Leaving the room, Nathan felt well recovered, his regeneration working in tandem with the Survivor title. His arm had not healed yet, but the wound was not debilitating and he could deal with it once he found a way out of the dungeon.
The hallway looked different than before, there was significantly less space and Nathan could see a lot of branching paths instead of new rooms.
Looks like a labyrinth. Always turn right, then.
Not wasting any time, Nathan explored this new space, carefully advancing as he was still wary of traps. Just before taking his first turn, he stepped over a tripwire, glancing at a small hole in the wall. That's where the arrow would come out.
He turned around the corner, fully alert and expecting an ambush, almost disappointed when nothing happened. When he had walked halfway to the next turn, a soft swishing sound caught Nathan's ear and he turned around. No enemies could be found, but the hallway he had just come out of had changed, its layout completely different from before. Annoying.
Nathan turned around, scrutinizing the area he was walking through before continuing. No matter how hard he looked, he could find no traps until he rounded the next corner.
A few steps later he heard a loud buzzing sound, whipping around immediately and barely protecting his face with his forearm as an enormous bug attacked him, his spear clattering to the floor. His forearm was caught in the bug's mandibles, so he smashed it heavily against the wall multiple times, hearing a crunching sound. The bug's body was crushed, its internal fluid splashing everywhere, and Nathan grimaced.
Even in death, the bug had not let up its grip and he carefully pried it off, feeling the soreness where it had grabbed his arm. He curiously inspected the insect – it was about half a metre long, its legs and mandibles golden in colour while its carapace was blue.
Mimic Scarab – None [3] – Dead
But where did it suddenly come from? Letting his eyes glide over the wall, he noticed one of the torches was not lit, its position just about where the bug had appeared. It must have used illusions to seem like part of the torch, Nathan concluded.
Ducking down, he retrieved his weapon before continuing, this time even more conscious of his surroundings.
A couple more corridors passed without interruption, apart from some simple traps, before Nathan was confronted with a new enemy. Suddenly standing before him was a mummy, its humanoid body completely bandaged while red flames exuding coldness burned in its eyes.
As soon as it took notice of Nathan, it swung its hand. Nathan was surprised, when one of the bandages making up its arm unravelled, stretching and flying toward him as it whistled through the air. It moved with surprising speed and would cross the distance in less than a second.
He broke out into a sprint immediately, ducking under the attack as he neared the enemy. The mummy performed a gesture with its free hand and a cloud of dust sprung up, surrounding it. Nathan barely managed to use Identify before the enemy was obscured.
Undead Mummy – Dustmancer [7]
Nathan moved forward, the shawl on his robe rising by itself to protect his face. Hearing the whistling of another attack, he jumped up towards the wall, before taking a step on the wall to gain even more height, the bandage passing harmlessly below him.
He could not see through the dust, but from memory alone, his spear stabbed the spot he had last seen the mummy in, as he sailed through the air.
His spear hit nothing and he landed in a roll to dodge the next attack he could already hear coming.
Just as he was rising, he perceived the noise of wings fluttering, slashing towards the spot it originated from. Nathan was rewarded by the sound of his spear cutting through another scarab, noticing too late that the sound had not vanished completely.
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Following that swipe, he was about to turn around, when another scarab hit him, throwing him to the ground. Stunned for a second, the mummy landed a hit, its bandage ripping through Nathan's new robe and leaving a narrow cut on his stomach, the wound deep enough to start bleeding immediately.
He let out a shout of pain as he grabbed the bug with both hands, ripping its head off and throwing it towards where the mummy had attacked him from.
By now, the enemy's spell was ending, the dust thinning so much that he could see its silhouette again. The projectile hit the mummy, staggering it for a moment, as Nathan rose to a crouch and executed a jumping stab. He crossed the distance in a superhuman feat of strength and his spear punched straight through the monster, right where the heart of a human would be.
Nathan and the enemy both fell to the ground, the movement aggravating the mummy's injury, and even while falling, Nathan dropped his weapon to start pummelling its head.
His fist hit the ground with a painful crunch though, as his falling enemy turned into dust right under him. Unprepared, Nathan smashed into the ground heavily, feeling the sharp pain of his nose breaking.
He moved on instinct as another bandage rushed through the air, impacting the spot he had just lain in, broken shards of stone opening small wounds on Nathan's face. While rising once more, he saw his foe, the mummy having appeared a few metres away, while the glow in its eyes had dulled almost completely. It's almost out of energy, the resentment core is barely shining now.
He gave himself no time to rest, as he advanced towards the mummy once more, his enemy performing another attack while its other hand glowed. A cloud of dust flew towards Nathan as he closed his eyes, blindly dodging the next strike of the bandage.
He was certain that he could kill the mummy before it got the chance to attack once more, when he suddenly heard a clicking sound, giving him no time to react as a bolt penetrated deep into his arm.
“Fucking hell”, he screamed out, his voice filled with pain. It tricked me into a trap, that asshole.
Nathan had kept hold of his spear however and while the manoeuvre sent enormous pain coursing through him, he still rammed his weapon through the mummy's head, crumpling to the ground along with his slain foe.
The bandages lost their form quickly, finally landing in a crumpled heap surrounding the broken core that had kept them animated before.
It took a while for Nathan to stand up, the pain making his eyes tear up. Where the bolt had hit him, his arm felt like it was on fire, the feeling slowly spreading further. It was poisoned too, this dungeon is a goddamn pain in the ass.
Without hesitation he picked up one of the bandages, testing its resilience before binding it tightly around his arm to prevent the poison's spread. It took only a couple of seconds before Nathan started to lose feeling in his arm. This will make fighting much more difficult for the foreseeable future.
Apart from that particular strike, he had not been wounded heavily during the fight, though another encounter of that difficulty might kill him in his current condition. Finally, Nathan acknowledged the message he had gotten, happy to be at least rewarded for the struggle.
Congratulations, Nathan Andrews
You have levelled up
Give me another point of perception, that's starting to fall behind, he decided.
Picking up all the valuable monster parts left after the fight, Nathan rounded the next corner, hoping to escape the dungeon soon.
It had taken another couple of hours before Nathan finally saw a room before him, breaking the pattern of repeating hallways. No other enemy on the level of the mummy had shown up and he had gotten this far relatively unscathed apart from his previous injuries.
He did not enter the room immediately, trying to gleam any information from his current position, but being foiled by the darkness that filled it for now.
Stifling a sigh, he stepped forward, all his muscles strained and ready to fight at a moment's notice. The room was relatively large, with a big gate set at the end of it. The torches were much stronger here, lighting it perfectly. Nathan's eyes however were drawn to the beast that filled almost half of the room, its form towering over him many times. On instinct he used Inspect, regretting it almost immediately.
Sphinx – Y̴̩͔͇͈̌̿͌ö̷̗̆̏ù̶̮͉́̑ ̶̬̀́͘͝Ṡ̸͕͒̉͝h̵̡͙͂o̵͙̱͓͒u̶̼̟̠͛̇̋l̶̦̰͑ď̸̯̀ ̴̤̹̭̠̈́̈́̃K̶̺̱̂̄̚͠ȩ̵͉͓̗́̏̒e̵̩̍p̶̫̖̳̈́͠ͅ ̵̩̙̃Y̴̧̖̙̳͊͝o̶̗̮̐͑͝ů̴̹̬̼̍͜r̸̨̤̤͛ ̸̺̟̏E̷̡͓̖̐y̸̥̩͈̯̔e̵̘̓͋͛̅s̸̻̥̉ ̷̰̮̐́́T̴͕̜̀̊̓ō̵͙̈̅ ̷̤̽̒Y̶̢͈̱̦̋o̵̢̓ṷ̶͝r̴̡̺̹͐͒͒͝š̷͓̖̆͋e̴͙̓͌͋̊ͅl̴̘͈͈̋f̶̰̪̱͛̐̃̅ ̷̜̻̓̈͋̐[̶̬̈̆̌M̸̞͓̆͗o̵͍̻̺̔̄r̵͙̯͎̓͌t̴̯̂̓̂̇ǎ̷̩̗̟̪̈̕l̵̝̼̤̒]̷̛̣̟̿̏
Nathan gulped, as one enormous eye focussed on him, the sphinx laying down her head on one of her paws. Her body was that of a lion, giving Nathan a feeling of majesty, though that was far overshadowed by the sheer danger the being radiated. Her head could be called that of a human, had an advanced species produced the face of a human only from descriptions.
Her features were incredibly attractive, her skin completely fair and her black hair cascaded down her neck. The eyes of a cat were set on her face, staring him down like a predator having found a new toy while a bloodthirsty grin split her face, revealing sharp teeth.
Despite the incredible beauty, something about the sphinx's face was off, even its human features giving Nathan a feeling of unease.
The uncanny valley effect, he thought. The feeling one gets when looking at something that seems almost human. Scientists used to think it developed to make it easier to identify corpses. But who knows if it wasn't meant to protect us against the predators that walk amongst us. The ones hunting us while wearing our own faces.