CH- 1: THE Day the World Learned Curiosity Has Teeth
Before the dungeon, the world had no word for monsters.
There were beasts—wolves, bears, leviathans in the deep seas—but nothing born of malice or hunger for humanity. No claws designed to hunt thought. No instincts sharpened against fear. War existed, yes. Blood was spilled by kings and races alike. But it was intentional violence, not predation.
The world was orderly in its chaos.
Humans ruled fertile plains and river valleys, their kingdoms stitched together by trade routes and old treaties. Elves guarded ancient forests where magic hummed softly like a sleeping song. Dwarves carved their halls into mountains older than recorded history. Spirits drifted unseen, scholars debated mana theory, churches preached divine order.
And beneath it all, the land was… stable.
Until the mountain changed.
The Mountain That Should Not Have Existed THE SOUL GRAVE MOUNTAIN
The mountain appeared in the borderlands between the Kingdom of Eltross and the free trade city of Vareen—an unclaimed stretch of land used mostly by shepherds and wandering merchants.
At first, no one noticed anything unusual.
Then the shepherds reported fog.
Not weather-fog.
Still fog.
Fog that didn't move with wind, didn't thin under sunlight, didn't feel cold or warm.
Then animals refused to graze near the mountain's base.
Then birds stopped flying over it.
Finally, a merchant caravan vanished.
No blood.
No wreckage.
Just… absence.
That was when curiosity won.
The First Expedition
The Kingdom of Eltross dispatched a small group—nothing dramatic.
Six men.
Sir Halven, a veteran knight, calm and disciplined
Maera, a mage-apprentice eager to prove herself
Torrin, a cartographer hired to map the region
Two soldiers
One priest, sent to "observe"
They expected ruins. Or bandits. Or a mana anomaly.
What they found was a door.
Not stone.
Not metal.
Not wood.
It was something else—black, seamless, towering, embedded directly into the mountain as if the mountain had grown around it.
No markings.
No runes.
No cracks.
Just a faint pressure in the air that made breathing feel… deliberate.
Torrin later wrote:
"It felt as if the land itself was waiting to see what we would do."
Sir Halven knocked.
The door opened.
The Threshold
The moment they stepped through, the world changed.
Sound dampened.
Light bent softly, as if filtered through water.
The air grew thick with mana—pure, overwhelming, intoxicating.
Behind them, the entrance sealed without noise.
Panic flared.
Then discipline returned.
They were soldiers and scholars. This was not the time to flee.
Maera whispered, voice shaking,
"Sir… I can feel it watching."
The corridor stretched forward, smooth walls curving gently inward. No seams. No torches—yet light existed, ambient and source-less.
At the corridor's end was a vast chamber.
And that was when the world's first map was drawn.
Floor One — The Welcome Hall
The chamber was enormous, circular, supported by pillars shaped like twisted roots. The floor was stone, warm underfoot, faintly pulsing.
Nothing attacked them.
Instead, there were pedestals.
On them sat objects of unbelievable craftsmanship—crystals, weapons, artifacts humming with power.
The priest crossed himself.
"This is a trial," he murmured. "A divine one."
They took the artifacts.
Greed whispered softly, sweetly.
Nothing happened.
They laughed.
They relaxed.
The dungeon recorded everything.
Mapping the Dungeon
Torrin worked feverishly.
The first floor branched into four corridors, each leading to different chambers:
A room filled with shifting mirrors
A hall of pressure plates that clicked harmlessly
A garden of luminous plants
A silent chamber with stone statues shaped like kneeling figures
No enemies.
Only unease.
They mapped two floors that day.
Floor Two — The Learning Ground
Here, creatures appeared.
Small. Weak. Almost pitiful.
Shapeless things of mist and flesh that barely fought back. One soldier killed one with a single strike—and felt a surge of vitality flood his body.
He laughed.
"I feel stronger."
The others soon followed.
Every kill brought reward—mana, strength, clarity.
No injuries were permanent. Wounds closed unnaturally fast.
They didn't notice the symbols faintly etching themselves into their skin, invisible beneath armor and cloth.
The dungeon noticed everything.
Floor Three — The Choice Rooms
Here, the dungeon began asking questions.
A corridor split.
Left path: shorter, brighter, lined with treasure chests.
Right path: longer, darker, echoing with distant sounds.
They argued.
Sir Halven chose the darker path.
One soldier secretly slipped left.
They never saw him again.
The dungeon wrote that down.
The First Exit
They emerged after two days.
Alive. Stronger. Changed.
The world exploded.
The Age of Discovery
Within weeks, scholars, guilds, and kings descended upon the mountain.
The First Dungeon was named:
The Black Threshold
Adventurer guilds formed overnight. Mapping parties competed for prestige. Churches declared it a blessing. Kings argued over ownership.
Dungeons, it was decided, were resources.
No one asked why the mountain pulsed like a heartbeat.
No one noticed that those who returned dreamed differently.
Deeper Floors — What Humans Never Published
Official maps showed ten floors.
There were more.
Far below, past the floors humans dared to chart, the dungeon shifted.
Walls grew organic. Corridors rearranged. Gravity bent.
And at the deepest point—beyond traps, beyond logic—was a chamber no human ever described.
Because none were meant to return.
The MAIN ROOM
The chamber was not grand.
No throne.
No fire.
No dramatic symbols.
It was quiet.
Circular.
At its center stood a black obelisk, breathing slowly, veins of crimson light pulsing within.
This was not a core.
This was an eye.
A projection.
A listening post.
Kravex did not sit here.
He observed.
From this room, every footstep, every kill, every betrayal was translated into data—fed backward into Pharones, into Hellemes, into designs yet unborn.
When the first maps were completed, the obelisk pulsed once.
And a thought echoed through realities:
"They enter willingly."
"Proceed to phase two."
Far above, humans celebrated.
They had discovered a dungeon.
They did not realize they had discovered the end of their world's innocence.
END OF THE CHAPTER.