The world twisted and stilled.

  Rayne felt his stomach lurch as the air folded around him, every sense blurring into a whirl of black and violet. For a heartbeat, it felt like he was falling through thick smoke, and then, suddenly, his boots struck solid ground.

  He staggered, almost falling face first. The sound of snickering made him realise he was standing on solid stone.

  He took a breath and felt cold air filling his lungs. Mana prickled his skin, and he blinked, looking around to see Shawn and the others staring at him.

  The squad leader had his perpetual frown on his face and muttered, “Get out of the way of the portal. Or the next person will crash onto you, bastard.”

  Rayne immediately stepped to the side and took in the surroundings. They were in a room carved out of black rock. Roots swirled around the top of the ceiling, and on the other side, a stone was embedded in the wall. It looked like a glowstone, only smaller.

  It cast a dim light that painted everything in shades of ghostly red. If not for [Umbral siight], he surely wouldn't be able to see everything clearly.

  Right in front of the portal was a door that Shawn had already opened. It led to what seemed like a tunnel made out of the same black rock.

  A ripple behind him made him turn as Nate stumbled through the portal, cursing. Then two minutes later came Jason, who caught his balance with surprising ease, followed by Kesh, John, Heins, and finally Quinn.

  Everyone blinked, disoriented for a moment.

  “Well,” Nate muttered, looking around. “That was unpleasant.”

  “Be glad that this dungeon has natural light. Some dungeons don’t,” Shawn said, eyes moving to look at each of them, probably counting their numbers. “Check your gear one last time. We will be heading into the tunnel in two minutes. Make sure you stick to the decided formation and don’t cause trouble.”

  He looked at Rayne for the last part. He only nodded, checking his gear for one last time. Sword sheathed, good. Daggers secure. Health potions tied to his belt. Rope. Flint. Rations. All accounted for.

  He might not be needing everything, but he would rather be safe than sorry. The extra weight didn’t bother him too much.

  Once the others finished checking too, Shawn gestured to Gravson, who walked out of the door first. As a scout, he would be walking ten paces ahead of them, looking for any traps in the walls and floor.

  All of them moved behind him with Jason and Shawn taking the vanguard position. The three other soldiers were after that, then Rayne walked with Nate and John. Kesh, Heins, and Quinn stayed in the back.

  With Gravson taking the scout position and Quinn having no experience of dungeons, he didn’t have much to do, and Rayne saw him checking out the walls and arched-up ceiling.

  He himself would have liked to be in the front, but Rayne guessed that Shawn didn’t really trust him. Jason, with his big axe, was better to cleave through monsters either way.

  Hence, he tried to recall the entries from the journal and match them with what he was seeing. They were walking for ten minutes, and other than the glowstones in the walls, they had seen no monsters.

  The tunnel stretched on like the mouth of a titan, and just the length of it told him that the dungeon would have at least a few levels.

  According to the journal, dungeons came in all shapes and sizes, and longer first floors were a good indication that the dungeon would be bigger. That meant stronger monsters with a good variety.

  “Do you think I can pry one out?” Nate whispered, bringing him out of his thoughts.

  “The glowstones?”

  He nodded. “Yes, they look like they will go for a good price. Dungeon materials are always highly regarded.”

  “You can try, but I don’t think they will come out,” Rayne replied, but Nate moved to try to pull the glowstones anyway.

  His attempts didn’t really succeed as the stones refused to budge out of the walls. Kesh chuckled, seeing him failing to pull them out, and John shook his head in disappointment.

  “Come back before we leave you behind,” Rayne said, and Nate fell into the formation beside him, still looking at the glowstones.

  “I believe I can get them out with a dagger. We should try when we are on our way back.”

  Before Rayne could reply, he heard whispers in the front and saw Gravson talking to Shawn. Jason stood beside them, his expression tightening as all of them halted.

  Shawn turned to face them the next second. “Gravson saw a swarm of rust bugs clinging to the walls ahead. It’s a group of two dozen, so it won’t be hard to deal with since they are low-level monsters. But don’t use your sword. They let out a corrosive liquid that rusts metal. Don’t inhale it either. It might damage your lungs. We will be trying to finish them off with arrows and throwing knives. If any get close, smash them on the walls. Understood?”

  They all nodded. Gravson and Quinn both had bows, and they took them out. Rayne wondered if the first floor would be filled with bugs. A monster theme was common in the journal.

  All of them took careful steps forward as the tunnel wound up in a curve before they finally saw the rust bugs clinging to the walls. And the first thing that came to his mind seeing them was how ugly they were.

  They were the size of a cat, their shells black and glistening, their eyes glowing faint green. Each of them had six legs clinging to the walls, and two of them were stuck to the ceiling. Their faces looked like torn flesh, and they screeched as they saw them enter their point of view.

  “Fire now!” Shawn shouted.

  Gravson and Quinn wasted no time and released their arrows.

  One of the arrows struck a bug dead centre in the eye, making it fall to the ground where it convulsed before lying still. More arrows entered the swarm of the rust bugs, making them drop on the ground.

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  A few soldiers, including Nate and John, sent knives spinning through the air and slicing up the bugs, but they adapted fast, dropping on the ground themselves and crawling to close the distance.

  Jason moved fast, grabbing one of the rust bugs and slamming it on the wall. Blood splattered all over him, but he didn’t seem to care. Shawn and the others also moved to stomp the bugs under their feet.

  The creatures screeched, spraying arcs of milky liquid that splattered harmlessly against the ground as the soldiers jumped back. Smoke rose from the stone where it touched, hissing and bubbling.

  “Don’t inhale it!” Shawn shouted. “There’s not many left!”

  Quinn launched another arrow, catching one of the larger bugs square in its thorax. It split open, spraying its corrosive fluid on its own kind. The others shrieked, the sound grating against their ears.

  The swarm thinned but didn’t stop. The front line rushed forward, desperate, clicking their mandibles wildly.

  Rayne joined the fight then and charged to meet them. A rust bug jumped from the ceiling, spraying its acid. He sidestepped to avoid it and kicked it on the wall. He grabbed another and slammed it on the ground. Before he could finish both of them, arrows took care of them, lodging deep in their heads.

  He didn’t see who had fired it and moved to stomp the rest of the rust bugs. Some of them sprayed their acid on his vambrace, and he held his breath before finishing them off. The liquid only stung a bit and wasn’t as effective against flesh.

  More and more notifications flashed at the back of his head, and in a matter of minutes, the swarm had been crushed into pulp.

  The tunnel floor was a mess with bloodstains, crushed shells, and the faint metallic tang of the rust acid. But none of them seemed to have any major injuries.

  One of the soldiers had gotten bitten on the leg, but he could walk.

  “Good job,” Shawn said, using a rag to wipe away some of the acid from his armour. “We will rest for two minutes, then move on. I believe we will be seeing more and more of these bugs as we reach the centre of the first floor.”

  They nodded. Though Rayne wasn’t looking forward to taking on more of these bugs. Their shells were easily broken, and they were easy to kill. But he had never liked bugs.

  As they rested, he joined Quinn in retrieving some of the arrows that hadn’t broken, while Gravson moved on his own to scout out more of the first level.

  He came back with bad news, as an even larger swarm was waiting for them on another turn. Not being able to use their weapons was a disadvantage, but the arrows and knives took out more of them this time.

  Rayne also had more to do, as a large part of the swarm managed to bypass Shawn and Jason by crawling across the walls. He had Nate and Kesh work together with him as he took out the bugs from the walls and threw them towards them.

  They stomped on their shells and ended them.

  None of the bugs gave out much experience, and even after killing a dozen of them, Rayne didn’t level up. On top of it, he smelled horrible with blood and the acidic liquid on his armour.

  But they were making progress, and that was the only thing important.

  Shawn gave them enough rest to get their bearings and collect the knives and arrows before moving on. From time to time, he would glance at him, but having nothing to pick out on, he chose to ignore him.

  That was fine by Rayne. They came across two more swarms of four dozen each before the tunnel seemed to open up.

  It stretched even wider, and doors appeared on the walls. Rayne knew that each room contained different sorts of monsters and sometimes treasures, but they would typically start to appear on the second level.

  That again confirmed that this dungeon was way bigger than their expectations.

  Shawn moved to order them to open up each of the doors to check inside. The first room was a sprawling landscape of trees with monsters that looked like bees. The second room was empty, but they saw webs on the ceilings, and the third had a big pond in the centre of it with no monster in sight.

  None of them entered the rooms, as it was general knowledge that they couldn’t get out of it without killing the monsters inside.

  Rayne had no idea why it was the case, but it was simply known as a dungeon rule.

  They were mostly opening the doors to see if there were soldiers inside, dead or alive. But they had no success in the first three rooms. That changed when Gravson opened the door to the fourth door they came across.

  The scene inside made all of them pause.

  Three bodies lay right in front of the ground. Dried blood covered all of them, and from where they stood, Rayne could see that all three had their necks slashed. They wore the common Valerian armour and were all in front of a large chest.

  The rest of the room was empty, and he didn’t see any monsters in sight.

  “What happened here?” Kesh said, his face pale.

  All of them looked lost for words. Shawn took a step forward but stilled, realising they hadn’t identified the monster in the room yet. For all they knew, it might be something invisible.

  Rayne kept his eyes fixed on the corpses. He recognised them briefly, having seen them around the training spars, but had never talked to any of them. He didn’t even know their names.

  But other than those three, there was no sign of anyone else in the room. Not even blood or signs of battle. What exactly happened here?

  As he scanned the room again, his eyes locked onto the chest. That was the only thing in the room. Its exterior was wooden and looked like a normal chest that might have some dungeon rewards inside of it.

  When that thought entered his mind, he recalled a passage from the journal, and everything suddenly made sense.

  “They were killed by a chester!” he said, bringing everyone to look at him.

  “A chester?” Shawn frowned. “What are you saying, bastard? What’s a chester?”

  Rayne fixed his gaze on him. “A monster that’s shaped like a chest. They are only found in dungeons and look like reward chests, but have tentacles and love hoarding items. These three must have opened up the chest only for tentacles to come out and kill them. Look at their necks; it seems like they were sliced very swiftly.”

  “It can be something else too,” another man said.

  Rayne shook his head. “No, look at their corpses again. They have no weapons on them. Chesters feed on mana but love hoarding things. It must have taken their weapons and potions. It hates human flesh and probably had no idea how to get the soldiers out of their armour; hence it left them on.”

  Everyone else looked back at the chest after his explanation. Jason gave him an appreciative nod, while Shawn put a finger on his chin. He didn’t seem to reject his claim and took a peek inside the room again.

  Then, he turned, looking straight at him.

  “That doesn’t explain why these three are here. A squad normally won’t divide their numbers to enter rooms. That’s suicidal, and these three didn’t seem to know that.”

  Rayne shrugged. “I don’t know. Axel shouldn’t have let them go inside on their own.”

  “Only Axel could answer that, if he’s alive that is,” Shawn muttered, then looked back at the room. “We are not going to be entering this room. Let’s see if we can find more of the squad in the rooms ahead.”

  Gravson took the lead while Shawn moved right behind him. The other soldiers fell in line soon, and only Rayne kept looking back at the room. A voice inside him told him that he should go inside and avenge the soldiers, but he didn’t know them, nor did he have any way to handle a chester alone.

  More than that, he wondered what had exactly happened in the dungeon. He didn’t know about Axel, but Hobbs would have definitely gone after these three if they had stumbled into the room accidentally.

  But he wasn’t here. And they had seen no signs of anyone else till now.

  Rayne looked back at the party moving along and walked to catch up with them all and hoped they would find a clue as to what had happened soon.

  Ten minutes later, they found something.

  ***