The screen disappeared.

I enter the room, and nothing seems to have happened. There are no suspicious sounds or sudden movements.

Acid is still smoking in patches here and there, but the pavement is reabsorbing it. The stones slowly drag along the ground, screeching to return to their original position.

Fine.

The room is a living room. A long and wide corridor. The light coming from the walls, covered with piled bones, has not diminished, and even at the back of the room, there appear to be no suspicious movements.

So, nothing happened?

«Fsss.»

My snake-headed tail whistles.

Looking, I do not see anything interesting, but maybe I need to investigate.

I stop about halfway through the room. “Fiend, check the back of the room, please.”

The undead thrall passes me and is now walking upright, its veiny chest protruding.

Gron joins me, and I bend down to caress it. However, I keep my gaze forward. Ready to shoot if necessary.

The still air, the golden light, the absence of sounds, and smells.

What did I agree to awaken?

Despite my anxieties and cautions, the [Fiend] finds nothing at the back of the room.

With Gron, I investigate the walls. I run my hands through some piles of golden fur, bones, skulls, and holes in the wall.

I hope to find something useful, but nothing. From inside, I discover that the windows are bricked.

I do not understand. It is a room. I have undoubtedly interacted with the System.

Yet it is empty. Nothing happens.

Helped by my tails, I pull an oblong skull from a pile on the ground. It is a clumsy operation. It ends up scattering the bones all around, dispersing the pile.

Ci-cin, Ci-cin.

I bring the skull to my hands and bring it closer to my face.

Nothing known. Rows of long, thin teeth, two jaws, no eye socket, but at least six for a nose.

It is bigger than my skull, but I have no idea what it represents.

“Found anything? prrr.”

“No. You?”

Gron shakes and yawns.

“At least we discovered that something is behind the false doors.”

“Some empty rooms, prr—haha!”

“We should try to explore that bigger building. The one from whose staircase you saw the Arena.”

“Already. A similar case happened to me in the past. I was at a party with a novice scout, and this poor guy had to take us to… so… so…”

I do not listen to Gron's monologue. There's something else that catches my attention.

A creak.

Ci-cin.

My tail is restless and keeps searching, pointing at seemingly random points in the surrounding space.

Another creak.

“…so, on the wrong path, we took the opposite route. Five days of walking. You understand? Yes, it's true that down here—prr, maybe I should say up here—five days' march is nothing. But try to imagine it from the point of view of the great Gron of the time and—”

“Shhh. Gron.”

Gron is no longer speaking. The creaking also stops.

The last one came from above the entrance. I am sure it is not the stones that form the door again. Their sound is different.

What I hear is pawing. As if something with claws was walking above us.

“Did you hear anything?” The tone is serious.

As talkative and vain as it is, Gron is not reckless. Contrary.

With my barbed tail, I gesture to the [Fiend] to reach the entrance. I prepare for the surprise.

There are no living things here.

There are no living things in the dungeon.

But each room is made to preserve its guests: the intruders. Do you want me to have activated them? Silent on the columns of the small bell tower of this mausoleum?

So?

The [Fiend] reaches the entrance without problems and stops in the doorway. It pants as usual and looks at me, tilting its head one hundred and eighty degrees.

I nod with a chin. It raises its hand with its wing to the ceiling.

“They are here.”

Ci-cin!

Suddenly, a long, thin tail lashes out from beyond the door, looping around the [Fiend]'s neck.

Prepared for battle, the [Fiend] bites the tail with its shark jaws and pulls taut like a rope.

Horrific screams coming from outside, but the light is too weak to illuminate the source.

The [Fiend] raises its hand covered in acidic and miasmatic sweat, cutting off the tail, which shoots away.

«RUAAAHG!»

Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.

Gron jumps onto my lap, and I grab it, picking it up.

“What are!?”

“Gargoyles. They let us in. But not out. Don't worry.”

I nod to the [Fiend]. It awaits instructions. Its indecision comes from my indeterminacy.

I do not know whether we should fight or not.

[Dungeon path]

With Gron in my arms, I appear outside the mausoleum.

I see the [Fiend] walking out of the tomb, surrounded by the golden halo and casting its shadow.

But the vision lasts a few moments.

The undead parries the incoming claw attack with its wing. It shakes itself and engages in a physical fight with the stump-tailed gargoyle.

A thin, dark gray being. The scaly skin and the horned head. With no wings, smaller than its peers, it makes up for its agility and apparent immunity to acid.

While the two exchange a few blows, I listen carefully for the second gargoyle who—

Ci-cin!

Our tails got tangled. Mine bites it, and I inject it with [Poisonous bite] venom. Although I doubt it works.

The creature, immersed in the shadows a few steps lower, tries to free itself and fails. So, it pulls and pushes me off the step.

I toss Gron to the side and point my hand forward.

[Blue jet]

[Shadow wall]

Falling, I spray shadows and dive into the steps. A blue electrical explosion illuminates the room for an instant.

The golden-boned gargoyle is charred. Its body shatters.

I emerge from the shadow on the step and free my tail from the remains of the enemy.

When I turn around, the [Fiend] is standing, panting, and waiting for further instructions. The gargoyle is sliced in two lengthwise, and its insides throb on the floor.

These are no ordinary gargoyles.

Gargoyles on other floors prevent you from exiting an area. But do not chase you beyond. It is a safe border. Instead, they fought with me, who came out with [Dungeon path].

Is it a zone's fault? Or my [Yes]?

As I reflect, I start to feel tired. I have been using [Necromancy] for a while now, and there's no point in continuing to consume [ap] at the moment. I withdraw it, and the [Fiend] dissolves into a gray and progressively blacker puddle.

[Immortality] immediately gives me back my lost vitality.

[Will-o'-the-wisp]

[Will-o'-the-wisp]

I light the remains of the two gargoyles to shed light and prevent them from regenerating while I am here.

Gron jumps to the side, dodging the flame. I did not see it snooping around the remains of the gargoyle near the entrance.

“HEY!”

“Uh, sorry-sorry!”

As I prostrate myself in a bow, I feel an instinctive urge. I've had this feeling before. I know what it could mean.

Ci-cin.

I get up and notice Gron is checking its fur has not been burned. I smile.

Vanity headed.

Luckily, nothing is done.

“Open.”

The grimoire appears in my hands. It pulsates, and I feel it has something to communicate to me.

The pages flow by themselves until they reach a mass of ink that twists, taking the shape of a text.

POSSIBILITY OF SPECIALIZATION

Absorption of the Wise’s power is now possible. Having tamed his meditation, you can channel the energy obtained into a compatible field.

Compatible field:

Magic → Electricity → [Will-o'-the-wisp] → [Blue jet]

[skills] available:

[Earthquake light: 1]

[Red sprite: 1]

WARNING

By choosing one of the voices, the energy accumulated by the Wise’s meditation will be dissipated.

To prevent the occurrence of errors, the Wise’s memory will be erased and the subject will be reincarnated into a being of [lv: 1] according to the balancing needs of the cosmic tree.

Do you want to continue?

[Yes] [No]

To otherwise interact with the wise, it is necessary to shed blood on this entry. The operation will imply the erasure of the memory and the reincarnation of the subject at the end of the transaction.

Other operations for [Empress] → [Necromancy]:

[Resurrection] → The corpse of the wise dead will come back to life in the original way. WARNING: If the cause of death has not been resolved, the wise dead will die again. Requires: [Interface Permission].

[Awake] → The wise dead lose [status: Otherworldly Meditation] and gain [class: Undead]. After that, it will wait to be judged like the other deceased. Requires: [Dry Flare-Oil] or [Flare-Oil].

[Obliteration] → Requires access to the Arena with debris from the mausoleum.

Ci-cin!

Sbam!

I close the book suddenly, but it resists and reopens. It floating in mid-air.

HA! How many options! What did I unleash?

So, many things I know absolutely nothing about!

I reread the words of changing ink. In their thousand streams, waiting to find understanding. Understanding that does not come!

I scratch my ears, puzzled faces at Gron, and sit on the steps.

The snout of the snake-headed tail comes close to my face, hissing at the words on that page.

We need to get things in order. What is clear is that my action awakened someone from a meditative state. Okay.

By defeating the gargoyles defending this [status] I triggered this situation.

What can I do? Is it not possible to put it back to meditate again?

Damn, I feel like I have done something unfair and profoundly irreparable!

AHH! I bite my bottom lip and—

♦

In the end, I choose to get [Red sprite].

[Earthquake light] is the tremendous [skill] with which the [Devil] destroyed a mountain, but it is something I do not know how to handle.

I am not a [Bakenekro] of destruction, I.

Before choosing, I consulted with Gron. I asked if Dal-Dazzer had expertise in fire-electric magic, but Gron denied it.

I suspected it.

The way I imagine him, Dal-Dazzer is more of an [Esoteric Crafting] and [Necromancy] type. If I add interplanetary travel…

… Electricity cannot be his field of specialization.

The unknown unfortunate whose meditation I interrupted did not deserve to be obliterated, awakened, or resurrected (probably to die immediately).

So, I took the ability and reincarnated him.

The mausoleum shattered and collapsed immediately afterward.

As I feared it collapsed, I glimpsed some blue corals among the rubble. Maybe they were already there. I cannot say for sure.

But perhaps I caused them, interrupting the cosmic meditation of a wise.

Who knows what meditation and wisdom mean to a deceased? I will ask Y later, but she is older than almost everyone alive today. I doubt she knows.

She would check the archive and say: «Wow, Wonderful!» or so.

I walk with Gron. A bone torch with [Will-o'-the-wisp] in hand and feet tickled by a particularly hairy patch of pavement.

“So, we will have to destroy all the mausoleums, resurrecting—”

“Awakening.”

“Yeah, right—Waking up the wise men until we get the right one? Prr. Enough, how to say…”

“Gron, don't think about it. Now let's try with the large building. If the building is the material representation of their meditation…” I weigh the words while looking at the large hill on the horizon. “Hmm… I think Dal-Dazzer is not common. I hope it has a different structure.”

Gron nods and sprints forward in a couple of leaps.

“Gron! Wait.”

It points, turns, and wags its tail. “I think you're right. In this sense—prr, I also think I remember the right building. It is not a great cathedral. Follow me.”

♦

Gron and I are climbing the stairs of one structure among many. The road is in Gron's memory. It spotted that wall door among many, but since it proposed to look for a real door...

…in short. Nonsense related to its pride. Even if it is not certain, I would have given it credence straight away. Or maybe, yes?

Knowing me, it is likely that I would not have reproached Gron for anything. The positive emotion of a track is stronger than any protest I can imagine now.

Sigh.

Of course, it must be complex to show always yourself proud… I mean, Gron creates a lot of non-existent problems for itself when—

WARNING!

An undead being of [lv] equal to or greater than [90] entered the Underwasteland dungeon without the supervision of the [Empress].

Identified as [Irferno] [lv: 93].

Intentions: hostile.

Elapsed time: 6,458.02 hours.

The grimoire has appeared and is floating, showing me this screen.

“N, what are you doing?”

I close the grimoire and see Gron several steps ahead.

I make a small instinctive bow. “Nothing. Y managed to report Irferno as an enemy of the System.”

Gron holds its breath. Its chest heaves. “Did you reach the… core?” the word [core] pronounced softly. With fear.

I shake my head.

“No, no, we have time. I don't think Irferno knows the organs. Hopefully, it isn't helped by—by who? Hmm—okay. Let's go.”

We continue our journey, and I notice that I feel dizzy.

Nothing intense or painful. But a sense of nausea lingers. It appeared while I was concentrating on that question…

…must be symptoms of erased memories. Or something similar.

Better not to think about it too much. If Y can help me, I must be patient.

One thing at a time.