Chapter 10: The Dungeons
"So this is the tomb." Said a blonde haired short girl wearing black bodysuit made of slimes.
"Yes, Lady Alpha." Answered another girl wearing similar black bodysuit.
"Good work, No.102."
Alpha, the first of the Seven Shades of Shadow Garden, stood in front of a rusted iron gate which led to an ancient undiscovered cemetery located near Duke Normann's demesne, which has a big Mausoleum at the center. She is accompanied by 3 members of the Numbers. A mysterious mist surrounds the cemetery, making the cemetery look dark and haunted. The ancient cemetery was full of tombstones of various shapes and sizes. Unknown letters are carved on each tombstone.
Surrounding the Mausoleum's door are 2 statues of a robed skeleton wielding scythes, an image that is far too close to her worst nightmare. She heard reports of this tomb when one of the Numbers of Shadow Garden discovered it by accident while on a mission and upon investigation, they confirmed the presence of the undead. Necromancer, the man who tormented her in the past, is capable of controlling the dead according to Zeta's investigation.
Necromancer first appeared in Everick after killing and kidnapping many people and unleashing a monster upon the city. He is also confirmed to be a top executive in the Cult, being the one who supplied them with Pseudo-Artifacts which gave Shadow Garden quite a hard time.
When she reported the name to her lord, Shadow, he instantly recognized the name Necromancer as one who commands the dead. As expected of her lord.
Now she is here to investigate the tomb, to confirm if there's any connection between the undead haunting this tomb from an ancient civilization and the man from her nightmares.
"Kyaah!" Screamed one of the Numbers as they noticed skeletons and zombies emerging from the ground as if awakened by the presence of the living. The undead warriors, wielding magic weapons similar to the ones the Cultists wields, surrounds them.
"I see. So this is all his doing after all." Muttered Alpha, confirming her suspicion.
"L-Lady Alpha! We're surrounded! What should we do?"
"We fight."
Renewing their courage after their leader showed no fear, the Numbers engaged the undead warriors in combat, though they can't seem to kill them despite hacking and stabbing through their bodies with their slime swords. The undead, feeling no pain, continued their assault.
"They cannot die!"
Alpha, upon beheading one of the zombies and found out it didn't move anymore, shouted "Cut off their heads!"
Upon figuring out how to defeat the undead, the Numbers swiftly dispatched the undead surrounding them and the cemetery becomes silent again when the last corpse fell down.
"Let's continue." Ordered Alpha, her emotions overrides her rational judgment.
"Yes, Lady Alpha!"
With that, Alpha and the Numbers entered the Mausoleum, fought more undead and faced various traps inside, both physical and magical. In the end, she emerged outside alone and injured after slaying every undead warriors she could find, including a formidable skeleton knight in the main chamber. The Numbers accompanying her had all fallen to the tomb's traps or slain by the undead warriors. She gritted her teeth in frustration as she was once again unable to save people from the Necromancer's evil. This time she even led them to their doom.
"Necromancer…. I swear… I will kill you…!" Declared Alpha as she tearfully dragged the corpses of the Numbers who accompanied her and bringing an Artifact she found in the main chamber of the tomb back home.
I conducted inspection of my dungeons from time to time, that's how I discovered one of them have been cleared by someone recently. All my undead were completely wiped out! The Artifact I intentionally left there as dungeon clearing reward has been taken! They even defeated the Skeleton Knight I put the main chamber as the last boss of the dungeon! And I don't know who did it! I should've installed security cameras… or made something similar using magic so that I could watch the whole thing. Another project for later.
I hope that whoever invaded my tomb enjoyed the experience. I spent a lot of money procuring the materials and a lot of effort commanding the stupid zombies to build it and I even had to carve the statues and tombstones myself. The zombies broke the stones far too often that I decided to just adopt ancient looking aesthetic, using my rot magic to make the stones look old and decayed. The end result was simply a work of art and I'm extremely proud of it.
Rebuilding it and refilling it with undead guardians will be a pain but having it serve its function is more satisfying. I hope I can finish making the security camera spell before the other dungeons get invaded.
"Lady Alpha!"
Epsilon, one of the Seven Shades, greeted an injured Alpha in the Abyss Woods. Exhausted both physically and mentally, Alpha collapsed to the ground and whimpered. Epsilon never saw Alpha as vulnerable as this even after working together for 3 years. She noticed the corpses of the Numbers Alpha carried and understood why.
"Delta! I need your help! Delta!" Shouted Epsilon desperately.
"Got it!" Shouted Delta as she appeared, fully understanding the situation due to her sharp sense of smell despite being not the sharpest thinker.
They both carried Alpha and the three corpses back to Alexandria.
The next day, Alpha woke up and she called for an emergency meeting with the Seven Shades, which they were able to attend despite their busy schedules.
"I confirmed that the undead in the ancient tomb was connected to Necromancer. The undead monsters contained within were formidable and they carried stronger version of the Artifacts that he supplied to the Cult and the Church." Informed Alpha. The faces of the Seven Shades tensed up when they heard that dreadful name.
"So that means the zombies are our prey too? But they sound nasty! Delta doesn't like rotten meat!"
"As always, there's only food in your head, huh?" Zeta said cynically.
"What did you say, you stupid cat!?"
"Delta ! Zeta! Now is not the time!" Scolded Gamma.
"Sorry!" apologized both Delta and Zeta, letting Alpha continue.
"Most of the undead monsters were no match for us after we figured out how to kill them. But the ancient traps, both physical and magical, caught us off-guard. The trap holes, the poisonous gas, the spears emerging from the walls, the monstrous treasure chests, the magic traps that unleashed fire, ice and lightning… They wore us down. The Numbers who accompanied me were unable to keep up." Alpha clenched her fists as she uttered those words.
"I should've ordered them to retreat…. I should've…" Muttered Alpha while holding back her tears.
"Lady Alpha…" A concerned Beta said.
"In the end, I managed to defeat the strongest creature of that tomb, a skeleton knight, and took this from its vault." Continued Alpha after composing herself.
Alpha placed the Artifact she brought from the tomb on top of the table.
"What is that thing?" Questioned Epsilon.
"No doubt an Artifact of some significance to that Necromancer guy if he bothered placing all those traps and undead guards to protect it." Answered Zeta.
"Eta. I want you to analyze this Artifact." Commanded Alpha.
"It shall be done…" Said an enthusiastic Eta in her usual sleep deprived voice.
"So, what shall we do next, Lady Alpha?" Asked Gamma.
"For now we can only try to collect more information on Necromancer. We need to find out the scope of his influence and destroy as much of his undead minions as we can." Answered Alpha.
"Should we ask for our lord's wisdom? He is the one who is most familiar with Necromancer after all." Asked Beta.
"Perhaps… but our lord should've already made his move the moment he learned of Necromancer's existence and he already told us everything we need to know. Anymore than that would waste his time. We must figure out the rest ourselves." Answered Alpha.
"As expected of Lord Shadow!" Replied Beta while writing enthusiastically on her notebook.
Meanwhile, on a different tomb located around the land that formerly belonged to the late Viscount Grease.
"Wahoo! Never thought I'll find a dungeon in this world! And it's undead themed! Whoever made this tomb is such a cool guy! I hope I can find treasures within!" Shouted a black cloaked boy excitedly while hacking through hordes of undead and ignoring several traps that were not lethal enough for him as he went deeper and deeper into the crypt.
"Oh hooo! Treasure chest! Treasure~! Treasure~!"
The boy found a treasure chest and when he opened it, sharp teeth emerged from the treasure chest's opening and it jumps, trying to bite the boy. The boy dodged the chest in time and stood warily as long fleshy arms and legs emerged from the chest.
"That's…. a Mimic? That's…. That's….!"
The boy muttered while sweating and trembling before suddenly…
"THAT WAS BULLCRAP! I TAKE IT BACK! THE CREATOR OF THIS TOMB IS AN ASSHOLE! HOW DARE THEY TOY WITH MY FEELINGS LIKE THAT!" Shouted the boy angrily.
With one swing of his slime sword, the Mimic was cut in half.
"I swear, if I find more Mimic, I'm so gonna kill whoever made this dungeon."
The boy continued his journey deeper into the Crypt, immediately crushing whatever treasure chest he found with his fist whether they are Mimic or not. All of them yielded no treasure as the ones that aren't Mimic merely contains poison gas or simply empty. The fact that the treasure chests contain no treasure affected the boy more than the traps ever could.
"AARGHH! WHY AREN'T THERE TREASURES!? THE CREATOR OF THIS DUNGEON IS SO STINGY!"
When he entered the main chamber, he comes face to face with the strongest being in the tomb, a headless horseman, guarding a treasure chest at the end of the room.
"Heee… So the boss is a Dullahan. And guarding a treasure chest no less. I hope there's a treasure this time. I would leave a bad review for this dungeon design otherwise."
The headless creature charged at the boy, pointing a jousting lance at him. The boy effortlessly dodged after cutting the legs of the creature's horse, causing both the horse and the rider to fall.
The horse doesn't scream even with loss of its limbs as it felt no pain. It simply does what it can do without its legs, glare at the boy. The Dullahan stood up began drawing his long sword after discarding his jousting lance. The Dullahan went for an overhead slash that would normally cut someone like the boy in half but the boy blocked the sword strike with only one hand in his sword. The strike was so heavy and powerful that it caused cracks to emerge in the floor beneath the boy's legs but it didn't faze the boy at all.
"Not bad. The power output is impressive. But your movement is too simple and predictable!"
The boy pushed the Dullahan's sword away began his assault, slicing through the creature's armor like butter. The creature tries to grab the boy with its free hand but the boy dodged lazily. The creature began a series of attacks that the boy dodged.
"Hmm… It has attack patterns, almost like video game bosses." Muttered the boy, noting how the Dullahan sometimes repeats the same moves over and over again unnaturally.
The boy began his assault again, cutting the creature's limbs, leaving it as just a torso. Despite the missing limbs, the creature still tried its best to move itself, to hopefully crush the boy under the weight of its body.
"Hmm. It's been amusing. But playtime is over." The boy sliced the creature's torso in two, finally ending its unlife. The boy also beheaded the creature's horse. "Now you match."
"Now then. Let's see the treasure!" Shouted the boy excitedly as he made his way to the treasure chest at the end of the room. When he opened it, he discovered an Artifact.
"Heee. What an interesting Artifact. But can I really sell this thing? Maybe I should bring this to Gamma and the others. Hope it was worth it."
The boy brought the Artifact to the Seven Shades, who showered him with more praises than usual, which he just gratefully accept despite not really understanding the situation though he laments how he probably wouldn't be able to cash out the Artifact, making him curse the Tomb's creator again.
Later the Seven Shades found and raided another tomb together and they cleared it swiftly and without casualties this time, securing the third Artifact belonging to the Necromancer.
Author's Note:
And so Shadow Garden sort of faced the Necromancer's forces but they don't meet just yet. I hope I portayed Cid and the Seven Shades' personalities right. When writing this chapter, I almost wrote Delta to be mean and callous towards the death of the Numbers. Glad I changed that. I don't want to taint such a beloved character.
What Artifacts they obtained? I honestly haven't decided. I'm open to suggestion.
H-8R: Not as fun as TEIS. Not alot of comedy moments to be had. If you're telling me its funny cuz he's the opposite of Cid and that's the joke, that's it? That's the comedy? He is just murdering people. I cant put my finger on it but this just doesnt hit the same. Alot of potential here in this fic, amazing concept but it could definately use more time in the oven. Let this man cook.
Adding to my previous post and its metaphor, let it simmer. It feels like we're going to fast paced for the story. I cant really feel what our protag feels through inner monologues alone.
Answer: Thanks for the criticism. I do notice that my fic currently don't have as much comedy as TEiS and the only big misunderstanding that currently existed is the misunderstanding about Shadow Garden, which parallels Cid's own misunderstanding about the Cult's existence. Thanks for reminding me of that. It made me write a section about Mimic in this chapter. This Mimic incident now solidifies Cid's hatred of the Necromancer. Hope to bring more comedy later.
If it seems fast paced, it's because I try to make use of all the free time I had which will end next year so I don't want to make this fic too long, although I did added more content before the time skip to Zenon arc because another time skip would be too fast after the last time skip. If you can't feel what the MC feel, maybe it's because most of what I wrote were explanations about stuff? I need to work on that.
I hope I could make Zenon arc deviate from canon, though I'm still thinking of how different the arc would be as I write.