23 Back in the Dungeon

Leaving the city I follow the road until I reached the Undead Dungeon. Even though I had been working on increasing my skills recently I hadn't had any opportunities to use healing magic so going to this Dungeon where I can use heal offensively will help as I go through the Dungeon Floors. I can also practice with healing since having it at higher skill levels increases the amount it heals.

As I go through the guards at the entrance I buy some information about the dungeon from them and they hand me a paper filled with information. This Dungeon was called "The Undead Cavern" since it was full of undead. The church was the first to find it and when reported to the lord they had named it based on what type of monster was inside and the layout of the dungeon. With the Dungeon being a large cave with stairs going down each floor they decided on naming it a cavern. The dungeon had 5 floors, each floor had a different undead monster on them. The First Floor of the Dungeon contained Lowest-Class undead Skeletons, The Second Floor of the Dungeon contained the Low-Class undead Zombies, The Third Floor of the Dungeon contained wraiths, The Fourth Floor of the Dungeon had Ghouls while the Fifth Floor of the Dungeon contained the Boss and a group of all of the monsters from each floor.

With the information on the Dungeon contents from the guards, I head into the Dungeon with Presence Detection on. I learned from last time that even if I couldn't feel the presence of the undead I could still feel others in the dungeon, like anyone from the church or other newbie hunters like last time. I'd rather not run into anyone in the dungeon for now.

After following the same steps as last time through the Dungeon I run into more undead skeletons this time so I'm using heal more often. For now, if I can finish them with heal I'd rather do that so I can increase the skill level as fast as I could.

Every time an undead skeleton would run at me I could hear it coming near with its bones hitting the dungeon floor so none of them could run up on me without me noticing. With the skeletons being nothing other than bones I could hear them if I focused my hearing so I used that to hunt them down instead. After killing a couple of skeletons and getting the notifications for their deaths I make sure to put the ashes that they turned into in my inventory with the others and move further into the Dungeon's First Floor looking for the stairs down.

While passing through the Dungeon I can sense some people but I make sure to avoid them since you never know who could be in a Dungeon. Newbie Hunters, or the people from the church. It could even be other adventurers but for now, I just want to hunt alone.

[Through continuous use the skill "Heal" has leveled up]

After about an hour the skill levels up to level 3 and as a result it is stronger than before. The range increased as well, although I don't have to touch the target anymore they still have to be within 2 feet of me so I'm basically within arms reach anyways. Now I can just spam the undead while running past them with heal until it levels up again.

With another hour of looking for the Dungeon stairs leading to the lower floor, I decided to try to go to that one place I've been avoiding this entire time. The group of people that have been sitting in place for the past 2 hours. Although they have been sitting there they still had people on the lookout so it may be some adventurers.

While walking towards the only group of presences that I can feel on this floor I begin to hear the group of people talking to themselves. From what I can hear they sound like they are from that church of light that I've been hearing a lot of lately. Even if they were from the church of light I still decided to approach them cautiously ready to run or fight just in case something goes wrong.

"Are you sure that the oracle said someone other than us was supposed to be in the Dungeon today? None of the adventures come here anymore right?" One of the priest looking people says to the person in the middle of the group.

A majority of the group of people that are sitting at the Dungeon's stairs have the attire of a priest while some have a modified priest outfit but they have swords at their waist's. Those are probably paladins or their special knights. The person in the middle looks to be a higher ranked priest since he has a more flashy outfit that screams "look at me". It was a white outfit with golden symbols on it.

Hearing the priests doubt of the oracle the higher ranking priest frowns and says, "You better not let others hear of your doubt, even though I may be lenient and not mind you talking like that the others would excommunicate you for doubting the words of the oracle. Remember, the oracle's words are God's words."

"Yes, si-. Someone's approaching!"

While listening in to their conversation it seems that one of them noticed me so I make sure to put my sword down so that they don't think that I am hostile.

'Priests from the Church of Light should be trustworthy right?' While saying that to myself I show myself to the group and speak out to them.

"Hello, are those the stairs that lead down to the Second Floor of the Dungeon?" I shout to the group with enough distance between us while pointing towards the stairs.