Danmachi - Eldritch Apostle

I was falling through the black hole that stretched far down without an end in sight. Judging by the time of my fall, I guessed that I was descending into the lower floors of the dungeon. In other words, I was going to die.

The heavy air loomed inside the unknown floor of the bottomless pit that is the dungeon. I found myself in deep trouble. I never thought the dungeon could pull something like this—collapsing the floors beneath me to send me to my death.

I looked around and noticed a jungle-like environment with dense forest and vegetation all around me. I knew this place. It was called Dense Forest Ravine, considered to be a lower floor.

Starting from the 29th floor, the dungeon's appearance changes into a dense jungle-like forest with a bunch of flowers, and general flora and fauna. This generation lasts until the 37th floor.

This meant I couldn't figure out which floor I was on—it could be any from the 29th to the 37th. Even worse, monsters considered to be level 4 and higher roamed these floors.

Suddenly, a large stomping sound shook the earth around me. A heavy, primal roar alerted the entire area.

"Bloodsaurus..." I muttered as a red, carnivorous dinosaur-like monster sniffed around, most likely searching for me.

I found myself hiding in the shadow of a huge tree behind me. I peeked from the left and saw a five-meter-tall monster looking in a different direction. Seeing it made me retreat my head back to the shade, not wanting to risk being seen.

It had crimson-red stripes around its body, especially on its nose. Its teeth were sharper than any object I'd ever seen, even that pencil from John Wick. Like, the dude killed a bunch of people with a pencil. Imagine how sharp it had to be for him to pull off something like that.

Setting my thoughts aside, I decided that the best action was to stay hidden for a few moments until the monster went away. I'd lost my ability to breathe thanks to evolution, so it was easy not to make a noise.

The sounds of the monster sniffing and breathing finally moved further away. No longer any sound could be heard besides various bugs in the vegetation.

I had to find out which floor I was on and from there, find some way to escape from this green hell. The best outcome would be if I was on the 29th floor since the safe zone was just above it.

But knowing my luck, that was impossible for someone like me.

The best course of action was to stay there for a bit and then move on. So I did exactly that. I remained unmoving for about half an hour while monsters passed by my spot from time to time.

Most, if not all, monsters on these floors were Bloodsauruses. There were other types of dinosaurs, like the flying dinosaurs named Pteranodon. Thankfully, no monster noticed me, so I decided to look around before moving on.

Sniffing around, no monster was in sight. The floor looked empty except for small bugs flying over my head. And so I moved, moving through the green vegetation without making much noise to avoid any unwanted attention.

The best way for me to survive was to go up since the floors below were even worse than these, so going down was not an option.

Half an hour passed until I found myself at a big entrance that looked like it led up to a higher floor.

It was dark, but my eyes could see as if it were day. I carefully climbed up in search of higher adventurers to escort me back. I wished for Loki Familia to encounter me once again, but I knew the possibility was low.

Or was it?

I finally managed to climb to the floor above and found myself in the same green hell, with only a small difference in the floor formation. Instead of vast vegetation, the floor now had some grassy pathways that made the whole situation easier.

I thought that maybe adventurers had made those pathways, which would mean I was close to the safe zone. But then I remembered that the dungeon restored itself over time, so no terraforming would ever work.

At least, not on such a minor scale as pathways.

A wind howled on my left cheek, and the next moment started the entire ordeal that alerted the entire floor. A flying Pteranodon flew directly at me, catching me with its long jaws like an eagle catching its prey.

The flying dinosaur was huge compared to me. Its wings could be mistaken for airplane wings. The yellow beast that caught me was moving toward a huge circle-like formation in the middle of the forest.

A view from above gave me an idea of the formation. It was most likely a monster fighting pit, similar to the coliseum found on the deeper floors. However, the monsters didn't spawn infinitely; they fought each other there.

None of this was ever shown or mentioned in the story or anime. Even these floors alone had little information about them. That put me at a huge disadvantage since I couldn't know for sure what kind of enemies I was going to face.

The flying monster flew a bit closer to the ground and dropped me. I started falling into the round pit surrounded by dinosaurs. The fall was about twenty meters deep, and this time there were no green flowers to ease my fall like before.

I had to try using my abilities to levitate and avoid any injury. It was now or never.

Twenty meters.

Fifteen meters.

Ten meters.

Five meters.

Four meters.

Three meters.

Two meters.

I was one meter away from breaking my legs, possibly. I squeezed my buttcheeks and focused all my mind on my legs. I imagined myself inside a lucid dream where I could do whatever I wanted if I imagined it strongly enough.

Before my legs could connect to the floor, lightness enveloped my legs, and I levitated like Pain from Naruto.

The monsters around me stopped their roars and screeches. They seemed confused by my newly developed ability. I carefully floated down to the ground and tried going up, but nothing could make me fly.

The thought of flying away from this was shattered to pieces. It seemed like I had to experience worlds of pain and sorrow to survive this.

And I was going to survive. I wasn't letting the dungeon defeat me pathetically like this, using these cheating methods. No, I was going to get revenge sooner or later. Sooner or later, I'd get out of here alive.

THUD

My feet connected with the grassy ground, and a mysterious wind breezed across the entire area as I and the monsters entered a stare-down.

Refusing to waste any more time, I caught the monsters by surprise when I threw a couple of attacks using my entire strength. The ground cracked around me, and a powerful blast sent four raptor-looking monsters flying.

They immediately died, most likely because they were level 3 or low-level 4's. The rest of the monsters roared in anger and one by one charged at me.

I was being tested. I was being played with by this bitch called the dungeon and its braindead lab rats called monsters. The dungeon was mocking me by turning my usual dungeon dive into something nightmarish.

I wasn't going to let that go. No, I wouldn't.

ROAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAR

A Bloodsaurus charged at me, and I yelled. A feeling rushed through me, and I yelled in pure anger. A pure rebellious anger, rebellious against the greater force trying to push me down like a mere rat.

Emotions made me feel dizzy, but I held up. I had to hold up, or else I'd become another missing adventurer. While higher adventurers fucked whores, partied, and drank, we, the bottom screws, needed to suffer.

Just like back on Earth.

I was tired of being the bottom shit.

"I'M NOT LETTING YOU GET ME LIKE THIS!!" I yelled and hit the floor with my fist. The ground immediately cracked, and the entire floor started forming small cracks.

---

--- STATUS ---

Name: Niall

Race: *REDACTED*

Level: 2

Power: 345 F --> 399 F

Survivability: 299 G --> 312 F

Durability: 246 G --> 296 G

---

*DING*

*A NEW SECRET QUEST ACTIVATED*

- Survive against the Horde-

Rewards: 

Eldritch Blast - A swirling orb of chaotic energy that channels the destructive powers capable of long-distance sniping attacks.