There's No Love In the Deathzone (BL)
Chapter 512 - 505. An Empty Dungeon

Chapter 512: Chapter 505. An Empty Dungeon

"Is this the same dungeon they saw before?" Bassena asked the guide as they stood in front of the dungeon gate.

Zein nodded while watching the twins circling the dungeon gate curiously. "They said they don’t feel threatened anymore, unlike before. Something about...the intensity lessened? It’s not scary anymore for them."

"Wait--you mean this dungeon had been here for...how long? Years? Decades?" Han Shin raised his brows high, before looking at the gate with widened eyes. "Is this...an eternal dungeon?"

"That’s the only explanation, isn’t it?"

With that new realization, they looked at the dungeon gate with renewed interest. Eternal dungeons were usually low in miasma because they were rich in magic resources; mana crystals, magical herbs, and all kinds of magic minerals. Especially after getting rid of the beasts inside, the gate color would change into a lower-level one. So, seeing a high-level eternal dungeon was a first for them.

"Maybe because of the environment?" Han Shin pursed his lips and narrowed his eyes. "And it’s probably never been cleared, right?"

"Well...there’s only one way to find out, no?"

They looked at each other and Zein called the twin shards back. "Hmm...do you think they can enter the dungeon?"

"If the Fallen Star could, I think they should be...right?" Bassena leaned down and whispered. "I mean, you can."

"That’s true," Zein nodded and held the twins close to his chest. "Stay with me, okay?"

If shards could nod, they would. But since they couldn’t, they only vibrated softly and ducked inside Zein’s embrace. Definitely, they became even more clingy than the other young guides like Dheera.

"I’m going to enter first," Senan announced, moving his shield to the front.

"Shouldn’t we just enter together? What if it’s an anomaly and we got separated?"

Senan blinked and Han Shin cautious thoughts, before finally nodding. "You’re right, Sir Han."

Bassena chuckled and tapped his right foot to the ground, binding their shadow together. "This is why a small squad is nice. Let’s go."

With Senan and the Jock’a subordinate--a quiet lady called Jiu--at the front, they entered the dungeon together in two lines. It had been more than a year since they entered one, so it was a rather weird sensation. The disparity of pressure made their body shudder involuntarily.

The twins also felt the same, it seemed, because they buzzed in Zein’s embrace even after a few seconds of arriving inside the dungeon. It must have been the first time they came inside the dungeon, and after living inside the darkness for a long time, Zein could feel their fascination with the dungeon.

Because there was a blue sky there. Blue sky, lush forest, glittering river--or what used to be. The sky was still somewhat blue, but the forest looked a bit dry, and the river only had a shallow, slightly muddy water. However, they could see that the place used to be brimming with life force.

"It’s mana deficiency," Han Shin crouched and rubbed the dirt he just scooped between his fingers.

"Something absorbing it?" Bassena glanced at Zein, who had just let the shards go.

Like balloons, the twin shards floated and flew around in wonder to satiate their curiosity. A part of what made them so innocent and childlike was the lack of Setnath’s--or Lucre’s--memory inside them. They were almost a pair of blank slates; not knowing anything aside from the place they were thrown into. Even this almost dried-up place was a wonder for them.

"It’s like the area leading to a red-zone," Zein commented. Still better, however, seeing that plants other than red grass could still survive.

"Let’s try heading further," Bassena decided, and this time, Senan did take the vanguard, with his shield at the ready.

Zein let the shards freely hover up, but also told them to maintain a close distance. He didn’t have to, however, since the twins hated to be away from him. They still had a leftover fear from the previous incident.

The group crossed the meadow, and the scout told them the dungeon seemed to consist of this vast meadow and sparse forest in between--a completely flat land. Indeed, they couldn’t see high ground--a hill or a mountain--or any building, for that matter.

What they also didn’t see was...beasts.

"So...peaceful?" Han Shin laughed awkwardly at the fact that they hadn’t encountered any beasts. It felt suspicious, and the healer was filled with worry that the beasts would come from the ground--and he wasn’t in a good relationship with underground beasts.

"It’s like an eternal dungeon after a thorough clean-up," the scout said.

"Do your kids see anything?" Zein asked Bassena, who had been sending his children of darkness forward the moment they stepped inside the dungeon.

"Not really," Bassena looked up and around. "Perhaps this really is just used as a resting place in the past..."

And then he paused and stopped in his tracks, causing everyone to halt.

"What? What is it?" Han Shin asked eagerly while hiding behind Senan.

Bassena, however, threw a question instead of answering. "Hey...eternal dungeon...doesn’t have a core, isn’t it?"

"Well...yeah? If they have one, people would already destroy them..." Han Shin tilted his head. "Wait--do you find a core?"

Bassena nodded and signaled for them to continue walking. "There’s a sphere floating in the middle of a shallow lake. The position and everything make me think of a dungeon core, but since it’s impossible..."

"It’s not impossible, just not what we know about dungeons," Zein said. "There are still a lot we don’t know, aren’t they? We only know last year that it was caused by the Fallen Star’s group."

"You’re right about that," Han Shin snapped his fingers. "Maybe it’s an anomaly? Anyway, what should we do about it--about this place? Are we going to destroy it since there might be a core?"

"I don’t think it’s a good idea to let a dungeon be, Young Master," Senan frowned slightly. "It might seem empty now, but dungeons always regenerate beasts, aren’t they? Not to mention...the gate still showed us that the dungeon had a high level of miasma. Isn’t it even more suspicious that nothing is inside despite that?"

The others stiffened at the middle-aged esper’s words. As they glanced at each other, they shared the same glaring question; where did the miasma level come from?

"Umm...what’s the color of the core?"

"Not black for sure," Bassena shrugged. "Besides, we never met a Specter with an exposed core like tha--"

"Get down!" the scout suddenly shouted and they instinctively crouched, just in time as they heard a harsh wooshing sound coming at them.

The twins vibrated strongly and flew back to Zein. A shimmering barrier enclosed them immediately before a harsh wind crashed against it.

"Wait--what? Is that the tornado earlier?!" Han Shin widened his eyes at the familiar scene of shrapnels made of pebbles hitting the barrier. But how could they come inside?!

"No, it’s a different one," the scout said. "It’s made inside and--oh, there’ll be an earthquake."

"The hell?!"

Only five seconds after saying it, the ground shook and the shards screamed in panic and confusion--fortunately, the barrier still holding on. Zein held them tight against his chest as Bassena created a wide platform beneath them. The ground cracked and the forest was writhing. The small amount of water in the river floated and seemed to be sucked toward the direction where they were headed.

Floating on top of Bassena’s platform and inside the shards’ sturdy barrier, they saw the landscape shifting and writhing as if nature was in wrath. "I think...it’s not an exposed core," Han Shin laughed nervously. "I think we are inside the Specter."

* * *

Zein was right; they didn’t know everything about a dungeon yet. What they knew was a glimpse of information the Celestial Being provided, and of what they had been observed after centuries of living with the dungeon’s appearance.

But what did they really know? They found out that the dungeon system was created by the Celestial Beings who were lost in the war. Thus, the ones who knew best about the dungeons weren’t the patron deities of the Tower and Temple, but the Fallen Star and its partners.

An entire dungeon turned into a Specter? Who’s to say it was impossible? A Specter had to have a fully black core? Whose rule was that?

The five humans in the group realized at that time that the universe still held a lot of secrets. It was a totally new territory where they weren’t even sure who they had to fight and how. The nature? The trees that shot their branch and roots toward them? The belting wind that threw rocks at them? The water that rained down spiking ice hail toward them? Or the shaking and creaking ground that sprouted dirt spikes from below?

Things would be so much more chaotic if it wasn’t for the twins’ barrier persistently protecting them from the onslaught of attacks. Thankfully, since it wasn’t the ’scary tentacle creature’, the shards weren’t that scared--just shocked and confused at the shifting nature. Bassena’s platform kept them steadily floating, or else they would have caught between the cracks of the raging land.

"What should we do? Out?" Han Shin asked after steadying his heartbeat from the fright.

"There’s a core in front of us," Bassena pointed forward. "We should try destroying it first."

"Can you do it?" Han Shin looked around. It was like they were inside an enclosed terrarium and someone suddenly shook the bottle.

"Should at least try," Bassena shrugged. The black scales beneath his eyes started to spread all over his face and body.

At the same time, stakes appeared all around them and started to form a massive dark serpent that shredded the approaching woods and rocks. The twin shards buzzed in excitement as they recognized the ’guardian’ that killed their enemy before.

"If I can’t destroy it, then we’ll get out," Bassena said before leaning down and kissing Zein’s lips briefly. "For luck."

"You don’t believe in luck," Han Shin scoffed.

Bassena smirked and stood up, but before he stepped back, the twin shards came to him and touched his arms. "For luck," Zein curled his lips, although Bassena could feel a sensation of power running from the tips of his scaled fingers.

"Well, well--I shouldn’t fail with this much luck, should I?" he laughed before jumping out of the barrier and landing on top of the giant serpent’s head. "Let’s go."

"Acting cool like always," Han Shin shook his head as they watched the giant serpent slither away with its Master on top, riding through the chaotic, raging landscape.

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