I left the small storage building behind as I made my way to the next across a small stone road that led to the city. I stepped over a skeleton or two on the way there and shivered as I thought about what had happened here.

Where did these skeletons come from? What was this dead city?

I knew I was inside a dungeon, but seeing a city like this… it felt all too real. It felt as if this city had once been a real city. I didn’t know how to explain it. I just… felt it.

I didn’t want to think about it. I wanted to get the achievements that I needed and then hightail it out of here. This place was not for me. I realized now how blessed I was to have never run into any undead before. Even if I hadn’t seen them, I knew I would be creeped out the moment I laid eyes on one.

The only light in the darkness was that I had a spell that was specifically meant to… kill them?

I peered into the next storage building and noticed much of the same: broken pots, splintered planks, and white powder everywhere, which I assumed was flour.

I sighed mentally and moved on to the next building.

The longer I stayed on this floor, the worse my anxiety got. I did not like being here one bit. I would be more than thankful once this was all over and I’d find myself in a forest again. At least I’d know what awaited me there.

When I peered into the next building, there was nothing there except for a wooden chest in the center of the small building. Unable to enter the storage unit, and wary enough for any kinds of traps, I walked back away from the entrance and fired a line of thread at the chest. I then dragged it outside.

I heard a clicking sound, much like the one that I heard when I stepped on the trap in the tunnel, and I immediately switched into a combat-ready stance. No trap was present inside the building, and nothing noteworthy happened, but I knew something was off.

My barriers were still active, and I prepared to put down elemental walls and fire my own spells. I increased the intensity of my flame spell in order to illuminate a larger area.

I then saw several of the skeletons in my vicinity start to move. As soon as I knew what was going on, I started channeling my holy pulse spell. A nova of holy light expanded outward until it was about 15 feet away from me where it dissipated into the air.

There were about five skeletons within the area that the nova passed through. I could see their bones burn and blacken slightly as the nova crashed over them. They were still in the process of standing up, having mostly finished pulling themselves together from the low piles of bones they had been. They didn’t seem at all bothered by the spell, although it had obviously done some harm to them.

A second or three after the first ring of holy fire was fired, the next pulse was sent out. I could feel its mana cost had increased, and as soon as the wave hit the bones of the skeletons, they turned mostly black.

My new enemies now stood upright and started to charge at me. They were unarmed, but seemed unrelenting. I had no idea whether my attack had actually hurt them. I didn’t know if undead could feel any pain, either. Judging from their actions, they did not.

The next wave of holy fire was sent out, and turned the skeletons’ bones completely black. As it hit them, I also heard unholy screams that made me wince in pain.

Correction, it seemed they did feel some sort of pain.

They were still charging at me, and eventually reached me. Since they lacked any kind of weapon, all they could do was claw at me, which was easily blocked by my legs. I was surprised to discover that I had sufficient coordination with my limbs to block all five skeletons’ attacks at the same time.

It was then that my holy pulse fired another shockwave of light that was significantly stronger than the ones that came before. Its mana cost was proportionally higher, and put a small dent in my sizeable mana pool.

As the wave washed over the undead, their already black bones turned into nothing but ash, which fell to the ground. Where there were once enemies, now remained nothing but a few piles of ash.

You have killed a Skeleton Civilian: EXP + 234

Level Up!

Kealyna has reached level 9!

You have been awarded 75 EP.

You have killed a Skeleton Civilian: EXP + 221

You have killed a Skeleton Civilian: EXP + 252

You have killed a Skeleton Civilian: EXP + 239

You have killed a Skeleton Farmer: EXP + 201

Achievement earned: Wanted: Dead or… well, dead.

Kill an undead enemy.

You have been awarded 150 EP.

You have been awarded 197 EXP.

Requirement for future evolution complete.

Level Up!

Kealyna has reached level 10!

You have been awarded 75 EP.

Level Cap Reached.

With my enemies dead, I sent out one more pulse of the spell, in case any new skeletons had appeared. None were caught by the spell’s effects. I looked around and saw nothing moving in the darkness beyond my flame spell, which was still active.

I canceled the holy pulse spell and waited a few moments before turning my attention to what I had been doing before they appeared. The chest that had activated the trap was still waiting for me inside the building.

The thread that I used to pull it seemed to have been vaporized by my attack. I shot a new thread at the wooden chest and continued pulling it outside. Once it was outside the building, I opened the chest with my pedipalps.

At first, I thought there was nothing inside. I didn’t know what I expected as it was the first time I’d ever found a dungeon treasure. The only reason I knew it was a treasure in the first place was because of the distinct wooden chest without a lock of any kind. They had been described quite often in the stories I’d heard about dungeons.

There was no gold or potions inside. When I peeked over the edge of the chest, all I saw was a scroll, bound with a ribbon. Unsure of what it was, I decided to take it back with me to Cellestra. Maybe she would know what it was.

The moment I picked up the scroll with my pedipalps, the message I’d been hunting for appeared.

Achievement earned: Treasure Trove

Loot a dungeon treasure.

You have been awarded 150 EP.

You have been awarded 0 EXP.

Requirement for future evolution complete.

I was glad to see that I got what I was after.

I looked around for a moment to think about my next step. I had all the experience I needed. The only thing I currently lacked to reach my next evolution was to kill a queen of any species.

I turned around and made my way to the exit of this place. There was no way I was going to find some kind of queen here. Besides, I’d already planned for this. Logic deemed it proper to look for a queen ant in the hive that I’d encountered earlier.

I skittered back to the exit as fast as I could. I then crossed the room where I’d fought the sand slime creature before entering the swamp area again.

I never knew I’d be this happy to see a swamp.

Despite the awful smell that lingered in some areas, this was still a thousand times better than the eerie feeling that the ruined city gave me. I quickly passed through the swamp, paying little attention to the few crocolisks that snapped ineffectually at me. Fortunately, I was too fast for any of them to actually hit me.

I then made my way through the tunnel back to the surface, carefully, so as not to trigger the same trap that I’d triggered on my way in. Once at the surface, the colors of the forest lifted my spirits.

I had no idea how much time passed in the day, so I would make my way back to Cellestra and maybe start working on that nest if there was time remaining. I might have to redo portions of it, but I believed I could make something of a shelter that wouldn’t need a complete do-over after my next evolution.

There were two reasons that I couldn't reasonably attempt to immediately seek the ant nest. Firstly, it was already too late in the evening. Secondly, while I knew where it was, I had yet to create an adequate mental map of the forest’s layout and could only currently navigate using Cellestra’s house as my point of reference. Straying from known paths would just be asking for trouble.

With some luck, I would get to my next evolution tomorrow. I would still have a few days remaining before I planned to explore the area around where I’d found the humans.

I would need all the time I had. I wondered what kind of achievements I was going to need for my final evolution.

As I traveled, I found my mood brightening at the thought of seeing Cellestra again. These feelings would just not go away, would they?