1058: Journey To The Center Of The Dungeon

Journey To The Center Of The Dungeon

Date- 4 April 23212

Time- 05:30

Location- Southern Region, Blossom District, Unknown Location 

"Jill, I was wondering if the job offer you offered me earlier was still on the table?" One of the questions bothering me about Jill was what she was doing here, the best way to get it answered was to have her tell me. Therefore, I decided to take up Jill on her offer. 

"No," Jill withdrew her job offer to me without any hesitation. 

"Can I ask why?" I asked Jill even though her reason was pretty much clear. She did not want me to know about her 'totally legal' work here in these E-rank dungeons. 

"No," Jill answered. 

Since I was already expecting her to reject me I had prepared a counter, "I don't mean anything by this, but, since I am going to be here anyway I was thinking it would not hurt for me to make some money and use this opportunity to learn from you-" 

"Please stop, each of your questions to me is well calculated and corrected based on my response. I don't want to bother to waste time figuring out what you are trying to achieve so if you are going to continue at this, I have to warn you that I am starting to feel that getting rid of you would be more optimal than keeping you around," Jill interrupted me saying that she knew what I was doing and warned me from continuing with that plan. 

"Fine, I will stop. But I have to ask, what is your end game here? Why go through the trouble of imprisoning me if you are doing nothing illegal here? Unless you are doing something illegal you do not want the southern region authorities knowing?" I stopped beating around the bush and directly asked Jill what she was planning to do by imprisoning me, as I was having a hard time trying to find a scenario where she would let me go after she was done with her work here. Therefore I could not help but think that Jill was just procrastinating from having to kill me. 

"No, I am not doing anything illegal here. What do you not understand about a researcher being secretive about their work?" Jill's answer summed it all up but I did not buy it. Yes, researchers were secretive about their work but only mad researchers go as far as to imprison an innocent trespasser. 

"You know what I think?... I think what you are doing may not be illegal but it does not mean that the Southern Royal family would be thrilled when they find what you are doing in their backyard," I said this because Jill's voice become a little confident when she said, 'I am not doing anything illegal here.' It was like when I took pride in doing something I am not supposed knowing that I can get away with it because I have found a loophole. 

"Um, Interesting, you keep testing me despite my warning. Is it because you feel I would not follow through with my warning or is it because you have no control over your curiosity?" Instead of answering me, Jill questioned why I keep pushing her to pull the trigger. 

"Neither, I just want to negotiate with you," I answered. And noticed that we had already reached the core area of the field dungeon, surprisingly the place where the dungeon core should be located there was a huge sinkhole. Something told me that this sinkhole that had replaced the dungeon's core was the reason why Jill was down here in the backwaters of the southern region. 

Hearing me Jill stopped on her track and then turned to look at me and said, "Let me hear it, what do you have to offer?" 

"I have too little information about you or your work here to come up with an offer. So I will have to ask you how can I help you?" I said confidently despite Jill's mental strength still restraining me.

"Haha, you keep surprising me, It's as if you are asking to just put an end to this conversation and get back to my work," By putting an end to this conversation Jill meant getting rid of me. Shaking her head she said, "How about you cooperating with my arrangements and not hindering the progress of my work? So I will not be forced to get rid of you. What do you think?" 

"Fine," I said taking a step back. As of now, my mind was completely occupied with the sinkhole in the place of the dungeon core. This went totally against what I knew about the dungeons and the dungeon core. So I could not help but wonder how was this dungeon functioning when there was a sinkhole where its dungeon core should be.

My shock grew, as Jill descended into the sinkhole with me. So pitch-black darkness covered my vision as descended further into the sinkhole. After a while, the darkness in my field my vision started to clear. Taking this opportunity I looked around to check on my surroundings only to find that Jill and I were out of the sinkhole, which was surprising since we never went up. Even though I was restrained by Jill's mental strength and my field of vision stolen by the darkness of the sinkhole, I still had my sense of my direction, so I know for sure that we never went up but somehow we were out of the sinkhole. 

"Look down," Jill's voice sounded, following which I looked down only to find that Jill was flying above an entirely new ecosystem. Yes, an ecosystem within a dungeon. 

"What is this?" I asked Jill not hoping to get any answer from her. 

"An S-rank dungeon under an E-rank field dungeon, fascinating right?" Jill asked

"Yes, but how did you find it?" Jill was from the central region how was she able to find such an anomaly down in the southern region before the southern region authorities? Unless…

pqdm.com