Chapter 43: Beyond The Door
[You have slayed a Skeleton Human E+]
[Core energy +0.2]
[Sub-authority:
[You have slayed a Skeleton Harpy E]
[Core energy +0.1]
[You've been leveled up!]
[You rank has been upgraded to D- > D]
[Your Holy power stat has upgrade to D-> D]
[You have slayed a Skeleton Three-Eyed Crow E-]
[Core energy +0.02]
[Colors Of The Spring: Fifth Color: Fluttering Flower Petals]
[You have slayed a Lich King C-]
[Core energy +1]
[You've been leveled up!]
[You rank has been upgraded to D > D+]
[Your Holy power stat has upgrade to D > D+]
It had been two weeks since they had entered this ominous double dungeon. After a day off when they killed the Zombie King, they gradually started moving. In the first dungeon they encountered Zombies. And in the second dungeon it looked as if those zombies had turned into skeletons.
All kinds of races from around the world had turned into skeletons, just like before. Elves, dwarves, Halflings, humans and so on. Even monsters that had turned to Skeltons attacked them mercilessly.
But Kyriaki, who had experienced the mercilessness of time, didn't even budge.
They took breaks, adjusted their pace from time to time and moved forward without any major incident. Their determination to push forward seemed to have taken a good effect as the saying goes; those who work hard the most receive their rewards.
Euclid was catching up with his current D rank, and Levana's growth was no less impressive as she also kept up with Euclid with her final E+ rank. Only Ethan seemed to be falling behind as he had only leveled up to F+ rank. His hesitation and fear held him back, it was obvious to even himself. Just that he refused to admit it.
But even so, this leveling up progress was far too fast even in Kyriaki's standards. Usually they would have slowly leveled up, clearing relatively safe dungeons of around G, F or E- ranks for a few months. But having been thrown into a relatively high ranking dungeon where one's life is constantly swaying between life and death, rapid growth as a reward wasn't unpredictable.
This team might be the team with the highest core rank ever would be recorded in over generations of dragons. Kyriaki thought it was a relief that there were two hatchlings in her team including her. It wasn't unusual for two dragons to pair up, actually it was almost the standard procedure.
However for some reason, Kyriaki had doubts that she and Euclid were in the same team out of coincidence.
No, she was almost sure Atlas and his best friend with pale yellow eyes tampered with the chart.
'Now that I think about it, it's him, right?' Kyriaki's eyebrow twitched, noticing something she had ignored until now.
The one with pale yellow eyes was a key figure in the future. And his involvement in this incident displayed that her and Euclid being in the same team wasn't a mere coincidence in any way.
"Lich King wasn't the final boss, he was just a watch guard. So what kind of terrifying creature is behind this door?" Euclid asked, dragging Kyriaki down from her comfortable mind palace.
He ran his fingers through his silky hair. It was charming as his pure white hair rustled gently. Yet there was no one to adore his charm. Kyriaki was even a bit annoyed with him for trying to break her skill
"The dungeon is around C+ rank. But we never encountered above C- monsters, so I'm afraid it'd be a monster of the highest grade there." Kyriaki, having never peeled her status abnormality off for the past few days, mumbled with a frown.
"Woah! That much?! Do you think we can defeat it? Ah, I'm not doubting you or anything, but I doubt myself! You know, if one of us makes a mistake it could hinder our entire strategy! I'm certain I might die from that mistake. Ugh! I feel like puking when I imagine it."
"You won't get to puke if you make any mistakes and die, Miss Levana. Our team leader will use her tears to bring you back from the dead and kill you again. Hahaha!" Euclid summoned his Rubik's cube and began to play with it. His fingers swiftly moved as he laughed at his own joke.
"Th-that's—somehow, that's more scary than making a mistake… I'll do my best, Kyriaki!"
Kyriaki ignored the two chatty people and looked around.
They were in a location that resembled a graveyard in an open space. At first they started their journey entering the graveyard through the nearly broken gate. After that, they were constantly targeted by skeletons of numerous races.
It felt exhausting and mentally draining. Even Kyriaki had no choice but to admit she was a bit mentally exhausted. But they finally managed to reach the cathedral-style gothic building they saw in the distance.
Defeating the Lich King was hardly impossible.
Since almost all of its powers relied on controlling skeletons, a single low level sword art strike was enough to slay it. However, beyond that was still shuddered in mystery.
What comes after the Lich King?
During their time inside the dungeon, the children had come to not trust in their common sense. They were sure they'd risk their lives once again. After all, the one they're supposed to fight now is the final boss of this dungeon.
In the end, they decide to rest for a day before the boss raid.
"I predict C rank monsters in the first stage. May I leave them to you two?"
"Is that prediction based on your Time Attribute? Wow…I wonder just how powerful Time Attribute users are! I mean—it's a very rare Primordial element, no?"
"...it's just my intuition based on the information I gathered so far."
"Even so! Your sense of judgement is amazing!!"
"Indeed…I'm relieved to be in this team."
"Me too!"
"I failed to protect one of my teammates. I have no confidence in completely protecting you guys either." Kyriaki poured cold water over Levana and Euclid's lively conversation with an aloof tone. "So listen."
Levana closed her mouth and placed her fingers over her lips. Euclid smiled innocently and tilted his head.
"She's looking at us as if we are a handful." He said in carefree manner, as if it didn't bother him the slightest. "But I'll obey the orders of my team leader."
"C rank monsters might be a bit tough for you. Especially for Sir Ethan and Levana. So Eucee, be the tank. Cover for them as much as possible. I'll look for the boss monster. If it's the type to act after the first stage was cleared, then I'll join you." Kyriaki voiced her strategy with the most simple terms. This was the simplest strategy most adventurers used back in Primal Plane.
Normally, there are two types of boss raid.
One where the boss monster doesn't act until its minions are finished. And one where the boss monster attacks together with its minions.
Adventurers divide the former type into two stages. First stage where minions fight. Second stage where the boss fights.
"Then if the boss monster is the type to attack right from the first stage, are you going to fight alone?"
Kyriaki shook her head at Euclid's slightly stiff yet still carefree toned question.
"No, I know my own limits. A D+ ranker beating C+ monster alone is close to impossible." She watched as Euclid opened his mouth to say something, but gave up even before doing so.
"I'll buy some time until you guys clear the first stage. Join me immediately upon fulfilling your part of the plan. The faster the better, but remember to minimize injuries…"
Until a day passed, they made plans meticulously, shared opinions, ate, slept and talked again.
Although until now, their dungeon conquest seemed mild, it was harsh and deadly in reality. Each of them knew their survival was solely thanks to their bloodline and teamwork. If they lacked even one of those things, they might have died long ago.
However no one complained anymore.
Ogofa's misfortune they blamed at first seemed to have disappeared from their memories.
They focused entirely on their own role, their own survival. The harsh environment and the reality had made them tougher than ordinary.
Even for Kyriaki, it had influenced her undeniably.
She was a secret agent in her past human life, which now felt like a separate entity to her. The experience and memories of that life, together with gifted memories of three more individuals she had, never given her a sense of reality like this.
Every single moment of her life now was real. She felt it with all of her senses. And instead of cowering like an ordinary person, she felt excited.
Perhaps it was because she was once a prisoner of time…
Or because she had experienced death once before…
Or maybe because she was born this way.
Anyhow, Kyriaki welcomed all of her new emotions. After all, her reason for accepting to break universal laws wasn't solely because she wanted to save Kyrios, someone she merely pitied, nothing more or less.
A second life.
She wanted to not regret this life. Enjoy it to the fullest.
With that in mind, Kyriaki opened the door to the final boss room after she judged her team had enough rest.
Creeeek.
With a creepy sound, like a horror movie background noise, the large door opened.
[Welcome to the Boss room of
"Hah…" Euclid sighed loudly enough for it to echo in the cathedral.
Could it be called a cathedral?
The grand interior with features like gothic architecture in jet black color, as if someone had cut pure darkness into solid pieces and had carved each single tile, wooden furniture and limestone with impressive care looked far more like a castle than a mere cathedral.
Although it resembled the Cologne Cathedral she once saw in Germany back on Earth, the size and purpose didn't align with the example she imagined at all.
This kind of place, who else but dragons know what it was.
Kyriaki followed Euclid, sighing inwardly as she looked at the skeletons lined up until it reached the end of the high Altra.
The fixed seating for choir loft, pews, long red carpets, stained glass windows, everything was so similar to a grand church. Yet the skeletons lined up neatly looked out of place inside such magnificent architecture.
Each skeleton wore black & white religious attire, indicating they were either clerics of some sort or believers once at some point in time.
Whose clerics?
Whose believers?
Oh, only if Kyriaki could grab them by collar and drag them here to show what had happened to their once precious subjects.
Kyriaki's golden gaze brushed past the unmoving skeletons and landed on the dark armored Knight kneeling before an empty throne.
Yes, an empty throne.
Each religion has their own symbols. And this one happened to use an empty throne made of spike-like obsidian crystals as their main symbol.
And the giant knight kneeling before it was also a traditional trademark of this forgotten religion.
Once a holy knight, now a monster called the dark knight of a forgotten God. It remained still like a statue.
Crack. Creek. Crack.
Unlike the Knight, the skeletons began to move fast as if they couldn't stand to look at the non-believers who barged into their sacred ground.
"Lucky us." Kyriaki smiled softly as she glanced at the skeletons with relief.
"Yeah...The Dark Knight won't move until we crush each of these skeletons rushing at us."
"So Ogofa's misfortune has ended, huh?"
"..."
Euclid and Levana, who were also relieved for different reasons as well as Ethan who refrain from talking, all summoned their weapons as if it was one of their limbs.
Thus began another battle.
[Ding!]
[Bishop of Death
Category: Monster
Variant: Skeleton
Rank: C
Description: A devoted believer of Zal'kitana, the former Goddess of Death. Falling in to the depth of despair after realizing his Goddess had abandoned him, he sold his soul to the creation of his beloved goddess in exchange for long lifespan until he meets his Goddess once again]
Instead of getting an overall description of a race, the system was giving her individual information of each skeleton. Kyriaki was genuinely puzzled as she slayed the skeleton without mercy.
[You have slayed a Bishop of Death C]
[Core energy +1]
Kyriaki dodged a demonic magic attack as she swung her sword.
[Nun of Death
Category: Monster
Variant: Skeleton
Rank: C-
Description: A devoted believer of Zal'kitana, the former Goddess of Death. Falling in to the depth of despair after realizing her Goddess had abandoned her, she sold her soul to the creation of her beloved goddess in exchange for long lifespan until she meets her Goddess once again]
[You have slayed a Nun of Death C-]
[Core energy +0.5]
"By the way, there is no Pope?" Levana released a fatal blow on a skeleton Euclid held off for her and said out loud.
"It appears so." Euclid unleashed a sword strike the moment he was free from holding back the monster.
"No Cardinal and Archbishop either."
"Those are the highest ranking clerics of a religion. I presume that the rank of them is far too above the rank of this dungeon, making them unable to live here." The whip-sword entangled two C- rank monsters and brought it under Levana's feet as Kyriaki answered her curiosity calmly.
There were nearly fifty skeleton monsters inside the cathedral, but as Levana said, neither of them exceed the rank of Bishop. And each of the skeletons had spells and physical attacks that seemed to have replaced their Holy Power.
The spells they used were all demonic magic based spells, mostly of Black magic, a demonic version of the Darkness attribute.
The skeletons they met before were mindless, just attacking without any tactics or magic power. However these skeletons, although unable to speak, acted with intelligence of an average human.
Due to unexpected teamwork of the skeletons, it took the team KyrioswithoutKyrios-13 over two hours to completely eliminate the monsters.
"I'm going for the last one!" Levana who had once again leveled up to D- rank shouted with joy as she chased after the last skeleton remaining.
Kyriaki gripped her sword and took a basic sword stance, namely the "fool's stance" popular among swordsmen who prefer a relaxed atmosphere when dueling.
Euclid imitated her with his Duel blades. He too had leveled up one sub rank a few minutes ago, much to his satisfaction. He was now D+, the same as Kyriaki.
On the other hand, only Kyriaki seemed to be lagging behind. But she didn't dwell on it as much as she did on the day of Crimson Moon back then.
All her senses were focused on the kneeling holy knight. No, the Death Knight.
[Death Knight
Category: Monster
Variant: Skeleton
Rank: C+
Description: Once a devoted Holy Knight of Zal'kitana. In hope of welcoming his Goddess back with the same faith and loyalty, he sold his soul to the demons, known as Zal'kitana's messengers and the only creation. Be aware of its Sword Aura attacks.]
"What the heck…it has a Sword Aura?!" Flustered, Kyriaki's eyes grew round as marbles.
"...This is bad." Euclid seemed to have read the description of The Death Knight too. He exchanged glances with Kyriaki with a wry expression.
"Please take all my suffering and die!" Meanwhile, Levana smoothly ended the last Skeleton, shouting loudly her inner thoughts.
'I wish I could say that to this…thing.'
Kyriaki bit her lower lip and fixed her gaze on the trembling Knight armor as if glued. Several minutes passed, thinning down their patience.
"!!"
Then, It vanished.
It happened so fast the others failed to notice anything at first.
Nevertheless, Kyriaki's eyes never left the blurry shadow. Hence, her body followed without her will.
Clang!
The sound of metal hitting together echoed in an eerie manner.
"Ah!" Euclid short scream-like sound pulled her back to her senses.
Kyriaki was startled by her own actions. She looked ahead as if she was in disbelief.
"...Fxxxxxx hell."
Her golden eyes captured the image of Ethan, and the Death Knight stood behind him like a shadow of a grim reaper.
Ethan had a puzzled look on his face, his long ears twitched as if he was severely distressed. The dark elf that looked like a seven year old wobbled and fell on his knees.
No word left his mouth as his body flopped on the ground.
No, not even a scream.
He wasn't even allowed to understand what had happened to him.
Silence, the kind that was the result of countless unspoken emotions, fell like a dark veil.
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