Chương 14: A Man of Bravery

Hollow and Stick led the way up to the second floor of the dungeon, two burning torches illuminating the way. Grelgo's men followed behind them, followed by my small group of undead. I stood at the back, making sure none of them got up to any funny business. I left Strong and Skully down in the throne room to keep watch. [Do you not trust me to keep watch? What are these two doing that I cannot?] I don't know. Maybe they'll spook anyone that wants to try anything.

[I assure you, nothing is going to be spooked by that thing.] The flickering flame of a proper fire torch cast the catacombs in a more sinister light. The yellow-orange light bounced off the rough-carved stone walls, sending wild shadows around each room. Meanwhile, the light from my blade cast everything in the same flat red color.

"This place is much different from before," Stick said.

"Changed." The zombie-rats scurried ahead of us, crawling into the walls to give chase to the still living creatures.

"How often did you travel into the dungeon?" I asked.

"Infrequently. In the early years, I would do my rounds as was expected of a keeper. That ceased when you instructed me to seal the dungeon off." I guess I had said that, hadn't I?

"I can't imagine how much creepier it looked before all this, then." We passed by the pile of bones I had collected in the front vestibule, and I pointed everyone to the right-hand path. The goblins all cowered away from the collection. I cleared my throat as we entered the penultimate room of the second floor.

"Those little cubby things are called loculi. Pretty cool, huh?"

"Not particularly," Hollow said. I mentally nudged Karen. I told you nobody cares what they're called. Karen signaled back, [Have I somehow given you the impression that I care what these goblins think?] We entered the room where I had fought the giant skeleton. Its bones were scattered throughout the room, and I rubbed my chin. Had we not collected any of these bones? I picked up its too-large soul, wondering what would happen if I bound the new Common Soul I had gathered to it.

Would I get a giant version of Strong? I set it down. I could deal with that later. My entourage took a wide berth around me and the bones, as if they would spring up at any given moment. A few looked up the set of stairs.

"This is about as far as I got," I said.

"To clear an entire floor by yourself," Hollow said.

"Impressive."

"Is it?" I asked.

"The dungeon said that it was pretty easy." [Because it was.]"It's more than I could have done," she said, peering up the dark staircase as a cry of pain echoed from somewhere high above.

"What's up there?"

"More of the same. But I don't remember screaming before..." [The noises are something I can do with my essence. Sending cries of despair does wonders for unnerving pesky adventurers.] The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings. A gut-wrenching cry tore through the room behind us, and my companions screamed. Okay, enough. We actually want to climb this tower, you know. [Killjoy.]"I'll go first," I said, looking over the cowering goblins.

Only Hollow stood resolute, unaffected by the scream as she picked her nose. I took the steps two at a time, and Hollow followed right behind me. I hadn't gotten too good of a look at the third floor last time I was here, but it was as unremarkable as I remembered. More catacombs. A few wooden coffins sat along the edges of the room, with a lone soul-flamed torch mounted on the far wall next to the next doorway. The room was by far the longest we had encountered thus far—about three times as long as it was wide.

Stick panted as he climbed up the last step, his staff click-clacking up the entire way. He rubbed his chin, "How many stairs are in this place?" [A lot,] Karen said. [Tell him to stop complaining.] Deep breaths, I told myself. The rest of the goblins crowded behind me, and I cleared my throat, "Well, don't let me have all the fun! How about some of our new friends! Any of you want to go first?" They all scurried to the back wall, shoving a single goblin forward—the skinniest, most feeble-looking one.

Patch slapped him on the back as he inched forward.

"Limpy wants to go. Come on, show 'em how Grelgo does things." The feeble goblin choked back a complaint, but nodded. Poor guy. I bent over and rubbed his shoulders as he shook.

"I'll be right behind ya. There is nothing to worry about." He nodded and withdrew a dagger.

"For Grelgo!" he shouted before sprinting forward. A pile of bones rattled, knitting together to form a proper skeleton in front of him. Limpy glanced over his shoulder, and I gave him a thumbs up. Smiling, he took one last confident step before the stone beneath his foot gave way. CREEEEAK. His eyes widened as an arrow whistled through the air and embedded itself into his skull. He collapsed in a bloody pile.

"Ah, shit," I said. Patch cried.

"He killed Limpy!"

"He's a monster!"

"He'll kill us all!"

"It wasn't me!" I shouted back. I reached out through my connection with Karen. Why didn't you tell me the dungeon was trapped? [I didn't know there were traps this early either.] Another goblin approached Limpy's broken form and choked back tears.

"He was too young to die." I ground my teeth.

"You're the ones who sent him!" Patch scowled.

"Truly only the great die young."

"Fucking hell," I said. The lone skeleton finished gathering itself amongst the chaos and charged forward. Patch flashed a glare at it and used the club he had at his side to bash its skull in.

"Can't you see we are grieving!" The skeleton broke apart, its skull shattered. [That one is a lot stronger than he looks,] Karen said. Yeah. And we could have used that skull. Everyone gathered around Limpy, saying their goodbyes to the short-lived goblin. I inched forward, holding my head parallel to the floor. The rest of the tiles were flat, but I stepped carefully regardless. The last thing I wanted was to be blamed for the death of another goblin who had misstepped.

Hopefully Grelgo wouldn't be mad that I got one of his men killed. Something rumbled from a loculus up ahead, and a fleshy, basso moan carried through the room. [Oh! Zombies!] Karen cheered. [My personal favorite. They have so much more personality than skeletons.] A zombie crawled out of the alcove, dead flesh hanging from ancient bones. It crept forward, each step sending out a bloody squelching sound. It held its arms out as if it were in a zombie movie. Only Hollow moved.

She held both her daggers out to the side and charged, metal flashing in the torchlight. The zombie swept its arms out in a desperate move to grab her, but she side-stepped the shambling foe with ease. She rounded it, driving one knife into its back to bring it to the floor, and brought the other one down into its throat to sever the spinal cord. The body went limp. Hollow grinned, and wiped the viscera off her blades. And she said she wouldn't have been able to handle the first floor herself? I faced my entourage.

"See? Not bad at all. Just watch your step." Stick stepped over Limpy's corpse.

"Very good point, my lord. Onwards!"

"Just be careful, there is no telling what other traps might pop up. Step carefully and slowly—" A goblin, tears running down his face, grabbed the wooden club at his side and raised it high.

"I will avenge you, Limpy!" He sprinted off into the next room. Snap! Thud. Squelch. [They're just wasting their souls at this point. If you're going to let them die, just kill them and put them out of their misery.] I inched into the next room, raising my sword as a glowstick. A boulder had cratered the middle of the room, sitting now in a pile of blood. Feet before the boulder, a broken tripwire lay across the floor. More dead rose from broken coffins and deep alcoves.

A zombie lunged towards the puddle of blood, dropping on all fours and drinking from the goblin soup. I sighed.

"Like I said, be careful."