Chapter 58

Mausoleum of the Arsonist, Etson - 10:37 AM

The air filling the dark corridors of the dungeon were humid and full of the stench of burning flesh. It wasn’t so bad near the entrance, but the smell very quickly thickened enough that you could almost taste it. To a normal person it would surely be nauseating, but it was something I had gotten used to. Battlefields weren’t known for being clean, after all.

After a short walk, the hallway opened up into a large chamber. Twenty rows of holes lined either side of this room, with two holes per row. My eyes immediately fell to the trio of corpses that laid on the floor near the center, two men and a woman. Their clothes were ripped to shreds, revealing gouges made from clawed fingers in their flesh. It looked like they used common household items as weapons; a bent fire poker and broken baseball bat laid with them in a pile of their own blood. The bodies were only about two days old.

No bones littered the area around them to indicate they had been at least a little bit successful, but that was deceptive. I looked around without entering the room properly. Instead of coffins like someone would expect, the crypts that were filled only had piles of bones within. I could easily tell which ones were filled due to the skulls being on the edge overlooking the room. Twenty three out of forty crypts had skulls, which meant they took out seventeen of them before they were overwhelmed. An admirable effort.

It only took me a few seconds to make a decision. Even though Charlie was waiting for me, it wouldn’t take too terribly long for me to dispatch these skeletons and the mid boss they served later down the line. He had food and water. Although a proper meal and rest was what he really needed, I shouldn’t squander the opportunity now that I was here.

Spinning my Vague Stick dramatically for no reason other than because I could, I hurled it at the skull in one of the closest crypts. Assisted by Push, it slammed into the skull, breaking it into pieces as it flew deeper into the hole and scattered the bones inside onto the floor. I Pulled my weapon back to my hands as the other piles of bones started to violently shake.

The skeletons clattered onto the floor as if I had Pulled every bone out of every crypt simultaneously. I threw the staff again, aiming high at the next closest enemy. While the Vague Stick was sailing through the air, the skeletons all popped upwards into their humanoid shapes. Most bones were pristine without a speck of dust on them despite the environment, though some here and there showed battle damage in the form of missing limbs and cracked bones. They were a lot hardier than most people would expect, but that was nothing to me.

Once the Vague Stick was above the skeleton, I mentally grabbed one of the ends and Dropped it. It collided with the skull, leaving a wide hole as it fell through the rest of the body. I Pushed it once it hit the ground. Bones no longer supported by necromantic magics scattered from the force as the staff pushed through another skeleton’s rib cage. I Lifted it, running the weapon along the undead’s spine and into the skull. I kept Lifting until it crashed against the stone ceiling, shattering the bone around it.

Three down, twenty more to go. I recalled the Vague Stick with Pull as the skeletons approached in mass. Not wanting to draw attention to the hallway I came from, I ran forward into the room. My weapon knocked the head of an enemy towards me. I deftly caught it before smashing it onto the ground, the skull crumbling around my fingers.

Spinning, I got line of sight of the Vague Stick and Pulled it back into my hand after it sailed past me. Then, they were on me.

I threw up Shield as I spun my staff and my translucent barrier popped up around me. Sweeping high, the skeletons showed a surprising amount of dexterity by ducking under my quick strike. Not enough, though. I used Drop while keeping the power of my swing and the Vague Stick broke through the first two before getting stuck in the rib cage of the third. I lifted the skeleton up and slammed it down onto its fallen friends. Taking three fast, heavy steps, the skulls of the downed were crushed beneath my heelies.

Two sets of thin, bony fingers scratched against my Shield, causing it to shimmer but not break. They would have to do better than that. I took a step and put my back to the wall behind me. Shifting away from the corner, I jabbed with my staff towards the enemies who were coming at me near the hallway. Like before, the first one ducked though I followed up by swinging towards the skull of the one behind it as I tackled the first.

The Vague Stick struck true, knocking the skull free from the skeleton’s neck though not doing enough damage to put it down. The enemy I threw myself into wrapped its arms around me to prevent me from moving, but it didn’t do nearly as much as it hoped. The skeletons were no match for my high strength score. I put my fingers through its eye sockets and pulled it downwards, scattering the bones that made up its spine and ribs before crushing this one on the ground. I rolled through the pile of bones and back onto my feet outside of the group of enemies.

They didn’t leave me much time to catch my breath, not that I needed it. Backpedaling around the walls of the rooms, I sent probing jabs using the reach of my staff to my advantage. Once I had a few of them lined up, I lifted my staff and Pushed it towards their shoulders. While they weren’t smart by any means, the skeletons operated under some form of instinct that made them more dangerous in large groups like this. In this case, they ducked.

I couldn’t help but smirk as the Vague Stick connected with their lowered skulls, slamming into them with enough force to throw three heads back into the pack. The bodies crumbled to the ground, but didn’t hinder the others at all as they kicked the bones out of the way. The second row of monsters had grabbed onto my staff and didn’t look like they were going to let go of it anytime soon, though that didn’t matter. They were still approaching me.

Lunging forward, I put both hands on the stick and pulled back hard. The maneuver caused a few skeletons to stumble forward at the sudden motion, sending them off balance. I spun the Vague Stick, freeing it from the undead’s clutches except for one arm that refused to let go and came along with it. My back hit the corner and I held my weapon up defensively.

The attacks started coming in though only a few of them could reach me. Clawed bones scrapped against my Shield, causing it to glow brighter from the damage, but I didn’t pay attention to that. I watched the skeletons in the back as they pushed their comrades against me, packing the corner in tight. The Shield broke under their combined efforts, and I hissed in pain as they began scratching the exposed skin of my face, neck, and hands.

Pushing against the wall with my back, I managed to get some breathing room as I pivoted to the left. I stretched out the arm holding my staff as best I could along the opposite wall and activated one of my earliest skills, Crash Test.

[[Skill]]

Crash Test (Strength, Dexterity): Pick a direction adjacent to the ground and move up to Dexterity*½ feet in that direction at twice your fastest speed. If any objects are in your way, you violently burst through their space, knocking them away or breaking through them. This deals damage equal to Strength*4. If an object you hit stops you, then you also take that damage. After using this skill, you cannot use it again for 1 hour.

My body lurched forward a little over twenty feet to put me halfway to the other side of the room. I grit my teeth and kept my grip on the Vague Stick as tight as I could as it passed through the skeletons I couldn’t reach with my arm alone. Despite the dense cluster of skeletons, they still weren’t solid enough to stop the skill early. Bones disintegrated into dust as I dealt a solid one hundred points to every enemy I went through.

I turned to look at the bedlam I had left in the skill’s wake and smirked. The clutter of skeletons had decreased from fifteen to a mere two. Not bothering with my Warmind abilities I took a step forward and, with a few jabs, put them both out of their misery.

Letting out a short breath, I placed the end of the Vague Stick onto the ground and leaned against it. Now that I wasn’t being swarmed by skeletons, I could see the piles of bones all around me. I hadn’t gotten a victory screen, nor would I just yet. Slowly and in the order they were being defeated, the bones that weren’t pulverized or broken started to roll across the floor and further into the dungeon. They wouldn’t reform, but instead head straight for the mid boss’ room as reinforcements.

Which was exactly what I wanted. I had already decided that I was going to get the full experience out of this dungeon, and this was the way to do that. Sometimes you just had to empower your enemies in order to get the most out of life. A strange philosophy to some, but great for one’s point total.

Instead of moving along right away, I leaned against the wall and watched the exodus of bones, giving my Writhing Belt Whip time to regenerate my wounds. My eyes moved towards the corpses in the middle of the room. Thanks to my strategy of kiting the skeletons along the walls, the bodies had been left untouched. Sighing, I stepped forward and squatted next to them.

The gruesome sight didn’t faze me at all, even as I looked down at unrecognizable faces. Placing my hand on one of the men, I snapped open their inventory screen to look through. Only certain classes with pickpocketing abilities could open and take from another player’s inventory, though that wasn’t the case when they were dead. During my first few runs I had always been squeamish about ransacking the dead, but that changed as I got more and more used to seeing the corpses of my allies.

“Fuck,” I cursed quietly as I finished checking the last person’s inventory. They had all been mostly filled with random trash that wasn’t worth anything to me or Charlie. I pulled a few cases of water into my inventory and more snacks, but that was it. The rest were items that could be used as makeshift weapons and what I assumed were sentimental items like jewelry and pictures. Those I hesitated on, but took; Charlie might want those.

Which was going to be a whole conversation on its own, though not one I was going to get tangled up in. I may have found the kid completely by accident, but it was going to be Tommy’s Tumblers who ended up watching him. I pushed down some dark thoughts as I cracked open the woman’s wallet. The money and credit cards were absolutely worthless, but I was looking for her drivers license. “Mary Montoya,” I said to myself before grabbing the other two IDs. “And Daniel Montoya and David Montoya, no idea which one is the father. Which makes the kid up there Charlie Montoya.”

I threw the drivers licenses into my inventory and ran my hand through my hair. “Poor little dude. I know the group’s going to take as good care of him as they can but, damn, what a way to be.”

Checking my stat screen, I saw that I was now only missing thirty hit points. That was acceptable. The bones had finally finished leaving the room and deeper into the dungeon. Taking my staff back in hand, I began following after them.

The first room was a doozy for sure, but the rest of the first floor of the Mausoleum of the Arsonist was linear with few enemies. After taking out ten more stray skeletons along the winding path, I found myself just outside a room absolutely littered with bones. In the center stood a single flame charred skeleton holding an abnormally long femur. I stopped to stare at it without entering its lair.

I raised my staff and the bones erupted in a flurry of activity. The mid boss battle had begun.