The dungeon in my room - Chapter 0
Katakata…
“Mmh… An earthquake?”
I tried to observe the situation for a while from my bed, but there were no more tremors.
I dozed off again and fell back into my dreams…
“Woah!”
Something landed flat on my face. I instantly ripped it off.
“What, what is this!? A slug??”
I switched on the light in a fluster.
Instead of the glasses that were usually placed on the table next to my bed, that thing was there.
A jelly the size of a rice bowl; when I narrowed my eyes, I could see a pearl-like rainbow-coloured marble in the centre of the translucent gold, as well as something that vaguely resembled a pair of eyeglass frames. Its body was undulating.
Its shape was something like what you’d find in a game or made out of craft materials…
“Don’t tell me that’s…a slime?”
I brought a kitchen knife from the kitchen and poked at it cautiously.
As I did, part of the slime’s body extended and tried to wrap itself around the knife.
“Whoa”
It wouldn’t come off when I tried to withdraw it, so this time I pushed the knife towards the rainbow-coloured marble. The tip of the blade hit the marble, and surprisingly easily, it cut the rainbow-coloured marble in two. The slime then melted into a puddle.
A puddle of gold and two eyeglass lenses were left on the table.
“…What the heck is this?”
As I was staring vacantly, my face started to sting for some reason, so I checked the mirror on my washstand. It was a bit red, like a sunburn.
I quickly washed my face, and this time my skin felt smooth.
“…A peel? Is it because that thing like a slime got on my face?”
I put on the old black-rimmed glasses that didn’t have the right prescription.
Like the melted glasses, perhaps it was made of something acidic. I decided to keep the eyeglass lenses.
I gathered the gold-coloured water left on the table with tissue paper and poured it into a cup; there was about 100 ml in all.
Even when I observed the wet tissue paper, it didn’t melt. The glass table hadn’t melted either.
“…How did that thing get in here?”
When I opened the curtains, the outside was starting to get a little lighter. The window was locked. It’s an old apartment on the first floor, so I always keep it locked.
“The entrance and kitchen window aren’t open either… huh?”
The cardboard boxes and the small plastic chest of drawers that I’d put under the bed were gone.
My pants and socks…
Moreover, the parquet flooring was gone as well. Completely. There was a hole just inside the feet of the bed.
“Oh no! Subsidence!? Or rather…huh, just here?”
That was close; if the hole had been a bit bigger, I would have fallen through with the bed. The cut on the parquet was clean, like it had been sliced with a blade.
I lowered my body and peeked into the hole under the bed. It was too dark to tell whether it was deep or not. I didn’t have a torch. I had a lighter, but it would be dangerous if there was a gas leak or something. I couldn’t smell gas, but it did smell like damp earth.
I carefully moved the bed forwards and peered in again.
The hole, lit by the fluorescent lights in the room, had rough, earthen steps leading to the room next to it.
That’s it. That’s how that thing got in here.
What should I do?
Today’s Saturday, and today and tomorrow are my days off work.
I don’t have anything to fill the hole. I can’t help but shudder at the thought of another thing like that coming out. The best thing to do would be to call the landlord and get them to fill it as soon as possible.
“But…that was a slime, right? Could this be a dungeon? Just kidding, that’s impossible, right… That’s it, my smartphone.”
I switched on the light on my smartphone. With this, I should be able to see what’s at my feet.
“I’ll just have a quick look…”
I picked up my shoes from the entrance, and held a smartphone in my left hand and a kitchen knife in my right.
“Hm, come to think of it, that thing didn’t melt the lenses or the table. Was it taking its time, or was it just unable to melt them?”
The cup containing the gold-coloured liquid was still the same, too.
After some thought, I decided to place the legs of the glass table over my shoulders. It wasn’t that heavy. It was quite small, so it still covered my abdomen. For stability, I attached it to my body with gaffer tape so that the glass wouldn’t be concealed.
“…Alright, I’m now equipped with glass armour.”
It’s not like anyone can see me, but I felt a little embarrassed.
A 23 year-old single man who’s never had a girlfriend would surely be able to overcome such a trial.