Ryuji''s hands spread across the towering black doors of Anstraud Keep.

The cool sensation of the dark Ravenwood planks and silver bolts and studs felt pleasant to touch. He felt a strange feeling with this dungeon, instead of floors. It was broken into the various areas of the keep.

The Anstraud Ramparts, Anstraud Courtyard and finally Anstraud Halls.

His muscles tensed before pushing against the doors, heavily straining as the frozen, rusted doors cracked and began to move. His body was covered in the snow, gritting his teeth before slamming the doors open and destroying them.

As the gates opened, they revealed a dark, ruined courtyard of an ancient keep. It was a circular area surrounded by battlements that were crumbling and ruined from age.

Within the courtyard were several ruined tents. It appeared that they once had been the temporary homes of some of the Shadow Legion.

A strange cult who believed in a goddess of darkness who delved into dark, horrifying rituals and sacrifices.

The once bright city and capital home to a hero of light who fell into darkness when his beloved wife perished to a traitor who sought her beauty.

"What a beautiful place," said Ryuji, staring at the falling snow. "A perfect place for a home."

A small smile crossed his face as he stepped into the courtyard.

It was empty, but he could see that there were several paths into the different sections of the keep; straight ahead would likely lead him to the main dungeon, while the path to his east and west were likely the two wings of the halls, which he was now inside.

He let out a sigh, looking at the rotten vines, destroyed bushes.... the trampled flowers now grey, dead and withered forever frozen in this freezing hell.

An image of the castle''s former beauty is now forever stained with evil and decay.

There was a large, arched entryway leading to the left, a set of stairs leading up into the ramparts, and a set leading down into the dungeon. He walked toward the entryway leading to the left and peered within.

It was a long corridor; the floors were stone, and the walls were made of grey brick. It was well-lit; there was a single set of braziers that lined the hall, the flickering fires providing just enough light to see.

The distant sound of armour clanging, jittering bones and whispers travelled down the corridor.

"Ah, so it looks like I have some company," smiled Ryuji. "I suppose the Shadow Legion would remain alive even as the undead..."

He snagged the black necklace to form his great axe, holding the handle with one hand. His eyes narrowed as he approached the entrance. As soon as he stepped forward, the sounds became louder; the armour of the undead clanging and rattling echoed loudly as they turned the corner.

A skeleton warrior wielding a longsword and shield charged at him. He grinned, swinging his axe and cleaving through the air.

The sharp edge of his axe crashed and slammed through the shield, cleaving the skeletal arm and the longsword, smashing it into fragments that exploded and scattered.

The bones in the lower half of the skeleton shattered as the creature was thrown into the wall, colliding hard. It exploded, the remains scattering and shattering.

Several more skeletons wielding swords, shields and spears rushed him.

His fingers tightened their grip on his axe as he swung it and sliced through the air.

While above the bridge and archways was the place the archers were standing, Ryuji felt he had fallen into a film where the heroes ventured into a mine, but in fact, it seemed more like a tomb where the dwarves dug too deeply, then after a small man-made some noise, hundreds if not thousands of goblins appeared.

''Damn, at this rate I will become lord of the g-strings!''

Grunting, he slammed the wall with a punch, cracking the stone before sending out a shockwave that pushed the goblins away, creating an opening for his flame barrage that killed every single goblin archer on the left passage.

"Whew, this was a little more difficult than I thought it would be," he smirked, with sweat oozing down his forehead and the sensation of magic leaving his body rapidly. Ryuji began to feel the small movements of magic, how much a single attack used, and the huge amount he lost when an arrow grazed him.

He looked at the wounds on his arm, seeing the arrow had grazed him, his skin was burnt but the wound wasn''t deep, so he simply brushed it off at the time, but now his skin shone with a beautiful glow, no longer burnt or wounded.

''How... interesting. So my healing magic is already at a point where I can heal myself this quickly? It was only a slight wound, yet it is healed already.''

A curious smile formed, "Well, the bad thing is I couldn''t control or even feel that healing magic, only the sudden feeling of my body becoming heavier for a moment... Is that spell something that drains my magic that much?"

He wiped his head, feeling a drop of sweat running down his chin, wiping it away and licking the taste of salt from his finger.

"But the good thing is, it appears that when I don''t use my mana, It regenerates extremely quickly. In fact, I didn''t feel any pain in the first place, so it was an unexpected feeling to realise that I had already been healed," he laughed.

Ryuji walked down the steps and crossed the stone bridge to reach the next area.

At the end of the corridor was a wide open space with a large stone door. On the front of the door were the runes of an ancient language and five indentations where it looked like something should be slotted inside.

Ryuji''s finger brushed the surface as if to try and open the door, but the heavy metal and stone resisted his attempt to push; he then started to look at the pictures on the wall... it showed the previous room and all the different archways, showing a man entering them and collecting a small gemstone... "It figures... what is this dungeon, something from Resident Badguy?"

"A gemstone for each area, ahhh... I want to destroy these stupid puzzles!"

He let out a grunt, turning back and trudging across the bridge.

Now, the irritating part... THE GOBLINS RESPAWNED!

So, while dodging their arrows and letting his flames fling across the enormous dome, he had a mysterious feeling to have his magic kill the goblins while he just moved slightly to avoid their arrows.

He then turned his attention to the other doorways, seeing the stairs leading further down, then a strange hallway leading into the darkness.

[Gained: Grey Goblin Marking (Uncommon)]

[Level Up: Demon Lord (Lv.18)] +2

[Level Up: Sanguine Berserker (Lv.25)] +1

[Learned Skill!]

[Howl of Terror: You howl into the air, stunning all enemies within 20 metres for 1 second before causing them to attack you out of sheer terror for 5 seconds.]

"Let''s take this passage, it doesn''t smell so foul..."