Chapter 17: Dungeon Delving

"Whew..." The musty scent of dungeon air hit her immediately the moment she walked in. That and the darkness. The torch barely lit half a meter in front of her, with much of the rest pitch black.

Looking behind her, all she saw was more darkness. The opening and the sky were no longer visible, nor was the door that brought her here. 

Unsheathing her sword from her waist, she prepared for any sort of danger that may pop up in this cramped space. The second thing she noticed was that the walls were especially narrow. It could barely fit 2 people side by side, much less a full-length sword. Thankfully for Charlotte, however, her sword wasn't like the other swords.

It cuts through anything with ease. 

Holding her torch with her non-dominant hand and her sword with her dominant, she carefully crept through the passageways, in fear of something noticing her footsteps before she could even see them.

The last thing she needed was a heart attack.

After walking for what seemed like hours, her torch light finally lit up something else, a wooden door with iron engravings. The handles were a bit rusty, but they seemed like they could still work. 

Approaching it, she carefully pushed against the door. It let out a groan and creaked open. 

To her surprise, the other side wasn't pitch black like the tunnels were. It was a massive cavern, lit by lichen, moss, and crystals, all of which glowed a  bright blue. Even from this distance, she could tell that there were definitely some monsters wandering around when she saw a dark shape block a bit of the light of the crystal. 

She let out a breath of air. At least she didn't need her torch anymore. 

Smothering the torchlight, she stuffed the now-quenched torch back into her bag. The natural lighting here is enough, plus, she didn't want to draw unnecessary attention to herself, especially with that orange glow. 

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She made her way deeper into the caverns, careful not to stray too close into the blue glow, in case something were to spot her. 

Apparently, each floor had a staircase or a tunnel that led further down. After a few staircases, she'll be able to reach the bottom floor, which after asking the receptionist, was floor 5. He said that where this dungeon lacks in height, it makes up for in width.

Well, he was correct. She had been walking for some time now, and only now seen the cavern edge. The main shtick of this dungeon seemed to be exploration since it was so damn tough trying to find a single tunnel in such a large cave. Thankfully, the monsters here didn't see her yet. They were weak, but they looked horrid.

 Each of them looked like something fresh out of a nightmare, with their pale skin sloughing off their flesh, their incessant moans, and the ugly faces of something that haven't seen sunlight in years, she didn't even want to step near those things. They reminded her too much of someone being cooked at the stake. 

Making her way past a particularly big crystal, she heard a click as she stepped on something.

"wha-" She said in a whisper. The crystal in front of her suddenly shook, as the wretched screams of those things echoed through the cavern. It seemed like they were attracted to sound. 

She cursed under her breath, and as she was about to run away towards some shadowed place, the front part of the crystal let out a large puff of air, as a section of it began opening to reveal something inside. 

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