Chapter 127 – Entering the dungeon
The team walked through the dark tunnel lit by the magic lights hovering above the raised palms of mages for a few minutes until they reached another wall.
The bossy Tariaksuq of the Frostgale household, Taur, used some magic again and just like before, the stone of the wall shuddered and became transparent, opening a view to a wider tunnel and bringing in the sound of dripping water and stench.
This was a tunnel of the city sewer system that was as intricate as the magic labyrinth. The tunnels of the sewers run under the whole city crossing each other with many intersections and even had a few levels. Just as the center of the city was on the top of the hill with streets running down the hill and to the plain at the feet of the hill, so were the sewers running in the haphazard contours under the city structures.
With the development of magic technology such things as tap water and baths in the houses that were considered luxury worthy of only noble houses in the outskirts region towns and villages, in the safe region cities were a lot more common and could be owned by minor nobles and merchants. The houses were no longer individual structures but were many floor buildings packed close to each other with several living apartments on the floor owned by different people. This of course brought the need for better drainage and sewer systems than that of the outskirts regions.
Of course, what made such things a lot more available is the fact that this was a safe region.
Building caves and tunnels under the populated areas in the monster danger region was a risk-inducing idea as they would no doubt be the weak point of defense and would allow the monsters to infiltrate the living area. The villages of the outskirts region at most had a drainage pipe and towns had a smaller version of the sewers that were regularly patrolled by the city guards and even had occasional clean-up missions given out by the Guild to prevent their infestation with the monsters.
Here in the safe region, this risk was gone, with it, the sewers lost the need for careful patrolling and were more of a chore that city guards tended to slack on. Because of that, it became the preferred area for criminal activity.
As the team walked out of the tunnel into the sewers, they saw a small cart with a small lizard-like creature pulling that stood at the side with two men standing guard beside it.
The crates with captured women were loaded into carts. As the two guards nodded toward the newcomers they turned around and walked back through the hidden tunnel back to the mansion where the team just came from. As the cart was loaded, Taur went ahead leading the team down the tunnels. Noah and Brianna joined the company of Frostgale households that surrounded the cart following behind the Tariaksuq with Gorig and another werewolf of the Bloodhound silently splitting with Gorig going to the front and the second man going to the very back.
The area may have been poorly patrolled, however meeting a patrol was still a possibility, which did not allow them to walk leisurely. With two werewolves at the front and back, they could be sure to notice someone's presence a lot sooner than the patrol would notice them.
Taur led their team through an intricate path without hesitation, clearly knowing these tunnels well. After half an hour's walk, they reached an intersection area where several tunnels came together creating a wide cavern-like space, with one arch closed off with the thick fence.
As they walked to the fence, Taur took out some medallion from his pocket and raped it with it on the metal grate, before stretching his hand through the rest and opening his palm to show the medallion laying in it.
A few moments of silence later the quiet sound of a metal lock click was heard and the fence opened with a light push. Even though that fence looked old and worn it worked with such silence as if it was newly made.
Two men at the side of Taur pushed the fence open and let the team walk through the arch following Taur further into the dark tunnel before closing the fence behind them. As they followed the rest of the team the metal doors clicked, locking the path again.
They walked a few moments before stopping at the huge double doors with a table standing at the side, where a man sat on the chair with his legs on the tabletop while swirling a knife in his hands.
"Five hundred." Said the man without looking at the newcomers.
Taur raised an eyebrow at the man in silence, without moving.
"The prices are high today. Every rat wants to get to the event, the place is crammed already. Want to get in today, this is the price. Otherwise, come another day." Said the man stopping to pick at his nails with the point of his knife and looking up at the men leading the team.
Taur sighed and took a small pouch that made a metallic clang as it dropped on the table.
The Man finally moved his legs away from the table and opened the pouch quickly, scanning its contents, before closing it again and stuffing the pouch under his waist.
Then he pressed his hand on the wall near the table and muttered something.
The big door made a loud noise and swung open, opening a path into another dark tunnel that was unlike the one they walked through before. This one looked more natural with no bricks and cobbles in the walls and floor, yet it exuded a feel of being artificial as the straight solid stone walls and the floor looked chiseled and polished clearly beyond what could be made by nature. This was the entrance to the Black Market Dungeon.
The team silently moved forward following the Frostgale family man and Gorig at the lead, with Noah and Brianna sneaking in under the cover of the men belonging to the team.
Just as Noah walked through the dungeon entrance a quick blue light flashed in the corner of his view but was gone so quickly that Noah thought he was seeing things.
/Hmm? What was that?/ He asked in his mind.
/What?/ Asked back Ugy, with a deadpan tone.
/I…thought I saw some blue light as if an announcement window came up./ Said Noah hesitatingly.
/No. There were no system announcements./ Said Ugy.
/No, I definitely saw something…/
/Maybe some glitch? There may still be some errors after nightmares took over the system functions. Do you want me to run troubleshooting?/
/This is not the time to limit your functions like last time. Make it later./ Said Noah.
/Understood./ Said Ugy.
*****
Ugy sat in the armchair watching the TV screen divided into multiple parts with one part showing an unstopping stream of strange codes and one part showing the white screen of the Comment section, with another half screen showing Noah in the real world walking through the dark tunnel under the city.
/This world sucks. My life is hell now and there's no place for me in this world anymore./ Posted someone in the comment section.
People in the comment section were a weird bunch with strange thoughts in their heads, but they were mostly good-natured people and a friendly community that considered each other as friends even though they interacted from across the globe from each other and never met each other in person.
After this comment, people in the comments sensed the dark mood of the person that wrote the comment and a few concerned replies quickly appeared, asking what was wrong and encouraging him to talk with them about his problems.
However, as always there were also a few joking and toxic comments as well from people that did not take the words of a commenter seriously.
/Cultivate a thousand years, become a god, and change the world. Problem solved./ Said one person.
/Go isekai then./ Answered another person adding a strange picture of a road with white stripes painted across it. But there was a white outline of a person lying on the road painted on the side, with a bloody puddle near it.
/I already called the service. It is on the way./ Said the next person posting a picture of a truck.
/Intense breathing./ Replied a person adding a picture of five people in sunglasses holding a coffin on their shoulders.
/Here's some advice: if life sucks, suck it back harder./ Replied a person posting a picture of a girl with her mouth extended and looking up.
/Horny detected./ Someone replied to the previous comment with a picture of a dog holding a baseball bat.
/Shut up people, what would you do if he committed unlife for real because of you, insensitive bastards? So what happened friend?/
/Chill fellas./ Replied the author of the initial comment. /I am not about to do something drastic, just something very nasty happened today and I don't know what to do, so I poured it out here./
/Share with us, dude. What's your problem?/
/My family found my porn./
/It's not so bad. This happened to me too./
/Parents would understand. It's a natural thing for a guy/
/It was my little sister. She found my stash of Loli H magazines./
…
…
…
/Die/
/Die/
/Shineeeeee/
/Commit unlife pervert/
/Chill fellas truck is on its way already./
/Drive over him twice just to be sure./
/Send him to the Goblin slayer world as a weak village girl!/
/Give me my concern back you son of a bitch!/ *This reply was blocked for swearing.*
As the comments streamed on the screed the face of a plush bear sitting in the armchair suddenly changed into that of horror as he saw Noah walk inside the dungeon.
"Oh fuck." Said Ugy grabbing the TV control and quickly tapping the mute button half a second after a *DING* the sound of announcement sounded from it but quickly disappeared before Noah could even notice it, thinking that he just heard things.
Tapping more buttons Ugy quickly made a pop-up window with the words "condition has been met, new skill has been created", disappear before Noah saw it as well.
"Fuck, fuck, fuck. Not that skill! Not that skill! Fuck! Son of a bi…." Muttered Ugy throwing away the TV control and making a keyboard appear in front of him and starting to tap it with flash-like movements while staring intently at the codes on one part of the screen.
"What was that? You said something?" Sounded the voice from behind him and a second later Yuko's face showed from around the corner, coming from the kitchen.
"What?" Said Ugy turning quickly around while the keyboard and comment section screen with code screen quickly disappeared.
"That." Said Yuko walking inside the room and squinting her eyes, watching with suspicion at the plush bear whose face full of horror when she walked in was quickly replaced with an unskillful poker face a moment later. "What was that thing, you just hid with the guilty look on your face?"
"Nothing." Said Ugy with an emotionless plain expression.
"What did you just do?" Asked Yuko, still staring.
"N…nothing." Said the plush bear with his eyes jumping from side to side but not looking back at her.
Yuko watched him with squinted eyes in silence while Ugy sat not looking at her with his eyebrow twitching from a poker face he was forcing out.
"Really?"
"Umm."
"Sus" said Yuko. "You are definitely guilty." She said walking back to the kitchen
When she was gone, Ugy quickly made the keyboard appear and started to nervously tap on it with quick movements.
Yuko silently crept back from behind the corner looking at the bear with squinted eyes.
"Definitely did something." She whispered with a smirk.