Jack's POV

  I didn't have a choice.

  It was as if that old man, Jensen, knew just what to say to make me yield. Moreover, if I had refused. He would have reported me to the System. But by saying that he would help my family. He now had me more or less as a willing accomplice.

  With a bow, I said bye to Mr. and Mrs. Tuma who had no clue about Jensen entering and exiting their inn a couple of hours ago. And Jensen on the other hand waited outside the inn until my work for the afternoon was done.

  My barefoot came to a stop on the road made of cold and rough, red stone tiles which were laid side by side. Those were mined from the sixth floor of the dungeon and chiseled into stone tiles by the dwarfs. The other races like barbarians and human mages helped them to mine and move the stones here.

  But the stones unlike the trees didn't regenerate once a month. Instead, it was once every two years. So those were even rarer and used only inside the safe zone which was the size of a couple of thousand feet in all directions.

  Jensen who was leaning his back against the building opposite to Mrs. Tuma's inn. Stopped tossing and catching my pocket watch in his hand and pushed himself off that building to stand straight. He didn't even acknowledge me with a nod. But just started walking in the direction to my left.

  To make sure, I followed him, he dangled my pocket watch over his shoulder. I huffed at that and followed his lead, but kept my distance. We walked past hundreds of people. Some huddled around playing some made up games on the side of the road. They had no armor on them. Nor did they go inside the dungeon. They did odd work, and made enough money to have a meal a day and some cheap alcohol and survive.

  The ones that went into the dungeon. They were most probably gathered near the center of the safe zone where the merchants gather in the day time. So we didn't get to see them. But there were still people coming via the safe zone exit we were walking towards.

  We walked past some dead bodies with people crying around them. The others who made it safe were caked in blood, were still wearing armor, and were sitting on the safe zone's floor with their backs to the walls of the houses which didn't belong to them. Because there were only so many houses and inns inside the same zone.

  Maybe the human population was still a problem.

  At the brisk pace at which Jensen walked. It took us less than twenty minutes to leave the hundreds of buildings behind and reach the market where we had met last night.

  The safe zone was like a giant bubble that was connected to the tunnel exit. And I would have continued to follow him if he had stopped right at the edge of that tunnel where the last of the vendors set up their shop when the floors below were shut. But he walked past that point, and I froze right where I stood.

  Jensen, as if he knew I would stop. Turned at gave me a look which told me to keep following him. Even though at this stage of the dungeon what we could expect were just level two goblins. I being an unindicted who had no weapons, no inventory, and no experience fighting. Was ready to call it quits.

  But. He had my grandpa's watch. And he knew my secret.

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  So I followed him out into the dungeon proper.

  My bare feet were smeared in the messy brown mud of the dungeon. Most of which I was sure was the fecal matter of the people who lived in the safe zone. They took a dump out or in the southern zone of the safe zone which was used for agricultural purposes. That zone was run down by goblins a lot. So no one in their right mind built anything there.

  I held my breath and pushed through that initial patch. My feet squished and squashed as I stepped right past things. But Jensen and a handful of other adventurers who were still in that tunnel had no issue walking thanks to their long boots.

  Once no one was in sight, their sounds were not even an echo anymore, and I was still a good ten feet behind Jensen. He abruptly turned. "Here you go…" He tossed me my pocket watch, and I fumbled but managed to catch it before it became part of the manure.

  "Before we go any further…" said Jensen, an orb of light popping into existence next to him and illuminating the tunnel splitting into three behind his back. From what I had heard, only those who had cleared all three tunnels could go down when the floors opened up. "I need you to tell me something first…" said Jensen.

  "Tell you what?" I pocketed my watch while furrowing my eyebrows at him.

  He stepped forward.

  But I held my ground and stood.

  "Are you really one of the blanks?" he asked me.

  "Did you really drag me all the way out here—"

  "Answer me, boy," he roared, and my body jumped. "Are you really one of the blanks?" he demanded while grabbing me by my shoulders. "I need to hear it from your mouth that you are one." He shook me. "Are you one of them?"

  His roar was followed by a silence that rang louder in that tunnel.

  "I'm," I said.

  "You never heard the ping of the System?" he asked me.

  I shook my head.

  "Never got a prompt to complete a task?"

  I shook my head.

  "Never saw a screen?"

  I shook my head.

  "Good…" He let go of my shoulders and stepped back. "You are perfect for the plan I have," he said. "The Dungeon Council will never know what hit them."

  "The Dungeon Council?" I asked, my heart picking up a pace.

  He turned and walked for the tunnel which was straight ahead.

  "Wait…" I tried to catch up to him. "What have you got to do with the dungeon council?" I asked him. "You aren't even from here," I said.

  That got him to stop in his tracks.

  "How do you know that?" he asked me, without turning back.

  "It's the way you talk," I said.

  "Do I talk funny, boy?" he asked, sounding a little offended.

  "It's not that," I said. "It's just that you take your own sweet time with everything you do. The people of the dungeon constantly live on the edge. But you," I paused. "You look like you are enjoying your time in here."

  "Ha-Ha-Ha…" His voice echoed in that tunnel, making me take a step back. "This will be fun…" he said, and started walking again.

  But I needed to know just what he was planning to do with the council. Was he planning to bomb them? I asked myself. But he was a mage. It would take him too long to chant up a spell. But before my thoughts could drive me into one of the walls of the dungeon.

  He spoke up.

  "Do you know how many floors there are in this dungeon?" he asked while still walking ahead.

  "Twelve," I said.

  "There are thirteen," he said. "And do you know what happens when you clear all thirteen floors?" he asked next.

  "The dungeon disappears along with all the safe zones, and we get tossed onto the surface of the earth," I said.

  "Ha-Ha-Ha…" He laughed like a villain while walking as if he was enjoying this a bit too much. "Who told you that?" he asked.

  "It's common knowledge," I said.

  "Oh, is that so…" he said, while still laughing. "I thought something else happened when you cleared the dungeon," he said.

  "Something else, like what?" I asked, while still trying to catch up to him. But despite him walking at a brisk pace. I couldn't seem to walk next to him. It was as if he was always four steps ahead. "Old man…" I called out when he didn't answer. "What happens when we clear the dungeon?"

  A fireball gushed past my face so fast that it burned my cheek, and a cry rang out from behind my back. It was a goblin that he had one shoted. And when I turned to look at him with the side of my cheek still burning. His gloved hand was engulfed in bright orange flames, and there was a madness in his eyes.

  "When we clear a dungeon," he said. "We gain control over it, my boy."

  *****