The Infinity Dungeon [LitRPG]

"That old fool," Travis muttered.

Michael watched him idly. He would be surprised if the man hadn't dug a trench in the concrete floor by the time David returned, with his frantic pacing back and forth.

"He wants to be a hero," he went on, "We only have one serum and the doctor still hasn't figured out how to replicate it!"

Michael looked up. "Liff is dying," he said.

"I know!" snapped Travis, "I know. I'm not saying that he should let her die."

"Then I'm doing the right thing." David's powerful voice came from the corridor.

He was panting, having run all the way back here from the entrance to the realm that was the dungeon's second floor. For a moment, Michael thought he could somewhat sense the Dungeon Gaze watching them, watching David, but then the sensation was gone.

"Move."

Michael scuttled to the side. Travis had stopped pacing, and was now keeping to a dark corner of the room, choosing to distance himself from what was happening. From where he was, his face wasn't very visible and shadows cast his eyes in darkness. The scowl, however, was very visible. It was evident that Travis wasn't happy with the situation, but there was nothing he could say now.

David knelt on the ground, next to Liff. He groaned when he had to bend over, his back hurting while his knees ground into the hard concrete, but did not even slow down. He gently lifted the girl up, wiping some sweat from her forehead with a cloth.

"Shh," he said to her in a soothing voice. She was mumbling as he stroked her hair, "It's alright."

At the opposite side of the room, Travis struggled to watch.

David used one of his legs as a pillow for the little girl, contorting his massive body so that she could stay comfortable. Liff mumbled something again, her eyes half-open.

"Hey, girl."

"David?"

"It's alright," the man rocked her gently, "I'm going to heal you and then everything will be better again."

"Can I see the sun again, David?"

"Soon."

He uncorked the vial, and then removed the protective plastic around the needle. It was thick, long and nasty. The fluid inside the clear glass container glowed with green light. Michael expected it to be viscous, but instead it was extremely light and sloshed around the vial in response to every movement.

"What is that?" Liff eyed the thing warily.

"It's medicine," David said softly.

"Fuck–" Travis began to say, taking a single step forward when a rumble in the room made him turn around as if spooked.

Michael too shot to his feet, while David's hand stilled with the needle inches away from Liff's flesh. From this close, it looked like it could never fit inside her frail, thin arm.

A small cloud of dust revealed the change to the room as the rumble ceased.

"What is that?"

Michael shoved Travis to the side. "It's a gold plaque. There's handwritten text on it."

"What does it say?" called David from where he was on the ground. He had not moved an inch, save for an instinctive curling of his body to protect the little girl.

Michael's eyes narrowed. "It says, "Will you risk your life to save her?""

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There was more, but David's voice interrupted his reading. "Yes."

"No." Travis spoke at the same time.

David shot the other man a glare that could kill people. "You stay out of this."

"There's more," Michael put a stop to their bickering, "It says that two people must participate, and that the danger will be much higher than such a shallow floor would suggest."

With a deft motion, David pulled out the vial again. "Alas, it looks like this is the only way. I can't ask anyone to put their life in danger. At least with this I will be the only one paying the price."

"Luckily you won't have to ask me."

"Michael!" two voices called at the same time.

"It's folly," said Travis. "There won't even be a reward. It's your life, man. What if you bite it in there? What about Unity and all your projects then?"

"If I die in there, then David dies too, doesn't he?"

"If I do," the man in question interjected, "please give this to Liff."

Travis took the healing fluid with a frown. "Then I'd be left alone. Running all this mess."

"I'm sure you'd love it," David said. "No need to plan and scheme, with us gone."

"Shut up." Travis said. "This is low-quality bait and you know it. Power games are just that, games."

"Where's the ruthless oil tycoon? Show some balls, Travis."

"Well then perhaps the ruthless oil tycoon is dead, okay?" He looked pointedly at Michael, "He killed him when he punched a hole in my gut."

Michael got up, walked up to Travis and put his hands on the man's shoulders. "I don't plan to die in there. But if I do, I trust you to finish what I started. Or tried to start, at least."

Travis looked around. The darkness seemed deeper now. "You mean I will have to come back here in the dungeon… alone."

"Don't be a pussy," laughed David.

"Fuck you," muttered Travis. "Fine. If you want to kill yourselves, be my guests. I'll keep watch out here."

Michael nodded at him, "Good man. See you in a bit."

They turned to leave. Michael touched the gold plaque, and a door appeared in an empty section of concrete wall, its outlines taking shape until it looked like it had always been there. He walked in without a word, shoulders square and proud, as if he was expecting nothing more than just another day on the job. As if the weight of the world was nothing his back couldn't carry. The other two men, both in their own way, wondered just when this switch had flipped inside of Michael. It must have been gradual, just accelerated by the mind-bending phenomenon of time dilation. With the dungeon, it was always hard to tell.

David hesitated for a moment before crossing the now empty threshold himself. He turned around, nodded at Travis, then with a deep sigh followed behind Michael.

On the other side of the door, the two found themselves in a dark corridor.

"More of the same," lamented Michael. "I was expecting something different. A boss fight perhaps."

"Michael," David said, making the man turn around. "Thank you. I will remember this."

Michael smiled. "I'm just trying to fix a mistake I made. Let's go."

The tunnel, which started like any other underground tunnel of the research facility—all right angles and straight concrete corridors—slowly started to shift. No longer was it straight and narrow, but now it twisted and bent around in a confusing way. The walls were still concrete, but they were smooth and devoid of details. The lights above disappeared after a few hundred yards, and their sterile light was replaced by an even eerier ambient light that came from everywhere and nowhere at the same time, casting no shadows and flattening everything into a two-dimensional image.

The two walked carefully. Michael had his energy shield up and expanded so that it occupied most of the space in the tunnel without actually touching the walls. Even though Michael was moving, the shield was much weaker than when he stood still, he reckoned that the protection it offered was nothing to scoff at.

David too had taken steps to protect himself. His skin was stone, and his steps were heavy.

"Must have been ten minutes," grumbled David, "and no end in sight."

"Hopefully we won't have to walk back the same distance after we kill the boss," Michael said. "It would be tedious."

"By the way, Michael, how are you?"

Michael looked at him and decided to indulge in his attempts at making conversation. "I'm fine. I found out that the system is breaking down inside of me, I made no progress with skills fusion, I have the Gnapticon stone in my pocket because I keep procrastinating investigating the Force Element, which reminds me that I also have to study the mutated Light Element back down at the Fifth Floor. I also want to challenge the Sixth soon, I have a meeting with my uni friends that I regret even though it was me who pushed for it… and much more. What about you? You were pretty worked up out there."

"Ten minutes walking here in silence, with nothing to look at, cooled me down."

Another ten minutes soon followed, then another ten. Finally, the light began to shift. Whispering something under his breath, Michael summoned a Spirit Guardian and sent it to scout ahead.

"One can never be too safe," he said.

A couple of Spirit Guardians later, he stopped.

"It's time?" David asked.

"There's a sort of arena ahead. Yeah, it's time."

"Finally," the old man said, cracking his knuckles.