Three years was the last time that something like this occurred, as an independent hunter party ventured into a Beta dungeon, just for a simple raid: kill the hungry boss, as well as, collect the mana crystals and beast shards.
During their journey within the dungeon, the hunters made a live stream as they punched the jaws of wild Lucans, sliced the heads of the remaining comrades and then assaulted and killed the alpha, their hungry, savage boss.
It was a breathtaking experience while they all finished the dwellers of the low ranked dungeon with such ease.
But the most delightful was the moment to gather up their reward before the time for the dungeon portal to disappear reaches.
After a while of mining mana crystals, harvesting beast shards from their kills and getting the dungeon objects around, something happened without warning as the whole scene blurred and shone in a bright flare of radiance.
And the next moment, they saw themselves trapped in an entirely new environment, teeming with new tribes of rivals, whose eyes screamed of bloodlust, wild hunger and malice.
After then, they never came back to tell the story as the camera was smashed in the process.
Which as well lead to a dungeon break that year.
And this was called the Dungeon Shift.
As exactly where Kade and the hunters found themselves.
Dungeon Shift was once a myth, but really happened to occur. It is a magical phenomenon when an unstable dungeon affected by a negative mana disruptive force hacks its universal mana influx and outworldly structure, which results it to accessing into the energy pool of other dungeons to restructure itself and build out to an entirely new stable dungeon world.
…And in most cases, a different rank which always comes in higher.
The bright ethereal flare burned their retina, the sudden rush of mana strained their organs, and the dreamy swirling ride spun and disoriented their minds as they all fell on all four for stability and balance.
The bright radiance slowly dissipated and vanished as Kade's vision was free of all the foggy obstruction to see now.
With a deep sigh of relief, he raised his head to get a view of the surroundings, only to see what wasn't in his list of expectations.
Then he froze with a deadspan expression on his face.
…What in the hell is this place?
They saw themselves standing on a wide ancient battle arena that spanned thirty meters on both sides and a distant length. Kade glanced around to see layers of high ascending seats circling them, cut from ancient brown marble, to form an amphitheater. All around the wall, anchoring supports stood with arch-shaped entrances.
The rusty air that lingered smelt of countless battles and fallen warriors.
The ground beneath their feet were covered and painted with dried blood as a testament of the ferocious and deadly battles that had stood here before. And far ahead amongst the entrances, was a large one which was obviously the main entrance that was slightly ajar as the caged door had slid half way up and the ominous darkness that loomed within.
They were standing in the almost middle of a esclipstic arena.
Though what caught Kade's attention were two things.
First was that the rows of seats that surrounded them were all empty of any audience, like it had been that way for thousands of years, together with the whole surrounding. He'd expected to be met by an army of dreadful creatures in this unknown place.
And the second was the most breathtaking and unexpected. Around the corners of the battlefield stood made with hard opulent wood and reinforced with strong strips of golden metals, glistering the glory that it contains within.
…Were treasure chests with glorious and delightful gifts stored in it.
Gregory stood frozen and open-mouthed at the sight of it, already forgetting what had happened, with his eyes glistening with avarice.
"Holy cosmos! We've found ourselves a paradise of an endlessly rich treasury!"
He didn't hesitate as he strode off towards one of the treasure chests, and with a little strain, forced its lid wide open to reveal various kinds of treasures.
The rest stood aghast as they saw Gregory gathering a sparkling star-shaped mana crystal, large crystalline extracted beast shards, and a golden dragon eye avariciously, before Arsen took a tentative step forward.
Then he raced off towards a treasure chest beside Gregory's, opened it and brought out his pack to stuff them in.
Kade felt the same wild desire to join them too, but he resisted as this whole thing doesn't make sense.
Why were there free treasures in the dungeon, that's cruel.
Arsen, who had noticed the reluctance on the rest, glanced at them with a grimace and snorted.
"Are you all going to join in, or just stand there like mannequins?"
Mia folded her arm with a disapproving look on her face and said tersely:
"Well we wouldn't just jump into some pile of unknown treasures like dogs without thinking!"
Realizing his actions, Arsen felt the wave of embarrassment swallow him, then left the lid of the treasure trunk reluctantly. But Gregory still insisted as he brought out what looked like a mana infused ring.
Then made a leering look at Mia and said:
"I'm gonna save this one for you, purple."
Kade could see Mia's face flush in what seemed to be embarrassment, or anger.
Then it grew green.
"Shut up, you idiot! And snap out of it! Can't you see that we are in the middle of an ancient colosseum."
As a dawn of realization surfacing in his mind, Gregory shifted his gaze around, at the arched entrances, the rising rows of seats, and then the turret and towers of the fortification that boarded high all around them, before looking back at the valuable treasures in front of him.
"Oh… sorry, I got a little bit enthusiastic, you know."
Ren shook his head with disapproval.
"I think you should put it as avaricious euphorism."
Gregory sighed.
"If you put it in that way, then okay."
Then he cast one more craving look at the chest, things that he could do with it swirling all over his mind but he had to let go and face their current situation as he stood up reluctantly.
Arsen and Gregory left the treasure trunk, looking quite disappointed as they approached the others.
Ren looked around the surroundings for any signs of a portal gate, or an escape route, but there were none.
Though there were the arched entrances but were locked shut with metal caged doors, the base wall to the lowest layer of seat towered high above for them to reach.
Kade had noticed something strange after he turned around frantically.
"Where's Aria?"
But his questions were answered as he saw her far ahead of them. However, she stood frozen to a direction, her face white with eyes wide open as she raised her hand and pointed towards the main entrance that had now slid wide open.
There was a ruthless growl that escaped the entrance as an enormous horned silhouette with crimson flames burning in place of its eye appeared within the embrace of darkness, came to view.
As if to add more pressure by announcing its presence, a wide dungeon interface blinked to life.
[Welcome to the Colosseum of the Ruler]
[You most defeat the Ruler to leave the dungeon]
[Failure to defeat and kill the Ruler would lead to a dungeon break!]
[Ruler: Arkos the horn breaker]
And then, the dungeon was filled with a newfound aura of bloody battle that hadn't occurred since a thousand years.