Muddy Dungeon – 2nd Floor[You didn’t have to stay on the first floor that much; it was only three rooms!]

  ‘The monsters did spawn fast!’ Simon expined himself as he was dropping to the next floor.

  “SPLAT”

  And he nded again on the muddy dungeon terrain. By the smell of the air and the looming feeling from the walls, the 2nd floor was a huge one.

  [I saw your face, you were enjoying it. You were not even collecting the magic stones!]

  ‘Does this dungeon have stairs?’ he looked around, shrugging off the comment. In front of him was a rge room with three different paths to take

  [Give me a few moments, this floor is quite rge!]

  The voice said as monsters started spawning inside the room.

  ‘Lizards!’ Simon thought, waiting for a reply. But the usually reactive Cryvii was silent. With his new sword in hand, he smiled, confident in its cutting power. ‘Then more test cutting!’

  He unched into another furious onsught. The lizards scattered, hissing and cwing in resistance, but Simon quickly picked out three distinct types.

  One had a crown-like shield fanning out from its head—broad and pted like a moving fortress. ‘Tank!’ he noted. Then came the sleek ones with curved bdes jutting from their forelimbs, darting across the mud like shadows. ‘Range!’ Lastly, there were the long-tailed lizards, swinging their muscur tails like whips, the arcs wide and reckless. ‘Attackers!’

  Simon smiled. He wasn’t sure he’d categorized them perfectly, but it didn’t matter. His mind raced, focused on testing the sword. If he could figure out its element, he might finally understand his own root.

  ‘Why the hell is the shield on its head?’ Simon narrowed his eyes at the bulky front-liner as he drove his bde straight into its face-pte, forcing it back with a screech.

  Simon felt the difference. He purposely didn’t apply Bisa to the sword. It was still sharp, but it no longer cut like butter. With a smile, he channeled Bisa again as he pulled the sword free. Instantly, he felt the change—and so did the monster, when brutality met flesh.

  On his fnk, the bded ones lunged, their frontal swings too low and predictable. ‘Too easy.’ Simon saw the attack miles away and leapt, letting their bdes slice through the air beneath him before bringing his sword down mid-fall—cleaving one before it could recover.

  The tailed lizards shot their tails. ‘Friendly fire!’ Simon thought, sidestepping, making sure that their attacks hit the other lizards.

  [Found the next shaft down! Oh! That’s evil!]

  Cryvii reacted as Simon executed his brutal strategy.

  Muddy Dungeon – 3rd FloorThe dungeon fought back with all its strength. Snail-type monsters oozed out for defense, while mole-like beasts burst from the dirt to strike.

  But it was hopeless.

  A single intruder—Simon—cut them all down in one ssh, sometimes two.

  The dungeon tried to absorb the fallen monsters, reciming what little magic it could. But it couldn’t keep up with the boy’s pace. His bde moved too fast.

  Vertical. Horizontal. Diagonal. It didn’t matter. Every swing nded clean. Every creature fell.

  [You’re not even taking a hit!] the voice cried, half in awe, half in disbelief.

  Simon didn’t answer. His body moved on its own—fluid, precise. Each step, each dodge, each strike was the result of relentless training.

  The old man had taught him well. Especially when it came to dungeons.

  [Simon! I found it! Follow the moss’s lights!]

  ‘Cryvii! I can see it,’ Simon thought. His eyes, sensitive to the sudden shift in lighting, caught the faint glow of dungeon moss. Just as Cryvii had said, it would lead him deeper—down to the bottom of the dungeon.

  He leaped onto the back of a snail, then hopped from shell to shell with instinctive ease. The faint glow of dungeon moss along the walls continued to shift and flow. Simon followed the moving light until he found the next pit—without hesitation, he jumped in.

  [Simon! Spike traps at the bottom—what’s your pn?]

  “You’re telling me now?” Simon grumbled, swinging his sword to the left mid-fall to redirect his descent.

  He skimmed along the cliffside, gliding just above the dungeon wall. Below, the glow of dungeon moss illuminated the spikes and revealed the next ptform.

  “Huff!”

  With a push off the wall, Simon flipped backward, nding cleanly on the next ledge.

  ‘Two more to go!’

  [YEP!]

  Muddy Dungeon – 4th Floor[This is a boss room!]

  ‘Yeah… definitely a boss room,’ Simon thought.

  The chamber was wide and ft, a single floor with no visible stairs—just one rge pit across the room, likely the way down to the next level. But blocking his path stood two crystal-scaled, rge lizards.

  Each was roughly the height of an adult, just edging taller.

  On the right stood a lizard cd in red crystal, its scales bzing with heat. A crown of crimson horns lined its jaws and swept back into its head, fring outward like a fiery mane. Fmes flickered at the tip of its tail.

  ‘The red one’s a fire monster!’

  [No shit!]

  On the left crouched another lizard, this one armored in jagged blue crystals. Unlike its fiery counterpart, its scales flowed like frozen waves, and its tail ended in a sharp, bde-like curve.

  ‘The blue one’s ice!’

  [Genius!]

  ‘Stop it.’

  Simon pierces the sword in the ground. A sharp pain again on his head as he did, but it was a lot easier to wave off since he had felt it before.

  [What? Simon, are you okay? Did you hit your head?]

  ‘I’m okay, it’s just that I’m experiencing magic exhaustion. Does this sword drain magic so much?’

  [I’m not sure, so you are not going to use the sword?]

  ‘It’s getting boring, and I've got an idea of how to beat them!’

  [Don’t tell me… You can use magic?]

  ‘No, I can’t use magic,’ Simon answered smugly, remembering the times when the old man drilled the basics of magic discipline into him.

  He began to move, walking at a slow pace. The two lizard flickered their tails, eyes moving as they watched him move closer.

  “YAR!” The Ice Lizard started by spinning and waving its tail at Simon; it was a wide attack.

  Simon ducked under the attack. He found a good angle and pushed the tail to make it hit the Fire Lizard.

  “GOOARRRRR!!!” and it hurt.

  [That hurts!]

  The Ice Lizard panicked as it tried to pull out its bded tail, pierced on the side of the Fire Lizard. The attack was too effective; even the Ice Lizard was in pain as its tail began to melt.

  “HHRRRUUUUMMMM!!” But the Fire Lizard began sucking in air. Its eyes glowed, and the red scales fshed in a tint of orange and yellow. Magic emanated inside its throat as it also expanded. Simon, who was witnessing this, could tell the next attack was a breath attack.

  And he had a good pn; he waited for a while.

  [It will be a wide… range… You are evil!] Cryvii didn’t miss the beat and knew what was going to happen, the moment Simon repositioned.

  The Fire Lizard, finally ready to release, tried to confirm its target.

  “Nice!” But the boy that was his target was already at its side, aiming to kick its neck to direct the spread of attack to the Ice Lizard.

  “THUD!” He kicked the neck, turning the head. Held the horn with his hands and grabbed it steady. The Fire Lizard didn’t have enough time; he couldn’t stop now.

  The air trembled with a deep, resonant hum. Then— “Fwhoooosh”—a torrent of fire exploded from its maw, like a storm of embers and heat, shrieking and writhing like it was alive.

  “GOARRRR?!!” and the poor Ice Lizard, who was stuck on its tail, didn’t have a moment to dodge or to get out of the way.

  Simon braced himself, heat searing his gloves as he gripped the horns. He forced the lizard’s head still, refusing to let it twist away. Tip-toeing as he controlled the neck of the rge lizard.

  “FWOOOOOOOSHH!” and the fme was unstoppable; even the blower itself couldn’t stop. Molten tears dropped from its eyes as its very own fmes melted its comrade.

  As the breath attack finished, the Ice Lizard was no more. Not a bit of its remains was identifiable.

  ‘Just a sb of frozen-thawed meat?’ That was the description Simon could think of. Even its feet, which were pnted in the ground, melted. Then he felt the eyes of the Fire Lizard looming at him.

  “ROAAAARR!!” the Fire Lizard roared. Used all its strength to be free of Simon’s grasp.

  [Ah, you still have your strength!] the voice chimed in, watching the surreal event, a fourteen-year-old boy holding the Fire Lizard’s neck.

  ‘Off you go!’ and Simon let go.

  The Fire Lizard crashed into the walls of the dungeon. Simon quickly rushed and took the bde he had left in the ground. He then jumped in the air, not letting the Fire Lizard recover.

  “SLASH!”

  It was still on its belly when the neck was cleanly severed.

  [BRUTAL!]

  ‘How would you want me to kill it?’

  [... No comment, please follow the lights!]

  By Cryvii’s words, a single glimmering light bloomed, spreading into a circle that illuminated a pit on the far side of the dungeon floor. Before moving on, something caught the corner of Simon’s eye—a shimmering stone.

  As the fire lizard’s body was absorbed by the dungeon, it left behind a reddish crystal. It was rare for dungeon enemies to drop anything without the use of a special method.

  [Stop staring—just take it and let’s go!] Cryvii said excitedly.

  Simon did as he was told.