Chapter 33: Into Lich’s lair

“She’s Daria Swann!” Dianne said with excitement.

An awkward silence ensued. The rest of us looked at each other in confusion and looked back at Daria. Dianne was puzzled as to why we weren’t as excited as her. Finally, I was the one who broke the awkward silence.

“Ye-hey…” I clapped my hands slowly. “Right. Nothing to see here. Let’s go.”

“Hmmm.” Eric went closer and looked at her down and up. “This is my first time seeing you in person. Wow. You’re taller than me!”

“Y-yeah, I guess I’m taller than you. He-he-he.” Daria let out an awkward laugh. “Uhmmm. Can I come with you?”

“Sorry Dianne, but I’m not a fan of Daria Swann either.” Melissa pulled Eric away from Daria Swann. “I hate her.”

“Yeah, me too.” Beth lowered her axe. “Let’s just leave her.”

“B-b-but!” Dianne stuttered. “What are talking about? Are we just going to leave her alone?”

“Yes, Dianne. We leave her alone.” Beth said. “We don’t have time to jerk around with a celebrity.”

I was about to walk out when Daria Swann suddenly grabbed my wrist. As if on instinct, I pulled out my sword and pointed the blade at her neck. The others also drew their weapons while Piper growled at Daria.

“I-I’m sorry.” Daria finally let go of my wrist. “I-I just… I need food.”

I lowered my sword and put it back on the sheathe. I signaled the others to do the same. “Sorry Daria, we don’t have enough for all of us.”

“Please…” Daria knelt and cried at my feet. “I haven’t eaten anything in two days.”

I wasn’t convinced with her act. She really wasn’t crying for real. I know a fake person and a hypocrite when I see one and Daria was clearly one of them. How did I know? Well, I’m a hypocrite too, and it takes a hypocrite to hate other hypocrites.

“Seriously, Claire? You’re going to make her beg?” Dianne said as she folded her arms. “We have lots of boar meat and noodles for all of us.”

“Fine.” I let out a sigh.

Dianne was too gullible and blinded by her idol. But Dianne is my best friend and I don’t want us to fight. Anyway, it won’t really hurt us to give Daria some food. “Give her some food, Mel.”

Melissa took out a packed meal from her inventory and gave it Daria. It was ramen with sliced meat. Daria took the bowl and quickly drank the hot soup before Melissa could give her a spoon and fork.

“Ugh! This is so good!” Daria said as she took the utensils and slurped the noodles. “Thank you!”

“Come on guys. Let’s go.”

“Aren’t we going to take her with us?” Dianne asked as she held my wrist.

I shook my head and took my hand away from her. “We found her alone. She can take care of herself.”

“Come on, Claire. Don’t be like that.”

“What do you want me to do?”

“Take her with us!”

“We can’t just take every person we meet.” I said in defense. “I don’t trust her and I don’t like a burden in our group.”

“She won’t be a burden. You said it yourself, Daria can take care of herself.” Dianne turned to Daria. “Right?”

“Uhm-hmm.” Daria nodded as she handed her empty bowl to Melissa. “That was good. Can I have more?”

“No.” Melissa shook her head as Daria looked down in disappointment.

“We can’t take her with us.” I said. “That’s my final decision.”

“Then let’s have a vote.” Dianne raised her hand as if she was challenging me. “Who wants Daria to come with us?”

None of them raised their hand except for Eric and Richard. Melissa hit Eric on his head with her fist which left Richard the only one raising his hand.

“What?” Richard shrugged. “I like her.”

“And who agrees with me?” I asked them and all of them raised their hand except for Richard and Dianne. “Now that’s settled. Let’s go.”

Dianne sat beside Daria and folded her arms. “I’m not going.”

“Is that so?”

“Yeah, I’m not going without Daria.”

“How about your brother?”

Dianne glared at me as she hesitated to stand up. “If it were Miguel, I’m sure he’ll let her come with us.”

“Look, the group already decided. She’s not coming with us.”

“Miguel?” Daria asked. “This Miguel you’re talking about. Is he a fat guy?”

“You know him?” I asked as I stared at her.

“Yeah, I do.” She nodded. “Fat guy, beard, mage robe. He had one eye and one hand.”

When Daria mentioned Miguel, she immediately piqued our interest. She described him perfectly, except the fact that he has one eye and one hand.

“What do you mean by he had one eye and one hand?” Dianne asked.

“He said that he lost his hand because he was bitten by a wolf and he lost his eye the day after because of slimes.”

“Where is he now?” Eric asked.

“He’s dead.”

“Dead? Are you sure?”

“Last time I saw him, he walked into a building full of zombies. I’m pretty sure no one can make it alive.”

The more we asked her about Miguel, the more we became suspicious. I looked at Dianne and from her expression, she seemed to have changed her opinion of Daria.

“Can you tell us where this building is?” Dianne asked.

“You guys have too many questions.” Daria rolled her eyes in annoyance.

“That’s because we’re looking for him, dumbass.” I said.

“Is that so?” Daria sneered as she folded her arms. “Actually, that gives me an idea. If you give me food, water and a map, I’ll tell you where I last saw him. I’ll be on my way to this Camp Ag.. Ag…”

“Camp Aguinaldo?” Eric said.

“Yes, that one.”

[Okay guys, change of plans. We need to convince her to come with us.] – Claire

[I had a bad feeling about this. She looks like she’ll stab us in the back if she had a chance.] – Melissa

[I’ll take care of it.] - Dianne

“We came from that military base and I’ll tell you, it’s not safe anymore. Why do you think we’re here?”

“What do you mean it’s not safe? Did the monsters-“

“Worse.” Dianne continued. “The rebels overtook the base.”

“I don’t really care if it’s the rebels or the government. Give me what I need and I’ll be on my way.”

“Good luck with that. The rebels also killed the civilians. They didn’t even spare the children.” Dianne said. “You can try your luck in there. I’m sure they’re looking for a pretty woman like you. Or you can try your luck with us.”

“Are you planning to rescue him or something?”

“We do.” I nodded. “Miguel is her brother.”

“Ugh.” Daria let out a deep sigh. “I won’t go back there. It’s suicide!”

“If you take us there, we’ll give you what you need. How’s that deal?” I said.

After a few seconds of silence, Daria told us her decision. “Fine, I’ll take you there.”

“Then let’s go.”

“Actually.” Daria said as she handed Melissa her empty bowl. “I could use more of that noodles. It’s pretty good.”

I gave my signal to Melissa as she handed her another bowl of noodles.

“Thank you.” Daria smirked. “That wasn’t too hard, isn’t it?”

“Look, we don’t have time to fuck around. Let’s go! You eat that on the way.” My patience was wearing thin at that point.

“Are you serious? It’s too dangerous to travel at night. I think we should stay here to pass the night.”

“We don’t have time for that.”

“I’ll take you there at sunrise. I promise.”

“You better.”

With that said, I instructed Eric to barricade the gas station as we decided to stay there for the night. Although Daria seemed to be annoyed at us, we continued our barrage of questions. I mean, it’s been days since we last heard of Miguel. Whenever she stopped answering our questions, we would give her food which she would devour quickly and the answers would resume. Fortunately, Melissa had enough noodles for everyone.

“How did you meet Miguel?” Mark asked.

“I met him four days ago. I had two companions with me; a girl who worked at the hotel I stayed in Manila and a seven-year-old cat girl…”

“A cat girl?” I asked.

“You know, cat ears on their head and cat tails like you see in cosplays?” Daria made gestures with her hand as she described the cat girl.

“So we were in Pasig that day and we were attacked by zombies. Jenny was eaten alive and I was bitten. I thought that was it, but a wall made of rocks suddenly appeared around us and the next thing I saw was that every zombie in the area were dead and that’s how we met him. I asked Miguel to kill me because I didn’t want to turn into a zombie, but instead, he saved my life.”

“What happened next?”

“Can I have a glass of water?” Daria asked as she looked at Richard. “Make it cold.”

Richard shook his head in annoyance as he took a glass and filled it with iced water. “Here you go. Now continue.”

“Ah. Whew. More please.” Daria drank the water in a few gulps and gave back the glass to Richard. “After that, Asharra and I tried to follow him, because you know, he was strong and we couldn’t survive on our own. At first, Miguel didn’t want us to follow him, but I convinced him in the end.”

“What do you mean by convinced? How did you convince him?” I asked as Daria looked at me with furrowed brows. “I’m his girlfriend.”

“Oh. Hahaha!” Daria laughed and grinned. “Well, I don’t need to tell you that.”

I was about to beat her to a pulp, but seeing that I was red in anger, Dianne touched my shoulder as she tried to calm me down. No matter. I was also very convincing. I will convince Miguel with a foot rammed up his ass.

“Anyway, he agreed to help me level up. I leveled up a couple of times, but he just cracked when we were in the middle of the fight. He was… How do I put this? Uhmmm. Crazy? No, no. Delusional, that’s it! He was delusional and hallucinated and he saw his dead son and he screamed his name, Daniel or something. Luckily, he snapped out of it when I slap him.”

“Son?” I asked. “What do you mean?”

“He was three years old. Miguel didn’t want to talk about it, so I assumed his son was dead.”

What the fuck was she talking about? Since when did Miguel had a son? We all looked at each other in confusion asking the same thing. I tried to remember every memory he had in me, but there was nothing.

“Miguel had a son?” Melissa whispered.

“I didn’t know about that either.” I said. “Fuck him! He doesn’t tell me shit.”

“He doesn’t have a son. I’m sure of it.” Dianne shook her head.

“Yeah, I knew Miguel since we were in high school. He never had a girlfriend until he met you, Claire.” Eric said. “Perhaps we’re mistaken. Maybe this Miguel, Daria is talking about was another person.”

I turned around and faced Daria. “Are you sure this Miguel you’re talking about is the same Miguel we know?”

Daria shrugged. “I don’t know.”

“What else can you tell about him?” Beth asked. “Just to make sure we’re not wasting our time with you.”

“Ugh.” Daria sighed and rolled her eyes. “He has a house in Pasig and we followed this red smiley. He said they clues from her mom.”

“There’s no mistake.” Dianne whispered. “That was Miguel.”

“But she said he had a son?” Richard asked.

“Well, she also said he was delusional.” Mark shrugged. “Maybe it’s the Dark Lord’s doing. He’s the god of falsehoods, right?”

All of us nodded as we turned back to Daria. “Please continue.”

“Where was I?”

“You followed the red smiley face and then?”

“Oh, so we followed these red smileys on the way. And then he went crazy again. But…”

“But what?”

“I don’t know if you’ll believe me...” Daria scratched her head.

“Go on, whatever it is. It might me important.”

“Asharra didn’t turn out to be what she really was… Hmmm…”

“What do you mean? What does it have to do with Miguel?”

“W-well, they were getting close to each other and he treated Asharra like her own daughter and I was surprised when she called him Papa. I mean, it’s weird. They just met in two days.”

It was weird, indeed. I looked back to the group and we nodded to each other. The cat girl was probably the source of Miguel’s hallucination. Asharra might be one of the Dark Lord’s minion or worse, she was the Dark Lord herself.

“Asharra led him in the middle of a horde and said that Mama’s waiting for them or something. That’s when I last saw him.”

“Where is this place?” I asked.

“Well, if I tell you then you won’t give me what I need so...” Daria shrugged. “Like I said, I’ll take you there tomorrow and when we’re there, you give me what I need, deal?”

When Daria saw Dianne took out a pillow and a bedding, she snatched it from her.

“Good timing, little kid. I could really use some sleep now.” Daria said.

“But that’s mine!” Dianne complained.

“I thought you were my fan? The very least you can do for me is to let me sleep in comfort.” Daria laid down in the bed and covered her head with a pillow. “Good night, kid.”

Dianne fumed with anger and muttered the word “fuck you” as she stabbed a wooden desk repeatedly. Like I said before, Dianne was rarely angry and she’s scary when angered. Now she knew what her real personality was and Daria gained another hater.

We also rested that night, but since we didn’t trust Daria, we kept a close eye on her. We were afraid that Daria would rob us of our weapons or worse, she would kill us and loot our corpse. She knew that we won’t harm her because of the information that she had. Eric, Melissa and I took the first shift, then Richard, Dianne, Mark and Beth took the second one.

The next morning, I woke up and found that all of us were already awake except for Daria. She seemed to be enjoying herself well in the comfort of a soft pillow. Melissa already prepared the supplies along with a map as our end of the bargain and gave it to me.

“Wake up.” I ‘slightly’ kicked Daria as I waked her.

“Ugh.” Daria groaned and covered her head with a pillow, so I kicked her again. “What?!”

“It’s already morning and you made a promise.” I said to her. “Unless you want to stay here alone.”

As soon as Daria heard that, she immediately got up and yawned. “You don’t mind if I take this pillow and bedding, right?”

“That’s not a part of our deal.” I shook my head as I snatched the bedding and pillow and gave it back Dianne.

“How about breakfast?” She asked. “Can you at least let me have some breakfast?”

We already ate our breakfast, so I gave my signal to Melissa to give her a bowl of noodles.

“Noodles again?” Daria complained. “Don’t you have like rice or anything?”

“We don’t.” I said. “Just eat that before I lose my patience.”

Daria let out a sigh and ate her noodles. After she had breakfast, it became harder for her to cooperate with us. She began to spew bullshit excuses about how she needed rest after she ate and how she needed to do some stretching in the morning and it’s the secret to her beauty. I couldn’t take it any longer.

“You know what? We wasted too much time.” I raised my hand as my patience has run out. I took out my sword and pointed it at her neck. “Let me just kill you.”

“Whoa! Whoa! Chill out!” Daria said as she moved back. “Okay, okay. Jesus!”

“Let’s go!” I shouted.

“Look, I really don’t want to go back there! You don’t know Asharra. She’s- I don’t know I can’t explain it, but I nearly pissed myself when she grinned at me, you know, so please!” Daria said frantically.

“You don’t have to come with us there. You’ll just point it out from afar where we can see them and you can go with your supplies. That is our deal, remember?”

“How about the zombies? You have no idea how many zombies I saw back there.”

“We’ll clear them out. We have our way, so you’ll be safe.”

“Are you sure?”

“Yes, I’m sure.”

“How about if I just tell you the place?”

“That’s not our deal. You’ll take us there yourself.”

“O-okay.” Daria bobbed her head as she wiped her eyes. Whoever this Asharra was, Daria was afraid of her. That was why she was trying her best to delay us.

We went on to our search as Daria led the way to where she saw him last. We could definitely use all the help we could get as I told Daria that she could come with us and rescue Miguel, but she repeatedly expressed that she didn’t want to go back there and she’d only point us to our direction. She was an unlikable person, sure, but there’s no need for us to like her anyway. Thankfully, Daria cooperated with us with a promise of supplies.

Blackmailing is like pointing a gun to a person with only one bullet in it. You only have one shot to force the person to do or get whatever you want. If you screw it, then you’re done. I learned that it’s easier for a person to cooperate if you can show her your intention to fulfill your end of the bargain. As a token, we decided to give her the bedding and a pillow and a piece of paper containing the inventory list of the supplies we were giving to her. Every time her she fidgeted and cower, I’ll show her the bag of supplies.

The supply bag contained 10 kilos of cooked meat, a bolo knife, three changes of clothes, five bottles of healing potion and five bottles of holy water. We already gave her two water containers filled with clean water, so that we’ll hand her the rest after she fulfilled her promise. Dianne also threw in a rope in case that Daria wanted to hang herself. She made sure that Daria heard it as she added the rope in the bag. She must be disappointed in her idol’s attitude.

We encountered more restless dead zombies along the way and just like I promise to Daria, we showed her that we can handle the horde. She looked awed and it seemed that she was tempted to join us, but in the end, she shook her head and still didn’t join us. One thing we noticed about the zombies was that some of them weren’t human. Some of them have long ears and some of them have animal ears and tail just like Asharra in Daria’s story.

I learned that those with long pointed ears were called Elves while those who have animal features were Beastmen. Richard told us that the Beastmen they fought in Camp Aguinaldo had wolves’ feature and they were like barbarians and fought with savagery. The Beastmen attacked Camp Aguinaldo without a warning or provocation. The army captured a few of them as prisoners, but Richard didn’t know what happened to them after.

“Wait.” Daria said as she raised her hand.

“Is this where you last saw Miguel?” I asked.

“Yeah, this is where I last saw them.” Daria nodded as she pointed her finger. “They’re in there. That Home Depot building. I saw them entered that building.”

“Are you sure?” Dianne asked.

“Yeah.”

[How can we be sure she isn’t lying?] – Dianne

[Why would she lie?] – Beth

[Well, I don’t trust that bitch. That’s why.] – Dianne

[Let me ask God.] – Claire

God, I just wanted to confirm. Is Miguel inside that Home Depot?

*DING!*

I’m not sure, but if you’re asking if Daria is lying then no. She’s telling you the truth. Be careful though. That Home Depot is a dungeon. An undead dungeon.

Thanks, God.

No problem.

[So what did God say? Is Miguel in there?] – Melissa

[He said that Daria’s telling the truth. That Home Depot is an undead dungeon.] – Claire

[Shit! Another dungeon?] – Eric

[Well, at least we have a fighting chance unlike the slime dungeon.] – Mark

[How about that horde? That’s twice as many as we fought yesterday.] – Richard

[We can handle that.] – Beth

“So… Can I have the rest of my supplies?” Daria asked.

I took out the bag of supplies and handed it to her. “Are you sure you don’t want to join us?”

“No, thanks.” She rummaged the contents of the bag.

“Trust me, you don’t want to go to Camp Aguinaldo.” Eric added. “We’ve only escaped because we bribed a colonel. The rebels even killed the women and children.”

“Thanks for the advice, but I won’t join you. No matter what.” Daria said as she stored the bag to her inventory.

“Good luck.” Dianne smiled as she flipped the bird. “And go fuck yourself.”

“Fuck you, midget!” Daria also raised her middle finger as she turned her back from us.

“Hey dumbass. You’re going the wrong way. Camp Aguinaldo’s that way.” Melissa said as she pointed to the east.

“That’s because I’m not going there, you idiot.” Daria rolled her eyes and walked away.

After that, we went back to the problem in hand. Thank goodness, that was over. Gerry’s death was still fresh in our mind, so the fear of going inside another dungeon was still with us on that day. Actually, at that moment, we became afraid of tunnels, caves, puddles and obviously, slimes.

On the positive side, however, we can freely kill the enemies without worrying about our weapons being ineffective. We even had Mark with us who can bless our weapons to be effective against the undead and bless our armor to protect us from their attacks. One thing that worries us was that our weapons could become too damaged to use because of the sheer number of the zombies. My longsword had more than half durability since this morning.

Luckily, we were prepared for this quest even if it was just a night of preparation. If we couldn’t kill the zombies manually, why not use explosives to kill them? I know what you’re thinking. We couldn’t possibly have a bomb and it was clearly stated by the SYSTEM that gun powders and other explosive weapons won’t work anymore and the brothers already tested it. Well, you are right, technically.

Since we can’t use any chemical explosives, what else do we have? Remember the Fucking Rocks?

When Miguel asked Eric to dispose of it, Eric confessed to us that he stored it in his inventory instead, especially when Miguel mentioned that we would blow ourselves with it. He used most of his money and bought more Fucking Rocks while we were at Camp Aguinaldo in the market saying to Melissa that: ‘We will need it eventually’. The reason he didn’t use it in the slime dungeon was because he was afraid that the cave would collapse. He had a total of 12 Fucking Rocks with him and he and Richard made bombs with it while we were in Miguel’s house.

We were a hundred of meters away from Home Depot while Dianne did some scouting first. She said that there were at least two hundred zombies just outside the Home Depot and there could be more inside. I called her to return, so we can formulate our plan.

“What’s the plan?” Beth asked.

“So, here’s Home Depot and this is us.” Eric took a stick and drew a sketch of the plan on the ground. “I was thinking that if we can dig a hole here, we lure can them and throw the bombs at them.”

“I’ll lure them.” Dianne nodded. “I’m the fastest runner.”

“I don’t think that will work though.” Melissa said. “Those zombies will just pile up and climb.”

“I’ll just use my skill over and over again on that hole. No worries.” Mark shrugged.

“Not an option.” Eric shook his head. “You will need to be close to use that skill. When those bombs go off, you’ll be caught in that explosion.”

“How about we make the hole deeper so the zombies won’t get out?” I asked.

“That’s it!” Richard snapped his fingers and snatched the stick from Eric. “I’ll make the hole and then we’ll place the bombs on these sides of the hole. When it blows up, it’ll kill the zombies and the hole will collapse and bury those zombies.”

“How do we trigger the bombs then?” I asked.

“I’ll just throw in a fireball and it will go off.” Richard answered.

“This might actually work.” Eric rubbed his chin. “So that’s settled then?”

“Yup.” I nodded. “Let’s do it.”

After we agreed to the plan, Richard used his magic and dug a deep hole while the rest of us kill the zombies around him. We didn’t know how deep or how far the dungeon was, so he dug a hole far away from Home Depot. It was already afternoon when he finished digging. He said that he went through the shitty sewers and dug a hole of at least 50 feet deep and twelve feet in radius.

We pulled him up with a rope as he placed the bombs on the walls and finished our trap. After that, Richard used the earth he dug up and made walls that would block either side to make sure that the zombies won’t use those flanks. The walls will also serve as a funnel that will force the horde into the hole.

The trap was finished and all we had to do was to execute the rest of the plan. Before we went on, Mark blessed our weapons and our armor to prepare us for the fight. One thing I learned from Miguel’s memories was to always have a contingency plan and our plan B involves fighting. We also had a plan C which involves running away. Once we were in position, I gave Dianne the signal to lure all the zombies she could towards the trap.

[Just relax Dianne. It’s gonna work.] – Claire

[Geez, I’m not even nervous. Are you nervous?] – Dianne

[Yeah, we all are. Just go. Richard, be ready.] - Claire

[Right.] – Richard

Dianne took off her zombie disguise cloak as she ran towards the horde. She also brought a cooking pot with her and made a noise to attract them. We watched her from afar with our binoculars as she ran across the street with the horde behind her back. Not only the zombies outside the hardware store chased her, but also those who were inside. Dianne was right. There were more of them inside Home Depot and there were more than we expected. We estimated more than a thousand of them.

[Shit! I don’t think our hole’s big enough!] – Eric

[Don’t worry guys, I have an idea.] - Dianne

Do you know why crowd crushes are fatally dangerous? Well, the crowd’s density is actually more important than their number. When the zombies were too pressed together, the horde behaved somewhat like a fluid. The zombies didn’t need to breathe, so they wouldn’t die of suffocation, but because of the density of their crowd and their soft flesh, some of them were crushed. Furthermore, Dianne went into small and tight spaces in between the building to crush them.

Level up!

[What the hell? It worked! Good job, Dianne!] – Beth

[It’s not over yet.] – Claire

[I’m running out of stamina. I’m bringing the party to you.] – Dianne

The horde was reduced to only three quarters of their number when Dianne decided to lure them into the trap. I think the reason why Dianne was brave was because she couldn’t see how many there were behind her back. We almost pissed ourselves when we saw the incoming horde.

[Here they come, Richard.] – Eric

[I know.] – Richard

[I don’t think I can make it!] – Dianne

[You can do it! Come on! You’re nearly there!] - Claire

Dianne panted as she continued to run. Her stamina was getting low at that point and when she made the jump across the hole, she almost didn’t make it. I caught her with my arm and pulled her up. The zombies also tried to jump, but they all fell down to the hole. Those who fell first were killed as they were crushed by the weight of the other zombies. When most of them were in the hole, I gave Richard my signal.

“Fire in the hole!” Richard shouted as he dropped a flaming boulder into the hole.

I carried Dianne on my back as we all ran away from the hole. The bombs went off after just a few seconds and we were thrown by the shockwave. The ground shook and split up as the hole collapsed. Although I haven’t seen an explosion before, I didn’t expect that their bombs would be that powerful.

Level up! Level up! Level up!

“WOOOOHOOO!” Eric jumped up and down and high-fived Richard. “That was awesome!”

“Fuck! I wish I can take a video of that explosion.” Richard stomped his foot.

The plan was successful. Well, more or less. Most of the zombies were either buried or blown into pieces, but there were still a few of them left and charged at us. They didn’t fall down into the hole, but we finished them off easily. I almost couldn’t believe that Fucking Rocks would actually be useful. However, it was terrifying that we almost got ourselves killed on the first day of the apocalypse. Thankfully, Miguel warned us about those Fucking Rocks.

“Ugh.” Eric’s excitement suddenly died down. “I don’t have any more of those rocks.”

“I’m sure we’ll get more of it.” Melissa pat Eric on the back.

“Nope.” Richard shook his head. “Fucking Rocks won’t drop anymore since the latest patch.”

“We’ll just buy them from other survivors. If we find one.” Mark said.

“Well, at least the plan was a success. Great job, you two!” Beth said.

“Don’t celebrate yet.” I said. “We still have to rescue Miguel.”

Richard moved the earth wall, he made back to the collapsed hole and hardened it with his magic to make sure the zombies trapped inside will never be able climb their way up again. The rest of us rested for a few minutes to recover our stamina. I reminded them not to forget to distribute their points before we head to the dungeon itself.

Name: Claire Roque Race: Human Level: 27 HP: 550/550 MP: 380/380 SP: 700/700 EXP: 12.42% STR: 51 WIS: 18 AGI: 70 INT: 29 VIT: 55 LUK: 14 DEX: 14 CHA: 36 Satiety: Normal Status Normal Undistributed Attribute Points: 0 Title(s): Sadist: +10% Damage and chance to stagger Perk(s): N/A

I had a total of 25 points from leveling up. I put 5 points to STR, 9 points to AGI and since we didn’t know what enemies we would face on the dungeon, I put 11 points to VIT which made it higher than STR. I regretted my decision when I learned that all of them actually dumped all of their points to VIT. It was a hard earned lesson from Gerry’s death obviously.

Mark blessed our weapons and armor again while Richard and Melissa drank their potion of mana regeneration. The rest of us who use stamina as a resource used a new potion that Dianne made, potion of stamina regeneration. For me, it was one of the best potions she even made. She said that she made it from the glowing mushrooms we harvested from the slime dungeon.

Potion of Stamina Regeneration

Quality: Rank E (Low)

Effect: +20% Stamina Regeneration for 12 Hours

A low quality potion made by Dianne Duria. It improves stamina regeneration by a small amount.

After the preparation, we went to the Home Depot. I was afraid at that time, not only because we were going inside a dungeon again, but I was afraid to know what happened to Miguel. I wasn’t exactly an optimistic person, nor a pessimist like Miguel, but like he said to me, you always have to expect the worse. However, I’d like to think that it was alright to cling to hope.

You have entered [Lair of the Great Lich]

We were all speechless as we silently went inside the building. It was already night, so it was dark. Richard and Beth lit up their torches to light the way. We already expected that we would still encounter more zombies inside, but it seemed that Dianne lured almost every zombie to that hole. There were only a few of them left, so we killed them as quickly as we can.

The store was a mess and had a disgusting smell of rotting corpses. I was worried because the building looked like it was about to collapse. Eric and Richard suddenly searched a pile of tools lying on the ground. I understood that it was very tempting for them to loot this place for valuable tools, especially when they learned that their bomb was successful, but I told them to focus on the task. Thankfully, they listened.

We searched everywhere on the first floor, but we didn’t find anything. We even tried to search upstairs, but there was nothing there except for more junk and a few zombies. It took us a while searching every nook and crannies.

[Guys! Here! I think this is it!] – Beth

[Where are you?] – Mark

[First floor.] – Beth

We quickly went downstairs as Beth waved both of her arms at us. There was one door that we left out and that was the employee’s restroom.

“Be quiet.” Beth slowly opened the door. “Look at this.”

We took a peek behind the door and we saw a hole in the wall. Inside the hole, there was a faint blue light in the distance.

“Something’s not right.” Mark said.

“What is it?”

“I can’t sense undead inside the hole.” He replied.

“So what’s wrong with that?” I asked.

“Liches are undead.”

“So?”

“This dungeon is called Lair of the Great Lich and yet, I can’t sense an undead. It doesn’t make any sense.” Mark shrugged.

“Maybe Miguel is inside.” Dianne suggested. “Can you feel – living things?”

“Unfortunately, I can’t.”

“How about you, Richard?” Beth asked.

“Hmmm.” Richard squinted his eyes as he concentrated with his magic. “I can sense a person inside. It’s Miguel, I think. I’m not sure.”

“Then let’s go and find out.” I said.

We entered the hole inside the restroom. When our torches illuminated the area, we noticed that it was a long underground tunnel. We suspected that there could be traps in there, so Dianne tested it by throwing a few stones on the floor. We sighed in relief when Dianne confirmed that it was unlikely that the tunnel was trapped, but I suggested that we should still be careful.

Unlike the slime dungeon, the tunnel’s walls were smooth and there were strange carved drawings on the wall and writings similar to Egyptian hieroglyphics. Unfortunately, none of us knew how to read the writings, but as we slowly followed Dianne’s footsteps, I closely observed the drawings.

In the first few parts of the wall, there were four people kneeling at a man. The man had a halo on his head or something and he was standing in the middle of a spotlight. Then the drawings showed the man slaying an army of demonic monsters and after that, the man was holding a cup upside down. The expression of the man looked like he was in pain or maybe he was grieving. In his right hand, was sword stained with what I interpreted as blood. On the background of the grieving man was the angels in the heavens, weeping with him.

In the latter part of the hall, there was a carving of a box floating in the air. Below the box, there were armies, dragons and all sorts of strange creatures battling each other. The drawings were vague and repetitive and the man with a halo drawing was everywhere on the walls. One thing that caught my attention was that the man had little people with him and holding his hands, which reminded me of Oompa-Loompas doing a dance with Willy Wonka. Like I said, strange.

Finally, we reached the end of the tunnel. There was a slightly opened gate leading to another room and that was where the blue light was coming from. Dianne took a peek inside.

[What do you see?] – Claire

[There’s… A person in there.] – Dianne

[Is it Miguel?] – Eric

[I think so.] – Dianne

[Let me take a look.] – Mark

I was getting impatient and every second we waste meant Miguel’s situation getting worse. The others were shocked as I forcefully pushed the door open. I scanned the whole room, looking for enemies, but I found none. The room was as huge as the hardware store. It has the same drawings and carvings of the man with a halo and unknown language all over the walls and ceiling.

[What the fuck, Claire? You’re gonna get us killed!] – Melissa

“I don’t care!” I shouted as I sprinted towards the blue light. “We wasted too much time!”

The others followed me as we saw a clear crystal-like rock formation with some kind of magic circle on the floor surrounding the man like he was imprisoned in it. Whoever this man was, he certainly wasn’t Miguel. The man was completely naked and he had, what I could only describe as, a skeletal look.

And when I say skeletal look, I meant, he was literally skin and bones. On his torso, the collar bone, chest bone and rib cage were quite pronounced. Inside the crystal, you can see the bones of his knees. The kneecaps, joints and everything. You can even see his pelvic bone with a penis hanging on it. Just imagine it like this, most of the schools had a lab where they had a life size model of the skeletal system and this man reminded me of that skeleton.

“Who is he?” Dianne asked. “Is this the lich?”

“No. I used [Observe] on him and he’s definitely not Miguel. The description of liches in my book doesn’t match.” Mark shook his head as he touched the man’s neck. “Yes, he looks like a corpse, but he’s alive. He’s still breathing, but his pulse is weak.”

“Should we help him?” Beth asked. “Whoever this is, we can’t just leave him here.”

“He’ll just be a burden to us. We can’t take care of him while searching for Miguel.” Melissa argued.

As the others argued about what to do with the man in front of us, I carefully looked at the man again and he was beginning to become more familiar. He had a short black hair and thick, unkempt full beard. He also had a scar on the left side of his face where his eye socket was empty. I looked at his left arm and saw a severed stump instead of hand.

At first, I tried to deny the possibility. He had food with him and it has only been more than a week since we last saw him and Daria said that he was fat when she saw him three days ago. But as I stared longer, my heart leapt when I noticed that the man was wearing a familiar necklace. It was the same silver necklace that I gave Miguel a few days ago. It took me courage to use my skill [Observe] to confirm my suspicion.

Player: Miguel Arevalo

Race: Human

Level: 35

Title(s): Masochist

Party: N/A

Faction: N/A

“Miguel?” Tears began to fall from my eyes as I placed my hand on the man’s bony cheeks. “Is that you?”

Dianne shook her head in denial “No, that’s impossible. That’s not Mig-“

The man opened his eyes slightly as he heard my voice. He slightly moved his lips as if trying to say something. He stared at me with his dead looking eye as if asking me to end his suffering.

“Miguel…” I held his face closer to mine as I wept, staring at his poor condition.

I didn’t know what to do. My mind was blank and my body felt heavy. The rest of them were silent as me and Dianne cried.

“Come on, let’s get him out.” I wiped the tears from my eyes. “Help me.”

The others scanned the crystals that held Miguel as they tried to find a way to break it without causing injury to him. Suddenly, I felt all of the hair in my body rose up and a chill in my spine. I turned my head to the others and they were also frozen in place as their legs shook. Even Piper, the dire wolf, lowered her head and hid behind Melissa’s back as she whined. The fear I felt at that moment was almost choking me like there was a heavy object on my chest. We heard footsteps coming from the dark corner of the room. There was someone approaching, but we couldn’t move.

Debuff: Crippling Fear

“Such a lovely reunion.” As the dark figure finally revealed itself to us, a young girl with cat ears grinned at us and clapped slowly.

“Oh, where are my manners? Let me introduce myself…” The girl turned her head down and gave us a slight bow.

“I am Asharra, Servant of the Dark Lord and First of the Homonculus.” She said as she raised up her chin. “I welcome you to the Great Lich’s humble abode.”