The Dungeon Without a System

Chapter 101

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The Dungeon, Atlantis, The Kalenic Sea

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I watched with metaphorically bated breath as Huea began the spell. Where Life Mana was a vibrant green reminiscent of lush leaves and grasses, Soul Mana was a much paler green. It could be construed as sickly and even linked to moss and mold. I could see where someone unfamiliar with mana could link this color of mana to Death. It glowed hauntingly and cast strange shadows as the energy lit the room.

Hallmark's core had been placed back into his chest, completely restored. His ribs were bent back into place, and his skin healed, leaving it unmarred. The man's Soul still rested in there, though it had been subdued in recent days. I was unsure how much he could sense from there, but it didn't matter. Either way, Just putting the core back into the body with a soul wasn't enough.

Huea reached the spell's crescendo, casting a 'net' of soul mana that enveloped and bound the body. It rested there for a second, pulsing as she continued feeding mana down the 'leashing' cord connected to the net. With a flash, the net of mana sunk into the skin. Hallmark's index finger, on his right hand, twitched.

I watched carefully as the body's chest rose, a rattling inhale echoing through the room. His eyes fluttered, then he looked around. He was alive, but there was one teeny tiny difference.

There wasn't any kind of divine protection around him anymore.

"Wha-" Hallmark tried to speak but began coughing almost immediately. Huea stepped forward.

"Hallmark, welcome back to the mortal plane," she began, drawing the newly risen man's eyes. "Rise and stand before your new Mistress."

The ethereal green leash pulsed, and Hallmark staggered off the angled slab. His eyes widened in surprise as he took three steps, then stood unmoving before the Drake-kin.

"What have you done to me," Hallmark demanded, his voice still rasping. He seemed to swallow. His fingers clenched, but he was unable to move his arms. Perfect, that part of the spell was working.

"You should be thanking me," Huea answered, walking around and inspecting the man's body. No doubt she had her manasight activated. "You've joined a very exclusive club. You are the first successful resurrection of a sapient being in this world for hundreds of years."

"I- What- I don't-" Hallmark stumbled over his words, shock obvious.

"Get it together, my undead Minion. It's a simple concept. I've brought you back from the dead; you are now my servant. Your life is bound to me, and you cannot move against me in any way, shape, or form. Raise your arm, then salute."

Hallmark watched his arm raise, then slam into his chest, fist clenched.

Huea smiled, and I joined the conversation. I didn't speak to Hallmark directly, as we had no idea how connecting a mana tendril to the undead man would influence the bond Huea used to control him.

It seems to be a success; there are only a couple more tests, and then we can move on to the Corpse Animation spell.

Huea nodded, then spoke up again.

"Minion, raise one leg, and hop in place chanting 'My Life For My Mistress'!"

Hallmark raised one leg, hopped in place, and did so, chanting all the while.

His eyes burned with rage.

"That's enough. Stretch as far as your body will allow, using all the exercises you know. Any questions, my Minion?" Huea drawled, sitting down on the stone throne behind her.

"Am I still in the dungeon?" Hallmark asked, disturbed as his body moved without his mind's consent.

"Of course. You got further than any before, all the way to the Ninth! That's no easy feat, and when we found that your Soul was still in your core? It was an opportunity we refused to let pass us by. Thanks to you, We've rediscovered Necromancy. Or Soul Magic. Whichever you want to call it, really."

"And what is to become of me?" Hallmark asked, trying for a serious tone. That he was currently bending forward and looking at her from between his legs took something from that.

"For now, you are to be my servant. There are more tests to complete and more undead to raise. We also have more tests to perform on you, specifically. Such as, is your body still alive, or will it slowly rot away? Was this true resurrection, or merely Soul mana binding your soul to your body, animating it." Huea babbled, eyes shining.

"It's time to do some Science!"

Ah. It's safe to say I may have made a monster. I mean, she was a monster already, but- never mind. On with the tests!

We spent the next few days running as many tests as we could. It turned out that this wasn't True Resurrection. We could maintain Hallmark's body by adding life mana, but it would expend itself slowly. Honestly, I expected this. Getting a complete and total resurrection of the mind, body, and soul on the first attempt would be... anticlimactic. He also didn't feel pain anymore and had a more extensive range of motion and more brute strength.

For now, I assigned a Life Pixie- what I was calling the fairy-sized golems- to follow him around and keep him topped up with Life Mana. Who knows if he would maintain his skill if his flesh rotted away.

After that had been dealt with, Huea performed the next spell we had designed, the Corpse Animation Spell. Or Raise Zombie/Skeleton if you're a traditionalist. The spell wasn't picky. We had the bodies of hundreds of Bahrain soldiers, thanks to our cleanup after their invasion. As such, we had plenty of test subjects.

It was unlike when I possessed skeletons or had a sprite do the same. The Soul Mana animated the Skeleton, and it moved on its own! It only did something if its master, Huea, gave it an order. Move here, guard this, or patrol this hallway, for example, but you get the idea.

Next on the list?

Summoning Soul Sprites.

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Experimental Chambers, The Fifth Floor, The Dungeon

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Hallmark could only watch with increasing horror as his new Mistress performed her tests and cast her spells. He was trapped in his mind, allowed only the control his Mistress granted him. All except his eyes. His eyes were the only way to express his feelings, no matter what the monster demanded of him.

And he was feeling a lot.

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Anger at his situation. Resignation at the same. Disgust, Horror, Shock, and more.

He'd been swiftly armored in a full suit of black metal, one designed to accommodate his new range of flexibility. He was handed a claymore and told to follow his Mistress, looking intimidating. On the second day, he saw what he looked like in a mirror. Deathly pale skin, eyes glowing with that fel green light of Necromancy. That tiny manabeing that followed him, giggling incessantly, made sure to occasionally top him up with Life mana. He could briefly see color return to his skin, though it became pale within a few minutes.

The... The other undead were nothing like him. The bodies his Mistress raised were old, by more than a week, given the smell.

They were soulless, foul creatures. It mattered not whether their bodies were otherwise whole or mere skeletons. They were mindless, needing to be ordered around, with no will to improvise. Their skills were atrocious. Swords were treated like clubs as zombies swung them in the general direction of their target. Arrows shot by Skeleton Archers pinged off armor or missed entirely.

When she used the 'Raise Zombie' spell on a Bahrain guilder, though...

Mistress ordered him to fight this 'Wight,' as she named it, to gauge its skill level. The spar was short, but it lasted three blows more than the typical 'Zombies,' quite the feat. He heard his Mistress mumbling about the effect of the core on the body and spell, acting as a focus and control node for the zombie. A Bahrain Guilder raised as a Skeleton showed the same traits. Increased skill and rudimentary intelligence, but nothing truly exceptional.

Another item of note was the changes he observed in the monster who had resurrected him. Mistress had begun the tests with light-grey scales, a hue not unlike the stone of the caves they resided in. Now those scales were... stained. Blackened. She muttered constantly, and her eyes had gained a hint of the fel green light of Necromancy.

Hallmark took it as evidence of Necromancy corrupting its users, just as various temples across the world claimed.

Then, they moved on to the prisoners.

Hallmark felt something big had happened on the surface after he'd died. There was no way that the Dungeon could have captured dozens of living Bahrain soldiers, mages, and sailors otherwise. He stood to the left of his Mistress's throne as she cleared her throat. She straightened from her hunched position, where she'd been pouring over some documents in a language he couldn't read.

"Ah, Good. The test subjects are here. Take them to the holding cells, exceeeept that one," Mistress ordered, singling out a burly sailor. "Bring him here, Minion."

Hallmark seethed as his body moved without his consent. He stomped over, clasped the Sailor's upper arm in his gauntleted hand, then dragged him over, throwing him to the ground before the throne. The prisoner had cuffs on his arms and legs, connected by chains to prevent excess movement. The Sailor began begging. At least, as far as Hallmark could tell. He didn't speak their language, but the clasped hands and pleading tone were obvious.

Mistress cast a spell on the kneeling man, and there was no outward change.

"Kill him, Minion. A swift pierce of the heart."

Hallmark drew his sword and did so, his sword sliding easily between the gaps in the ribcage. The man gaped for a moment, then the sword was withdrawn, and he died. It was the process of about a minute, slowly bleeding out on the stone floor.

The moment he died, the fel light of Necromancy flashed from the body, and it stood up.

From the way the new undead's eyes flickered around, blinking rapidly... Hewas like Hallmark.

"Success!" Mistress exclaimed, clapping once with a smile. "The spell trapped the Soul within the body and triggered immediately on death! Wonderful! What's next on the list, Minion?"

"Soul Sprites, Mistress," Hallmark droned emotionlessly.

"Ah, yes! Spark, Slice, and bring in the golem bodies. Ruby, take Minion Number Two to the holding cells where we keep the aimless ones." Mistress spoke in the Bahrain language, getting the newly resurrected man's attention. The man followed a red drake-kin out of the room while the other two drake-kin wheeled in two golems on strange devices.

They had a plate on the bottom, connected to a long tube that turned back on itself at the top, with wheels at the connecting point. It made moving those heavy statues around easy, though.

One of the 'Golems,' as Mistress called them, was made of the same metal as his sword. He remembered seeing a lot of it during his fateful delve. The other was seemingly made of bone. It wasn't a standard skeleton, but it looked like a composite of at least five human skeletons, extra bones used as armor. It had four arms and stood at least seven feet tall. Three joints on the legs and three heads seemed excessive, though.

He watched Mistress perform the same summoning spell he'd seen done dozens of times. When the two balls of mana appeared, both radiating that same fel green light.

After a moment, both sprites zoomed over to the golems, taking one each.

The Bone Golem glowed to life, the jaws of its head chattering with silent laughter. One of the drake-kin assistants handed it a great axe, and then it wandered off on its own.

The Golem that was made of metal and warped into something truly terrifying.

Its surface turned a tarnished black, almost mimicking his Mistresses' scales in their change. Its mouth became a yawning blackness that seemed to swallow everything that touched it. It grew jagged claws, and its eyes glowed menacingly. As the transformation concluded, the other assistant stepped forward and draped the being in a black, ragged cloak. There was a rattle, and Hallmark Felt His Soul Twitch.

He shuddered, his eyes never leaving the creature as it moved so smoothly out of the room it looked like it was floating.

He hoped he'd never encounter one of those things again and felt relief at the look of discomfort on Mistress's face. If she didn't like them either...

Maybe she wouldn't make any more?

"Well, that was interesting. Spark, Slice, bring in the next two. They should be a Bone Horse and another of the Potentium ones."

Or maybe she would.

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The Merchantman Ship Good Tidings, Atlantis, The Kalenic Sea

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Captain Eli Hart walked off the gangplank with wary eyes. Rumors of what was happening at Medea Island had been racing up and down the coast. Or, Atlantis, he supposed it was called now.

Given the monsters walking about the dock, interacting with humans, trading, loading and unloading ships... He supposed at least a few of them were true.

He was soon approached by a goat-like monster holding a clipboard.

"Papers?" The monster prompted. Eli blinked and realized he'd been staring at the monster for a minute already.

"Ah, I'm sorry. I have them right... Gresh! Ah, thank you." Eli took the papers from his navigator, who rolled his eyes. "Right here, my good gentlemonster."

The monster took the papers and scanned them quickly, speaking as he did. "A few things to note. This is your first visit since the change in management on the island. All non-humans, on the surface, are considered equal to humans under the eyes of the law. Do not refer to them as 'Monsters,' as that word refers to non-sapient Children and is rather offensive. We are known as the Children of the Creator, Children for short. Each species has its own name, but Children is the catchall term.

"Some vendors at the market deal exclusively in Talons, the currency of the Dungeon. To exchange Talons for gold, copper, and silver coins, go to the new bank next to Market Plaza. You can't miss it. You will come with me now to pay the docking fee and a deposit you will get back before you leave." The mon-Child explained, noting down a few details in a form and ripping off a receipt. Hart was already striding off to this new bank by the time the Child looked up again. "Gresh! Pay the man the docking fee!"

"This still isn't myJOB!" he heard Gresh exclaim, and he only laughed in response.

He wanted to check the island out.

The town looked very much the same. There was no damage from the invasion; if there had been any, it was repaired. There was roughly one Child per three humans, by his count. It was startling to realize all these beings had been in the Dungeon. Just how big was it?

Hart marveled at the many different species of Children as he approached the very obvious bank. It hadn't been there before, and with the columns, it looked more like a temple than a bank. Then again, he supposed some people did worship coin, and having a temple to the god of Trade also be a bank was quite a good idea.

But back to the Children. There were more like the dockmaster, goat-people with black skin and thick, red wool. There were also large Cow-men, generally seen aiding humans in hauling large quantities of stone. It seemed like three or four buildings were being constructed around the town, so that made sense.

The lizardmen outnumbered the rest by a large margin in at least three different forms. A smaller, thinner one. A larger, more refined-looking being and the third resembled the second but for the white fur ruffs around their necks, wrists, and ankles. Though the colors among them varied, the furred were all shades of blue and white. The refined ones were the colors of rocks or gemstones, and the lanky ones were brighter, the colors resembling tropical flowers in their vividness.

He saw only one of the giant scorpions and gave it a wide berth. While he was sure it was a lovely being, the fact was that it freaked him the fuck out. The robe draped over its upper half, and the book in its grasp, along with some jewelry and seemingly holy symbols, had him thinking it was a priest. However, he couldn't identify what god it was by the iconography. Perhaps this 'Creator' the dockmaster mentioned?

As he pushed his way into the bank, he felt giddy. This island was already immensely profitable before. He could scarcely imagine the riches he would make now!

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