The huge steel door to the subterranean dungeon creaked like a man waking up from bed after leg day. Dust poured down as the hinges shrieked in protest — it hadn't been opened in decades. The soldiers all clutched their weapons tighter. Sharath readjusted the strap on his magic M416, feeling quite smug about being the only one there with real automatic firepower.
🐧Neuroboop (in his head):"Oh yes, Mr. Overprepared. Nothing screams 'I'm ready for a medieval crawl' like bringing modern firearms to a sword-and-shield party. You're like the guy who shows up to a sack race with a motorcycle."
"Quiet, Boop," Sharath muttered mentally. "I'm here to impress and survive, preferably in that order."
The door finally opened, and the first thing that greeted them was… a floor full of adorable bouncing blue slimes.
Oh, they're kinda cute," one new soldier whispered.
The adorable instant was exactly 1.2 seconds long before one slime let out a wet-sounding sneeze and fired a glob of acid at the wall — hissing, bubbling, and creating a smoking crater.
The soldiers ran in all directions. "ACID! They shoot ACID!"
🐧Neuroboop:"Well, there goes the cute plushie market for these things.
Sharath didn't even blink. He raised his M416, shot at the glowing cores within the slimes, and BRRRRRRRRRT! — a neat spray of magic-coated bullets tore apart the first slime in seconds. The core exploded, and the gelatin dissolved into harmless goo.
The soldiers stood frozen, mouth agape.
"Young Master… did you… craft that gun?"
Sharath assumed his most deadpan face he could manage. "No. This is my awakened ability. No one else may employ it."
The group's collective sigh of dismay came close to being audible enough to resonate. But in the next instant, their spirits soared once again. If the weapon master was their master, they were in capable hands.
Dungeon Life — The First 10 Days
The ground floor was enormous — so big that progress seemed like cutting a football field with scissors. Every other couple of hours, they'd take a rest, eat, and sometimes fight about who had to scrape slime goo off the trail.
The real crisis began on Day 7.They had too many materials — slime cores, acid bottles, random magical herbs, weird rocks — and no place to put them.
Sharath, never a man to idle about, commissioned special load-carrier tricycles: two for within the dungeon, and one that was stationed permanently outside at the entrance. The soldiers used those to carry resources back to his warehouse in his territory, where Lord Darsha and Grandpa Bassana took care of sorting and selling worthless stuff personally.
🐧Neuroboop"Congratulations, you've turned a death labyrinth into a glorified mining operation. All that's missing is a union and a lunch whistle."
The Boss Room — Day 10
When they finally reached the massive double doors of the boss room, they were exhausted. They decided to rest for a full day — eating, polishing weapons, and swapping slime-related horror stories.
On the morning of Day 11, they pushed the doors open.SLAM! The moment they stepped inside, the doors shut behind them.
Some soldiers panicked. "This never happened in any dungeon we've cleared before!"
Sharath raised a hand. "Relax. It's normal. The door opens once the boss is dead. Simple."
A shudder hit the floor. The middle of the room swelled up, and out poured a gigantic slime — quite large enough to be a small house. It let out a theatrical "GLORP!" as it towered over them.
Sharath immediately fired at its center with his M416 — BRRRRRRT! But just as the bullets were about to strike, the center glided beyond their reach, hiding in the slime's own body.
🐧Neuroboop:"Oh, great. You're fighting a water balloon with anxiety issues."
Without missing a beat, Sharath whipped out two Uzis, one in each hand. His expression hardened. Then — BRRRRRRRRRRRRRTTTT! A storm of magical bullets shredded the slime from all angles. The cores cracked with a satisfying CRUNCH, and the giant slime collapsed into a puddle.
The Loot
A glowing treasure chest materialized where the boss had fallen. The soldiers held their breath as Sharath opened it.
Loot acquired:
10 × Common Skill Scrolls
5 × Uncommon Skill Scrolls
1 × Rare Skill Scroll
1 × Spatial Bag
2 × Slime Cores
20 × Bottles of Slime Acid
The most experienced soldier there nearly fainted. "This… this is more loot than we've ever seen from a dungeon boss!"
Sharath weighed their options. "We're going back. Floor 1 is huge enough. Floor 2 can wait."
They loaded everything onto the tricycles and rolled out. The trip back to the dungeon entrance took 5 hours, which for them meant "half walking, half complaining."
The Warehouse… Incident
When they reached Sharath's warehouse, he eagerly opened the doors to admire his mountain of dungeon spoils.
…Only to find it completely empty.
Sharath's brain short-circuited. Did. did somebody steal from me?He thought of a top-notch team of thieves, an inside job, a competitor nobleman scheming against him.
Barging into the Darsha Estate that night, Sharath waited until dinner to break the news.
"My warehouse has been stolen."
Lord Darsha and Grandpa Bassana both coughed on their food, heaving violently.
Regaining their breath, Bassana exclaimed, "We. took care of the resources. We kept them elsewhere.
Sharath let out a sigh of relief. "Oh. Good. But—" he let air puff out his cheeks — "they're my dungeon resources. They belong to my territory."
Darsha and Bassana looked at each other. "We already had plans for using them for your territory."
Sharath's face flushed with embarrassment. ".Right. Carry on, then."
Skill Distribution
When Sharath dropped the boss loot, everyone at the table was quiet. Darsha, after a pause, said, "The rare-grade scroll is yours. Common scrolls you will use to build your own army. Uncommons…?"
Sharath instantly presented an uncommon scroll to each of them. They declined.
"Okay," Sharath sneered with an evil grin. "If you won't take them, I won't eat."
In minutes, the three adults succumbed.
Lord Darsha gained Low-Grade Fighting Technique
Lord Bassana gained Low-Level Perfect Calculations (which he immediately bragged about)
Princess Madhu gained Water Shot, letting her fire mana-formed water bullets
Sharath used his rare-grade scroll and gained Item Box — a vast inventory space where even spatial bags could be stored.
🐧Neuroboop:"Oh, wonderful. You've officially become a walking medieval Amazon warehouse."