Chapter 26: 25. Stairway to the Gods

Victor floated on ahead and felt a wave of chaotic mana assault him. He quickly brought up his status page to check for any anomalies.

[Name: Victor]

[Race: Netherborne]

[Level: 305]

[STR: 68820, DEX: 68820, CON: 68820, INT: 68820, WIS: 68820]

(Life Force Unstable - 19:07:00) (Slight Mana Sickness)

[Skills:]

[Consume X]

[Raise Undead X]

[Shadow Magic X]

[Annihilating Aura X]

[Freezing Cone VII]

[Stealth X]

[Doom Ray X]

[Spirit Movement VI] (Level up!)

'Slight mana sickness?' Victor observed his stats decline at their usual rate, so he closed the blue screen and concentrated on the incredible view. The plain stone tunnel fanned out into a massive space. A marble dome thousands of meters up was illuminated by a giant piece of floating glowstone that acted as a miniature sun. It almost felt like he was outside rather than deep underground.

The stone floor was replaced with an endless meadow. Lush green grass with the occasional small groupings of white trees surrounding crystal clear ponds littered the land. Victor could even hear the chirping birds and the low buzz of insects. Compared to the frost-covered wasteland on the surface, the dungeon appeared to be in the height of summer. 

In the far distance, Victor could make out a tower of stone that reached all the way to the dome, it appeared slim, but Victor speculated it was at least a few kilometres in diameter. 'This is the first time I have ever been in a dungeon, but I have played enough games to know that an ominous tower is bound to be important.'

Victor toggled on his [Annihilating Aura], and his vicious death affinity mana pulsed in waves. It was rather sad for the beautiful symphony of summer to cease, apart from the occasional thud of bird corpses falling out of trees. But the bubbling feeling of his life force surging with more stat points offset the misery he caused.

A moment later, the rest of his company arrived at the clearing to the meadow. Henry raised his spear as if ready for a fight while Alice glanced around with amazement. 

Genus flew overhead, but as he approached Victor, he seemed to halt as if sensing something dangerous. Seeing the dragon's hesitance to get within a hundred meters of him, Victor realized the dragon was feeling the effects of his [Annihilating Aura]. 'This is why I have Alice in my party because the system protects party members from each other's area of affect spells like my [Annihilating Aura].'

"Genus," Victor spoke, and the dragon stiffened in fear. "Are you able to join my party?"

"Party?" Genus tilted his head in confusion, "Is that a human thing?"

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"Human thing? Can dragons not access the system?"

"No." Genus spat to the side. "The system was granted by a higher power long ago to give those weaklings a chance against us. I heard that before the system, the humans were merely slaves to the mystical races." Genus growled as he glanced at Alice riding on Henry's back. "We must eat and sleep for hundreds of years in mana-rich areas to grow in power. Meanwhile, these lower lifeforms get handed power for free..."

Victor frowned. 'Why do I have access to the system then? Although I am missing features that Alice has, it still works for the most part. My stats go up every level, and I can level my abilities by using them...' Victor knew he had a lot of things to work out and discuss but now was not a good time. Despite their distance, Victor could still hear the roars of battle occurring deep in the tunnel. His stats were still being drained to keep regenerating the zombie dragons, and he could feel his link to them weakening. Either he was too far away, or there was a limit on how much he could regenerate a corpse before it died, and he had to cast [Raise Undead] on it once again.

"Genus, you frequent this dungeon as a noble dragon, right?" Victor asked from stealth, and the dragon nodded in the wrong direction. "Indeed, I have been here a few times. We use this floor of the dungeon to nurture our young...."

"There are dragons here?" Henry asked from the ground as he trotted closer to their position, spear at the ready in his right hand.

Genus nodded his long neck, and his golden scales gleamed under the glowstone light. "Around the tower, it's where the mana is most dense."

"What is the purpose of the tower?" Alice shouted from Henry's back up at the dragon.

Genus's rainbow eyes gazed into the distance. "It's the stairway to the gods."

"The gods..." Alice mumbled while wracking her brain about the many stories she had heard involving dungeons. As a merchant girl, she had mostly ignored the intricacy of dungeons. Instead, she focused on the money-making aspect, such as monster corpses and rare minerals that grew in the dungeon's lower depths. "Ah! There are stories about renowned adamantite Delvers that reached the lowest floors. Apparently, the goddess will grant a single wish."

"What did they wish for?" Genus asked the question on Victor's mind. Victor had a few ideas, but the answer surprised him.

"Evolution." Alice nodded to herself. "A few asked for loved ones to be resurrected or for incurable illnesses to be cured. But the vast majority requested to be evolved." Alice caressed her chin as she spoke. "I may be wrong, but I believe humans naturally evolve at level 100 into High Humans. They are basically a legend as very few are alive to this day. However, they had vastly increased life spans and access to more of the system's classes."

"What about the other races? Humans aren't the only ones to reach the bottom, right?" Victor asked, and his ancient voice rolled across the meadow. "Actually, let's talk while we move; my zombie dragons will falter sooner rather than later. So let's head to the tower."

Everyone agreed, so they continued conversing while heading to the centre. Before answering Victor's question, Alice asked, "Could Wiggles dig a hole to the next level?"

Without stopping, Victor commanded Wiggles, tunnelling below their feet, to dive deeper. Wiggles accepted the command, and Henry almost lost his footing as the ground shook and the titanic earthworm headed vertically downwards. Finally, after a mile, Wiggles encountered a rock similar to the marble dome. It was coated in a dense mana shield identical to the one that protected the black tar dragon, except it was a glowing white rather than black.

The mana shield was so dense that it almost appeared like mercury instead of opaque like the dragon's shield. It didn't even ripple as Wiggles rammed headfirst into it, but rather, it melted Wiggle's meter-thick armour plates and burned his neon green flesh.

Alice shifted nervously on Henry's back as the Lord had gone quiet. 

"No." Victor finally answered. "There is a dense mana shield underground, so I assume the tower is the only way down."

Alice nodded. "Okay, it was worth a try. So, to answer your question. Indeed, races other than humans made it to the bottom, and some also requested evolution. So, if there was a higher form of their race, they were transformed into it, and for those races that didn't already have a higher form, well... they became a new race that had never existed before."

Victor didn't wish to ask any more questions for fear of breaking his aloof persona that already showed signs of cracking. Although Alice still hadn't witnessed his true form, he doubted she thought of him as wise and all-powerful after this round of questions. 'But it was worth it. I now know a lot more about this world. It seems the system was given to the weaker human race to give them a fighting chance, but what about goblins? Don't they deserve the system? Or are they simply destined to be food for the more powerful monsters? Also, would I have been a dragon with access to the system if I picked dragon as my race? So many questions...'

The group travelled for a few hours before the tower came into view. As Victor suspected, it was absolutely immense. It was wider than multiple football stadiums placed next to each other, and it was tall enough to give mount Everest a run for its money. It was constructed from that blindingly white stone and shone with power as the dense mana shield covered its surface.

But perhaps the most bizarre part was the hundreds of dragon eggs surrounding the tower for miles and dragons with various coloured chrome scales gliding down towards them.