The carriage suddenly ground to a violent halt, the wooden wheels locking up on the frozen path.
"Get down," Sir Red ordered, his voice cutting through the howling wind. "We have to do the rest of the way on foot."
Henry grabbed his sword and carefully dismounted, his boots crunching against the frost-covered rock. Sir Red led him away from the carriage, guiding them onto a treacherous, narrow ledge that snaked inward, carving directly into the hollowed-out center of the towering mountain.
They traversed the winding cliffside in silence until the narrow path finally widened into a sheltered stone plateau. Carved directly into the inner face of the mountain was an unnatural-looking fissure in the rock, an opening only wide enough for two people to squeeze through side-by-side.
"This is it," Sir Red said, gesturing toward the pitch-black hole. "This is what is called a System Dungeon."
Henry stared at the dark entrance, sensing a faint, unnatural energy bleeding out from the stone.
"They are incredibly rare to find out in the world, but they appear much more commonly in this mountain range," Sir Red explained. "I can't go in there with you. It's an F-Rank dungeon; the System will physically reject my entry."
Sir Red crossed his arms before continuing. "If your life is in unavoidable danger, you must say the command: System Restart. It will instantly teleport you back to the beginning of the dungeon. However, you are not allowed to actually leave this cavern until you defeat the dungeon boss. I will be stationed out here and bring your food and water to the entrance every day at noon. Understood?"
"Roger, sir," Henry nodded, gripping the hilt of his sword as he stepped toward the fissure. He paused just outside the threshold, glancing back over his shoulder. "Any advice for me, sir?"
Sir Red looked at Henry for a long, silent moment. A faint, unreadable expression crossed his face.
"Yeah, I do," Sir Red finally replied. "Pick me after this."
Henry blinked, a look of genuine confusion crossing his face. 'Pick him? Pick him for what?'
Before Henry could ask for clarification, Sir Red simply turned his back and walked away toward the edge of the plateau to set up his camp.
'Well, I guess I'll figure out what he means eventually,' Henry thought, shaking his head. He took a deep breath, steeling his nerves, and stepped through the narrow gap in the rock.
The moment his boots crossed the threshold, the physical laws of the outside world were completely shattered.
Instead of a cramped, suffocating tunnel, Henry found himself standing inside a massive, underground cavern.
The ceiling stretched dozens of feet into the air, completely contradicting the narrow fissure he had just walked through. Glowing moss clung to the vast stone walls, casting a dim, eerie green light across the floor.
Before he could even process the sheer scale of the spatial distortion, a familiar blue light flared in his vision. The System panel materialized directly in front of him.
Dungeon Discovered
Rank: F
Difficulty: Common
Notice: All experience gained within this dungeon yields 50% of standard open-world experience. Experience yields will be halved again with every subsequent completion of this dungeon.
Henry dismissed the translucent blue panel with a thought. He went 30 feet deep into the cavern, but the moment his boots hit the 31st foot, the air in front of him violently shimmered.
Suddenly, ten small, grotesque goblins materialized directly in his path. Floating above the heads of nine of them was a glowing, ethereal number: 10. But hovering over the goblin lingering in the very back was a bright blue strip of light displaying a single letter: F.
Despite their sudden appearance, the monsters were already organized in a crude, tactical formation. The vanguard consisted of four goblins wielding rusted little daggers.
Right behind them stood a tight row of five, clutching short spears.
Standing securely in the rear was the F-Rank leader, notching a stone-tipped arrow into a wooden bow.
Seeing enemies literally spawn out of thin air momentarily shook Henry, but his newly formed combat instincts quickly overrode his shock. Before the vanguard could even react to his presence, he exploded forward.
Targeting the left flank, Henry swung his sword in a blinding horizontal arc, cleanly severing the heads of the first two dagger-wielding goblins at once. He immediately tried to reverse his swing to catch the remaining two on the right, but he quickly realized his mistake. The second row surged forward, violently thrusting a wall of spears toward his chest to protect their frontline.
Henry was forced to take two quick, evasive hops backward to avoid getting skewered.
'They're slow, but they aren't totally dumb,' Henry analyzed, quickly recalibrating his approach.
He lunged forward, feinting an attack toward the left side of the spear formation to draw their attention. As soon as the spearmen shifted their guard to block, Henry violently redirected all of his momentum back toward the two remaining dagger goblins in the front row. His blade flashed, taking the closest one's head cleanly off its shoulders.
Seamlessly shifting his weight into an attacking Lower Regium stance, Henry raised his sword for a fast downward strike to finish off the final vanguard goblin. But before the blade could fall, his enhanced instincts screamed in warning.
A sharp whistle tore through the damp cavern air. Henry instantly dropped his center of gravity, feeling the wind of an arrow whip mere inches past his face.
Taking advantage of Henry's lowered, off-balance posture, the final dagger goblin lunged forward, thrusting its rusty blade directly at the armpit gap, trying to avoid Henry's chestplate. But Henry's massive stat advantage was simply too overwhelming. Rather than dodging or blocking with his sword, he swung his free left arm like a bat, viciously striking the goblin's wrist. The sheer force of his strength snapped the creature's arm, sending the dagger clattering across the stone floor.
Without missing a beat, Henry swung his blade upward in a tight arc, slicing the disarmed goblin cleanly in two.
He immediately tried to press his advantage and charge the spearmen, but the archer in the back began rapid-firing. One, two, three, four arrows hissed through the cavern in quick succession, forcing Henry into a retreating weave to avoid getting pinned.
Empowered by their leader's relentless cover fire, the five surviving spear goblins formed a tight phalanx and pushed forward aggressively, thrusting their weapons in unison.
Forced to constantly backpedal to avoid the flurry of spears and arrows, Henry kept retreating toward the narrow fissure he had walked through.
Suddenly, the cavern blurred. The remaining goblins vanished right before his eyes, dissolving into thin air.
A new blue system prompt flared in his vision:
Notice: Entered Safe Zone
Restarting Dungeon Run...
The cavern was once again completely silent and empty. Henry lowered his sword, his chest heaving slightly as he wiped sweat from his forehead.
"Well," Henry muttered out loud, staring at the empty space where the goblins had just been.
"This is going to be a lot harder than I thought."