The Dungeon greeted our sight. At first sight, it looked like an enormous building that led to an underground stair. The gigantic building, made mostly out of ash gray-colored bricks and covered in moss was mostly just for show, as the true dungeon was below underground.
I do remember having explored a dungeon with my friends before, where we found Furoh, but that resulted to be something like a "young dungeon" and lacked most of its key features, it hasn't even created a monster back then, and Furoh was just hiding there and that was about it. We had gotten excited for nothing back then. Now, this was a genuine dungeon, with over twenty floors deep, bustling with monsters. It was the ideal time to explore it.
"Alright then kids, let's get going. Stay near me. You can summon your Familiars when we get to Floor 1." My father said. He led us downstairs as we slowly began to chat with him.
"Uncle Allan, how do dungeons work?" Asked Aquarina.
"How do they work?" My father said. "Well, from what we have learned, there's usually a Dungeon Core at the depths of a Dungeon, hidden from all of the people that could even reach it. The Dungeon Core absorbs Mana from the environment and uses this Mana to upgrade itself, expand the dungeon, and generate monsters. There is another way to grow stronger faster for Dungeons, however…"
"Oh? What is it?" Aquarina innocently asked.
"You see, they create treasures and monsters that drop special items and other things, to lure people inside. We people are the dungeon's favorite meal after all. We contain more Mana they could even get in months of absorbing it from the environment, so the more they can kill us, the more Mana they usually absorb from our corpses left behind." Said my father.
"Eeeh? That's terrific!" Aquarina said. "But kind of interesting…"
"Who created Dungeons?" Wondered Zack.
"Well, that's complicated. They have always been here since the death of the First Ever Demon King. It is said that his Miasma created Dungeons by corrupting the world. An after effect that the world itself had not expected when creating such a monster. After that, somehow, a god betrayed our conventional gods, an ancient servant of the twelve pantheons turned against them for strange motives and became an Evil God of Dungeons. He used the Dungeons to grow stronger and absorb energy from the world… or something like that." My father answered. "He had become stronger and is said to be a threat that is a menace to the world. It might be his fault that Dungeons are popping more commonly around the world, and why they're also becoming more dangerous over time, developing new gimmicks to trap people more easily."
"New gimmicks?" I wondered while raising an eyebrow.
"Yes, this dungeon is known for one of them, they're called "Personal Dungeons". The moment we step into Floor 1, we are practically moved to a different dimension. This way, no other adventurer parties can come to help each other if they get lost…" My father said with a slightly malicious smile. "Scary, right?"
"What?! But that means we can get all the loot we get for ourselves without anybody interrupting, right?" Asked Zack.
"Hahaha! Yeah, this is also why it is rather popular. There are also special items named Ariadne Thread that let you teleport back to the outside of the dungeon, they cost 1 gold coin, but most adventurer parties hold one each time they dive for emergencies." My father said. "I brought a few myself too. This Dungeon has mid monsters so its nothing hard either. We can enjoy our personal dungeon diving without anybody annoying us. Although the "Personal Dungeon" gimmick might be dangerous, it is also beneficial for adventurer parties that need money."
"Oh! We can make our own bucks!" Aquarian said.
"Ah, we finally got to Floor 1!" Zack said.
The moment we stepped into the floor 1 hall, a strange and dizzy feeling overtook us all for a split of a second. It felt as if everything surrounding us was moving at an incredible speed and then settled down like nothing.
"Eh? Just what was that?" Asked Zack.
"That was the Dimensional Transfer, now we are in a pocket dimension created exclusively for us. This gimmick costs the dungeon some Mana, so it usually has a limit of 10. Remember seeing that little altar showing a "6" number that went to "7" when a party came out of the dungeon? That's the amount of times a new dimension can eb created, so there's a limit of ten parties inside a dungeon at most." Said my father. "Anymore, and they're simply blocked by an invisible barrier, so they can't walk downstairs anymore."
"Wow, Dungeons are so complicated… It felt slightly weird, this whole dimensional manipulation stuff… This God of Dungeons, is he the one that…?" I asked.
"Hm. I have thought about it with our mother back then. There is… a possibility. But fear not, I am here. And I doubt he'll have enough time to just chase us around when the other gods might be tailing him as well after the offense he did against them." My father replied. "For now, just trust your father, let's go!"
My father said that this Dungeon had a random amount of Floors, usually being 10 ~ 25 Floors. One would know we reached the last floor as there wouldn't be any more stairs moving down, and there would be a Dungeon Boss at the end of the floor as well. Usually, when the boss dies, a special teleportation area opens which allows us to teleport outside. This area is not part of the dungeon's system, but something that was set here by a powerful Magician that was said to have modified dungeons across the continents so they would become more beneficial for people.
"The Archwizard of Shattered Stars was the one that set up these special gadgets to make dungeon diving easier, he had powers that allowed him to even modify the structure of dungeons, only partially though." My father said. "This way, one of the greatest challenges for humans also became their best way to grow stronger."