Mad Hatter's Guide to Clearing The Game
Chapter 147: Ch145. [World Quest] (5) - First Dungeon

Chapter 147: Ch145. [World Quest] (5) - First Dungeon

It did not take long for them to understand the meaning of the message.

The city was already in motion before Sarissa and her team even reached the staging point. Scouts, scavengers, and freelancers poured out from every quarter, all of them converging in the same direction.

The cathedral ruins, at the city’s farthest edge.

The dome had collapsed, the spires cracked like broken teeth, and ivy had swallowed what was left of its once-proud facade. But beneath the decay, the bones of something sacred remained.

And now, it had become the mouth of something far older.

The Dungeon had surfaced from the crumbled remains of the cathedral floor. A wide, circular fissure yawned open in its center, lined with stone glyphs none could read and mist that pulsed like a living thing. The wind here whispered secrets and warnings in languages older than nations.

As Sarissa approached with her party, a second system message chimed, the message window appearing before every pair of eyes that was connected to The Glitch:

[Dungeon: Mouth of The Abyss]

[Floors: 100]

[Obs: World Quest Area]

Gasps erupted from the crowd. The message was not just a marker signaling the emergence of a new spot in the world. It was an invitation.

And a dare.

Sarissa stared down into the rift, her sword hand twitching.

"So that’s where the son of a bitch had seen the [Bearer of the first Piece]..." She murmured. "But the description that Miles gave was different. Then how?"

Diego nodded grimly beside her, looking slightly down at the mention of Miles’ name, his coat pulled tight in the wind.

At the edge of the fissure, she saw the first steps of a stairwell that descended indefinitely into the darkness. The steps themselves seemed to be carved in the stone. The stone, however, did not seem to be stone at all.

Sarissa tapped her foot at the first one, and her heels made a clacking sound that echoed through the ruin.

"It’s solid." She said, even though it looked like pieces of flesh carved in the shape of steps.

"What if Shinji is already inside?" Diego asked, fidgeting with his fingers. "We can’t let him have the first [Hidden Piece]."

"No, we can’t." Sarissa turned. "But we can’t go in blindly and unprepared, either. We need a council. Now."

***

The impromptu war room was set in an old train station near the eastern border, hastily cleared of debris and filled with maps, markers, and enough caffeine to fuel a hyperactive elephant.

Sarissa stood at the center, the cathedral’s blueprints spread across the table. The other Guild leaders gathered around. Halden of Iron Roar, Vyle from Ethercore, Wei-Ling of Dawnshade, Mara, Diego representing the Black Market, and a few other leaders from minor Guilds.

"We have no idea of what awaits in there, but I know one thing for sure." Sarissa began. "If it’s like a video game Dungeon, then the [Lesser Demon] I was told about when my... Source warned me about Shinji, is the boss monster we need to defeat if we want to put our hands in the first [Hidden Piece]. It means we can’t waste even a single second to prepare and begin to, at least, map the place."

"You want a raid team." Wei-Ling gestured, crossing her arms soon after.

"I want a coalition." She replied. "One strike force, mixed units, best of every guild. We go in, test the waters, learn the terrain." And after a brief but tense pause, she added. "Minimal risk, maximum intel."

"Minimal risk, she says. You felt the vibe that came from that thing? It straight-out spells D.E.A.T.H, Sarissa. That’s a [Lesser Demon] we’re talking about! A death certificate waiting to be signed." Mara snorted.

"Which is why we’re handpicking who goes in. Twenty members. Elite only. No room for pride or politics."

There was a long pause, then Halden stepped forward.

"Iron Roar will send two," he said. "Including me."

One by one, the others nodded, and more names were given. Scouts, warriors, rangers, a support mage, a healer, a scryer, and an enforcer from the Black Market.

Sarissa compiled the list, mentally noting strengths, weaknesses, and how they might survive.

Within an hour, the first raid team stood at the cathedral steps, ready for their first mission into the unknown depths of the [Mouth of The Abyss].

They descended into the mist, with only silence and heavy tension lingering behind and in front of them.

Only one player returned from the Dungeon, though.

His name was Kalem, a blade-dancer from Dawnshade, known for his speed and silence.

When he emerged from the Dungeon’s mouth nearly four hours later, his armor was torn and tattered, his hands slick with black ichor, and his eyes unfocused, nothing but shock behind the lack of light in his glance.

He stumbled into the plaza a few hours later, collapsing to his knees at the Union Guild’s lobby, and whispered a name that everyone now knew to fear and despise in equal measure.

"Shinji..."

He was rushed to the healers, but as soon as his lips could form words again, he held up a blood-stained scroll, sealed with a twisted rune none of them had seen before.

Sarissa broke the seal, and the parchment unfurled, Shinji’s words written carefully and elegantly through it in two subtle and succinct lines. Tension permeated the air as his words echoed through the walls with Sarissa’s voice.

I accept your invitation.

If it’s an open war that you want for the control of the Dungeon, then that’s what you shall have.

There was no signature, no mocking words, not a single drop of Shinji’s usual flair. It was a simple statement of intent.

Kalem began to cry and sob uncontrollably, as if he had not left the dungeon, and the players around him could only ask themselves one thing, even though none of them spoke of it out loud.

’What the hell happened in there?’

"We’re already at war." Mara said, letting out a tired sigh.

"Then we fight it like one." Sarissa closed the scroll, her jaw clenched.