Shadow Author

The exit of the dungeon itself was magnificent to me.

Before we entered I made sure to study every aspect of it as there were always secrets hidden within the depths of the unknown.

My belief of that turned out to be correct as the portal itself revealed many intricacies.

A dungeon portal is a magical gateway that appears when a dungeon begins to open.

These portals are large, dark, and ominous, with a swirling vortex of energy at their center.

The portal itself is framed by stone-like formations that are made of indestructible material.

Yet carved within this stone are ancient and unexplainable characters that clearly say something.

Researchers, language enthusiasts, and experts all across the globe have studied and tried to find meaning in them to no avail.

Yet to me — the creator of them — understanding the meaning behind them was incredibly easy.

Reading the symbols and seemingly random lines I learned all I need to know about the dungeon before even entering it.

It took a second to get used to and the background noise didn't help but the biggest facts were revealed to me and that was all that I needed.

Near the portal, I took my eyes off the patterns and studied the actual energy that made it up.

There was a faint, otherworldly glow emanating from it, casting an eerie light on everything around it.

Its color was deep green and the color reflected off the surface of the ground flashing back at my eyes.

The air around the portal crackled with energy, and an overwhelming force could be felt hidden deep inside of it.

As the five of us approached the portal, I could feel the hairs on the back of my neck stand up.

The energy coming from the portal was almost suffocating, and worst of all it felt as if I was physically being pulled towards it.

The closer I got the stronger the sensation became until it felt like I was standing in the center of a hurricane.

When we finally stepped through the portal it was like stepping into another world.

My senses were distorted and my mind went blank for a split second but the chatting of the shadows brought me back to reality.

"Kid, are you good?"

Responding to the joyful man I said:

"Yeah, I'm good now."

Saying that the girl came up behind me and added:

"You will get used to it."

The depressed shadow was quick to cut in:

"If you survive."

Then after that four whispers of good luck rang in my ears and the figures of the shadows vanished from my line of sight.

"Good luck kid!"

"Don't die, I don't want to deal with your body!"

"Survive so that we can go on more adventures in the future!"

"If you go down, at least take me with you!"

Being left alone in the middle of the dungeon I didn't feel any anguish.

The reason was that I was more than prepared and I knew that the shadows were still nearby.

They weren't supposed to interfere unless something went wrong which meant they were just a surveillance team.

It was annoying because it meant I couldn't go all out but I didn't think I would have a reason to at least not in the beginning.

Summoning Nightfall the sword began to materialize in my hand as I started moving in a random direction.

The specific path I needed to move towards wasn't outlined and I had no idea where to begin so it didn't matter which way I moved.

The moment we crossed the portal and the world unveiled we landed on a flat patch of land.

I didn't know where I was in respect in the center but I had a feeling I was quite a ways away from it.

Being that the dungeon was quite literally called the Black Wild Lands I was expecting all kinds of terrains. But the fact that we came through and we were in an open landscape had to be lucky.

Appearing in an overgrown jungle, in the water, or a desert would have been terrible.

But unfortunately for me however safe the plains would be it was not the place I wanted to stay.

What I needed to find was the swamp portion of the dungeon.

While running I looked around and took in the surroundings.

The first thing I did was try to locate the positions of the shadows however I quickly gave up on it.

Although I was fairly sure that I could beat them in battle their stealth skills were too high.

Giving up on that I began studying the structure of the dungeon.

Feeling the long blades of grass rub up against the ankles of my feet I couldn't distinguish the difference between them and real ones outside of the dungeon.

Plus the sun that was high in the sky and beaming down on me seeped away my energy and caused me to sweat just like the one in the real world.

Having these eerily similar sensations coupled with the information I knew about Nightfall having her realm. I began to question if the stuff in the dungeon was truly fake.

Rather the portals might be just that as they connect to separate worlds.

But that kind of thinking was far too extreme for the current situation I was in.

I didn't have time to speculate as I came across my first-ever monster living inside a dungeon.

It was some sort of rhino-like creature that was huge and had a long pultruding horn sticking out the top of its head.

Laying prone I dropped to the ground before the monster was able to notice my presence.

The grass was just tall enough to hide my figure but I had an inclination that the monster would find me sooner or later.

Still having Nightfall in my hands I mentally prepared myself for the fight as I used up a good bit of my mana to activate the first rune.

Believing the sword was now strong enough to cut through the monster's tough hide I jumped out from where I was hiding and charged at the monster when it had my back to me.

'Die!'