Chương 9: Level One Adventurer

Rats fled the next two rooms as I cleaved into skeleton after skeleton. These bore the same soulless black eyes as the others. The Carrion Blade made quick work of them all the same. If souls didn't power these dead, then what did? I leaned over, resting on a wall to catch my breath while Strong bumbled in behind me, Skully in his arms. The poor skeleton struggled to keep up with his knee-less legs. I'd gone through every snaking path on this floor to get here and was left with this one last doorway up ahead.

My stomach gurgled and groaned, and with every passing minute, eating one of the rats felt more and more like an option.

"Strong, Skully, if my mouth starts to water the next time we see a rat, I'm going to need you to smack me." They both nodded. I rolled my shoulders back and inched closer to the door. A heavy black shadow stood in the center of the next room. I raised my sword for light and swallowed. Staring down at me, a giant skeleton stood with burning blue eyes. It was at least a couple feet taller than me. The bones were wide and heavy-set and even without muscles or skin, its stature resembled that of a wrestler.

"Ah! Why is it so big?" The skeleton reached down to a curved blade that had been planted in the ground and pulled it loose. It then roared. Not the pantomiming that the other skeletons did, but an actual basso roar.

"That's not fair! Why can you make noises, but my skeletons can't?" It charged at me without a moment's notice, and it took a snap judgement for me to dodge out of the way. The blade clattered into the wall, chipping off several large chunks of stone and embedding itself between the mortar. Before it could pull its blade out, I reached out and slapped the skull, shouting, "Harvest!" The ability bounced off the skeleton as if it were nothing. The skull rotated 180 degrees to face me and laughed.

It pulled its blade from the wall, and swept it down at me. WHOOSH. I stumbled backward, barely avoiding being disemboweled. This wasn't fair. None of the other skeletons had swords. The assault continued, one heavy swing after another. Not only was this skeleton bigger than all the other ones, but it was faster too. Sweat dripped off my brow as I dodged to the side of the next downward swing. Each hammering blow sent echoes throughout the catacombs and launched shards of masonry flying in all directions.

As such, the blade had gone from a smooth finish to a dull, jagged edge. It would still flay me all the same, but I hoped deep down that its sword would shatter before given the opportunity. I raised the Carrion Blade to meet the next incoming blow, sending a shower of sparks to light up the room. The skeleton staggered back; the lack of muscle tissue or any real center of mass made the skeleton unsteady as hell, just like the others.

As it tried to recover its balance, I smacked away its sword arm, sending its bones and sword clattering to the ground. The giant skeleton's eyes blazed, and I shouldered it with all my might. The skeleton toppled, and I drove my palm onto its oversized ribcage and attempted to harvest it again. Even up close and injured, the ability had no effect. [Watch out!] Karen's voice rang in my ears. The skeleton's fallen arm grabbed my ankle and tugged.

Without the rest of its body, it wasn't strong, but it was enough to throw me off. I shouted and fell to the floor, head reeling. Its arm reconnected to the rest of its body, drawn forward by some invisible force, and without needing a moment to recover, its assault continued. The sword descended toward my neck in a blur, and based on my extensive experience, it was definitely about to chop my head off.

"H-help!" I screamed. Thunk! The abominable skeleton stumbled back, dazed. Skully clattered to the ground at my feet, eye sockets wide. I glanced over at Strong, who held both arms over his head like he'd just performed a soccer throw-in. He waddled forward a couple of paces and gave me a rigid thumbs-up. I scrambled to my feet, collecting the sword. My arms weakened, sword rattling in my weak grip. I don't even really know how to use this thing!

The only samurai movie I've seen is The Last Samurai with Tom Cruise, and that movie sucked. Maybe I'll try spinning, that's a good trick. The skeleton advanced, and I whipped around, holding the sword as far out from my body as my arms would allow. Turning my back to the enemy certainly felt like the wrong thing to do, but there I was, rotating like a horribly constructed ceiling fan, holding my own—or at least not running for my life.

I caught glimpses of the big skeleton each rotation, looking as perplexed as someone without a face can. It set aside its sword and scratched its head, scanning the ground. It reached down and picked up something, weighing it for a moment before chucking it directly at my face. Skully's smashed my skull, blurring my vision and releasing dozens of stars that raced around my head. The world spun as I looked up at the ceiling, a realization dawning.

"Hey, you can't use my own skeleton minions against me!"

"Raaaaah!" the giant roared, heedless of my objection. It stomped up to me, sword angled toward my neck. Strong plowed into it, both arms extended straight out, fingers pointing up, palms open. Through my swimming, spinning vision, I couldn't make heads or tails of their fight, or even which skeleton was mine and which was the baddie.

"Go Strong! Kick him in the bones!" SNAP! CRACK! BANG! CRAAAACK! I rose on unsteady legs, shaking my head to clear some of the blurriness. A femur came out of nowhere, smacking into the bridge of my nose and sending me sprawling back to the ground. Strong's head, mouth fixed into a frown, rolled past me. Sure wish I had saved one of those reincarnations, I thought as my doom stalked over, its chipped sword scraping across the stones.

Skully snapped its jaws over and over, trying to right itself, but it just ended up rolling in a circle. The skeleton went to step over Skully, but a fortuitous pivot off a pebble changed Skully's trajectory, rolling him under the skeleton's foot. It stumbled on the skull, waving its arms in wild circles and dropping the sword. Its toe caught on the hilt of the Carrion Blade, and it pitched forward, falling face-first into the ground. Bones flew in all directions as the big-boned skeleton exploded from the impact.

I jumped up, pinching the bridge of my bloody nose, and shambled towards its head, grasping it in both hands and raising it above my head like a trophy. I screamed.

"HARVEST!" The soul-flame extinguished, and the soul coursed through my veins as if I were swallowing a lump of coal. A surge of cold energy filled me—sweet, sharp— My body twisted in agony. [Notable Soul Harvested] My chest tightened, my heart raced, and my spiritual core ached. I sucked in a breath and collapsed to my knees to bend over and retch. The author's content has been appropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon. [Spit it out!] Karen's voice came as a cry I fell to the floor, clutching my chest.

"What—" [You are not adequately prepared to harvest a soul of that size!] I closed my eyes, trying to visualize the fish tank again. The new soul was as if someone dropped a shark into my goldfish tank. Its form was blurred, vague, and the four soul-guppies were squished against the bulging glass, where cracks started to form. I desperately clawed at the mental image of the tank and ripped the soul out with my spectral hands.

The soul launched from my palm like a bottle rocket, crashing into the ceiling of the catacomb and leaving a three foot wide crater. Even without consciously knowing what I had done, the ability had solidified as something named. [You have released a soul from your core, sending it free into the ether to rejoin the balance of life.] [Ability Manifested] [Release - Remove a soul from your core, releasing it back to the ether.] [To release a soul gently is one thing, but to eject it forcibly from your core is another tactical decision. When released in this way, souls release with an energy comparable to their tier.] [Ability Manifested] [Release: Projectile - Forcibly eject a gathered soul for use as a high powered projectile.] My body ached, and sweat soaked through my bloody and torn clothes. I coughed, and the dust from the shattered ceiling filled my lungs. I just hoped asbestos didn't exist in this world.

Clapping filled the room. Strong stood in the doorway, awkwardly applauding me like a penguin. Skully sat next to him, eyes flashing bright with approval. A new notification appeared in my vision. [Floor Claimed] I blinked it away. At long last. I was done. I inched towards the stairs heading to the surface. [... Not up…]"If you can talk now, I'm going to need you to make more sense," I said, slowly climbing the steps. [Still awakening… Come down. The further you go… the harder it is to reach you in this state. New energy now. Reincorporating…]"Come down? No, I'm not going any deeper into this place. I'm hungry. I'm tired. I'm leaving." [... See for yourself…] I took the stairs two at a time, ready to get the hell out of here, passing onto the next floor with a grin that was quickly washed away.

"Oh. Oh, that's not good." More catacombs. No dungeon core. Just more rooms. More bones. More suffering. [Floor 3] [... Do you see the problem now?]"Is the dungeon reversed?" I asked. [You tell me. You did this to us.]"Does this mean I could have just gone down instead of having to fight through this entire floor?" [Correct.] I set my jaw and turned around. My bony companions were halfway up the stairs behind me when I pushed past them.

I'd been stuck in here for hours, starving and putting my life on the line, when the way out was right beneath my feet. It wasn't all a waste, at least. I knew more about my powers now than I did before—and even had a couple of companions to show for it. I moved through the front vestibule and into the room I had woken up in. An icy chill ran down my spine as a rat scurried away. I had never found out where my shoes had gone.

My descent downward was quick, the intense green glow of the dungeon core appearing about halfway down, clashing with the rest from my sword. Taking the last step, the notification appeared. [Floor 1] The temple was gone, replaced by a proper throne room. The black throne that the goblins made me stood atop an elevated platform at the center of the room. Above it, the dungeon core spun lazily, washing the room in green. Red banners bearing the Carrion King's sigil—a jagged and spiked circle—hung from the ceiling.

Empty black armor suits lined the walls, standing beside tall, rough pillars, where blue-flamed torches burned endlessly. Two massive iron doors sat closed and barred at the other end of the room. Something groaned and bent against them from outside. I looked up at the gem, and the dungeon core stopped spinning, twisting down to face me with one beveled side. Karen spoke with a stern, yet wispy voice. [The dungeon has been shattered. Changed… Memories are faded. All I remember was you, tearing us apart.] I swallowed.

"Who is 'us' in this scenario?" [Me. Broken apart into shards. Missing, now. Maybe destroyed.] I held my ground.

"You tried to kill me. To bend me to your will." [The plan. You were to be our human arm. Far too long have I—we—rotted beneath the earth. Lost. Forgotten. You were to announce the return of the Carrion King.] The dungeon core dimmed, and my reflection appeared on a flat surface. I hardly recognized myself. Red eyes reflected back at me, and long silver hair fell past my shoulders.

"What happened to me?" [You accepted the call, but denied the strings. You are the Carrion King that was promised, but you destroyed the realm you were to rule. In doing so, you have killed us both.]"How?" [You have unearthed this dungeon. Shattered it. And in doing so, you have placed me at the very entrance of the dungeon. I could be destroyed by anyone who walked through those front doors. All these years of planning…]"And maybe you would deserve it." Karen laughed. [If I deserve it, so do you. We are tied at the hip now, you and I. If you die, I shatter. If I shatter, you die.] I swallowed.

"Oh. How do we separate ourselves from each other?" [We don't. Our souls are bonded now. This is not glue that you can just undo.]"Then… how do we move you to the top of the tower? Presumably you'd be safe there?" A heavy sigh filled our connection. [To move the dungeon core—me—we would need more essence—mana. Lots of it. Right now we have none. Even if we did have enough, there would be no place to transport me to than the second floor, now that you've claimed it.]"So we're fucked?"

[Anyone who knows what I am would destroy me and harvest the magical energy inside of me in a heartbeat. I spent decades collecting the resources to transfuse my soul into this gem... wasted…]"But... why? Was it worth it?" Karen scoffed. [I have escaped the confines of a mortal form and, until a few hours ago, controlled my very own pocket dimension in the shape of a well-designed dungeon. Of course it was worth it. The only downside is that a bumbling idiot stumbled into these walls and fucked everything up.] I put my hands in my pockets. With each passing second, the core grew more and more energized.

"How do we fix this?" [With what information we currently have, you would have to delve, er, climb through the rest of this dungeon. It seems that with our connection, merely defeating a floor's boss is enough to reincorporate it into my control over that floor.] Karen hummed, thinking. [You would have to climb this tower to the very top to return me to form.]"I mean, how long did the first floor take me? An hour or two? If I can get better at raising the dead, we could take this tower in what, a few days?

A week?" Bones clattered down the floor as Strong tripped and fell down the stairway, landing hard on the floor. He reassembled, picked Skully back up, and stood next to me. [My sweet summer child. You know not the depths of the Necrodungeon. The deeper you go, the bigger it gets. The more difficult it gets. Even in my original human state, at the peak of my power, it would have taken me months to single handedly climb to the top floor. And you, my friend, are not me.] I took Skully from Strong's hands and placed it on the throne.

"You can either keep insulting me, or we can work together to figure this out. Let's start with step one. Right now, what is the first thing we should do?" [You have several souls gathered. I feel them. Give them to me, and I can use them to replenish my essence stores, small as they are. Such power is needed to make changes inside these walls.]"No," I said. [No? Are you daft?]"No consuming souls. It doesn't feel right. We don't have to like each other, but if we are going to work together, I refuse to do it."

[I'm not asking you to consume it. I am asking you to bind it to me, that way it becomes part of something larger. A part of the dungeon as a whole, the same way that your skull-friend still nods at you.] Don't destroy them. Just bind them into servitude. But what choice did I have? I nodded and looked up at Karen, envisioning the fish tank in my head. The soul-guppies all looked a bit beat up after the encounter with the Notable Soul, and were lethargic enough for me to scoop up with ease.

Karen floated a dozen feet above me, so I raised my hand.

"Release!" The energy of the first soul fizzled and bounded out of my palm and rocketed forward, cratering into the green gem, bouncing off, and smacking me in the face. The flickering blue soul regathered itself into a ball, a rat face forming like clay. It met my eyes and squeaked. The dungeon rumbled, and Karen's voice resonated through the throne room instead of just my head. [What are you doing? Capture that soul!] The soul's misty eyes widened, and screeched.

I bounded forward after it, catching it in my hands, only slightly disgusted by how goopy it felt. Squeak! Squeak! [Harvest it! Quick!] Spectral tears formed in the soul's eyes, and I winced as I channeled it back into my core. It screamed the whole way, and I burped with indigestion as it rejoined the others.

"That was horrible!" I cried.

"The poor thing! Why didn't it just disperse?" [Please. It is the soul of a rat. Save your pity for something more deserving. In the future, you must Bind your souls to me. Not just throw them around.] I blinked, staring up at the dungeon core floating several feet above me.

"Are you able to lower a bit, then?" [Oh? You are incapable of reaching me? A shame.]"Hey! You're the one that wants these souls. I'm happy to keep them for myself—" [No, no. That won't be necessary,] Karen said, lowering itself to be barely within touching distance. I stood on my toes, placed my hands on the gem, and whispered, "Bind." The souls left me, and the dungeon core glowed a bit brighter. [Dungeon of the Carrion King] [Level 2 Dungeon] [Dungeon Essence: 1/2]"See, look at that. Progress!"

[This is a drop in the bucket of what we need.] A knock came from the iron doors.

"Who do you think it is?