Chapter 7: Ghoul dungeon
Mael jumped to the dungeon gate and saw a desolate dead forest like the horror movies of his past life. The trees were dark in color, and their roots emerged from the ground, piercing it with their vicious roots. Crows were flying all over the place, and feeding on the corpses around the forest. The dark leaves on the floor have worms and other creeping insects on top of it.
'It seems like the sky is telling me that the night is approaching. The trees are withered, and they look like vicious monsters lurking in the dark- ready to attack anytime. Let's play for now, shall we?' he added.
'Preparing for the worst will be helpful. If the enemies attack me in surprise, I will initiate a brawl. I am prepared for the worst but not knowing the enemy's hideout is difficult. If their scouts find me, it will be hell. I need to be the first to attack their base in surprise before they find me.' Mael said in his mind.
He ran fast, leaving his robes on purpose. With that, the ghouls won't be able to follow him, but his robes instead. He lost them and escaped to the depths of the forest. With the disturbing look of the trees, his ego screams in the depths of his mind. 'This is disturbing. The trees are moving slowly, and I feel that I am being watched. I can manage to stay sane, but I don't know how long it can last. Maybe slapping myself will help,' he then slapped his cheeks.
Raaaahhhhhhhrrrrrrr!
'Damn it! I'm not too fond of thriller movies. It seems like I have to train myself to endure it!' said his ego. Followed by the ghouls' screams, his heart raced as he thought that the monsters lost their lead to where he was.
'The surroundings are contemplating with their eerie sounds. It will be hard to pull myself together. I am at a disadvantage while I'm here, so I better look for their hideout.'
The forest had a decaying smell, as it was filled with leftover corpses lying around everywhere.
'The smell is unbearable. I have to take a breath for a while. The dungeon gate only opened recently, but the corpses decayed already. I think the time in here is fast enough to decay the corpses immediately, but I'm not sure if it was it or the organism that was the reason behind this,' he thought, getting away from the unbearable smell. Mael nearly panicked from running in the dark forest without light.
'Being a Dwight is weak because they have a lower life span than elves, weaker bodies than barbarians, and many more disadvantages, but they can adapt and have evolved many job-classes because of the weaknesses. With the help of many families, they built a strong kingdom that helped each other, contemplating each other's weaknesses. That's why getting all of Dwight's job-class will become the pinnacle of the people. I need to get it all for my own sake and for the realm that I am protecting,' he thought.
Pak!
Mael stumbled upon a decaying corpse that looked like he was screaming while being eaten alive, with its eyes wide open, mouth filled with flies and worms feasting on its flesh.
'Ngk! What's with these corpses? I need to puke, but I need to hold it in. I normally saw corpses in my past life, but the smell is not helping. It's disgusting!' Mael held his breath and backed away since he never expected to experience something like this.
'In my current situation, the light source is the problem. Luckily, my small backpack has a floating lantern.' He placed his backpack on the ground and grabbed the lantern. 'But they will see me if I use this…' he thought, wondering what to do.
He then grabbed something small, pulled it, and saw a pair of curved daggers.
'Luckily, I have this,' he thought as he equipped them. 'With the chains still covering my arms, I will attach it to the daggers, then I will have higher combat prowess. My hands covered with chains can defend while I attack mid-range with the daggers connected to it. Now let's roll!' he said as he reverse gripped the daggers.
'It will not be long for them to follow my scent. Better walk in the dark than being surrounded by enemies because of a lantern.' He wandered under the shade of the night while crouching, his eyes adjusted to the surroundings, seeing everything even the bugs that crawled in the darkness. He continued his travels when ghouls pulling corpses with their mouths caught his attention. He retreated suddenly, stumbling upon another corpse.
"Wait- he's still warm???" Mael touched the corpse's neck, searching for a pulse, and felt a faint one to his surprise. The man whose shoulders were soaked in blood was breathing slowly in his noble dress; waiting for his death to come. Mael took his health potion with haste and assisted the man to drink it.
The man coughed and slowly regained his strength as his wounds began to close.
"Hey, can you hear me? What happened to you? How did you get here?" Mael said under his breath. The stranger who squinted his eyes and was unable to see Mael's face immediately replied.
"Save my daughter- the monsters took her! We were attacked in the streets and they- they took her away from me. I tried to fight, but they clawed me on my shoulders. I tried following them here, but I lost too much blood and collapsed. Please save her, I will repay you with my life. Make me your slave- do what you want- so please help her. Help my child!" The man began to cry, not knowing what to do.
"Right, Right. I will help but you will have to pay me handsomely," Mael said while wondering what role fits him in Golden Valley. 'he may be a good miner- Nah! A farmer- maybe? Well anyone can be a farmer,' he thought.
"Hey, are you listening? Please be quick! Or it will be too late! Didn't you see that they are gathering food for their queen? All those dead bodies are hers!" he said, desperately, as he grabbed Mael's hands. Mael was stunned by the information.
"Well, that explains everything… Thank you for the info. Hide here. I'm going to their lair- and if I didn't come back in an hour or two, then, it's time for you to leave and forget about her." he said, patting shoulders.
'A two-birds-one-stone mission it is, killing the enemies is to save the girl, and saving the girl is to the death of those monsters. I need to find his daughter- fast. But still, I need to be careful not to be reckless. One mistake will lead to death.
Another problem is how I'd close the gate, but my priority is to kill everything in here, including the dungeon boss. Then, maybe, everything will be solved.' Mael thought and sneaked from tree to tree. Peeping, before moving when it's clear.
He arrived at where he was before, noticing that the corpses were already moved to another location. 'They finished earlier than expected. I have to move faster, he said, sneaking. The night was getting darker and the wails became audible.
Woohoo!
He moved forward and saw a great cave that was guarded by two ghouls pacing in front of the fifty-feet high entrance. 'I will observe and wait for the right time to attack. These monsters have high durability and fast regeneration. I used [Limit breaker] to exterminate them but head decapitation will instantly kill them. I will try my new hypothesis about these monsters. If cutting the head off was the key to kill them, then how about damaging their brain?' he thought while hiding.
Mael waited tirelessly for them to go inside, but they never get tired of doing all that marching. 'This is irritating. They never get tired of doing all that?' Mael scratched his head and sighed. 'Better assassinate them than wait for them until morning. I never had that kind of patience.'
The ghouls were moving to and fro and Mael memorized their patterns. He waited for them to turn around and show their backs before throwing the daggers to their heads, piercing their skulls– causing a slitting sound. Mael pulled the chains and wrapped them in his hands. 'Thanks for your hard work. Now rest a bit, shall we? Haha.' Mael entered the lair worrying that his cover would be blown. He pulled the only sense-hindering potion from his potion belt and trickled it to his leather armor. 'This will do the trick! Now I can run anywhere I want! This is brewed for one day, and I've invested a lot of time making it. Now I will see how it works in an actual scenario.' he thought.
'I chose leather armor because it's lighter than metal and does not hinder my movements. With it, I can evade any attack with ease.' Mael smiled traveling in the darkness that got darker and darker as he went deeper inside.
'I have no skill to see in the dark and it leaves me no choice but to use the floating lantern. Damn, that's condescending! I thought it was problem proof. I have to be versatile in many situations… and sacrificing is normal in emergencies.' he thought.
He pulled the floating lantern and activated a switch that made it light the tunnels, before tinkering a bit so it would follow him wherever he went. The tunnels were so wide you can run around if you like. Time passed by and its walls were covered with moisture coming from the coldness of the temperature and the floor was covered with dried blood from the corpses the monsters have dragged recently.
'The floating lantern was the right choice, but it will blow my cover. I hope I made the right choice since everything was not perfect,' Mael thought.
While the help of the lantern allowed him to automatically see the details of the tunnel, it only made his precious sense-hindering potion go to waste.
'My one day of painstakingly making this potion goes down the drain, but I have to admit that I will be disadvantaged without my sight. With the light of the lantern, my entry will not be a surprise to them, as well as they won't surprise me' he thought.
He continued to follow the trail wondering why he didn't meet one even when he's been traveling for minutes. So, he continued to walk until the trail separated into two. He observed the left and saw the blood trails but the right showed footprints and blood-stained claws. 'If they dragged the bodies here, then that's the queen's room and the other one is not even important. Yeah, the left one is the answer,' he thought.
'There's a high chance that the abducted daughter was dragged there in the corpse den. I have to be careful not to alert the enemy but I have my lantern and there is no helping it.' he thought, holding his chin. Meanwhile, outside the gate, his army was holding out but was running out of options; the dungeon reduced the number of monsters spawning after Mael went inside but there were still many.
The spearmen, who were the first line of defense, were enough to surround the dungeon gate, along with the footmen behind their backs. The archers who ran out of arrows made the third line of defense while the cavalry protected Erza at the center of the wedge formation.
"Spearmen, don't let anything pass! Footmen, cover their backs! Archers, switch to swords!" She ordered them with hope, patiently and worriedly waiting for her son.
"Lady Erza, the young Lord has been there for hours," said Maledic.
"Don't worry about him! Worry about the people if these monsters got through us," she said loudly.
"I'm sorry, Lady Erza. I will be careful with my statements next time," he bowed.
Erza sat in her war mount worriedly. Hiding her anxiety for her son inside the gate. Maledic can see that she's troubled but prefers hiding it.
'Hurry up, my son. What are you thinking?'
Gifts
-- Gift
received Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone