Chapter 131: Undead Woes

[Title 'Death's Bane' is now active.]

As he eyed the screen that was now projected in front of him, Henry waited for System to go into detail about what the activation of the Title meant but it didn't.

Meanwhile, the groups all looked around at where they were. It looked like some kind of underground chamber with walls built with interlaid bricks. Attached to the walls were lamp brackets that glowed with an eerie violet light.

The light from the lamps provided a view ahead. There were multiple openings leading deeper into the Dungeon and so, without so much as an attempt to convene and decide on the best path forward, the various groups began picking paths and treading forward into the gloom only barely illuminated by the eerie lamps.

"We'll go this way," Doherty said as he picked a path and led the party through it.

No two groups selected the same path which was just evidence of just how many paths the Dungeon had provided.

"You can feel it, can't you?" Louis said by Henry's side when the Party had taken a few steps into their selected path.

"Feel what?" Henry asked, "The Violent energy that's smacking me in the face?"

"Violent? Well, I suppose it's a bit violent. But it's mostly soothing. Makes you feel like you can become stronger by just taking more of it in," Louis said and took a moment to close his eyes and revel in the feeling.

Henry's brows furrowed.

He didn't feel that. He felt threatened.

"How can you not feel it?" Louis asked when he saw Henry was still confused,

"There's a reason people enter Dungeons. Everyone knows if you survive a battle within a Dungeon, you exit feeling even stronger. Don't worry, you'll see."

"Sure," Henry said simply before he returned his eyes forward.

Of course, he didn't doubt he was going to get out of here stronger. But he knew it wasn't going to be because of some strange energy but rather because of the System and its Exp rewards.

"Quiet!" Doherty suddenly said from up ahead and then he keened his ear before saying in a low voice,

"I hear something. Get ready!"

Those who had swords pulled them out of their sheaths. Those who had Spears pointed them ahead and those with Bows notched arrows.

Henry pulled 'Violent Retort' out of its holster and cocked it with his finger stroking the gun's double triggers ready to fire any of the bullets in its barrels.

Henry looked to the side and saw Louis close his eyes as he gripped his Staff tight while mumbling under his breath. When he caught a strange word, Henry realized Louis was chanting a spell.

'Oh yeah, he's a Mage,' Henry thought, and then,

'Hang on. A mage. Casting a Spell… ~Arcane Tapestry~!'

With his eyes wide, Henry was reminded of his incredible new skill that he had hardly had the time to test out thus far and it was while he was getting excited at the concept of his first spell Imprint that he heard the sound that had put Doherty on high alert.

*clack* *clack* *clack* seaʀᴄh thё Nôvel(F)ire.nёt website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.

'That sounds like… bones?'

The clacking sounds became louder and soon, skeletal figures trooped out en-masse, all brandishing thin-bladed swords.

Doherty was the one who was leaped at first and after a powerful cleave of his sword right through the figure's skeletal midsection, it clattered to the ground in a heap of disconnected bones.

The Mercenaries began to attack but could not hold back the trooping figures as a good bunch of them made it past and struck at Henry and the rest of his cuff-wearing brethren.

Henry was ready to shoot when he saw Louis open his eyes and yell the last word of the spell he had been chanting under his breath,

"… Fulgur!"

Louis stamped his staff against the ground then and lightning sparked from it and charged in all manner of directions. Hitting the chest and heads of the approaching Skeletal figure with precision.

*Brrrrzztt*

*Bang!*

They shattered as one with their disconnected bones slamming all about.

"Wow," Henry said.

"Yeah," Louis said, nodding while feeling proud of himself.

"Keep that up!" Henry said.

"Not that easy," Louis said as he spun the staff in his hand and smacked a skeletal figure aside.

Henry had activated <Insight> right when Louis cast his spell, just before the lightning was discharged, and he waited as it was analyzed only to be disappointed when a red caution sign appeared in front of him with a message;

[Spell Analysis failed!]

'Really?' He asked, 'That was too complicated for my Insight?'

Henry was going to prepare himself to try again when a skeletal figure leaped at him with a swift thin-bladed sword swing. With his Agility as high as it was, the attack came much too slowly and Henry had more than enough time to raise his hand and smack the figure aside.

*Bam!*

The figure hit the wall that bordered the path with clack sounds but didn't separate into bits. Henry hadn't used enough strength in his smack to accomplish that. So, with the creaking of its bones, the figure rose and prepared to make another leap.

*Bang!*

A shot to the chest from 'Violent Retort' stopped it in its tracks.

The shot was so powerful that it blasted a massive hole right through the figure's exposed sternum and the resulting scatter was so incredible, that it smacked into other figures and knocked them at least one step back.

But Henry wasn't able to pay attention to the brilliance of his shot.

Somewhere on his body, the mark of Death appeared and linked him to the undead he just 'killed' before filling his mind with strange memories;

He was looking through strange eyes and the one who owned those eyes was cowering on the ground as a powerful figure imposed powerful magic that forced them to their knees.

"Please, spare me," the one whose eyes Henry was seeing out through said as she cowered,

"Please."

The powerful figure addressed her impassively,

"In death, you will be greater."

And then came pain.

The lady howled and twitched and Henry shared her pain. He felt as her skin decayed leaving nothing more than her skeletal frame that was then fueled by the Powerful figure's magic until she slowly rose off the ground, with her bones creaking and clacking with every move.

The last of her sense of self vanished along with the completion of whatever horror had been wrought on her.

And then, it was over.

With a hard blink, Henry was back in the Dungeon path with battles against Skeletal figures waging all around him.

[Kill-Reward: 100 Exp]

[Undead Woes: 200 Exp]

[You have leveled Up]

[You are now Level 18]

[Hit Point Maximum Increased to 180]

[Hit Points: 90/180]

[Mana Point Maximum increased to 290]

[You now have 6 Unallocated Stat Points]

Henry didn't know how he knew but he was sure he had only been out of it for a second. He could still remember that pain. He could still feel it. His body still shook from it.

'What the fuck was that?' Henry asked as he kicked a skeletal figure to the ground where it twitched and prepared to get back up.

Henry ignored the skeletal figure and focused on the notifications. He noticed one in particular;

'What's 'Undead Woes'?'

The System promptly rolled out a Description screen;

[Title: Death's Bane

•First Revealed Title Effect: Undead Woes

As your atonement for willfully toying with death for personal gain, Death wishes you to understand the Meaning of death and the absence of Life.

As such, When you eliminate an undead, you must share in the pain it last felt. You must endure what it endured when it was rendered a husk to perform a Master's bidding.

'Undead Woes' will reward you with Exp as deemed fitting by the System.]