Inevitably, Shaily ran out of mana, and the sprite disappeared, leaving her in almost complete darkness, under piles of bones. Only the magical dagger she held in her hand still emitted a faint magical glow.
It could have been much worse… If I had never learned to free-cast the sprites and the angel bolt…
Shaily did not move, not even trying to extract herself from the bones and rubble, for a few minutes, she focused on calming her erratic breathing and recovering.
140 seconds to regenerate a thousand mana, she counted, doing the math in her head, so about twenty minutes before I can try to get back to the top.
After about five minutes, Shaily felt that she had the strength to move again, and she struggled to free herself from the pit of old bones. It was really easier said than done, but the level ups from the kill had just about pushed her physical strength far enough that she could manage it, eventually poking her head out of the not so deep pile of bones.
At the bottom of the abyss, a set of heavy stone doors lie closed, a softly-glowing ritual keeping them sealed.
Oh… There really is something sealed down there.
I could break that with the dispel mist.
It’s only a level 100+ dungeon, so whatever is in there might not be that dangerous. But better not to take useless risks. I’ll just wait and get out of here. Pareth is already in place waiting for me…
While Shaily waited, she checked her new keywords, finding that she now had the [Angel’s ] part of Angel’s bolt.
And the other half is [ soul], huh. Angel’s soul? I’m not sure… I only have one active slot free for the rest of the trial, and I should get more active spell bits at level 70. Better to wait. And the new passives?
Available Passive Skills :
* [Pristine ] : Your soul is in
* [ of Bones] : against physical projectiles.
* [Armor ] : Gather prayers to protect
* [ Essence] : per second.
Armor of bones?! Finally a combination I already know the result of!
You have acquired the passive skill : ‘Armor ’
You have acquired the passive skill : ‘ of Bones’
So good!
It even has an integrated storage!
Shaily absorbed all she could of the pile of bones she was sitting on, activating the armor.
So comfortable and light! I want the same, what?! This skill is too good!
Well… Getting the bones might be a bit of a hassle with my real class. It’s also way too complex. How long to learn to freecast that? A decade? Most of the complexity seems to come from the bone storage itself, so maybe I can skip that part and adapt the rest of the spell somehow? I’ll see if I have time for that…
It would not be weird if Shaily and the magisterium were not to come out of the dungeon for a few more hours, but what she really cared about was the shift of the watch guarding the dungeon’s entrance. According to her calculations, she had about fifty minutes left, not even enough for her mana to be back to full again.
Considering the time It should take to reach the entrance if I sprint all the way through the higher floors… I can still rest for a bit.
Eventually, with a few minutes of leeway before she needed to leave, Shaily decided to open the doors. A monster of at most level 199 would likely not be able to follow her as fast as she could escape with [Maiden Bolt]. Hopefully it would cause the church to focus its efforts on dealing with the thing instead of pursuing her, giving her some precious time to get as far away as she could.
With a bit of dispelling mist, she deactivated the sealing ritual long enough to push open the doors.
A vile smell of putrid decay assaulted her nose from within the sealed chamber, accompanied by a sight that shook Shaily to her core. The room buried under the mountain was gigantic. A gruesomely distorted, dead-looking man was hanging in the air in the middle of the room, locked in place by hundreds of luminous bonds that looked like lines of ethereal text of light latching onto him. Under him was an abundant pile of rotting corpses, men, women and children, some of which were weakly trying to crawl out of the pile.
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Shaily had a hard time trying not to puke. Containing her retching, she took a step back.
What in Death’s great name…
Clanking noises came from above the captive ‘man’, prompting Shaily to look up to the ceiling, in which there were four bloody holes.
A body fell from the leftmost hole, hitting the captive man who shook and let out a blood-curdling scream, before the mangled corpse fell further and splattered on top of the corpse pile with a mushy sound.
The dagger fell from Shaily’s hand; she threw up.
Who… Who is that sick in the head…
Once her stomach was completely empty, Shaily managed to compose herself enough to send an [Identify] the man’s way.
[??? - Lv. ???]
[ERROR]
[Target’s Scribe not found, please try again later]
Scribe not found? I… What…
[Target’s Soul compromised, Scribe could not be attributed]
[Admin action required]
[Available admins : 0]
[Error dismissed]
Ah, wh-
Shaily tried to turn around and escape, only to realize that she couldn’t. Her legs wouldn’t answer her, no matter how hard she tried. She panicked, and tried to close the doors, except her arms were the same, unresponsive.
A few seconds later, to her great horror, her legs started moving by themselves, bringing her a step closer to the pile of corpses. She tried to escape using [Summon Self], but the teleportation failed, in fact, her body refused to cast the spell. Her mana did not answer her.
In a great panic, Shaily cycled through her options in her head, then she remembered her most important skill. The one granted by one who’s name should not be spoken.
Spells cast through her right hand could not fail.
Despite her right arm being out of her control, her hand was still hers, she had simply not realized, overcome by panic that she was. As her feet brought her past the doors and ever closer to the pile of corpses, she channeled a spell. Sparks gathered in her palm, forming an angelic attack, until her mana hit zero.
The javelin of unstable plasma tore right through the head of the bound man, after which Shaily collapsed, her body and mind in a world of indescribable pain.
‘You have defeatedmurdered [??? - Original Sinner lv. ???]’
‘Calculating, please wait…’
‘You have defeated [Soul Parasite - Lv. 260-349]’ * 28 458
‘You gained a level!’ * 37
[New Active Skills are available!]
[New Passive Skills are available!]
‘You have reached maximum experience’
[Congratulations, you have reached the maximum level allowed in this trial, extra rewards will be awarded upon completion]
The physical pain eventually receded, allowing Shaily to finally breathe, although a severe pulsating headache remained, which not even the light sprite managed to heal.
The headless deformed man was still held up in the air by the threads of light that the bolt had not damaged in the slightest. There was no more movement from within the pile. The abyss was devoid of any sound except for Shaily’s ragged breath.
“I need to get away from here,” she mumbled to herself as she turned around. After grabbing the dagger, she stumbled upon the mangled armored corpse of the magisterium, which was hidden under the remaining bones. She excavated him by moving bones around with the [Armor of Bones] storage. Taking off his armor’s right gauntlet, she found and took his storage ring, which she knew he had ever since he had produced the magic dagger she was holding out of nowhere on their first day in the dungeon.
Not even checking the ring’s contents, she then left the corpse behind and weakly climbed the remaining pile of bone, reaching the lowest steps of the spiraling stairs going all around the abyss, and she entered the lowest floor of the dungeon.
The Zombies were all dead. Half-rotten husks lying lifeless on the ground, not an ounce of magic remaining within. While she waited for her mana to come back, Shaily climbed through floor after floor of the dungeon in a daze, not a single monster in her way.
Before she knew it, she was back at the entrance, hidden by the darkness, just a few meters behind the two guards from the church.
The reality of the situation snapped her out of her wide awake sleep-walking.
Not the same two… I missed the shift change. Need to distract them somehow…
Summoning a shadow sprite that immediately hid in the wall, Shaily sent it to the far end of the corridor. There, it appeared out of the wall, shot through the air and entered the opposite wall.
The two guards looked at each other.
“D- Did you see that too?” one asked the other.
Shaily used [Summon Self] at maximum range to teleport herself through the door of the closed room next to the guards. The man’s voice was just loud enough to hide the sound of her feet touching the ground. This was needed because teleporting with one’s feet directly touching the ground was leagues harder than just appearing mid-air and required incredibly fine mana-control or a much more advanced spell.
Quickly scanning the interior of the room she had landed in, Shaily’s eyes lit up.
Healing potions!
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