Chapter 51: Charlotte and the Darkness

"Alright, shall we get going?"

"Hold it."

We had just regrouped in front of the dungeon, checked our gear, and were about to step inside—when I got stopped.

"What is it?"

"'What is it?' Seriously? What is that gear you’re wearing?"

"What do you mean 'what'? I just prepared the equipment I needed!"

This dungeon has some very unusual conditions.
The phrase "pitch-black darkness" is almost too fitting. No matter how much light you bring, it vanishes if you’re too far away.

That’s why I decided to cover myself with light from head to toe, to shine in every direction.
And no, it’s not because I’m scared of the dark or anything like that. Really. I swear. It’s not like I thought I’d feel safer if things were brighter, okay?

I mean, come on, I’m not little Alice.
Though… Alice clinging to me at night when she’s scared is ridiculously cute. And it doesn’t feel creepy, I promise—because right now, I’m a beautiful girl, remember? Anyway, back to the point.

"You shouldn’t be wearing something so impractical in a place where anything could happen."

"Ah! Hey, stop that—don’t strip off my gear!"

"It just slows you down! And all this flashy glowing is distracting!"

"That’s cruel!"

"Quit whining!"

And so, with hardly any way to fight back, I was stripped down. All they left me with was a headlamp and a lantern-style light in my hand.

Ugh… I can never get married now.

And don’t you dare give me that serious, judgmental look. That actually hurts, you know.

"Come on, let’s go."

"Yes, yes, I’m coming already…"

I had no choice but to chase after Riven, who was leading the way with only the bare minimum of gear.

We stepped inside, through what looked like a cave entrance, and the whole world shifted.

"Whoa."

Darkness. Complete, overwhelming darkness.

Just ten steps ahead, and it was pitch black. We could still move forward, but one wrong move and we’d lose our sense of direction.

If I mess up the map here, we may never find our way out again.

It’s amazing how much scarier things feel just because the whole area is swallowed by darkness. It’s not like walking down a road at night. The stone walls are cold and lifeless, and they’re no help at all for mapping.

"Let’s move."

"Please, slow down a little! I need to keep up!"

Clutching the mapping paper tightly, I kept walking.

Since none of us had the dungeon layout memorized this time, we’d have to map as we went.

We didn’t even know how big it was. So this run would be careful, step by step.

Apparently, the dungeon goes down to at least the tenth floor, so that was our initial goal.

This expedition was meant to help us get used to the place.

If we wanted to reach the tenth floor, we’d probably need to take down area bosses along the way, so better gear would eventually be necessary.

Basically, this trip was just a preliminary survey for diving deeper.

What we wanted was information: the kinds of monsters here, and ideally strategies to deal with them.

Since area bosses usually appear at regular intervals, we also wanted to know which floors they show up on.

In a perfect world, we’d map the dungeon up to the boss floors and record the monster patterns. That’d be fantastic.

For now, though, both my hands were full with mapping tools.

That left Riven as the only one on the front line. Not the usual setup. Would that really be okay?

"Riven, are you sure you’ll be fine? It’s so dark in here, it’s dangerous…"

"Hmm. It should be fine. The darkness doesn’t seem to hide presences, at least."

As if there really were places where even someone’s presence couldn’t be felt.

Though honestly, what is a 'presence' anyway? I’ve never felt anything like that. The closest thing I’ve noticed is when a bug scurries along the corner of my room.

"Alright then, I’ll leave the front line to you as usual."

"Yeah. You just focus on mapping."

"Memorizing directions while fighting is tough, you know. Leave it to me!"

With our roles settled, we pushed forward.

Let me review the basics of mapping.

The most important things are your current position, and the exit. At the very least, you need a way to return alive. So you have to know which path leads back to the entrance.

Next, you need to pinpoint where you are in the dungeon.

Luckily, this one seemed to be a labyrinth type. No endless doors leading to random little rooms, so mapping wouldn’t be a nightmare.

Because those kinds are hell. I tried it once. Never again.

For labyrinth-type dungeons, the basic method is to measure the distance to each turn based on your stride.

Straight until the first fork, then right turn… and so on. You note it all down on paper to draw the map.

While I was focused on my task, I could hear the sounds of battle ahead.

Then—splatter. Something wet hit the ground near my feet. Body fluids. Yikes.

Since Riven hadn’t said anything, I stayed focused on mapping. Still, I couldn’t help but wonder if things were really okay.

How could Riven keep moving forward without getting lost in this darkness? He didn’t seem scared at all. I guess he really wasn’t.

"Hey."

"Yes?"

"Dead end."

"Oh, dear."

So, the path we’d chosen first was a dead end.

That’s the annoying part about labyrinth-type dungeons. Still, it’s better than the ones with puzzles you have to solve to move forward. Those reset every time you reenter, which always struck me as a very 'game-like' mechanic. Makes me wonder—who exactly goes around resetting them?

"Well then, let’s go back to the last fork."

"Yeah."

We turned around, switched our formation, and retraced our steps.

"This darkness really is strange."

Riven spoke up along the way. Since this area had already been mapped and the monsters were cleared, maybe he was just bored.

"Strange, you say?"

"Yeah. Even places that should clearly be within reach of the light… after a certain distance, the glow just disappears."

"Well, it’s a dungeon. Things like that happen."

"That way of thinking is what I find strange."

"And what do you mean by that?"

Was it really strange? I mean, it’s a dungeon—strange things are supposed to happen, right?

"Even if it’s a dungeon, we still enter it from the entrance. That means this is part of our world, not some disconnected realm."

"Well, yes."

"Then the laws of our world should apply here. But inside the dungeon, impossible things are taken for granted. If that’s not strange, then what is?"

…Ah, I see what he meant.

I’d honestly never thought about it that way. For me, with my memories of a past life, I just treated it like a game mechanic.

He was right—dungeons weren’t places where the laws of reality simply stopped working. And yet, here inside, things happened that would be unthinkable outside. That really was strange.

Hmm. When you put it like that, he had a point.

It wasn’t something I ever would’ve realized. But for someone like Riven, who noticed details and had that strong streak of curiosity, it was natural to think of things that way.

"But still, if it’s happening, isn’t it just something we have to accept?"

"Accept it, huh… That’s one way of looking at it."

"Exactly. And besides, it’s not something we’d figure out by thinking about it."

If there’s an answer, then fine. But thinking endlessly about something unsolvable is just tiring.

Better to spend your time on something more useful.

Oh, looks like we’re almost back at the fork.

"See? We’re nearly there. Let’s save that kind of discussion for after the expedition."

"…Fair enough. We’ll do that."

So he let it go for now. Good.

"Then, we go right?"

"That’s right. At this three-way split, we already came from the left. If we go right, we should be on the new path."

I checked the map just in case, then gave the direction. That was the mapper’s duty, after all.

From there, we kept moving—backtracking, trying new paths, losing track of time. Slowly, steadily, we pushed deeper into the dungeon.

As for the battles, Riven seemed to handle them easily. Maybe it was because of that new sword of his, or maybe the monsters were just weak. Either way, he was cutting them down almost casually.

In the end, we reached the area right before the boss room on the sixth floor.

That meant we’d mapped the paths up to that point—pretty much the best possible outcome for today.

Still, the dungeon was long, and we realized we’d need to prepare for overnight stays inside. So, we called it there.

The real dive for exploration would be the day after tomorrow. Tomorrow, we’d spend preparing. And with that, our first dungeon survey came to an end.