Waking up was a bit of a scare as Shadow was growling and barking and I could sense a little terror through our connection, I jumped up and was wide eyed before I saw what he was barking at. It was the Deadman’s Veins, they had grown to over 2 ft. tall in just 2 hrs… This was almost impossible to believe if I didn’t know that this dimensional farm had a rapid growth rate. Shadow was scared because the plants had what looked like a giant bulbous pod at the top of a stalk that was as thick as my leg, it had a 4 leaves with 2 on each side that had a thin vine like protrusion at the end of the tips that seemed alive as they moved through the soil.

  I saw as one stopped moving for a second before darting into the nearby dirt near a Gyshal plant and pulled a worm out of the soil, the worm was squirming to get away but the vine had pierced clean through and what looked like barbs had appeared to keep the prey it caught attached. It then started to drain the worm like what I saw the roots do and before long the worm was just dust as it disintegrated. There were 4 other Deadman’s just like this with the bulbous head and the predatory vines….

  “Holy shit! This thing is ridiculous…” I couldn’t help but shout out loud. That seemed to garner the attention of the semi sentient plants and the bulbous pods all turned in my direction before the pods split in half to show of rows of thorns that merged together into the form of teeth. This thing was just a giant Venus flytrap but it actively hunted!

  Sounds that were eerily similar to grunts and groans came from deep in the ‘mouths’ of these plants. If I wasn’t completely sober I would swear to whatever gods that these things were groaning about food!

  “Hell No! My name is not Seymour and this is not Skid Row! I will not feed you my blood or kill the neighborhood dentist for you!” I yelled at just the shear absurdity of it all. The response I got back was just more eerie “Food” groans… This was nuts. But I did have a responsibility as the farmer to take care of these things, and so far they weren’t hostile to me so I wasn’t really scared.

  “Food will have to wait, we are on our way to a dungeon and maybe it will have something good for you to eat. I need to gather some more plant able stuff anyways. You guys wait here and we will see what we can round up for you ok? But please, don’t kill all of my worms? The other plants need them.”

  I heard talking to the plants was supposed to be good for them, but when the 5 plants turned their pods towards eachother and seemed to fucking nod in agreement with eachother was when I just waved my hands in the air and left the fucking farm. I brought out everyone to walk with me since I didn’t want to risk leaving one of them in the farm just in case. After about an hour of walking I decided to ride Rhonda again and let Shadow stretch his legs as we ran, I had Boney securely situated on my backpack so he wouldn’t fall off and before I knew it I could see the outpost appearing just down the road.

  Beyond that I saw as a set of rope ladders were setup to make the set of giant metal doors easier to access. The doors were shut closed which I didn’t like the look of…. But after we got a little closer to camp I hopped off and walked the rest of the way as a pair of people from the group came to meet us.

  “Hey long time no see James, I know we saw eachother at the HQ building but we didn’t really have time to say hello before we got ushered away…” A guy with red hair said as he came closer.

  “I’m sorry, I forgot your name?” I said while scratching my cheek in embarrassment, I noticed that I had a good bit of stubble growing… Anyways.

  “Oh yea, no I get that… My names Johnathan Laney and this here is my sister Penny. We were in the same training class before the incident with the food happened..”

  “We’re happy that you survived that by the way, we didn’t expect our trainer to be that uncaring.” Said Penny since Johnathan got a little awkward.

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  “It’s fine, plus I got a rank boost so I’m totally fine with it. Just goes to show I got the potential to be something right?” I laughed it off and we all shared a chuckle before a pompous sounding voice broke the small moment of joy.

  “Potential? Maybe for being my bag boy perhaps. Little D rankers like yourself are useful for nothing more than being in the shadows of nobles like myself!” The green haired jackass walked up and said. He puffed up his chest as he spoke but to me that looked more like an animal trying to appear bigger to ward off a threat.

  “Roy that was mean! Part of the reason we even got picked for this was to escort James here, we already failed at that so the least you could do is not insult the guy that volunteered to go inside a dangerous unknown dungeon to rescue his parents!” Penny scolded the guy.

  I smiled a little because Roy as he was called seemed to shrink a little as she scolded him. I looked back towards the outpost and saw as Allison was sitting down at a table with some kind of meal in front of her, and she was just eating away with little care. I walked up to her and she just nodded at me as I sat down.

  “When are you heading inside?” She asked while still looking down at her plate.

  “I plan on heading inside immediately.”

  “Are you prepared?”

  “Yes.”

  “Good luck then.”

  And that was the extent of that conversation… I sighed as I got up and said goodbye to Johnathan and Penny and after letting the pets go back to the farm, I started my climb up to the entrance.

  It was a good minute long climb up the ladder but thankfully there was an outcrop that I could stand on when I reached the doors. I checked my backpack and made sure I had atleast a few days worth of rations and some bottles of water, some medical supplies and other things that any adventurer would need. I checked my weapons once again and after taking a deep breath I placed my hands on the doors and pushed.

  Surprisingly they slid open with ease and I got my first look into what a real life dungeon!

  The inside from what I could see was like a giant castle ballroom, imagine a castle ballroom…. And that’s exactly what I’m seeing now. A wide open space with marble pillars from floor to ceiling, tall windows with drapes drawn open to let in sunlight that seemed to make the unique tile flooring seem to glow. Tables upon tables arranged around the back, all setup with different foods and assortments. It all seemed so odd to see and even odder when you considered what a dungeon would normally look like.

  “God I hope this isn’t a puzzle one… I get hate doing puzzles.” I sighed but took that first tentative step and like without blinking I stepped into the dungeon.

  It felt like I walked through some kind of Jello as I had to push forward a bit. But considering this was apparently where multiple portals had merged together I could kinda see why that would feel that way, I was practically pushing my way through into a new dimension. But I quickly became alert as my cube floated in front of me and spread out to reveal writing in a deep ethereal purple text.

  [Castle of the Angelic Guardian]

  [Difficulty: B]

  [Rewards upon completion: Skill book]

  “Hey there we go! Now that’s the kind of extra incentive I needed haha! But first things first, I need to find Hector and Jasmine and if possible, maybe even the first team that came through here.” After letting out my pets, we surveyed the current room we were in first. The food was actually real as Shadow munched on a piece of steak from one of the tables and Boney pecked at a bowl of nuts from another one. I was a bit more hesitant to partake since this all seemed a bit suspicious, But dammit if all the food didn’t smell so delicious!!!

  It was hard to restrain myself and I forced the others away from the food and towards a nearby door that led into a hallway with windows on each side. I looked out and gasped as I saw that we were in a hallway that was suspended between two towers and under us was nothing but deep chasm. I quickly stepped away from the windows and took the biggest damn steps towards the other side as I could.

  At the other side was another ballroom like area almost similar to the first but this one didn’t have the tables of food and drink like the first one did.

  “WELCOME TRAVELER! I HOPE YOU ENJOYED OUR CASTLES WELCOME FEAST AND ARE PREPARED FOR THE ENTERTAINEMENT!” A loud booming voice echoed throughout the room and rattled my body. I scanned the room quickly but saw nothing except what appeared as magic circles now forming on the opposite side of the room. It was runic script slowly forming into a circle and once it did, a bright crimson light shined and a skeleton with a sword and shield appeared from it.

  “THAT’S RIGHT, I FORGOT TO MENTION THAT YOU ARE THE ENTERTAINMENT! AHAHAHAHA I DO HOPE YOU PUT ON A GOOD SHOW!”