The silence of the Dead Forest was unsettling for so but peaceful for others. It was a perfect place for ditation and for... contacting demons.
The Empire didn't think anyone would be crazy enough to make a camp in the deep woods. Yet, so people weren't afraid of the crazy creatures of the forest.
In the center of a clearing was one such man.
Before him stood an altar of bones made from creature and human skeletons. Various skulls were stacked on top of each other, their hollow eyes staring into nothingness.
The man, dressed in tattered robes, kept humming mantras while his fingers traced strange patterns in the air. But the silence quickly disappeared.
Another person ran into the clearing, panting. Upon seeing the man chanting, he hesitated. They'd been instructed not to disturb the abbot while he chanted, but the situation required imdiate input from him.
"Master," he said, swallowing hard. "The scouts report an intruder has entered the forest."
The man waited, but the chanting didn't stop. It was a silent warning from the abbot. However, the disciple was too scared to notice the obvious signs. His gut told him to stay quiet, but he ignored it.
"Master, should we—"
No sooner had he said that than sothing strange happened.
Dried roots shot out of the ground, impaling and lifting the man off the ground.
The ever-hungry soil readily accepted the blood sacrifice as the roots dragged the corpse to the altar. Within a few seconds, the corpse beca one with it.
Only once that was over did the abbot open his eyes. The eerie erald orbs reflected the candle's light while he caressed the human skull on his lap.
"Another life lost."
The abbot sighed as if he wasn't responsible for the said death. A mont later, another hooded figure appeared before him, kneeling this ti. Unlike the man before, he was calm and unafraid.
"Master, we received further news. The scouts who followed the intruder have gone silent."
The abbot's mouth twitched, but his expression remained unchanged.
"And the knight we placed as a spy?" he asked.
"No reports from him either. He didn't report to us at all."
The abbot nodded. Soone who took down the scouts and went unnoticed had to be skilled. The only question was how skilled they were.
The lackey remained quiet, but the abbot read his face like an open book.
"What is it?"
"…We just lost the party we sent to the intruder's last known location."
The flas at the altar flickered violently for a mont as the abbot crushed the skull in his hand. The lackey kept his gaze down, fearing the abbot's anger.
But the abbot wasn't angry—he was excited.
However, the excitent soon faded. As much as he wanted to confront the intruder, he couldn't leave the ritual grounds.
"Find him," he said, closing his eyes.
The lackey bowed, then disappeared into the forest.
The abbot pushed the unnecessary thoughts away and focused on chanting.
They were so close to their goal and couldn't afford distractions.
Sowhere else in the forest.
"This is the third guy," Aaran said, scratching his head. "Just how many more are there!?"
How many wasn't what Aaran was worried about. He was more concerned with how they kept finding him.
The undead's sll could be the reason, if not for the fact that even the foot soldiers were over level 15. The undead don't sll past level 10, and the elites don't sll at all!
Yet these strange people kept finding him.
Darius suspected they could be from the temples, but that wasn't the case. Aaran checked each corpse himself, and there were no marks on them. It had to be so other group.
But that raised another question.
What were they doing in the forest?
anwhile, Brute dragged another corpse to Aaran. It seed he had taken his words to heart and was bringing every corpse for Aaran to use. But Aaran didn't use the human corpses for two reasons.
First, they would beco foot soldiers upon resurrection, which ant they'd sll and attract monsters on top of the humans. Second, he had no interest in abandoning the goblins yet.
They were faster than humans and could act as decoys to distract the enemies.
[Leave these humans to Brute, boy. Focus on your objective. Ti is of the essence.]
"I know. But I can't let these people know about that place, can I?"
"I think they've been here for a while, little liege," Darius chid in. "We can assu they know about every place in the forest by now."
That place was a dungeon, but not everyone could enter it. One had to fulfill so prerequisites. At least, that would've been the case for a complete dungeon.
Unlike the dream dungeon, the real thing didn't magically appear out of nowhere. It was a gradual process.
The first thing a dungeon needed was a core. This could be anything, as long as it held a massive amount of mana. Most of the ti, these cores were the actual rewards found inside the dungeon.
Monsters could sense mana better than humans and would gather around the mana source. These monsters would later beco the dungeon's mobs.
But things didn't stay peaceful for long. The monsters fought among themselves for control over the core. After the tumultuous fight, the victor would beco the boss and control the mob.
Such a process took ti.
Normally, Aaran would only find the dungeon during the graduation test, around six years later. Even then, it wouldn't be fully ford.
But this ti, he was early. While there might be so monsters lurking around, there wouldn't be a boss yet.
That's why anyone could claim the reward. Aaran wanted to prevent that outco, but he was running out of ti. In the end, he had to follow Dread's advice and run for the goal.
"Brute," Aaran said. "Smash."
Brute grunted, banging his chest. Smashing was one thing he lived for. Well, as much as a corpse could live for.
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