Chapter 3: Hidden Dungeon

It was a very plausible guess.

Moreover, that hypothesis was a fact that had already been verified.

Due to the nature of <Arcana Chronicles>, where regions were gradually unlocked according to the progress of the main story and the player’s choices, there were quite a few places stigmatized as undeveloped areas back then.

So people thought the time wasn’t right yet, and that something would eventually be released here when the time came, and at some point, they just stopped coming.

The Arcana Continent was just too vast to cling to this one place.

There were still plenty of unknown, undeveloped regions, and an endless, vast adventure awaited them.

Still, since there was a safe zone village, human traffic hadn’t completely ceased.

This was because trade with other regions was essential for the village, which was sprinkled with a poison-like debuff, to survive on this island.

But compared to the crowds in the beginning, the only people coming and going were NPC sailors and a few players who occasionally came for investigation.

The items and monsters obtainable here could easily be found elsewhere, so there was no need for players to endure the inconvenience of a boring boat ride for several hours to come here.

…Well, sometimes, a foul-tempered NPC would give a quest to get a very common item from Flora, just to mess with the player.

But this part isn’t very important.

Even after that, there were a few people who visited, wondering, ‘Is it still not time?’ ‘Is it still not time?’, but even now, years later, nothing was known about what was hidden in this northern region.

Anyway, as for why Paul was in such an avoided area…!

He was simply traveling.

Just because it’s a game, does that mean you have to beat up monsters and run dungeons?

This world was realistic enough to be believed as another world, and because of that, it boasted landscapes more beautiful than reality.

But usually, people were hell-bent on leveling up and clearing quests, and there were very few people who leisurely enjoyed the scenery like him.

For Paul, who made this his pleasure, it was just a shame.

‘It’s so pretty…’

So Paul sought out places that others didn’t look for, places that had a brief moment of fame and were then forgotten.
Things like the vast sea, beautiful snowfields, and mysterious forests full of greenery.

Thanks to that, despite his job not being an explorer, he also obtained the [Title: Explorer of Arcana].

It didn’t have any special effects.

The only effect was a vague ability like ‘can find hidden things a little better than others’.

Anyway, for that reason, Paul reminded himself of his purpose for coming here again.

With the lighthearted thought of taking a good look at the underground labyrinth since he was already here, he wandered through the maze to find an exit, sometimes avoiding the monsters that popped out and sometimes fighting back.

***

Whoosh—.

After wandering for a while, a cool breeze was blowing from somewhere.

Turning his head towards the wind, he saw a small glint of light through a narrow gap between stone pillars.

“What should I do~”

Paul hummed a short tune and flicked his finger.

After wandering around this area for a while, the mini-map had become quite revealed.

Looking at the mini-map, Paul thought there must be something beyond that gap. There was an awkwardly empty space on the mini-map.

Maybe that’s the ‘dungeon’ people were talking about?

He felt a momentary curiosity.

He probably wouldn’t come here a second time, so wouldn’t it be a bad choice to go to that hidden dungeon since he was already here?

He had a rough idea of the exit from the labyrinth anyway.

If this was the entrance to the dungeon, he could find his way by overlapping the completed map and the mini-map.

‘So since I found it anyway, I think it would be okay to enter the dungeon…’

It was a long-awaited holiday.

He had plenty of time to invest in the game.

After a brief moment of thought, Paul slipped through the narrow gap without hesitation.

Ding!

System: You have discovered the trace of [■■■ ■■ ■■■]!

System: Fame increases!

[Do you wish to enter?]

[Yes / No]

“Yes!”

With his cheerful shout, his vision went black, and the next moment, the space changed.

***

Whooooosh—.

The sound of a fierce wind hit his ears.

When he slowly blinked his eyes, what he saw was a space glowing blue due to the luminous stones embedded in the walls.

In the center, there was a frozen lake, and next to it, the path split into three.

“Hmm, I think they said the dungeon structure is randomly generated?”

His memory was hazy.

He hadn’t planned to come here in the first place, so he had only skimmed through the information about this dungeon.

But to turn on the internet and check now, wouldn’t that be a bit boring? If he were going to do that, he would have looked for the exit instead of coming in here.

Besides, he didn’t really like clearing a dungeon for the first time after studying the strategy beforehand.

Isn’t it more fun to just dive in headfirst at the beginning? He could just look up the strategy when he was really stuck.

…Well, because of that kind of personality, he had been a solo player for his entire life.

Paul shrugged his shoulders lightly and decided to set up a safe zone first before seriously tackling the dungeon.

The time one could stay in a dungeon varied for each dungeon, and to explore inside for a long time, one had to designate a safe zone like this.

This way, he wouldn’t be kicked out of the dungeon if he happened to die or log out for a moment.

Although it was a bit of a hassle to reset and set the location again in the middle of the way to extend the given time even a little bit.

‘But if I leave once, I’m sure I won’t want to come back a second time. It took a lot of time to get here, and… finding the way from the beginning again is also a bit of a hassle.’

In fact, it was ridiculous for Paul to clear this dungeon at his current level.

The level of the weakest monster here would be at least twice Paul’s.

Still, he had something to believe in.

In <Arcana Chronicles>, no matter how severe the level difference was, it could be offset to some extent based on the player’s skill.

So what Paul was believing in now was his luck and his skill grade, which was higher than his level.

Well, isn’t luck also a skill?

It was a reckless act, but for Paul, a casual gamer, it didn’t matter.

“I like the number 3~.”

Paul hummed a tune and entered the third path without much thought.

His cheerful steps, as if bouncing, were endlessly light.

***

Thwack—!

An arrow shot coolly from the bowstring lodged itself precisely between the eyes of an undead bear.

The undead staggered for a moment from the recoil, but the very next moment, it charged at Paul.

For an undead, its speed was enough to put a runner to shame. Paul also quickly retreated, creating distance.

What he had just shot was an arrow consecrated with the [Divine] skill called [Minor Blessing]. This skill was a basic common skill that could be learned at any temple, a type of enchantment skill.

Normally, he would have played by slowly chipping away at its health with poison arrows, but that was a method for ordinary monsters.

For a monster that had already died and become undead, a divine attack was, of course, the most direct approach rather than a normal attack.

A quick glance showed that the undead’s health bar was slowly decreasing.

Moreover, due to its racial characteristics, Paul was in a more advantageous position.

Against undead, his attacks dealt more than double the additional damage, and if a critical hit landed, it jumped to four times.

The reason Paul could come this far was thanks to that effect.

Paul took cover behind a boulder and continued to draw his bowstring.

Ting! Ting! Thud—!

Every time an arrow hit, small sparks flew.

Sometimes they bounced off with a tinging sound as if hitting steel, but most of them lodged themselves in the body.

‘It would have been nice if each shot had great power…’

At times like this, Paul regretted not raising his level a little.

The only reason it had this much power was because the grade of [Minor Blessing] was [D]; otherwise, it would have been no different from dot damage.

The further down he went, the more it teemed with monsters that Paul couldn’t easily defeat at his level.

It took about three hits to reduce their HP by just 1.

With a damage output that only made him laugh hollowly, Paul gave up on the expectation of being able to defeat all the monsters.

So he lured them with sound, threw bombs, and sometimes set traps to temporarily bind their feet while he fled.

This was the only hunting method he could use, being low level and moving alone without a party.

Of course, it took a very long time, but Paul’s playstyle had always been like this.

Thanks to the game’s high degree of freedom, it was manageable enough even as a solo player.

On top of that, there was no rule that he had to defeat all the monsters on one floor to move to the next, so Paul lured out only the ones he could manage one by one, hitting and running appropriately, and went further and further down.