LIGHTNOVELONLINE 26. The Catacombs II
Descending the dark stairs that lied not that far past the gate, Dan strained his ears, listening to the slightest movement in the corridors. Strangely familiar glowing mushrooms grew on the walls, providing soft lighting. Of course, it was useless for people with dark vision. Or for those who had a miniature sun on a magical leash above them.
It was strange to look at the world when it was plunged into darkness. Dan had tested his eyesight before, he was just as useless in the pitch darkness as anybody else. But if there was even the slightest sliver of light somewhere, then he could see so much more, except that everything was more or less gray.
The ax in his hand gleamed in the light of the sun spell, making Dan frown. He didn't like that anyone could see his weapon in the dark, better to make the opponents blind to his attacks.
"Obscurare," the boy muttered and watched with satisfaction as the surface of the metal darkened.
The stairs ended up into a curve, forcing Dan to peek around the corner. His dark skin and armor allowed him to blend into his surroundings almost perfectly.
The overgrown and old walls of the catacombs surrounded him from all sides, casting a wave of claustrophobia over his mind. Recently, the monster boy has been feeling uncomfortable in tight spaces, most likely the consequences of turning into a new race, because before he could easily spend about three hours in the trunk of a car and not even blink. Now even the narrow corridors made him feel nervous.
The only way was forward, so he went ahead. But after the first two turns, Dan understood why he needed the map earlier.
"I should draw a map of this place…" he muttered to himself. Dumbledore did not go further than the main gate, preferring to leave it closed and enchanted with shut. The map of these places simply didn't exist.
Although someone may have come down here before, unless they never came out. Evidence of this was dried – most likely human – skeletons lying against the wall in one of the dead ends.
Dan shuddered, looking in their direction and decided that it was a dead end anyway, that he didn't need to go to the withered bones.
Unfortunately, that didn't mean the skeletons wouldn't go to him.
As soon as Dan stepped through some imaginary barrier, the three skeletons came to life, their bones knocking against each other, held together only by magic. There was no light in their eye sockets, but even without life, they were rushing forward.
The first thought in the monster boy's mind was: 'Fuck! They're alive!'
The second thought was: 'I'll need a crossbow. Gotta talk with Hagrid, he helped me with the crafting table, maybe he can help me with a crossbow too.'
The corridor was long enough for Dan to prepare for a counterattack. The skeletons pushed each other aside, each trying to get to him first, their cracked fingers reaching for his head, wanting to grab, rip and kill.
These undead didn't even have a shred of humanity, they were just animated bones controlled by old magic.
Once they were only within arm's reach, Dan teleported behind them and drove his ax into the skull of the closest one from behind with one blow. The metal screeched into the bone, cutting it like a hot knife through butter. The blow was so strong that the bastard's jaw split open and flew to the ground. Skeleton's body almost immediately fell apart, the magic holding it together lost, but Dan's ax was now stuck in his skull.
The remaining two abruptly turned back, hearing the death of their comrade. The undead had only a moment to understand what had happened and they were not happy. The one on the right clawed towards Dan's face, so the boy raised his axe, blocking the skeleton's blow with his weapons' handle. Bone collided with wood, but neither broke. White fingers immediately wrapped around the handle, holding the weapon in place.
The second skeleton didn't wait long and clawed Dan in the stomach, but his sharp fingers were stopped by the hard skin of the armor.
Kicking the first skeleton in the ribs, Dan pulled the ax out of its death grip. A wide swing and the head of the second skeleton shattered against the skull stuck to the blade. The body could still move for a moment, it tried to do something, anything, but crumbled in pieces before falling to the ground.
The first skeleton hit the wall and fell backwards, its bones crunching from the impact, but it seemed to refuse to give up, immediately trying to get back on its feet.
Dan was faster, kneeling his skull and crushing it into dust against the wall.
His heart was pounding faster than usual, pumping adrenaline through his veins. But even so, it was pounding much slower than it should have – another feature of his new body.
Taking a deep breath through his nose, Dan lowered the ax, looking down at the scattered bones on the floor. The worst that he got in that exchange was a hit on his stomach. This time he was lucky, the skeletons were only a few and had no weapons, but this was definitely an exception.
The way they attacked in somewhat complex patterns – one aimed at the head while the second hit the body – spoke of the makings of Intelligence, or maybe even coordination, this was a problem.
If the monsters could think and coordinate their actions together, it didn't mean anything good for Dan. Fighting mindless skeletons was much easier than fighting the same skeletons that could use tactics.
His hand gripped the ax handle so tightly that his veins bulged through his skin.
'It used to be people, intelligent people with dreams and goals. So why…?' Dan crouched, picking up one of the bones. 'I should be feeling… something. Why don't I care?'
Scientists of his time noticed that only two species experienced sadness at the sight of their dead brethren: humans and elephants. Dan was human, thought like a human, and still considered himself human. The gap between his current emotions and thoughts about how things should be left him confused.
'... Later.'
Collecting the bones to bury them later, Dan put them in his backpack and continued through the catacombs. Oddly enough, he found the stairs down close enough to the entrance, just two turns down the hallway.
It was a good idea to explore the floors monotonously, leaving only corpses behind to secure the area. Taking out a couple of blocks of cobblestone, he quickly blocked the way down so that nothing would come out of it and stab him in the back.
Thinking for a moment, Dan took a few wooden sticks and stared at them for a full minute. Wondering if he should spend the charcoal he took from his fireplace on torches.
'Does light affect the spawn rate of the mobs in this world? Does such a concept even exist here? They can't appear out of thin air, like they did in the game, can they?' He frowned and put the sticks back. 'Lightning up the place would be useless.'
That done, he turned back to the tunnel, along which he reached the stairs down and went in the opposite direction. The huge downside of the catacombs being a maze, Dan thought, that he would need to backtrack a lot.
On his way, he only met a couple of medium-sized slimes that wandered through the corridors. They didn't pose any danger to him, but Dan got rid of them anyway. Slimes were not so much dangerous as they were annoying, especially for those who knew how to fight them.
Crushing another one under the soles of his leather boots, Dan stopped again, struck by another thought, but this time only for a moment.
'Do I get exp from them? Do I even need exp?' Frowning in annoyance, he wiped his shoe on the floor and stepped over a puddle of slime. "Why couldn't the Wanderer put a manual or two in my hands? Oh, right, it won't be interesting that way! That guy is not God, he's a mayonnaise slap."
As soon as this thought sounded in his mind, a large rock immediately fell from the ceiling and landed on Dan's head with a dull thud.
"Ow! What the dick? That didn't count as a projectile?" Dan furiously rubbed the place of impact, but abruptly froze, his hand trembled. "Son of a bitch, you're still listening to me," he muttered. "I thought your skinny ass would get tired of looking at me in a couple of days, but you are still here? Apparently, your existence is actually boring as fuck."
Another rock fell off the ceiling, but this time Dan was able to slide to the side, avoiding the hit. "I would continue to curse your name and soul, but I have more important things to do."
Clutching the axe with both hands, Dan hoped that he would get another mob next so that he could vent his anger on something. The very knowledge that someone was constantly watching him was disgusting for a teenager, but the fact that the Wanderer could influence the world around him made him think.
'How much can this bastard interfere in this world?' Dan clenched his teeth to keep from screaming in frustration. 'Don't antagonize the gods, it will be worse for you,' he said to himself and took a step forward, only to have something crunch under his foot.
Abruptly lowering his gaze down, Dan lifted his leg and almost vomited right there. His anger is forgotten for the moment.
There was only one thing in the world that Dan hated more than anything. Just one living thing that made his stomach do somersaults and his mind fill with horror and disgust. He didn't even consider this thing to be the creation of God, but of Satan, who sent them on Earth to torture innocent souls.
Wat is that thing?
Cockroaches.
Seeing the corpse of a cockroach under his foot, Dan immediately realized he was not alone. Where there was one cockroach, there were always ten more.
"Incendio!" He immediately shouted, throwing his arm forward.
A wave of fire immediately passed through the tunnel, raising the temperature around by several degrees and destroying everything in its path. Small squeaks and sounds of bursting exoskeletons sounded behind the bright fire, making Dan breathe a sigh of relief.
Feeling his magic reserves slowly draining away to keep the fire going, Dan stopped the spell and looked at the result of his work. Small, charred cockroach corpses lay on the ground, making the catacombs smell even worse than before.
Usually, Incendio was used to conjure a jet of flames that could be used to set things alight. What Dan did shouldn't be possible, at least not without heavily modifying the core of the spell. Although someone could argue that emotions and strong will affect the spells of strong wix more than others.
"Ventus." The second spell sounded and a breath of wind carried all the corpses to the corner of the passage, where he would not have to look at them.
Dan sincerely hoped that he would never see another arthropod bastard in his life, but he knew it was an empty hope.
Suddenly, he felt like something ran down his ankle, so he did what any reasonable person would do.
"INCENDIO!"
