The wind howled furiously in Aethan's ears as Ignaroth covered large distances with little effort. The light tap of his feets against the ground, despite his large size, was drowned out by the beating of his heart and harsh winds.
Regardless, Aethan's grip on Merek didn't loosen one bit, and the soothing circulation of his Aether around his body calmed his nerves.
Aethan's shock only grew when they came to a stop, and Merek claimed that the Infernal Lycan-wannabe wasn't even using a tenth of its speed.
Aethan tried to imagine just how fast it was then at its top speed, but his mind failed to picture such a thing properly, and it just made him want to get a Totembeast all the more.
"The Dungeon is just ahead. I'm sure you can sense it," Merek claimed, pointing a finger at a warp in reality ahead of them.
Aethan's gaze sharpened as his eyes landed on the distorted space in the distance. The feeling he got from the Dungeon gate reminded him of what it felt like to be in the presence of a being Circles above you.
The sheer quality and quantity of the Aether was staggering. He couldn't compute it into words properly, and even if he tried, the only word that came to his mind was:
"… Dangerous," Aethan mumbled, feeling his skin crawling and goosebumps erupting spontaneously.
Merek grinned a toothy grin, placing a hand on Aethan's shoulder and urging him on with a little push.
"If you clear the Dungeon, you'll receive rewards."
"What kind of rewards?"
"There's no defined reward—it varies. It could range from weapons to armors, to skill scrolls, and to even pieces of meat," Merek stated, his brows wrinkling at the last part of his sentence as he remembered something.
"Don't worry though, I don't think you'll be that unlucky to receive pieces of meat," he added, mumbling some words under his breath.
Aethan stared at his brother weirdly, before steeling himself and taking a step forward.
Immediately, the whipping of the Aether made him pause.
Aethan's Core began to rotate, and his resistance skyrocketed.
Aethan smiled, feeling himself growing stronger as his Core absorbed the energy in the air.
Though the energy felt leagues above him, it was just a hoax, a mere mirage the Dungeon conjured to stop people from absorbing its energy.
Thanks to the training from Merek, Aethan could absorb the energy even though it was pressuring and heavy—although not easily.
If a Dungeon lost too much of its energy, it would close and collapse on itself—destroying everything within—and the residual energy would dissipate.
This was one means of closing Dungeons. Either make the energy dissipate by absorbing it, or by using the other method which Aethan was about to use.
Clearing it.
Dungeons spawned from the uncontrolled accumulation of Aether in a region. Though most of the time—when Aether accumulated without a proper guide or direction—it led to the creation of natural treasures, the birth of unique species of creatures, the forming of artifacts etc.
However, a Dungeon was a step above most of those things. A Dungeon spawned monsters, boss monsters, traps, loot, treasures and whatnot, that could be made use of or studied.
The monsters and boss monsters not only made getting those loot and treasures harder or annoying, but also made it so that only the strong could acquire it.
Most organizations saw Dungeons as training grounds for their newbies, and there was a strong monopoly over Dungeons which led to clashes most of the time.
Dungeons were that important.
This time, rather than an organization coming to lay claim to the Dungeon, it was left to be conquered by anyone who cared to do so.
It was low leveled and had spawned in a place most wouldn't want to go. Additionally, it wasn't a Reset Dungeon, so it wasn't even worth taking a look at.
Unlike Reset Dungeons, this Dungeon would close immediately it was conquered and wouldn't reset its contents for another person or group of people to conquer and claim its rewards. These types of Dungeons were called One-time Dungeons.
Merek and Aethan were on a mountain side at the moment. They were traveling around the mountain—Mt Veyrun—to get to the other side.
However, the dungeon blocked the path, forcing them, or rather, Aethan, to clear it.
With light steps, Aethan shot forward, calculating his trajectory swiftly and vanishing into the Dungeon.
He was still exploring the world, and he was going to see how far he could go in this Dungeon. Whether he cleared it or not, though, he was going to come out stronger.
---
Aethan landed lightly on his feet, his intent reaching out to his core, causing it to rotate and begin channeling energy.
Aether gathered within his swords and limbs, activating the runes on the blades and flooding his limbs with power.
He looked ahead, scanning the tunnel he found himself in with caution.
The corridor he stood in was dark and damp, and the floor was wet—almost slippery. Wind howled quietly, but constantly, and with his affinity for Wind, he could make out the width of the space he was in.
It was just wide enough for three or four people his size to walk side by side. But when he discovered sharp spikes lining the wall after almost pricking himself, he adjusted his math, bringing the number down to just two, that is if they were just walking.
Then considering he was going to face challenges soon and inevitably move around, the space was barely enough to contain him.
Aether circulated in his eyes, and his vision began to adjust to the surrounding darkness. It wasn't perfect, but he could at least see five meters ahead of himself.
With his Wind Elemental Magic aiding him, he could sense up to ten meters.
"Onward," Aethan mumbled, taking a confident step forward, his grip on his swords tightening.
He had only taken the fifth step when he paused, and looked down.
"A trap."
Suddenly a spike from the wall exploded at its base, the force of the explosion rocketing it forward at a deathly speed, tearing through the damp air right at Aethan's head.
Acting instantly, Silent Fang flashed, and the spike was cleaved into two perfectly, each half deviating to the side, skimming past his head and embedding themselves in the wall behind, destroying two more spikes in the process.
Aethan took a step back, his arm trembling from the attack. He hadn't expected it to carry so much power behind it, and he had needed to pour more Aether to strengthen and sharpen his sword enough to cut the spike.
However, he had barely recovered from the sudden attack when from the holes in the walls, resulting from the spikes coming off, he heard a chilling, mourning wail… and saw a bright flash of light.