Chapter 284 Keys

Jay stepped closer to the door, looking for buttons or switches or a pressure plate on the floor, but it didn’t open.

“Strange... at least I already searched it.� he shrugged and turned to move to the next room.

*Click~ Vrr~*

“Ah? It opened when I wasn’t looking.�

Jay turned his head away, yet it didn’t close. Stepping away from the door, it remained open.

“Okay, so it’s not a matter of being observed or not.�

(Red, go through.)

Red walked through and back again, though there was no change in the door.

“So, it’s responding only to me. Perhaps because I’m human... and only when I turned around...?� Jay thought.

“Hmm...� Jay took off his bag and handed it to Red, who walked through the doorway.

*Vrr~ Click~*

Jay shook his head with a smile.

“Ah, it must have been that weird pendant I picked up.� he nodded.

Back on the surface before the assault on the castle even began, Jay cleared out a tower overlooking a plant-flesh pit. Blue had taken a pendant off a skeleton in a white coat, the same pendant which now opened these doors.

(Come back Red, wave the bag in front of the door.)

*Click~ Vrr~*

Jay grabbed the bag and pulled out the odd pendant with a flat-fabric rope. For good measure, he waved it in front of the door a few times, and each time the door opened and closed, confirming his theory.

“So they have automatic doors and you need a special key to activate them. Interesting...� Jay nodded, adding mental notes down for if he ever constructed his own fortress.

It impressed Jay with how the castle on the surface was merely the tip of the iceberg, a merely small representation of what it truly was.

Using siege weapons it would be a simple task to destroy and break down a normal castle, and once an army had cleared out the uppermost rooms of the castle, it would be considered conquered.

However, an underground castle could not be destroyed by siege weapons, and there would be no telling how deep it would go. Sure, an army could clear it out, but will they have found every room and every secret passage?

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A false basement could be added, and an occupying force would never be sure if it had cleared the castle. There could be multiple escape routes through the earth, or a labyrinth of identical passages; some enemies may simply get lost and die of starvation. Some passages could be used for a counter attack years later.

With these things in mind, Jay had gained much more from this dungeon than simple armor pieces, and he could reproduce and copy even those.

(Red, here.)

Jay held out the pendant key, giving it to Red as he had the skeleton lead the way.

[115 Exp]

Blue and Sweeper slew a knight, serving as a reminder for Jay to hurry. However, he received another notification a second after.

[Your skeleton is no more.]

“Oh good. Looks like Handy un-summoned itself. It will be nice having an extra skeleton around.� He nodded, quickly summoning Handy back and giving it some bones to make itself a sword.

Meanwhile, Jay and his other skeletons quickly went through the upper rooms of the hall, ignoring whatever was inside and instead looking for any signs of cracks or breaches in the walls that the plant may have grown into, or passages leading to other areas.

What the rooms all had in common was that they were different kinds of laboratories; some for chemicals, some for biology and others for materials. Many of the rooms contained oddities which surprised Jay, and he desired to investigate each and everyone one of them, but time was pressing, and so far there were no signs of the plant.

“Looks like we’re going downstairs.� Jay thought.

[115 Exp]

Another knight slain.

Reaching the bottom of the stairs, they went through a passage; lined with multiple large, thick metal doors all dented and broken. By the looks of it, something escaped using sheer force.

“Hopefully, whatever broke out of here has been dead for a while.� Jay thought, but slowed his steps to reduce noise.

The lights through the passage were no longer a pure white like above, but a dark red color, barely bright enough to see properly.

The passage soon opened up into a large circular room with a deep pit in the middle; a balcony went around the edges of the pit, which still had some glass windows overlooking the pit below.

“Hmm... this must be like an observation deck?� Jay wondered.

Looking into the pit, Jay finally saw what he was looking for - or at least, what he thought he was looking for.

“What the fuck is that... this is what they were experimenting on?�

Multiple pulsing roots came through various cracks, tunnels and holes in the wall to combine, twist and merge with something that Jay didn’t quite understand.

It was hard to tell if it was flesh or plant, but in the centre of the nest was a gigantic head; same shape as a human head, but giant, with shades of brown and green.

However, the shape was where the similarities ended. Its skull was not solid, and it pumped up and down like a beating heart.

Some roots carried nutrients away from it, but most carried them towards it.

Its mouth was closed, but it fixed its eyes on one of the few sources of light in the pit: a shimmering portal, crackling with chaotic energies around the outside.

A single root came through the portal, and it carried something different to all the other green fluid, as its surface had a light milky hue to it, being pumped into the giant plant-flesh head.

“So there’s a damn portal?� Jay shook his head. He had not seen portals before, but it was similar enough to the dungeon entrances, which were their own kind of portal.

“Hopefully, if I kill that damn thing, this whole dungeon will end.�

[Your skeleton has been slain.]

“Shit... Blue and Sweeper are losing.� he pursed his lips, “I better get down there and kill this thing before the knights come swarming through here.�

Looking into the pit, there was a passage at the back of it, along with a passage on the other side of the circular balcony.

A fiendish smile appeared on Jay’s face, “Perhaps... we can score some massive damage if we sneak attack it.� He thought as he began to slowly creep around the balcony.

All this time, the giant head had either not noticed him and his skeletons, or simply didn’t care. Its eyes remained fixed on the portal where the root containing a milky-white fluid came from.