They passed through the massive portal, the swirling dark energy corroding their senses whole for a brief second.
Zeke thought he couldn’t breathe, his body phasing through something he didn’t know what it was made of. He thought he knew mana, he studied it all this time to get better at what he does. However, this stumped him.
This mana was something else. Something blank and lifeless. After that brief second of his entire world shifting to a different place, a powerful stench of rot hit his nose.
His eyes nearly teared when he opened his eyes again, revealing the truth behind the extreme sense overload to his brain.
The inside was the definition of horror. Chains hung from the ceiling all over, the rattling sounds echoing all over like a cacophony of roosters in the morning.
They stood on a massive pillar, capable of carrying a small army’s worth at once.
And there were dozens and dozens more like it from across, below, above, diagonally and vertically at every which way.
In the distance, he could see doors on the other side of this whole mess, the pillars acting like walkways from one side to the other. Zeke couldn’t help but approach the edge of said walkway he was standing on, made entirely out of granite stone.
He saw a massive expanse that reached all the way down, more walkways and the like stretching across the inner darkness that seemed to go on and on towards the dark abyss.
He quickly regained his footing and stepped back. His heart beat against his chest like a drumroll, the putrid stench of rotten air and blood reaching him.
“What the hell is this place?” Philip the mage said, cupping his nose with a hand. “It stinks…”
“It’s a dungeon,” Val said, instantly getting her soldiers to react accordingly as she unsheathed her sword. “Do not drop your guard. This time, we shall aid you whenever we can. This is nothing like the encounters we have had before.”
Cloud walked over to the edge as well, clearly confident in not losing his step. He studied the tower, tilting and swiveling his head as he did so. Zeke figured this would be a good time, so he stepped forward and cleared his throat.
“Umm, mmh… thanks for the save,” Zeke said, trying to be discreetly quiet to not let the general hear. Even if he was also commanding his retinue to be on guard, you never know.
“We don’t want general jarhead over there making a scene,” Cloud said, offering a small smile to him before returning to his face of consternation. “But I can’t blame him for getting nervous. Have you… been able to do that? Opening a dungeon like that?”
“I didn’t even know that was possible,” Zeke admitted. He shook his head as he recalled. “I haven’t even activated any magic. Mikella didn’t do anything either.”
“That makes sense. I would’ve sensed magic coming from you if you did so. That means that it’s due in part to your special status?”
Zeke nodded. “We think so. As for what’s in here… we have no clue. Just… uhh, look out for metal knights that might be ghosts.”
“Noted,” Cloud nodded with a smirk, then returned back to studying the location.
“Where do you think we can find the boss?” Zeke asked. “At the last tower, we arrived at the top part. We kept going down till eventually we found a portal like the one we went through.”
“And it looks like we’re quite high up,” Cloud added, getting Zeke to grimace. “Looks like the formula is the same here.”
“Thing is…” Zeke looked around the pillars, the doors surrounding them, and the chains continuously rattling in his ears. “I have no clue where to go from here.”
“Then we move ahead.”
Zacharia said, approaching the two mages. The two looked back at him, noticing that Zacharia was also studying the location profusely with his glare.
“In dungeons, there is only one way forward, and that is by following this path ahead. I suggest keeping your wits about you and focus on the task at hand.”
Cloud looked like he was ready to groan out loud, but managed to keep it to himself as he smiled at the general. “Understood. Zeke, let’s head out.”
Zeke nodded, and he noticed the other soldiers making a sort of formation check with Val. While she may be ready to help this time, it wasn’t as though she would give the chance to level up her soldiers away.
Mikella quickly reunited with him, sharing his thoughts to her from Cloud. Mikella nodded, gripping her weapon tightly. It was becoming therapeutic for her at this point.
“Let’s keep things focused,” Zeke said, getting her to nod.
“Just don’t go too far, okay?” Mikella asked. “I know that’s what the general said, but… I’m serious, Zeke.”
Zeke wanted to say no. He can’t exactly hold back when lives are on the line. But that’s not up to him, nor is it up to her.
In the end, it was better to hope that it won’t happen that way, and he believed this saying did better justice. ‘Better to apologize than to regret’.
“Alright,” Zeke nodded, and he could tell that Mikella wasn’t quite convinced with that. Zeke left it at that.
The group continued onwards, following the pathway down towards the end of the giant pillar. The chains rattling and the constant stench was already making the experience sour just after a few minutes of walking across.
But soon they reached the giant double doors that could easily encompass an entire group of people. Though the size was staggering, it didn’t take long for Val and Zacharia to open them up with ease thanks to their ridiculously high Strength. As for what’s on the other side, it only made the experience worse for everyone.
Zeke immediately wanted to drop everything and run the moment he saw them. What approached them almost casual like in their gait were none other than zombies.
People that should be corpses, parts of their bodies gone and missing when it should’ve been there. Blood trails all across their bodies, particularly from their orifices on their face. They trudged along, groaning as though trying to complain about something.
And there weren't just a few around–there were perhaps dozens just from the distance alone. They were all over the next room, which was so close to appearing like the one they just stepped through. Now, it was utterly full with various deformed human bodies capable of movement.
Their mouths open and groaning, saliva, blood, and other gunk from the human body seem to flow out of their mouths. They noticed the group that appeared.
Then they ran towards them.
“Oh hell no!” Zeke shouted from the bottom of his heart and immediately conjured a barrier in front of them.
The zombies could actually fucking run. The moment they did, they slammed against the barrier, obviously a few feet away from Zeke, yet even from this distance their visage was so horrid to look at, it made Zeke back up even more.
But that wasn’t all, the other zombies from the other platforms and pillars were also coming straight at them. Apparently, none of them were as weak as they looked as they managed to actually jump from such high places, then land with ease on the same long platform as they were.
Some of them did look like they broke their legs, but just like the disgusting zombies that they were, they cared little about the disfigurement, pain being a foreign concept to them. They began trudging towards them, dragging their legless corpses with their arm strength alone.
The numbers were approaching horde-like levels, and this was the first room they entered. When Zeke surveyed his surroundings, wondering whether he should use an array to attack, he realized he wasn’t alone.
“Everyone, gather up around the barrier! Zeke, don’t cast anything else until we say otherwise!”
Zeke looked back to find Cloud giving orders, his staff slamming on the platform to get everyone in line. That’s where he also realized that his staff was a particular make.
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It felt more like one of those exorcists from the eastern lands, a staff with a cross like sign at the top with several bands of gold cluttering along each other on the horizontal parts of the sign. A shakujo, if his memory was correct.
The other soldiers followed suit, prepping their weapons against the barrier. The shape this time was a singular large rectangle barrier in front of them, but Zeke noticed that there were some zombies approaching from the side.
“Zeke, can you make separate barriers from here to here?” Cloud approached Zeke as he pointed with his finger to his left and right side. Zeke nodded and did as he asked.
He created both barriers, the edges not touching the main barrier at the front. Upon further instruction, Zeke made them to be big enough so that the gaps between the shields were more than a foot across. They were currently near the door, so they were only surrounded by the barriers in three ways. In other words, they were pinned on one side as a whole group of zombies came after them.
“Perfect,” Cloud nodded. Then he turned to the others. “Everyone, follow my lead. Mages, cast your magic across the gaps. Those with high Dexterity, go through the gaps and take out some of the weaker creatures. If you can see, there are high ranking zombies and low ranking ones. Go after the weaker ones and retreat as soon as things get too crowded.”
Upon his orders, the Dexterity based users, Mikella included, footed across the gaps and straight into the battleground. They immediately spotted the weaker zombies just by their appearance alone, their bodies shriveled and lanky compared to the more muscle bound zombies around them.
It was the same tactic as before, except this time they weren’t stuck in a dome with a funnel. Instead, they had little choice with this environment to try and reduce Zeke’s mana as much as they can, avoiding overuse. Honestly, it was something Zeke hadn’t thought about, but it was perfectly done.
In short, they made an easy fortress with less Mana consumption, all the while still able to be as proficient in taking out the monsters. However, he noticed that the top of them were still open, and some zombies were about to jump towards them from the platforms above.
That’s when the captain stepped in. She unsheathed her sword, a more immaculate one that looked just as deadly and fierce as Mikella’s enchanted one, but this one had several miles worth in depth from the feel of it alone. She angled her sword and pierced upwards just once.
A blast of powerful kinetic energy blast forth and a whole sea of zombies were immediately desecrated to just single motes of blood that flew across the air.
Zeke gaped at the sight. Then he shook his head. He had work to do.
Already, some of the dexterity fighters were coming back, their wounds showing up everywhere. Mikella was included, though the only worst thing she got were cuts from the zombies who had weapons on hand.
Zombies with weapons. If things weren’t bad enough, of course they had to have weapon mastery on top of that.
Zeke was just about to lift his hand to heal her, but Zacharia’s meaty hand landed on top of his shoulder.
“Save your mana,” He ordered. “We’ll need it to reinforce the barrier, and the arrays that we might need.”
Zeke wanted to complain, but rather than seeing the ever authoritative Zacharia, he saw a soldier who only wanted to use his abilities for their benefit. Seeing his stoicism, and somehow seeing through it, Zeke nodded.
“Don’t worry, Zeke,” Mikella assured him, smiling. “This is nothing. Besides, I still got Meditation. I can easily heal this up.”
“That’s good,” Zacharia said, a rare praise from him to the two. “The more you use it, the more you can increase it. It will only be a benefit for you in the long run.”
Hearing that, Mikella’s brows rose in realization. She nodded quickly, and then spotted Zeke with a smirk. He could already tell that he didn’t like this idea. Now Mikella would ask him not to heal her even at her worst to get her skill trained.
After all, he would do the same in her shoes.
The battle continued on, with the mobile Dexterity users fighting on the front lines giving quick kills while the slower Strength-based users attacked from near the barrier, battling the clearly stronger zombies from approaching the barriers. At this shape, Zeke’s barriers could easily withstand even the strongest zombie’s blows as it is not a dome. Most of his mana were condensed into these simple rectangle-shaped barriers rather than trying to spread it all across a dome like before.
But they were trying to ease his mana expenditure. This was only the first room, and trying to overdo it with his mana would only be bad should the worst come. And Zeke knew there would always be something wrong.
But to his surprise, nothing of note came out to try and kill them. Unlike with the horde, the number of zombies only gradually reduced in numbers, allowing the strength users to come out and play by smashing their heads in.
Despite using less skills than the others, Mikella was able to weave and cut through every zombie she came across with her sword. She even summoned her axe to deal with a troublesome muscle-bound zombie with the other hand, using both weapons at once. They might look unwieldy, especially to a girl with a thin frame like Mikella, but she was able to handle it with ease.
Better even, but she was clearly more efficient with just her sword as she quickly put her axe back to her storage pack to start fighting again. She even put away the sword to use her spear, as though realizing that fighting from the distance was better than fighting up close to smell their horrid stench.
All the while, Zeke felt anxious. He knew his barriers were doing a lot of heavy lifting by just giving the soldiers some room to breathe. It allowed them to rest and restore their stamina, and gave their minds some peace from the violence.
That alone was enough to bring a soldier into fighting shape. Always constantly fighting while in the middle of a battleground can easily wind a person’s nerves to stretch beyond their limits. Still, he hated literally standing around and doing nothing. If he could just make some simple runes, he would feel better, but his skill with runes was still not good enough to justify the mana expenditure. There was Cloud as well, but his Runecraft skill was nowhere near suited like Zeke’s, with no Class and all. He was instead focused on burning down the numbers with his spells, clearly at an upper level higher than those of the mages. But he was making sure to leave some easy kills to the younglings beside him.
In the end, the zombies were finally killed, the ones they could get to. The other zombies were either crushed in the mad dash between bodies or died trying to get to them. Some actually landed poorly and ended up killing themselves on the spot, which would be a little hilarious if they weren’t in a life-or-death situation.
The other soldiers returned back as the barriers disappeared. He didn't actually need to as his barrier doesn't consume mana, only when they were damaged and needed to be reinforced. Still, having to go around the barriers all the time would’ve been a little annoying.
“Good work, guys,” Zeke said, nodding to everyone. They really did work well, so Zeke found nothing wrong in praising them. The other soldiers nodded back to him, thankful, and soon Mikella showed up.
“How are you, you alright?” Zeke asked, a little quieter since he didn’t want to show too much favoritism. Not that anyone would care and bother with it.
“I’m fine,” Mikella answered with a smirk. “Thanks for the save with the barrier though. That would’ve been a little dicey.”
Zeke recalled when he casted a barrier near Mikella, her focus on one nasty high-ranking zombie. A weaker zombie was about to bite her, so Zeke pushed it off with a barrier, allowing Mikella to fight back and kill it.
“I know you don’t like it when I ‘baby-sit’ you, but I try my best,” Zeke said, remembering when Mikella would tell him not to worry too much every time they went out hunting.
“I know I complain a bit…” Mikella shrugged. “But I am really grateful. I just don’t like to rely on it so much. It feels like I’m cheating.”
“And I don’t care,” Zeke promptly said. “You can cheat all you want. It’s not a game, it’s real life. Cheating is perfectly valid if it helps you survive.”
“That’s… well, that’s a good point,” Mikella gave in.
“I get what you mean, Mikky,” Myra stepped up, landing on her spear and laying on it. “But Zeke’s right. In raids like this, we should take all the advantage we can get. Oh! Thanks for the save too! I didn’t know there was one just crawling around my feet! Nasty…”
“From where I was, I could see a lot more compared to you guys,” Zeke admitted. “And seriously, don’t mention it. It’s the least I can do. Not like I can do much else while stuck inside the barrier.”
“You all are taking this too easily…” Piker mentioned, getting their attention. As usual, he was glaring at them. “We’re in a dungeon. We need to stay vigilant.”
“Then you can go and stay vigilant,” Myra pointed at him. “We got plenty of people here with eyes, you know.”
Though Piker only glared back at her, it was obvious that Myra was joking and was just snapping back at him in annoyance. Even now, Zeke could tell she was on guard, her muscles tensed. Thanks to his taking care of her, he could now tell when Myra was overdoing it or not. It was a strange feeling, as he could also do the same with Mikella, but no one else. If he was honest, he felt like some peeping tom, capable of noticing the girls’ movements with ease thanks to his Recovery skill.
“Ugh… I don’t feel so good.”
Zeke turned to find none other than the duelist, the one with the twin short swords, holding a wound up on his right arm. It seemed like the armor was torn off as a huge bite mark showed there, where a zombie’s teeth could be seen from the bitemarks resembling a jagged jawline.
“Damn, you don’t look so good,” Jackie mentioned, staring at the wound. “It looks like it’s festering too…”
Zeke frowned, noticing something strange from that wording. His heart clenched as he could notice the pattern coming here. And just as he expected, Cloud quickly came over and motioned his hands for everyone to step away.
His face crinkled in a frown as he studied the wound, the duelist becoming paler by the second.
“I… I don’t feel good, I can’t see…” The duelist said, his voice becoming strained with each syllable.
Cloud had his hands up all the while, trying to pour his Mana onto the soldier, but there was no change. The longer it persisted, the more Cloud frowned.
“This can’t be… Undeath?” Cloud uttered, stepping away. “I can’t…”
“What?!” Val shouted, then turned to the duelist. “Bryann, w–”
Before Val could speak further, the man named Bryann groaned louder. Every soldier stepped away, prepping their swords. That groan wasn’t human.
Bryann was no longer human anymore. Wounds began to fester all across his skin, the pale coloring becoming darker in a matter of seconds. Zeke shook his head, unable to comprehend what was happening.
It was just like a zombie movie. The one where a bite will turn you into the undead. As Bryann opened his mouth again, this time, no words or groans escaped. Blood, saliva, and gunk slithered down his chin, and his eyes turned deathly pale.
The man formerly known as Bryann roared, lifting his arms and tried to attack the closest one of them by charging in. He was aiming for Zeke.
But before his hands could reach Zeke’s collar, a giant sword swooped in like a butterknife, easily bisecting the head off the torso and causing it to tumble and fall to the ground.
Bryann’s head rolled by, its mouth hanging open as blood and other muck rummaged and made a trail on the platform. Everyone turned silent as Zacharia collected his sword, flicked the blood off with a mighty swing then sheathed it to his back.
“It looks like we’re dealing with an unfortunate dungeon theme,” Zacharia said, piercing the silence with a cold tone. “The monsters can infect and turn us to their side. To undeath.”