The Gate Traveler-Chapter 35B5 - : Dungeon Illogic

The next Gate was a considerable distance away, with a few cities scattered along the route. Thankfully, my method with the wind continued to work. I had to nudge her every few hours, which was a bit of a hassle, but given her flighty nature, I couldn't exactly complain. Mahya, Al, and Rue cleared two more dungeons along the way using this method. For one dungeon, Mahya found a suitable landing spot. The second one was trickier—the forest was dense, with no gaps in the canopy. Eventually, we devised a solution: Mahya flew on Rue, and Al used the sword to get down, while I stayed with the balloon, circling until they finished.

During this stretch, we spotted a large group traveling along one of the ruined roads. There were over fifty of them, armed with rifles and swords, and they had numerous carts pulled by those peculiar, oversized dogs.

By this point, I’d already abandoned the idea of visiting all 38 Gates on this continent, let alone the 21 on the neighboring one. I just hoped we’d stumble upon a cool world to visit and pick up the journey from there. Zindor was way tooooooo depressing.

The third dungeon the wind led me to was different. She found it just before sunset, so Mahya landed the balloon, I set up the house, and they headed out on their adventure the following morning. Less than an hour later, they were back.

“You’re done already?” I asked, eyebrows shooting up in surprise as I leaned against the doorway.

“No,” Al replied, his tone unusually grim. “We need your help.”

I pointed at my chest, tilting my head. “My help? Why?”

Mahya’s lips curled into a sly grin, and she shot me a playful wink. “You’ll see.”

Well, I definitely saw what they meant. This dungeon was also embedded in a massive tree trunk, the portal of doom nestled among thick, twisted roots. Inside, the air was thick and damp; it felt like I was breathing in soup, and it clung to my skin like a wet blanket. The walls, slick with a faintly glowing resin, exuded a pungent odor of mildew and decay, a smell that settled at the back of my throat and refused to leave. I kept swallowing to get rid of it, but nothing helped.

The space was tight, with jagged splinters of wood jutting out unpredictably from the walls, so every step was like navigating a maze of hidden thorns. A narrow ledge spiraled upward, uneven and slick underfoot. It was dark, with a faint illumination from the resin. Even when Mahya and I cast our light ball, the visibility didn’t improve much. Something was absorbing the light.

Somewhere above, creaks and groans echoed through the trunk, as though the tree was shifting. Every sound was amplified—the scuff of a boot, the drip of unseen moisture, a distant rustling.

We hadn’t been inside for more than a minute when a massive swarm of giant bees buzzed straight toward us. The sound was deafening, like a thousand buzzsaws buzzing together. These bees were enormous—easily the size of mice, maybe even rats—and over fifty of them were in the swarm.

Mahya and Al sprang into action immediately, unleashing bursts of lightning. Mahya’s eyes narrowed with focus as she fired precise bolts—each one a clean, sharp line of electricity that fried a bee on contact. Al stood beside her, zapping bees with quick strikes and swatting away any that got too close with his shield.

Rue caught me off guard. Every second or so, he exhaled sharply at the bees, sending them tumbling backward. But it wasn’t just regular breath—it was far more dramatic. He was controlling the wind with his breath! How had I never thought of that before?!

“Buddy!” I exclaimed. “When did you learn that?!”

“Talk after the dungeon,” Mahya snapped at me. “Now concentrate.”

I quickly joined the fray and immediately understood why they needed me. Their lightning was precise—a single, straight line that struck exactly where they aimed. It was perfect for taking down single targets, but against this swarm, it barely made a dent.

My lightning was chaos incarnate. I raised my hands, and electric arcs burst forth in every direction, branching and twisting unpredictably. It danced wildly through the swarm, lighting up the hollow like a storm in a bottle. For a chaotic mess like this, precision was pointless. They didn’t need aim—they needed pandemonium. And that, thankfully, was where I excelled.

Al and I worked quickly, converting the defeated bees into crystals. Unfortunately, the resulting crystals were disappointingly small, but there wasn’t time to dwell on it. We pressed onward, climbing the spiraling ledge.

Two more swarms later, we stumbled upon a massive, glowing orange contraption hanging precariously from a jagged piece of wood jutting out from the wall. It dangled like a bizarre ornament, and it took me a second—or maybe three—to realize what it actually was. A honeycomb.

Al stepped closer, his face lit with curiosity as he pulled out his long needle. He stuck the honeycomb with practiced precision and swirled the needle before licking it. His eyes lit up. “This is a very fine honey,” he said, smacking his lips, “and it is packed with high mana concentration.”

I blinked at him, momentarily stunned. “How does that make any sense?”

Mahya and Al both turned to me, eyebrows raised, their faces painted with matching expressions of confusion.

Find this and other great novels on the author's preferred platform. Support original creators!

I pointed emphatically at the honeycomb, my voice rising a notch. “Yes, the monsters looked like bees, but they weren’t actually bees—they were monsters! So how does this make any sense?”

Mahya shrugged with a bemused smile. “Does it really matter? Honey is honey.”

“Of course, it matters!” I shot back, throwing up my hands. “It doesn’t make any sense!”

They didn’t have an answer.

We cleared another three swarms, each progressively bigger—both the swarms and the bees. At least we collected five more honeycombs, which, like the swarms, also got bigger.

After about an hour, the interior of the tree shifted. The thin ledge spiraling around the inside of the trunk was now accompanied by tight tunnels branching out from the center. It felt like we’d reached the tree’s upper branches, and each tunnel represented one of them. The tunnels were relatively wide, but not wide enough. Mahya and I could manage by stooping to enter, but Al would have to crawl on his hands and knees. Rue, however, didn’t stand a chance. Even the largest tunnel would have wedged him in at the shoulders, leaving him utterly stuck.

Mahya gestured toward the nearest tunnel, her eyes narrowing. “I’ve got a feeling that if we keep going up, something’s going to come out of one of these tunnels and attack us from behind.”

I couldn’t argue—I had the same feeling. A glance at Al confirmed he felt it, too; his subtle nod said it all.

“Let me try something,” I said, aiming a hand at the tunnel. A crackling lightning bolt arced into the darkness, illuminating the space for a split second.

A piercing, chittering screech erupted, and suddenly, a massive squirrel—half its fur missing and its exposed skin looking raw and patchy—shot out of the tunnel straight at me like a furry cannonball.

Mahya didn’t hesitate for a second. She raised her rifle and fired. The shot rang out like a thunderclap, echoing through the tunnel. The squirrel dropped mid-lunge, its massive body hitting the ground with a heavy thud. It was the size of a golden retriever.

This time, I sent a light ball into the tunnel, thrilled by how much my improved perception revealed. The tunnel stretched long and straight, and I could see every detail inside with surprising clarity. Thankfully, there were no more squirrels. But something else caught my attention—a hollow in the tunnel packed with what looked like nuts.

I shook my head in disbelief. None of this made any sense. But sense or no sense, curiosity got the better of me, and I headed in to investigate. Sure enough, the hollow was stuffed with nuts—a variety of them. Walnuts, cashews, pecans, almonds, pistachios, and at least five other kinds I’d never seen in my life. The names popped up when I used Identify, and I never heard of them. They were all edible and valuable—or so my Appraisal claimed.

The more I saw of this dungeon, the less it made any kind of logical sense.

When Mahya sent her light ball into the next tunnel, another squirrel leaped at her. Al took care of it quickly. It was far more efficient than wasting mana on lightning.

This method carried us forward for another hour. Not every tunnel held a stash of nuts, but enough did that we’d amassed a supply large enough to last us a few years—on top of the nuts I’d already bought back on Earth.

It was, apparently, a culinary dungeon.

When we finished dealing with the squirrels, we were attacked by woodpeckers the size of ostriches, but with proportional necks and legs. Nasty buggers, they came at us with sharp beaks that pecked with the speed and force of a jackhammer. And to make it worse, they didn’t even let out the iconic woodpecker laugh—it was just pure aggression.

On the bright side, each nest we found held at least ten eggs, each one three times the size of a regular chicken egg. And yes, my Appraisal confirmed they were edible and valuable.

Have I mentioned yet how much this dungeon didn’t make any sense?

We finally reached the top of the tree, the most baffling and illogical part of this weird, weird dungeon. Emerging from the hollow trunk, we stepped out onto a platform nestled in the canopy. But as I looked around, the forest I’d expected to see wasn’t there. Instead, the world faded into a strange, hazy border, as if the tree existed in its own pocket of reality.

Standing in the center of this surreal space, the final guardian awaited us—a massive green gorilla perched on a thick branch, its muscular frame blending seamlessly with the foliage. Its glowing yellow eyes locked onto us, and the branches around it sagged under the weight of clusters of pink bananas.

Without a word, we launched into action. Bolts of lightning crackled through the air as the three of us fired in sync, the flashes illuminating the haze like a storm. The gorilla roared and swung wildly, shaking the branches as it leaped toward us, but Rue was faster. With a ferocious growl, he lunged, clamping his teeth around the guardian’s neck. A final, guttural snarl, and it collapsed.

The fight was over in a minute, but gathering the bananas was another story. The branches were high, slippery, and dense. It took us much longer to pluck those ridiculous pink bananas than it did to take down the boss. By the time we were done, my hands were sticky with sap, and Rue was sprawled on the platform, clearly unimpressed with our foraging skills.

The reward was... interesting. That was really the only way to describe it. Each of us—Mahya, Al, and me—received a big white box, identical in appearance. Smooth, glossy, and featureless, it gave no hint of what was inside. I turned to Identify for answers, and that’s where things got weird. The boxes may have looked the same, but Identify had entirely different descriptions for each of them.

Visit freёnovelkiss.com for the 𝑏est n𝘰vel reading experience.

I got:

Hive of Abundance

A portable hive designed for raising bees that produce 300% more honey than ordinary bees. The hive automatically adjusts its size to accommodate the number of bees within, ensuring optimal space and comfort. Ideal for sustainable honey farming or trade.

Mahya got:

Squirrel Haven

A habitat tailored for raising squirrels that collect 50% more nuts than usual. The habitat adapts in size based on the number of occupants, expanding or shrinking to provide a perfect environment for efficient gathering and storage.

Al got:

Roost of Plenty

This customizable roost allows birds to lay 100% more eggs than standard birds. The roost scales its size depending on the type and number of birds, creating a safe and productive nesting area. It is perfect for anyone looking to maximize egg production.

Rue got ten bags of fertilizer that speeds banana growth by 200% and a recipe for banana pudding. He was not a happy camper.