"What the heck is this thing?" Tess cursed under her breath as she slashed those disgusting tongues with her fire sword and said, "There's no end to these things."
The elevator soon stopped on the first floor and opened up. The entire corridor was shrouded in darkness as the fog lifted into the corridor in front of the elevator door. Shane wiped the blood off his face and said, "Let's get done with this. I don't like the smell of blood."
"Me neither," Jake frowned as he pulled out a handkerchief from his inventory and started wiping his body with it. Then he wiped his sword and said, "This level is strange. There's no monster here. This should be a hotel dungeon, right? I had assumed we would end up entering the guest rooms."
"This is a monster dungeon. What do you expect a monster hotel to look like?" Shane sighed when he realized he had just started talking to Jake as he scratched the back of his neck, "I was going to ignore you, but since you helped me, I'll forgive you."
"I'm glad we are on the same level," Jake smiled as he took his step toward the darkness into the corridor.
"Um, no we aren't," Shane tilted his head as he couldn't help but ask curiously, "Why did you offer to go with us? Seeing your power, you could have made many friends, but everyone else in the institute seems to hate me. Why would you choose us?"
He had been curious about this question ever since Jake showed up for the first time. He just didn't want the reason to be Tess. If he had come to pursue her….
Shane squinted his eyes as he looked closely at Jake's face.
The latter chuckled nervously, "It has nothing to do with my feelings for Tess if you're wondering."
"So you do have feelings for her."
"No…." Jake looked like he didn't know how to explain this, "I just genuinely feel pity for you. I just didn't get why everyone else hates you to that level and got curious."
"Why do I find it hard to accept this?" Shane narrowed his eyes.
"Guys, focus," Frank spoke as he walked forward, ahead of everyone else. He turned toward Tess and said, "Use your sword to brighten up the area."
Tess nodded and walked toward Frank as she raised her sword. The surroundings instantly cleared up.
The corridor's walls were filled with some dark, sticky substance that made it look like the mouth of something. The ground was filled with soft round stones that were also covered with a sticky substance.
Shane had a bad feeling in his heart, "Why do I feel as if this is…."
"Something's mouth," Jake finished his words as he frowned.
"I want to go back," Tess immediately announced. "The virtual portal wasn't as difficult as this dungeon. I just had to burn a few empty houses to pass the level, but… this is on a completely different level!"
Shane said nothing. If he told her about what he had encountered, he wondered how she would react. The first level just now was nothing compared to the things he had seen back then. He took a deep breath as he tried not to think too much about it.
He still felt his heartbeat jumping just thinking about the things he had ended up encountering. He took a deep breath to calm himself as he narrowed his gaze. Soon enough, the tunnel-like thing seemed to have a bright end as they continued walking.
Shane didn't feel good about this, "Maybe we should turn around and enter the elevator."
After saying this, he remembered that the elevator didn't have a second-floor option there. He shut his mouth as they kept walking. They would have to find another elevator to go higher.
As soon as they entered the brighter part and passed through the dark tunnel-like thing covered with something sticky, they all squinted their eyes. When their vision got normal, they all stared at the scene in front of them in horror.
There was a room before their eyes that looked more like a cave. White spikes grew from the ceiling of the cave and similar spikes were there on the ground. The ceiling seemed to be moving down as Shane and his group stood there without moving.
"This…. This is the mouth of a monster!" Tess was the first one to react. She gulped and said, "We should run."
There was thankfully an exit beyond the spikes, but the ceiling and the floor got closer and closer. Shane frowned. Even if they ran, they wouldn't be able to make it. So he opened his mouth and suggested, "How about we enter the tunnel-" he turned around only to stare at the wall with widened eyes, "Where did the tunnel go?"
"Looks like we have no choice," Jake used his sword to hit the spikes that were shaped like canines. It almost felt like the monster was trying to chew them alive. As soon as his sword hit it, the spike was slashed in half as blood seeped from the wound as a roar echoed from the exit.
For some reason, Shane didn't want to choose that door as his exit. After entering the mouth, the opened and narrow pathway could only look similar to an esophagus, leading to the stomach. He didn't want to be digested inside some unknown monster.
They had no time to figure out why they ended up entering the mouth of a monster instead of going to the higher level. Shane narrowed his gaze and said, "The elevator door should be somewhere here."
"What if there isn't?" asked Tess as she wrinkled her nose. A strange odor spread around their bodies.
"Then it only means one thing," Shane felt like it was the most possible answer, "We would have to find the excretion area of this monster and get out."
"Ew!" Tess's facial muscles distorted, "I'm not doing that!"
"Hadn't I told you to stay put? Why did you come with me if you feel so disgusted?!"
Tess pouted as she started hitting one canine after another, "I didn't know things would be this dangerous."
"Learn to listen to me first," he started to hit the sticky walls, but couldn't find the door. So he wiped his face that was covered with God knows what and said, "We don't have time. Looks like we will have to find the excretion area."
Jake frowned, "Wait, what if we found the lips? While chewing, our mouths are closed. As long as we can find it, we might be able to get out and search for the elevator."
"Then what are we waiting for?" Tess raised her sword and thrust it to the ground, "Let's burn this thing alive! It will definitely open its mouth!"
The ceiling was getting closer and closer, but the sword covered with fire seemed to have burned that area. She pulled it out and thrust it deep into the ground over and over again. She continued to do this until a roar echoed from the opened door.
Suddenly, a narrow opening appeared right in front of the already opened door as if something was opening its mouth. The opening got bigger and bigger, taking the shape of a door.
Shane nodded toward Tess and the four of them rushed toward the opening.
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