Chapter 60:Safe zone explanation

Now being turned into energy and back into the matter should have felt like something. The shift in space due to magical manipulation surely did. But it was much more mundane than he was expecting. Outside of the light, there were no extra effects. One blink he was staring into the giant crystal, the next, he was staring at trees under an open sky.

Except, the trees were distorted and glittered while the sky was purple and filled with orange dots. The scene was honestly unlike anything he had seen before and only in books did he experience anything as novel as this.

Amy was swiveling every which way taking everything in. Stella was similarly curious except hers was much more adorable.

*Woof!*

Simon chuckled, Amy rarely spoke. The time she did most was when he had first bonded all those days ago. But in doing so he now understood what she was saying by her barks alone. Like right now, she was asking where they were.

"I have no idea..."

He lifted both arms in a shrug.

Rana let the rookie tamer get used to the change as she took stock what they needed to do. In her excitement, she might have jumped the plank a little earlier than she should have. But since they were already here, she did what she had done all her life, improvise.

"Alright, before we get into this something you all should keep in mind. Keep your guard up. This is a tier 3 dungeon and should not be a threat to us but never get complacent. Complacency has been the death of many tamers."

Simon nodded but Amy scoffed, letting out one of her wolfish snorts.

She had already tracked most if not all the hidden monster threats in the vicinity. Though, none of them seemed to try and and enter the small open space they were currently standing on.

"Alright, first things first. When you enter a dungeon you start in a 'beginning safe zone', a place where the dungeon cannot hurt you in any way or form. The area around you is considered zone 1 or floor 1. When you leave this 'beginning safe zone', the dungeon will absorb it and you can't come back here. So while you are here, prepare and prepare well."

Simon noticed the thin circular luminescent boundary that he assumed made the 'safe zone' at least he assumed it did and asked the important question.

"How do we prepare?"

"Right now, you don't have to do anything, just follow me and do as I do. Think of it as a form of tutorial. But when you delve dungeons by yourself , you will sometimes need to prep certain items for it, especially if it has some sort of novel 'effect'."

That made a certain bit of sense in his head, if this is a sort of training wheels, if he had to do things he did not even know about, that would defeat the entire purpose.

"What is an effect? Look, you are more transparent than you realize. Anyway, Every dungeon has some sort of effect or effects that si usually  there to stifle the tamer. For example, this dungeon has a 'spell-suppression'  effect and anything that is categorized as a spell has their effectiveness halved. Nothing you need to worry about but if you were a spell-based tamer, you would be in a world of hurt."

Rana was being very cheeky but Simon did not mind. Out of everyone he met so far, she was by far the most helpful and very open about her reasons for doing so. Another figure creeped to the back of his mind but he suppressed the memory. That annoyance need not be mentioned.

She gave him another one of her toothy grins as she materialized the sword in her hand.

"Now to get into the main thing you will be doing while inside the dungeon. Namely trying to find teleporter that will take you to next floor and if you are lucky, a teleporter out of the dungeon."

Simon nodded, now given a direction, he was ready and moved to leave the safe zone. Rana looked prepared and he was as well.

But as he moved o the edge, Rana's massive blade came down and stopped him in his tracks.

"Wait. There are some other things you need to be aware of. And I am not talking about the monsters or monster girls. Dungeons will sometimes create traps and falling into them is often lethal. Here, hold on to this."

Simon was handed a crystal that looked tiny in her hands by in reality had a bit of heft to it.

"This is a very advanced piece of of magic known as the 'escape crystal' it constantly checks your vitals and if you are about to die, it will teleport you out of the dungeon. You can also activate it manually by squeezing it till it glows and saying the words 'leave'. Very expensive item when all is said and done but to a platinum grade, it is very affordable."

She then removed the blade from his path.

"Now we can leave."

The whole party left the 'safe zone' and entered the dungeon in truth now.

Simon saw the shimmering circle disappear as they did so. At the same time, he felt goosebumps all over his skin, like everything around was very very interested in him. His first delve had just begun.

And the first thing the dungeon decided to do... was throw a hoard of monster girls at him. Within seconds of leaving the safe zone they were surrounded by dozens upon dozens of monster girls.

"Welp... This is unexpected..."

Stella looked very frightened, Amy very excited and Rana somewhere in between.

He could only sigh, every time he tried something new something stupid always happened. So he clutched the 'escape crystal' in his hands, hoping for this time to have a way out. If only he knew.