this floor. "It is easier to pass this floor to go to the fifth floor than to explore this floor. You see the passage to the right? If we go there, we will find the stair to the next floor."

"Really? Can we go look first?"

They walk for around 3 minutes before finding the stair to the next floor.

"This is really near, so… Because of this, many people decided to skip this floor huh?"

"Yeah, that is why there are few people here. Except for some newcomer training on this floor, nobody else has any reason to explore this floor." Luis said this while pulling the map from his side bag. He then opened the map, and showed Zea, "Where do you want to go? We are now at this place."

Zea picked the furthest places on this floor, the northwest corner of the fourth floor. "Let's go here."

Feeling that there is no reason to reject Zea's suggestion, Luis nodded agreeing, "Okay. Also, you bring the map and take this as practice for map reading."

They walk following the map, along the way Zea beat six pairs of giant rats, and 3 lone giant rats. Luis's evaluation that says Zea can win against a pair of giant rats is correct. The way Zea moves while battling is also becoming better and better. Looking at how Zea improved so fast, Luis thinks that this girl has a knack for becoming Dungeon Explorer.

"Eh—" A confused look appeared on Zea's face while she is looking at the map. "According to the map, there is no more passage that goes west, only a corner that goes to the south. But there is one here…"

Luis also checked his map, to prevent getting lost in the dungeon he also uses his map and check where they are now from time to time. In front of them now is a passage similar to other passages here. The only difference is that there is no torch in this passage.

"You are right, this passage is not drawn on the map. And the passage is dark, looks like this is a new passage—"

"Hey, want to go explore this route?" Zea throws this suggestion out of nowhere. "I think I brought flashlights, where are those… Ah, here."

Two flashlights or to be exact, two head-mounted flashlights are pulled from the inside of Zea's bag. "Here is one for you."

After passing one of the flashlights to Luis, Zea put one on her head and tried to turn it on. "Perfect."

Seeing this, Luis can't help but to also put one himself. He then reminds Zea to keep careful. "Remember to be careful. Even when this is only the fourth floor, there is still a chance something outside of our expectation may pop up."

With the flashlight on their heads turned on, both of them walked together toward the unknown passage.