Chapter 77: Investigating

After looking at Julius paint the Mannequin with the liquid underworld energy, Zach and Dukiel looked around at the shelves and rows of canisters of the stuff.

"So, uhhh, how much of this stuff were you planning to use, Julius?" Dukiel asked and turned to look at Julius, who still didn't look away from the Mannequin. Zach went up to one of the shelves to investigate the black, sticky liquid up close.

After several moments, Julius looked like he found a place to take a break and he absentmindedly took a glance around the room.

"Everything, I guess. Or until Manny can't take anymore."

"Um…"

"Oh, you don't have to wait for me. I'll find my way out." Dukiel glanced at Zach, who was looking at his reflection in the canister's glass. He hesitated since it would take some time for Julius to finish up.

"Nope. We're not leaving you here, Julius. Take your time, we'll find something to do. This place should be pretty safe right now, so we might as well use it." Zach turned around after speaking.

Dukiel shrugged. He didn't mind. He still didn't like being so deep underground. But it wasn't tight and dark like the tunnel into the ground had been, and he wasn't alone anymore. Technically, he hadn't been alone before, either, since he had the Sentinel. But the presence of his familiar and the presence of his friends were different.

Now that they were all together again, Zach took the opportunity to explain what had happened to him after they got separated in the tunnel. Julius answered with 'ahas' and uhus' and only occasionally responded with more fluency and words.

Dukiel still didn't believe everything Zach was saying. But the context made it a little more believable than getting the kind of nonchalant, haphazard answer he got before.

Zach told them, they asked questions, he answered those questions, and all of a sudden they were talking about nonsense like whether red velvet cakes were just chocolate cakes or not.

However, their conversation didn't last forever, especially since Julius was too caught up in drenching the Mannequin in underworld energy to properly partake in the chat.

After a while of mostly silence, Zach and Dukiel decided to investigate the place to make sure the lit path led them out and that they knew it in case the torches went out. Dukiel would be the only one knowing it, though. Zach was in charge of carrying the food they found since he had boasted a little too much about his performance during his story-telling.

Fortunately for Zach's arms, but unfortunately for the group as a whole, they didn't find any food. They found a path leading upward, and they found a bunch of other rooms on the way, including rooms with ominous doors.

As they investigated one such room, they discovered that it was another death room, slightly similar to the one Zach had found. When they looked around some more, they found several other training rooms, all of different designs.

Some didn't have the spike floor. Some had spikes everywhere but the floor. Some had arrows as the floor and spikes shooting through the walls back and forth.

There were also rooms with massive blades and cleavers swinging and shooting back and forth.

Rooms with trap tiles that dropped after a second before bouncing back up. Rooms with flame throwers. Rooms with poison darts. Rooms with big stone balls.

Jigak had called them training rooms.

Were they for training in ways to die?

The rooms were dangerous. But Zach bravely offered up Yanael to investigate them all, and she didn't have trouble with any of them. Zach also didn't have trouble. He could just pop up a barrier or two and watch the show. Sentinel could also managed. It was sturdy enough to handle most attacks.

Poison and fire didn't work on it. It fought back against the traps it wasn't sure about tanking head on.

Dukiel couldn't do anything.

But that was what Zach got thinking.

Maybe they use the rooms for their intended purpose.

Yanael and the Sentinel didn't need it. But, as proven by this trip especially, they wouldn't be the only ones ending up in trouble.

Dukiel had been lucky this time since the only obstacle he faced was his own mind. But Zach had gotten hit by one arrow and scratched by another. If the arrows had swapped how well they hit him, Zach would have died.

It wouldn't hurt if they had better reflexes and strengths. They also needed to do something to pass the time while they waited for Julius since they couldn't bring every canister of underworld energy with them.

The problem of food was solved by blasting open the entrance and catching the monsters that came to investigate the now safe and interesting swamp. S~eaʀᴄh the Nôvelƒire.net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.

They still hadn't found the detailed answer to why the swamp had been lifeless, but as soon as Jigak had brought away the experiment, it had started slowly recovering.

Food wasn't an issue. They just had to work for it.

Dukiel was skeptical.

Zach had his barrier in case he missed something. What did he have? Nothing. If he made a mistake during the training, that was it. If Zach made a mistake, he just had to throw up a barrier to block the arrow, spike, stone ball, poison dart, or burst of flames.

"As long as you don't make a mistake, there's nothing to worry about." Zach cheerily patted Dukiel's shoulders and flashed a bright smile.

Dukiel had never wanted to punch someone as much as when Zach said that.

Thanks to that, he at least got the confirmation that if Zach missed something, he wouldn't be able to throw up a barrier in time. If he missed it, he missed it. Dukiel also learned how satisfying it can be to punch someone in the face. It was a little more satisfying than it was painful to be kneed in the stomach.