I opened the healer's guide and found the recovered page hidden in the back. Frail wax and animal skin paper that was crinkled despite efforts to preserve it.
Written in bloody barely legible handwriting, it states that their counterattack was a secret of the utmost importance. A covert group of warriors from beyond the mountains and forest. Only a select few individuals knew of their existence. Yet when they got to the field, the human army was lying in wait for them.
Surrounding them from all sides.
"..."
Someone had leaked the attack to the enemy, and a spy was within their ranks. The poor elf died with grievances and vowed to never let anyone pass through that battleground again, even in death.
"What a plot. Wow."
From their diaries, I could determine that there were at least five other floors other than the ones I had visited that had life in them. By life, I mean real life. Markets, inns, taverns, even cities, etc. The one that interested me the most was the Troll and Ogre floor. They found plenty of herbs, plants, and livestock in that area. For a price, of course.
Hmm. It seems like the people that live in the Dungeon are real people, with lives, homes, and a past, and the adventurers are like time travelers? Little pieces of the future that shouldn't really be there.
Don't the people here find that strange? Or are they similar to NPCs?
Don't NPCs offer special rewards in games? Clues? The system sent me here, so maybe…maybe these people know how to get out of here, or at least what the system wants me to do in order to get out of here.
A lightbulb lit up, and I crossed my fingers. Please, please, please. Hmm. What else? Oh right. One of the other interesting floors was the cemetery. They found some pretty interesting relics there. A sword, in particular, could poison whoever was sliced by it.
One of the party members had tried to acquire it, and it had poisoned that member to death before returning to its place by the final resting place of a fallen warrior.
A shiver ran up my spine, and I made a mental note not to just pick up whatever I saw again. Still, this doesn't seem very relevant to what I need. Completing that floor or any other did not lead to them conquering the dungeon.
So the objective must be to find something else. Clues? Treasure?
Perhaps the spy's identity? This Dungeon does seem to have a plot of some kind. So maybe that's my clue.
I pocketed the journals and did a quick read of the guide. Plant, light, and fire magic. Go figure. Don't want to risk it, though. I'll have to try later. That leaves suppression theory.
The book detailed the benefits of suppressing mana and using the method as a way to increase the purity of your mana. Similar to entering the mana realm, it requested that the reader enter a state of deep concentration and fold their mana. Crush it. Condense it until it was barely discernible. In theory, this will allow you to use less mana in your attacks due to how pure it will become.
Interesting, and I'll try it later. I threw that back in my space, collected some wood that I hadn't burned yet, and tiptoed away.
On to the next part.
So…it is a dungeon. The literal cells were around the corner that I turned. With decaying bodies and more goblins who were sleeping on the job. They had blood dripping from their mouths and weapons in their hands as they slept, leaning against the wall.
Let's try out my archery skills.
I maintained a barrier behind them so they couldn't escape and shot an arrow into the heart of a lone goblin. My tendrils shushed and blocked his mouth as he died quickly from the wound in his chest.
[+400 EXP]
Before his other companions could wake up from the smell, I shot them too. They screamed, and it was muffled against my multiple phantom hands.
I'm starting to get a little tired. Those are the warning signs, so I should slow down a bit. Dispelling my barrier, I crept closer and put the bodies against the walls. Ooh. In the pockets of one was some gold and a medallion. Made from bronze and depicting a woman holding a golden apple.
[Medallion of The Goddess]
[Given to followers of the Human Goddess.]
"So a traitor. That's helpful."
I pocketed that too and searched the other bodies. Keys! I put them in the inventory so they wouldn't make noise and searched the cells without opening them. My little tendrils were exhausted after the heavy lifting I was doing.
Yet I did find some more clues. This is definitely the base camp for the traitors because a bunch of fae, mostly elves, were locked up. So the goblins were working with the humans. Well…I don't think they're the spy, but that's news, I suppose.
Next. Most of the elves had rings in their ears. We don't do that at home, but I'm willing to guess it means something to them. So I baited the zombie elves with goblin meat and snatched a few right off their bodies.
Golden. All of the earrings are golden with little scratches in Elvish. It's ancient, though. Syllables too.
Oh! These are names or something instead of words. Maybe it's like dog tags? So that if someone finds them, they can bring them home.
I rested near the bodies for a while before I continued. Can't waste time. Gotta get to the tenth floor. Leaving the cells behind, I walked down the hallway for a little while. On the walls were scratches, bloodstains, and markings. Some in elvish and others in what I think is the goblin's language.
It's a story or a warning of some kind. Danger. Ghost. Dead. Some trees, I think. The other signs were just gibberish.
Using one of the journal's empty pages, I apologized in my heart and wrote it down with the quill attached to its cover.
Maybe it's important.
I headed in the direction of danger and found a staircase.
[Floor Four Cleared]
Huh. So reaching this part of the dungeon cleared the floor. The rules are all over the place. Cautiously, I used the levitating spell. It's just a flick of the fingers and a good imagination that makes it work. Three transparent symbols that looked like halos attached themselves to me. One flew behind my head, and the other two floated beneath my feet.
I feel like a helicopter.