Chapter 15: Log 14: The Dairy

Log 14:

Date: July 7th, 2190 I.C. 

Time: 13:25

Location: Orken Power Plant Dungeon 

A body?! I exclaimed, glancing down at the hollow eye sockets of the cracked skull. Why was there a dead human body in THIS Dungeon?! 

While it’s not strange to find a corpse in a Dungeon, it’s strange to find one in a Dungeon that had just formed. Unless someone snuck past the heavy security into the Dungeon last night, the body in the Dungeon would make sense. However, it was highly unlikely that anyone would do such a thing. 

Blank crouched down to about eye level with the skull. He tilted his head left and right as he observed the bones. 

“That’s odd…” He spoke in a low voice. 

Tanya walked over and stared at the bones too. Her eyes widened.

“Guys, these bones aren’t new -" Tanya gulped.  “They’re over two hundred years old.” 

Everyone else jolted up. How could a two-hundred-year-old body possibly be in a Dungeon that had formed last night?

“What?!” 

“I checked the bone Circuits. They’re completely dried out. Judging from the deceased’s Ether capacity, the amount remaining in his body should have been enough to preserve his bones for at least two hundred years.” 

>>>

Circuits are essentially the channels in which Ether flows through our bodies. These Circuits are engraved in one’s blood and bones from the day they are born and continue circulating Ether throughout our bodies until we pass away. Upon death, whatever Ether remains preserves the body and slows the decomposition process.

In this day and age where the ability to learn and wield Ether was common, identifying the age of Circuits was basic knowledge. A normal person with Squire-level training had enough Ether to preserve their bones for approximately a century. If the individual before us had theirs preserved for two hundred years, they must’ve been at least a Knight or 5-Star Adventurer. 

All things considered, two hundred years ago, a 5-Adventure could be considered an Elite. So why would someone like that be dead only half a mile into the Dungeon? If they were a 5-Star, they would’ve easily gotten through those arachnids. Something was off about this Dungeon. 

>>>

I shifted my eyes at everyone, observing the knee-high pile of bones. 

They seemed to have the same thoughts. 

Blank picked up a pristine white rib and twirled it in his hand. He gazed down at the bones. Upon closer inspection, some of them had been destroyed beyond recognition. There was even a thin layer of calcium powder underneath the pile of intact bones. 

“This is eerie.” Nicolette shuddered to clutch onto her staff. 

I touched the wall behind the pile of bones and repeated the chant. This time around, the information wasn’t as clear as the entrance. It felt like I was looking at static on a screen, but the static would clear where I could make out a few images, and symbols. 

Arrows. 

Scorpions. 

My eyes shot open. 

The fragmented picture appeared. 

“Got anything for us?” Gerhman inquired. 

“There’s an arrow and pitfall trap up ahead. Beyond that point are the Scorpions. As for how far, we just have to remain vigilant. Unfortunately, I can’t read the rest, it’s as if something is blocking me from accessing the information.” 

“You know what causes that?” 

I shook my head. 

“I can’t quite say. There's hundreds of variables to consider, and we simply don’t have the time to assess all of them.” 

“Well, we at least have a preview of what lies ahead,” Tanya smiled optimistically. “What about the body?” 

“No idea. It could be an illusion or something else. I just hope it is, I have a feeling that I’m wrong.”

Blank tapped a gloved finger against the wall. 

“The trap mechanism had been activated. No wonder why I couldn’t find any ruins. Someone has been in here before us.” 

“How long?” 

Blank paused for a moment. His arms twitched for a moment. I could hear his breath become slightly unstable. 

“Two hundred years ago-“ 

“Then that means, this Dungeon had been explored before…” Nicolette concluded. 

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“I don’t want to believe it, but that’s the only plausible explanation.”

Tanya placed her hand under her chin. 

“Before we get ahead of ourselves, I think we need more info to prove this theory.” 

However, it didn’t take long before we knew we were in a Dungeon that had existed two centuries prior. 

We walked about thirty steps away from the body. Our footsteps ground against the sand, making it the only sound audible in the dark Dungeon. We then came to another abrupt stop. 

Blank held his torch slightly in front of him. Within the limited range, I could see arrows with their feathered butts scattered across every part of the tunnel. Some were broken while some were still intact, piercing through pieces of rusted armor or old skeletons with broken bones. Their alloy tips dug into the crusty floor below. There were even certain spots in the ground, supposedly tiles from the look of it, that had square indents in them. 

Blank stared blankly into the distance. His body stood as still as a stone. 

“Follow me.” 

Blank stepped onto one tile, then another, avoiding the ones that had been pressed. Purple Ether emitted from his feet, drawing a pattern on the ground, telling us where to go.  It was truly reassuring having a Ruins Expert on our side. Everyone else followed behind him in kind. Their feet aligned with the glowing purple footprints. 

No surprise that there were no issues. Being at least a 7-Star Adventurer meant one had pretty good body control, so it was highly unlikely that anyone would misstep. 

We made it to the other side of the arrow trap, there wasn’t much space between it and the pitfall trap, just a foot or two in front of us. Just as we had expected, the trap had already been activated. The dilapidated trap door opened downwards to a bed of steel spikes. Each one was as thick as the needle sword I held. Upon closer look, one could see some more corpses below. Their skeletons divided right in two at the spine upon contact with the spikes. Their jaws opened so wide that they almost snapped off the skull. 

I glance around the trap to see if there is another way to travel across the chasm instead of wasting Ether. I could see traces of a ridge lining the walls, but it was ground down so much that it was practically nonexistent. I sigh, wishing I didn’t have to use Ether, and conjure a Sigil with a bridge symbol. In a blink of an eye, a blue Ether bridge about a tenth of the width of the chasm materialized above the spikes. 

As I watched everyone walk across the bridge without any problems, a disturbing thought formed in my mind. 

Everything about this Dungeon is too strange. The bodies are from two hundred years ago. The traps had already been activated around that same time as well. Most of the hard work had been done for us, so why can’t I shake off this ominous feeling? Is it perhaps because this Dungeon is a time capsule, one from the past? If that was the case, why had a Dungeon like this formed when it was closed back then? More importantly, were all the Dungeons that appeared like this? Just what in the world is going on? 

I dash across the bridge as those thoughts flow through my mind when suddenly, I feel something elevate my foot off the ground. It wasn’t much, just about a half inch or so. I pick my foot up and glance down at the object, it appears to be a journal or diary. 

I couldn’t sense any traces of Ether on it, so it was probably okay to touch it. I picked it off the ground, undoing the delicate string binding the cover together. Blood stained the pages dyeing some of the pages a dirty red to the point where some text was illegible. 

These symbols weren’t the common language. Nicolette glanced over my shoulder, a smug expression forming on her face as she watched me furrow my brows, trying to decipher the language. 

“It’s the Hego Oquan dialect,” She snickered, feeling that she had finally triumphed over me. “My native tongue.” 

Goodness, I would like to wipe that childish smirk off her face, but if she could read it, that was more important. 

“You’ve got any idea what it says?” 

Nicolette violently snatched the journal out of my grasp, pacing back and forth as she mentally translated its contents. 

“Okay,” She cleared her throat. “This is what I got so far.” 

With a wave of her hand, a projection with the summarized contents of the journal materialized in the air. At this point, Nicolette was just showing off though I have to say her projection Arcmagia was some of the best I’ve seen. Not even the Magicians at the Royal Court could replicate it. 

Here’s what the projection said: 

The person who wrote this journal was a Healer from Imperium City. 

The Dungeon did appear 200 years ago. 

Beyond this point were Scorpions and Snakes. 

There is no ‘Boss Chamber'. The boss is a &:3 and has the ability to roam around the Dungeon. It resets its position once all foreign life is eliminated and 'activates' when one reaches 0/;^%. 

“Classic,” Tanya rolled her eyes. “The most important part always has to be blurred out. Hey Nikki, is there any way you can read it?” 

Nicolette shook her head. 

“I think it’s better if I showed you myself.” 

Nicolette flipped the diary towards us. Smack right on the corner of a diary was a giant jagged tear. Its edges frayed by age, and blood splatters across various parts of the text, making it unreadable. 

“Is it possible to revert it to its original state?” 

“No,” Nicolette replied firmly. “There’s Ether on the diary, so if I interfere with it in any way, it might end up destroying it or smudging the text even more.” 

I sighed. 

I did want to have a moment in this scenario, but Nicolette had a point. Ether is comprised of hundreds of different wavelengths, which can be manipulated into Arcmagia. These wavelengths are highly sensitive to changes or interference, so no one knows what might happen if something goes wrong.

Even though everyone in the vicinity was considered a 7-Star Adventurer or equivalent, that did not mean we could solve every problem our way. There are just some things that require specialists, and unfortunately, we didn’t have a Wavelength Reader with us, so there was no way we would take the risk of reverting the text back to its original form. 

Unfortunately, it would only be a short while before we would realize that we should’ve taken that risk. 

The lifestyle where odds could be calculated with such precision would eventually become our weakness.