Chapter 2: Chapter 2 – Purgatory?

The landscape around him was strange. It didn’t look like the maze structure of Purgatory, but it didn’t fit the fiery landscapes depicted with Hell. Taking ahold of himself, he surveyed his personal situation.

From the perspective of aura, Theseus had nothing. Aura was the qualitative level of magical power a person had. Most people were categorized into five different realms of power, Mortal, Sage, Royalty, Deity, and Authority. The Mortal Realm consisted of normal people living their lives, but those in the Sage Realm were much stronger and capable of logic defying feats. Every country and organization had a backbone of Sage Realm individuals, but the leaders were the Kings and Queens in the Royalty Realm.

Royalty lived longer than Sages and were much stronger. The name Royalty Realm itself was derived from the leaders who ruled over kingdoms, companies, and organizations starting at this realm. Above Royalty, the Deities ruled. Throughout the whole world, the quantity of known Gods and Goddesses were below two dozen. They led the strongest countries and organizations and were rarely seen by the public. Above Gods and Goddesses are the Authorities, beings who can rule over the cosmos. They had long disappeared from history, and some even doubted their existence.

As an adventurer, Theseus was in the mid to higher tier Sage Realm, but in the afterlife, his aura capacity had more or less reset to a newborn mortal. Attempting the same growth path here would be futile. As an adventurer, he could buy equipment and had tempered his body with exclusive items and herbs, but here, he had nothing and no one.

There were no people around, but only the echoes of voices, screams, and the sounds of the coral forest. Yet, it was no normal forest. Animalistic sounds were all around Theseus, but he couldn’t pinpoint any life nor spirits.

One thing was for sure, it was dangerous to stay where he was. Who knew what creatures were in this forest? Perhaps looking for another person who could help him would be best. Theseus’s field of vision was obscured by the trees, but he saw the enormous mountains in the distance. The three peaks were the highlight of the horizon. As impressive as they were, they couldn’t match the height of Heaven. The current Theseus was too weak to navigate over the mountains and could only head in the one direction not obscured by the mountains.

After hours of walking, Theseus didn’t run into any life whatsoever. Were the beasts of the deep ignoring him, or was he lucky? Regardless, Theseus couldn’t find anyone. It would be foolish to assume he was the only living being in this place, especially with the plethora of ambient noises.

“According to dungeon lore, this atmosphere fits Purgatory more so than Hell,” thought Theseus. Wandering around forever, the souls in Purgatory are thought to endlessly search for eternal rest until their spirit dissipates or they are able to move on.

“Although the strongest possibility is Purgatory at this point, I can’t rule out Hell, nor can I expect the beasts to leave me alone.” Theseus calculated to himself.

Theseus’s stomach was rumbling. Strangely enough, Theseus was hungry, which defied reason. A ghostly spirit didn’t need to eat, sleep, nor did they thirst according to established theory and magic. Sprits lived off of spiritual energies, and the atmosphere of the ocean had an unnatural amount of it.

Along his wandering, a large spiraling tree was in the distance. Coral mixed with bark and leaves sprawled over the ocean floor from its roots. Shrubbery sprouted from the ground and roots like allege. Thorns and rocks made it difficult to transverse the ocean floor, but the scene was hauntingly beautiful. Only the eyes of the dead could witness this underwater world. However, Theseus was hungry and tired from walking. Unknowingly to Theseus, he grew paranoid and lost cognitive ability to take it all in as time drew on.

Theseus treads carefully and half expects Royalty Realm beasts to show up at any moment. Louder than before, the noise of the forest grew deafening. Up ahead, a commotion brewed. A battle was taking place between two animals. Theseus watched a good distance away from behind a spiral coral tree. A leopard looking beast and a gigantic fish were fighting. From the looks of the beasts, they were both at the High Sage Realm.

Would his spirit dissipate if he didn’t eat? Theseus didn’t want to take that chance. Finishing off the loser of the fight was Theseus’s only option. Eating Sage Realm beasts may even help his current deficient state of aura. Some people could grow stronger by eating beasts of a higher quality while others rejected the meat and could not process the higher concentration of aura. Theseus had never tried the meat of a Spirit Beast, but he had no choice but to risk fighting the loser.

Meanwhile, the leopard like beast was in dire straits. The fish monster that looked like a carnivorous tuna fish slammed the leopard against trees while the leopard lashed out with its claws at the tuna. Unlike Theseus, these Spirit Beasts weren’t undead but natural beasts to this unholy habitat.

“What a strange sight…” Theseus pondered.

The slashes of the leopard were making little impact on the tuna, but the brute force of tuna left the leopard with bruises and cuts from being flung around. At this rate, the tuna would defeat the leopard to the point where Theseus could only watch.

It was time to get involved. His meal was at stake!

Theseus decided to throw rocks at the tuna to distract it so the leopard could get more damage in. Sneaking up closer to the battlefield, Theseus threw a singular rock. The tuna didn’t notice at all and kept fighting as if nothing had happened.

“Wow, I’m really weak…” Theseus muttered to himself. It was to be expected. A low-ranking mortal could never harm a beast like the tuna unless it was at death’s door. Theseus grew bolder and chucked rock after rock at the tuna.

The battle drug on, but Theseus went seemingly unnoticed. The leopard was noticeably injured, and its right eye was torn apart by the coral trees. Theseus got bolder and more got closer as he found bigger rocks.

“Maybe I’m so weak, the creatures don’t even bother eating me…” He thought to himself. Just as he had this thought, the tuna turned to him with annoyance. Ignoring the leopard, it made a beeline right for Theseus!

“Ahhh!” Theseus yelled and ran in the direction he came from. The leopard collapsed from exhaustion, but the fish beast didn’t care. Constant rock throwing annoyed anyone, even a giant fish monster. Theseus couldn’t outrun the beast and decided to hide in a tree. A huge tree towered over the current area that he walked by earlier. Surely, the beast couldn’t take down the largest tree in the forest. After being chased for over an hour, Theseus jumped onto the tree and found a crack within it.

“This will never work! Why did I do this?” Theseus realized his stupidity. Although he had passed out for an unknown amount of time when he awoke here, provoking Sage Realm monsters was an idiotic thing to do.

The tuna rammed into the tree over and over again, and vehemently tried to force its way into the crack but couldn’t. Hours flew by, but the beast made no headway and eventually left. All the while, Theseus sat in the tree with wounds all over him.

You are reading story Dungeon Rulers at novel35.com

Coral scratched all over Theseus’s body. From the chase, the cuts from running into the shrubbery left cuts from head to toe. He attempted to close the wounds the best he could, but he lacked aura and supplies. Tired, hungry, and alone, Theseus could only sleep.

***

Heaven – Floor One

“Come on Theseus!” Alvaro called out. Theseus was lagging behind. As the navigator, Alvaro couldn’t have Theseus at the back of the party.

“Slow down everyone!” He pulled Berringer by the collar and stopped climbing.

“What’s the hold up?” Berringer grumbled.

“Sorry guys. This altitude is catching up to me,” Theseus said as an excuse as he ran up the trail towards the rest of the party.

“I don’t know why we bothered bringing him at all,” the tanker, Ju Long muttered. Berringer laughed at the comment out loud.

“Shut up you all. None of you know anything close to Theseus. He may be a bum when it comes to hiking, but he is the smartest one here. Without him, we won’t know our right from our left!” Alvaro defended Theseus fervently.

“Aye, aye, I just be kidding around,” Ju Long didn’t care too much about what he said and walked alongside Berringer away from Alvaro.

“Thanks Alvaro. Now, I’m fairly certain we head west at the next fork.” Theseus walked alongside Alvaro as they continued their climb up the base of Heaven.

***

Waking up from his dream, tears came down Theseus’s face. After five years climbing heaven, it was all over. He didn’t even know if his gamble had paid off. Using his body to kill  Fayette was always the only way to conquer the fourth floor. Even with his gruesome death, Fayette’s death wasn’t absolute. Now, he would never know if Alvaro, Lydia, and Berringer survived. If only he spoken up for himself more, was stronger, or smarter, his party wouldn’t have died.

Now, here he was, holed up in a tree as a dying ghost. Even now, he was a failure. The fish beast was hovering the tree, waiting for him at its base. His greatest regret was Lydia. She loved Alvaro, and everyone knew it. Alvaro was proud and wanted to go beyond his limit to show off to her, but she didn’t need to be with someone who cleared the fourth floor; she loved Alvaro before they went to Heaven.

If only he had been a stronger friend, he shouldn’t have allowed Alvaro to continue the climb as their navigator. From an objective perspective, clearing the third floor was their limit.

While Theseus was lost in his thoughts, he neglected to see the other creature in the hole with him. The crevice Theseus was in was a few dozen feet in diameter. Squeezing in through the crack into the tree was hard enough for Theseus, and he was too weak physically to notice that the haven he found was already occupied. By the time he would have noticed, he had fallen asleep.

Curled up in a ball a few feet away from Theseus was an old snake. His black spots blended him into the background of the crevice. The Spirit Snake watched curiously at the defeated man in front of him.

Beasts have a range of intelligence that rely on their realm and species. The snake was a low ranked Sage Realm beast, but he was smart enough to understand and communicate at a rudimentary level with humans. The fish monster on the other hand was a high Spirit realm fish but only relied on instinct to hunt and survive.

Stretching and uncoiling, the snake continued to watch Theseus, an obviously broken man wallowing in his death and regrets. It sighed heavily and slithered into the light of the crevice. Theseus noticed the beast and freaked out internally.

“Stay.. Stay away!” Theseus tried to move but couldn’t; his injuries were more serious than he originally thought. The three eyed snake strolled closer to Theseus.

“So, this is how I die, eaten by a snake.” Theseus cried internally with horror. Laughing with a sinisterly deep laughter, the snake got even closer.

“How in the name of the gods did I not see the snake?” Theseus was at a loss for words and resigned to his cruel fate. The snake coiled around him with a smile in its eyes.

You can find story with these keywords: Dungeon Rulers, Read Dungeon Rulers, Dungeon Rulers novel, Dungeon Rulers book, Dungeon Rulers story, Dungeon Rulers full, Dungeon Rulers Latest Chapter