7 Ghoul dungeon

Mael jumped to the dungeon gate and immediately saw a desolate dead forest like the horror movies of his past life. The forest was dark and it seems that the sky was telling him that the night is approaching. In this forest, the trees are withered and they look like vicious monsters lurking in the dark and ready to attack anytime.

He ran fast and purposely left his robes while he was running. With that, they will not follow his scent but the robes instead. He lost them and escaped to the depths of the forest.

With the disturbing look of the trees, his ego screams in the depths of his mind.

Raaaahhhhhhhrrrrrrr!

Followed by the ghouls' screams, his heart raced as he thought that the monsters lost their lead to where he is.

The desolate place had a decaying smell, as it was full of ghouls' decaying leftovers corpses lying around somewhere.

Mael nearly panicked, because he is running in a dark forest without light.

Pak!

Mael stumbled upon a decaying corpse that had a look of screaming while eaten alive. It's eyes were opened wide and he filled with flies inside its mouth.

Mael gasped as he backs away, never expected to experience something like this. In his mind. He will be meeting many more corpses on the way.

In his current situation, his problem is the light source. Luckily, his small backpack has a floating lantern. He placed his backpack in the ground then he grabs the lantern.

"If I will use this, then they will see me in the night", he said in his mind wondering what to do.

He then grabbed something small, he pulls it then saw a pair of curved daggers.

"Luckily I've got this!", he said as he equips his back up daggers.

With the chains still covering his arms, he attaches it to chains. With the chains attached, he has higher combat prowess. His hands covered with chains can defend attacks and he can attack mid range with daggers attached chains.

"Now let's roll!", he said as he reverse gripped the daggers.

It will be not long for them to follow my scent. Better walk in the dark than to be surrounded by enemies with a lantern.

He is encompassing the dark night while crouching, his eyes adjusted to the surroundings and saw everything, even the bugs that are crawling. He was continuing his travels then he saw corpses once more, while the ghouls are pulling them by their mouths. He retreated then stumbled upon a man. His skin accidentally touched Mael's and surprisingly, his body was still warm.

"He's still warm?", Mael questioned as he touched his neck, looking for a pulse and in his surprise, he can feel faint pulse.

His shoulders are bloodied and it is surprisingly has a dress of a noble. The person is breathing very slow and he is on the verge of dying.

Mael hurriedly grabbed his health potion then assisted him to drank it.

Uhug! uhuk! uhuk!

The person coughed and was slowly regaining strength. His wounds were closing and he was slowly moving.

"Hey can you hear me? what happened to you? how did you get here?", Mael asked alarmed.

The person was quite awake and he immediately replied, not even seeing his face in the darkness so he doesn't recognize that Mael was still a teen-ager.

"Save my daughter! she was taken by the monsters! We were attacked in the streets and she was forcefully taken away from me. I tried to fight, but I was clawed on my shoulders. I followed them here, but I've lost too much blood so I've collapsed right where I am now. Please if you can save her, I will repay you with my life. You can even make me you slave if you want so please help her. Help my child", he said as he began to cry not knowing what to do.

"Right! Right! I will help but you will repay me handsomely", Mael said while wondering what will be his role in his golden valley.

"Maybe he will be a good miner in the mines. Nah, a farmer maybe, well anyone can be a farmer", he pondered in his mind.

"Hey are you listening? Please be quick! Or we will only reach her dead body. Did you see? They are gathering food for their queen! All those dead bodies are her food!", he said to him as he grabbed him in his hands

Mael was stunned by the information in he obtained.

"Well that explains everything. Thank you for the info. Hide here. I'm going to their lair. If I didn't come back in an hour or two, then it is time for you to leave and forget about your daughter", he said as he pats his shoulders.

Mael immediately resumes his scouting mission and he sneaks while moving from tree to tree. He is peeping first then moves if it is clear. He arrived to where he is before and the corpses are all moved to another location.

"They've finished earlier than expected, better to move faster", he said in his mind while sneaking

The night was getting darker and he heard their wailings. He moved forward and then saw a great cave in the forest. It has a mouth of fifty feet high and was very dark inside. It was guarded by two ghouls and they are moving to and fro. Mael waited tirelessly for them to go inside but sadly, they never get tired doing all that marching.

He sighed. "Better assassinate them than wait for them until morning. I never had that kind of patience", he said, while he scratched his cheeks.

The ghouls are moving to and fro and Mael memorized their patterns. He waited for them to turn around and show their backs to him. With the right timing, he throws the daggers to their heads and then it pierced making a slitting sound. Mael pulled the chains and then wrapped the chains in his hands.

Mael was entering the lair and worried that his cover will be blown. He pulled his only sense-hindering potion in his potion belt and then trickled it in his leather armor. He chose leather armor because it's lighter than metal and does not hinder his movements. With it he can evade any attack with ease.

Mael was encompassing the darkness. As he goes deeper, the light was getting dimmer the before. Without even a faint light, his eyes might not see anything. He has no skill to see in the darkness and he is left with no choice but to use the floating lantern.

He dropped his bag and then pulled the floating lantern. He activated a switch then it started to light the tunnels. He tinkered it a bit to follow him wherever he goes.

The tunnels are wide and you can run around if you like. With the time passes by, its walls are covered with moist that is coming from the coldness of the temperature. The floor was covered with dried up blood from the corpses they have dragged with them recently.

With the help of the lantern, he can see automatically the details of the tunnels. However, it only made his precious sense-hindering potion gone to waste.

"My one day of painstakingly making was just watered down to the drain", he said to himself.

"With the light of the lantern, it is not a surprise for them to know my entry", he said.

He continued following the trail but he wondered where are the ghouls. He didn't met one even traveling for minutes. He continued to walk, but he saw that the trail is separated to two. He observes the left and saw that it is where the blood trails are going and the right is just footprints of blood stained claws.

"If the bodies are dragged here, then the queen's room is here and the other one is not even important, yeah the left one is the answer", he said as he chose to meet the queen. Because there's a high chance that the missing girl was dragged there in the corpses den.

Meanwhile outside the dungeon, the guards are holding out but is running out of potions, the dungeon reduced the spawning of monsters after he went inside but there is till many.

The first line of defense were the spearmen. One line is enough to surround the dungeon gate and the footmen were there at their backs. With the archers ran out of their arrows, they made the third line of defense. The cavalry was protecting Erza on a wedge formation and she was in the center.

"Spearmen! Don't let anyone pass! footmen! Cover their backs! Archers switch to swords!" She orders them around and not loosing hope.

She was patiently waiting for his son and worried about him

"Lady Erza, young master was still not back and it's been hours", said Maledic worriedly.

"Don't worry about him. Worry about the people if they gets through us", she said with a loud voice.

"I'm sorry, Lady Erza. I will be careful with my statements next time", he apologized.

"Hurry up, son. What were you thinking?", she said in her mind.