CHAPTER 40: HIDDEN DOUNGEN [1]

The entire building began to shake, and a low, grinding noise echoed from somewhere below.

It felt like the ground itself was coming alive.

Whatever I had just triggered—

It was too late to retreat now.

Was it... an earthquake?

Caught completely off guard, I froze where I stood.

Rumble... rumble... rumble...

The trembling grew stronger, the floor shuddering beneath my boots. Dust drifted down from the cracked ceiling, and the old walls groaned as if the entire building were alive and in pain.

My balance faltered, and I barely managed to steady myself against a nearby pillar. "What the hell—"

I waited, expecting the shaking to stop after a few seconds.

But it didn’t.

The vibrations only grew worse, turning into a violent quake that made it nearly impossible to stand upright.

Then—

Crack.

"Huh...?"

A sharp, splintering sound cut through the noise. I looked down just in time to see jagged cracks crawling across the floor like a spider’s web.

They spread fast—too fast.

From the floor to the walls, the fissures expanded in every direction, breaking apart the already fragile structure.

The entire room seemed to crumble before my eyes.

And then—

Boom!

The ground beneath me gave way.

"Wait—!!"

The word barely left my mouth before I was swallowed whole.

The floor vanished, and my body plummeted into the gaping blackness below.

For a moment, there was nothing—no sound, no light—just the sensation of falling endlessly through the dark.

And then the world around me disappeared completely.

----

Thud!

"Ugh!"

The breath was knocked out of me as I hit the ground. Thankfully, the fall wasn’t too high, but the impact still left my head spinning for a moment.

"Damn... that hurt."

I sat up slowly, rubbing my back. The air down here was colder—damp, even—and carried a faint metallic scent, like rust or old blood.

’Where... is this place?’

Blinking through the dimness, I spotted my magic lamp lying a few feet away. I crawled over, grabbed it, and quickly brushed off the dust before lighting it again.

A pale glow spread through the space, pushing back the darkness just enough for me to see the uneven stone floor and the walls that seemed... too smooth, too precise to be natural.

My first instinct was to look up.

The floor I’d been standing on had collapsed, so logically, the ceiling above me should have a gaping hole. But when I raised the lamp—

"...What?"

There was nothing. Not even a crack.

The ceiling was completely intact, like I’d never fallen through it in the first place.

And then I remembered that strange, fleeting sensation right before I dropped—like being pulled through liquid magic.

A teleportation barrier.

If my guess was right... then this wasn’t just some underground room.

"This place is..."

I swallowed hard, my voice barely above a whisper.

"...A dungeon?"

Dimensional dungeons—anomalies that appeared often in the comic.

Twisted spaces connected to the real world, filled with monsters, traps, and forgotten relics.

And now, I’d stumbled straight into one.

I stood there for a moment, staring into the dark passageway stretching beyond the faint light of my lamp.

The magical energy in the air was thick—so thick it almost hummed against my skin. It was wild, untamed, and ancient.

A chill ran down my spine.

"Of all places... why here?" I muttered under my breath.

I’d come searching for a simple magical item, and now I was trapped in what could very well be a death trap hidden beneath the Academy.

"Looks like I’m in big trouble..." I muttered under my breath, staring at the faintly glowing symbols on the floor.

The problem was obvious.

Dungeons weren’t some casual playground. They were designed to be hard. Even in the comic, they only started appearing midway through the story—after the protagonist had gone through intense training and leveled up significantly.

And yet, here I was. Weak, unprepared, and completely out of my depth.

I wasn’t even supposed to be here this early in the story.

Of course, not all dungeons were the same. Their difficulty varied depending on type and origin—some were low-grade ruins with weak monsters, while others were death traps built to kill anyone foolish enough to step inside.

Still, one thing was certain.

My current situation? Absolutely terrible.

"...Great," I sighed, running a hand through my hair. "Just perfect."

There were only three known methods to escape a dungeon.

The first was to find a portal—a hidden gate that connected directly to the outside world. Simple in theory, but not exactly easy to locate when you didn’t know the layout.

The second was to use magic to teleport out. Unfortunately, that option went right out the window for me. I wasn’t a mage, and even if I were, D-grade mana wouldn’t get me anywhere near strong enough to force open a dimensional passage.

Which left the final, most dangerous method.

"Destroy the dungeon core..." I whispered, my voice echoing faintly against the stone walls.

The core served as the heart of the dungeon—its power source. If destroyed, the dungeon would collapse and cease to exist. But getting to it was the hard part.

Because the core was always protected by a guardian.

And not the kind of monster you could just wave a sword at and win.

"...Yeah. Definitely not an option," I muttered. "If I go that route, I’ll just be volunteering for an early funeral."

That meant I had only one realistic choice left.

"I need to find the portal."

My voice came out steadier than I felt.

Brushing the dust from my uniform, I took a deep breath and forced my legs to move.

The air was thick, damp, and cold, every breath echoing faintly through the dark stone corridor ahead.

Each step I took stirred up clouds of dust, and the faint blue light from the walls barely illuminated my path.

If I didn’t find that portal soon... this dungeon could very well become my tomb.

"...Alright," I murmured, gripping the hilt of my sword tighter. "Let’s get this over with."

And with that, I pressed forward into the darkness.