Chapter 71: Ch 70 “Immune System”

"Some dungeon cores learned to use the emotions of mortals to play with them. Few dungeons of the masters are even capable of creating entire narratives and stories in their domain with their own spawns working against themselves to enhance the believability of their little play in the minds of the unfortunate mortals inside."

Extract from "On Magical Beast"

 

 

---

 

 

  Iris took a step forward and her body fell through the thick grey mist. The heels of her heavy boots made a loud noise as they hit the cavern's floor. She straighten her back and started to unravel the brown fabric from her unexpected gift.

 

"Was that the thing?" Kia said the moment she hopped off the ladder leading into the dungeon.

 

"Yes." Iris responded to the undead mage, stuffing the letter from the vampire into her waist satchel. "You are happy with it?"

 

"YE-! *Cough* I mean yes," Kia corrected herself." Can I see it?" She pointed at the weapon in the elf's hands.

 

"Here you go." The risen handed the spear to Kia, the spear must have been double the height of the necromancer.

 

"What's this?" Kia tapped the rough surface of the glass-like metal.

 

"I don't really know. Never saw such metal but the shaft is made from steel oak." Iris commented pointing at the dark wood with light silvery colour veins going all throughout the wood.

 

A ghostly light shined from Kia's different-coloured eyes followed by a frustrated pout aimed at the inanimate object. "So annoying. I can't inspect it."

 

 

[Inspect]

 

[Steel Oak wood]

{Wood which is as hard as steel.}

 

[???]

[No class matches the requirements to view the object's statistics]

 

 

"No class matches the requirements." Iris repeats what she saw to the mage.

 

"Bellow the required level." Kia told. Her eyes looked directly at the violet eyes of the elf. For a single briefest of moments, Iris could swear she spotted a small gory trench of pure crimson appear in the necromancer's faultless eyes. "Come on before they close." Kia hurriedly grabbed Iris's pointing finger, still holding the strange spear and attempted to drag the elf toward the dungeon proper.

 

  The tall elf allowed the girl to drag her to the entrance of the cavern. 

It's probably nothing. She thought, not paying too much mind to the strange light in the girl's eyes as they walked. She was more curious about how the new weapon will fare and what effects did the purple rune granted.

 

  Even though the two had already seen the gigantic trees which towered over them, covering all the sky above them, the sight was still breathtaking. Iris took the spear from the mage and stepped in front of her. 

 

"Where do we head?" The elf ask as she looked around the strangely open dungeon. "Preferably not where we went last time."

 

"Mmmmm...There!" Kia pointed to her right, that part of the forest she pointed at looked exactly like the rest of the forest around them.

 

  Iris took the leading step and not long after "Entering {Acorn Grove}" appeared once more in her mind. She steeled herself for a horde to appear but this time the fey did not appear instantly. 

The two walked forwards keeping the border to their right which was just an extremely steep mountainside from which boulders would occasionally slide from.

 

*Thump* *Thump* *Thump*

 

  Hollow sounds of something hitting the ground came from all around the two undead. Five young dryads came dashing toward them. The monsters all focused on Iris who thrusted her new weapon at the closest monster. The thin black head impaled the charging dryad and the momentum of the charge drove the lifeless body to push itself past the spearhead and onto the shaft. She pull out the spear and aimed her next attack at the last two. 

Iris stepped back from the probably harmless swipe from the low-level monster and kicked the fey while thrusting at the dryad behind. Wooden splinters filled the air as the kicked dungeon spawn hit the stone-littered ground.

The bizarre shape of Iris's new weapon caused it to jerk violently in her hands as it pierced through the wooden body of the dryad and if not for her high stats she would fear about her wrist simply snapping. It might have been caused by the hardness and stiffness of the wood interacting with the circularly chipped edge and she was sure the rough-looking tip would cut any soft targets with ease, she would just have to get used to this.

 

"Shouldn't there be more?" Kia asked from behind.

 

"I don't know, maybe someone was here not that long ago." Iris guessed.

 

"How do you know?" The pale undead asked from under her hood.

 

"It's just something dungeons do, they need time to respawn monsters." 

 

Kia's brows dipped in a frown upon hearing the elf's explanation. "Let's go that way." She pointed toward the centre of the forest, at least what Iris thought was the centre.

 

"That doesn't mean there is someone in front of us you know?" Iris stated. She didn't see a problem with why they couldn't go there but she wanted to tell this to her necromancer before going in the pointed direction.

 

  Not a quarter of a bell passed before a horde of weak fey frontally charged the undead. Kia's spells caused the dryads to drop instantly, their bodies ragdolling through the overgrown grass. The few stragglers which reached the hoplite were obliterated into piles of broken twigs.

 

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  Resuming their stroll the two quickly found themselves leaving the Acorn Grove as the system's message reading "Watchpost" appeared in her vision. 

The new area resembled the rest of the forest with nothing remotely resembling a building in sight which puzzled Iris about the area's name.

 

"Boring." The elf heard Kia whine a small bit beside her. She would agree it was an eventless walk as they wandered around the new area with nothing except vegetation to stare at. She was about to head outside the area before a soul-drenching scream came from far away. 

The pair instantly turned their heads toward the scream, cautiously heading where they heard the scream. The elf often stopped to see if nothing is stalking them or preparing to ambush them. Upon reaching the area where the shriek came from Iris saw a bloody scene of human soldiers scattered dead on the ground. 

 

  Above the humans, a dark violet humanoid figure stood which didn't look monstrous. It resembled an elf male of some kind with long ears, longer than her own ears. The long uncut blonde hair the elf had dripped with fresh blood as he watched the motionless corpses in front of him. His well-defined muscles on his torso were nothing Iris had ever seen, resembling tree bark more than actual muscles with long diagonal lines dividing his body.

 

"Groh?" He muttered something to no one in particular as his deep green eyes sized Iris. 

 

[Mana Missile]

 

  As soon as the strange elf attempted to get closer to Iris, she instantly reacted, casting a spell toward him The pure white missile hit him in the shoulder causing him to start gnashing his teeth in vague replication of anger. Kia quickly followed the elf hurling spells from behind the elf. The dark elf seemed to grow in stature as he neared the risen with each heavy step he took. Two small daggers appeared from his shadow before he charged at Iris as another valley of spells was hurled toward him.

 

 

[Inspect]

 

[Forest Dark Elf Level 71*]

{A mysterious and rare subspecies of a Forest Elf.}

[*The level is currently being increased by an unknown caster]

 

  Iris finished skimming over the text in her mind but as she rejoined reality she saw the dark elf slashing at her. She ducked under the blade, quickly changing her grip on the spear and blocking the expected slash from the other side. 

 

"What?" Iris's eyes widen as the spectre of the next attack changed before her eyes with too little time to respond to the changing attack. She felt the sharp edge of the dark dagger slip past the collar of her armour and pierce the back of her neck. The dark elf twisted his blade widening the wound before turning his attention to the undead mage.

 

"Livu?" A low grunt full of surprise came from the dark elf as the undead elf grabbed his leg, shortly followed by a bloody scream as the violet skin around Iris's hand started to age and then decay before turning into black goop.

 

"Great, more of them!" A frustrated voice of Kia rang in Iris's ears as screeches, clicks and shrieks of many fey sounded around them. 

 

"Take care of them! [Mana Shockwave]" Iris commanded as she pushed the strange elf away from her caster. "Die." She thrusted her spear at the male who sidestepped her attack. "[Mana Missile]" In haste she casted another spell hitting the dual-wielding forest elf in the throat.

 

  A large scorch mark appeared on his throat, Iris was about to finish her opponent but the dark elf's body was surrounded by a thin layer of green light which mended the injury on his body. Without waiting for his wounds to heal fully his weapon swiped at Iris's weapon moving it out of the way. In response Iris changed her grip, holding the spear much further up than usual halving her range. In a quick riposte, she thrusted her spear grazing the plant-like muscles on the dark elf's chest as he dodged.

 

  Feeling suddenly reinvigorated, Iris managed to silently cast [Fortitude] before closing into her striking range. The experienced warrior in front of her simply kept stepping outside the hoplite's range. Infuriated by this she raised her hand to cast a mana missile. In a blink of an eye, the dark dagger held by the forest elf left his hand as he hurled it at the black hair elf. 

 

"[Mana Shockwave]" The pressure wave threw the dagger harmlessly to the side as it rippled through the air in front of Iris as she changed her spell mid-casting.

 

  A twisted smile appeared on the man's face as a blue aura illuminated his dark violet body. Behind him, his discarded dagger materialised from his shadow. 

Wanting to wipe the smirk from his face, Iris flung another mana missile at the dark elf. His shoulder burned with bright orange embers as he locked his weapon with Iris's weapon above her head. The other dagger came from below, aimed at the risen's stomach, she managed to grab the man's wrist holding both his weapons at bay.

Finding her unnatural strength slightly less if not equal to the dark elf, she desperately fought over the control of the knife. Her strength mattered little as his short and nimble weapon leveraged her spear out of the way, leaving her with no way of defending herself. The hoplite tried to disengage in a desperate effort to avoid the dark blade above her but that caused the forest elf's smile to widen into a sadistic grin as he took advantage of her loosened grip over his wrist.

 

  The air in Iris's lungs was forced out as a long thin blade pierced her armour under her armpit and another dagger pierced her throat. An uncomfortable cold began to embrace the risen as she haemorrhaged Hit Points at an alarming rate. In anger or perhaps petty vengeance the undead jabbed her spear under the ribs of the dark elf, feeling a sudden reinvigorating feeling filling her body. She grabbed his neck and didn't let go.

 

"[Touch of Decay]!" Iris screamed as she poured every mana point she had into the spell. 

 

  The grin disappeared from the dungeon spawn as his soulless emerald eyes stared at the undead elf with anger, driving his two daggers ever deeper into her body. His hateful gaze turned hazy as Iris could feel her hands going deeper into his body as the unseen caster invoked another healing spell on him prolonging his suffering. The fight looked to have no end as the two undying fighters fought until the golden-haired elf's head dropped to the ground with a soft *thump* sound followed shortly by his muscular body.

 

  Without anything holding Iris, she stumbled back. She looked over to her left to see Kia standing in a sea of horribly mangled corpses of dryads and a few dark elves who didn't even compare in stature to the elf she fought. Kia pointed a finger at a kneeling forest elf ranger and a spell shot from the tip of her pointing finger, leaving the elf to drop lifeless with a small hole drilled into her head.

 

"Pfu!" Kia wiped the non-existent sweat from her forehead as she leaned on a resurrected dark elf with a horribly butchered face. "That was new." The mage said between laboured breaths, a large smile formed on her face as her eyes met with Iris's eyes. "More?"

 

"NO," Iris said the obvious answer. The hole in her throat made an annoying whistle as she spoke. "You look like you are going to collapse, Kia." She said pulling out the dagger from her armpit and throwing it on the grass causing it to disintegrate.

 

"But you have lots of mana." The mana deficient mage argued.

 

 

[Status]

...

Health Points 320/850

Mana Points 642/1000

...

 

 

Huh? Iris couldn't believe her system as she felt dizzy from just standing. "How?" She asked.

 

  Before Kia speak the two of them heard rustling in the bushes nearby where the dead human soldiers still lay.

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