Anyone who has never experienced something remotely similar might wonder: What does it feel like to have over a meter of sharpened metal shoved up your ass?
Obviously, it can't be pleasant.
But if there's still any doubt, then the furious roars and murderous promises coming from a certain dragon who has just gone through exactly that should clear things up nicely.
— RRROOOAAARRR!!! — The dragon bellowed as it charged after its assailant.
If it could speak, it would almost certainly be screaming something along the lines of: I'm gonna fucking kill you, you bastard, run all you want, I'm gonna tear you apart, you filthy little shit!
— RRROOOAAARRR!!!
And a variety of other sentiments.
Now, what does Luki Bryan, the architect of this catastrophe, think about all this while sprinting for both his life and someone else's?
'Should've shoved my whole damn arm up your ass, you flying demon lizard! Get off my ass already, you oversized anus with wings!'
FWOOOM!
Luki flipped forward, narrowly dodging a fireball that detonated exactly where he'd been moments before.
BOOM!!!
'Next time I'll bring lubricant so it slides in easier, maybe then I can drive it all the way up through your skull, you ruptured hell-beast. Spit fire at me again and I'll shove something else up your ass to see if you like it, you flaming hemorrhoid!'
FWOOOM FWOOOM FWOOOM
BOOM!!! BOOM!!! BOOM!!!
Dodge — Slip — Twist —
He kept moving, weaving through explosions and flames as the enraged dragon annihilated everything behind him.
After knocking the beast down, Luki didn't think twice, he ran.
Just as he had said earlier: he might be weaker, but if he wanted to get out, then not even a dragon was going to stop him.
This was something Luki had only recently discovered after so many months wandering through the Dungeon.
He was strong.
Far stronger than before. More than three times stronger.
How? Why? When?
He had no idea. It was like he had spent years training the wrong way to lose weight, never seeing results, then decided to hire a personal trainer and a nutritionist, and suddenly, in three months, he went from out of shape to male-model fit.
In the beginning, Luki could barely handle a goblin in a one-on-one fight. He had to rely on better gear, superior technique, and sharp perception to survive.
Then, when he fell all the way down to the twelfth floor, where monsters were stronger, tougher, more numerous, better equipped, more everything, he barely had any choice but to run. He depended on tricks and a frankly absurd amount of luck just to stay alive.
But somewhere along the way… things just started to change.
If Luki tried to arm-wrestle a Lizardman, a Level 2 monster, he could now say with confidence that he might actually win.
But how? Or better yet, putting the "why" aside, how was this even possible?
There's a massive gap between Level 1 and Level 2, and it's not just numbers, it's fundamental.
A Level 1 adventurer, no matter how strong, is still bound by the natural limits of their race, limits they could theoretically reach through a lifetime of grit, talent, and training.
Using a human as an example: a human at the peak of Level 1, with all physical stats maxed, would be comparable to the Punisher from Marvel.
Frank Castle has no superpowers. He's just an extremely tough human with incredible conditioning, high resilience, and absurd willpower. But no matter how impressive his feats are, he's still human, which we see when he gets beaten up by others in his same tier.
A Level 2, however, breaks that limit. Literally. As if there's an invisible line saying "you cannot go past this", and then you step right over it.
Continuing with humans as a baseline: a Level 2 adventurer is closer to Captain America. Stronger, faster, tougher, more agile than any human should be. The man held down a helicopter trying to take off, after all.
So how could Luki, who hadn't updated his Falna in months, elevate himself to that stage and surpass the natural limits of an elf, a race already slightly weaker than humans physically but far more gifted with magic?
It's not like he ate some mysterious item or performed some forbidden ritual. Anyone with money can eat monster meat.
And yet… here he was.
Running from a dragon said to possess the power of something close to a Level 4.
It was simply inconceivable. Inexplicable.
But returning to the present-
Luki kept running and weaving for what felt like an eternity, even stumbling into groups of monsters along the way that only made his escape harder.
But Luki was relentless. He slipped between them like a swift serpent, incapacitating enemies with precise cuts behind the knees or along wing joints, dropping their bodies to the ground without slowing down.
The smaller ones, Bad Bats and Imps, were simply crushed under the dragon's massive paws. The larger types, Orcs, Silverbacks, Hard Armored and Lizardmen were trampled or flung aside, powerless before the force of nature that was an enraged dragon.
In the end, none of it mattered much. They barely delayed anything at all.
The real problem, as always, was the hostile and unpredictable environment of the Dungeon.
Luki was sprinting through an unusually wide, straight corridor when a sudden sense of dread flashed through his instincts. He reacted instantly, leaping upward with every ounce of strength he had.
He drove his sword into the ceiling, twisted his body against gravity, supporting himself solely on his clenched fist while the blade groaned under the stress. Then he planted his feet against the stone and kicked off, hurling himself away in one sharp movement.
He didn't look back when he landed. He didn't need to. He kept running.
Was the move unnecessary? Maybe, if you ignored the fifty-meter chasm that opened up behind him a second later.
Had he kept going in a straight line, the dragon on his heels would've been the least of his problems.
Ah, speaking of the dragon, it's worth mentioning that the bastard had wings. It simply soared over the gap without a second thought, as if it didn't even exist, taking advantage of the extra space to spread its wings fully.
…
[A long time later]
Luki rounded a corner and came to a dead stop.
Right in front of him, the path ended.
He glanced back. The red dragon was only a few dozen meters away now, closing the distance at terrifying speed.
There was nowhere left to run.
But something felt wrong.
It was as if something inside him was screaming, insisting that there was something here, there is a way foward.
Trusting nothing but instinct, Luki began frantically searching the three walls of the narrow dead end, pressing against every inch, feeling for anything out of place.
The ground started to shake in a steady rhythm, the heavy footsteps of the dragon. It was closer than ever.
'Where is it… where is it…' he thought, silently begging that his suspicion wasn't just desperation.
A hidden passage. A concealed switch. Another teleport trap. Anything would do.
He couldn't fight a dragon in a space this tight. One breath of fire and there would be nowhere to escape.
Rrrraange.
His right foot stepped on something that sank beneath his weight, a pressure plate hidden beneath the stone.
— RRROOOAAARRR!!!
The dragon had arrived.
Luki spun around instantly, sword in hand, just in time to see a fierce glow building inside the dragon's throat.
He charged forward, blade raised high. The dragon opened its jaws, ready to unleash its flames.
The two were about to collide-
BOOM!!!
A section of the Dungeon wall violently surged upward between them.
CLANG!
FWOOOOSH!
Both attacks slammed into the barrier. Luki's sword rebounded off the hardened stone, his wrists shuddering from the impact, while the dragon's fiery breath dispersed harmlessly across the surface, unable to pierce it.
— What…? — Luki muttered, stunned.
He took a few cautious steps back, lifting his head to properly examine the wall that had risen between them.
From the other side, he could still hear the dragon's furious roars and violent impacts, claws scraping and slamming against the stone as it tried to break through.
Rustle.
Until then, Lili had remained completely silent, careful not to distract him. Now, she shifted within the bundle of cloth, finally revealing her face.
— Luki-sama… what happened? Why did we stop? Are the monsters gone? — she asked.
— Yeah… — he replied, still staring at the wall, as if expecting it to crumble at any second and unleash the dragon upon them.
But it didn't.
And it didn't seem like it would.
— I think we're safe… for now. We need to keep moving. — His tone was firm, decisive.
— Uhm… — Lili nodded softly.
Luki turned around.
Where there had once been nothing but a dead end, there was now a path.
And it was strange.
Unlike the rest of the Upper Labyrinth, the floor and walls weren't made of neatly arranged bricks. Instead, it looked like a much older passage, rough stone carved unevenly, with clusters of faintly glowing moss providing dim illumination.
— What is this…? Did we leave the Upper Labyrinth?
Luki remained still, observing the passage with caution.
Now that he stopped to think about it, everything had been chaos lately. How many times had he even had the chance to pause and properly consider his next move?
The Dungeon was as dangerous as it was inexplicable. No matter how much Luki tried to understand its logic, there were moments when it simply couldn't be understood at all.
— Lili, stay alert.
— Yes, Luki-sama. I'll watch our rear… but are you sure it's a good idea to go in there?
— Do we have another choice?
— I… I have a bad feeling about this.
— Me too, Lili. Me too…
Without hesitating any longer, Luki moved forward, this time slowly, every step measured, wary of what might await them in this unfamiliar yet strangely familiar place.