Elena stood at the entrance to the dungeon alongside Malik, Carmen, and the two new civilians — Jamal and Isabella. On their way there, Malik had found a beast for Elena to kill so she could get her free Basic Quarterstaff Fighting Skill.
“My Lord, the first room of the dungeon is clear of monsters. This is almost always true for low-level dungeons like this, so we don’t have to worry about a fight right after entering.” Malik reported before shooting a glare at the other citizens. “I hope everyone will follow my instructions to the letter lest they re-enter the cycle of reincarnation.”
Carmen rolled her eyes at Malik’s comment, but the two civilians nodded. Neither of them was as squeamish as Maria was, and it was clear they had been dead for a lot longer.
With a creak, the large bronze double doors of the dungeon fell inward, revealing a dark portal. Malik motioned for everyone to follow him and then stepped in.
Elena entered second and felt a gut-wrenching tug before finding herself in a dimly lit stone structure. Floating above her were the words “Gnarsh’s Domain 2/5”. As the other three entered the dungeon, the number went up, and when it reached five, the text changed to say “Begin”.
As they had discussed before, Elena and the others let Malik work before doing anything else. He carefully inspected the room they had spawned into, checking for traps, doors, and other points of interest.
They were in a rather large hall, maybe six meters across and twenty-five meters long. Halfway through, there was a set of steps leading up a few meters that took up the entire length of the hall. There were two raised alcoves a few meters in. One had a nearly destroyed statue, and the other contained only rubble. At the opposite end of the hall was a large, dusty, and broken mural. What was left depicted a scene of a demonic entity fighting against armies and angels.
“I’ve finished my assessment, my Lord.” Malik said after a while. “At the end of the hall are two doors. One of which is locked, and I am not confident in our ability to get through it. The other is unlocked. There is also a hidden door in the alcove.”
Malik pointed to the alcove without a statue that was filled with rubble.
“There was a clear path made to the wall, and although I’m not a Rogue, my experience tells me we can find a hidden door there. How do you wish to proceed, my Lord?”
Elena had received a primer on dungeon exploration, and from what little she knew, since Malik hadn’t run this dungeon before, it was almost meaningless which path they decided to take first. Monsters generally didn’t wander around in such low-level dungeons, and if you fought monsters in a room, as long as there was a closed door between them and other monsters, you wouldn’t attract any attention.
Thinking harder on it, Elena decided to eliminate the two doors at the end of the hallway. The locked door would take too much time to get through and might alert whatever was in the room. Malik was most powerful with the element of surprise, and until they filled some enemies and took their weapons, the civilians were useless. As for the other door, she simply didn’t like it. Elena preferred to take her chances with the hidden room.
“Let’s go through the hidden door. If we are lucky, we can take whatever is inside by surprise,” Elena declared.
Malik nodded, then spent a few seconds finding the mechanism to open the door. Once he had, he signaled for Carmen and Elena to join him.
The door flew open with a bang as Carmen kicked it in. Inside were two furry humanoid creatures sitting at a table playing some card game. They clearly hadn’t been expecting enemies as their weapons were hanging at their waists, out of easy reach.
Before either could react, an arrow flew through the air and struck one of the monsters in the neck. A moment later, Carmen reached them and her spear shot through the air, piercing the same monster in between the ribs.
Elena had also struck at that moment, targeting the other monster. She’d dashed forwards and swung the quarterstaff like a baseball bat directly into the monster’s temple, sending it tumbling to the ground.
Although she didn’t activate the stun effect, the strike had still disoriented the monster, causing it to react too slowly to dodge her follow-up attack: a thrust to its sternum.
Just like that, Elena had killed her first monster. When she did, she felt a wisp of energy enter her body. She’d felt this before when killing the beast Malik had trapped earlier, but this one felt much stronger. This was the feeling of experience entering her body. When she had enough, she could exchange it for increased stats. Whenever a milestone was reached, one of her stats would randomly increase.
Although combat in the afterlife was somewhat gamified, it was quick and brutal. The biggest reason was the lack of a cooldown on attacks and Abilities. So long as you had stamina and the capability, you could endlessly barrage an opponent. The second reason was that Armor didn’t work like one might expect if you had played a lot of games.
Rather than Armor, the more accurate game term would probably be a shield. Before reducing an opponent's Health, any damage dealt would first reduce their Armor. Armor regenerated at a rate of one point every half second unless it was reduced to zero, in which case it would take five seconds before it was able to regenerate again.
Elena reached down to the corpse and grabbed at the air in front of it. When she opened her hand again, she was holding a coin slightly larger than a quarter depicting the monster she had just killed. This was a Loot Token. When she returned to her Territory, she could exchange it for various loots. Glancing over, Elena noticed Carmen doing the same to her opponent. Neither monster had had a chance to fight back in the slightest.
Outside of a dungeon, after taking the Loot Token off of a corpse, both the corpse and any items it had would disappear. Inside the dungeon, however, both the corpse and its items would stick around until the dungeon was completed. This was the basis of the plan Malik had described to Elena. Using the weapons from dead enemies, they could arm the two civilians. Although they couldn’t take the weapons out of the dungeon, they would be converted to Iron, which was exactly what they needed for some advanced buildings.
With both enemies dead, Elena took a closer look at the room. It was shaped almost like an arena. The areas touching the walls were sunk into the ground by over two meters, leaving the spot with the table level. Inside those ditches, Elena could see several people chained to the walls.
This made her frown. Malik had told her that monsters, both in and out of dungeons, weren’t real people but just complex simulations. Since that was the case, what about those people? Since she wasn’t sure, Elena glanced around at the others with her to gauge their reactions.
Carmen was indifferent to their presence while Malik seemed as if he’d picked up a coin off the street. The two civilians, however, looked at the chained people with a mix of pity and fear.
“Malik, what are they doing here?” Elena asked.
“Sometimes a dungeon will offer civilians as a reward for beating them. Think of them as being similar to any other treasure we can find here,” Malik said with a callousness born from acceptance. “They are real people if you were wondering, chosen randomly to fit whatever role the monsters in this dungeon need them for. Theirs is not an enviable fate and it might be yours if you’re unable to succeed as a Lord.”
Although Malik’s words sounded threatening, it was the simple truth. Only Lords could control their own fate to some extent in the afterlife. Everyone else was a slave. Either to a Lord or to the laws of the afterlife.
"Can we equip them with weapons too? They're civilians, right?" Elena inquired with hope, considering the potential boost the eight additional people could provide to their group's strength.
Malik regretfully shook his head. "Given their current condition, it's likely they are malnourished and weak. We could attempt it, but it might do more harm than good."
Elena sighed, acknowledging the limitations. Despite her initial disappointment, they decided to leave the injured civilians behind, planning to return for them after completing the dungeon.
In the room, they discovered only one other door which was opposite the entrance. Elena had the party proceed on their current route rather than backtrack.
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The door led them into a hallway that turned right a few meters ahead, extending nearly forty meters before curving right once more. Along this path, they found a small room without doors that had a large copper tub and cabinets stocked with cleaning supplies. The room, thankfully, was empty of monsters.
At the end of the hallway, right before the bend, Malik signaled for everyone else to wait, then ventured out on his own using the Stealth Skill. When he returned he had a solemn expression.
"There are three paths ahead," he whispered. "Two are doors I couldn't check, but one leads to a room without doors. There are at least four more Gnolls inside, possibly more."
Elena understood the problem immediately. Not only was it dangerous to face a large number of enemies, there was the risk of one of them escaping. While sounds wouldn't carry through doors, sentient monsters would gather reinforcements from nearby rooms.
Their best strategy for handling a large group was through hit-and-run tactics, relying on Malik's ranged attacks. However, they wouldn’t be able to prevent a monster from leaving to alert others. The last thing they wanted was to alert the boss and have every monster in the dungeon converge on them.
"Let's leave this path for now," Elena suggested. "We should explore the other open pathway before attempting to clear this one."
Retracing their steps to the entry hall, they discovered that the unlocked door led to a hallway that ended up in the same room. Faced with limited options, they had to decide whether to break down the locked door or confront the room full of monsters.
In the chamber with the captive civilians, Elena sat at the bloodstained table, using playing cards to strategize. Despite arming the two civilian party members with long jagged swords, their combat effectiveness remained negligable. They would make a decent meat shield but nothing more. Elena didn’t mind sacrificing them but felt it was too wasteful when they knew so little about the dungeon. It would be too late for her to regret it if she encountered a more difficult situation and lost her soldier or champion because the civilians were already dead.
They were also on a time limit. Two of them actually. Every dungeon had a cycle that the monsters adhered to. One potential cycle was the changing of the guard or maybe a group meal. It was possible that the gnolls would notice something was wrong and start hunting for intruders. That would be just as bad as failing to kill all of the monsters in the room.
The other time limit was the outside world. According to Malik, the night was very dangerous. If they weren’t able to clear the dungeon with enough time to get back inside the Novice Shield, they would have to give up or risk the entire party dying
Elena gritted her teeth in frustration. She was better than this. There was definitely a way to handle this situation. Suddenly she had an idea. Suddenly, an idea struck her – a strategy that might just turn the tide in their favor.
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Elena stood silently in the intersection outside the monster filled room, having taken a significant risk by separating herself from the rest of the party. As the second strongest member, thanks to her combat training and powerful weapon, she alone could play this crucial role in the plan unfolding.
The rest of the party would have positioned themselves at the other entrance, ready to set the trap in motion. The plan was straightforward, leverage the dungeon's layout and the monster's rules to kill them all without alerting the rest of the dungeon. Malik would attack the gnolls, drawing them out into the entry hall. In the entry hall they would be able to perform hit and run tactics, nullifying the gnolls' numerical advantage. There also wasn’t anywhere for the gnolls to go in that direction except the locked door, which Malik assured Elena they wouldn’t have the key to.
With Malik ensuring the entry hall remained secure, any attempts by the gnolls to alert other monsters would force them to send someone to the intersection where Elena was waiting. Elena was confident in her ability to dispatch a gnoll by surprise. Possibly even two, and if more than that tried to retreat they would leave themselves wide open to an attack by the rest of the party from behind.
A few moments later, the distinctive twang of a bowstring cut through the air, signaling the start of the plan. Amidst the startled shouts of the gnolls, two more twangs followed, accompanied by the thud of bodies hitting the ground and the shuffling of footsteps. If everything went as planned, Malik had successfully drawn the gnolls into the entry hall.
Elena closed her eyes and processed the sounds coming from the room. Her eyes snapped open with a grin. Her gamble had paid off. A lone set of footsteps was approaching her.
As the gnoll emerged from the room, Elena swung around the corner, slamming her quarterstaff into its legs, toppling it to the ground. Without hesitation, she arced the quarterstaff, delivering a fatal blow to the creature's skull.
With the gnoll that had been sent to alert the others eliminated, Elena refocused on the room. While she was listening earlier, she’d heard two more gnolls in the room, likely just waking up based on their breathing and movements.
Entering the room, presumably the gnolls' sleeping quarters, Elena's assumption proved correct. Two groggy gnolls were crawling out of makeshift nests built into alcoves. Unarmed and unprepared, they were vulnerable targets.
Darting towards the closer gnoll on her left, just meters from the door, Elena delivered a powerful swing to its chin, followed by another strike to its arm as it reached for a weapon.
Before Elena could land the finishing blow, a sudden tingle at the back of her neck caused her to swiftly leap backwards. The last gnoll, weapon in hand, had rushed to defend its comrade.
The gnoll swung fiercely at Elena, but in her eyes the move was sloppy and predictable. Using offense as defense, Elena dashed towards the gnoll, slipping past the blade and using its momentum to throw it over her shoulder and onto the floor.
With the obstacle gone, Elena's quarterstaff lashed out like a viper, striking the nearly dead gnoll in the throat, rendering it fully dead.
One enemy left. She thought.
The last gnoll glared at Elena with hate-filled eyes. Its companions were dead because of this human, and now she stood as the last obstacle to it alerting the boss to come and destroy them.
Despite the tension, Elena couldn't suppress the grin forming on her lips. It had been a while since she’d faced an enemy with cold weapons, and the thrill brought back memories of her childhood training.
With a ferocious bark, the gnoll lunged forward, swinging its blade with reckless abandon. Elena, quick on her feet, sidestepped the gnoll's attack, delivering a swift strike to its ribs with her quarterstaff. Sensing the danger of overcommitting, she retreated dodging a kick aimed at her legs. She understood the perils of greed in a fight.
Having been snapped out of its bloodlust, the gnoll adopted a more defensive stance. Its swings were still ferocious but were now controlled, allowing it to dodge or parry Elena's strikes effectively.
They fought for over ten rounds with neither gaining a clear advantage. On the windup for the twelfth round, Elena noticed an unusual transformation in the gnoll's body. Its muscles bulged unnaturally, and its blade's speed increased significantly as it swung.
Sensing the imminent danger, Elena instinctively knew that tring to block such an attack would be a fatal mistake. Resolutely abandoning her weapon, she sacrificed it to divert the gnoll's deadly strike, which collided with the wall, shattering stone and sending Elena's quarterstaff flying into the distance.
The rebound from its heavy attack caused the gnoll's stance to crumble. Seizing the opportunity, Elena struck out with her fist, crushing the monster's dog-like nose. Even without a weapon, Elena could still deal a single point of damage using unarmed attacks.
Launching a flurry of blows, she relentlessly battered the gnoll into submission. Strikes landed on its throat, wrist, and crotch in quick succession. Although she fell short of beating it to death, the gnoll dropped its sword, allowing Elena to kick it aside, causing it to land next to her quarterstaff in the corner.
What ensued next was a savage melee between woman and beast, featuring punches, kicks, scratches, and bites. In the end, Elena emerged victorious, though not unscathed. She endured three hits, including a nasty bite wound on her shoulder.
This made her Health fall below seventy-five percent but since the wounds weren’t severe she would only lose one Health every hour. They needed to clear the dungeon within the next five hours so what did it matter if she would bleed to death in seven? The only change was that she no longer had room to fail. If she wasn’t able to clear this dungeon, she would enter the cycle of reincarnation!
Slumping against the wall, Elena wore a radiant smile despite the time limit placed on her new life. The rush of combat was invigorating! Damn, it felt good to go wild!
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Malik hadn’t liked the plan. He was reluctant to leave his Lord alone—a risk he found excessively dangerous. He hadn’t liked the plan, but he couldn't deny the plan's effectiveness. Concealed in the shadows, he’d swiftly launched three arrows, eliminating one gnoll and drawing the attention of the remaining three. Two charged toward him, splitting their forces and being drawn into the trap waiting in the next room.
Retreating through the door to the entry hall, Malik watched as the soldier and two armed civilians butchered the gnoll that followed after him, knocking it into the other. This allowed Malik to fire another arrow, initiating a cautious dance where the rest of his group maintained a safe distance while he methodically wore down the monsters’ Health. There were tense moments where a single misstep could have been fatal, especially for the civilians, but they emerged unscathed.
Their success was largely attributed to Malik's exceptional archery skills, honed over centuries. Against these low-level monsters, his expertise far surpassed theirs allowing him to control the entire battlefield. Carmen's support further facilitated the task, effortlessly restricting the monsters' movements in the open space.
As the last gnoll succumbed to Malik's arrows, he swiftly returned to the dormitory. Since he hadn’t entered the cycle of reincarnation his Lord was still alive, but the possibility of her being injured or cornered spurred him to ensure her safety.
Rounding the corner, Malik was greeted by a surprising sight: four dead gnolls sprawled on the floor, and his Lord wearing a radiant smile as she gazed into the sky.
Dumbfounded, Malik couldn't fathom what his Lord had achieved during her brief time alive. How had she attained such combat prowess so soon after her death? He’d heard that the world of the living had long since moved past the era of cold warfare. His own memories of his initial dungeon experience as a Lord surfaced, causing a burning sense of shame.
Shaking his head, Malik threw those negative thoughts out of his mind. If she's strong, it just means I'll have a better chance to reach a new level in this iteration.