My Slime Wife: Training and Pampering Her Makes Me Stronger
Chapter 7: Falling Into a Dungeon by Accident

Chapter 7: Falling Into a Dungeon by Accident

The tremor started as an almost imperceptible sensation.

At first, Liam thought it was just his imagination.

Maybe exhaustion.

Maybe the nerves after everything that had happened that day.

But then he felt it again.

A deep movement beneath his feet.

The street vibrated.

The windows of the buildings began to shake.

Some people walking nearby stopped in confusion, looking around and trying to figure out what was happening.

"An earthquake?"

"What’s going on?"

Liam remained still.

His hand instinctively tightened around the strap of his photography bag.

Lydia was inside.

Then the ground made a terrifying sound.

Crack.

A crack appeared in the middle of the street.

Then another.

And another.

The cracks quickly spread, tearing through the asphalt.

The people finally reacted.

Screams erupted.

"Run!"

"Get away!"

Some managed to escape.

Others stumbled while trying to get away.

But Liam remained there.

Staring without understanding.

A green window appeared before his eyes.

[Warning.]

[A new Dungeon is emerging.]

[Estimated Classification: D-Rank.]

His breathing stopped.

"A Dungeon...?"

The word lingered in his mind.

Five years of stories.

Five years of watching the news about Hunters entering places like that.

But he had never imagined one would appear right beneath his feet.

Especially not now.

When he had no experience.

When Lydia had only just evolved.

When neither of them was prepared.

"No..."

He gripped the bag tightly.

"We’re not ready for this."

He looked at the street.

"Especially not a D-Rank one."

Without thinking any further, he started running.

He had to get out of there.

He had to move away.

He had to protect Lydia.

But after only a few steps...

The ground beneath his feet broke apart again.

The crack opened completely.

Liam felt the asphalt disappear beneath him.

His body lost balance.

He fell.

"Lydia!"

There was no time to think.

He only hugged the bag against his chest with all his strength.

He closed his eyes.

If he was going to fall...

At least she couldn’t get hurt.

The sensation of falling surrounded him.

◇◆◇

He fell for several seconds.

Longer than should have been possible.

The wind struck his face.

But then...

Impact.

He expected pain.

Broken bones.

The end.

But none of that happened.

His body hit a strangely soft surface.

As if he had fallen onto an enormous pillow.

He remained motionless for several seconds.

Then he slowly opened his eyes.

The first thing he saw was the sky.

But something was wrong.

Very wrong.

He slowly sat up.

"What...?"

He looked around.

There were no buildings.

No streets.

No signs of the city.

Only an impossible landscape.

The sky was violet.

There was no ceiling.

No walls.

No visible source of light.

And yet...

Everything was illuminated.

Above him floated countless moons.

Thousands.

Maybe millions.

They were tiny white lights scattered across the entire sky.

Liam stared at them.

"I never imagined a Dungeon would be like this..."

He had always thought they would be dark places.

Caves.

Ruins.

But this looked like another world.

As if he had walked through a door into a completely different dimension.

He sighed.

"Maybe I should have stayed home."

He looked at the bag.

"We should’ve just eaten the leftover meat and called it a day."

Despite everything, it didn’t seem dangerous.

He looked down.

The ground was strange.

A kind of soft white sand covered the entire area.

His legs were buried almost halfway.

But he didn’t feel any weight.

No cold.

No heat.

It was like standing inside a cloud.

Then a message appeared.

[Lydia: Liam.]

He looked up.

[Lydia: Where are we?]

Liam remembered something.

The synchronization.

She shared his vision.

He couldn’t lie to her.

He sighed.

"I guess you’ve already seen everything."

[Lydia: Yes.]

[Lydia: Explain what happened.]

Liam looked back at the landscape.

"Looks like we fell inside a Dungeon."

A pause.

"The System says it’s D-Rank."

The reply came immediately.

[Lydia: D-Rank?]

[Lydia: Liam, open the bag.]

[Lydia: Let me out.]

[Lydia: I need to protect you.]

He hesitated.

Then carefully opened the bag.

The small gelatinous blob slowly emerged.

Her tentacles began moving.

Liam watched her.

"It doesn’t seem dangerous."

He looked around.

"Besides, the Hunters probably already detected the Dungeon. They’ll come here. They’ll clear it. And we’ll go home."

He smiled.

"So use this chance to rest."

Lydia remained still.

Then a message appeared.

[Lydia: What do you mean it doesn’t seem dangerous?]

[Lydia: We’re inside a D-Rank Dungeon!]

Liam looked around again.

The violet sky.

The countless moons.

The endless white sand.

There was nothing else.

Only them.

[Lydia: Liam.]

[Lydia: Don’t you notice something strange?]

"What?"

[Lydia: The sky.]

He looked up.

The moons were still there.

But then Lydia wrote again.

[Lydia: I think it’s moving away.]

Liam frowned.

"What?"

He looked closer.

And then he realised.

It wasn’t the sky moving away.

It was him moving downward.

His body was slowly sinking into the sand.

Up to his knees.

"What...?"

He tried to move.

The sand was too soft.

He hadn’t noticed he was sinking.

[Lydia: Liam.]

[Lydia: Do you still think this isn’t dangerous?]

He tried pulling one leg free.

"I’m almost certain that..."

He pushed harder.

"That..."

He managed to pull part of his leg out.

But when he looked up again...

He froze completely.

The moons had changed.

They weren’t moons anymore.

They were eyes.

Gigantic white eyes watching them from the violet sky.

Thousands of eyes.

All staring at them.

Liam stopped breathing.

The sand continued swallowing them slowly.

[Lydia: Liam.]

Her message appeared slower this time.

[Lydia: If this is a Dungeon...]

[Lydia: Then it must work like a tower.]

[Lydia: And if we fell from the top all the way here...]

A pause.

[Lydia: This must be the final floor.]

Liam understood.

The final level.

The deepest.

The most dangerous.

The sand began moving around them.

Lydia didn’t wait any longer.

She jumped out of the bag.

Her body spread across the surface.

Her tentacles stretched outward.

Trying to create a foundation to move.

"Lydia."

Concern appeared on his face.

"It’s dangerous to come out!"

She didn’t answer immediately.

She simply continued stretching.

Then a message appeared.

[Lydia: Trust me.]

Liam watched as his slime wife began extending herself across the strange sand.

[Lydia: Climb on top of me.]

This time, it wasn’t him trying to protect her.

It was her trying to protect him.

And above them...

The thousands of eyes continued watching.