Reincarnated as the Strongest Dragon

Chapter 39: Trial By Fire II

The fourth floor had a cave layout with several different paths. Glowing moss grew in various places along the rocky surfaces, providing a glimmering light source.

We made our way down one of the paths. Liz took care of any monster we met without much difficulty, partly because she was strong, and partly because the path was inhabited by shadow panthers. It was an unfortunate environment for monsters relying on ambush tactics to be in since the glowing moss easily gave away their position.

“How many floors does this dungeon have?” Liz asked as she pierced the head of a shadow panther with a well-placed [Glacial Spike].

I pondered for a moment, scratching my chin while I tried to remember what Nadia said. “It should be fifteen if I remember correctly.” 

“Are we going all the way down?”

“That depends on you. My plan was to keep going until it became too much for you.”

“So far I haven’t had any trouble. Do you know what rank the monsters are?”

“No idea,” I lied. “But they can’t be that high since you defeat them like goblins.”

We continued through the floor until we arrived at a bigger room that had several monster corpses lying on the floor.

“Those monsters have already been killed. Is there someone else here?” Liz asked, pointing at the remains.

“Yeah, there are a few other people here.”

“How come we haven’t seen any corpses until now?”

“Because every time we have been at an intersection, I suggested we take the path from where I could sense monsters. There isn’t any point in following other people.”

“You could have told me,” Liz pouted.

“Would it have made a difference?” I smirked. “What should we do with the corpses?”

“What do you mean?”

“Should I take them?” I asked before squatting down to inspect one of them. “It seems like they took the magic stone, the claws, and the teeth. It would be a waste to leave them here.”

“I don’t know,” Liz replied, eyeing the corpse. “It feels like stealing.”

“Taking something that others have left behind counts as stealing?” I asked, looking at her while raising an eyebrow at the remark. “You are too pure for this world.”

“I guess you are right,” Liz sighed. “Adventurers have to consider what to take since their magic bags have limited space. Just one more thing traveling with you has made me forget.”

As I went around the room picking up the corpses, I could hear Liz muttering. “People will start to think that I’m weird.”

“That’s rude,” I remarked with a grin. “Shall we continue?”

Liz looked at the two paths, one to the left and one to the right. “Which way should we go?”

I sensed what awaited us in either direction before moving my gaze to an area of the wall in the middle of the two paths.

I sense monsters to the left and nothing to the right. However, that wall is more interesting.

“I’m thinking this way,” I suggested, pointing at the wall.

Liz looked at the wall and then at me with doubtful eyes. “What way?”

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I walked up to the wall and punched it with my shifted arm. The wall crumbled revealing a path behind it.

“See? This way,” I smirked.

Liz looked at the crumbled wall and without a second thought just accepted it. “I see, let’s go then.”

A long path stretched out behind the crumbled wall. But the small alcove immediately to our right interested me more.

“Look at that,” I said, pointing at the object in the alcove.

“A treasure chest?” Liz asked in surprise.

“Looks like it.”

Liz looked at it, her eyes filled with suspicion. “It’s not trapped, right?”

“It’s not. Why don’t you open it?”

“Me? But you found it.”

“I’m just here to keep you company,” I smiled. “Go ahead.”

Liz walked up to the chest and kneeled, but she didn’t open it.

“Is something wrong? I asked.

“No, it’s just… this is my first treasure chest so I’m a bit excited,” Liz revealed with a hint of embarrassment in her voice.

“Take your time,” I chuckled.

Liz took a deep breath and opened the chest, revealing the contents. She peeked inside and took out the only thing in it. It was a small scroll.

“This… this is it?” She asked, disappointed.

“Can I have a look?”

She gave me the scroll, and I used [Identify] on it. I couldn’t help but laugh.

“What is it?”

I opened the scroll and held up the paper with the magic circle toward Liz. “Does it look familiar?”

Inspecting the magic circle, a thought dawned on her. She opened her magic bag and took out one of the magic circles I had made for her earlier. Holding it up next to each other, her shoulders slumped at the realisation. 

“It’s [Glacial Spike]?”

“[Glacial Spike Lv.8] to be exact.”

“Oh?” her voice perked up. “That’s better than what I can do.”

“Sadly I don’t think so.”

“But the best I can do is level six,” Liz argued. “Even if it’s a single-use scroll, it’s still better than mine.”

“It can have some uses since it costs no mana to use, but it's still inferior to your own spell,” I said as I rolled up the paper again. “While it does let any person cast the spell as if they had both water and wind magic at level eight, it also casts as if you had zero mind stat. My guess is that it’s as powerful as you at level four.”

Liz looked heartbroken at my explanation. “My first ever chest and it was a dud.”

“That’s life in dungeons,” I laughed. “Half the time I wonder if they just mock you.”

“They?”

“The dungeons.”

Liz looked at me like I had just said something incomprehensible. I tried to interpret her expression before responding.

“Dungeons are alive, you know?”

“They are?” Liz asked, her eyes filled with doubt.

“Have you ever heard of those plants that eat flies?”

“You mean flytraps?”

“I guess that’s what they are called,” I replied. “Dungeons are like flytraps.”

“Uhm, what?”

“Flytraps lure flies and eat them. Dungeons lure, well, humans.”

Liz just stared at me.

“Haven’t you ever wondered where the corpses of monsters and adventurers go?”

“I know that. They get absorbed after a… oh,” Liz stopped talking.

“It’s exactly what you think. Dungeons use their mana-rich environment to spawn monsters and create items to bait humans.”

“Why does it want humans? Aren’t the monsters good enough?”

“Humans are chock-full of delicious mana. You are probably a real treat compared to monsters.”

Liz looked down at her feet with an uncomfortable expression.

“In all seriousness, I don’t know. Maybe it’s because you are born and not spawned by mana itself? Or perhaps it's because you don’t possess a magic stone? Or something completely different. What I do know is that dungeons try to lure humans. 

However, this doesn’t necessarily mean that they want to kill them. Consider it more of a symbiotic relationship: the dungeon provides monsters and items, while humans provide mana through fighting… or dying. If the dungeon wasn’t worth exploring adventurers wouldn’t go there, or they would just take the core and collapse it.”

“Is there anything that you don’t know about?”

“There are plenty of things that I don’t know. But it’s true that I gathered a lot of knowledge, mainly because I’m old and have nothing better to do than to question the principles of the world. Humans live short lives, and most don’t care to question what is considered fact.

For example, you were told to chant by someone who was told to chant by their predecessor, and so on and so forth. All it takes is one person to draw a conclusion and pass it off as fact. If people believe it, it only takes a generation or two until it becomes a ‘fact’.”

While Liz was trying to comprehend my lecture, I continued speaking.

“Another reason why humans might not understand certain things is due to their lack of curiosity. For instance, When someone told you that dungeons absorb corpses, you accepted that information without questioning why. I don't blame you or humans for this, as speculation is often the only option available for you. For example, do you know how I discovered that dungeons were actually alive?”

Liz sighed and guessed, “Did you do something outrageous?”

“I lived in a dungeon for a while,” I grinned.

“You lived in one?”

“That’s right. I was curious as to why dungeons existed and how they worked. At first, I killed all the monsters and collected their corpses, leaving nothing to absorb. I also kindly asked other adventurers to leave.”

“So you… starved the dungeon?” Liz asked, her eyes filled with concern.

“Exactly! After a few months of doing this, I noticed a considerable increase in traps in the area around where I had my camp. When they failed, the layout started to suspiciously change. Tunnels leading further in were blocked, and the only path open to me was to the entrance. Monsters also started to appear less frequently, and they even dropped in difficulty. I concluded that the dungeon must be sentient and was trying to get me to leave. When I found a new room close to my camp with four treasure chests, I was sure of it.”

“You mean the dungeon tried to bribe you into leaving?”

“I don’t see how it could be anything else. The items it tried to give me were bad even by human standards, but I guess it was so starved for mana that it couldn’t create something better.”

Liz frowned. “Is it weird that I feel bad for a dungeon? You’re such a bully.”

I laughed. “I suppose it was mean when you think about the dungeon as a sentient being. But before I left, I walked around and dumped a ton of the monster corpses to give it something to eat.”

“Only you could ever feed a dungeon like a pet,” Liz said, shaking her head.

“Maybe I should have given it a name,” I joked. “But the lesson of the story is that dungeons are alive. Even the wall I knocked down will most likely regenerate in time. Also, the thing with-”

“Luna,” Liz interrupted me.

“What is it?”

“Do you think we could continue?”

“With?”

“The dungeon?”

I realised how long I had been talking and replied sheepishly. “Yes, sorry. I guess I got a bit carried away.”

“I enjoy listening to you explain things… but keep it in moderation.”

“Noted,” I replied, slightly flustered. “Let’s continue.”

As we descended floor after floor, we continued through the dungeon until we reached a teleport room located between the ninth and tenth floors.

“What do you think? Do you want to continue or go back to the surface for today?”

“I would like to go back. I’m rather tired and I’m running low on mana. We would have to wait here for a good while before continuing, so we might as well go back for today.”

I pondered for a moment. “We could teleport out and camp on the surface and come back tomorrow if you want that?”

“That sounds preferable to flying back to the capital, not that I don't enjoy our time in the air together,” Liz expressed with a smile.

“Are you trying to score some extra points by acting cute?” I smirked. “But before we leave, what’s your level now?”

“It’s uhm,” Liz opened her [Status]. “177 already? Wow, that was fast.”

“Does that mean you can advance to Cryomancer now?”

“It does! I can't believe I can advance twice in such a short time.”

“Let’s teleport back and set up camp then.”