Chapter 198

  Jake moved through the tunnel, which looked identical to the previous one. Wall-mouorches lit up as he approached, casting light several yards ahead. The humming sound increased in volume as he got closer to its source. He could already tell that whatever was causing the magic was extremely powerful. However, like the previous tuhis one was long, so he still couldn’t see where it led.

  Sino bat-like monsters attacked him this time, there were no deys, and he reached the end of the corridor pretty quickly. He paused at the opening to take in the sight before him. The tunnel opened into a spacious four-way jun. It looked exactly like the previous one, except for oable detail: from the ter of the interse rose some kind of mo.

  It stood over ni high, resembling an obelisk in shape. The structure was tall, slender, and sharply poi the top, creating a pyramidal apex. It definitely resembled an a Egyptian obelisk, but it was made of some pitch-bck material. It was four-sided, with mysterious symbols etched into each side, which extended from the base to the very top.

  The symbols glowed with an evil crimson light, illuminating the entire four-way juncture. Through the soles of his feet, Jake could feel vibrations emanating from the eloructure. Up close, the humming sound was much louder, and the air around the obelisk felt so electrified that the prig sensation across his skin was almost painful. There was no doubt that the structure was filled with a tremendous amount of magical energy.

  Jake slowly walked around the tall structure, studying it from every a appeared identical from every side. After pleting a full circle, Jake stopped and, with a thought, summos description.

  Bck Obelisk – Level 300

  No additional information surfaced. Jake attempted to use his Enemy Appraisal perk on the bck obelisk, but it provided no further details. He was still uain about the structure’s exact purpose. While he uood that it could revive the undead, he was unaware of its other potential abilities. The obelisk was covered in various mysterious symbols. While some were clearly reted to its ability to resurrect the undead, the meanings of the others remained an enigma.

  He gave the bck obelisk another look-over. Was it possible to destroy it? He wasn’t sure, and he hesitated to try. After all, its level was 300, which was quite a lot. His own level was currently only 80. As for the obelisk, it might have some defensive spells proteg it from harm. Who knew what could happen if he tried to destroy it? The intense powerful humming arical waves surrounding it suggested that the obelisk possessed immense power—much more so than any magical anomalies he had ever entered.

  For a brief moment, he sidered whether he should attempt to destroy it or not. The bck obelisk clearly had the ability to revive the undead, and it could do so reat distahe room he had exited just a few minutes earlier was far from the obelisk, yet the magical structure had no trouble extending its power all the way there t the undead back to life. Unless it was destroyed, it would tinually resurrect the undead, which could bee a signifit problem ter on.

  As if to firm his suspis, he suddenly became aware of a repulsive stend the rustling of clothes ing from behind. He gnced over his shoulder into the tunnel from which he had emerged just moments before. At first, he could see nothing because only the torches closest to him remained lit, while the rest had beeinguished, plunging the deeper parts of the tunnel into darkness. However, by the smell and sounds alone, he could already tell that the festering zombies and animated skeletons were advang dowuoward the four-way jun where he stood o the bck obelisk.

  Sure enough, a few seds ter, they emerged from the darkness into the illuminated se of the tunnel. Jake saw several skeleton warriors and archers advang toward him, followed by a few festering zombies gging behind. He couldn’t help but notice that the torches had remained unlit when the undead marched through the dark stretch of the tunnel. So it appeared that the dungeon was designed so that the torches only respoo individuals regarded as pyers, like him, as they made their way through.

  Jake tio watch the undead draw closer. He didn’t like the fact that they had decided to follow him after being revived for the third time. It meant they wouldn’t leave him alone, always trying to pursue him even after beied. This gave him even more reason to destroy the bck obelisk. But first, he o deal with the uhat had trailed him to the obelisk. Fortunately, Jake could see that not all the undead he had fought in the previous room had chosen to follow him—only a few had. Thanks to that, it shouldn’t take him long to deal with them. Again.

  The skeletons moved at a brisk pad soon emerged from the tuo the interse. Those armed with longbows and crossbows let loose with their ons. Jake jumped aside, avoiding one of the arrows while slig through another with his left cwed hand. Another arrow struck him in the shoulder but was harmlessly deflected off his body as Adaptive Armor immediately grew an additional armor pte at the point of impact.

  Before any of the archers could noother arrow, Jake lu the group of undead. With a powerful swing of his right smashfist, he crushed the ribcage of one skeleton. Using the cws on his left hand, he sliced the skull off ao speed up the elimination of the undead, he unleashed bded tentacles from his bad shed out, taking down three more undead creatures at the same time. The festering zombies, being slow and clumsy, posed even less challenge for Jake, allowing him to deal with them even more quickly.

  He took them all out in under a minute. Even though he was already aware he wouldn’t receive XP for killing the uhat had beeed before, it was still disappointing to receive no additional XP. Just as Jake turned his attention back to the bck obelisk, he saw some of the symbols engraved on its sides suddenly glhter. The humming sounds as well as the tingliion he felt across his skin suddenly intensified. In the moment, the eyes of the undead he had just defeated lit up, and their damaged bodies began to restruct themselves once more.

  You gotta be freaking kidding me, Jake thought, feeling a surge of frustration. It was incredibly frustrating that the bck obelisk brought the undead back to life the moment they were defeated.

  He decided not to wait for the bck obelisk to fully revive the undead. Instead, he ran up to the structure, raising his smashfist, ready to strike one of its sides. The magical symbols responsible for reviving the undead glowed brightly, casting a reddish light over him, making it almost painful to look at the glowing side of the obelisk. Upon reag the magical structure, he delivered a powerful punch with his smashfist, putting all his strength behind it.

  As he learned in the instant, striking the bck obelisk wasn’t such a good idea after all.