Surviving as the Second Main Lead: Second Lead's POV

The big bird behind Horas nudged him into the huge nest and Horas felt like he had to comply. The big beak was too close to his neck and back for him to feel comfortable.

“I am going in you the big, dumb bird. There is no need for you to force me to go in.”

The bird boss gave an offended cry but did not make any other attempts on Horas’s life. It was far too docile right now. It was not making sense as a boss monster.

‘Is this boss tamed? It’s tip-toeing around me like it does not want to hurt me.’

Horas could not help but feel like this bird had protected him all the flight here. Its grip had been gentle and its flight comfortable. Even now, the big bird just leaned on Horas’s side, not attempting to harm him.

He looked at his surroundings to find a clue to where he was. But there was nothing that could clue him on his current location. He was trapped in a comfortable yet empty room.

‘At least my tracking device is still working. I can see my location on it.’

Horas had to wait for the backup but it was the only thing he could do until the boss decided it wanted to go out.

Which did not take as long as Horas expected it to take. The big bird might be interested in Horas but it did not stick around him for long as well.

Once the big stupid bird was gone, Horas finally decided to start exploring the building. And he started with the corridor he had seen before.

“It’s so weird how this place still has running electricity and other resources. Dungeons usually do not have such advanced tech or even running devices.”

Well, there were some technically advanced dungeons but their technology looked foreign. But this one looked similar to human technology of the current period.

Horas finally managed to find the staircase to head down. He did not want to risk taking a life in case it stopped working in the middle of his escape. And that was if that lift was even running in the first place.

The staircase was old but somehow looked maintained as well. There were no falling parts in its structure which made Horas even more hesitant to head down the stairs. His instincts warned him that he was headed toward trouble.

‘Why am I getting so paranoid for no reason? I just need to reach the ground floor.’

Horas started walking down the stairs and he noticed the first irregularity once he completed one flight of stairs.

There was no exit door for Horas to enter the current floor. All he could do was to go down more in hopes of finding a door.

But despite how much he walked down, he could not find the door he was looking for. And the staircase was getting hotter by the second as well.

Maybe it was just Horas, but breathing was getting more and more difficult by the second.

‘This place is fucking with me. There should be a door here somewhere that allows me to get out of here.’

Horas ran past another flight of stairs but he did not find any door even there. And he had reached the end of the flight already.

‘Is there nothing I can do? How much mana have I recovered by now?’

Horas looked at the bright red 10/100 on his mana meter and sighed. This would be only enough for one big shot and then he will be useless again.

His limitations caused Horas enough trouble and he needed to look for more skills. His only hope was that the start of this story would boost his skills by a lot.

‘Well, there goes the small amount of mana I managed to recover.’

Horas pushed all of it into a condensed bullet and shot it from his gun. It blew away the wall in front of him and led him into a dark corridor.

It only then did Horas realize that he was not on the ground floor but on the basement floor of the building. He had messed up big times by not checking where he was.

“Well, only one way for me to go and see how I can salvage this situation. There better be another way out of here.”

Horas cursed his circumstances as he started walking toward the only way he could see. The dark corridor finally started to lighten up but it was still not bright enough to look at everything properly.

Horas ended up reaching a lab-like space with various specimens of exotic species kept in the bottle for examination. And it was a well-kept and fresh lab at that which made the situation complicated.

‘Didn’t the dungeon association say that this was a newly formed dungeon just discovered recently? Why is there such an advanced lab here? Don’t tell that it belongs to a demon?’

That impossible thought crossed Horas’s mind but he quickly shook his head to get it out. He was thinking of things that were beyond possible.

Demons might be an advanced race but only the high-ranking members of the demon race possessed human-level intelligence.

No such person would be able to set foot in this dungeon without breaking it down. Horas was thinking this all through when he heard the sound of footsteps heading his way.

It confirmed his suspicion and he immediately ducked beneath the nearest desk he could find.

His position did not allow Horas to see the person in front of him but it did allow him to see the shadow of that figure. And the shadow looked more than human to his eyes.

“-State of experiments? It’s going splendid so I am sure mistress would be pleased with my effort.”

The person who walked over had a smooth human tone. The more Horas heard it, the more he was thrown in for a loop.

Usually, even when Monsters were capable of human speech, they had some inhuman qualities in the way they spoke. But this person was different. His tone was clear and apt.

‘Can it be a human and not a demon? But no human was allowed entry down here, right?’

Horas could not help but grow more and more suspicious of what was happening. How had a human managed to walk into this dungeon and remain sane?

“-I did release the giants but that made the dungeon unstable. I had to trap them using the power my mistress lent me. It was such a waste of resources and-”

The person walked further, cutting his words off for Horas not to be able to hear anything for a while.

‘Darn it. I wish I had a special skill that allowed me to hear better at times.’

Horas tried to move but froze as soon as he made some noise. He immediately got back to his place, his heart beating painfully inside his chest.

‘Fuck, did I get caught?’

Horwas waited beneath the desk with patience but the man did not head toward him. It seemed like he was safe.

For now.

“-I will call you later. This dungeon is getting unstable and my pet managed to snag itself an annoyance so I’ll need to go and see what this fuss is about. I am so busy to play with him right now.-”

The possible human walked away again and Horas finally found himself coming out of his hiding place.

He finally got his first look at the possible-human helper of the demon and was startled.

It would have been much less surprising to see a low-level demon or even a possessed person in front of him. But his opponent looked to be in his senses and aware of what was happening.

More than that, Horas could not see any signs of possession on this person. He was too lucid to be controlled and he was too aware to be under any foreign influence.

A human was helping out the demons on his own accord and it was getting dangerous out here. Horas needed to tell the association so that appropriate actions could be taken in return for this.

‘Shit, this is bad, I need to tell all this to the dungeon association and get the dungeons checked. But before that, I need to find a way to get out of here.”

Horas wanted to live but he was sure he would not be able to get out of there alive if he was found out. He needed to find the door out of here.

“-too much noise. Let me check why the alarm went off. Ah, I see. It seems like my dear pet bird lost its new shiny toy…….Worried? Why should I be worried? No information can be transmitted out of this tower and there is no way out. I will find him soon.”

Horas tried not to make any sound of disappointment as soon as he heard those words. Now he needed to get out of here or he was fucked big times.

"-I need to go now or my pet would destroy everything. Sometimes, it doesn't feel like it's worth it t keep such a dangerous pet. So maybe I will get it killed by the adventurers."