Chapter 13 - What lurked on the fourth floor was...
The dungeon floor movement skill was handy indeed.
However, it still had its limitations, making it usable only once per hour. Caution was to be prioritized during that time.
Anyhow, I pushed forward into the third floor.
I encountered the dead reaper right away, its white bones covered by tattered cloth and in its hands an ominous great scythe with an appearance as if it was ripped out of ancient mythology. As expected, its level was close to 100 and among its skill was the reap of instant death.
The ghastly figure floated closer with dull movement and after waiting for it to come within a five meter range of me, I stretched out my hand and used 「White Flame」.
With a roar the white flame erupted, its reach wide enough to enshrine the whole monster.
My first reaction was being startled by the fire's beauty. It had a sacred air around it, befitting for a holy flame.
"...ooOOO——"
The dead reaper struggled against the blaze, but its cloth burned to a crisp and fire gnawed at its bones. It was hard to tell with white on white, but the skeleton was certainly burning and before long it turned into no more than a mere corpse.
"I wonder if I should take its scythe along, if nothing else it does look powerful."
I would have analyzed it, but items required a different skill.
「Appraisal」 300 LP
Like 「Analyze」 it wasn't too expensive, so I went ahead and picked up appraisal as well.
「Great Scythe Rank B No Skills」
It was a shame about the lack of skills, but it didn't seem like a bad weapon. Looked like the ranks work as with skills, from C to S.
After defeating the dead reaper and having raised my level to beyond 40 I discovered the staircase to the next floor.
White flame's mana consumption must have been fairly minor, because both my mental and physical condition seemed unchanged.
Since I had already increased my level by a good amount it wouldn't have been an issue to return home at that point, but I decided to proceed to the fourth floor anyway. That way I could move straight to it the next time.
Actually, let's go take a deeper look into it.
Unlike all the previous floors, the fourth one had just a single corridor, progressing in a straight line. No monsters appeared either.
I followed the corridor with cautious steps and soon arrived at a wide open place.
It was a rectangular hall with no doors. You could see another corridor on the other side of the room, but my attention had already been caught by something else.
"Eeehh... What's with all these people?"
A large amount of people, hundreds even, were chatting and walking about in that place, crowding the whole area. Based on their appearances they seemed to be adventurers, almost all of them wearing either armor or robes.
Hidden Dungeons are supposed to be void of people, right?
I had no idea how this many people could be in that place, especially with such a relaxed atmosphere. As I was getting more and more nervous some of them took notice of me and began shouting.
"Guys, somebody came! A living human arrived——!"
"Holy cow, how long has it been!"
All of them bustled closer and surrounded me. It was too much for me at once and I ended up just standing there, unable to react. If they had harbored any ill will I would have probably met my end there.
But fortunately, going by their sparkling eyes, it appeared like they approached me with friendly intentions.
I also happened to notice an important detail.
All of them were a little... transparent?
"You're alive, aren't you! One of the living!"
"Y-yes of course, I am. And you guys are...?"
I tried to clear my confusion with analyze, but it didn't display any text, at all. No names, no levels, nothing. With that I was convinced, they were dead. The same happened back in town when I had once tried analyzing a dead stray cat and wasn't given any text either.
"Please stay clam and listen. The truth is we are all dead; we're ghosts."
"...I guess you are. Explains why you're see-through."
"It's our souls, they are represented by our bodies as we hold them in memory. Usually, in the outside world, your soul would be purified on its own and disperse, probably, but it seems that when dying within this dungeon your soul moves to this floor, gathering here with everyone else."
And apparently taking even a single step outside the room was impossible.
"This may be rude, but how did all of you even manage to get inside? You did well figuring out that secret phrase."
"Huh? Secret phrase?"
Everyone tilted their heads in confusion. All of them had entered the dungeon without knowing of the incantation.
What's going on here? After all it wasn't just me, from what I was told even master had to use the phrase to gain access.
"Excuse me, but roughly how many years ago was it that you all were alive?"
"Sorry, we don't have a time interval, but going by the era it would be year 1200 of the sacred calendar, roughly."
"T-that's over 300 years ago!?"
Master's period of activity was around 200 years ago, so theirs was long before even hers. Going by what they told me, ever since then this place had been a Hidden Dungeon. However, apparently a group of people that came and went knew of its existence.
Which would mean...
Around the time between 1200 and 1300 of the sacred calendar this place was sealed. Who locked the entrance, and why? Because of the casualty rate?
Or maybe for a different objective...
I had no idea and abandoned that train of thought, paying the people in front of me attention instead.
"Noir was it? Actually there's a favor we'd like to ask of you."
"Go on."
"Could you bring us a priest with the ability to purify souls?"
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