Cassian was currently staring fixedly at the mysterious opening in the ground from a dusty window in the manor.

  She had finally managed to get a few restless hours of sleep.

  Carefully put away the food brought by the terrified delivery man.

  But the opening absolutely would not stop constantly nagging at her.

  It had been trotting obsessively through her mind for hours and hours.

  It was stressing her out a lot, way too much.

  "This is annoying..."

  She walked slowly through the silent manor and stopped abruptly in front of a large, cracked, ancient mirror.

  She stared intensely at herself.

  Her blue eyes were tired and ringed with dark circles. Her long blonde hair was a complete mess.

  She looked exhausted.

  This has to stop.

  If that cursed thing didn't exist, she definitely wouldn't feel so horribly bad.

  It has to disappear. Completely disappear.

  Cassian desperately tried to replace her paralyzing fear with pure hatred.

  Forced courage.

  Artificial determination.

  "Come on. Move it."

  She abruptly left the manor, thinking of absolutely nothing but the complete investigation and total extermination of the potential threat.

  As long as she had this fragile state of mind, she had to take advantage of it before it pathetically vanished.

  She was now outside the protective barrier.

  Standing in front of the threatening staircase.

  Her artificial courage immediately and completely left her.

  Like scattered smoke.

  Anxious thoughts violently invaded her mind.

  She had solemnly promised herself never to go near it.

  She had clearly said she would never come here.

  Cassian ignored them with extreme difficulty.

  It was much, much too hard to feel okay knowing perfectly well that that was right next to the manor.

  Just a few meters away.

  She carefully began to descend the uneven steps.

  They were really uneven and horribly poorly designed.

  If she wasn't extremely careful, she could easily fall and seriously hurt herself.

  There was a faint orange glow at the bottom of the descending staircase.

  It took Cassian a full, stressful minute to cautiously reach the bottom.

  Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

  She then turned right with immense caution.

  What she saw next made her stop completely dead in her tracks.

  A long corridor. Very long and strangely wide.

  Ancient torches lit the surroundings with a flickering, unsettling light.

  But what really immediately caught Cassian's attention...

  A skeleton.

  It was standing, wandering very slowly down the corridor as if patrolling.

  Cassian immediately and instinctively hid behind the corner and watched discreetly.

  Her heart was pounding.

  "This is clearly, absolutely not normal at all."

  So there really was something genuinely suspicious in these sinister depths.

  It was the very first time she had seen an animated real skeleton.

  Especially a whole, mobile skeleton.

  Surprisingly, she wasn't really scared.

  It moved, sure, but she had gradually gotten used to this shitty new world.

  A skeleton? Almost mundane.

  Cassian stopped hiding completely.

  "I'm here to investigate and annihilate everything that fuels my fear. Period."

  From her current position, she calmly raised her hands and fired a sharp ice lance at the skeleton.

  Powerful enough to easily break bones.

  CRASH.

  The lance pierced the air.

  The skeleton was violently hit right in the pelvis.

  It noisily collapsed to the ground, completely inanimate.

  Bones clattered against the stone.

  "That was... easier than expected. Much easier."

  Cassian approached extremely cautiously.

  At least, it absolutely didn't move after being destroyed.

  "That would have been absolutely terrifying otherwise. Like, if it rebuilt itself."

  She noticed on a small table made of rotten wood in the corridor a piece of yellowed paper.

  She delicately picked it up.

  She tried to read it carefully.

  Without any success.

  "What is this weird writing?"

  She had never seen that before in her life.

  Strange symbols. Ancient. Incomprehensible.

  Like hieroglyphs or runes.

  "Well. Useless."

  Continuing cautiously down the corridor, she abruptly turned left.

  And came directly upon two other skeletons.

  "I really should have looked before stupidly turning!"

  The skeletons immediately noticed her with their empty eye sockets.

  And desperately ran in her direction.

  Their bones clattered loudly.

  Cassian reacted quickly.

  She instantly created a small, compact ice wall across the entire width of the corridor.

  And abruptly sent it at full speed towards the skeletons.

  Like a battering ram.

  CRASH CRASH.

  Their legs were violently smashed.

  Bones exploded into pieces.

  Cassian watched them on the ground, pathetically crawling towards her with their arms.

  "I really feel like I'm in a video game dungeon."

  She frowned.

  "I had absolutely no idea there were dungeons in this world. No one told me."

  Why hadn't Hiro, Lena, and Lucia noticed the dungeon at all before they left?

  Did the dungeon mysteriously appear right after they left?

  "Why does the whole world hate me so much? Seriously. What did I ever do wrong in my life?"

  She thought extremely seriously.

  Nothing. Really, she genuinely struggled to understand.

  "So it's a brand new dungeon."

  Cassian thought for a long moment while watching the skeletons pitifully crawl.

  If she wasn't mistaken, usually, the weakest monsters were slimes, goblins, and skeletons.

  So far, she still hadn't encountered a slime.

  Just goblins and now skeletons.

  "This is definitely an easy dungeon."

  You had to completely finish a dungeon for it to permanently disappear, right?

  That's how it worked in games.

  "Perfect. Anyway, I was here to exterminate."

  Cassian finished off the skeletons on the ground with a brutal kick.

  CRACK.

  She then cautiously opened a wooden door and entered.

  Another identical corridor.

  Cassian panicked slightly.

  "The risk of getting lost is really high..."

  While methodically exploring the dungeon, Cassian often noticed luminous crystals emanating a great deal of mana.

  They glowed softly.

  "Mana stones. Solid, crystallized mana."

  She wondered if they were worth a lot.

  Surely a huge amount, but she had absolutely nothing to properly extract and transport them.

  No pickaxe. No bag.

  "I'll worry about it later."

  The dungeon was currently a real complex labyrinth.

  Corridors. Identical doors. Staircases. Intersections.

  Cassian easily killed several skeletons.

  Then she finally found a wooden chest.

  She was happy and excited.

  "FINALLY! A chest!"

  She quickly opened it in anticipation.

  A tarnished, deformed silver cup. A rusty sword broken into two pieces. A completely rotted wooden shield.

  "Seriously? That's it?"

  Total and absolute disappointment.

  "Obviously. This dungeon probably isn't a difficult one. So the chests have nothing interesting to offer. Just junk."

  Cassian advanced without any problem and effortlessly decimated all the enemies in her path.

  She finally came across a staircase leading further down.

  "So there are multiple floors. Interesting."

  She descended extremely cautiously.

  "The enemies must be seriously stronger on the second floor."

  Her first opponent appeared quickly.

  A skeleton with a short rusty sword and a cracked wooden shield.

  Cassian held back from laughing so hard.

  "Is this a joke?"

  The skeleton had spotted her and was clumsily charging towards her.

  It was put out of commission in a single ice attack.

  CRASH.

  "Finally, I was worrying over nothing."

  She had explored enough for today.

  She didn't know exactly how many floors this dungeon contained, but tomorrow she would make sure to complete it entirely.

  It took her a little while to find the exit again.

  The labyrinth was really confusing and disorienting.

  Finally emerging, she noticed that night was seriously beginning to fall.

  The sky was dark orange, almost red.

  Cassian was smiling and proud.

  "Honestly, I'm stronger than I thought."

  There was no reason to be afraid after all.

  She went back into the manor, relatively confident.

  Walking through the hallways with forced assurance.

  Forcing herself to deliberately walk slowly to prove to herself there was nothing to fear.

  ---

  Night.

  She was locked in her room again.

  She pushed the heavy furniture against her door again.

  She was more confident than before.

  But the manor plunged into the darkness of night had completely swept away the facade of confidence she wore.

  "Okay. Final preparations before sleeping."

  She suddenly heard a horribly familiar sound.

  BZZZZZZ.

  A mosquito.

  She immediately and violently became enraged.

  "THE SAME FUCKING MOSQUITO AGAIN?!"

  She thought she had definitively killed it yesterday.

  Squashed. Annihilated.

  Then she saw the mosquito.

  And immediately noticed something extremely abnormal.

  It was much bigger than yesterday.

  Much, much bigger.

  About the size of a bee.

  Maybe even larger still.

  "Is it... is it the same mosquito?"

  No, is it even still a mosquito?

  It approached in a really menacing way.

  Cassian quickly thought there were no other mosquitoes in the vicinity.

  "It has to be the same one from yesterday."

  She watched it fly aggressively.

  "What did you drink to grow that much in one night?"

  She joked nervously.

  "A protein shake? Insect steroids?"