Chapter 65: First Days in Darkness Dungeon

POV Eliza

We stood in front of the entrance portal, ready to enter. I lit my lantern as ordered and went into the dungeon first. The feeling of entering was the same as the other dungeon. The first view of the interior that greeted me was surprising. In front of me stretched a cave passage that could occur naturally anywhere. It smelled musty. Everything was dark except for my lantern and I couldn't see far. I stepped aside and the others entered the hallway behind me. After everyone came through the entrance, Eleonore conjured a ball of light that floated above her palm. Both light sources were enough for me to see enough.

“I’ll go first then, dear heroes.” <Eliza>

With these words I proceeded slowly. I first wanted to get a feel for the surroundings and whether and in what form I could perceive the undead. The corridor itself went straight ahead and then forked. I stopped and concentrated. I thought I felt something coming from the left aisle. It was my Sense Danger skill that kicked in. Using Sense Presense I didn't notice anything.

“There seems to be something in the left aisle. I don't know what, since I haven't figured out how to sense the undead yet." <Eliza>

“All right, then let’s have some fun.” <Ansgar>

With those words, Ansgar ran into the hallway and I followed with the lantern. At the edge of the lantern I could clearly make out the skeletons, accompanied by the clatter and splintering of bones. I noticed two auras besides Ansgar as I approached. It was also my Sense Mana skill that kicked in, just like it did with the elemental slimes. From this I was able to deduce a few things about my different senses. Sense Presense seamed to react to living creatures and Sense Mana reacted to magical creatures like the undead or magically gifted ones like the elemental slimes, although I could also notice these slimes with Sense Presense. I also used it to perceive actively working spells as well as the dungeon itself, as it was imbued with magic. Sense Danger was a general feeling that provided vague impressions. Which in this case meant that my Sense Mana skill was constantly activated due to the narrow corridors and I had to get used to it in order to be able to notice other things.

“Wow, how good that I thrashed wildly. I couldn't even recognize the skeletonswhen I stood in front of them.” <Ansgar>

“You also stormed out of the lantern’s radius. No wonder you couldn't see the skeletons." <Cornelius>

“I couldn’t hold back.” <Ansgar>

“Be a little more careful though.” <Cornelius>

We only made slow progress because the small visibility radius severely limited us. This makes it easier for me to get a feel for discovering the skeletons. In addition, the danger of the skeletons on this level was very low, which meant that Ansgar and Cornelius stopped waiting for me and just walked down the corridors. Every now and then we came into caves and there were more skeletons in them at once. This is where Javier intervened and did his magic. I also threw one or two air arrows, just to keep up appearances. Eleonore didn't do anything except light.

After half a day we found the exit to the second level and went straight down. This time it wasn't a portal, but a staircase to a deeper level. The 1st floor skeletons were too easy for us. But the skeletons on the second floor weren't a problem either. Our level and equipment were too good to have serious problems progressing. Therefore, we proceeded here in the same way as before. Before the day came to an end, we left the dungeon. Unfortunately we couldn't find the exit to the 3rd floor, so we had to keep looking tomorrow. There was a short final meeting that evening. We haven't had any problems so far other than the light. This is how we ended the first day of this exploration.

The next day we crossed the rest of the 2nd floorjust as quickly as the beginning. Just 2 hours after entering the dungeon we were on floor 3. Here we immediately noticed that there was an unpleasant smell of decay in the air. The others seemed less bothered by it, only Eleonore wrinkled her nose. But I had big problems. My fine senses became a disadvantage for me here. I resorted to tying a wet cloth over my face. Ansgar made a stupid joke about it that I didn't find funny at all. The only advantage of the smell was that it served as further warning of approaching zombies.

Again, my scouting skills weren't needed as Ansgar pounced on any zombie that came near him eventually. The zombies posed no danger because they were really very slow and just shuffled through the hallways. The difference with the skeletons was that they could withstand significantly more and so Ansgar had to deal more blows than with the skeletons, which were broken in one hit. As a result, his stamina was exhausted more quickly and he had to recover more often. So that we didn't lose any time, Cornelius went first. By the evening we had managed to find the exit to floor 4 through the division.

We tackled floor 4 the next day. The zombies we encountered here were a little faster than the others, but still slower than us. They also seemed to be able to withstand more, which meant that Ansgar had to take damage for the first time. Cornelius therefore decided that from now on they would go forward in pairs and the rest would follow. This meant that the zombies in the corridors were no longer a serious threat.

That changed when we entered the first larger cave. The light didn't reach the walls, so we didn't know how many enemies were in the cave. From the smell, there had to be a few more. My senses also informed me that there were a larger number. You could hear the zombies shuffling closer out of the darkness. That was the time when Javier hurled fireballs into the darkness. Since I could see further than him, I could at least target one enemy with an Air Bolt. As the fireballs flew, it illuminated the surrounding area. So we could see that there were almost 20 zombies in this cave.

Cornelius gave the order to retreat to the entrance of the cave. This meant that not all zombies could attack us at the same time, but we could no longer cast area-of-effect spells without hitting ourselves though. So I continued to use the basic Air Bolt while Javier tested his arsenal of magic. A quick analysis with Identify Monster showed that they had no resistances, so the spell choice didn't matter. Eleonore also occasionally used Light Bolts, the simplest light magic attack spell.

Ansgar and Cornelius guarded the cave entrance and fought everything that came within their reach. This was the first time I saw the benefit of a shield. Cornelius, when standing next to Ansgar, was able to parry attacks aimed at Ansgar. Since he was dressed in thick plate armor, the zombies' blows didn't hurt him. With the tactic, the fight took a while because they had to wait for the zombies, but they got out of the fight without much injury. We spent two more days fighting the zombies on floor 4 before we defeated all the zombies and moved on to floor 5. Here we encountered ghosts and our melee fighters are ineffective against them. Therefore, it was up to the wizards to fight them.