The Beginning After The End novel Chapter 32

Stepping into the dungeon, I felt the temperature suddenly drop as we descended down a gradual slope. I stood adjacent to Brald, who had his shield up and his sword drawn.

Jasmine and I did some research on the Dire Tombs dungeon we were in now. It was a unique place, even amongst the mysterious dungeons. The beasts that made their homes here had been described in the records as "undead." I’d never heard of mana beasts that could come back to life. Because of this, one of the hardest aspects of clearing this dungeon seemed to be the endless amount of undead mana beasts.

Digging deeper, some adventurers and mage guilds even speculated that inside the bottom of this dungeon might be a special artifact that was able to reanimate dead mana beasts, but no one had been able to prove it.

Clearing the dungeon meant that the area had to be explored. It was different from conquering the dungeon, where the mana beasts inside had been defeated and the treasures looted.

This dungeon had been cleared—or at least it was, until Brald had discovered the hidden passage—but never defeated.

"We’re approaching the first level of the dungeon, stay on guard. The mana beasts here aren’t strong, but there’ll be a lot of them. Don’t waste your time trying to collect the mana cores from the beasts...they don’t have one," Brald declared, lowering his stance.

I heard a faint muttering from Oliver, our healer, who was already beginning to complain about the lack of rewards from this dungeon.

While the goal of defeating a dungeon was usually to loot the accumulated treasures high-level mana beasts had amassed through their lives, most of the profit usually came from collecting the beast cores on the way down. In most cases, even if parties couldn’t defeat or even clear a dungeon, they were still able to come out with a hefty sum from just the beast cores, which could be sold for a high price depending on their level.

One of the reasons this dungeon had been unpopular, and why our party was the only one inside the dungeon was because the mana beasts here had no cores. This meant a big chunk of revenue from trying to clear the dungeon would be gone.

Suddenly, a steady growl filled the dungeon hall.

Narrowing my eyes, I focused on the source of the sound. We had just reached the end of the descending passage and into an underground cave no larger than fifty meters in diameter. Looking around, the whole cave was glowing in a dim, blue color. Above us, the cave was covered in stalactites, threatening us with their sharp, gleaming tips.

Out from the spaces between the stalactites fell two dozen mana beasts that looked like large bats, except with four limbs replacing what normally would’ve been wings. The hollow body of the bat-like mana beasts had their ribs fully visible and inside it, where the beast core should’ve been, was a cracked rock.

I guess it was true.

"Batrunners! They’re not strong but they attack in groups. Minimizing the use of our mana is going to be the key inside this dungeon! Get ready!" Brald roared over the growling of the batrunners, all of whom were positioned to pounce, their patches of fur standing on end and their teeth bared.

"Form and torment the foes around! Fire Cyclone!" I heard a yell from behind me and I realized it was Lucas who had casted the spell.

Suddenly, four twisters of fire swirled to life around us, filling the cavern with a wave of heat.

As the fiery cyclones spread out, sharp yelps and pained whimpers echoed from the mana beasts.

Many of the batrunners had been engulfed by the fire tornadoes and were charred to ashes. The ones that were fortunate enough to escape the tornadoes had fled, trying to circle around and attack us.

I could hear Brald click his tongue, dissatisfied that Lucas had just ignored his orders and casted a spell that wasn’t necessary.

The fire cyclones had killed most of the batrunners and the ones left had been badly burned, making it easy to defeat the rest.

"Next time, follow orders and don’t waste mana like that. Your spell was overkill," Brald growled over his shoulder before marching ahead.

Lucas just rolled his eyes, "I don’t see the problem. We killed them fast enough so that everyone else could save their mana."

Shaking his head, Brald ushered us forward to the other end of the cave. As we continued forward to the location of the next room, the rather sickening sound of bones crunching and flesh gurgling made us all turn our heads back.

To my surprise and disgust, the batrunners that had just been killed began to reanimate, their bodies snapping into place as the ones that had been burned just seemed to rise up again from their ashes.

Dire Tombs...What an unfortunately fitting name for this dungeon.

We chose to ignore them and advanced into the next room while Elijah quietly casted an earthen wall over the entrance so that the batrunners couldn’t follow us.

The opening on the other side of the cave led us through another dark corridor just wide enough for four people to go through at once.

I could tell everyone was a bit more relaxed upon leaving the first cave but I couldn’t shake an uneasy feeling.

As if to answer me, a barely-discernable click and faint whistle caught my attention.

I immediately drew my sword and sidestepped in front of Samantha.

My shortsword blurred as I instinctively parried the projectiles aimed towards Samantha, the sharp ring of metal on metal echoing through the dim corridor.

"Th-Thank you..." Samantha muttered mindlessly. Even under the dim blue lighting, I could tell that her face had paled as the metal spikes that almost killed her landed on the ground, harmlessly, beside her feet.

"Something’s wrong...there were no traps last time." Brald picked up one of the pointed spikes to study it but was baffled.

"I don’t think they were traps but strategically placed mana beasts, which doesn’t make the situation better," I said, noticing the faint scuttle of the small beasts on the walls.

"Stay alert, everyone," Brald said, kicking the spikes to the side. Jasmine already had her twin daggers guarding her vitals before Reginald and Kriol readied their weapons. Samantha inched a bit closer to me, her hand pinching my sleeve as her free hand gripped tightly at her wand.

Fortunately, we reached the end of the hall with no other traps deterring us. The next cave was similar to the previous cave, but twice the size and littered with suspicious holes all over the ground.

"Don’t get near the holes. They’re geysers that shoot extremely hot streams of gas up. It should be fine as long as you’re not in direct proximity of the blast," Brald announced as we all looked for any signs of mana beasts.

As if on cue, the cave trembled, shaking the sharp stalactites overhead to a nerve-wracking degree. Forcing my attention from the wobbling spikes, a large figure erupting from the ground.

"Was that here last time, Brald?" the pot-bellied Kriol asked in a worrying tone as we all peered up at the mana beast.

The creature resembled a worm, except it was thick enough to easily swallow any one of us here, whole. With a glowing red hide and countless rows of teeth encircling the hole that I assumed was the mouth, it was impossible to guess how long this creature was since its body was still mostly underground.

"N-No, it wasn’t—I don’t get what’s happening. It doesn’t make sense for new mana beast species to enter a dungeon like this." Our handsome leader had a wavering look, his mask of confidence all but gone.

"Cheh. It’s not a big deal. It’s just an oversized insect," Lucas quipped from behind.

We braced ourselves for its strike, but to our surprise, the gigantic red worm didn’t attack us. Instead, the beast burrowed back underground, leaving in its path another gaping hole.

"It doesn’t seem to be after us," muttered Elijah while his sharp, bespectacled eyes studied the hole the giant worm had left.

The red worm-beast was now burrowing itself into the walls of the cave, creating more holes from all different angles, but it never confronted us.

"Are we just going to stand around watching the worm dig or are we going to go?" Oliver, our lanky emitter, shoved Brald out of the way, fearlessly taking the lead as he strode towards the other end of the cave.

It was obvious not just to me, but to everyone else that Oliver’s brazen attitude was to show off in front of a certain party member.

"Get back here! We need to assess what’s happening before we go across!" Brald barked, his face furrowed in agitation at the arrogance displayed by the conjurers. As our leader stepped forward to go after him, a thundering rumble shook as the entire cavern fizzed with the sound of a boiling kettle.

"Lucas! Heatwave Barrier, now!" I roared at the confused, blonde noble.

Just as I yelled out the command, fumes began filling the cavern.

The holes. The holes that were here since the beginning and the holes littered across the ground, roof, and walls made by the giant worm all trembled before released a fiery torrent of deadly gas.

"Damn it," I cursed. The giant worm was making the holes in order to kill us, and we just let it happen.

I managed to pull Brald, who was just at arm’s length of me, back in before he had the chance to run after Oliver.

Just as the barrier was erected, a blast of a mustard-yellow gas bombarded us. Lucas’s barrier trembled against the pressure but Samantha managed to gather her wits in time to help him out with a water barrier of her own just beneath Lucas’s.

The two barriers of opposing elements sizzled, making the area inside the spell a makeshift sauna. Despite the crude teamwork, however, the barrier held, leaving us sweating but intact, until the blast of gas began to subside.

However, due to the strength of the gaseous blasts that filled the cavern, I lost sight of our idiot healer.

As both Lucas and Samantha released their barriers with stifled breaths, the horrid scene came into view.

The only thing left of Oliver was bones, as blood and pieces of flesh still stuck to parts of his charred skeleton. All of his possessions had been completely destroyed by the acidic gas except for the bright-emerald gem that was once embedded at the tip of his staff.