Aeon Nether & Idol Effigy

Chapter 43- Gate Hopping

> Found on Pinterest, named Portal created by Jelmer Boskma on ArtStation<

We appeared near a train station after Felixe followed me into another portal in one of my dungeons. It was the exit that had previously been the entry and exit point of the original dungeon.

It was when the sky was changing slightly and Felixe, who'd taken a train with me, had arrived at our first destination.

"This..." Felixe's voice was heard trying to get some information about the generic small dungeon we'd come to. I couldn't tell if he was disappointed or he had expected the normal, even boring, sightseeing opportunity when he followed me.

I walked forward towards the dungeon without any hesitation, explaining as I walked on the asphalt that had worn out due to time and not from heavy footfall.

"It's what I call a gateway dungeon. Well, I call it that after I learned about it through ruins." I paused, just on the off chance I felt like I should warn him in case our initial journey turned out to be a dud. "Ahem, I suppose I guessed."

"Guessed?" Again, Felixe was indifferent. Maybe if I was more observant I'd notice the faint curiosity still etched into his eyes.

"They don't look after it and it seems to be the smallest..." My voice trailed off, not caring to explain anymore when I sensed a familiar feeling to my gate dungeon. A feeling that proved my guess about this dungeon to be correct.

"Aeon."

Felixe had grabbed my hand to stop me. In response I firmly grasped his hand too and allowed my energy to spread through the dungeon that was the same size as the bedroom in the apartment, using my other hand. Less than a second passed and the dungeon showed a box of text hovering in the air stating I had taken ownership of the previously owned unknown dungeon with some other information on the dungeon. The owner or family of the said dungeon having one-sidedly disowning the assumed useless dungeon. The ruins -I'd previously seen- had pointed out that it wasn't rare for some people to do so. After all, dungeons, at least the good ones, all had qualifications to meet and standards for the owners to pass. So I imagine there might be a surplus of 'useless' dungeons at some point.

The energy I emanated had started to change the space slightly, whilst I was lost in my thoughts. My energy now focused on the end of the dungeon that looked like a small slightly supernatural beach cave that was indented into the clay and dirt walls at the side of the highway.

At the end of the small cave that had now gotten a gate blocking off the entrance of strangers outside and a doorway of pure black where I had sent my energy, I sniffed the air. It was slightly humid and had a cold mist from my imperfect use of energy interacting with the dungeons mechanisms. It was a type of atmosphere that I welcomed. From a while back I noticed how my analysis of energy was growing into an additional sense of mine. It seemed to be telling me to improve my use of energy. A welcome reminder to aid my survival in the future.

Without a single word we traversed into the black doorway, hand in hand.

It was like we went through a thin wall of opaque black water without getting wet.

Strange as it was, it wasn't as uncomfortable as you'd think.

What waited for us through the wall was another dungeon.

"Is it an extension of the last dungeon?" Felixe asked as he walked slightly ahead of me.

"No, it's like one of those teleportation spots in games."

"Waypoints?"

"I suppose. Anyway, most of the dungeons I want to start to explore in the first month are the ones I think I can connect through."

"Connect through?"

"Yeah, since they seem to be unknown dungeons that you can't take ownership of. The dungeon I had just taken ownership of is probably what you'd call the starting point. Or I guess it became connected after some time. But I wouldn't say that it was something that connected to other dungeons as a hidden starting place or that this dungeon is it's extension."

The surroundings came into sight, near the end of my explanation, more clearly. Maybe it was the smell of trampled grass or the faint, irony rotting smell that differed from humans, but Felixe felt the need to question the immediate surroundings and gain an understanding of the space we moved to. So his eyes scanned the environment more vigilantly.

"This seems to be some grassland type of dungeon with other dungeon explorers going through. Will there be any medicine here?"

"I don't think so. After I'm done the dungeon will become smaller though."

"You're trying to use the dungeon?!"

"I suppose so, are you going to join?"

"... I'll try."

Back to looking at the dungeon, the walls were seemingly made up of a dirt wall. There was just dirt in the wall and nothing else. No clay, worms or other substance that you'd expect to find with such a dug out sight. My head bent backwards, so that my eyes could meet the clear blue sky. The space within the dungeon was a grassland, like Felixe had said. But that didn't really matter.

My hand and energy turned into a strange see-through deep greenish brown. It was the shade of colour that was closest to the energy I felt within the dungeon. Normally, it was one of the energies I'd expect to find when I'm looking for dungeons, but this time with my improved use of abilities I was tracking down the core of the dungeon by emitting it into the atmosphere. A brief glimpse, smell, vibration or sound of the energy was enough to track down the dungeons in this world, alone. It was nifty for someone who walked through dungeons like me.

With a shake of my head I moved towards the core of the dungeon deeper within the grasslands that reached just below my head.

...

30 minutes of walking was how long it took before a boulder glowing a similar hue of energy was seen.

We were still in the grasslands, but none of the goblins within the dungeon paid me or Felixe any mind. I had already placed a shield of the dungeon's energy around us. I doubt that they could smell our scent. Most creatures won't even be interested in the dungeon core or its environment in the dungeon. They didn't seem to be intelligent enough to come across as animals that lived in the world, they were much closer to zombies that only instinctively move to seek food or moths when they find a flame.

The difference between them and the mutated goblin I met when I was 2 years old were too huge of a jump. In that way it was something that was unrealistic about mutated monsters.

Sighing, I looked up at the boulder.

It wasn't a boulder at all, making me smile slightly at the density of the energy around it.

I looked around, only finding Felixe looking at the boulder with a curious look. No one else was around. It would change in a bit. The goblins who were merely driven by instincts to hunt humans would feel a need to kill us in order to protect the dungeon.

I didn't mind much. Felixe doesn't seem to care much either from what uncle had told me when I was young. This world's dungeons were way too easy to prove a threat to people who've efficiently learned to kill huge amounts of weak monsters whenever they entered dungeons. I supposed that the elves or vampiric worlds offered better quality dungeons.

However, I still asked in a subtle murmur.

"Felixe, you're okay with killing a large amount of goblins right?"

I had taken out my medium sized axe and placed a hand I densely made into a gradient of energy from the boulder. It was something that would allow Felixe to consume the energy more easily.

"kkkkllllow wa!!!!"

A sudden battle cry erupted and in beat with the cry he nodded. It didn't sound like a goblin cry, but it was definitely an in-human monster. Meanwhile, the energy from the boulder was buffing us in a cloud of energy, waiting to be digested with a few rotting goblin corpses.

Regardless of the unknown dangers that had been added, it was time to grow.