Brill slammed down her sword, cutting a tentacle in two. The monster writhed for a few seconds, then evaporated into dust. As its body disappeared, it left behind a single red gem the size of a cork.
"These things really do only drop Rank F gems..."
She sighed and quickly retrieved the small gem. The low-tier drop would barely be enough to cover a beer. These monsters were hardly worth fighting.
"Two more approaching down the corridor," said Mira, their party's scout.
"Leave it to us."
Wren and Alicia stepped forward. The elf archer, Wren, shot an arrow down the long stone corridor, skewering a tentacle lengthwise. Alicia, their mage, shot a fireball and vaporized the remaining tentacle. Both tentacles left behind small red gems like the previous ones they defeated.
"This really doesn't leave much for me to do..." Sophie sighed, leaning against her staff. As a priest, she could heal injuries, but none of the enemies had landed a scratch so far.
Brill, the front guard, nodded. "Is this really a dungeon? We're already on the fifth floor, but it has hardly put up a fight. I doubt there's any good loot at the bottom."
They had descended five sets of stairs, but the difficulty hadn't gone up at all. The dungeon was uncleared, but only because it was so long and with no proper treasure to loot. There were over three hundred floors total, more than any recorded dungeon, but they all had similar levels of ease.
"Perhaps it's trying to bore us to death..." Alicia sighed and put away her wand. However, Mira shook her head.
"It's best not to get complacent. I heard there's been several cases of people going missing while exploring the dungeon." As their scout, it was her job to lead them and her excessive caution had gotten them out of many sticky situations before.
"I agree, we still need to remain weary."
"Fine..." Alicia, Sophie, and Wren echoed a resigned sigh together. As the rear guard, they were already at the least risk, and the monotonous slog of weak enemies did little to convince them otherwise.
"Alright, let's keep going."
Mira led the way, checking for traps as she went. Eventually, they came to a doorway that led off the main corridor. Inside, a single treasure chest sat in the middle.
"I bet it's just gonna be empty again." Alicia shook her head. Every chest they'd come across so far had nothing inside them, and this one was unlikely to be different.
"I'll check it out anyway. Everyone, stay back." Mira crept into the room. She double checked every stone tile for pressure plates until she made it up to the wooden chest. She had yet to find any traps at all, but one could never be too sure.
Gently, Mira pushed in her thief's tool between the lid and bottom of the chest. She felt around inside the chest for any wires or contraptions, and...
"There's actually a trap..." Mira's eyes widened in surprise. "And this is quite a sophisticated one..."
"What's that?" Brill's heavy footsteps echoed behind.
"No! Stay back!" To Mira's shock, every single member of her party was inside the room already. They stared at her with confusion. "I told you to stay back!"
However, it was too late. The chest began to rumble. Her small tool had triggered the trap with only the smallest of movements. Even Master class traps weren't supposed to be that sensitive, but this one was.
Spell circles rippled out around the room. Countless shining symbols and shapes overlapping with each other. Thousands of secondary traps armed themselves in the moment between when Mira shouted at them and the trap triggered.
In an instant, half their party got caught in the spell circles. Wren, Alicia, and Sophie disappeared. Only Mira and Brill remained.
"Don't move!" As her mind caught up, Mira shouted the single command to Brill.
The hundreds of spell circles still dotted the floor. If they made one false step, they would end up like the others.
Brill's eyes widened as she finally understood the situation they were in. "The others, they..."
"They likely got teleported into tertiary traps or into the lower floors."
The teleportation traps around them were known as the most dangerous traps in dungeons. They could split up parties and leave people stranded in high-level areas. Worst case scenario, they could drop one into a death trap or an impossible maze.
Brill took a deep breath and hardened her eyes. "They'll make it back up. This is the so-called weakest dungeon, they won't get defeated so easily."
"We can only hope..." However, Mira had a bad feeling about their situation. It was as if the dungeon lured people into complacency, then ambushed them when they lost focus. "Those three better make it back..."
They could only wait for the others to return with help. The thousands of spell circles glowed on the floor, leaving no room to walk or move. If they made one wrong step, they could end up in an even worse situation.
"Believe in them. Those three will definitely make it back."
--
Sophie suddenly found herself in a dimly lit room. The room was the same as any other in the dungeon, but a stone door closed off the exit.
"Oh deer..."
A plaque on the door read. "Challenge room: The exit opens after one hour. Good luck!"
She specialized in healing, so she had no way to break through the door. She didn't sense any monsters, but she appeared to be trapped.
"This can't be good..."
