With the sun shining brightly in the sky and the clouds moving slowly, Kael and Eren emerged from the forest.
Before them lay the snow-covered meadow once again, but this time they could see some animals, though they posed no danger.
Kael looked at Eren and ordered, "Search for the dungeon in that area, and I'll search this one."
Eren nodded. Then, a slight look of confusion appeared on his face. "And... how will I know if I've found one? Does it look like a cave or something?"
Very calmly, as if the cold weather wasn't a problem, Kael began to explain what a dungeon looked like.
The dungeons in this world were not like those described in Earth's web novels, which were spatial rifts connected to a lower or higher dimension filled with monsters.
Here they were slightly different: they were not a spatial crack, but rather a kind of door, which was normally found in caves, but there were cases where they were found outside in the form of a bronze door.
After listening to the explanation, Eren began to move across the meadow to find the entrance to the dungeon.
Watching him walk away, leaving his footprints in the snow, Kael turned around to look for some wood to make a fire, thus avoiding catching a cold.
Why didn't he search for the dungeon himself? The answer was quite simple: he had the map of Kiran Mountain and knew exactly where it was. But he didn't say anything... so that Eren could gain some experience.
If he did everything himself, what would have been the point of bringing Eren along? Kael planned to do almost nothing in this "Mission" entrusted to him by his father; it was all so that Eren could gain real experience.
In different fields, research and combat, so that it would be more useful later on.
Using someone without training them is just as useless as not using them at all.
Time passed quickly. Kael had already gathered some dry branches and cleared away some of the snow to build a fire.
Feeling the cold leave his body, he fixed his gaze on Eren, who was already coming back, steam coming out of his mouth.
"I found the dungeon," Eren said in a flat, emotionless voice.
"Sit down." Kael took out some pieces of mushroom beef and placed them next to the fire to cook.
Eren sat down and asked, "What are we going to do now?"
"We'll clear the dungeon. After we eat a little," Kael replied briefly, turning the meat over to prevent it from burning.
Eren didn't say another word and remained silent as the air filled with the rich aroma of mushroom beef.
...
Once they had finished eating, they put out the campfire, and Kael told Eren to show him where the entrance to the dungeon was.
They walked for about three minutes across the frozen meadow until they reached a slight hill covered in snow. Eren calmly cleared away the snow, revealing a door embedded in the ground.
The door, rusty and solid, was engraved with runes whose edges still glowed with a faint coppery light, as if they contained a dormant power.
Kael did not open the dungeon door immediately, but looked around for a minute, checking to see if there was any danger near them.
After checking and finding nothing, he crouched down and touched the door. Upon contact, it glowed faintly copper, while the symbols and runes disappeared into particles of magic.
Before them lay a staircase made of earth that descended. Kael and Eren began to descend very carefully.
As they descended, everything became darker and narrower, until they reached a point where there were no more stairs, and they found themselves in a narrow corridor, lit by natural Luxge stones.
As expected, natural Luxge. Dim light, but constant. Perfect for keeping creatures adapted to darkness. Kael looked calmly at the stones that illuminated the passageway.
The atmosphere in the hallway was quite dry; there was no trace of moisture anywhere. On the walls, there was only moss and weeds. However, everything was strangely silent.
Kael was not nervous in the least; in his past life, he had been in countless dungeons and labyrinths so dangerous that not even his father would have been able to get out alive.
He took his coin sword and gave it to Eren, saying, "You will clear this dungeon."
Eren took the sword and then looked at Kael; the confusion on his face was evident. How was he supposed to wield a sword? He had never used one before.
"The reason I brought you along was so you could gain experience. Because with Lydia, I could clear this dungeon in a single day." Kael gave him a brief explanation of why he had come with him and not with Lydia.
Eren nodded. Kael's words were true: he lacked experience in real combat. When he faced the rapists of his mother and sister, he killed them in the most brutal way he knew.
And when he killed one of the attackers at the orphanage, he did the same thing. His fighting style was very crude.
Eren gripped the hilt of the coin sword with some force, his gaze fixed on the end of the hallway.
Kael didn't say a word. He adjusted his coin mask and, after eight seconds, said:
"You can start now."
Without saying another word, they began to walk down the wide corridor, lit by Luxge's natural stones.
...
As they walked down the hallway, Eren looked at Kael, who had been silent the entire way.
He opened his mouth to speak, but closed it again. He was about to ask him something, but decided not to. He was very curious about Kael's experiences.
How had he become someone like that? What had he experienced to become that way? How had he found his path? However, an absurd idea popped into Eren's mind.
Was Kael someone with many years of life, who had taken over that young body?
Eren shook his head. Now was not the time to think about trivial things. He had to focus.
Eren's right boot sank just a centimeter into a loose tile. That was enough.
Click.
The sharp, metallic sound echoed down the hallway like a sentence. The air seemed to stand still, thick as oil, permeated with the smell of ancient dust and rust.
Then, a sharp whistle cut through the stillness like a knife.
Arrows descended from the darkness of the ceiling, swift and sharp, buzzing like swarms of killer wasps, capturing the faint light of the Luxge stones in lethal flashes.