Chapter 214 - First Floor

'..Found it'

That's all Ethan thought. It hadn't been long since he had accepted that at the time it was needed to focus on what was in front of him with a cold blood. No matter what mysteries may lay ahead of him, he could calmly analyse everything later.

'...Come to think of it, Freya should already have left the Twilight Manor. If everything went accordingly to my guesses, that is.'

He remembered that in the [True Dungeon] time seemed to flow in a difference of 5:1. This meant that every five minutes in the real dungeon, only one minute passed in the real world, but Ethan hadn't previously checked the time he entered, so he didn't know exactly how much time had passed, but he was sure it couldn't be less than a few hours, For the hordes went on and on against him, before they stopped.

'Whatever's in charge of these skeletons must have realized that they have no chance of getting close to me, so they decided to stop wasting resources?'

If it was the case, Ethan would be forced to admit the monster possessed intelligence in itself, in short he wasn't faced with a monster that would casually use all their resources, but they also knew how to use them at best. At this point, he didn't know if the opponent could be beaten by him, in this state.

'It is true that having the opportunity to use all my powers freely would be useful to increase my parameters, but this monster seems far too strong for my standards. If I see him, I'd better retire immediately.'

Even though he couldn't take the girls with him other than Maple since everyone else would have a lot of trouble crossing worlds, Ethan could ask for their help with the information himself, and if there was some detail that he hadn't seen, key to solving this great puzzle, it was just Riveria the person who could help him the most.

'..That's it, but for now I must take a look at this Dungeon.'

After searching the area, Ethan realized that a part of the terrain seemed to be slightly different, and as soon as he approached to check, a panel informed him of what would happen, but before he even read the contents of it, Ethan saw stone form for about 5 meters in front of him, and after about a few seconds, there stood what seemed to be the entrance to a cave, although mere seconds ago all he could see was only air.

'..That's why it was called Hidden..?'

It was definitely impressive. The speed with which even if a second earlier nothing was visible, where now the entrance to a cave, at least 10 meters wide, had been erected as if it had been there all the time, was definitively worth of the note 'Hidden Dungeon'. The title wasn't an exaggeration, it was just the truth.

But now, after for the umpteenth time he had managed to clear his mind about what to do, Ethan took a step toward the cave. He couldn't see what was inside, but even a glance was enough to understand whatever was before him was extremely deep, almost as if this cave led to the very depths of the world.

'100th floors. Would it be any different from the Dungeon I know well?'

He had no idea what he was going to face, but the aura coming from this Dungeon was completely different from the almost peaceful atmosphere that could be found in the close-ups of the Dungeon, since it was rare for adventurers to have difficulties already from the first floor in itself, the atmosphere was of a simple passage, and many times the strongest adventurers tended to ignore it completely, but here it was different. Ethan felt that even the first floor would be a challenge, as his main mission was to get at least to the 5th floor.

But that wasn't enough to shake his resolve. He wouldn't have made it to the 5th floor at once, but he would have discovered something more about this plan, that was the confidence that pushed him to go further.

Now one step away from the entrance, Ethan's eyes clearly showed he was at the peak of his attention. He didn't know if at the very moment he set foot inside the cave hordes of monsters could launch a surprise attack, And so he had increased the protection of his body to the maximum he could bear, just in case.

But once his foot rested against what was now a different floor..

[Transferring the Host to the 1st floor of the Inari's Hidden Dungeon...]

He didn't have time to figure out what was going on, and before he could even blink, the surrounding scenario was completely different. The ruined city disappeared. Now in front of him, there was what seemed to be another entrance.

But before he could ask what had happened, Ethan found himself with another core quest.

---

//Inari's Hidden Dungeon 1st Floor: Core Quest//

[2nd Floor Pass]

Rank: A(S)

Optional Objectives: Find the secret room where the treasure is located(0/1)

Reward: 2nd Floor Pass Granted, 20,000 SP

---

Ethan was puzzled. The quest itself didn't seem to be complicated. What he had to do was to eradicate from this plan the dominant species, and it was already important information to him as it meant that there was not only one species, but more than one, and being dominant, the others must have been subordinated. But in addition to that, his goal was to defeat what was probably the leader, and he also had to find the entrance to the 2nd floor.

If he wanted more rewards though, bringing the rank of this core quest to S, he also had to find the treasure room, Probably hidden somewhere in the plan.

'It's still the 1st floor, yet the quest is already of rank A and S? Do I have any chance to even landing on the fifth floor? And if my instincts are not deceiving me, that same floor will be hard for me'

From these thoughts Ethan had well understood his strength simply lacked. There was no way he would have an easy time in this floor, if the quest was already of this level.

But for now, Ethan still decided to check it out. He realized by now the area he was in could be considered a kind of 'safe zone', because he couldn't feel any threat from this room, but in front of him there was another entrance. This time Ethan was sure he would actually enter the first floor.

Always moving forward with caution, Ethan found himself well within reach of what was the actual entrance to the first floor, and although there was evidently a difference to the area he was in a second ago, There were still no monsters visible even from the distance.

'Could it be they're waiting underneath? under the dirt?'

He was walking on what appeared to be stone, given the monotonous sounds that could be heard at every step he took forward, but it was likely that the monsters could still appear from the ground, so Ethan paying attention to anything that could show itself in front of him, proceed forward.

After a while Ethan had entered the cave, he heard several groans. But Ethan, having never heard something like this, couldn't understand what type of creature that could make such a strange sound, until he finally saw what was he going to face.

'...I can't believe it.'

What Ethan had in his vision was a person. But not just any normal person. It didn't appear at all to be in a state of mind capable of even recognizing that the person in front of him was another human being. This person's clothing was completely tattered, revealing parts of his body that Ethan didn't care about, as it was the least of his worries.

The person had decayed-looking eyes, his skin was so rotten it was on the state of decomposition but the thing that struck him the most was that this person, despite being dead, was still standing. No, more than anything, it seemed to have nothing to do with those that Ethan recognized as human beings.

'This is definitely a zombie.'

The conclusion was obvious to him. In his previous world he had only heard of it, because he had never seen anything like it, not even in the movies. That's why he believed the appearance of this monster was far more shocking than even the ugliest monsters he had in his memory, precisely because this monster originated from a previous living being.

'I have no clue what it can do, but it seems it doesn't have a great speed to begin with.'

Although the vision of a human being reduced to this state was definitely a test for Ethan's stomach, he well remembered he couldn't underestimate nor take lightly anything, especially in the face of a monster who had evidently lost his mind. There was no reason to feel empathy for this monster.

As he seemed relatively weak, Ethan decided to aim for a frontal attack without the use of magic, so he wouldn't have to waste the mana he needed later, but before he could do that the effect of his new title was successful, and he could see how a halo formed on the head of the zombie. No, more specifically, the halo had taken the form of what was the brain of the zombie.

'So his weak point is the brain...'

While this information slightly changed Ethan's tactics to confront the zombie, the latter was proceeding slowly and with drool coming out of his mouth, as if to indicate the extreme hunger to which he had been left.

'..It must be painful. I'll relieve you of this suffering in a few seconds.'

It wasn't even compassion. This was just something Ethan had to do. Since he was a human who had become a monster, the latter possessed a real soul within himself, he could sense his aura that indicated he wasn't the same as the skeletons. From this, he deduced the soul had probably been disturbed by its eternal rest for use in combat.

'..Could that monster also be behind this?'

First skeletons, now zombies. Ethan didn't know anything about whatever happened, not only the bodies, but also the souls themselves had been brought back to life so that they could be used, which was something that disgusted him.

'I am no hero. I'm only interested in this city's fate because Maple was born and raised here, but seeing a fellow human being in this state...'

While these thoughts flooded in his mind, Ethan was already behind the zombie as he threw a powerful punch against his head...

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(I have a discord server. discord.gg/cpVr5X8. You may ask me: "Why should I enter the server?". Well, I'm replying to every interesting question you readers are asking in my chapters, so, you should absolutely enter if you want to read my answers. Ah, and you can find some image reference of items in the story such as Light..! (Soon even Qienta).. so it's recommended to join, I frequently post polls as well, regarding things that(most likely) will be present in the story. One last thing, I post chapter updates in my discord right after I posted on , so I guess you can join to be able to know when I post chapters faster.)

(Poll going on in the discord: Vote what you think is better. I only want to introduce one of these three, the ones with most votes when I feel like it wins. - Light being able to interact with the real world. - Qienta shows up before planned. - More power ups than planned for the girls and Ethan himself.)

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(Alternate Titles: "More information regarding the 1st floor of the True Dungeon!", "Zombies...seriously!?", "I wonder what is hiding in the 5th floor....")