[You have entered the Dungeon - The tomb of the warrior - Tzatch]
The inside of the dungeon is eerily… quiet. Well, there was the constant noise from the flowing wind escaping from the cold interior to the outside, but other than that, there was nothing else worthy of my interest. Not even when I possessed the innate senses talent.
So does that mean that the dungeon I’m standing in is harmless? I’d be an idiot to believe that.
The room itself fit the typical description of a carved underground cave in which the walls are replaced with cut stone, with pillars supporting the roofs of the cave scattered sporadically around the place. Some of them were obviously weathered from the passage of time, and I found mosses growing at the corners of the room. Smell-wise, it’s somewhat earthy, well, other than the sweet odor that came from the deepest parts of the dungeon, that is.
I didn’t see any movements or enemies so far, even after walking quite deep into the dungeon. The rooms were connected to each other from a door-sized opening in the middle of the sides of the walls, which meant that there were 3 more possible paths for every room I moved into.
Feels like a labyrinth.
It’s simple to remember where the entrance was since it was connected to the outside, where a large ray of sunshine penetrated deep into the room, lighting it up like a lighthouse. Basing my location based on the entrance is easy. I only have to look at the room that was lit the most.
That’s not saying that it was completely dark inside of the dungeon. There were torches hung on the walls that were lit despite there being no source of fuel. Any source of visibility is appreciated, so I won’t complain about their fuel mechanics.
A few minutes passed before I encountered the first enemy - no - a group of enemies, to be precise.
Dressed in tattered clothes and each holding a spear, 4 walking corpses emerged from the room ahead of me. This room differed somewhat from the others, with the pillars from its entrance decorated with some type of engravings that glowed blue when you stared at them.
I held my spear and prepared myself for a fight.
[Lvl. 17 Walking dead]
[Lvl. 16 Walking dead]
[Lvl. 18 Walking dead]
[Lvl. 19 Walking dead]
Watching the dead corpse of people walking is a lot more horrifying than I thought it would be. Normally, you’d expect the rotting bodies of the dead to smell dreadful, but somehow… for some fucked up reason, I found their scent to be sweet. So sweet that it was distracting my thoughts.
Focus…
Detecting my presence, they all turned their heads in my direction simultaneously, revealing the empty eye sockets on their faces as their mouth contorted into an unrecognizable expression. Their relatively high levels meant that they’ll be a challenge to beat, even if they moved somewhat slowly.
They settled into a formation, blockading the entrance to their room with their spears held up high. I stood while formulating a plan in my head, there was no doubt in my mind that they had other abilities in store.
And as quickly as I thought there was none, One of them gagged as its stomach and throat bulged, expanding like a balloon. Then, a few seconds after that, it released a projectile vomit that spreads in the air, covering the entrance with a light green mist.
The mist lowered the visibility of everything inside of the room, enough to cloud their figures, and also enough so that I couldn’t use shadow step anywhere beyond the mist. Thinking up a solution, I summoned a spear in my right hand and flung it into the fog, hoping to draw some kind of reaction from inside.
Thud! I heard the sound of contact between a spear and flesh. A howling groan bellowed from the haze in response, and soon after, a lumbering figure charged forth with a speed that shocked me.
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Twisting my body to the side, I narrowly avoided its first and sudden stab. At the right side of its chest, piercing through its body like a sore thumb, lies the spear I threw. It didn’t seem to have affected it at all, which I found to be concerning. The stab left the corpse wide open, and I used the opportunity to strike at its head with my other spear.
My jab went through cleanly, skewering its head from below its jaw.
No system message. It’s not dead.
I kicked the corpse away with my full strength, flinging its body backwards. The thrown spear hasn’t dissipated and remained lodged into its chest as it flew back into the mist, its figure hidden once more.
What the hell do I do now? How do I kill something that remained alive after I stabbed through its head? Individually, they barely posed any threat, and I’m confident enough to dodge their strikes consistently...
However, none of it mattered if I couldn’t kill them.
Next, the other, healthier Walking deads burst forth from the fog, charging forward with relentless fury. Gasping at the spontaneous action, my legs retreated backward as I tried to figure out how to handle their apparent invulnerability.
How do you kill something that’s already dead?
Their slow speed allowed me to escape their assault with ease as I fell back to the previous room. If I can’t kill them, then at the very least, I could try to dismember their limbs.
Using shadow step, I moved behind their backs while conjuring a dark sword when I found solid footing on the floor. Amidst their furious charge, they failed to notice my whereabouts when I cleaved through the head of the closest corpse to my location. There was barely any resistance felt as my blade went by its neck with ease.
The head flew in the air, its empty eyes writhing in rage as it stared at me.
Not dead. This doesn’t work too.
Going through the next checklist, I rolled sideways and dodged the incoming attack from all three of them. The one I cut down acted like nothing has happened, which makes these enemies a pain in the ass to deal with. The sword remained solid in my left hand as I sundered the legs of the one I beheaded.
The hacked torso of the corpse fell on the floor. Losing access to its legs, it then crawled towards me, never relenting on its attacks.
That’s not enough? What if I cut all of its limbs?
Both the corpses that were at their tip-top shape convulsed. The same type of convulsion that the first corpse performed, which meant that they were about to do that vomit attack again.
Alarm bells sounded in my head as I ran to the previous room. A few seconds later, the room where I fought them was now covered in thick green mist.
Releasing my held-up breath, the tension that was once on my shoulders relaxed. Cutting their limbs doesn’t kill them, I know, but it does make it easy for me to deal with them. After all, a living corpse with no limbs poses little to no threat.
Two figures emerged from the mist, their spears readied. I feinted by charging right at their spears, to which they responded with a quick jab at my location, before vanishing and re-emerging behind them. I swung my sword from below their waist, splitting their legs apart as I possessed enough strength to achieve that feat.
Their bodies falling, I stabbed one of them with my spear while my sword finally dissipated. Carrying the body with the spear, I left the scene and went to a separate room. The weapon it held was long since gone when it dropped right after I stabbed the corpse, leaving it helpless as I dumped it on the floor.
It thrashed wildly while I hacked its limbs apart with my spear.
No need to waste mana with this one.
Repeating the process, I dealt with the rest of the corpses individually. What was left once it was all over is a gory scene filled with moving limbs and twitching torsos, while the heads of the corpses tumbling about as I approached the room I found them in.
And… well, it wasn’t that special of a room. The architecture and decorations remained similar, and nothing about the room itself screamed it was different.
Except for a dark stone that was placed on top of a small pillar in the center, secreting such a wonderful smell that I couldn’t help myself but drool. The stone grabbed all of my attention as I unwillingly reached for it with my arm, even dropping my spear in the meantime.
It’s so… sweet…
[Ezekiel’s beacon - A stone that has the ability to channel the energies from Ezekiel’s dark realm. The power contained within is said to be able to revive the dead.]
“Ha.. Ahahahahahaha!”, A laughter echoed inside the dungeon. At first, I thought the voice came from somewhere else, but…
That laughter came from me.
Upon physical contact with the oh-so intoxicating, sweet-smelling rock, the haze that permeated the room was absorbed right into the stone. A light tint of darkness snaked its way into my body through the arm that was in contact with it. From there, a deluge of pain burst forth, eliciting a long groan as I knelt from the agony.
The pain was harrowing, and yet, I felt comfort from deep within. My vision blurred as I wobbled, all the limbs attached to me losing their strength as time passed. I battled the growing desire to sleep for an eternity before succumbing to it, losing my consciousness while I tumbled to the floor.
[You are now infected with Death poisoning. Once awake, you will lose 1% of your health every 10 seconds. You will not regain health while you are infected.]