Chapter 101: The Dungeon Master Takes A Quest 2

Chapter 101: Chapter 101: The Dungeon Master Takes A Quest 2

The dungeon remembered disturbance, at least for a while, and these marks were still fresh to it. They reached the first rest route, a small open chamber where a group of adventurers rested. One man sat against the wall while another wrapped a bandage around his leg. Arin noticed the injury immediately, deep claw marks that bled through the cloth. He approached the injured man and knelt down.

"What happened?" Arin asked. The injured adventurer looked up with a pained expression. "Cave Wolf," he said. Adnan glanced toward the others in surprise. "Here?" he asked.

"Yeah," the man said, nodding. Rayan frowned deeply. "This high up?" he asked. The man nodded again and continued his story. "Thing came running out of one of the side tunnels alone," he explained.

Arin crouched lower and asked, "Did it attack immediately?" The man shook his head. "No," he said, "it was scared." Arin went completely still at that word. "Scared?" he repeated.

"Yeah, it ran right past us at first," the man said. "We thought it was fleeing from another party." "What happened then?" Arin asked. "We blocked the passage," the man grimaced. "It panicked and clawed its way through us."

Arin’s eyes moved toward the claw marks again. "You cornered it," he said quietly. "Pretty much," the man admitted. Tara looked down the dark tunnel with concern. "What was it running from?" she asked.

The adventurer shrugged his shoulders. "Didn’t stick around to find out," he said. Arin stood up slowly. Arene spoke quietly in his mind again. "That is relevant," she said.

"Very," Arin agreed internally. A displaced predator was one thing, but a fleeing predator was another thing entirely. They continued down the side tunnel, which narrowed quickly as they went. No other adventurers followed them into the darkness. After several minutes, Arin saw the first dead monster on the ground.

It was a Stone Crawler with its thick shell split wide open. No magic stone had been removed from its corpse. Arin crouched beside it to examine the wound. "Fresh?" he asked. Ayan knelt nearby and inspected it as well.

"Several hours old," Ayan answered. Rayan looked around nervously. "An adventurer kill?" he asked. Arin examined the wound more closely, seeing one straight strike through the shell. "No," he said firmly.

Dev frowned and asked, "How do you know?" Arin pointed at the intact core cavity. "Nobody took the stone," he explained. Nisha’s expression changed and she stepped back. "Maybe they didn’t have time," she suggested.

"Maybe," Arin said, but something else bothered him about the kill. The wound was too clean and too precise to be a normal fight. There was no surrounding damage and no struggle marks on the floor. The Stone Crawler had died almost instantly from a single puncture. Saira crouched on the other side of the corpse and looked up.

"Something strong killed it," she said. "Yeah," Arin agreed. "And didn’t eat it," she added. "Yeah," Arin said again, his voice lower. Adnan stared ahead into the dark tunnel.

"Then why kill it?" he asked aloud. Nobody answered him. They pressed on deeper and five minutes later found another corpse. Then they found another, a different species but with the same precise wound. All the magic stones remained untouched and gleaming in the bodies.

Rayan stopped smiling completely. "This isn’t normal," he said. "No," Arin agreed, his hand tightening on his weapon. Tara moved closer to him, her bow lowered. "Do we turn back?" she whispered.

Arin considered it seriously for a moment. This was supposed to be reconnaissance and they had already gathered enough to prove monster movement. But this was no longer just displacement, something was hunting monsters and leaving them behind. Arene spoke in his mind, her voice firm. "You have enough evidence to complete the quest," she reminded him.

"I know," Arin replied silently. "Then continuing is optional," she added. Arin stared into the darkness ahead of them. That was exactly why he wanted to continue, not because he wanted danger. Whatever caused this might explain the missing adventurers.

He looked toward the group and made his decision. "We go a little farther," he said, "if we find anything worse, we turn around." Ayan immediately added, "And we will hold you to that promise." Arin nodded in agreement. They continued forward together into the gloom.

The tunnel opened into a much wider chamber. The smell hit them first, thick and metallic. Blood covered the air and the floor. Nisha covered her mouth and Dev swore quietly under his breath. Bodies covered the floor, but they were not human.

They were monsters, at least twenty of them. There were Cave Wolves, Stone Crawlers, and two creatures Arin didn’t recognize. All of them were dead, killed with the same precise puncture wound. Tara lowered her bow slowly, her face pale. "What could do this?" she asked in a whisper.

Arin stepped carefully between the corpses, trying not to disturb them. Dungeon Sense spread outward from him, feeling disturbance everywhere. He felt movement, panic, and struggle imprinted in the mana around them. Then he felt something else, a thin trail of distorted mana. It was cold and unnatural and led toward the far wall.

Arin followed the trail with his eyes and his senses. The wall ahead looked completely solid to everyone else. But Dungeon Sense disagreed, there was empty space behind it. Arin touched the stone with his palm. "Hidden passage," he whispered.

Rayan stepped forward and frowned. "There isn’t one on the map," he said. "Exactly," Arin replied. He searched the wall for a lever or any obvious mechanism. He found nothing.

Arene spoke again, her tone more alert than before. "The structure here is artificial," she said. Arin’s eyes narrowed at that information. "What do you mean?" he asked her silently. "This section was altered," she explained.

"Recently?" Arin asked. "I cannot determine when," Arene answered. Arin pushed more Dungeon Authority into his hand and the wall reacted. A faint line appeared on the stone, then another one crossed it. It formed the clear outline of a doorway.

Everyone stared at the glowing lines. Dev looked at Arin with suspicion. "How did you do that?" he asked. "Long story," Arin replied evasively. The stone split down the middle with a low grinding sound.

Cold air drifted through the opening from the darkness beyond. No blue crystals illuminated the path and only blackness waited inside. Arin stared into the void and his Dungeon Master’s Mark suddenly burned hard. He grabbed his chest in pain as heat shot through him. Tara reached him immediately and grabbed his arm.

"Arin?" she asked, worried. "I’m fine," he said, though he clearly was not. Something inside the hidden passage had reacted to him, not just the Mark but his Authority itself. A message appeared in front of his eyes, bright and urgent.

[Dungeon Master Authority Detected]

Arin froze completely. Arene’s voice changed, becoming tense. "Arin," she said sharply. "I see it," he replied. Another line of text appeared beneath the first.

[Unauthorized Dungeon Master Presence]

Rayan looked at him with confusion. "What is it?" he asked. Arin didn’t answer, his eyes locked on the System window. The System continued with another warning.

[Foreign Authority detected within dungeon territory.]

Arin’s heartbeat quickened rapidly in his chest. Foreign Authority meant there was another Dungeon Master presence here, or something carrying one. Then a sound came from deep inside the hidden passage.

[Warning]

It was metal scraping against stone, slow and deliberate. Everyone raised their weapons at once and formed a circle. The sound stopped abruptly. Silence filled the chamber, heavy and complete. Then a voice drifted from the darkness ahead.

"Finally," the voice said softly. Arin’s grip tightened around his weapon until his knuckles turned white. The voice laughed quietly, amused by their fear. "I was wondering how long it would take one of you to find the door." The darkness beyond the doorway seemed to shift and move forward.