Earthling in Uncharted Dimensions

Chapter 160: Encounter Inside The Dungeon

'What the!'

Lee sprang up from where he sat and the rodent's body disintegrating to dust fell through the gaps between his fingers. Before the dust reached the floor, it vanished into thin air, as if breaking down to subatomic particles.

Lee was stunned by this scene, and was completely unaware of what was happening. When he looked into his palm, nothing was left of the rodent.

'What just happened!'

Lee turned his palm over and checked whether he was affected in any way. Since it was his first time seeing such an astonishing activity, he was concerned about his own safety. With an internal sigh, Lee concluded that it would not be possible to kill and quench his hunger in the dungeon.

Lee now was missing the luxury of the system. D, who manifested itself to be the system, was his eyes and ears till date. The unparalleled operation of the system was a great boost to him. Lee did not dwell in the memories and immediately came back to his scouting spot.

His eyes were now set on the piece of flesh the rodent had dropped before dying in his hands. The flesh had not crumbled into oblivion, and it made Lee raise an avalanche of questions. But soon a possible guess was brought up by him.

'Animals inside the cave can kill and eat each other for survival. So the flesh is still preserved. But if someone from outside kills a beast, it possibly disintegrates.'

A realisation hit Lee like thunder, and he instinctively retreated to the darkness.

'This is not an ordinary cave!'

Vigilance was at its peak, when Lee realised the property of the dungeon. His mind repeatedly chanted to get out of the cave, and Lee sprinted to the door. Using the night vision, the darkness was as clear as day for him.

*ba-dum*

Within minutes, he covered the distance. But his heart skipped a beat by what he saw.

In front of his eyes, only rock existed. There was no trace of the existence of a door. The grey rocks have formed a natural dead end, where the door was supposed to be standing. Lee was confused by this, and came close to inspect the wall.

His eyes did not play games. The door was indeed missing. The size of the dark passage absolutely fitted the measurements of the door, but the absence of wooden constructs made it look slightly smaller. Lee tapped, knocked and tried to dig into the wall, but the fact that natural igneous rocks covered the wall made his attempts futile.

Sweat began to drip down from his forehead, when a familiar noise came from the other end of the passage. The strange uniqueness of the noise was as if he had heard it before, but could not find any familiarity. Lee turned around to face the noise entering the passage, and assumed that the previous rodent's relative had arrived.

Lee sprinted forward, to see whether his deductions are correct. His sprinting was partially silent due to the absence of stone debris. As he moved further forward, the energetic short and dull squeaking could be heard. It was as if the rodent was charging in while repeatedly crying out. The overall assessment made Lee suspect something to be off, and he was on guard.

Lee slowed down and came to a silent halt, and the rodent's voice was getting more clearer. He moved from the center of the passage and crouched down, so as to catch the rodent with instantaneous action. The rodent promptly came closer to him, and right into his range.

But, right before Lee could catch it, it slipped his irrevocable grip, and leaped sideways. Lee, who had shot his arm forward, saw the rodent missing his palm with a slight margin. He was stunned for a second, and his position was disclosed to the rodent. The animal stared right into Lee's eyes, and a shiver went down his spine.

'How?'

Lee was flabbergasted to see the rodent precisely predicting his action. But his curiosity was immediately answered by a specific action of the rodent.

*sniff sniff*

The rodent twitched its nose, and Lee understood how the animal found his location. The scent of sweat mixed with dried blood was not something detected everywhere in the air. As he observed, the rodent slightly turned its head around. It was not exactly staring at him, but towards an approximate location where his face could be. From all that had he seen, a feeling that the cave is not just extraordinary, but simply otherworldly, came to his mind!

The rodent slowly took a step and expected a reaction from the darkness. Though it was accustomed to seeing in lightlessness, the sight was not as perfect as Lee could see. A vague silhouette of something sitting still could be sensed by it. The rodent was alert and curious as to why the unknown being was not attempting a second strike.

More questions came flooding into Lee's mind. His mind was in turmoil with the barrage of confusion and doubt.

'I can assume that the rodent found my presence by tracking the intensity of the scent. But how was it more agile than the previous one? No, it was as if it knew that I would strike at the exact moment. The figure of this rodent is also unmistakably similar to the disintegrated one. Are they twins?'

An avalanche of curiosity erupted in his mind. His brain dampened and shunned by the lack of nutrition was boosted by the situation. He began to process everything till now, from entering the cave. The previous rodent, the piece of flesh it dropped, the mysterious disappearance of the door, the second coming of another rodent and its precise pinpointing of his actions and location.all these led to a few conclusions which gave Lee goosebumps. Maybe it was because the rodent felt the surge of sensation, it ran away instantly.

'Is this perhaps.a dungeon?'

Lee was frozen for about a minute. He re-examined all the instances and experiences, and analysed it with Dnekewy's memories which he inherited. From the heap of memory fragments, he finally found the answer.

'It is a dungeon!'

The revelation hit Lee hard and he leaned onto the walls of the passage. The conclusion he arrived at, also explained the similarity between the two rodents. He comprehended that the dungeons have a specific property to reincarnate the being killed by an outsider, along with its previous memories and instincts. This explained the rodent's actions.

Another clue that led him to the conclusion that it was a dungeon, was the gem. The gem lost its luster the moment the rodent had died, and then it disintegrated. He couldn't catch the second rodent to validate his findings, but the fact that the second rodent is in fact the first rodent's reincarnation, from its reflexes, made things simple and easier to evaluate.

Seconds became minute, and time went past. Lee was in a daze from the unanticipated findings. His frozen figure was shaken by a noise from the end of the passage. Lee immediately sprang up as he sensed the noise that had a similar signature to that of an uproar. The noise consisted of innumerous individual squeaks and regular large screechings. The overall imposing manner of the threatening noise gave him a hint that people are here for him.

Sitting on the floor, he focused to calm his mind. Lee closed his eyes, and steadied his posture. Quickly, his resolve was back to its normal state, and he simultaneously compiled the information he had experienced and acquired through evaluation, into a meaningful format. Going through the final report, Lee exhaled a mouthful of air.

The hourly notification came up showing the remaining hours for the upgrade, and immediately disappeared.

=+=+=

20 HOURS TO COMPLETION.

=+=+=

'20 hours left.'

'Sitting here is useless. Act before it is too late.'

Lee opened his eyes and said to himself. The realisation that he is sitting inside a dungeon prompted him to go out and see why the noise is being produced. Thus, he slowly stood up and walked towards the end of the passage. He simultaneously had to struggle to control his intense hunger and thirst.

Each step forward brought him closer to the noise. Lee felt his heart beating rapidly from curiosity. But he calmed down the drum with a few sets of respirations through mouth.

Taking the turn, Lee saw an army of rodents waiting for him at the entrance of the path. Their eyes reflected anger. He couldn't see the large ones, but heard the loud screechings which gave him a hint that they are present in the vicinity.

The rodents did not enter the passage, where light is sparse. In front of the army was that rodent which escaped Lee's grip of death. The only possible choice to execute was clear to him, and he stepped towards the entrance.

He was aware that if he did not step out, then the rodent army would flood the cave. That would mark a great disadvantage for him since there are large ones present. The flat grassland and the open space would give him area to run around while he could snatch a mouthful of water from the pond. He also expected the water in the pond to be drinkable.

The rubbles and pebbles rubbed together and moved from underneath his feet. The faint disturbance in the air picked up the rodents and they squeaked, giving a signal. As his vague figure was visible, the rodents retreated backward and gave their opponent a way to enter the battlefield. Lee assumed the intentions behind their actions and stepped out of the darkness.

*SCREECH*