## Chapter 41 – Dungeon
Having seen human corpses more than once or twice, I first checked to see if there was anything worth taking. Didn’t RPG games make players drop items upon death? In a similar vein, the belongings of the unclaimed dead became the property of the living.
As expected of an adventurer who had crawled into a dungeon, their equipment wasn’t in terrible condition. They were wearing a stylish leather outfit, but of course, monsters had gnawed and torn most of it, making it hard to expect any special value. Only by searching inside did I manage to find a wallet, and I discovered two sleekly designed knives lying nearby. There was no sign of a main weapon. What kind of idiot enters a dungeon with only knives?
The wallet contained about 80 coppers’ worth of copper coins, so we divided them, 20 coppers each. I put the knives in my pocket to sell and settle accounts later. I was about to leave when Eliza stopped me.
“Those who meet their end by monsters enter purgatory.”
“Purgatory, you say?”
“Unless someone recovers their body.”
Everyone knew that meant she wanted help recovering the corpse. Frankly, touching a corpse that had been grotesquely killed and left lying around wasn’t a pleasant task, but out of consideration for Eliza, a religious person, we decided to do a simple recovery.
“The method of recovery doesn’t matter much, as long as it’s not a malicious desecration of the body. What’s important is that a human hand performs the recovery itself. Thus, the soul of the deceased can be saved.”
“I see.”
Whether it could be called recovery or not, we simply repositioned the corpse in the corner, straightened its posture, and used its torn clothes to cover its face, ending our respects for the dead.
“Guide the lost soul back to its original path…”
Eliza offered a short prayer. Seeing this, Copson asked Eliza as if something had occurred to him. From what I gathered, he seemed to be expecting some kind of blessing. In my opinion, a blessing wouldn’t come just because someone muttered a few words. Eliza, knowing this too, expressed her regrets to Copson.
Anyway, we headed towards the sound of water, which was our original goal.
“Indeed, there was an underground stream flowing.”
“So it seems.”
Underground water was gushing through a fairly well-made waterway. Using my scabbard to gauge the depth, it seemed to be only about knee-high. It seemed like a level safe enough to soak in, but there was no telling what kind of aquatic creatures might be lurking.
“Does water attract monsters to the area?”
“I suppose so. Even monsters need to drink water, after all.”
“I want to wash off this filth on my body…”
As she said, the recent battle had left her body covered in maggots’ fluids and bits of flesh. Washing it off would definitely be beneficial for both mental and physical health.
We took turns keeping watch while briefly washing our bodies and clothes. We soaked a cloth in water to wipe our clothes and washed our hair and faces. We made sure to fill our canteens with water as well.
Maria, who was cleaning her shield, said,
“Hmm, now that I think about it, water flows underground, right?”
“I guess so?”
“Then, we might be able to go underground by following this waterway without having to go back. It’ll be easier to remember the way that way, too.”
“That’s a good idea.”
As she said, after finishing our washing, we walked along the waterway.
The third underground floor also didn’t seem to have anything particularly noteworthy. It was a layer where monsters that had wandered in from the darkness lived, forming their own unpleasant ecosystem. There was nothing to ‘investigate,’ as Eliza had initially said, and it was hard to find anything that would make money.
Would there be something on the fourth floor?
At the end of the waterway was a large stone door. A fairly intricately designed human skull was carved largely into the door. Throughout the East and West, skulls generally signify something unpleasant. Copson, standing three steps away from the door, whispered in my ear.
“A skull door… It’s a bit ominous.”
“A bit? It’s damn ominous to me.”
But didn’t it look like something was inside? Dungeons usually promised greater rewards the deeper you went. Considering the name “Necropolis,” the only skull we had seen so far was on the corpse from before.
Seeing a skull decorating the door, it seemed like the fourth underground floor was where the remains were enshrined. And usually, when storing remains, it’s customary to include their belongings or valuables for the deceased. In my view, this was where the money was. It’s not for nothing that adventurers are called grave robbers.
“Undead.”
Remains and undead.
“You said undead would appear.”
“Yes. There was information that undead would appear in the dungeon. My main purpose is to investigate them.”
Eliza sought out a party to investigate them. With the destruction of the Kobold idol, the real show was about to begin. Pushing the door with force, dust billowed out, and the door slowly opened.
“Cough, cough. The air here doesn’t seem good. It feels like we’ve entered an old warehouse.”
As Maria said, the air inside was so thick that dust particles were swirling around. Finding out the chilling truth that these were perhaps human bone fragments wasn’t appealing. Wow, am I getting a calcium supplement just by breathing? I took out a cloth and wrapped it around the lower half of my face like a mask.
“Ah, the light… Barbarian, do you have more oil?”
“Did we use it all already?”
“We did use it for a few hours, though.”
I replaced the lantern’s oil. Seeing that the lantern, which was supposed to last for several hours, was empty, I finally felt the passage of time within the dungeon. Copson raised the lantern, which had regained its original brightness.
Again, the formation was Maria in the lead, followed by Copson, Eliza, and me. The width of the path was as wide as the door, and, not getting tired of it, another fork appeared.
“Left? Right?”
Maria, in the lead, said.
“…”
However, perhaps because the group was tense, an answer didn’t come easily. If we chose one path and entered, and suddenly enemies swarmed from both front and back, we might all die.
“No choice. Let’s just go right.”
“Since we don’t know anything, the direction doesn’t seem very important.”
At that, we turned right.
—Thud, thud.
Stone walls. And a stone floor.
We walked through this dusty space, relying only on the light of the lantern. It truly felt like we had entered a full-fledged dungeon. And as it was a dungeon, something was bound to pop out.
After walking for a while, Maria suddenly stopped.
Had she found something?
“Hey, Katt. Over there.”
Maria pointed straight ahead with her sword. The lantern’s light didn’t reach that far, so I couldn’t see clearly, but something was walking towards us.
—Clatter, clatter.
It wasn’t crawling or walking on all fours. Squinting and craning my neck, I could roughly make out its outline. It seemed to be standing and walking on two feet.
“…Another adventurer?”
—Gulp.
It might be other adventurers who had entered the dungeon.
Since many people come and go from the dungeon, it wouldn’t be strange to meet another adventurer party inside. Should we greet them first? Since we have a lantern here, they must have already noticed us. I wondered whether we should greet them first to show that we weren’t hostile.
I didn’t want to think about it, but they might suddenly attack us.
If we met murderers disguised as adventurers in this narrow space, there would be no way out other than to fight. Murder and robbery among adventurers in dungeons, where no evidence remains, wasn’t just an urban legend told in taverns; it was actually happening.
Of course, the spoils we could get by killing them were tempting, but fighting armed people would inevitably cause damage. Even if we had four reliable combatants, it was the same.
Amidst the continuing tension, it still walked slowly.
“It’s walking slow…”
I muttered what I felt… But suddenly, I had a thought.
“…Don’t those bastards carry lanterns?”
Why was there no light on their side?
Since people can’t see anything in the dark, lanterns, torches, or something equivalent were essential. Could they be elves who could see as well at night as they could during the day? I had only seen an elf once, but they were as mysterious as they were beautiful.
“…You had the same thought as me, Barbarian.”
“I agree.”
Copson and Eliza also spoke, realizing something was wrong.
—Clatter, clatter.
It could be a monster. A bipedal one, too.
Information about walking monsters flashed through my mind. Goblins… Kobolds… Judging by the size, it didn’t seem to be any of them.
Finally, it came into our sight.
Its appearance was revealed.
“Oh, Mom.”
It was an unbelievable being. I recalled my mother’s face, which I hadn’t seen in years, and called out that longing name.
“It’s a skeleton. This proves that the information about undead appearing in the dungeon is true.”
—Clatter, clatter.
That clattering sound was the sound of a skeleton walking, its bones colliding! How could a skeleton move on its own, you son of a bitch!
“Shit! A skeleton is walking!”
I had only heard about undead, but seeing it in person made me incredibly scared. That thing, which was just a skeleton, not even a living person, felt like a terrifying being. This was a truly surreal sight. How could the dead come back to life and move? There’s a limit to how much you can ignore common sense!
“Don’t be so afraid. They were once people too.”
“They?”
—Clatter, clatter.
—Clatter, clatter.
The skeletons that were reviving and walking weren’t just one. Ancient soldiers, each armed with rotten and rusted weapons, were swarming from the other side to eliminate the intruders!
“Well, they’re more interesting than zombies.”
“Yeah~. We used to have zombies appear in my hometown sometimes, but they’re less disgusting than those guys.”
“What? What?”
However, Copson and Maria’s reactions were beyond common sense. Unlike me, they weren’t shocked or scared. They seemed to feel that things that revived and walked around like that were perfectly normal.
“Basically, lower-level undead are weaker than living monsters. Barbarian, why are you so scared?”
“Weaker? They’re supposed to be revived bastards, aren’t they?”
“Do those bony guys with no muscles and all rotten look strong to you? Strength comes from muscles and bones, but they’re both screwed.”
This was the difference between Copson, a person from this world, and me, a modern Earthling. They could see the objects of this fantasy world properly, without any kind of prejudice. Their experiences and ways of life were different from the start. Copson’s words were logical and correct.
I looked again at the skeletons that seemed like they came out of a horror movie.
