Turns out, what awaits Erend behind the door is not something good. A huge monster with a bizarre form greeted him with a roar that was just as disturbing as its appearance.
*KRRREEEEE!!!*
The roar sounded like the sound of insects in pain, coupled with the screams of humans being tortured. Overall the roar is not something pleasant to hear.
Erend covered his ears with both hands.
[ Skill activated: Dragon Scale (Lv.1) ]
Of course, he didn't forget to activate [Dragon Scale]. He would be very stupid not to activate the Skill as soon as he saw the monster.
The monster itself stood five meters tall. Its shape is a combination of snakes, spiders, and humans. Erend still can't comprehend it well for now.
Its main body is a black snake with a dry, hard skin that looks like the tree bark of a long-dead tree.
Its whole body is black and gray. Instead of slithering, it uses the legs of the spider that move with a horrible rustling sound.
What's even more terrifying than that monster is, it has a pair of human hands on its upper body.
The size of the hand matched the size of its body and was also black and gray.
Erend didn't know why it needed hands with all kinds of features and sizes. Was it just some kind of decoration to add fear to its enemy?
The snake's body was still coiled in the center of the hall. As soon as it saw Erend's arrival, it immediately raised its body as if making a standing motion.
Its eyes were a bright blue and if they weren't attached to the hideous face they could have looked beautiful.
"Ahh, so this is the Boss room again," Erend mumbled to himself while watching the horror before his eyes.
If he fought the bat monster alone he had to die and was sent back to the Lobby, then surely this weird snake monster will give him an experience that is not much different.
"But I have to get something before I go to the Lobby!"
Erend ran towards the monster.
[ Skill activated: Fire Dragon Transformation (Lv.1) ]
Without waiting for long, Erend immediately activated [Fire Dragon Transformation] and charged toward the weird snake monster.
He knew that fighting it in his human form would be useless. So it's better to increase his chances of surviving longer by turning into a Dragon.
*ZWOOOSSSHHH!*
Erend spits fire from his mouth toward the monster. The strange roar sounded again. But Erend felt that the roar was a roar of pain. It seemed just a roar of shock.
*WUUSSH!*
*BAGH!*
Suddenly the monster's tail moved swiftly from beside the Dragon-Erend. Hitting him until he hit the cave wall.
'So fast!'
Erend immediately flapped his wings and soared. Then from above, it lunged at the monster.
But the monster holds the Dragon-Erend with those two human hands.
Then the spider's feet moved with a rapid thud across the floor and pushed the Dragon-Erend back against the wall.
The monster was now cornering Dragon-Erend. Dragon-Erend swings his claws at the snake monster.
But his claws just stopped on its gray skin as if hitting an impenetrable hard surface.
'What?!'
Erend was in shock. He couldn't hurt this snake monster in the slightest.
The flames didn't work. And now even his claws couldn't penetrate this monster's gray skin.
The snake monster clenched its human hand. Dragon-Erend saw the monster raise its fist in front of its face.
Before Dragon-Erend had time to think, the monster had already punched him in the face with the fist of its human hand.
*BAGH!*
*BAGH!*
*BAGH!*
...
Dragon-Erend had already lost count of the number of times it had punched him in the face.
His head is dizzy. The blow from the gray human hand was powerful even when he was in Dragon form.
Erend couldn't help how he was humiliated like this. A Dragon was hit by a human hand without being able to resist.
Erend was sure that the monster hadn't even unleashed its true attack yet. He was just toying with him like a bully toying with a weak child who couldn't do anything.
Unable to endure this humiliation any longer, Dragon-Erend caught the fist that flew into his face for the umpteenth time.
Then he opened his jaw wide and bit the hand.
*CRUNCH!*
"KRRAAAAAA!!!"
As it turned out, the attack was successful. The hand bled and crumbled in Dragon-Erend's mouth.
The roar that came out of the monster now was a sound of true pain. Happy that he was finally able to injure the monster and spurred on by the rage of being humiliated earlier, Dragon-Erend continued to bite its gray wrist.
*CRUNCH!*
The roar of pain rang out again and the monster retreated. But Dragon-Erend didn't let him walk away.
After biting it, Dragon-Erend swung its claws toward the hand.
*CRAAAKKK!*
Dark red liquid spurted out as the Dragon-Erend's claws pierced the gray skin.
Dragon-Erend swung his claws again and finally, he was able to cut off the hand.
Dragon-Erend threw the hand in a random direction. Then continue to be charged toward the snake monster.
'Now I know its weakness!'
The human hands on the monster's body were not covered by the tree bark's hard bark. So that's the only part of the body that is most vulnerable.
Dragon-Erend tries to grab its other hand but his movement stops. The tail of the snake was already wrapped around his stomach.
Dragon-Erend immediately knew that this was a bad situation. Immediately, the snake monster moved its body and tugged at Dragon-Erend's body.
Without seeming to have any trouble pulling a Dragon's massive body, the monster swings him toward the cave wall.
Dragon-Erend hit the cave wall with a booming thud sound. Several rocks in the cave also fell on him.
Then the serpent monster rushed towards Dragon-Erend and looked at him with blue eyes that were filled with rage.
The coils of its tail on the Dragon-Erend's body tightened. Just a second later, the body was crushed and Erend lost consciousness.
[ You have died. ]
[ Reviving to Dungeon Lobby. ]
[ 3 ]
[ 2 ]
[ 1 ]
...
Erend returned to the Dungeon Lobby and sighed.
"Damn it. When I thought I saw an opening to beat it, my body was crushed in seconds."
Erend shook his head in frustration. If this was a video game, Erend might still be able to continue the Dungeon a few more times.
But this wasn't a game so the pain, and fear he was experiencing was very real.
Erend will stop now. After all, he had already leveled up twice. It was quite a feat for him who previously could only Level Up once a day.
"How do I get back?" Erend asked.
[ "Are you done?" ]
Tut's voice came to greet him.
"Yeah, this is enough for now."
[ "How was your first Dungeon experience?" ]
"It's pretty good. I can Level Up a lot faster," Erend said. "When exactly will the calamity happen?"
[ "I can't tell you for sure because I don't know for sure either. But we can predict that it will be in about one year. Could be more and could be less." ]
Erend didn't know if a year was a long time or not for the calamity he saw. So he didn't know how to react.
However, Tut was quite worried about the deadline. He said that it happened sooner than expected. So Erend chose to follow Tut to feel the urgency of this calamity.
"You said this calamity will reach my world too?"
[ "Of course. I don't know exactly what order your world is in. But Eternal Earth will be in the first order it goes." ]
"Why?"
[ "This world is rich with Magic energy." ]
"Oh, I see." Erend nodded. "Now I have to go back first."
["Alright. You can enter the Dungeon World whenever you want by thinking about it. Just like you used to do with Systema." ]
"Alright, I got it."
Tut's voice was no longer heard. Now what appears is a notification.
[ Do you want to leave Dungeon World? ]
"Yes."
After that, a Portal opens and Erend enters it.
~~~
It turned out that not much time had passed outside of Dungeon World. In fact, no time has passed at all.
When Erend looked at the moon, his position had not changed at all since when he entered the Portal.
His body condition was also reset to the time before he entered the Dungeon World. It was like the time in Dungeon World never happened.
Then, would he be able to hide in the Dungeon World when he was in a corner? It will surely be very convenient.
Erend lay down on the bed and fell asleep shortly after.
~~~
A new day has arrived. Erend and Aurdis are now standing in Erend's room. Aurdis put on a sad face because she was going to escort Erend away.
"Don't be so sad. If you need help, you just call me," Erend said with a smile.
Aurdis looked at him. But she couldn't tell how much she needed Erend right now. So, Aurdis just nodded.
"Yes."
Aurdis opened the Portal. With a smile and a wave, Erend entered the Portal.
~~~