Sol looked at the marble mausoleum in front of him. The marble was a dark and dirty color as if tainted by whatever lay below. It also emanated a depressing atmosphere of death. Sol turned his gaze away from the mausoleum and saw the bustling people and buildings all around located 10 meters away from this building.
The dungeon itself was inside the city, located in the western part but close to the center of the city. Maybe because it was situated in a populated area within the city walls there were guards and even knights stationed at key locations there at all times.
Although the area could be considered extremely safe from the numerous guards and knights, the people appeared to be avoiding the area subconsciously. Whenever normal people passed through the area they went around rather than walked through the open plaza and Sol could understand why. The feeling of death wasn’t just in one's head, it was very real. The dungeon emanated deathly energies that could cause health issues to those without high enough vitality.
“Necropolis…” Sol turned to Amber. “Are you ready?”
Amber nodded her head as she was always ready.
The two walked to the entrance that was manned by two guards. The one on the right looked at Amber nodding before turning to Sol and nodding as well.
“Aight you’re both good to go?”
“Huh? Really?” Sol thought they would at least check his guild card and was worried they would deny him because they were C-Rank, he still came because he wanted to give it a try.
The guard on the left answered for his friend. “Yeah, he has the [Battle Sense] talent and from it got the talent skill [Battle Assessment]. He can tell how strong you are by a single glance.”
“Wait so it’s like [Analysis]?”
The one on the right shook his head, “No, I don’t actually see your status. It’s more like… a feeling I get on how strong you are. It basically tells me the results of what would happen if we fought. For example with you it currently tells me I can’t win against you even if my friend here joins.”
Sol was relieved. ‘I thought he could see my status for a second there…’
“Is that why you don’t check the cards?”
“Sorta, we don’t only allow adventurers guild members into the dungeon. We allow the churches, guards, knights, soldiers and other guilds in as well. Since there was a lot of inconsistency in the way we verified whether they were strong enough for the dungeon they decided to send people like me here. Some organizations didn’t make it easy for us to verify their information, specifically the church and knights. So I just check with my skill if I can beat you in a fight and if it says no then you're good to go.”
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The other guard chimed in with a grin, “Heh, you should have seen his face when an A-Ranker showed up. His legs trembled so much he fell on the ground and couldn’t get up until they left.”
“Oi, shut it. You would have too if you had the skill.”
The two guards began to bicker and Sol couldn’t bring himself to intervene. The guards appeared to have forgotten about them, and since they already received permission to enter, Sol and Amber just walked past them into the dungeon.
After walking down the stairs leading down the crypt and entering the first floor, the atmosphere reminded Sol of the humid air of the cell he was kept in back in Kerman. It wasn’t humidity though, the death and dark mana filled the air making it much heavier and corruptive. It wasn’t enough to stop or even bother the duo, but it was definitely noticeable. If it was a normal person below level 20 they would have been immediately incapacitated or turned into an undead.
Before proceeding any further, Sol took out the dungeon guide he paid good money for and opened the first page. It immediately started with a map layout of the first floor and the types of enemies one could encounter.
“Hmm, this is different from the Osuga dungeon in Kerman. There are multiple types of enemies per floor and they stay the same until the boss floor which is at floor 10. It says here for floors 1-9 there are Awakened Gladiators, Awakened Shieldbearers, Skeleton Hunters and Skeleton Mages. Their numbers and level increase per floor and later floors they roam in groups similarly to adventurers.”
While it worried Sol they would have to fight multiple enemies at once, the guide says the groups in the first floor had at most 3 enemies, so on the off chance they can't win, it should be easy to run away.
“Let’s look around and see if we can find a straggler.”
The two navigated the maze like passages which would have confused most people but with the help of the map it wasn’t an issue. To facilitate the search of a lone monster away from other adventurers, Sol used [Mana Perception] to extend their range of search. After avoiding a few larger groups, they eventually found a lone undead.
Name: N/A
Race: Awakened Gladiator
Talents: [Axe], [Rage], [Resilient]
Level: 60
HP: ???
MP: 100
Str: 160 (+20)
Vit: ??? (+50)
Agi: 55
Int: 1
Wis: 5
Talent Skills:
[???] Lv ?, [Grit] Lv 8
Passive Skills:
[Living Corpse] Lv MAX, [Intermediate Axemanship] Lv ?, [Strength Up] Lv 4, [Defiance] Lv 6
Active Skills:
[Destructive Charge] Lv 3, [???] Lv 3, [???] Lv ?, [Death Cyclone] Lv ?, [Rage] Lv ?
‘[Analysis] isn’t high enough to see all the details. Thankfully the guide has the status page of every known enemy. Though the level of skills may differ between them.’
Amber unsheathed her daggers ready to take on the large muscle ridden zombie. The gladiator was unaware of the duo’s presence and she would make use of that advantage. Just before she could silently run in and hit it with a flurry of blows before it could know what hit it, Sol grabbed her shoulder.
“Wait a minute. Let me have a go at it first. You can jump in if it looks like I need help.”
Sol was eager to know how he fared against the Awakened Gladiator.