The Hidden Dungeon Only I Can Enter

What we thought was a treasure chest turned out to be a monster. I warned Uck, but she didn’t listen and continued approaching the chest, humming to herself. I dashed to try to save her, but I didn’t. Rather, I couldn’t. I was too late. The chest slammed open and a pair of long and slender, jet-black hands extended out from inside.

「Eeeeeehhh?!」

It grabbed her firmly, dragging her into the chest in a matter of seconds. The inside of the treasure chest was pitch-black. She vanished without a trace so my guess was the inside was connected to some other dimension.

The chest slammed shut and I stood in front of it, dumbfounded. This is bad. What should I do? I could destroy it, but with Uck inside, I couldn’t risk it. My guess was that【Prison of Darkness】skill was what got her so I checked to see if I could destroy it.

『Can』→ 『Can’t』 5,200 LP

Damn, that’s a lot. I only had 3,580 LP at the moment. I would need to convert items or money to gain more. What now? As I was mulling my options over, something surprising happened.

The chest seemed to be speaking to me. Wait, it can talk?!

「Do you want to save your friend?」

「O-Of course. If you let her out, then I’ll stop making a mess out of this room.」

「If you win my quiz, I’ll let her go.」

「A quiz?」

「I’ll ask you three questions. If you get them all right, you win. You get even one wrong and you’ll come closer to great ol’ me.

I’ll just pretend I didn’t hear that last part. So basically, he wants me in his dark prison too. Its hand can only extend so far so he wants me to get closer first in order to do that.

「There’s no guarantee that you’ll let her go if I win.」

「The terms are absolute. You can rest assured that I’ll let the woman go if you win.」

Really? We’ll see about that.

【3-question quiz】

It seems to be telling the truth. Now how much do I need to destroy it?

Delete 『forced to comply with the terms』 2,800 LP

Yes! If I can destroy the skill, I’ll have a huge advantage.

「All right. A quiz sounds difficult, but I have no other choice.」

「Then we have a deal. Let us begin. Here’s the first question: Chars swim in a river called Carinsen way up north. Yes or no?」

I’ve heard of the river, but it was too far so I haven’t been there before. I’m already having trouble with the first question… Not!

Oh, Great Sage. Do chars swim in Carinsen river?

【Yes.】

「The answer is yes!」

「Correct. Now for the second question: Fire bears live in Mount Euflix, a volcano. Yes or no?」

What the heck? It’s gotten difficult all of a sudden. I don’t even know the place. Once again I asked the Great Sage. I felt a sharp pain in my head, but it should be all right.

「No, they don’t.」

「Tsk. Correct.」

The thing just clicked its tongue. Do monsters have emotions or something?

「Your third question: What type of monster am I? A treasure chest, a wood, or a tentacle-type monster. Now, let’s hear your answer!」

Wow, this thing’s hyped. The most obvious answer was treasure chest, but I had to be extremely careful. I asked the Great Sage once more. The question was easy, but asking three times in a row caused extreme headache. I have to stop asking him questions for a while.

The answer was —

【The Dark Box is a mimic monster.】

What?! This thing’s playing dirty! Like a full-fledged adult who can only think of himself! It gave me three choices, but the correct answer wasn’t even one of them. Unbelievable.

「I see you’re having trouble. I’ll give you a hint: It’s my appearance. I’m not trying to trick you or anything.」

「If I were to believe you, then the answer is treasure chest…」

*Grin*

「Psyche! The answer is mimic type.」

「How…?」

「I have the Great Sage with me. All right, then. We had a deal.」

It clicked its tongue and with its black hands, took Uck out.

Why’s she covered in some slimy fluid? Her face was red and she was breathing wildly.

「Wh-What happened inside?」

「I can’t tell — No, I don’t want to tell you.」

She sounded firm so I didn’t press her about it further. Ladies have their own secrets, I suppose.

「Thanks for saving me. Come on, let’s get out of here.」

She left the room quickly, and I followed her then stopped right at the door. I looked back at the Dark Box, stretching out my arm.

「What are you up to?」

「You can’t move from there, can you? That’s why you had to rely on roundabout tactics.」

「……There’s no benefit in taking me down. Plus I can block some mediocre attacks. You were in a pinch just a while ago, but you walked out alive, so why risk your life now? Why fight? 」

「Just in the off-chance that some other guy comes in here. You’ll probably pull that dirty stunt again. You see, if I had to choose between monsters and humans, I’d say I’m on the latter’s side.」

I lit my stone bullets on fire. To be more precise, I used my【Magic Fusion】to combine my【White Flame】and【Stone Bullet】skills. The result was【White Flame Bulle】. I’ve used it a number of times before.

I shot the mimic without any hesitation. The chest opened and black hands extended out, catching the bullets. I was surprised. It wasn’t lying when it said it could block attacks.

「Tch. Hot! Still this isn’t enou—」

「Tough luck. There’s still more where that came from.」

I increased the size of the bullets to about a hundred centimeters and fired them at the Dark Box. A crashing sound echoed. The treasure chest was obliterated, unable to withstand the barrage of attacks. I might not have levelled up, but I did manage to take out an evil, scheming monster. All’s good.

「Hey, come here~! It’s amazing!」

Uck was already inside the second room. Man, she never learns. And she’s got guts. If she was someone created by the dungeon, then her personality could be part of the setup.

I entered the second room which looked pretty much the same as the previous one. Uck was ecstatic, and I couldn’t blame her. There was a chest, and unlike the other one, this was already open and filled with coins: gold, silver, and copper. Quite a sum of money. On its side were a spear and a bottle with some red liquid.

「Look at this. I think we hit the jackpot.」

「Yeah…」

There didn’t seem to be any monsters or traps. I checked the treasure. The coins weren’t fake and could be used. I counted them and to my surprise, it totalled ten million.

「This is incredible. We can split it and still end up with five million each.」

「I don’t need it. You can have all of them.」

「What? Are you sure?」

「Consider it my thanks for saving me. Now we’re even.」

「Thank you.」

I stored the money in my【Different Dimension Storage】, elated, then examined the other two items.

【Piercing Spear Rank B Skill: Pierce】

It looked like an ordinary spear, but it seemed its piercing power was quite high as the description suggested. It could prove useful against mineral types or hard scales.

As for the bottle…

【Swift Foot Potion Rank B Skill: Grants Swift Foot ability (60 seconds)】

So I drink this to temporarily gain the ability to run fast. Both items are rank B. Man, we really hit the jackpot with this room.

「There’s only two rooms left. Let’s put our game faces on.」

「Right.」

Feeling delighted, I headed towards the third room.

I hope there’s treasure in the next room too~.