Langerhan city, Nightingale.
The carriage stopped in a lonely valley situated between two towering mountain peaks. There was nothing special about this place and travellers would usually just neglect it.
Had the archives not stated the exact location of the hidden dungeon, even Lith would've skipped it.
Along with his three maids, he searched for a small rock with a hexagram inscribed on it.
It took quite some time, but it was eventually found out. It was Luna who got it.
"Good job, Luna." Lith said with a smile. "Here, you can wear your panties back now."
Luna took the panties and pouted. To others this may seem like a relief, but to her it was no less than a punishment. She wanted to be available at all times to her Prince!
Lith chuckled knowing exactly what was going on in her head. He didn't respond to it though.
Lith took the rock and threw it randomly on the mountain in front of him.
As the rock's hitting sound was heard, the mountain trembled and it felt as if there was an earthquake.
The mountain then split into two and a mighty gate manifested. The gate opened up in a few seconds and there was nothing but a bright light that came out of it.
"Let's go." Lith said to his maids and they ventured inside.
Everything was bright at first but then they found themselves in a dark forest with oddly shaped trees.
[Ding!]
[Hidden Dungeon found!]
[Establishing connection with the dungeon…]
[Success!]
[Quest #1: The Fruit of Neurblov and the Yellow Phantom.]
[Info: The Fruit of Nuerblov grows on an ancient tree planted by the Yellow Phantom's ancestor to heal themselves from a hereditary plague. But due to a curse placed on them right before the ripening of fruit, the entire lineage was unable to harvest it. Generations after generations suffered and only one heir remains.]
[Objective: Find the heir, find the fruit. Feed the fruit to the heir and pass the quest.]
[Reward: Loyalty of the Yellow Phantom.]
[Penalty: Curse of the Yellow Phantom after its death.]
[Time limit: until the death of the last remaining Yellow Phantom — 15 days.]
"…" Lith was utterly speechless as he saw the system screen appear right in front of him showing a lot of details.
Right after stepping into the dungeon, his system somehow established a connection with the dungeon and now here he was, having a quest out of nowhere.
"This dungeon wasn't cleared?" Lith couldn't help but ask his maids.
The three shook their heads as they had no idea about this place.
"Welp, seems like we'll need to finish a quest then." Lith said and went deeper into the forest with his girls.
*
Nightingale.
News of a dungeon suddenly appearing alerted the adventurer's and made them all leave everything they were doing and flock to this place.
The World Adventurer's Association got the news too and after some research via their special artifacts, they handed out the news that this place was dangerous.
It was a SS+ ranked dungeon and people should be careful.
The adventurer's listened to the commands and formed appropriate teams and went in.
By the end of the first day, elite groups from around the world had entered the dungeon.
The World Adventure's Association helped teleport the affiliated adventurer's to this place as quickly as possible and by the end of the day, approximately a thousand people had entered the dungeon.
Back in the Royal Castle, Lilith was slightly annoyed as she felt Lith enter the dungeon.
Such a big banquet was coming up in two days and he had left the castle to conquer some dungeon.
Lilith could only think about whether she was spoiling him too much and after a few seconds of thinking, she came to the conclusion that she wasn't spoiling him enough and needed to spoil him some more.
She was still annoyed though. But being a good mother, she looked after him.
With the snap of her finger, the time ratios changed and in just a few minutes, Lith should be out of it.
Lilith was looking forward with a smile to what her baby would bring from within the dungeon.
*
The Hidden Dungeon.
Completely unaware that his mother had flipped the time ratios, Lith was hurrying to find the damn fruit and phantom.
He had his banquet two days later and if he was late, he was sure he was in for a good round of spanking from his mother!
That's right. Even though he was a grown up now and had hardly ever gotten spanked because his mother loved him to no ends, there were some times when he had messed up and gotten punished.
The spanks were no joke. They really hurt and Lith didn't want to have a repeat of it.
He was now a proud young master! It was him who handed out the spanks and not the other way round!
But damn his situation! If he was a young master, his mother was the mother of the young master. A super op character who feared none!
He had to get out of this dungeon within two days or it would really be troublesome. He had a reputation to save and also his butt cheeks!
"Did you find anything, Freya?" Lith asked telepathically while swimming at the bottom of a river.
He had shared talismans with his maids and they could now communicate telepathically.
"No, Your Highness. But I did find a few suspicious people."
"What?"
"Your Highness, Qingyue here. The suspicious people Freya may be talking about aren't suspicious. They're adventurers. They must've entered the dungeon after us."
"Put a marker on them and keep the search for the fruit going. We can't afford to waste time."
"Understood!" Freya and Qingyue said at the same time.
Lith, who was swimming to the bottom of the river, found a tree bearing some fruits.
Wondering if it was the so-called Nuerblov fruit, Lith went to examine it.
PZZZTTTT!
The tree's branches came to life like tentacles and as Lith was close, got hold of him.
The first branch wrapped around Lith's ankle and pulling him closer, more tentacles wrapped themselves all around his body.
'SON OF A BITCH! I AM NOT INTO TENTACLE PLAY!' Lith cursed internally as he tried to cast spells and get out.
To his dismay, spells didn't work as the branches had sealed his ability to feel elemental energies.
'FUCK!' Lith cursed. 'I'll be molested by a damn tree!'
Lith struggled to free himself from the tentacles of the trees and having no choice, he bit hard on the branch wrapped around his hand and tore it off.
The tree trembled and whipped a branch to hit Lith's back.
'Bastard!' Lith cursed. Although his pain tolerance was high, being whipped like a peasant didn't suit a noble Prince like him!
It wasn't physical damage but emotional one now!
Since the bite worked, Lith extended his fangs out and tore off some more branches from his hand and freeing it, immediately took out a dagger attached to his ankle.
Fwip! Fwip!
Lith cut the branches as fast as he could and swam out of the grasp of the tree.
Getting the ability to feel elemental energies again, Lith wasted no time and used the Destruction element to cast an AOE spell.
Orbs of Destruction energy rained down on the three and obliterated it to nothingness, leaving a crater at the place it was.
There in the middle of the crater, there was a metal chest.
Lith carefully approached the metal chest and finding no problems, took it outside water.
Being drenched from head to toe with water and having his clothes torn off in various places, Lith cursed the tentacle tree. If he found it in the outside world again, he would burn his whole bloodline down!
But looking back at how the branches so easily wrapped around his body, he must say—
"What the fuck am I thinking!?" Lith became conscious of his thoughts and cursed himself.
Shaking his head, Lith focused on the metal chest.
Just as he was about to open it…
"Oi beggar, get away from the chest!"