Chapter 9: Chapter 7 – Zombie Dungeon

Jake awoke to a slight weight on his chest. Jake was starting getting used to sleeping near the demoness, but usually she would be floating away somewhere by the time he awoke. He looked at her, and noticed some changes. For one, she was a little larger than before. Second, it was like the shadow fog that covered her body had been reduced somewhat.

He could now see more of her features. Before, he could barely tell that she might be wearing some kind of clothing, but now he could clearly tell that she was wearing what appeared to be a kimono or robes of some kind.  He could now also make out some features of her face, such as actually being able to see her lips, and that she had what appeared to be elfin ears. The biggest change was to her size: she was now clearly over a foot and a half tall, to which her other portions grew as well. She was now almost 50% larger than she was when she first arrived.

Jake looked over at the nightstand. The crystal he had given her was now gone. If she used these [Mana Crystals] to improve, why hadn’t she asked for one sooner, or for more than just the one? Knowing that she needed them he would have prioritized it; he guessed this might be the real reason why, but he wasn’t sure. For once the demoness did not wake moments after he did, so he began to review information in his [Menu]

 

 

It looked like Jake would not be trudging through caves this time, but a mausoleum. The zombie’s levels were higher than the goblins, so he hoped that they would provide double or more of the experience. He read about dismantling zombies, and found that their cores would be worth double what the goblin cores were worth, and their hands and fingernails could be used for alchemical components. Their equipment was often rusted and worthless, so unless an individual zombie was extraordinarily equipped, he would be ignoring any equipment or clothing they would be wearing.

Removing hands or just the fingernails seemed like it would be too much work, but it appeared that with the proper tool and the dismantling skill assisting him, the chore would not be too onerous. Only the amount of space they took in his bag would be problematic. Jake would bring his gym bag for extra hand storage…just thinking about that made him shudder in disgust.

Still, the hands with their fingernails were worth 5 credits each, so each zombie would be like a minor wind-fall at around 15 credits when you include the core. He queued the bone clamp that would make removing the hands much easier for purchase, and realized the demoness still hadn’t stirred. Her consuming that crystal must have taken a lot out of her. He decided to move on to spiral practice while he was in bed.

It was an hour or so later that Jake was getting hungry that the demoness woke up. He smiled at her and decided to greet her. “Good morning. Congratulations on your growth. I have what I think is good news: the new dungeon is zombies, and it looks like they will be quite valuable. I’ve already completed the practice on the spiral for the morning.”

The demoness began to stretch with a smile, then took to the air. Jake went through his daily ablutions, had breakfast and continued his daily training with his spear drills, and practice with her moving targets. He felt that he was nearing the maximum he could gain from this training, other than keeping in good form and working out his muscles. Those completed, he settled in to learn his stamina regeneration spell. This book was longer than the mana control one, so he was not sure he would be able to complete reading it today.

He read it for a couple of hours and decided to stop for the day. It was quite the dry read, with Jake reading about the impact of mana on the body, and how to manipulate mana in the body to restore stamina. This dungeon was still a beginner dungeon, and this time there was not even a boss monster for a target; they would need to kill all the zombies to clear it.  They also were only given three days to complete it, so Jake wanted to take stock and make sure they had enough time.

Jake reviewed the zombies wiki entry, and realized he needed to add an antidote for zombie infection. It was not a one bite and done type of infection like most zombie movies, but it was still a painful and damaging infection if left alone. He got ready with the help of the demoness after retrieving his purchases from the portal.

When he exited the portal, Jake gasped in surprise at the change. Instead of a cave or being inside of a mausoleum already, he was outside in what appeared to be a graveyard. It was night with a large moon providing light, and the ground was covered in fog. There were seemingly several crypts nearby, and Jake wondered if he had to clear them all or not. He let the demoness roam around to have a look, while he prepared for any enemies.

When she returned, she motioned towards the crypt in front of them. It appeared that the target crypt was there. He entered and went down the stairs, noting that there were various coffins lining the walls even in the first room. He wondered if he would have a waking the dead ambush type situation like in a game, where zombies would climb out of their coffins and attack. The demoness shrugged and pointed down the hallway; it appeared there should be some obvious enemies ahead.

When Jake rounded the corner, a zombie was just standing in the middle of a long hallway: about 15 meters away. They did not react at all to his headlamp; it appeared their detection was not based on sight, and they could not sense very far. Jake set down his extra bag. He then decided to test their durability. He shot an empowered [Mana Bolt] to the zombie’s right ankle. This blew off their foot, and caused them to tumble to the ground and begin crawling in Jake’s direction. He went forward, and used [Mana Blade] to cut off one of the zombie’s arms to test the effectiveness of the blade on them, then stabbed it in the head using his spear, killing it.

The zombies were not very fast, so it was near impossible for him to get surrounded with the demoness’ help; he could simply just run away and take shots at them as they approached with [Mana Bolt].

Three hours later, Jake was glad for this training dungeon. He had killed nearly twenty zombies in such a short time, the enemy density much higher than the goblin caves, where he would trudge through the darkness for sometimes over twenty minutes before the demoness would signal that enemies were ahead.

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Nearly every hallway or room of this mausoleum had an enemy, and it only took a few minutes to harvest the materials and move on to the next. He decided to take a second run into the dungeon after lunch back at the apartment, due to his gym bag getting full.

When they got back, Jake put the zombie hands on the [Multiverse Market] as fast as he could. He did not want to have to store them in his apartment any longer than he had to. It seemed there was a standing buy order for them, as they were a spell-component for an often-used spell. With over 300 credits gained, he asked the demoness if she wanted another [Mana Crystal], to which she agreed on just one, at least for now. He wondered if having a crystal for himself would help at all, to which she shook her head. He cleaned up and made lunch, then headed back into the dungeon.

It was on his fourth trip on the second day that Jake finished the dungeon; the zombies provided no surprises. He was still not able to finish the spiral, or the stamina regeneration spell. Jake got the completion reward once they arrived back in his apartment.

 

 

Jake learned that he would be able to attempt the [Trial] when he was level 8 or above. The [Trial] would behave much like a dungeon from an RPG, having multiple floors with a dungeon master that needed to be defeated, for [The Framework] to take that power and provide Jake access to the greater multiverse.  

A box appeared from his portal. It appeared that his dungeon clear reward included a physical component this time. He retrieved the crate from inside the box, to which the demoness looked on in interest. It appeared that this was like a loot crate; it would create a piece of or suit of armor using a random mechanic.

He read the [Alliance Wiki], it appeared that it would randomly select armor that would be suited to whomever opened it. He looked over at the demoness, to which she, for her, firmly grasped his shoulder. She was clear that she wanted him to open it, and she would accept no arguments.

With that decided, he went ahead and opened it. What appeared to be a hologram appeared above in a burst of light, and he heard powerful tribal drums beating, and men chanting as the rewards cycled through the possibilities. The demoness looked on with wide eyes, and Jake just wryly smiled; just what had his life come to, that he would be opening loot crates in real life? The roulette seemed to stop on some gloves, and the music and chanting reached its end. Not the most critical place to protect, but it was his first piece of fantasy armor.

 

 

It appeared that these gloves would improve both his strength and dexterity. This was useful, but he wondered just how much longer he would train as a warrior. Once he could summon beasts, he would likely be the weak-point that would be targeted; getting into the fighting, even with a longer weapon like a spear seemed like a poor choice.

He would bring much more to the group, spending his time casting spells and directing his summons from the middle or rear of the party’s formation. He would only use his spear if something penetrated the formation, or to help cover for an ally that might be even squishier than him.

Jake simply would not have enough attribute points to keep his physical attributes at acceptable levels without giving up far too much in terms of the magical attributes. Especially Summoners, they needed charisma, wisdom, and intelligence at near-equal levels.

That aside, Jake and the demoness did their evening ritual of dinner and a show, and Jake once again supplied her with a [Mana Crystal]. For the foreseeable future, she would be consuming one each evening. Jake was excited for tomorrow: he would finish his spiral, even if it took him all day.

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