We are in a big underground cave where there is only the tunnel behind us that leads outside and a big skull-shaped door in the cave wall in front of us.
This door appears to be made of some kind of iron in the shape of a silver and black skull.
“So this is the Dungeon of the Undead?” (I)
“Yes, all we need to do is touch the gate and it will open, according to what Mari told me if no one enters or leaves the dungeon the gate closes again.” (Diana)
“Before I go in I want to know what you plan to do?” (I)
“With the maps, we were studying yesterday we’ll make it to floor number twenty today if we head straight for the stairs.” (I)
“I think we can go straight to floor number twenty, Vanessa can train fighting there as she doesn’t have any very powerful monsters on those floors.” (Irius)
“She can even take advantage of these constant battles to get used to her body and powers.” (Kira)
“You have some combat training, Vanessa.” (I)
“I learned to fight little martial art a long time ago, but my specialty is magic.” (Vanessa)
“While I was still in the Church of Light, I was sent to many places full of combat to boost the morale of the Church’s believers.” (Vanessa)
“I am strong enough to fight alone using only magic, but I also have many healing and purification spells.” (Vanessa)
“Okay, so Vanessa, Irina, Irius, and Ibuki will be the main attackers, the others myself included will stay out of combat and only interfere if they can’t defeat six enemies.” (I)
I’ll let these four fight until floor number twenty for Vanessa and Ibuki who evolved into an Inferior Oni overnight to get used to their new bodies and powers, even Ibuki who had evolved didn’t change a thing so I wouldn’t even have realized she evolved if she hadn’t told me.
I chose Irina and Irius to fight them because they already have experience fighting Undead, Irius is a big mountain of muscle with full armor and defense skills, he will be the tank for them, Irina will be the support being in the back helping if necessary fulfilling its place as support of the group.
With the formation already prepared, I touched the skull-shaped door, then the skull’s eyes sparkled and the door opens outwards, I try to look inside but it’s all dark after we enter we go towards the crystal column in the middle of the secure room to register our presence here before walking towards the hallway that will lead us to the first floor.
———-
The monsters of the first twenty floors were nothing much, they were just variations of skeletons and weak zombies, the four I told to fight was very good and the fights only took a few seconds.
As they fought I could understand why Carlos wanted our group to handle this, the Light element does more damage than the fire element to the undead, even Irina’s favorite magic being her light currents that only serve to bind her targets did a great deal of damage to the Undead as if they were chains of fire.
Every attack by Irius with his sword shrouded in light burned the Undead, they didn’t even have a hard time killing those monsters that should have been hard to defeat.
Ibuki who had no affinity with the Light element was the one who showed me how difficult it is to fight the Undead.
Every time Ibuki fought a Skeleton I could see that slash attacks had reduced effect as his whole body was made of bones, every time Ibuki ripped off an arm, leg, or even the head of a skeleton he could just take it back. and put in place or even use the limbs of another skeleton instead, the only way to defeat him was to rip or break the core inside his chest.
It was also difficult for Ibuki to fight Zombies as the only way to kill them is by destroying their brains or cores, you can also try to rip out the same core with the skeleton but it’s harder as the zombies still have flesh on their bodies, other than that they will not die with any other type of attack other than the Light element or using holy power.
Worst of all is that the Undead feel no pain, fatigue, or fear, as long as they are not destroyed they continue to attack without fear of being hurt or dying.
There is still the problem that the Undead have several resistance abilities and attacks that cause abnormal status, they have several strange abilities like poisons, curses, diseases, illusion, etc.
They are hard to fight against, Ibuki had a lot of trouble at first, but soon learned where the weak spots lie, so she started running up to the Skeletons and using her claws to break bones and pierce her hand into the Skeletons chest to ripping out the core, I also saw her dropping her swords and fighting with only her fists to break all the Skeleton bones using the martial arts I taught her.
With her strength of hers, she could have used her swords to cut everything with ease, but it seems she is taking the opportunity to train and find out how to defeat these types of monsters as I said before, I’m glad she has matured so much.
But what surprised me the most was to see Vanessa fighting, in the first five floors she fought just using some kind of military martial art that had direct punches and strong kicks doing attack combos to her target, she wrapped her body with her magic of Light to deal maximum damage to the undead.
At first, she defeated her enemies taking advantage of being much stronger and faster than the Undead and also having the elemental affinity of light, but her way of fighting didn’t fit with her somehow, but in every fight she changed her way of fighting a little, making it more fluid and natural, from floor number ten Vanessa started to use her wings in her fight, her red wings glowed beautifully as she fought using her wings to defend against enemy blows or pushing her enemies away to reposition itself before attacking again.
She said that her specialty was magic, but she didn’t use magic at any time, it seems she was doing the same as Ibuki and taking advantage of these weaker enemies to train and get used to her body, at first she made many mistakes when fighting with her wings beating them with her companions or bumping into walls, but when she got used to using the wings I realized from the way she moved that the Martial Art she was using also included how to use the wings in combat, that’s when I realized that it must be a Celestina martial art that she must have learned from her father in the past.
As it didn’t seem like I needed to worry about these four fightings, so I started looking around while paying attention to other things, I noticed that with each floor the amount of miasma visibly increased, not only that but also the plots of each floor were more dangerous, the first fifteen floors were caves and looked like labyrinths filled with deadly traps growing in numbers, but it also had floors that looked like they were inside huge ruined Palaces or in the middle of dark swamps.
This dungeon might be very difficult for other adventurers, but for me and my group, it’s been much easier than the Great Serpent Dungeon.
As Carlos said, we have the advantage in elemental affinity, but we also have people with detection skills, trap detection, healing, and purification.
My only regret is that apart from the two-floor bosses we faced giving each other bounty chests, we didn’t find any other chests anywhere.
When we got to floor 21 I told everyone to register at the crystal column inside the secure room before we went back to the first floor, we’ve done a lot today and I have something I want to talk to Carlos about.
———-
When we left the dungeon we spent a few minutes walking before leaving the tunnel to the outside, out of politeness I said goodbye to the guards who are in charge of guarding this place, so I and the others head towards town while we talk.
“You four did really well, especially Ibuki and Vanessa, you two were magnificent dedicating yourselves to training in a situation like that.” (I)
“I have to take every opportunity to become strong to accompany the master in the future or I will end up being left behind.” (Ibuki)
“You don’t have to worry about that, Ibuki.” (I)
“Of all the people here your growth is the fastest.” (I)
“That’s not counting the master, his growth is extremely abnormal, besides having a great talent he is also a training freak, so don’t compare yourself to this monster.” (Diana)
“That’s right, for someone who started out as a Goblin, seeing you reach that level of strength in a few months is amazing, so don’t compare yourself to this abnormality of the master.” (Kira)
“If you keep buying up with the master nothing good will happen, remember that the master is an anomaly that you can’t explain, so forget about him and find your own way of doing things.” (Érica)
“…” (I)
“Abnormal… monster… anomaly…” (I)
“(What I did to be so insulted, I don’t think I did anything to be called a monster.)” (I)
“(Can’t they see that I’m a normal person, don’t they realize that I’m just a little hardworking…)” (I)
I suddenly feel two hands on both my shoulders.
“Don’t cry Dad, they’re just talking about how amazing you are.” (Irina)
“Don’t be sad Father, the way you tirelessly strive to improve is something to be admired.” (Irius)
“What good children I have…” (I)
While being comforted by my children we finally arrive in the town of Valen and I tell the others to do as they please while me and Layla who spent the day sleeping inside my hood go to the Adventurers Guild.