Chapter 66: Into The Undead Dungeon

The Dungeon of the Damned, The Death Pit, The Boneyard, those were just a few of the names that Professor Kal had heard the adventurers call the dungeon he was about to enter. He was standing in a long line directly in front of the massive mausoleum that served as the entrance to the dungeon. Able to get a closer look at the finely carved stone structure, he was able to read the ancient language adorning it. For all of the word's elegant calligraphy, they only stated the name and station of the one entombed there.

He didn't recognize the name but knew that the language used was only spoken a few hundred years before he even went underground. The other odd finding was that the mausoleum was built for a nobleman of a defunct nation far away on the eastern continent. He took out his notebook and began to scribble down his many hypotheses on to how this structure was teleported across the vast ocean, and to why it was used as an entrance to a dungeon.

The only thing he knew about the magic used to create the dungeons was that it required hundreds of souls to activate and cast. He was still left in the dark when it came to the mechanics of the spell, how it determined what to capture and seal away and why it didn't just annihilate its targets instead of imprisoning them. So many questions left unanswered, it was driving him mad. Finally, he was going to devote his time to finding out.

The line moved along quickly; the city was only checking each adventurer for the proper passes to enter the dungeon. They didn't feel like dragging out the bodies of those that felt as if they could handle the dungeon but really couldn't, so they required all those that wished to enter to at least pass certain requirements. Flashing the golden medallion he had received from the First Princess, the guards surrounding the entrance hurriedly granted him entry with a bow.

Once he entered the grand crypt, he was met with a large, gilded sarcophagus encrusted with multicolored emeralds and gleaming diamonds. Professor Kal gave out a disgusted snort as he shook his head, whoever this nobleman was, he felt as if they were clearly overcompensating for something.

A rather large, boorish looking adventurer, wielding a huge double headed axe, took large steps up to the gaudy coffin. He took out a dagger hidden away inside his breast pocket and began to attempt to pry a particularly large diamond out of the lid of the coffin. The other adventurers passing by ignored him, some shaking their heads. They obviously knew something that the grave robber did not.

With a loud grunt, he put more of his considerable weight behind the dagger, only to end up shattering the blade and sending it flying through the crowd. The diamond had not budged from its holder in the slightest, not even the soft gold of the lid was scratched by the steel dagger. The axe wielding man put his hands on his hips and shook his head as he stared at the coffin with a dumbfounded expression on his face.

Professor Kal continued on down the large staircase in the back of the building, ignoring the loud shouts coming from behind him, as whoever had been struck by the man's broken dagger took issue with him. Halfway down the sinister stairs, Professor Kal felt the subtle but familiar feeling of slipping into distorted space. Taking note of the almost seamless transition, he continued on to the first level of the dungeon.

Unfolding before him was an endless graveyard. He was certain it had a limit, but the naturally expansive area combined with what he thought was illusion magic, established the uncanny feeling of a burial grounds with no boundary. A full moon hung unmoving in the starless sky while a thick mist blanketed the tall grass and haphazardly placed gravestones. Broken and rusted iron fences cordoned off a few random areas, and tall dead trees stood quietly in the distance, some adorned with frayed nooses swinging in the cold breeze.

Simple skeletons walked in jerky motions between the tombstones, most were nothing but bare bones, but a few wore tattered clothing left over from when they still had flesh. Groups of adventurers were battling with the skeletons, easily overpowering the lower undead, collecting their bones as they did so. The first level of the dungeon was a burgeoning resource depot for bone powder and death bloom. Bone powder was ground up bones collected from the undead, it was used as a reagent in many potions and alchemical goods. Death bloom was an herb that flourished in the presence of the undead and was also used in many potions.

As he walked deeper into the first level, black staff in hand, he took note of the randomness of the headstones. Almost every style of grave marker could be found inside this massive graveyard, along with differing languages and text engraved on each one. It was as if random graveyards from all over the world were jumbled together and placed inside this dungeon.

As he was crouched down in front of a weathered headstone, using a piece of parchment and charcoal to extract a rubbing of the text, a skeleton noisily shambled up behind him. Having no sense of stealth, the skeleton reached out toward Professor Kal, its bones rattling as it did so.

"Hey! Watch out!" A young sounding voice rang out, warning Professor Kal of the incoming danger.

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Without even bothering to look behind him, Professor Kal snapped his fingers, enveloping the clumsy skeleton in a column of white-hot flames. By the time he was finished with what he was doing, the flames had died down and left nothing of the skeleton, not even a pile of ash.

A group of four young adventurers, two men and two women, were staring at Professor Kal with sparkles in their eyes. What must have been the leader of their group spoke up before Professor Kal had time to walk away. "You're a mage, aren't you?! Are you by yourself? Do you want to join our group? It wouldn't be permanent, so you wouldn't have to worry about fees and such from the Association. We're just starting out, but we're going to conquer this dungeon. It would be a lot easier with a mage on our side."

The rapid babbling of the bothersome young man was difficult for him to ignore. Turning around with a scowl on his face, Professor Kal answered all of his questions. "Absolutely not!"

Letting a fraction of his aura slip out as he forcefully gave his answer rooted the small group in their places. Now too frightened to press any further, the young man just nodded his head with wide eyes and an ashen face. He was forced to watch as the mage in black walked away from them, grumbling as he did so.

Finding the mundane first floor much too crowded for his taste, Professor Kal slowly made his way to the clearly marked entrance to the second floor. The second floor, compared to the first, was barren. No grass grew inside the cramped tunnels, no moonlight filled its somber halls. It consisted of a sprawling maze, filled to the brim with dead ends and simple traps. Armed skeletons roamed its many twists and turns, attacking any living thing on sight.

The only resources that could be found on this floor was bone powder from the many skeletons that called this labyrinth home. Seeing as adventurers could procure it more easily on the first floor, only those that wished to train against the armed skeletons could be found on this level, making the living population extremely sparse.

A skeleton holding a rusted and bent longsword between its two bony hands shambled down the narrow corridor. It wore an iron helmet with a protruding nose guard, and leather shoulder pads were the only thing adorning its body. Seeing the living being in front of it, it took off toward him with rapid steps. The undead found on the second level were much faster than their counterparts on the first, making them much more dangerous.

Professor Kal easily blocked its telegraphed strike, the already bent sword deforming even more with each blow. He observed the undead closely, watching the way it moved as well as the state of its body. There was no difference between it and the undead he would summon occasionally, at least as far as he could tell by simply looking at it.

Letting his flesh wither and rot away as he continued to parry the strikes being thrown his direction, he let his body return to its natural state. It had been some time since he was able to let his true self see the light of day. Rolling his shoulders and feeling his mummified skin stretching over his exposed bones caused an indescribable feeling to well up from deep inside him.

The skeleton before him stopped its relentless attack, but only for a moment. Professor Kal noted that with each strike there was a considerable amount of hesitation, almost as if it didn't want to attack him but was compelled to by some unknown force. Needing more samples to make a hypothesis, he quickly dispatched the skeleton with a blow from his staff before continuing on down the hall.

Every enemy he came across on the second floor behaved the same as the first. If he approached them wearing his flesh suit, they would fall upon him with no hesitation at all, eager to tear him apart. Should he be in his true form, they would still move toward him but with languid steps and attack with trembling limbs. He now had an idea of what could possibly be affecting the lower undead, but it would require much more testing to prove true.

He wondered the halls aimlessly, using his many curious instruments on the samples he had gathered. He knew that once he took the samples outside of the dungeons' sphere of influence, they would lose any of the magical qualities granted to them by said dungeon. This wasn't the most desirable way for him to conduct his experiments, but if anything, he was adaptable.

AN: On November 18th, from chapter sixty-five onwards, the chapters will be going premium.. I'll continue to post them until then. So I'm assuming they will be free until that day, thanks for reading!

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