Instead of simply opening like a normal door, the entire surface shimred with energy. A strange, chanical voice echoed in his mind:
[REQUIRENT: T]
[ENTRY: ALLOWED]
A bright light engulfed the door, and before Renan could react—
—he vanished.
Just after Renan disappeared, the illusion wore off, leaving the dwarves in confusion.
"Huh? Where did the dragon disappear to?" the bearded dwarf questioned, his eyes scanning the surroundings with suspicion. His grip on his hamr tightened as he looked around, trying to locate the entity that had just appeared and then vanished into thin air.
"I don’t know," the second dwarf replied, shaking his head with a furrowed brow. "It was right there a mont ago. There’s no way sothing that big just vanished without a trace." His voice carried an edge of unease.
The first dwarf looked at his companion and then back at the surroundings. "I think we should report this to the captain. A dragon appearing and disappearing like that… it definitely ans sothing. We can’t ignore it."
The other dwarf nodded in agreent. "Yes, you’re right. We should report this imdiately. If there really was a dragon here, it could be a serious problem for the empire."
The bearded dwarf exhaled heavily before adjusting the grip on his hamr. "I’ll go back and report it. You stay here and keep watch over the dungeon entrance. We can’t let our guard down."
"Understood," the other dwarf agreed, taking up his position once more while his companion turned and hurried back toward the empire.
anwhile, Renan, who had just arrived in an unfamiliar place, was transported by the dungeon’s mysterious chanism. He found himself in a pitch-black cave, the air thick with an unsettling stillness. Despite the complete darkness, his enhanced vision allowed him to see everything clearly. The walls of the cave were rough and uneven, shaped by ti rather than deliberate design.
"Ugh… Where am I?" Renan muttered under his breath, his eyes scanning the area cautiously. He remained still for a mont, listening for any sounds that could indicate a hidden enemy or a lurking trap. The eerie silence made him uneasy.
For five minutes, he moved carefully around the cave, checking every corner for signs of traps, hidden chanisms, or monsters that might ambush him. But to his surprise, he found nothing.
"Huh? Isn’t a dungeon supposed to have monsters and traps?" he asked himself, frowning. He had expected a challenge, but instead, the place seed empty—almost abandoned.
Just as he was about to move forward, he felt sothing crack beneath his foot.
*CRACK*
Renan instantly halted, his instincts kicking in. His gaze snapped downward, and what he saw made his stomach tighten.
Lying beneath his foot was a small skeletal hand—frail, withered, and lifeless. A child’s hand.
His breath hitched slightly as his eyes followed the skeletal arm, leading to a tiny body sprawled on the ground. The remains of a young child, its bones brittle with ti, lay in a desperate position—one arm stretched outward as if reaching for salvation that never ca.
A strange feeling settled in Renan’s chest. He clenched his fists.
’How could they…?’ The thought echoed in his mind, disbelief mixing with anger. ’How could they send children—re children, no older than ten—into an unknown dungeon with no way to escape?’
His golden eyes glowed faintly in the darkness, a sign of his deepening emotions.
"Poor thing…" he whispered softly. "You who never even saw the light before you were exposed to the darkness of this world. Rest in peace."
Taking a deep breath, Renan turned away from the skeleton and continued deeper into the dungeon.
Despite being on high alert, he encountered no further corpses in the narrow corridor ahead. The path was eerily straight, leading him forward without any obstacles. There were no traps, no monsters—just an endless, unbroken path of stone.
Renan frowned as he walked, his mind churning with questions.
’Is this really a dungeon? Why aren’t there any traps or monsters? If there’s nothing here, then how did those children die?’
A thought crossed his mind.
’Could the real danger be waiting at the end?’
Perhaps the dungeon wasn’t designed to kill intruders along the way but rather to trap them, forcing them into an inescapable confrontation at the end. That would explain why the bodies of the children weren’t scattered throughout the corridor—most of them likely perished at the final destination.
"Or maybe," Renan murmured, "the monsters or traps are only in the last chamber. Maybe the child whose body I saw was one of the few who made it out… but still succumbed to their injuries before escaping."
He recalled what the old dwarf had said about the dungeon.
The only words left by the Dwarf Progenitor were: ’Do not force your way in or out. The mont you try, the dungeon will self-destruct, killing whoever attempts it and destroying whatever lies within.’
Renan exhaled sharply. "So breaking out isn’t an option either…"
He continued walking for another ten minutes, the silence pressing in on him. Eventually, a faint glow appeared ahead.
His heart quickened. "Finally… is this the end?"
As he neared the light, he saw an entrance frad by two old lanterns hanging beside it. The flickering light cast eerie shadows across the cave walls.
Renan paused just before stepping inside. His instincts urged caution.
Peering through the entrance, he saw an enormous hall stretching out before him. The first thing he noticed was the sheer number of bodies scattered across the ground—more children, their skeletal remains lying in various positions, each one a tragic testant to a life lost too soon.
His gaze then shifted to the center of the hall.
There, sitting atop a stone box, was a figure.
A dwarf, but unlike any Renan had seen before. Its body was completely black, almost like a shadow given form. It was transparent, its outline flickering like a phantom. Embedded in its chest were seven glowing stars arranged in a zig-zag pattern, pulsating with an ominous energy.
Renan’s expression darkened.
’What… is that?’
Then, his eyes moved to the wall behind the dwarf.
Etched in bold, unyielding letters was a ssage.
Renan read it out loud, his voice echoing through the empty chamber.
"The shadow of the past."
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