“BANG! BANG!”

A gruff looking man slapped the truck with a thunderous sound. 

“Haha! Looks like this is our stop!” The middle aged cleric eagerly hopped out from the back of the truck onto the blanket of snow before the others began shuffling out of the back, following his lead. 

We had been driven to a castle-type dungeon, the decor was reminiscent of an emperor’s inner court, with tiled roofs and ornate carvings, emblazoned with golds, emerald greens and dark mahogany reds. This place would have been flooded with tourists if it was not for the current circumstances. Before anyone could protest, we were shoved through the blue transparent door which flickered where a castle’s real doors would hang. Well that’s it, our fate sealed, we’re officially in the dungeon. 

The familiar crunch of the tiled stone floor and the dead leaves as the dark gloomy clouds brewed overhead. Despite being in the middle of winter outside the dungeon, inside made it look almost cute with its threat of an imminent thunderstorm. As I stood at the back of the pack with the 20 or so others, in the drab courtyard devoid of colour, my heart thumped as I was reminded of what I needed to do.

“We leave in 10 minutes, get ready people!” 

One of the bunch of gruff sounding men yelled, before they huddled together, sending off a pair, I assume to scout the area ahead. The other two then began to sit down and converse with each other, in a masculine fashion, occasionally taking peeks at us to ensure we weren’t up to any funny business.

As everyone began getting their bearings in the hollow court, squirming in front of me like a waddle of penguins, I began to go over my plan again. 

“Hey, hey! This is your first time being in a dungeon?” 

“Huh? Uncle Daiyan?” 

“I’ve got your back okay?” He tried his best to give me a reassuring wink but blinked at me instead. This uncle is not very good at making me feel better…

I paused. 

“Hey, err, Uncle. D-Do you want to live?” 

“Wha— Is that a threat?! Yeesh! Even after I gave you such a good ‘get-to-know-you’ gift you’re—“

“Do you want to live?” I asked him this time more firmly, a piercing gaze into his eyes. 

He blankly stared back for a moment before glancing at the ground, hand reaching into his inventory screen floating adjacent to his chest. 

“To be honest, …some part of me wants to say no, but I think my body will disagree. Why?” 

“Let’s just say, I’m returning your favour now.” 

“Now??” 

He pulled out a wooden tree branch the length of his forearm from the blank screen, staring at me with a puzzled expression.

I scratched the back of my head awkwardly,

“Yep. Well— Actually give me a few minutes.”

“But be ready!” I called back to him as I began squeezing my way through the anxious crowd. 

“Hah? What does she want me to be ready for??”

Phew. Okay. Going over the plan. 

First, I’d go up to the 4 men leading us, there are about 20 of us and most of us range between level 1-10 while if I remember correctly they were about level 30 or something? 

Second, I will distract them away from the group by revealing their plans and lead them into the winding hallways and then split off from them and find the mini dungeon, defeat the mini boss and get the weapon. 

Third, I somehow defeat the boss of the dungeon, save the princess and get my hands on the high level weapon! 

Wait. Uh, maybe I didn’t think this through thoroughly enough? Can I even get away from 4 level 30s? Isn’t the disparage in levels too high? And was it safe to leave the group here? What about Uncle Daiyan? If I reveal they are player killers won’t they just rampage and kill all of us on the spot?! And how long would it even take me to get my hands on that weapon?! How did it even go last time?! 

I rubbed my hands and blew on them to warm them up as I closed my eyes to reminisce. 

My last life, I had managed to survive from the dungeon and the player killers, lasting until the time limit expired and I was automatically kicked out. Then, another group came and cleared the dungeon and along the way they found a mini-boss which gave them a really high level weapon. I even remember wandering with the group and seeing the golden glow of the door from the corner of my eye. If I had that weapon, maybe I could have stopped the killings from happening… The stench of blooming iron filled my nostrils before being cut away by the smell of rain. 

Hang on, I really need to think this through. One wrong step could mean someone’s death, again.  And I won’t let that happen again. 

Closing my eyes, I took a deep breath and turned to weave my way towards the backend of the crowd. 

“Huh? Little miss? Why are you back? Didn’t you go to pay back your favour?” 

“I… Ermm…, had to redraft a few things…” 

“I know I said I’d pay you back the favour but can you do me a teensy, uh, well, not so teensy favour for me?” 

“What are you on about? We’re about to head down the hallways to defeat some monsters and level up! What sort of favour do you possibly need from me?” 

“Look, we’re all here to level up! But not all of us are going to level up? You catch my drift?” 

“Hahh?? This old man does not catch your youngster’s ‘drift’?”

“No uh… You know a few people here want to turn their weapons on us?”

“Who wants to do what now…?” 

I gestured towards the two men sitting down at the front of the group “They want to,” and proceed make stabbing motions. That caught one of the men’s attention and he gave me a raised eyebrow in my direction. I tried to play it off by giving a quick akward wave in his general direction. That out him off enough to turn away back to talk to his man friend. 

“Whaa— Are you okay girlie? Is the anxiety getting to you?” 

“Tch!” 

I glanced left and right to make sure no one was listening before pulling down Daiyan’s collar so his face could meet mine. I hope I didn’t hurt his aging body. 

“They’re gonna kill us!” 

“Kill us? What for?” 

“They’re player killers!!” 

“Player killers?!” 

“They’re gonna make us level up in this dungeon which is way too high level for us so we level up quickly, and then when we level up enough they’re gonna start killing us so they can take our items!” 

“A-are you sure? You barely even talked to them?”

“Yes I am! Absolutely serious! That’s why they brought us to hsi high level dungeon, so we could level up faster, and if we ever tried to escape, the dungeon would probably kill us before we could tell anyone!” 

“Hold on kid, maybe they aren’t who you think they are? You know, uh, actually, you’re being much more talkative than earlier…?” 

Ah… I guess my panic is showing, I coughed to recompose myself. I would need evidence to prove myself for what I was about to say but either way I would have to gain his trust first. 

“Uncle..?”

“Yeah?” 

“Do you believe in time-travel?”

“Uh not really? But all this happened so I might as well?”

“Okay, …well what if i said I was a time traveler?”

I squinted my eyes as if to brace for an exaggeration, exasperation of sighs and questions if I really have lost it. Surprisingly nothing came. 

“…Do you have anything that can prove it?” 

“N-not yet. But if you don’t believe me, when you start clearing the castle you’ll come across a large room at the end of the hallway, and you will find a large painting of a lapis coloured dragon, and that painting will have twelve flying-type monsters hiding in it. They won’t take any damage and to kill them you will need to set fire to the painting, the monsters are connected by an invisible string.”

I shuddered at the thought, It was midway through the journey, it was by sheer luck that we found that the two were connected if not we would have surely lost a few members. After entering the empty room at the end of the hallway, there was an immaculately calligraphed image of dragons circling the mountains. But before long ripples appeared and the inky dragons slipped out of the painting into reality. The two mages in front of me were frantically casting spells as me and everyone else tried to work together and swat the tiny dragons with sharp radial teeth away. 

The dragons were like living paintings, spewing noxious gas with equally as black inky breath, and despite how many cuts or damage it took, they just wouldn’t seem to die. The people who led us into the dungeon were nonchalantly looking on, occasionally jeering for us to “get it over with.” A scout-class swung at the dragons only to miss and get his dagger stuck in the painting, and in order to free it, he casted a fire spell, setting up a chain reaction which led to the annoying dragons burning up and reduced to mere ashes in front of us. 

“…”

“Is this true?”

The uncle now stared back at me with vigor in his eyes, returning me the gaze I gave him earlier with one of his own. 

“Y-yeah.” 

He paused for a moment, freezing on his serious face before switching up to a happy and joyful one, giving me a hearty slap on the shoulder, with a resounding wince squeezed from between my teeth. 

“Whatchu you need girlie?”

I started back with a blank face and a mix of emotions, ‘he really believed me?!’ I thought. Squeezing my shoulder which had light tingles of pain spreading through it, I gave him a grateful smile and told him the gist of it. 

We ended up with only 5 minutes to come up with the world’s most ingenious plan.