One of Argenta's prime factors was their roads. The roads were connected all around Elaria from Argenta. And on one of those roads, a large white portal swirled, gathering the attention of the people.
"CITIZENS SHOULD STAY BACK! A HERO TEAM WOULD HEAD IN RIGHT NOW AND CLEAR THE DUNGEON!" The police officer announced, finally putting down his microphone.
He let out a sigh of relief, dropping the microphone.
A hand rested on his shoulder all of a sudden, and he turned around to see a beautiful, tall woman looking at him with an indifferent expression.
"Ah, Lady Emira. Thank goodness you're here!" The man turned to her, clasping his hands together.
The woman in front of him stood at 6'1. Her tall physique, coupled with her beautiful face that seemed out of this world, made the man nervous.
Emira was a very famous A-rank Hero, having cleared many dungeons and saved a lot of citizens, so the police, of course, had a deep respect for her.
"How long has it been out?" The hero asked, stretching out her hands.
The armour she wore did a bad job at hiding how curvy she was. Heroes were a different breed entirely in the realms of looks.
"The dungeon has been open for ten minutes. But you won't be able to enter." The man seemed to have a sweat drop sliding down his face.
"What? Why not?" Emira raised a brow.
"There's a presence of one hero inside the dungeon. So no one else can enter until he's... dead. Or he clears it." The officer shrugged.
Emira looked at the portal with a calm face. Soon, other heroes arrived, telling the policeman he should have called them earlier.
But one thing bothered Emira.
'The person that has been in there... It's been ten minutes. Is it a high-ranking hero?' she wondered, staying indifferent about the entire thing.
"A team will arrive shortly, try to calm the citizens." Emira said to the police officer, finding a chair to sit.
...
Cla! Cla...!
The sounds of water dripping in the quest space reverberated all around the dungeon.
Lucius finally stood up, gazing around. He seemed to be inside a large cave with glowing purple stones.
"What kind of dungeon is this?" He gritted his teeth, taking a step forward.
[Dungeon analysis:
Air dense with less oxygen, demons present.
Large variety of resources
Abundance of loot
Powerful boss]
[Compiling results...]
~"Are you okay?"
Lucius turned, hearing a feminine voice in his head. He turned around, seeing that nobody was around him.
"Are you in my head now?" He asked, standing up on his own.
~"No, I can only talk to you using the system."
Lucius frowned, standing up from the corner and taking a step forward.
"Why do you sound agitated—?"
Ding!
A melodious chime interrupted his sentence, and then he gazed at the system screen in front of him showing him the results of its analysis.
[Analysis complete!]
[X rank progressive dungeon: Abyssal Keep]
[Current floor: Floor 1]
[Floor rank: E rank]
Lucius was stunned. He blinked, frowning as he gazed at the analysis over and over again.
~"Lucius..."
"What? Are you responsible for this? Are you trying to kill me?" He asked, looking up to the cave ceiling.
~"You were supposed to come here. It's part of my plan. But when you'd reached level 15."
The goddess' voice was filled with worry, and she was agitated. For a moment, she sounded like she genuinely cared about him.
~"Just stay put, I'll gather a lot of power to try and send you out of there."
With that, her voice was gone. The eerie silence of the dark dungeon returned once again.
Lucius looked to the ground. He hadn't really thought deep about it, but there was dim lighting in the dungeon he was stuck in, probably from the purple stones, but it felt different.
'I have no idea how long I'll be waiting. I have no desire to get myself killed. Not when I can grow stronger. Fucking bad luck, why the hell is it getting worse?!' He grabbed his head, clearly frustrated by everything that was happening.
He had just escaped from a house of people who would definitely try to kill him, only to have his luck enter negative. For some reason, he couldn't help but think back to the skill that the system couldn't identify.
'Might as well find a source of light.' Lucius thought, finally moving.
There was no guarantee that the goddess would be able to take him out. He didn't even know if she was a goddess or posing to be one.
Heroes were said to have unimaginable levels of beauty once they grew strong enough, so she might just be one of the heroes, and he was riding her coattails just to have his revenge.
'Once I kill them all, then I'll go for the hero agency, then the church... And if you're one of the heroes, dear goddess, I'm killing you too.' He smirked, feeling his blood pumping with adrenaline.
...
A while later...
Boom!
'Argh, fuck!' Lucius hid behind a thick spike emerging from the ground.
The ground vibrated as if hit by an asteroid. He peeked out of the corner to see a tall knight wearing pitch-black armour fighting against skeletal beasts.
The knight was no taller than regular humans, being over six feet tall. The armour seemed to be rusty and old; in its hand was a shield that seemed to have bad quality and a chipped sword made out of unknown materials.
Four creatures surrounded the lonesome knight from all sides. Their bodies were pure skeletal structures, having hundreds of legs like a centipede.
These creatures had long scythes for arms and human skulls with burning sockets for eyes. They looked like they crawled out of the depths of hell itself.
Their feet made cackling sounds as they moved around, circling the knight. Despite the fact that the knight was outnumbered, it didn't even put its guard up, holding its head high with pride.
'It's almost like a human. If not for the aura of sin around them, I would have thought that it was a hero.' He thought, adjusting his legs to not be seen.
And in the next moment, Lucius' heart clenched as all the creatures went for the kill.
But something unexpected happened...