Lost World-Chapter 47: Dungeon Run

"Yamamoto Odinson," Cole introduced. "Newest member of Iron Vanguard and the new face in our team."

"Damn," one of Marcus’s teammates said, a younger man with such an archer’s build. "You’re so tall. What are you, six-seven? Six-eight?"

"Six-seven," Yamamoto confirmed.

"And look at that face—like someone carved it from marble. You should be a noble, not crawling through dungeons like us ugly folk." The archer grinned. "Must make the ladies swoon, huh?"

"Shut up dimwit, who’s ugly?"

"Speak for yourself." Two others retorted.

"He wouldn’t know," Silas said sourly. "Too busy training."

"Ah," the archer said, understanding dawning. "I see. Well, good luck with that, friend."

There were knowing smirks from Marcus’s team, the kind that came from watching this kind of dynamic play out a few times before. After a few more minutes of conversation and well-wishes, they parted ways—Marcus’s team heading back to Mashlow while Cole’s team continued toward the dungeon.

As they stood at the threshold, Cole called them together for a final talk on everything they need to know before entering.

After going through everything, Cole clapped, "right, any questions?"

"Yeah, what about the boss?" Yamamoto asked.

"According to the guild intel, it’s an enhanced zombie—basically a bigger, tougher version of the miners. It’s harder to kill than regulars, stronger, and slightly faster, but still manageable if we coordinate."

"There’s also a shortcut," Silas added, unrolling a separate piece of parchment—a hand-drawn map with annotations. "I bought this from a scout who’s run the mine three times. There’s a passage here—" he pointed, "—that bypasses the nesting area and takes us almost directly to the boss room... Saves time and resources."

He looked quite proud of the map, but Yamamoto frowned. "You want to take a shortcut? I thought the point was to challenge yourselves."

"The challenge is clearing the dungeon," Cole said. "We don’t need to fight every enemy if we can avoid it. Efficiency matters."

’Then why choose such a difficult dungeon in the first place?’ Yamamoto thought, but kept it to himself. Their logic was inconsistent, driven more by ego than strategy. They seemed to want the prestige of clearing a higher-level dungeon, but didn’t want to fully commit to the difficulty.

’Well, I guess it’s not so bad.’ He told himself. He had been a hardcore player, but this was real life, so he could understand.

The early sections of the dungeon went well and as expected. Yamamoto even found himself with little to do. The formation worked excellently as the team’s coordination was solid. Being a free and more of a support role, he only intervened occasionally but nothing more.

After the third cluster of zombies fell, they took a break to recover stamina and let Donovan restore everyone’s energy with minor healing spells.

"See?" Silas said, slightly breathless but smiling. "We’ve got this. Teamwork makes all the difference."

"Don’t get cocky," Cole cautioned, but he was smiling too. "We’re not to the boss yet."

They pressed deeper into the mine, following Silas’s map. The corridors grew narrower, the air staler, support beams creaked ominously overhead, and more than once they had to step over partial cave-ins that had blocked side passages.

Finally, Silas raised a hand, signaling a stop.

"Here," he said, pointing to a section of wall that looked solid but, upon closer inspection, had a subtle seam. "The shortcut. There’s a hidden door mechanism—a pressure plate disguised as a loose stone. I just need to—"

"Wait," Yamamoto said, trying to stop him if at least for a moment. He could feel something was wrong. He couldn’t tell what exactly it was, but his gamer instincts, though not flaring, were responding.

"Let me check for—"

"I’ve got it," Silas interrupted, already kneeling by the wall. "I’m the rogue, remember? Trap detection is literally my specialty."

He pressed the stone.

Nothing happened for a second—

—then the grinding of stone on stone, loud and ominous.

Silas’s eyes widened.

"Oh shi—" before he was done with that sentence, the ceiling exploded.

Massive chunks of rock fell in a cascade, filling the corridor with dust and debris. Yamamoto reacted on pure instinct—grabbed Priest Donovan by the collar and yanked him backward just as a boulder crashed down where he’d been standing.

Ahead, through the chaos, he saw Silas shove Ninia forward—away from the main collapse—before disappearing under a torrent of falling stone.

"SILAS!" Ninia screamed.

The entire thing lasted maybe five second, but when it ended, the corridor had been transformed. The path leading back where they came from was now completely blocked by large boulders... but ahead, barely visible though the settling dust, was what looked like a shortcut passage... and in between these two points, buried under tons of stone, was Silas.

"Silas... No, no, no," Cole cried out, already moving, pulling at rocks with his bare hands, straining against the debris.

Yamamoto set Donovan down and moved to help immediately as Donovan followed behind. Slowly, desperately, they cleared enough to see—

Silas was pinned under a massive boulder, his lower body completely crushed. Blood pooled all around beneath him, still spreading. His face had quickly gone pale, his breathing shallow and ragged.

"Get... get it off," he gasped. "Can’t... I can’t feel my legs..." He cried weakly.

"Donovan!" Cole shouted.

Donovan was already there, kneeling to administer the best he could do, all to no avail.

"I just... I just cast recovery spells," Donovan said, his voice breaking. "I don’t have enough... I can’t..."

The healing light flickered away and died as his mana depleted completely.

"No," Ninia whispered, tears streaming down her face. "No, there has to be something—"

"It’s okay," Silas said, his voice weak but strangely calm. Blood trickled from the corner of his mouth. "It’s... it’s okay. I can feel it. There’s something through my abdomen, and that’s certainly not the size of a sword, haha. Even with healing, I’m..."

"Don’t talk like that!" Cole said fiercely. "We’ll get you out, we’ll—" 𝗳𝚛𝗲𝕖𝕨𝕖𝗯𝚗𝚘𝕧𝕖𝗹.𝗰𝗼𝕞

"No time," Silas coughed, more blood. His eyes found Ninia’s. "I’m sorry." He said, managing a smile. "I was... showing off... Stupid. Wanted to... impress you."

"Silas, please—"

"It’s fine. Really." His gaze shifted to Yamamoto, and incredibly, he smiled—a genuine, peaceful expression. "Hey. Pretty boy. You better... treat her right. She deserves... someone who isn’t an idiot."

"Please just shut-up for a second."

Without hesitation... actually, he had hesitated for a moment thinking a few things through until he decided to just try it. The boulder was too big to roll off, so that was off the possibilities. There was only one way left.

Yamamoto pulled out the highest grade healing potion he had and poured everything down Silas’s throat.