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Chapter 27 - The Undead Dungeon: The Outer Layer
Half a day north of what used to be a village. That’s where Ace was.
The Undead Dungeon.
In the midst of the brown lands, there was an entrance to a dungeon. It wasn’t man-made, but a product of nature. It looked as if a monster had spread its mouth and was waiting for a foolish challenger.
“Sirius, are you sure this is the right entrance?”
“Yes, it is. But it smells …… awful.”
Sirius twisted his face. It didn’t smell that bad, but I wondered if it was because Beastmen had such a good sense of smell.
“The smell of a corpse…… How many lives would it take to emit such a smell….”
“The undead inside would be a class apart from the skeletons.”
At least a gryphon had been turned into undead.
Winged monsters were terrifying. Dragons, wyverns, and gryphons. People couldn’t fly, and because of that, it took a huge amount of effort to fight against them. If we had archers and magicians, it would be a different story.
I just hoped the ceiling was low enough for the gryphons to hit their heads and die on their own.
“Henry, we may not be able to afford to eat inside the cave. Let’s eat here and then head in.”
“Since it’s a dungeon, isn’t bread dropped inside? I think we’ll be fine if we eat it and head for the deeper levels.”
Sirius looked at me as if he were looking at Fayne. It was a complex mixture of dismay and concern. I couldn’t help but speak as if I were in a dungeon that I was familiar with.
“No, forget it. You’re right. Let’s get some food and then we’ll go. Yeah, yeah. If we die in this dungeon, it’s over.”
“……Yes.”
That’s right, in this dungeon, you couldn’t use the item box, and there was no item or status reset. And if you die, it was over. For both me and Ace.
I’m going to take Ace’s life now.
How many times have I killed him in my imagination? When I thought of the fact that I was within arm’s reach of him, joy rose in my heart.
But there was also a feeling of impatience. A sense of urgency, as if I were about to lose something. What was it?
Maybe I would get an answer when I meet Ace.
◇◇◇
Droplets of water fell from the ceiling of the dungeon and made a noise.
The dungeon, naturally created by underground water, was covered with hard rock. Darkness reigned in the area, and if it weren’t for the torches I’d made in a rush, I wouldn’t be able to see an inch of the way.
“How did you manage to make a torch?”
“I hunted a few beasts for food. It’s easy to use the fat from the beasts.”
“I see.”
Sirius and I proceeded, keeping a wary eye on the road ahead. We’ve come so far from the entrance that even when we looked back, there was only darkness.
However, I was sad to see that no items had fallen. If this had been a dungeon in my territory, I would have found some weapons, armor, and scrolls.
“There’s nothing here, Sirius. There’s no undead.”
“Not really. Look over there.”
Sirius pointed his torch at the wall.
The color of the wall was different there. No, that dull glow was peculiar to minerals.
“That’s an iron vein, isn’t it? This dungeon was left untouched for many years, so it seems to have a lot of mineral resources.”
“Hmm, I’d like to take some home with me.”
I almost accidentally said, “But it will disappear when you step out of the dungeon.” I didn’t want Sirius to give me the cold shoulder again.
Unlike the dungeons in my territory, the things I picked up here do not disappear. That was normal, but it was hard to change common sense once it was engraved in your brain.
“Yes, we’re not as good at blacksmithing as the dwarves, but mineral resources are…”
In the middle of his speech, Sirius put his index finger to his mouth.
He had serious eyes. I was sure there were undead in the vicinity.
“Henry, I smell the undead up ahead. From the sound of their footsteps, there are three of them.”
“Got it. I’ll take care of them.”
“…… No, I’ll go there. There are some things about Ace that I can’t stomach.”
The handless Sirius stepped forward.
Come to think of it, Sirius didn’t bring the spear from the village. Don’t tell me he was going to punch the undead to defeat them. It was true that stabbing weapons were less effective against undead with hard bodies, such as skeletons. But bare hands were out of the question.
“……【Ancestral Spirit Fury ・ Call Beast】!”
As soon as Sirius activates his skill, his bones creaked and his body expanded. Animal hair covered his whole body, and his neat face turned into a ferocious wolf. His fangs and claws grew sharper, and he could easily slice through rocks.
“Aah…… What the……”
“Are you surprised, Henry? We are the descendants of wolves. The chosen warriors can borrow the power of the ancestral spirits and change their form. This is a part of that power. We were once called werewolves, but this is our true form.”
I was surprised by what I saw.
But what surprised me the most was how huge Sirius’ body had become. The clothes he was wearing were torn away cruelly because he was twice as big as before.
What used to be his clothes fell at his feet. I wondered how he was going to get home when he was untransformed.
“Our ancestral spirits are furious, too, for having defiled the land of our fathers. I will settle this here.”
“Ah, I’m counting on you, Sirius.”
“……!? It looks like they’re here. Then I’ll take the first one!”
I heard footsteps approaching.
Illuminated by the torchlight was a huge body that made you look up. It was a demon called a troll. The skin was purple and rotten, and the eyes were spilling out of their sockets.
“Gaaaaaaaaahhhh!!”
Sirius leaped to reach the ceiling. He then grabbed the troll by the shoulders and swung his sharp claws down.
The troll’s head and neck were split open, and it died on the spot. Sirius used the broken head as a foothold to continue further.
“First one!”
Sirius spun in the air and hit the other troll on the side of its head with a spinning kick.
The troll tried to grab Sirius with a look of agony on its face. But it was not fast enough. Bouncing freely off walls and ceilings, Sirius dodged everything by a paper-thin margin.
“Oh, amazing! You’re keeping your movements to a minimum by avoiding them at the last minute.”
If it were a simple matter of status, I’d be superior to him. However, my experience in fighting and the way I used my body were unmatched.
In addition, trolls and Sirius were different as living beings. For all intents and purposes, Sirius would never be defeated.
The troll was kicked and fell down, and a knee kick from the air hit the troll, splattering the area with fresh blood and brain matter. He then pounced on the last troll with his momentum, clawing at its neck.
After a few moments, the troll’s head slipped off and fell to the ground. Sirius brushed off the claws and removed the stuck pieces of flesh and blood.
“This is the true fighting style of the Silver Crow clan. It’s not very pleasant to watch, is it?”
As if the excitement of the battle was a lie, Sirius spoke to me like a gentleman.
“Let’s leave each other on our backs from here. It’s a dimly lit dungeon, so we’ll have to keep an eye out for traps.”
“Yeah, it’s true that Sirius’s fur would burn if he got caught in a big explosion trap or a fire trap.”
It would be terrible if he lost both his legs in the big explosion trap. The healing potions were limited. And Beastmen were easy to get burned.
Also, being burned to death was much worse than you think. If you could lose consciousness early, it wasn’t so bad. How many times had I experienced that? I couldn’t remember anymore because I died too many times.
“I have no idea what you’re talking about, but if you’ll be careful, that’s fine. We have a long way to go.”
Sirius looked at me with kind eyes.
It was true that there were no such traps in common dungeons, but the key to dungeon conquest was to be prepared for every eventuality. So please did not look at me with the same eyes you look at Fayne with.