We wander for who knows how many days—time is strange here. However, during the entire time we've been walking in a straight line, something strange happened. Or rather, something that should have happened didn't, and that's the strange part.

The entire journey since we entered the dungeon, we haven't seen a single monster.

At first it was nice, but we've now advanced past more than 10 walls. All of them were variations of plains, forests, and jungles, cycling between those three, but with nothing alive nearby.

The others also gradually realized that something isn't right. No matter what type of dungeon it is or how good the monsters are at hiding, it's still abnormal for nothing to attack.

"Everyone, let's take a break here. We need to figure out this strange situation. I think I know what it is, and if I'm right, it's very dangerous," I say, stopping everyone with my voice. We're in a forest, and it's starting to get dark.

"..." Ylya and Yter glance at each other for a moment before deciding to stop. They must be confused too, but I think I know what the problem is, and if it's exactly what I imagine, we could all die if we aren't careful.

"Do you two know what this is?" I ask, hoping they know, but if they don't, I can explain it to them. It's knowledge I possess, and it's important to share.

"Well... no? We've never seen such an empty dungeon. It's strange, but... it's good, right?" Ylya foolishly speaks, thinking this is a good thing, but there's nothing good about this situation! I'm sure even she will be terrified once I tell her.

"...I don't know," Yter simply confirms that they don't know. Fortunately, I know because I'm familiar with the game. I'll explain it to them very briefly so we can try to leave the dungeon before we sink too deep into this problem.

"Well, let's stop here. I'll explain, and it's not good! It's genuinely something dangerous!" I say, annoyed, as everyone stops and starts cutting the nearby plants to make a small area for us to stay.

To begin with, this knowledge appears in the game, although it's not explored much; it comes bundled with the knowledge of what dungeons are.

Dungeons are constructions made through high-level spatial-dimensional magic. They can arise naturally when magic accumulates massively somewhere and collapses.

Or when someone builds them. Many of the dungeons in the demonic continent are made by demons, some by ancient Demon Kings, and the highest-level ones were made by the first Demon King.

However, dungeons aren't just constructions; they are almost "alive." They are closer to giant golems that don't move and merely protect the treasures hidden within them.

The dungeon itself knows when someone enters, when someone leaves, and above all, it knows when monsters are exceeding the limit. Every dungeon has a limit to how strong monsters can become inside it.

And when monsters become too strong for the dungeon, the dungeon itself begins to kill the strongest monsters with dangerous traps and other artificial monsters.

Naturally, dungeons are full of monsters and treasures. Some monsters are artificial; these are creations of the dungeon itself. Others are real monsters that entered the dungeon or were born inside it.

Each dungeon can have an indeterminate number of floors depending on its type and how old it is, since the more magic the dungeon gathers, the larger it becomes, allowing for more floors.

Each dungeon can, on its own, expel people and monsters from within based on its own criteria, while certain types of special dungeons can only be accessed by specific people.

The entrance to each dungeon varies greatly depending on various factors and the dungeon's type. The most common are giant dungeons with very blatant entrances that emit a lot of magic.

But other dungeons can literally be just a normal door that you open and are inside before you even realize it. You can gain a lot from each type of dungeon, but the dangers are equivalent to the gains.

And it's possible to completely destroy a dungeon, provided you have enough strength to destroy the dungeon, which possesses its own power.

In our current case, what's happening is the elimination of monsters. In other words, the dungeon has accumulated too many strong monsters, reaching its limit, and now it has begun the process of killing the monsters.

This process can take days, weeks, months, or even years, and during this time the dungeon will generate monsters and traps to hunt down anything inside it.

This causes weak monsters to hide as best they can, generating a dead aspect as if the dungeon were empty—exactly the current scenario.

And that's where the danger comes in. Even a Rank C dungeon could kill Rank S people during this process. A dungeon's Rank doesn't define the dungeon's strength as a living being, but rather the danger inside it.

In other words, considering that each dungeon is a living being, most dungeons have power equivalent to Rank S and above. Therefore, when it sets its mind to killing things, it will certainly succeed.

And unfortunately, Ylya and Yter said they are Rank B, and Eve along with Syl'Vyr also only have power equivalent to Rank B, while the Rank of the two of them was defined as C.

This means this dungeon can easily kill us. If we are caught by the dungeon, our chances of survival are almost zero.

The dungeon is obligated to do this because if it doesn't, dangerous aberrations emerge from within and break it. When a dungeon loses a strong monster during the elimination, that monster becomes too strong and breaks out of the dungeon, escaping.

And of course, when it's on the outside, chaos spreads because it's a dangerous monster, totally free. So, by eliminating monsters, it, in a way, protects the outside.

Along with the fact that dungeons usually trap monsters, so when a monster is born or enters a dungeon, it's ridiculously difficult for it to leave. Often, they just give up and make the dungeons their home, trying to become stronger and stronger.

"Okay Evelyn, explain what's happening," Ylya says while sitting on a log from a felled tree. Yter also sits down, and Eve does too, while Syl'Vyr lights a fire with magic.

"Okay... I'll explain. I think what's happening here is a 'cleansing.' The dungeon must have gone for so long without many people killing monsters that the monsters became too strong."

"And now the dungeon is killing the monsters to stabilize its power level again. This made all the monsters hide to avoid being killed, which is why we haven't seen a single monster until now."

"Normally, the guild doesn't teach about this because it's rare and takes a long time for a dungeon to do it. So, when it happens with someone inside, the guild treats it as an unfortunate accident."

"Since paying to teach people about this wouldn't be worth it, considering a dungeon can go hundreds to thousands of years without starting this process."

"The problem is that the dungeon doesn't care if we are outsiders. It may try to kill us at any moment, either with dangerous traps or by sending artificial monsters."

"And this dungeon is very large, meaning there will be traps that could easily kill a Rank S and artificial monsters that could be up to Rank X or Rank XX." When I say this, the two of them look terrified, realizing the danger.

"H-Hey!! If you knew this, why did you let us go so deep into the dungeon!!" Ylya shouts at me, since we haven't seen any monsters on the way here, and at the moment we are very far from the exit.

"I-I didn't realize!!! Besides, trying to go back too quickly will be seen as fleeing by the dungeon, which could make us targets! If we want to leave, we need to go slowly, as if we don't want to run away," I say quickly.

"..." An unpleasant silence falls as everyone feels the horrible atmosphere. It's so tense I think you could cut the tension with a pair of scissors.

"The dungeon will try to kill us if we try to head for that place that expels us to wall 1... All that's left for us is to walk calmly and without haste to the first wall. Maybe the dungeon will ignore us, considering us too weak."

"A-After all, the dungeon will focus on killing strong monsters... The only problem will be if we encounter an artificial monster on the way, since..."

"Evelyn, what is an artificial monster?" Ylya interrupts me abruptly.

"...An artificial monster is like a common monster, except it has a limited lifespan. They die on their own after a few days and have the sole mission of hunting down any living thing they encounter besides themselves."

"It's like a servant of the dungeon that acts to reduce the power of the dungeon's monsters so nothing breaks it and gets outside... They normally wander around."

"However, the dungeon is very large, and they focus more on the deep locations. So, since we are in the simpler, weaker walls, they will mostly ignore us. What's worrisome are the traps." I start citing the worst part.

"The traps vary, from traps meant to kill or injure, to traps that teleport us near artificial monsters. And these traps are everywhere, regardless of whether the area only has weak monsters."

"So if we get caught in one, we'll have severe problems," I explain quickly, sitting down next to Eve.

"...Let's... think about what to do next," Yter says briefly, feeling the weight of the situation.

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