A Serpent's Tale

Another fifty levels and I still hadn’t found Traytora. This was concerning. And not just because the monsters seemed to be running away to higher levels, which would cause an outbreak and wreak havoc on the world.

But it was also because I still hadn’t reached her, despite the power I sense coming from her getting closer and more powerful.

I should’ve reached her by now, yet I could sense that she was still further in. And the power that was emanating off of her even now just wasn’t right. It was too much for her, or what I knew her to be capable of.

’Argh! Whatever! I just need to get to her and find out what happened.’ I shook my head and resolved myself to just go as fast as possible.

Besides, it’s unlikely that any of the monsters that are running away would bother to pay attention to little old me on their way out if I’m heading further in.

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Another fifty levels. Two hundred levels deep, but I still wasn’t close by. I was making progress, but I didn’t know how much.

If Traytora really did get such an increase in strength, I don’t know just how much it was, which makes determining how close I am to her next to impossible.

I’d also never been this deep before. I had only ever gone down around a hundred and seventy floors.

At least none of the monsters deigned to look my way, too busy running to a higher level to notice me. And even if they did spot me, I wasn’t of any concern to them right now compared to their instincts to run away to a higher level.

Still, I kept moving forwards.

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_ 𝑓𝑟𝑒𝘦𝓌𝑒𝑏𝑛𝑜𝘷𝑒𝘭.𝒸𝘰𝑚

I went down another twenty floors and stopped. After the two hundredth floor, I noticed the incredibly sparsity of monsters of any kind anywhere on these floors.

And on the two hundred and twentieth floor, I could start to feel it. Feel her. At least I hope it’s her.

The way I could tell was the unusual distortions in space, warping with all different kinds of energies that shouldn’t even be possible in a dungeon like this, especially when this deep.

Usually, the primary element attuned to a dungeon like this just becomes denser the deeper you go. And even if this really isn’t a dungeon and some kind of multi-layered realm of some kind, The same rule should apply.

Though, I guess since a demon took control of this place, then that rule might be thrown out the window over a period of time. And this also might be the lowest layer of this place, but I didn’t think that was true.

Because although the distortions did have a hellish aura about them, that wasn’t the only thing I could sense.

There were also major bouts of [Fire], strong traces of [Dark], high traces of [Poison], some hints of [Earth] for some reason and some whisps [Water] here and there. I think there was something else in there too, but it was too little too sparse for me to determine what it was.

On the bright side of things, I now knew I was getting closer. On the downside, I now had to tread my way through all of this, which I was not looking forward to.

But, for the sake of Traytora and myself, I had to do this.

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I’d managed to get through three layers, and was now into the fourth, but I couldn’t go any further. Partly because the energies in the air were getting too thick and too wildly unstable for me to use my [Astromancy] to teleport around.

The main reason was because I was nearly out of Mana. I had to use some just to keep myself safe from the volatile energies surrounding me in the previous floor.

And the amount of destructive power behind these energies on the fourth floor was too much. So much so that I had to retreat all the way back to the second floor full of these energies, as there I could at least sustain my protection at the rate my Mana was being drained.

The moment I returned to the second floor of wild energy, I collapsed, nearly out of Mana completely. If I had to guess, I had around five percent left.

It had been a long time since I had gotten this low, and my mind and body were feeling it. Hard.

This was not going well at all. I was hoping that I would be able to get to her before anything bad had happened, but it seems like I failed.

’Fuck... I really was hoping not to have to go back so soon. Wait... Do I even have the capability of going back? Even just a little bit?’

The moment I realised that I didn’t have the necessary items or enough Mana, I panicked. The worst part was that I was missing one thing. ONE thing. Besides Mana of course.

’Ugh... What do I do now? I could go back out and try to get the item to go back to before I brought her here. Who knows what would happen in that time though? She could be killed or even just kill herself. Getting it would just take too much time, and right now, time is what I don’t have. I’ll... I’ll get out of this energy distortion first and go from there. Can’t tod anything without Mana anyways so its best I recover that first, and I can decide on my next course of action as I travel back.’

With that, I started the arduous trek back to the floor above. On foot unfortunately.

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(Traytora POV)

I don’t know how or when, but at some point, I stopped crying. Either because I could cry no more, or just because I didn’t want to cry anymore. Why that would be the case, I have no idea. Maybe I just want to stop feeling sorry for myself or something, I don’t fucking know.

All I know is that I finally stopped crying, but the sorrow I felt was still there. I’d just stopped crying. That was all.

But not that I had stopped crying, I didn’t know what to do.

’Heh... Funny... I never know what to do in these kinds of situations. I keep getting into these ruts and never know what I should do... I should know what to do by now given how many times I’ve been in such poor moods, yet here I am. Making a fool of myself.’

I took a deep breath, then exhaled.

I took another deep breath, and then screamed.

"SSSSHHHHHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!!"

It wasn’t a normal scream either. This one was more primal in its execution. I just let out all of my bottled-up emotion in one loud and terrifying primal screech.

Oddly enough, after doing that, I felt much better. I still felt sad, maybe even a little annoyed at what Lucifer did. But overall, I felt better.

I still hade no clue on what to do. I couldn’t go back even if I wanted to thanks to Lucifer’s lingering command. I would never forgive him for this by the way.

So, I guess the only real thing that I could do was to leave the dungeon? Realm? What even is this place? I never quite got an answer to that. And at this point, I don’t think I will ever get one. Not that it matters anyway.

And since that was the only realistic path I could take right now, I began to head out of this dungeon.

But I immediately realised, I had no clue on how to get out of here. Or if this even functioned like a typical dungeon with a pathway heading between floors.

Then I remembered that this was supposed to be a [Space] attributed dungeon, so maybe that was how I could get out?

Although, I didn’t exactly know how I was supposed to travel between floors if that was the case. In fact, I don’t think I ever even touched the second level. I just entered the first, created a gateway that for some reason, led me into the deepest parts of this realm, got injured and then... Well, I need not go through all that again. Even if only in memory.

I suppose all I can do is use my new immense amounts of power, expanding me senses out in all directions for anything that might be an exit and teleport through it.

And I would know that it leads to the exit because of Lucifer.

Which, as annoying as it is to admit this, at least for the start of this journey, his command over me is actually going to be somewhat helpful in making sur I don’t head deeper and back towards the layer I was on before.

With that plan now ready, I started to spread all my senses outwards from where I was, searching for anything that would take me out of here.