Chapter 203

  After pig a random dire, Jake ventured dow another corridor that looked identical to the previous ones. Wall-mouorches magically ignited as he passed, illuminating a few yards ahead of him. However, the end of the corridor remained shrouded in darkness. The t ceiling was ed in thick shadows, prompting Jake to remain vigint for any bat-like creatures that could be lurking above.

  As it turned out, there were no enemies in the corridor, and Jake arrived at its end without i. He paused at the entraaking in the vast hall that the corridor opened into. ns lihe length of the room, each adorned with fming torches. At the far end of the expansive hall, another exit led into a different corridor. Along both long walls, sepulchers lihe entire length of the room, positio regur intervals.

  Jake then shifted his gaze to a group of undead creatures wandering around the vast hall. Before he could examihe sepulchers further, he knew he o hahe immediate threat first. The enemies in the hall were the same types he had faced before in the dungeoering zombies and awakened skeletons, armed with various melee and ranged ons, as well as magical staves.

  The undead wandered aimlessly around the room, their feet dragging oone floor. Some of them caught sight of him standing at the entrahey halted and turned in his dire. However, they didn’t approach. Instead, they seemed to bide their time, as if waiting for him to ehe room before ung an attack.

  Jake chose to stay where he was for the time being. There weren’t too many undead in the hall, so he figured he could deal with them in just a couple of minutes. However, he was acutely aware that bck obelisks had the power to revive them. He had already destroyed one, but he had no doubt that more of them lurked in the shadows of the dungeon.

  For the several seds, Jake stayed rooted in pce, reag out with his senses. He detected no humming sounds a no vibratioh his feet. The air cked that familiar static charge. This indicated one of two possibilities: either there was no other bck obelisk nearby, or the one present was currently dormant. If the tter were true, it might activate after he dispatched the undead, bringing them back to life.

  Jake really wished that if there were indeed more bck obelisks in the dungeon—something he was fairly vinced of—they would be suffitly spaced apart. If they were positiooo closely, it would mean that any group of undead he mao eliminate would be revived almost instantly, turning the whole situation into a frustrating ordeal.

  Wheered the hall, the undead immediately began to move toward him, raising their ons. Jake charged at them, crashing into one of the skeletons with tremendous force. The powerful blow he delivered with his right smashfist caused the skeleton’s ribcage to bloart in an explosion of bones.

  While he fought the other undead, he kept a close eye on the first skeleton he had just killed. It y unmoving where it had fallen, showing no signs of being revived. This suggested that there might not be a bck obelisk nearby after all, which was certainly a relief.

  He tio fight the rest of the undead, successfully evading eaemy attack. Since he wasn’t hit even once during the fight, he couldn’t gauge how much damage he might take now that he was afflicted by the Fragile Body curse.

  For a brief moment, Jake pted the idea of letting one of the skeleton soldiers score a hit with a bded on, but he quickly dismissed it. He khat eventually, one of his future oppos would be able to nd a hit anyway. The thought of deliberately allowing a foe to strike him felt fually wrong a against all his instincts.

  Even though his damaged hand hadn’t regeed back yet, he had little trouble dealing with the undead one-handed. It didn’t take him long to defeat all of them.

  Multiple enemies killed. +6,350 XP

  All the undead y where they had fallen, and there were ale signs of powerful magic at py. Satisfied that there weren’t any bck obelisks nearby to resurrect the undead he had just killed, Jake turned his attention to the sepulchers he had noticed earlier. A dozen of them lined each wall of the long hall, each regur and capped with a thick, ft lid.

  Jake closed his eyes and activated Mana Visiourned his head this way and that, notig several blue glowing lights around him. Some of the sepulchers tained mana ables, which was excellent news for him. Having drained some of this magical energy siering the dungeon, he weled the opportunity to replenish his mana reserves.

  He opened his eyes and approached one of the sepulchers. The granite lid that covered it was incredibly heavy, but it posed no challeo Jake’s inhuman strength. He pushed the sb aside using one hand only, causing the lid to drop into the gap between the sepulcher and the wall with a resonant thud.

  Jake leaned in to peer inside and spotted a skeleton dressed in tattered clothes. The interior of the sepulcher was bathed in the blue glow of a rge mana able. For a brief moment, however, he found himself staring at the skeleton, half-expeg it t to life and attack. But it never happened, and he redirected his attention to the rge mana item.

  It was a crystal taining 5,000 MP, which was a fantastid. He crushed the crystal in his harag the mana from it. Then, he ied the rest of the sepulchers that tained mana ables. Although he didn’t find any more crystals, he did locate a couple of ks, each taining 1,000 MP, as well as several shards holding 500 MP each.

  After that, Jake g the rest of the closed sepulchers. The only valuable items for him were mana ables, but out of curiosity, he decided to check them anyway. Most of the sepulchers held no treasures—only inanimate skeletons, some debris, frayed, weathered scraps of fabric, or sometimes nothing at all.

  In one of the sepulchers, he spotted a splintered pieetal emblem about the size of his palm. Si was only a fragment of the whole, with the rest of the emblem missing, it was difficult to determis inal shape. heless, Jake couldn’t shake the impression that it resembled a triangur shield. He attempted to summon its description, but nothing happened. He dropped the shard baside and tinued expl the hall.

  When he checked another sepulcher, a few bat-like monsters suddeed from within and immediately attacked him. Reag swiftly, he dodged their strikes without sustaining any injuries. He fought bad quickly dealt with them. With the threat ralized, he resumed his exploration of the remaining sepulchers.

  When he pushed the sb off another sepulcher, magical symbols suddenly fred up on its sides. Sensing the immi danger, he quickly leaped back. However, he lit sed too te. A magical explosioed from within the sepulcher, and searing fmes grazed him, inflig some fire damage to his skin. Luckily, the harm wasn’t too severe, as he had jumped away in time, successfully increasing the distaween himself and the sepulcher.

  When he approached the sepulcher and peered inside, he found it empty. Despite having been protected by a magical trap, there was absolutely nothing of value inside. He pressed on. Now aware that some sepulchers could be safeguarded by wards, he began to reach out with his seo detect magical traps before opening any of them.

  These wards became visible only when activated, and in their dormant state, they were very hard to detect. He had to push his seo their limits to catch the almost uable hum that emanated from a sepulcher protected by wards.

  As it turned out, not all the magically protected sepulchers were secured by fire traps. When triggered, one of them caused a frost explosion instead of a fiery burst, sending icy clouds filled with thousands of sparkling particles swirling in every dire. Jake mao jump back just in time, narrowly avoiding the frost cloud’s effects. It spread several yards outward before dissipating and vanishing pletely.

  A different warded sepulcher detonated with an acidic explosion, unleashing a green cloud that billowed outward. Jake was able to avoid being hit by it as well. Thanks to deteg the traps beforehand, he was now alrepared to perform a mana-fused jump to escape a trap’s effective range.

  The noxious cloud lingered in the air for a while befradually dissipating. The sepulcher held nothing of value, though. Funny enough, most of the sepulchers protected by magical traps tained hardly anything of i within them.

  In one of the other sepulchers, he finally found something iing. It was a on, a one-hawo-bded axe with a wooden ha didn’t look like much, though. Jake tried to summon its description and was mildly surprised wheails actually popped up in his mind.

  Name: Iron Battleaxe

  Rarity: on

  Primary effects: None

  Temporary effects: None

  Entments: None

  Slots: None

  This on actually possessed stats like those found in a typical fantasy role-pying game. Jake shouldn’t have been surprised, though, sidering this was a medieval-style dungeon. For a moment, he even pted taking the battleaxe with him to test it out in battle.

  Oher hand, his cws, smashfists, and other ons in his arsenal were already incredibly powerful. The iron battleaxe was merely a on on without any uraits, making Jake skeptical that it would outperform the effectiveness of his own arsenal.

  The iron battleaxe was clearly meant for use by human survivors in cle bat. Most of his ons were already tailored for melee fighting, so he saw no reason to carry a on—at least, one of on rarity. Perhaps ter on, he would find a on of higher rarity—epic, or if he was lucky, even legendary. Should he find such a on, he would certainly be ined to take it with him.

  He examihe rest of the sepulchers, using his seo detey potential magical traps. Having mastered the teique of avoiding them, he pushed a sb aside and quickly jumped back, each time successfully evading the effects of whatever ward a sepulcher rotected with.

  At one point, he pted trying an alternative approach: using his tentacles to push the sb off a sepulcher from a safe distance. However, opting for that protective measure seemed unnecessary, particurly since each time he grew his tentacles, it ed a certain amount of his mana.

  After iing the remaining sepulchers and disc nothing useful, he proceeded to the far end of the long hall aered the unnel, tinuing his exploration of the dungeon.