“Nathan Lake…..”
I mumbled to myself, standing before a shining tree.
“I guess I was lucky then.”
He was an NPC in the game that appeared randomly in the Eldertine Spires. He was a Rune Searcher, but at the same time, he was someone with a slightly evil alignment. He would attack the player, and with that, we would beat him up. After all, as a student of the Arcadia Hunter Academy, even though Ethan was ranked last, he was stronger than most other people.
And Nathan’s role was small.
It was simply show where the dungeon was located.
He would tell the player the location of this tree, which would take us to the dungeon.
And now, I was standing before the tree; I was once again reminded of the fact that the visuals in the game could never hold a candle to the real world.
The tree stood tall and proud, distinguished from the others in the forest by the way it shimmered, even in the dim light filtering through the canopy.
Its leaves were a brilliant shade of ethereal silver, catching the scant light and reflecting it like a thousand tiny stars. The trunk glowed with a soft, pulsating light that seemed to emanate from within, casting intricate patterns on the ground around it. 𝓞𝑽xt.𝒞𝑶
The roots of the tree spread out like a network of veins, pulsing with a gentle energy that seemed to breathe life into the very earth it touched. Each root was a mesmerizing display of an intricate pattern intertwined and connected in a mysterious way of engravement.
It was as if the roots held the history of the land, etched into the very fabric of the forest floor.
And indeed, that was the case.
The reason why this tree was different from others was because it had been absorbing a different type of mana — the mana that was released from the dungeon underneath its roots.
And to enter this dungeon, one thing needs to be done.
Reaching before the pulsating part of the trunk, I grabbed my dagger.
‘Stabbing the heart of the pulsating tree, huh?’
It was a weird symbolism, but things needed to be done to achieve results.
STAB
With a swing of my dagger, I simply stabbed the shining part. I didn’t use mana since using that would make things slightly complicated.
FUSH!
And following that, a small smoke started spreading from the cut I had made. The surroundings started to get shrouded.
CRACK!
The intricate patterns etched by the roots on the ground began to shift and writhe, their pulsating energy responding to the disturbance in the tree.
The once steady rhythm of their movement turned chaotic, a whirlwind of patterns and lights dancing in a mesmerizing display.
CRACKLE!
The air felt charged, a bit like when a storm is about to hit. The smoke formed a twisting whirlpool of mist. It spread, covering the area in a mysterious fog.
The ground shook as if it was waking up. The patterns on the ground rearranged themselves, forming a hidden passage. The ground, which had seemed lifeless, suddenly seemed alive and moving.
A low rumbling sound filled the air as the passage slowly opened up, revealing a way down into darkness.
‘I guess this is it.’
This was the entrance to the dungeon.
Looking at it like that, it indeed gave the surreal vibe enough to make the one watching the scene mesmerized.
‘Though, the inside of the dungeon won’t even resemble something this beautiful.’
Without thinking much, I simply entered the passage.
WROOM!
And got sucked by the gate.
******
THUD!
As I fell to the ground, the scene before me was something that completely contrasted with the scene before.
SHRIEK! SHRIEK! SHRIEK! SHRIEK!
Countless number of screams echoed all around the place.
Darkness surrounded the space without even an ounce of light.
An eerie fog was covering my vision, and I could see nothing around me.
There was no sun shining, but only the moon that was trying to illuminate the darkness but failing to do so, thanks to the fog.
No signs of life, no trees, no plants, no grass.
It was a complete place filled with only land to walk on, some rocks that made the surface not flat alone.
“SHRIEK!”
However, the screams were still there, coming from every direction.
And most importantly, a sense of smell covered the entire space.
‘The smell of blood and rotten corpses.’
Of course, I hadn’t seen a rotten corpse in my life, but it was easy to associate the smell since I knew the reason for it from the game.
“SHRIEEEEEK!”
CRACK!
‘Just at time.’
With a scream coming from behind, the ground cracked, and something appeared from there.
A corpse with its whole body turned into a grotesque shape. The color grey covered the whole skin, and it was shedding like a mutt.
SWOOSH!
The monster rushed at me with its mouth wide open, a drenched smell coming from there.
“Ghouls.”
I mumbled the name as I grabbed my gun. They were low-rank three monsters, with their speed and regenerative property having a higher part of their rank, so I didn’t have much chance to directly confront the monster from the start.
BANG!
As I fired the gun, the bullet pierced through its head.
THUD!
The monster fell to the ground thanks to the bullet’s momentum. However, I knew that wouldn’t end like this.
I equipped my daggers with the bracelets.
DRIP!
A small liquid was dripping from the dagger.
SWOOSH!
Dashing forward, I first slashed the monster from its chest, and then, with the other one, I stabbed it from the small opening inside his navel.
Without much resistance, the dagger cut through the monster’s body.
PUFF!
And following that, the monster slowly started disintegrating, slowly losing its material body.
The materials of the body turned to mud and mixed with the land, leaving me standing in this eerie space once again.
Looking at the yellow-colored liquid pouring from the tip of my daggers, I recalled the name.
‘Holy Water.’
A simple name befitting its properties. It is called Holy water because it has the attributes of purification, and it is specifically good against cursed beings.
Like Ghouls – monsters which were born from the cursed corpses and essentially a type of undead.
When the term Undead is used, most of the time, people’s minds would directly link them with Necromancers, but the undead can be born even without a necromancer.
The resentment filling the space and the unfulfilled dying wishes of a person can also produce undead or essentially cursed beings.
The important thing is a link from the dead soul to the material world. With that link, the soul won’t be able to leave the place and will be trapped for a while.
This is how the game explained things, and Ghouls were more like lower-ranked ones.
‘So essentially, I am saving you.’
As I looked at the small smoke rising from the place where the ghoul disintegrated, I thought.
‘I guess this counts as good?’
What Holy Water does is pretty simple. It simply counters the Ghouls’ regeneration, which is one of the things they are strong at. And by countering that regeneration, the Ghouls will become essentially nothing but a bunch of corpses mindlessly attacking.
That is the reason why I can’t use my gun that much since it will take too much time to imbue my bullets with holy water, and it is not as efficient as well.
Thus, I need to use my daggers while confronting the ghouls, which I don’t mind that much.
With that thought, I continued to walk.
As I ventured further into the darkness, the wretched screams grew louder, and the smell of decay became more suffocating.
The eerie atmosphere heightened my senses, and I knew more ghouls were lurking, waiting to pounce.
“SHRIEK!”
Another ghoul emerged from the shadows, its grotesque form charging toward me.
SWOOSH!
I deftly evaded its attack and swiftly countered, plunging my dagger into its putrid chest.
PUFF!
The ghoul disintegrated, reduced to a muddy substance by the holy water. But there was no time to pause; more ghouls were closing in.
‘The number is around fifteen.’
It was quite a high number, but ghouls were essentially one of the monsters with the lowest intelligence. Rather than evolving in nature, they were beings created by resentment.
In my head, I immediately created a combat formula. The way I would move, it was kind of like a sketch of fight.
And, with practiced precision, I engaged them one by one. Some I shot with my gun, buying myself a momentary advantage. Even though I knew they would regenerate, the time I bought served well.
Others, I engaged in close combat, my daggers dancing in the darkness. To not spill the Holy Water from the daggers, I was using my mana to enhance the daggers and cover it.
BANG! BANG!
The gunshots echoed in the desolate space as I picked off the approaching ghouls. The holy water on my daggers ensured their final demise as I slashed and stabbed, each strike turning them into sludge.
The eerie land became a battlefield, and I was the lone warrior fighting against the cursed.
The moon above witnessed this clash of life and death, casting an occasional eerie glow on the surreal battlefield, also supplying my mana.
I felt as if the moon itself was watching me, and that feeling was something that drove me forward in a way.
“SHRIEK!”
Another ghoul lunged at me, teeth gnashing. I sidestepped and drove my dagger into its side.
“SWOOSH!”
The creature dissolved into mud, leaving a foul odor in the air.
SHRIEK! SCREEECH!
I pressed on through the desolate landscape, the unsettling symphony of screams pushing me forward. There were some sounds of birds screeching as well, as I felt a dark shadowy being was also watching me together with the moon.
‘Certainly, this place touches one’s nerves.’
No matter how strong-willed and minded you are, in a place that smelled like nothing but death, it was very hard to keep your sanity while walking without seeing anything. There was no path that you could follow, no path that you could determine to take.
You would need to mindlessly wander around until you would reach the reason for this space, which was something mentally taxing.
And to negate that fact, I was purposefully distracting myself.
TOK! TOK! TOK!
The ground crackled beneath my steps, the only sound that wasn’t a scream. Even though it may serve as a call for monsters, it wasn’t that important.
This place’s test was not about the body’s strength but rather about how strong one’s mind was and how much you could resist this eerie feeling.
‘Let’s see how long you want to keep this test.’
I thought as I kept walking, mindlessly wandering around.