Chapter 20 Source Of Corruption

Here it is guys, the last chapter of this mass release of mine.

I wanted to stop at the end of Volume 1, but posting 5 chapters a day takes a lot of effort.

I'll still post 2 per day, so I hope that suffices.

Anyway, thank you for lasting though the early stages, we are arriving at the exciting parts of Volume 1, so don't leave yet!

I should also be taking a look at the previous chapters and posting the images I forgot to make, but if you are interested, you can always join my Discord server and see the images there.

Peace!

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The fifth floor was just like the other floors, filled with nothing but long stone hallways, rooms filled with rotting furniture, and monster corpses.

And a few inexplicable things Dale couldn't tell what they were due to the years of rotting...

However, a few things changed, if the first room was meant for people to live in, and with each subsequent floor having a different purpose, Dale started to question what this floor's purpose was.

Dale did not know the story about these Human skeletons, but he soon found their origin.

"This place is indeed a tomb."

All around him were holes in the wall where tombstones could be seen sticking out.

They were all nicely decorated and it was clear it wasn't just a plain catacomb, but a high-class graveward.

Each tomb had a rusty metal plate in front of it, but due to time, Dale could not read the inscriptions laid in them, so he just pressed forward…

/CLACK!/

His first group of enemies were 3 skeletons just like the Undead Knight of before.

"3 at once? …"

Before they could move, however, Dale rushed forward.

He took out the sword from his back and activated its skill!

/Shine.../

*Glyph Activation 2-Star*

The sword gleamed in faint red light and Dale slashed it in front of the group of skeletons…

/SHATCHENG!/

A red horizontal wave was released from the edge of the sword as it cut through the skeletons, slicing their skulls in half.

/Ploft/

The three skeletons fell limp on the ground, unmoving…

"Phew… This was the first time I used a Skill in this Dungeon… It was more effective than I imagined."

'The problem is the cooldown… The runes on the sword are pretty faint and I guess I have to wait for them to light up again, this should be the visual hint to me saying the skill is ready.'

'I also didn't feel anything from using it... I wonder how high is my Mana gauge... Being a HardCore player is such a pain sometimes...'

/Cling!/

"Hum?"

For the first time since he came into the labyrinth, Dale saw loot being dropped.

Everything else had been either trash or broken things, at most, they can be reused like the metal on the broken swords he got.

The only thing that was of value was the experience, but being honest, it was slower than doing the quests in the mercenary Guild.

And even if the creatures here were highly leveled, the quantity of quests wins over the quality.

"A gauntlet?"

[Southern Wall corps standard gauntlet (Normal) (Broken)

Rating 0.5-Star

+1 Strength

]

"Southern wall?... Is there a wall somewhere here in the south?"

'It's a broken item, but perhaps there is someone in the village that can help. For now, I'll keep it in my inventory.'

'Meanwhile, I'll try and see if I can get the other pieces as well...'

'Even if I can't use it in its current state, it would do fine as a collectible or a memento.'

…

The fifth floor was much simpler than its counterparts, it was perfectly organized into areas with a series of coffins embedded into the walls.

Normally, each area would have a few skeleton knights wandering inside, and Dale soon found out they were coming from.

They crawled out from inside the coffins, but only a few seemingly came back to life.

Also, not every coffin would create a skeleton, as Dale tried to open it only to see that the skeleton inside it was completely fine, even the armor it had was better.

He came to understand that only the skeletons that were in contact with the miasma for a long would rise up and move around…

If he had more time, Dale would've tried to open as many coffins as he could to get their loot, but now, any minute was precious, so he left dejectedly.

Besides, until he learned more about the place, it may be better to not touch these bodies, else he may offend one of the NPCs.

Following the layout of this Dungeon, he soon arrived in front of two slightly open, large metal doors.

From between them, he could see dark water slowly running down to the catacombs, forming a small river that led deeper into unexplored areas.

"This is… Concentrated Miasma… It's almost like a small fucking river…"

'The source... This is getting out of hand, though its to be expected that the quest item would be in the most unhinged of locations...'

Looking down at the darkness hidden behind the doors, Dale gulped hard.

He grabbed one of the doors, standing behind it, and pulled, he wasn't dumb enough to stay in the middle of them and push them aside, leaving himself open for attacks.

/CREAAK!/

With a loud creaking noise, the door opened and large amounts of Liquid miasma drained into the fifth floor, pushing them open fully with the strength of a Dam.

[DING]

[DING]

Due to the thick miasma in the air, Dales' afflictions quickly rised…

"Shit…"

Dale quickly took an antidote and drank it, grabbing onto the door as he tried to remain above ground to touch as little water of the water as he could.

After 2 minutes, everything was drained away.

/Splat!/

Dale dropped onto the wet ground, and the moment he was about to release a breath of relief…

[Your quest has been updated]

[Rotten Tomb

Description: The underground labyrinths of Resko used to be nothing but a place filled with simple yet dangerous beasts and mechanical traps, but it's now filled with rotten miasma and death.

*Through thick and thin, you arrived at the last floor and realized the labyrinth used to be a cemetery for a force you don't yet know anything about. Their corpses now being reanimated due to the Miasma

The Miasma has been accumulating for years and it has now been released outside of the gates that once sealed it.

*Deep on the Fifth floor lies the source, due to your actions, its seal has been released and it's now on the verge of overflowing. -30 Minutes of the total time

Requirements:

Find the source of the Miasma and purge it before it's too late 1/1

Find a way to purge the source 0/1

Time until the Miasma descends to the Village: 0 hours, 10 minutes, 57 seconds…

]

"No fucking way!"

'Dammit! I lost 30 minutes just like that?! What if I had less than that? Would that be an instant loss?'

"Shit, I should've gone back when I could… But then again, I would've probably killed an NPC since I doubt those old men can resist this shit…"

Dale started to run inside, uncaring about how dangerous it was.

If the village died, so would his game, it would take a very long time to reach another village, and by that time, he would've lost a lot if not all of his advantage.

And that is in the rare instance he did arrive at another village, as his base stats were actually below this village's average level.

So if he were to fail now, imagine the difficulty of the areas around it…

He may even lose his character...

/Splat!/

Dale eventually arrived at a large illuminated room. Faint specks of light seemingly coming from nowhere illuminating this otherwise dark room.

The room was rather big, and everything was centered around a single centerpiece, which was the stone coffin on top of a small pedestal.

It seemed grand yet simple, a rectangular coffin with some rusty metallic details and a large sword lodged into the ground behind it.

Be it the pillars, the paintings, everything, all of it was centered around that.

However, due to this place having been drenched in Miasma, a lot of things were now corroded...

Though, surprisingly, the sword seemed fine.

There were several other tombs lodged into the walls, and each of them seemed to be of extreme quality... They likely belonged to people of esteemed status for the warriors of the Southern Corps...

At least, they would've been if they weren't broken and rusty.

However, what got Dale's attention wasn't the architecture of the place, but the strange ball of flesh floating in the air atop the center tomb.

It was releasing a thin but concentrated stream of something onto it…

It was dark but it had a red hue…

It was certainly the Miasma Dale had been cursing all this time!

As such, he immediately realized he wasn't supposed to touch that or the small pool below it no matter what...

"Is that it? The ominous ball of flesh that is giving me the creeps? Is that what I need to take care of?..."

'Though... How?'

But just when Dale dropped his guard to think about this, the ball of flesh contracted like a beating heart…

And a voice played in his head:

['It' is staring into you]

/KIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII!/

It released an agonizing sound, sending Dale to his knees in pain!

"ARGGGGG! FUCK!!"

/KiIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII/

The sound remained for a few moments until Dale raised his head, his eyes were hollow and despair was written on his face…

[Stable Emotions 1-Star has activated]

[Fighting Spirit 0.5-Star has been forcefully activated]

[Your focus returns…]

For a moment, Dale felt as if something was wrong, and he punched the ground with all he had, creating a large crack as he forced himself up.

/BAM!/

Nothing seemed to happen, and even as felt as if he broke his hand, Dale laughed drily.

Because he had recovered his sanity.

[DING]

[You overcame the fear of gazing into the Abyss and recovered your sanity through sheer will]

[Stable Emotions 1-Star -> 2.5-Star]

[Fighting Spirit 0.5-Star -> 2-Star]

['It' interest in you is rising]

[You have attained a new tale]

[Disclaimer, it has been noted that the HardCore Player has suffered major damage for the first time, help shall be provided]

[Your hand and fingers are broken, seek medical attention else it may leave permanent damage...]

But Dale heard none of it.

"Haaa… Haaa…"

Breathing heavily, Dale raised his head one more time, but this time, something pushed it down.

Something cold... Something heavy...

It grasped the back of his head, and as if it had taken ahold of his strings, Dale could not move his body.

"You got lucky, don't get cocky kid."

He tried to look behind him in haste, but his body was paralyzed.

"See? Your body has already reacted to the danger but you are so slow that now you can't even control it anymore..." The voice said in faint mockery

"Breathe in and out, calm down first."

Dale tried to look down, and amidst the dark water on the ground, he saw a reflection, his own face, together with something else...

"!"

At that moment, Dale saw a massive finger coming from the dark shadows of the room pressing down on his head,

It gave him the deepest of chills.

Whatever was behind him wasn't Human, it was something else entirely...

"I bet you are here for that right?... It's been a long time since I saw someone. I just think it's a shame we have so little time."

The finger on top of his head slowly moved away, into the dark.

"Kid, if you can hear me and you wish to stay alive, then you better move."

"See that sword on the altar? Grab it and cut that thing down, simple enough don't you think? Just make sure to…"

But the voice disappeared, being replaced by the low sound of water falling into the ground.

He raised his head a bit, the only thing in his vision was the shining sword next to the tomb.

He felt it was calling for him.

[Your quest has been updated]

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Notes

And... We're done.

20 chapters, I hope you enjoyed it.

I thought this would end a bit further in the plot, so it's a bit of a letdown to have it end here, but for the sake of my tired fingers, I'll stop posting 5 chapters per day.

Also, I should be posting all images soon, I said this a few times already but the reason I posted nothing was that I was busy finishing these.

As always, leave your power stones with me, and your reviews as well, the more of both we have, the more recognition we'll receive!

Goodbye, everyone!