Chapter 177: Solo Dungeon Crawl - Anstraud Courtyard!
Ryuji's hands spread across the towering black doors of Anstraud Keep.
The cool sensation of the dark Ravenwood planks and silver bolts and studs felt pleasant to touch. He felt a strange feeling with this dungeon, instead of floors. It was broken into the various areas of the keep.
The Anstraud Ramparts, Anstraud Courtyard and finally Anstraud Halls.
His muscles tensed before pushing against the doors, heavily straining as the frozen, rusted doors cracked and began to move. His body was covered in the snow, gritting his teeth before slamming the doors open and destroying them.
As the gates opened, they revealed a dark, ruined courtyard of an ancient keep. It was a circular area surrounded by battlements that were crumbling and ruined from age.
Within the courtyard were several ruined tents. It appeared that they once had been the temporary homes of some of the Shadow Legion.
A strange cult who believed in a goddess of darkness who delved into dark, horrifying rituals and sacrifices.
The once bright city and capital home to a hero of light who fell into darkness when his beloved wife perished to a traitor who sought her beauty.
"What a beautiful place," said Ryuji, staring at the falling snow. "A perfect place for a home."
A small smile crossed his face as he stepped into the courtyard.
It was empty, but he could see that there were several paths into the different sections of the keep; straight ahead would likely lead him to the main dungeon, while the path to his east and west were likely the two wings of the halls, which he was now inside.
He let out a sigh, looking at the rotten vines, destroyed bushes.... the trampled flowers now grey, dead and withered forever frozen in this freezing hell.
An image of the castle's former beauty is now forever stained with evil and decay.
There was a large, arched entryway leading to the left, a set of stairs leading up into the ramparts, and a set leading down into the dungeon. He walked toward the entryway leading to the left and peered within.
It was a long corridor; the floors were stone, and the walls were made of grey brick. It was well-lit; there was a single set of braziers that lined the hall, the flickering fires providing just enough light to see.
The distant sound of armour clanging, jittering bones and whispers travelled down the corridor.
"Ah, so it looks like I have some company," smiled Ryuji. "I suppose the Shadow Legion would remain alive even as the undead..."
He snagged the black necklace to form his great axe, holding the handle with one hand. His eyes narrowed as he approached the entrance. As soon as he stepped forward, the sounds became louder; the armour of the undead clanging and rattling echoed loudly as they turned the corner.
A skeleton warrior wielding a longsword and shield charged at him. He grinned, swinging his axe and cleaving through the air.
The sharp edge of his axe crashed and slammed through the shield, cleaving the skeletal arm and the longsword, smashing it into fragments that exploded and scattered.
The bones in the lower half of the skeleton shattered as the creature was thrown into the wall, colliding hard. It exploded, the remains scattering and shattering.
Several more skeletons wielding swords, shields and spears rushed him.
His fingers tightened their grip on his axe as he swung it and sliced through the air.
A single swing destroyed the undead, and his body moved with incredible strength, measured blows that dealt with the narrow hall leading to the dungeon, while his left hand pointed to skeleton archers above him, their slow, rickety movements unable to compete as he shot a flame barrage in their direction, smashing their bones to dust.
His powerful muscles flexed with each swing, using the weight of the axe to smash the bones of the undead into dust and his magic to dispose of the skeletal archers easily.
[Gained: Skeleton Archer Marking (Rare)]
[Gained: Skeleton Knight Marking (Uncommon)]
When the halls were cleared of the undead, he could see the stairs that led downward into the dungeon below.
An enormous entrance greeted him; it was the base of the tower, and the only way inside was the staircase.
"You think you can hold the place from me?," he smirked, gripping his axe before walking through the opening.
"If the Shadow Legion can still fight, then it looks like we'll have to test just how strong the goddess of light's champion is."
Because of Lumina, Ryuji began feeling a slight hatred for those who dwelled in the light. He knew it could also be a side effect of his demon lord class growing; however, now he felt this irritated towards them.
'Though it would be nice to meet a kind, fluffy goddess of light who has huge breasts and is very welcoming and gentle...'
He continued his trek down the steps, reaching a dark corridor. His axe was ready, in case more undead would come and attack him, while twelve flaming bolts of fire ready to defend him flickered around his back, doubling as useful torchlights that kept him feeling warm and relaxed.
Though he could see in the darkness, somehow it felt eerie, this darkness seemed to have something creeping, an evil that slithered in the pitch black, where even his vision could not peek into.
'My senses are stronger than normal, which makes it easier to see and hear things than most people. Yet those pitch black spots... I can feel nothing!'
His head turned and tilted to the left.
"So..." An arrow shot past his face before bouncing off the walls with an almost comical clatter before a flaming bolt followed its trajectory and blew the head off of a goblin with a loud pop. "Hmmm? Goblin?"
The goblin was strange... grey skin and more human than the normal goblins he encountered. It made Ryuji doubt whether it was a goblin or a mutated human.
At the very least, this dungeon was quite the deathtrap, with rows of archers above him along the walls. Yet he could only proceed down, and there was no way to get to them from his current position.
[Gained: Grey Goblin Marking (Common)]
A grin stretched across his lips.
'But this is also an excellent opportunity for me.'
He dashed forward, jumping and spinning through the air. With his free hand, he threw a wave of flame, which exploded and destroyed the first volley and row of goblin archers. The heat pushed his body away, and a feeling of pleasure filled him upon murdering the goblins and feeling their essence flooding into his body.
Ryuji landed with a thud, almost slipping down the steps before kicking the floor and dashing forward, his body moving through the air with the force of a powerful gust, his legs rapidly pushing off the stone to avoid the archer's counter-attacks, letting his flame barrage do the work.
His speed was incredible, and even the goblins would find him difficult to aim and hit, so much so that the few stray arrows that shot past him could barely catch his attention.
His eyes could see the corridor was a large area, a circular platform with a long stone bridge in the centre and five archways leading deeper into the dungeon.
While above the bridge and archways was the place the archers were standing, Ryuji felt he had fallen into a film where the heroes ventured into a mine, but in fact, it seemed more like a tomb where the dwarves dug too deeply, then after a small man-made some noise, hundreds if not thousands of goblins appeared.
'Damn, at this rate I will become lord of the g-strings!'
Grunting, he slammed the wall with a punch, cracking the stone before sending out a shockwave that pushed the goblins away, creating an opening for his flame barrage that killed every single goblin archer on the left passage.
"Whew, this was a little more difficult than I thought it would be," he smirked, with sweat oozing down his forehead and the sensation of magic leaving his body rapidly. Ryuji began to feel the small movements of magic, how much a single attack used, and the huge amount he lost when an arrow grazed him.
He looked at the wounds on his arm, seeing the arrow had grazed him, his skin was burnt but the wound wasn't deep, so he simply brushed it off at the time, but now his skin shone with a beautiful glow, no longer burnt or wounded.
'How... interesting. So my healing magic is already at a point where I can heal myself this quickly? It was only a slight wound, yet it is healed already.'
A curious smile formed, "Well, the bad thing is I couldn't control or even feel that healing magic, only the sudden feeling of my body becoming heavier for a moment... Is that spell something that drains my magic that much?"
He wiped his head, feeling a drop of sweat running down his chin, wiping it away and licking the taste of salt from his finger.
"But the good thing is, it appears that when I don't use my mana, It regenerates extremely quickly. In fact, I didn't feel any pain in the first place, so it was an unexpected feeling to realise that I had already been healed," he laughed.
Ryuji walked down the steps and crossed the stone bridge to reach the next area.
At the end of the corridor was a wide open space with a large stone door. On the front of the door were the runes of an ancient language and five indentations where it looked like something should be slotted inside.
Ryuji's finger brushed the surface as if to try and open the door, but the heavy metal and stone resisted his attempt to push; he then started to look at the pictures on the wall... it showed the previous room and all the different archways, showing a man entering them and collecting a small gemstone... "It figures... what is this dungeon, something from Resident Badguy?"
"A gemstone for each area, ahhh... I want to destroy these stupid puzzles!"
He let out a grunt, turning back and trudging across the bridge.
Now, the irritating part... THE GOBLINS RESPAWNED!
So, while dodging their arrows and letting his flames fling across the enormous dome, he had a mysterious feeling to have his magic kill the goblins while he just moved slightly to avoid their arrows.
He then turned his attention to the other doorways, seeing the stairs leading further down, then a strange hallway leading into the darkness.
[Gained: Grey Goblin Marking (Uncommon)]
[Level Up: Demon Lord (Lv.18)] +2
[Level Up: Sanguine Berserker (Lv.25)] +1
[Learned Skill!]
[Howl of Terror: You howl into the air, stunning all enemies within 20 metres for 1 second before causing them to attack you out of sheer terror for 5 seconds.]
"Let's take this passage, it doesn't smell so foul..."