Eternal_Winter
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Chapter 16: First Dungeon - Part 1
🕑 Added 2025-05-02 12:52:58 +0000 UTCTransfer completed!
Ethan landed on the ground with a groan. “Stupid dungeon in this stupid tutorial” he just laid there for a minute and started at the ceiling. The compacted dirt was only broken up by the occasional root that managed to fight through the hard pressed mud. He wonders if it will stop someday, each time he wants to rest something happened.
It was almost like the system or whoever was in charge of the tutorial wanted them to be in constant stress, always giving a hundred percent and more. Maybe it was a test? A kind of separate the wheat from the chaff scenario. He sighed and finally sat up, shuffling back on his sore ass until he rested against the wall.
The room he was in was just a small cube with a single entrance on the opposite wall, a single torch lighting the room for him. To his surprise the torch had no smoke coming off it. While resting he played a bit with his magic, forming shapes out of while limiting the amount of mana he used. He even activated his aura, so far he only used it once in his fight with Ouroboros. The feeling of a sphere outside of his body he still was connected felt awkward but not bad. He watched his aura influence the wall and ground, the frost that bloomed on them the longer his aura was active.
His fingers touched the ice and used some mana to increase the effect, soon the ground cracked from all the moisture expanding inside of it.
It felt like hours vanished while Ethan sat there against the wall in a circle of frost and ice while his wounds slowly healed. He wanted a healing skill but how he would achieve that with being an ice mage, he had no clue. He was also curious why there was no healing class offered during the integration. But it was too late to worry about it.
With his health close to full he grabbed the dagger in his calf, the ice locking it in place fell to the ground as snow, the moment it was free he pulled it out with a grunt, he closed the wound quickly with ice before letting out a shuddering breath. He wanted to scream but who knows what creatures he would attract.
Standing up was still tough but he couldn’t sit around forever, even if he was here involuntarily he still had a dungeon to conquer. Maybe he would find a legendary weapon. Ethan smiled and shook his head, amused about his stray thoughts. Grabbing the torch from the wall he approached the dark corridor. It felt like looking into the abyss, no escape and no way back once he stepped through it.
Taking a deep breath he held his staff tight and walked into the corridor. The inky darkness got pushed away by the light he carried but it only managed to illuminate a few steps in front of him. Same as the room this corridor was also compacted dirt, sometimes he spotted a skeletal hand or rib poke through the walls, even a skull or two but no enemies.
Soon the corridor became wider and more remains appeared left and right, the ground changed too, dirt got switched for stone and he suddenly felt like standing inside the Parisian catacombs, hundreds of bones lined his path, their clean skulls grinning at him, their empty sockets mocking him with a silent challenge to continue on his path.
Even as a mage using ice, he still shudders from the scene in front of him. But he learned from his recent mistake so he cautiously continued on his path. His eyes scan the walls, ground and ceiling. The first few he encountered seemed simple. One set of bones fell from the piles to his left and assembled itself into a skeleton. It had no weapon and just ran towards him. A simple ice spike shattered its skull and killed it.
The death of the first skeleton triggered something and even more of them raised themselves from the piles and attacked him. He killed some with magic but most of them died through his staff. Thrusts and swings easily took care of them while moving forward, the staff like a club in one hand while holding the torch high in the other.
Soon he passed the first challenge, the path continued in a straight line for a while longer until he reached the entrance to a second room. Ethan stopped and made sure his aura was still active and he had enough mana for the battle.
The moment he entered the room torches lit up on both sides. In the middle of the room a body lay huddled on the floor, the corpse wore heavy armor and carried two axes on its belt, the body twitched slowly at first but soon it twisted violently, arms and legs bending in unnatural angles before popping back into their sockets. The beast groaned and Ethan identified it before it could stand up
[Ghoul Lord - Level 11]
[Ghoul Lords are cunning creatures that lure humans into ambushes to infect and turn them, walking the line between life and death they still need to eat, their only desire is to satisfy the hunger. Ghouls lords only appear when a ghoul has infected enough people. They have limited command over other ghouls]
Ethan dropped the torch and grabbed his staff with both hands. When the torch reached the ground he sprinted towards the creature that was still in the middle of standing up. His aura at full strength reached the ghoul first, frost bloomed on it’s heavy armor. Ethan rotated around his own axis doing a spin before slamming the staff against the ghoul’s head.
With a cry he watched the lower jaw of the ghoul fly away, his long slender tongue dropped down and moved around like a struggling worm, slapping the ghoul’s face and neck while black saliva dripped from his face, mixing with blood that flowed like thick honey.
The ghoul pulled his two axes from his belt and let them grind against each before spinning them in his hands. Both arms outstretched to expose his chest, showing vulnerability to mock Ethan, the ghoul not impressed by his attack. Ethan didn’t take the bait and kept his distance, trying to look at everything that was important.
His eyes switching from the spinning axes to the ghouls eyes, how the monster had his foot positioned. While doing so he shot spikes, needles and waves of ice against the ghoul but he didn’t manage to penetrate the heavy armor, the spikes leaving tiny dents at best before falling to the ground, needles just broke apart and his ice waves slid down his armor like it was no more than a splash of water.
The ghoul decided that Ethan had his chance and he pushed himself to the side, it tried to get around so he could attack Ethan’s back, but before he even finished his manoeuvre the ghoul pushed himself in the opposite direction and threw his axe at the mage. Ethan, who was ready to block the attack from the side, was barely able to avoid the axe, the blade still ripping his robe apart and drawing a tiny wound on his arm.
Thrown off balance by the attack Ethan stumbled, the ghoul sprinted towards him, ready to cleave through Ethan’s body. The staff in his hands he was ready to block the axe aimed for his chest, but he felt the staff crack under the weight of the attack.
Ethan groaned, the ghoul in the heavy armor pushed him to the ground with the weight of his attack, again and again he attacked but Ethan managed to roll around in the dirt or block with the parts of his staff that were still intact.
He needed to get back on his feet but the constant barrage he was experiencing limited his options. In the end it was Nora that slithered towards the ghoul and attacked his ankle, trying to bite through the tough flesh. While the ghoul couldn’t really feel pain he still felt the bites Nora inflicted, how she tried to pierce something vital to his balance.
When the ghoul jumped back, his axe ready to hack Nora apart, Ethan screamed and threw his staff, hitting the ghoul, but he didn’t even manage to hurl it like a spear, the staff landing with the side against the helmet of the ghoul where it broke apart.
Still those few moments were enough for Nora to escape, reaching Ethan at record speed. He cracked his neck and pushed both his palms outward. His mana boiling inside of him, he felt like this was the time to widen the creek that carried his mana. Focused he started slowly, a stream of frozen air pushed against the ghoul, soon it transformed, the ice shards growing bigger, transforming the air into a hailstorm that hit the ghoul with hundreds of projectiles, then Ethan increased his mana flow again, the familiar feeling of molten metal in his veins returned. But suddenly the heat turned into cold, originating from his heart and pushing outside until his whole body felt numb from the frigid feeling.
The hailstorm changed again, pieces of the ghouls flesh and armor just disappeared while the ice shards condensed further and became hard like diamonds , their sharp edges ripping the ghoul apart while the frozen air invaded it’s body and froze parts of it solid, the arm it wanted to grab Ethan with exploded in a shower of frozen flesh and ice leaving only parts of its bones.
The ghoul struggled since the attacks started, it tried to move but the wind of ice pushed him back while destroying him so casually. Ethan was shaking from the inside, blue tinted blood streaming down his nose and dripping to the ground while fine veins in his left eye burst from the exhaustion but he pulled through.
He only stopped when the notification appeared in his vision, then he dropped to his knees and pressed his arms against his body, his fingers frozen and black at the tips, his own magic damaging him. Then he breathed out, even that covered the ground in ice. A smile tugged on his lips, for him this was a big win, because he understood something new, something important.
