Chapter 32: Subway
After the visit to the hospital, Zane headed directly for the public library.
Now that Zane was alone, he finally had some time to properly inspect the cube that he'd brought out of the Dungeon. Inspecting it with his System yielded no results, and instead simply generated a bunch of question marks.
Of course, like any normal person at a library, he first browsed the shelves for any books that could possibly contain information about an artifact like this, mainly focusing on the historical section. When that didn't yield any results, he tried the public computers—the Internet. Once again, however, he found nothing. The ancient runes on the surface of this mysterious tesseract were not recorded in any parts of the web—at least, not the surface web.
'Seriously…?'
But Zane was a firm believer of the 'if something exists, there's information about it' rule. As such, he didn't give up hope. If the internet won't give him what he wants, then he'll just have to find another library, with a different selection of books. A bigger, deeper, and more diverse library.
He didn't quite have an exact location in mind, but that research could wait until later. His allotted time on the computer had just kicked him off anyway, so he instead opened his System, and checked on his quests to find something to do. Just then, he noticed the [Multiclass Hunter] quest, and remembered the Secret Dungeon key he'd obtained from the catacombs. Since he had nothing better to do for the rest of the day, why not go check this place out? Since it was a D-rank Dungeon, it shouldn't be that hard.
'Hm… Yongen-Jaya, subway station… right. No time like the present.'
Getting out of his chair, Zane slipped his sturdy black cloak back on, and set off.
*****
By the time Zane arrived before the Yongen-Jaya subway station, the sun had set. The time was roughly around 6 PM, right when traffic was highest and most workers were using transportation to get back to their homes from their jobs. Naturally, this meant the subway was quite crowded, but that was hardly an issue—Secret Dungeons could only be entered and unlocked by the keybearer, and from the perspective of others, Zane would simply vanish from sight in the crowd of people—nothing worthy of note unless one was observing him intensely.
Unfortunately, such crowdedness meant that he couldn't bring Scarlet along, and in these parts, nighttime was the most active—nightclubs, bars, all sorts of facilities you'd find in a red-light district. As such, now was actually most likely the prime time to enter the Secret Dungeon without being noticed.
Secretively, Zane pulled out the Dungeon Key from his pocket. It was quite small, making it easy to carry around. Given that Secret Dungeons were common knowledge amongst Hunters (despite the majority of them choosing never to enter one themselves due to the dangers that it could present), Zane knew perfectly well how to use the item.
Slowly and gently, he thrust the key forward as he stood perfectly still in front of the station gate, with a staircase leading downwards into the terminals below. He felt the tip of his key collide with a faint, invisible wall—almost like a bubble. If he pushed too hard, he'd phase through. If he pushed too soft, nothing would happen—he'd only feel air.
By adjusting his strength to the perfect level, Zane soon found himself staring at a holographic blue screen in front of him, like an energy barrier of sorts. The passerby all around him walked straight through it and showed no reaction, but that was only natural given that they couldn't see or feel the wall.
Now, the first step was done. And the next—was to turn the key.
Immediately after Zane rotated the item 90 degrees clockwise, the barrier suddenly fizzed and disappeared. Left in its place was not the same subway staircase that Zane had just been looking at a moment before, but instead a damp, ominous descending flight of stairs that seemed to lead into eternal darkness.
From within, passerby continued walking out. After all, they still existed inside the normal dimension. But Zane, using the Dungeon Key, had entered a separate realm—a realm that he alone could access.
Taking a deep breath, he stepped through where the barrier had once been. Immediately, the sound of shuffling footsteps and idle chatter cut off abruptly, replaced by the calming yet unsettling noise of water dripping from a broken pipe. Before Zane's eyes, a notification appeared.
[Notice]
[You have met all the requirements to trigger the quest, <Multiclass Hunter>.]
[Objective: Defeat the Dungeon Boss. Failure to do so will result in a penalty.]
[Penalty: Death.]
[Rewards: Class Selection, 10 SP, 50 Bloodrunes]
'Raising the stakes, huh…? Fine by me.'
Zane had not signed up for this, but it was common knowledge that to escape from a Dungeon, one needed to defeat the boss that lay within. If he couldn't defeat the boss, then he'd be stuck here forever until he could. Secret Dungeons worked differently than normal ones—if a Hunter went missing inside a Secret Dungeon, no one would know. As such, the risk was a lot higher.
'Now then… let's see what the theme of this Dungeon is.'
This was another major difference between Secret Dungeons and normal Dungeons. The former could contain enemy types that didn't always match the environment, whereas the latter only had specific archetypes, albeit with many different variations. The third difference was that the [Cartography] skill did not work inside Secret Dungeons, thus amping up the risk even further. The only way to find out what this particular Dungeon's enemy type was simple, yet dangerous—going deeper.
As such, that's exactly what Zane did. Carefully, he treaded through the dark tunnels of the underground subway station, dimly lit by the occasionally-flickering lights embedded within the ceiling. Disgusting dark-green, nearly black moss of some sort covered the pipes that lined the walls, probably a result of water leaking through.
Even after several minutes of cautious walking, however, Zane came across nothing. Proceeding without a map was a pain, but unfortunately, this was how Secret Dungeons worked. One had to be experienced, ever-aware, and most importantly of all, calm. Zane was no novice Hunter, so instead of exploring himself, he sent out his Servants to do it—more particularly, Dahrka and the shadowy Taken Hunters he'd resurrected after the fight with Dante. He kept Azakiel by his side just in case anything dangerous appeared, and since the Fallen Angel was clunky in terms of movement anyway, it would be useless to send him out.
Not only was this strategy safer, it also covered a lot more ground. Zane couldn't directly see what his Servants could, but he could feel when one of them was getting attacked or injured and pinpoint its location. With Azakiel by his side, watching over him, he could safely close his eyes and do his best to forcibly conjure a map of the place—not using [Cartography], but instead the tracks of his Servants.
Even after several minutes of this, however, no attacks fell upon any of the minions he'd sent out. Collectively, they must've went through dozens of chambers by now, reaching nearly all the different platforms of the subway station.
'… Strange,' Zane thought in his head, furrowing his brows. 'Why are my Servants not getting attacked?'
Theoretically, Dungeon Monsters should be able to tell the difference between their own kind and another race. Since this Dungeon was freshly opened, Zane doubted there would be any Taken enemies present. Infighting was common amongst monsters of different types, so why…?
Just as he was thinking this, however, the signal of one of his Servants suddenly vanished. Immediately, his eyes snapped wide open, and he glanced in the direction where it had disappeared.
'Impossible…'
There was no struggle. The Taken Hunter did not even have a chance to react before its life was forcibly taken away. While this did not provide any clue as to what kind of Monsters lay inside this Dungeon, it did prove one thing—whatever that thing was, it was incredibly strong. So strong that it should not exist in a D-rank Dungeon.
At the very least… not as a common mob.
'Could it be… the boss?'
No, that wasn't possible. The boss was normally always in its own separate chamber, and lay at the deepest parts of a Dungeon. The signal of the Servant that had just disappeared came from not too far away, and Zane was still at the entrance of this place.
But then again… Secret Dungeons were far from normal.
Narrowing his eyes, Zane decided to investigate. If that really was the work of the Dungeon Boss, then… from the moment he stepped foot into this place, he'd already fallen into its trap.
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