"... nobody knows what is the System. Some people think that the System is a gift from their deity or that it is the one true god. The few things we know for certain however are that the System is ancient beyond belief and it somehow choices and grants to every single being two talents, one at birth and another at age 15. That is even the case to those races that are blessed with long longevity..."
-Extract from a torn page from an unknown diary
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Iris gazed at the depictions that were chiselled into the mountainside, flaking the entrance to the mysterious temple-like structure. Her eyes scanned the old stone until she realized that an old man was also attempting to decipher the worn-out glyphs that were under the murals. The old man possessed a darker skin tone than one might find in Havenfall, he also had a beard with plenty of grey hair in it and he wore a weird-looking cloth on his head that resembled an onion. A long light orange garment that ended just above the feet adorned the old man with another dark green piece of cloth placed at his shoulders with a small golden chain, pinned under the neck.
"Hmmm... I wish, I was able to decipher the glyphs of the ancients. Key to knowledge beyond our comprehension. *sigh* O well, hopefully, this would be the perfect opportunity to learn more..." The old man whispered to himself with a hint of resignation in his voice.
Iris did not entertain the idea to answer the comment. She much rather quietly read over the glyphs and not boast about her talent.
"Di'arch Joseph I knew that you will be here," Brad spoke from behind Iris, he was followed by his entire team but the Di'arch did not even show any signs of noticing him, clearly finding the effort of translating the unknown glyphs to be higher on his priority list then greeting Hero of Humanity.
"Found anything useful in those scribbles?" Brad said while scratching the back of his head from the awkwardness of the situation.
"They are not some scribbles those are cyclopean glyphs of some version that was never seen before... maybe an older ver...no a religious one..." Di'arch retorted with his finger authoritatively going back and forward in the air but quickly being put on his chin deep in some thought.
"Iris," Came a voice of Alicia from behind Brad. "Can you enlighten us about the meaning of those." She appeared from behind the hero and pointed at the mural.
Her words hung in the air for a split second before Di'arch's eyes quickly focused on Iris full of hope, curiosity and jealously, making a drop of sweat appear on Iris's forehead but she bowed slightly to Alicia and turn around to face the giant mural.
"This one tells the story of their creation myth, shall I translate fully or basic meaning?" The elf received an eager nod from Brad and Dian for the latter option, which received a hard stare from the Oriripoli mage.
"In the beginning, there was Rohtua the Creator who chiselled the world out of stone but while he was working, he accidentally cut himself during his work and his blood splattered onto his feet. As his blood dried a fraction of its essence freed itself and landed on our world. Rohtua saw Gods crawl out of the stone he was chiselling and choose to spare them even as their existance left a stain on his work. As thanks the Gods began to help Rothua with his creation, creating oceans, minerals and life. After the creation of the world the Gods split into two camps the Pramil and Arkane who waged war over the nature of magic. In this war, the Cyclops were created by the leader Arkane, Orlak. The rest of the species were created by Pramil gods."
Iris finished leaving a good bit of the information out of her translation. She went to the other side to read the other mural with had much fewer gliffs. Before she could start one of the Di'arch attendants spoke.
"How are we meant to trust an elf with this, if we the Geni'i can't figure out what do they mean."
"Because she has a talent that allows her to read those. Was it [Masterful Translator] or something?" Spoke the old Di'arch with carelessly little thought given into his retort.
Such a carelessness admission of using [Inspect] with even a high level mage present and not noticing it, caused Iris to feel an urge to run from the powerful mage but kept herself still as a statue as the people around her turned toward the Di'arch. Alicia made a ugly face after Di'arch's comment but motioned Iris to begin translating as she hid her emotion behind a fake smile.
"T-This one tells the story of a comet impact creating the lake in front of us and holding within, some sort of gift from their Gods..." Iris summarised, she started to read the bottom paragraph that held lots of information about who started the construction of this building, which king contributed what and who finished it and from which clan they hailed from, this all seemed to have been quite important to the ancients but she decided to not translate further thinking that most people present will be bored to death.
Iris was then led toward the front doors, where the rest of Di'arch's assistants found another set of glyphs. They pointed their fingers at the single string of letters above the door frame which measured roughly 12 meters high.
"This sacred ground of the dead is dedicated to Kiayicu the Child of the Gods, Tyrant of the Pale Star, Bringer of Slumber, Rouser of the Dead and The Liege Sovereign of Necropolis."
After a few hours in which Iris was bombarded with questions from the Di'arch and his attendants. The crusading human force finally cleared the city and they all assembled on the large market square in front of the temple. The humans did not even take up a quarter of the giant plaza as they all waited for the dungeon doors to be opened.
When the venerable doors finally were pried open by Utrecht and Brad, a torrent of sickly grey mist flowed out of its insides, everyone readied themselves for a bloody battle but after the deluge of mist decreased into a small stream with not a single undead greeting the humans everyone sighed in relief and got organized to enter the dungeon. Iris was placed beside Brad's team and coincidentally both Di'archs, Joseph and a man called Horatio were right behind Hero's team. Whispers of defenseless treasure began to make rounds in the human force before all fell silent.
Upon entering the dim-lit corridors of the dungeon they all started to cough, the cause of this was the air itself which was dry, stuffy and incredibly dusty, smelling of dirt and rotting meat. Letting their eyes readjust to the twilight they all saw a single corridor going down with a gentle slope. In the darkness an orange light at the end of the corridor appeared. Carefully entering the room that housed the source of strange light they witness a great lantern that hung from the ceiling, it was made from giant orange crystal caged inside a cage with geometric designs carved into it which hummed with magic. A magical lantern of this size would be enough allow all people in the expedition to experience three lifetimes' worth of luxury life and then some. Many people smirked upon seeing their first treasure simply hanging from the ceiling for free. The room seemed to be a crossroad of sorts as many corridors went in each direction, leading Aspects know where and their first choice brought them a standstill as they debated for roughly a bell. Upon entering one of the corridors which brought them East they found themselves flanked by crypts.
In one of the crypts there were 16 giant sarcophagi lying on the floor, evenly spaced and at the top of the room there was a throne with a gigantic mummified corpse with only one gigantic eye socket, with its arms resting on the throne. At the feet of each of the sarcophagus were mummified remains of much smaller beings adorned with many prized objects.
"You think that inside one of them there are even more jewels?" Asked a soldier beside Iris.
"You bet." Someone else replied.
As the two men tried to slide the meter thick cover from one of the sarcophagi the mummy of the seating cyclop began to move along side the prostrated bodies at his feet.
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Curses could be heard from the soldiers upon seeing such a sight as commanders began to bark out orders.
"It's a... Cyclop Wither level 66!" Brad shouted.
The relative low level of the Cyclop made everyone sigh in relief but not for long as shriek filled the hall as they began being swarmed by lesser undead.
Brad dashed towards one of the cyclopes while soldiers behind him cut down the lesser Withers. He stopped right in front of the mindless beast baiting out a savage overhead smash delivered by the Cyclop that sent fragments of the floor flying. Brad quickly pulled out a holy sigil and incanted [Turn Undead] which made Cyclop quickly cover his face in pain and act as if it was screaming but no sound came from its mummified throat. Brad used this moment to move in between undead legs, the giant tried to stop the human Hero but its slugish body was unable to stop him. Brad raised his sword and cut back the Cyclop's feet which cause the lumbering giant to collapse, stepping on the undead back he trusted his sword again, between the head and the spine, destroying the Cyclop in the process.
Iris looked towards the other Cyclops rising from their resting places but the ranged firepower of humans already overpowered the Cyclops and the lesser withers. Dian went from corpse to corpse looting all the valuables there were.
"I recommend trying to get the boss first and then kill the rest, we can't just be burning mana nor potions so early into our exploration." Alicia suggested with a bit of irritation seeing how much mana they spent already fighting a single set of low level ancients which they had the element of surprise over.
They backtracked towards the first hall and followed the corridor that descended deeper into the earth hoping this was the way to the central chamber. Iris looked around, the dungeon appeared to be constructed entirely out of grey stone up to the ceiling which was slightly blueish in colour and was supported by evenly spaced columns, it appeared that once the corridors were painted to resemble the outside but the paint had long rotted away. They encountered primarily Withers of the roughly human size which Iris assumed were of the races subjugated by Cyclops as they got further down.
In the end one of the many winding corridors there was a great hall, its high ceiling was supported by six columns. At the back, there was a gigantic doorframe that was engulfed in blue flames, in front of which was a rectangular altar attended by a clearly awake undead Cyclop who wore a tattered dark purple robe with blue outlines. Both of its arms were held in front of it, above the altar. Dian put his finger up to his lips and went in front of the group to scout ahead. After a long and tense moment, Dian came back and whispered
"There are more of them beside the altar but that guy looks like the strongest maybe even a mini-boss."
"Do you know what he is doing?"
"Nah, I didn't want to risk it."
"Alright let's go back a bit and get buffed and we will come back here." Brad said, clearly in his element.
"[Greater Shield]," "[Dark Energy Resistance]," "[Stalwart Heart]"...
Priest, paladins and mages of many different specialties started to chant their supportive magic. They came back to the great hall and left Iris with some archers at the entrance. The people with any kind of stealth quickly dashed forward hiding in the shadows waiting their opportunity to strike when needed while the rest organized themselves in a coherent formation with tanks at the front and others at the back. Brad led them from the front finally attracting the attention of the undead. The undead started to rise from their slumber around the altar while the Cyclop priest turned around reveling the previously unseen crystal ball appearing to hold the same azure colour fire within as the ones engulfing the door.
"Level 150 death priest ahead! Ten Level 100 withers surrounding it!"
The death priest made some unintelligible noises after receiving no answer to its question. The Cyclop held the crystal ball high above its head which unleashed the infernal power held within, bathing everything in its path in blue flames. Humans retaliated by attacking the closest wither until it could barely support its weight. After the first volleys from both sides were exchanged, the hidden humans started to lose their arrows with deadly precision but as if the undead were mocking the efforts of the humans, the mummified undead appeared to take little to no damage.
The mainline of humans, charged the undead trying to silence the powerful death priest but they only met with the ancient steel of the undead guarding the alter. A chaotic clash began, one of the giants grabbed a Nordling shield-bearer by the leg and proceeded to use the human as a club to smash his fellows. The Oriripol Di'arch Harotio casted a powerful Firebolt that fell one of the undead leaving a burning wreck behind. Utrecht charged the death priest with a thunderous warcry, axe held high above his head. The priest dashed weaighlessly to the side but it did not anticipate Utrecht to backswing the axe into the knee of the priest with an audible crack. The crystal ball fell onto the cold stone floor from the death priest's hand. The Cyclop coated his hand with a dark mist and tried to grab Utrecht but an Astral Arrow from Alicia managed to stop its attack. Brad who managed to kill his opponent with some help sprinted towards the death priest cutting his mummified leg in tow followed by casting Turn Undead right in front of its face. Without their priest, the remaining Cyclopes were thrown into a berserk state but they were neutralised by long-range spells from human backline.
Priest hurried to heal the injured and the dying. Even when they heavily outnumbered their opponents the fragments of the ancients power managed to severely lower the human's morale as twenty of them ended up dead at the end of the encounter.
With a whistle the flames covering the giant doorway and the crystal ball's internal inferno extinguished themselves. Trying to see past the darkness covering their way forward failed.
"No notification?" A heavily armoured man asked Brad, on his heart a crimson badge of adventurer guild gleamed in the torchlight.
"No, I don't think that was a mini boss." Brad glanced at the dead husk left by the priest trying to see if maybe some unnatural life remained in its hollow eyes. "I wouldn't worry about it, this is no dungeon."
"I know but this looks very much like a dungeon. It has levels, its going constantly down, difficulty is increasing progressively. I think we should make camp in the plaza and slowly start clearing instead of rushing. I wouldn't want a wave of undead to sweep our support." The man said but people around him began to call him a cowered for fearing after the first difficult bump.
"Maybe you are the reason why it went so smoothly?" Some distant over Dian whispered as he crouched beside the opaque crystal and caused it to disappear with an ability.
"Well let's find out what these mummies were guarding," Brad said out loud stepping toward the alter.
"W-What if they were trying to keep s-something in there." A young mage tried to voice his objection.
"You chicken out already? Haha!" Laughed the leader of the Nordlings, Havdan.
They all approached the now open door and saw another long corridor. Once they entered they noticed that the air quality increased somehow and that there were more operational magical light sources with a cold blue hue to them. After some time they turned a corner and saw what look like another set of doors but those ones were clearly emulating a gatehouse of some kind. While the humans tried to open the massive doors Iris looked around and saw an inscription on the top of the door.
"Death, the curse of the mortals and the perceived blessing for immortals. All shall be ruled under." Iris absentmindedly read the glyphs above her.
"What are you speaking about?" Di'arch suddenly appeared beside the elf.
"N-Nothing!" Iris grabbed her chest feeling like her soul had jumped out of her chest. She glanced at the inscription once again before thinking nothing of it.
Messages left at the top of gatehouses were a common sight and it wouldn't surprise the elf that the cyclops started it. Finally, after managing to wrestle the door open they saw a relatively small room with a statue of a humanoid with a skull of some reptile as a head, its body was made from some kind of black stone with a curved sword in each hand measuring about 6 meters and broad stairs that now went up. They passed the statue and began climbing the staircase.
"F...!"
"AA...!"
A horrifying shrieks came from the back of their party. The statue managed to cut down two mages before anyone could react. The abyss black statue constantly twitched and moved in inhuman way. Its two curved swords managed to slay a group of adventurers before anyone recovered from the shock, a girl that was owned by one of the Di'arch was the fastest to try to cast an offensive spell but was quickly crushed by the statue's leg stomping down.
"How could you, she was my! Die!" Horatio casted Firebolt towards the construct but upon contact, its skin appeared to shimmer with blue energy.
"It has magic resistance! Inspect, N-nnno! Impossible!" Horatio appeared to have a mental breakdown and just stared at the construct which was slaughtering defenseless mages with an expression somewhere between horror and anger. Iris felt something hot hit her face as the head of the arch mage hit the floor, his body doing the same some time later. "My pla...!"
Utrecht charged the statue but his axe was similarly useless as magic to the construct. His weapon was knocked out of his hands by the relentless advance of the construct, Utrecht in his final moment tried to tackle the towering opponent but was met with the cold gaze of the statue and its blades.
"What level is this thing! Brad!" Dian screamed at Brad as the doors slammed shut leaving the humans trapped with the unholy construct.
Panic and anguish filled the room as its grayish walls were painted red with blood. The single statue was mercilessly butchering the entire crusading force, with its sleek body seeing no sign of damage from the desperate attacks launched by the trapped humans. Iris saw mages faint from mana fatigue and ordinary soldiers breaking their weapons trying to open the sealed door before the statue's curved swords passed through even the thickest armour like knife through bloody butter.
"Inspect! I-it tells me it's a Eternal Sentinel but the level is blank!"
Everyone still alive knew what that meant but like cornered animals they all charged at the sentinel in meager hope of destroying the construct. Every trick up the remaining human forces' sleeve was used but all the effort was pointless.
The sentinel raised its sword to cut down Alicia but before it could connect Brad pushed her aside, both of his hands were separated from his body and before he could scream the construct's second blade decapitated the strongest human alive with laughable ease. Alicia fell to the ground and seeing her beloved die she let out a banshee like scream.
"Y-you dumbass why?" Alicia began to cry as she ran toward Brad's mutilated body before she cuddled his bloodied body in her arms.
Suddenly all the light went out both natural and magic and a great beam of light appeared just as suddenly from Alicia's open palm. In desperation, Alicia had fried her mana circuits casting her most powerful spell with all the mana she had to do something. The stone skull of the construct didn't show emotion as it cut down Alicia who was reduced to cackling mad woman facing such a foe.
Iris didn't want to die so she ran. She ran up the stairs and further into the dungeon as the screams of humans echoed through the corridor. She felt like she ran for hours accompanied by the horrific screams of death but suddenly silence fell on the corridor before quickly being replaced by the sounds of heavy footsteps coming towards her. She turned around and saw from the darkness the sentinal running unhurriedly towards her.
Finally, it was Iris's turn on the sentinel list, she realised that she had been crying and unable to move when she saw the constructs approch, not really knowing from where the relief of her struggle finally come as she shut her eyes as the stone beast leaped toward her before she could feel no more pain in her miserable life. Her mind going blank as cold stone touched her neck.
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*Gasp*
Iris suddenly woke up in the bed, she instantly sat up feeling every joint in her body screaming at her. She saw standing at the edge of the bed a unfamiliar girl no more than 20 years old staring down at her. Upon realising that Iris is awake the girl asked her the most bizarre question that Iris could not even comprehend.
"Hit me."