Chapter 197

  Jake reached the end of the tunnel and paused in the opening, taking in the vast area that y beyond. The room into which the tunnel opened was enormous, filled with several rows of ns spaced at regur intervals. Fming torches were mounted on each of the ns, providing enough light to illumihe entire area.

  The ceiling was so high that Jake couldn’t eve, as the light from the torches didn’t reach that high. For a moment, he stared into the darkness above, half-expeg bat-like moo emerge from the deep shadows and swoop down on him. However, nothing happened.

  He started across the vast room, looking around. Soon, he became aware of a foul odor that hung in the air. It didn’t take long for him to identify the source: deposing human bodies scattered across the floor. The tattered, ragged garments they wore resembled those from medieval times.

  Among the deg bodies, Jake spotted several humaons scattered across the floor. Some were adorned with fragments of armor—metal helmets, -mail shirts, and cuirasses. Beside them rested an array of medieval ons: swords, battleaxes, maces, crossbows, and various other arms.

  When Jake arrived at the room’s ter, he paused to survey his surroundings more carefully. Multiple openings branched off in various dires, each leading to a long corridor that disappeared into the depths of the dungeon. He peered into each opening, trying to decide which way to go, but all the tunnels looked identical. Once again, he would have to choose a dire entirely at random.

  He decided to proceed across the room toward the entran the opposite side from where he had entered. Just as Jake began to move, he heard a sound. It was a hum, faint but distinct, ing from the tuo his right. He turned his head, direg his gaze toward the source of the noise.

  Jake peered into the darkness of the tuhe steady hum tio emanate from within, but all he could see were deep shadows. Whatever rodug the faint noise remained cealed iunnel’s darkness. Then he felt a tingliion across his skin as the air became slightly electrified.

  He immediately reized what it meant—some kind of magic y. The humming and tingling—the telltale signs of magic—keep intensifying ever so slightly. While most humans might not have noticed them, Jake was acutely aware of both sensations. The real questions were: what was the source of this magid urpose did it serve?

  He quickly received the ao the sed question when he suddenly found himself surrounded by the rustling of tattered clothes and the scuffing and scraping sounds of dead bodies rising from the floor. Not that Jake hadn’t expected something like this to occur. Some kind of magic spell had awakehe dead, but before he could uhe mystery of its source, he had to deal with the undead first.

  As they returo life, rising to their feet all around him, he quickly summoheir stats. Each of the reanimated corpses dispyed identical info.

  Festering Zombie – Level 75

  As for the skeletons, there were several variations depending on their armaments, yet they all bore the same level: 80.

  Awakened Dead – Skeleton Soldier – Level 80

  Skeleton soldiers wore no armor at all, and each of them was armed with a single one-handed on. The additional variations sisted of archers equipped with either longbows or crossbows, warriors pieces of armor for prote, and warlocks carrying magical staves adorned with what seemed to be transparent, spherical crystals.

  All the undead creatures immediately began to walk toward him after rising from the floor. Each skeleton had orbs of light glowing red in their empty eye sockets, and the eyes of the festering zombies glowed with the same hue. Jake recalled that the skeletons hadn’t possessed those glowing lights in their eye sockets, and the zombies’ eyes hadn’t glowed either before the magic had awakehem all. They were obviously under some ominous spell that animated them.

  He turoward the first skeleton that was almost upon him. The skeletons moved quickly, while the zombies were sluggish and clumsy, gging behind. He couldn’t help but notice the offensive st emanating from the zombies. It was nearly overwhelming his sehe closer they got, the strohe smell became. If he could hardly stand the stench, he figured it would have been unbearable for normal survivors, making it hard for them to trate on fighting.

  The skeleton that reached him first swung the mace it was wielding. Jake easily dodged the blow and delivered a powerful punch to the skeleton, effortlessly ripping through the mail shirt it wore and shattering its ribcage. The skeleton colpsed to the floor in a ctter of broken bones, and the two glowing orbs in its hollow eye sockets went out.

  Enemy killed. +300 XP

  Several more skeletons armed with various melee ons surrounded him. He ducked as one of them swung its fil at him, the spiked ball zipping through the air o his head. He tered with a strike to the skeleton’s skull. The close helmet it wore failed to protect the skeleton, and Jake’s blow tore it free from the spinal n, sending it flying across the room.

  Another skeleton lu him, its broadsword swinging with ued speed and strength. Jake mao jump to the side just in time to avoid the strike. Before the skeleton could swing its rge swain, Jake smashed its breastpte with his smashfist, easily breaking through the metal and shattering its ribs. To his surprise, the undead creature remained on its feet, prompting Jake to quickly follow up with a decisive blow to its skull, shattering it to pieces.

  His Feral Instincts suddenly alerted him to a projectile zipping toward him from behind. He jumped aside, and a bolt whizzed past his shoulder. Another archer let loose an arrow at him. Jake swung the cws of his other hand, slig through the shaft midair. Several other archers fired their longbows and crossbows simultaneously. It was impossible to dodge every single projectile, and he felt one dig into his shoulder from the front. However, it failed to pee his hardened body, as Adaptive Armor immediately grew an additional pte at the point of impact, causing the arrow to bounce off harmlessly.

  One of the zombies lu him, its arms outstretched in an attempt to grab him, but Jake easily sidestepped the groping hands. The foul odor radiating from the creature was almost unbearable, even for him. He swung both of his smashfists to the sides of the zombie’s head, causing it to burst apart like an overripe melon in an explosion of rotting flesh, bone, and brain matter. He earned 250 XP for defeating it, which was 50 XP less than the experience gained from killing skeletons.

  The undead creatures kept ing at him from several dires, swinging their swords and maces. Jake dodged and ducked, successfully avoiding most of the hits. However, occasionally the skeletons did mao nd a blow. They failed to infliy damage, though, thanks to his skills such as Adaptive Armor and Enhanced Durability, which shielded his body remarkably well.

  Regur monsters like those undead creatures didn’t stand a ce of defeating him, even though they greatly outnumbered him. Their numbers didn’t help much. In fact, their sheer quantity became a disadvantage, as arrows and bolts unched by the skeleton archers frequently hit their own allies.

  The warlocks armed with magical staves fired lightning bolts from the tops of their staves, often hitting some of the zombies or other skeletons surrounding him. Those lightning bolts seemed to be pretty powerful, causing skeletons to bloart in an explosion of bones flying every which way. When a zombie was struck, half of its body got buro a crisp, resulting in an almost instantaneous death.

  While a si from a lightning bolt was enough to kill a skeleton or a zombie, when Jake was hit by one, he only felt stunned for a sed and didn’t suffer any additional damage. Most of the time, he successfully avoided being hit by them, though.

  Jake kept fighting the undead, killing oer another until they were all dead again. Their eyes no llowed, and their broken bodies y motionlessly on the floor.

  Multiple enemies killed. +10,900 XP

  You have gained enough XP to level up. Your level went up from 79 to 80. You have gained 5 SP.

  He had received a signifit amount of XP for defeating those undead creatures, despite the fact that the fight had beeively easy for him. He took a moment to sider where to allocate the five skill points and then distributed them to his attributes.

  Body: 72

  Mind: 70 → 73

  Magick: 73 → 75

  He ied three skill points in Mind, hoping that the foul odor of the deg zombies would be easier to endure now.

  He was about to tinue expl the dungeohe humming souurned, and the air crackled with electricity once more. The eyes of the zombies lit up again, and glowing lights appeared in the empty eye sockets of the skeletons’ skulls once more. Their shattered bones reassembled themselves, and the damaged bodies quickly began to restruct. Within a minute, fully recovered undead creatures started to rise from the floor once again.

  Jake pondered for a moment and decided to defeat the undead monsters again to see if he would receive XP for sying them for a sed time. As it turned out, he did not. He killed one undead creature after another, but ra XP came his way. It became clear that he was only rewarded XP the first time he defeated an undead creature.

  He tio battle the group of undead until he had defeated them all once again. Almost instantly, the humming resumed, and the fallen undead began to rise again. This time, Jake didn’t wait for them to fully revive. Instead, he headed toward the entrahat led to the corridor from which the humming sound emanated. It was time to find out what was causing the uo resurrect.