“I want that door closed, now! Last thing we need is more boars spawning and this thing somehow regrowing. The rest of you, clean up this mess so we can keep moving. Let’s pray that the second layer isn’t as jammed up as this one was, we’ve already wasted enough time as is! Move people, let’s move!” Dale barks out orders as he directs people about.
Off to the side, Elaine is healing those that suffered hearing damage from the explosion or that got knocked around too much. As much as Susan wants the girl to keep her mana reserves stocked up, she can’t deny that they need everyone to be in fighting shape. Especially after losing so many people already…
They haven’t even left the first layer yet, the beginner's area of the Dungeon, and they have already lost four people! Even worse is the loss of two of their tanks and their Earth Mage. Without them, this mission has just gotten a lot harder. Of their remaining mages, the only ones left is one of the raid party’s two healers, Elaine the Light Mage, and Ben the Fire Mage. The other healer is Arthor, an alchemist with two bandoliers of colorful potion vials wrapped around his large chest and a bag full of supplies for making more.
Susan isn’t going to let anything happen to them. These three are literally the lifeline of their party and everyone will be as good as dead without them. It is well known that the Undead are weak to fire and light, and Susan is certain that they will be invaluable in fighting against the Necromancer and her Undead minions.
Not to mention that Susan wouldn’t be able to forgive herself if she let Elaine die. She sees the younger girl sort of like the younger sister she never got to have, and she knows that Elaine looks up to her as well. If she could have had it her way, the girl would have never set foot anywhere near this mess, but the value of a Light Mage, even a novice one, is just undeniable here.
She’ll just have to stick closer to the girl and keep her safe. Susan can’t allow any more risks.
Under Dale’s supervision, the Boss Room is finally allowed to close its doors, and everyone is finally able to relax at knowing that they are safe for now.
With that, they quickly work on uncovering the next set of doors and the switch leading to the second layer, digging away at the layers of burnt meat and fungus and mold that is caked all over the walls. Suppressing the urge to throw up in his suit, someone cuts away a chunk of meat, finding a half-burnt eyeball in their hand along with a clump of filthy fur and bone shards.
“Uh~ This is so fucking disgusting!”
“Filthy Undead, this shit is just unnatural.”
“I wish the Goddess would just burn this filth away, it doesn’t belong in our world…”
Dale responds to the complaining men as they dig, “Well the Goddess isn’t here, now is she? She sent us to clean up this mess for her. You want this Undead filth cleaned up off our home, it will be us doing it! Now enough bullshitting and keep digging. When we kill this Necromancer freak, we will be Heros! We are the Goddess’s Will, and we are doing her work!”
They grumble out the rest of their complaints, going unheard, but keep working all the same as they cut through filth and meat to reach the door.
The work takes time and a lot of effort, people taking turns to dig in shifts as everyone else rests and recharges, gaging down another quick meal of ‘food’ slurry before washing it down with some water sucked out of a rubber hose and nipple. Filters get changed and suits are recharged with fresh shards, filth getting cleaned off of bodies as well as can be so that hazmat suits can be returned to their original green-yellow, rather than the mess of running colors and splattered gore that they were.
Nearly an hour later, the doors to the second layer lay exposed and ready to be open, the switch just waiting for a hand to be pressed against it as it gently glows.
Susan walks over to the switch and exchanges a look with Dale, he nods and immediately starts barking out orders for everyone to form up and get ready. They have no idea what to expect on the other side or what might be waiting for them after these doors open. They could potentially be walking straight into an ambush depending on how paranoid the Necromancer is, with a whole army of the Undead just waiting to attack them.
Once everyone is ready, Susan moves her hand over the switch, “3, 2, 1… Opening!”
The switch flashes green with acceptance and the large stone doors start to open. Moving swiftly, Susan draws her sword and moves to join the others, her sword raised and ready to parry anything that might come her way.
With the sliding of stone over stone, the large double doors open and allow light to come streaming through the crack, the remaining mold and meat straining against the opening doors as lines of gunk are stretched and snapping with wet noises only to left hanging from the door frame like wet streamers dripping with colorful liquids.
Slowly, and slower still, the massive doors open up and reveal the world beyond. Nothing tries to enter the Boss Room. No attacks are sent in, no ambush is sprung, and the adventurers are left standing there for a long few moments as they wait. Feeling tense and their muscles gradually relaxing, they all slowly let out a collective sigh of relief as they all realize that they are safe for now.
Dale waves forward with his hand and then taps the two remaining tanks on their shoulders. “Alright, forward everyone, slowly. Let’s see what we’re dealing with here…”
They advance, the tanks exiting the room first, moving to aim their shields in every direction as they exit out of the cliff face and onto the branch, checking their corners and looking up at the wall of the cliff above them to make sure that nothing is going to suddenly get the drop on them.
“All clear!” “All clear!”
Susan and Dale follow through next, followed by the spearmen and sword fighters, the healers and remaining mage following last out the door.
“What the hell did that Necromancer do to this place?” Mikey asks, dumfounded as he looks around at what used to be a familiar visage for him, the second layer of this Dungeon being a place he used to frequent for gathering missions and hunting requests.
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“She’s corrupted it… Oh, Goddess…” Elaine says as she looks up at the ‘sky’ of this layer.
Where normally, an artificial sun would be bringing a warm light to this place, the forest of the second layer is now cast in the dule light of a dying sun, everything being cast in a cloying twilight. The waterfalls that fall from the sky in perpetuality now look dirty and poisonous, and every one of the massive trees for as far as the eyes can see are now dotted with large patches of fungal growths and black rot that lays exposed where layers of bark had fallen away, leaving dead wood behind. Even the rich green leaves that used to cover every branch are now withered and falling away, being replaced by large fluffy masses of spores and curtains of colorful gossamer mushroom flesh that flows in the wind, currents of spores floating through the air as they are carried from one place to another on the wind's whim. High up above, peering through the treetops that used to block off all sight of what’s going on above, like the curtains of the stage keeping the audience from see the staff in the back, the distant stone ceiling of the Dungeon can be seen, where up above, the infestation of fungal growths had spread to reach the massive glow stone that acts as a small sun.
Despite the tension and fear, everyone can’t help but to look around at the changed scenery, suffering from mental whiplash as the sight before them clashes with everything they have known. The first layer being filled with mushrooms had been one thing, nothing more than a disgusting mess they had to cut their way through, but here? For these adventurers who had been to this place countless times before, they can’t even begin to accept the image before them.
The trees are dying. The Necromancer is quite literally killing the Dungeon right before their very eyes.
All the life that used to fill this place, even if it was also artificially birthed by the Dungeon, is simply dead. The birds and other flying insects in the sky are now rotted and dead things. The massive flowers are all either withering away and black, or have been twisted into drooling, snapping, things that are no longer pretending to be harmless, poisons spilling from between their teeth like so much drool as try to eat anything that draws to close. Even the air seems to carry with it a haze of death like smog that seems to just drift about or gather in places.
Elaine is choking back the urge to vomit now, her whole body rebelling at the sight and the feel of this place.
“Are you alright?” Susans asks her as she quickly jogs over to the retching girl and rubs her back. She can feel her shaking under her touch.
“No… No, this isn’t right. None of this right…” Elaine says as she shakes her head.
“What’s wrong, I need you to tell me. If something is happening, we need to know.”
Elaine looks up at her, Susan unable to see how the younger girl is currently drenched in a cold sweat inside her suit.
“It’s the mana. It’s almost all Death down here. Even the light is carrying it. I can’t, I don’t know how this possible… It’s even worse than it was up above. It’s like I can’t breathe down here; my Field feels like it’s being attacked!”
The girl cringes in pain, her hands going to her navel, over her Core, like she just got punched in the gut.
Ben quickly runs over, cursing. “Shit! Elaine, reel in your Field, now! Cut off the outside mana or you’ll kill yourself!”
Susan and the others can feel it as he forcefully smothers the girl’s Field with his own, his presence of fire like a burning furnace quickly squashing Elaine’s and forcing it towards her own body.
Elaine drops down to a knee, gasping for air as Susan holds her.
“What’s happening to her!?” Susan demands of Ben.
“Conflicting elements reacting in a destabilization of her Core. It’s rare, but this is what happens when you try to absorb mana that conflicts with your element.”
“Why would she-?” Susan tries to ask, but is interrupted by Elaine grabbing her shoulder and trying to stand back up.
“I-I was trying to refill my mana. I had… I hoped that the light here would work like usual, but it is poisoned by Death mana. I can’t use any of this… It’s all dead… all of it…”
Susan looks to Ben, and he explains.
“For us mages, we refill our Cores by taking in the ambient elements around us. For a Fire Mage like me, I can get plenty just by starting a fire, but a Light Mage needs light; the more natural it is, the better. The primary light source here obviously isn’t a natural one, isn’t the Sun, but a mana stone. Normally, it would work almost as well, but my best guess is that the mana stone has become corrupted with Death mana and the light it is producing has become something else… She can’t use this or she will be slowly killing herself from the inside out.”
“Why was she fine on the first layer then?”
Elaine coughs into her suit and answers for him. “I wasn’t trying to take in any mana up there. There was hardly any Light mana left up there anyways. This was foolish of me, I’m sorry, I should have thought of this happening before I opened myself up like that. This is exactly the sort of thing that they teach us in our first lessons. I’m sorry… I-I’ll just be dragging you down from here on now. I had hoped that the second layer would be my place to help the most, but now, I’m even more limited on how many spells I can cast.”
“It’s alright, Elaine. How much more do you have in you?” Susan asks as the rubs the depressed healer’s back.
“Using my largest spell, the one that I threw at that, thing, in the Boss Room, I have enough for maybe, two more in me... I’m sorry, I-”
“Don’t apologize. Just focus on conserving your mana for when we need it the most.”
Ben nods, “Hmh, we’ll need your magic more than mine. Fire works great for dealing with the dead, but it can’t beat Light. The only thing better would be a Life Mage, but I don’t see the Church sending any of their precious Saints down here into this hellhole.”
Susan gets a thought and has to ask, “Are we ok with all this Death mana being around us? That can’t be healthy, right?”
“Long term exposure to heavy amounts of ambient mana of one element, regardless of type, is never healthy unless you are mage that can use that element. For regular people like yourself, you are actually a lot safer than us mages are, your bodies not being built to normally accept mana into yourself. With enough time, it will seep in and you’ll experience negative side effects, but at this density, that would take weeks before any of you started to show signs of being affected. Elaine and I are the ones the most at risk here, but so long as we don’t go out of our way to purposely draw in large amounts of it, we will be fine for a week or two, a bit longer probably, since our elements naturally repel Death on their own… Still, we should get this over with sooner rather than later.”
“What sort of side effects?” Mikey asks, who had been listening off to the side the whole time.
Ben shrugs. “Tumors mostly. Might lose some teeth and hair. It’s why you’ll never see a Water Mage living near an active volcano or an Earth Mage working as a sailor on the ocean. Just asking to get sick.”
“Ehhh… I guess it’s not all sunshine and rainbows being a mage then.”
“Meh, it has its ups and downs, but being able to shoot fire out of my fingers helps.”
Susan is helping Elaine back up to her feet, the girl’s shaking slowly subsiding as her Core burns out the foreign mana and stabilizes.
“Uh, I feel like shit now…”
“Just don’t do that again, ok?”
“Mhm, I won’t, don’t worry.
“Right.” Susan looks up and addresses everyone else. “Let’s get on the move, we still have a lot of ground to cover if we are going to catch up to the Necromancer. Let’s just pray that she hasn’t already started spreading this infection into the third layer yet.”
The adventures get moving, walking across the massive, rotted branches of the second layer's trees, the rotting bark breaking and creaking under their feet as they head deeper in, uncertain of what to expect next from the Necromancer’s evil traps and machinations.
Susan can’t help but lose herself in her thoughts as she looks out over the dead landscape, watching as Undead birds fly through the sky where beautiful things used to live.
I can only imagine what evils that Necromancer is up to now…