Tales of the Old World Demon Lord

Chapter 4 – Connecting to central server…

[Eternum Calendar 1971]

Under the tranquil guidance of the moon, four children made their way through the snow covered town of [Vertloch Snowdown]. A town of perpetual snow; with each step they took they left behind a small footprint that was quickly erased by another layer of snow. Despite being draped in thick clothing they could still feel the frigid temperatures of their hometown and every innocent breath they took created fog.

“Hey, um, guys. I really don’t think we should be doing this.”

Trailing behind the first three children was a meek young girl of the Lamia race, Celina. Her scaly and beautiful pink tail left behind a long continuous line as she slithered hastily to keep up with the others. She tried to protest their current actions as she understood well the voice of guidance from her elders and it was dangerous for inexperience children such as themselves.

“It’s fine, it’s fine.”

Dismissed Alice, a rare human child in the continent of demons. With a carefree and adventurous look on her face she guided the rag tag team of children as their self-appointed leader. It wasn’t that she was unaware of the dangers of a dungeon; certainly, she understood that even novice rank dungeons could prove fatal for children. However her curiosity and foolhardy nature got the better of her, superseding her own sense of mortality.

“As expedition leader I say this operation is a go!”

She pointed forward and marched on with the other children groaning her energetic personality. As girls Celina and Alice were naturally close, however their personalities were a far cry from each other, perhaps even opposing. Whereas Alice was boisterous and rash, Celina was more timid. Due to this Celina’s opinions were often times disregarded and overshadowed but in the end Celina continued tagging along without another word of complaint.

Perhaps the only reason she could confidently continue on with them was because of a certain boy she was specifically trailing behind, Morgant. A mature-seeming and dependable, older brother type of person that stood as a pillar of confidence for her. Whenever she was in trouble she always knew he could be depended on for support, thusly she once more placed her trust in him and followed closely behind.

“Hmm? Is something wrong Celina?”

Noticing her subtle gaze cast upon him, Morgant turned his head back a bit to ask. Curious as to why she was some intently focused in his direction. However Celina shook her head abruptly as she averted her eyes from him, a clear red blush arcing across her face, thankfully hidden behind her long pink hair.

“I- it’s nothing. Please don’t worry.”

She replied.

“Oh, I see. Okay then.”

Unconvinced, having no other reason not to accept that reply Morgant let it slide. The final child, a young boy of the Elven race whose hair shines with the deep colors of the ocean glanced back at the two. Though he did not show it on his face, his heart was pounding with excitement at the prospect of this expedition. Which is why seeing the two lagging behind without much motivation irked him.

However both Celina and Morgant were his dear friends so any malicious thoughts about them quickly dissipated. For now his mind was only filled with the prospects of finalizing the construction of the power frame. As his mind wondered into deep contemplation about Morgant’s schematics they had already somehow made it to the back of their home town. Now facing a large empty hole, the cave entrance to the novice rank dungeon [Ingrid’s Tomb] presided colossally before them.

They could only peer into a few meters within the cave entrance before all the light was smothered by the darkness. Like a contamination breach, small black mists leaked out from the cave entrance’s floor that accentuated the eerie imagery of the tomb.

“Well, I guess they don’t call it a ‘tomb’ for no reason.”

Ren commented as he crouched down to take a closer examination of the miasma-like smog, even going so far as to place his hands into them. He knew it wasn’t going to be too dangerous because a fair amount of adventurers often went in and out of this exact entrance.

“How is it?”

Alice asked from behind.

“It doesn’t feel like anything in particular.”

“That so? Then let’s go!”

Alice rushed in without a second’s hesitation.

“Ah, hey wait you idiot!”

Ren shouted out as he rushed in after her. Unable to leave her out on her own in such a dangerous place Celina and Morgant also quickly followed suit. However as Morgant had taken a step into the cave he felt the strange feminine voice from before. The alien and melodic voice whispered directly into his brain.

“[Connecting to central server… Log Identification: Director Callahad, Access Granted… Welcome back Director].”

Hearing the voice once more Morgant was frozen right in his tracks. He didn’t hear the chaotic white noise from before and this time the voice sounded much more accommodating. However he didn’t know just how much of it he could trust, especially one he couldn’t understand. Yet something was telling him, deep inside his heart, that he should heed its advice, whatever it was.

At the very least it didn’t feel like these voices in his head were appearing at random. It was as though they were calling out to him, to his exact location. If that were the case then the answers he so desperately sought were bound to be hidden inside.

“What’s wrong Morgant?”

Celina, noticing Morgant had stopped running turned around and asked.

“O-oh, it’s nothing. Let’s go.”

Coming back to his senses Morgant ran in to regroup with Alice and Ren.

…

“Watch out! Stay behind me!”

Morgant shouted as he engaged the enemy. The first floor was mostly filled with low level shadow entities such as ‘shadow wolves’, ‘shadow bats’, ‘shadow rats’. As expected or perhaps even exceeding their expectations Morgant was able to blast them away with a single devastating blow from his power frame-enhanced punches. To begin with these ‘shadow entities’ were a rather fragile construct and were easily killed, one could say that they were merely the appetizers for the floors below.

Still, Morgant couldn’t exactly let hapless children with no real self-defense techniques fight these monsters. In the end they were still feral and even if their bite wasn’t as bad to beginner adventurers, to children with no defense it could still end up being fatal. Thus Morgant took the vanguard and guided their way deep into the depths of the novice rank dungeon.

“Now listen carefully Alice, we’re not here to play around. We’re here to gather valuable materials in order to finish our construction on the power frame.”

Ren tried to warn, in vain, an Alice who was excitedly looking around the caves. Especially towards the shadow bats hanging off the ceiling and glaring down at them with redden eyes. After seeing Morgant’s combat potential they didn’t dare come down from then which worked to the children’s convenience, even if was at the cost of some thrill or sense of adventure.

Since the novice dungeon’s layout wasn’t so convoluted and was mostly just a straight path they quickly managed to reach the entrance to the second floor. A stony stairway decorated with demonic carvings, heading down towards what seemed to the abyss itself. However this was merely because the black mists shortened their view distance, nonetheless it did not make the entrance any less creepy.

Yet it wasn’t until the second floor that the real oddity of this dungeon had finally shown itself. The monsters, mostly skeleton warriors and other variants of the skeleton class, adorned with tattered armor and clumsy swords had decided not to attack. Instead they knelt down almost as though they were welcoming back a king to his home country; they made a pathway ushering the children to the heart of the dungeon itself.

“W- what’s going on? Is this some sort of trap?”

Celina asked, scared as she clung on tightly to Morgant’s left arm.

“I don’t know… for the most part we’ve only known monsters to be mere mindless beasts acting on impulse and instincts. So seeing them clearly acting on some higher prerogative is a bit unsettling. Still, it looks like they’re telling us to go through. At the very least our goal here is to gather enough materials to complete the power frames but the rarer and valuable materials are further in.”

Ren answered as he stared at the skeletons with observant intensity. He didn’t dare go near them for fear of retaliation or sudden attack but merely shifted around trying to study them.

“So then our only choice is forward?”

Alice asked.

“Well, that’s hard to say. Trap or no, I kind of want to go gather up the material but… argh, why is this situation getting more and more complicated?”

Ren scratched his hair in frustration.

Morgant, who had been silent the entire time, had taken a step forward towards the kneeling skeletons. As he did the other children tried to stop him but the voices had drowned in the background of white noises that had at some point overtaken his hearing. The chaotic white static no longer annoyed or frustrated him. It merely gave him a heavy sense of nostalgia, and almost guided by it, he decided to descend to the lower floors.

‘The secrets of everything lie here; I can get answers here,’ he convinced himself as he near mindlessly strode forwards with a singular purpose. It wasn’t as though he couldn’t hear his friends calling for him but he greatly prioritized this once instinctive choice.

Having no other choice his friends opted to follow closely behind him with wary expressions. The tall skeletal monsters knelt unmoving as though they were just statues but a clear movement of their glowing red eyes proved otherwise. The monsters were conscious of their own actions and had fully acknowledged the group of children they made way for. For what purpose, none of the children could even start to understand why.

With great and horrifying ease they made it all the way to the stairway leading to the third and final floor. Every dungeon had a being known as ‘dungeon boss’ which were almost always located at the final floor. Defeating them meant conquering the dungeon and having access to whatever treasures were hidden behind. This meant that there were only ever two types of dungeons, the first were ‘conquered’ dungeons in which the treasures had already been plundered by adventurers that came before. The second were ‘unconquered’ dungeons which still had a massive cache of treasures hidden deep below.

The only reason to re-enter a conquered dungeon was either for battle experience/training or to gather the rare materials that can only be found within certain dungeons. For this reason, even a conquered dungeon could yield a fair amount of money if the main intent was to gather materials and sell them. In fact most jobs that could be seen on adventurer quest boards were escort missions for various crafting professionals to harvest materials.

In any case, the ‘dungeon boss’ for the novice rank dungeon [Ingrid’s Tomb] was naturally an apparition by the name of ‘Ingrid’. She had been known to be a low rank ‘Ghast’ with fairly abysmal stats all round. She was magic oriented but wasn’t strong and even though she had no physical body she could still be hurt by physical attacks. Combined with the low rank undead minions on the upper floors, there was no doubt that this entire dungeon indeed made for a beginner.

However the participants this time around were a just four children with no real defensive capabilities on their own aside from Morgant. With uneasy stride they made their way down the creepily decorated stairway and came across a large open, dome like room. Several thick concrete pillars were set across the room to support the ceilings but that was the extent of it. It wasn’t as big as they initially assumed it would be, but it was large enough to move freely and fight without too many hindering obstacles.

When they came down they noticed another figure awaiting them. A girl; a short child-sized demon with two large protruding horns from either side of her temples that curved forward to half cover her forehead. Two small, flightless wings poked out from her back and a thin black tail started from just before her buttocks. Though she seemed like a child from every angle she wore clothes fit for a succubus but with her proportions it came off more as a joke.

She had noticed their entrance but did not turn back to acknowledge them just yet. It wasn’t due to any malicious reasoning but simply for sake of dramatic effect when introducing herself.

“Is that the boss? Ingrid?”

Ren asked as he took on a fighting pose, though realistically only Morgant was capable of fighting. Deciding that the moment was right, the small child-like demon turned with great flare, plastered with a haughty smile on her face. She subtly laughed dramatically, ‘hah, hah, hah!’

She opened her luscious pink lips to declare herself, forming the first word ‘I am’ before being completely ignored by Morgant who walked passed her as if she wasn’t even there. So shocked by this she froze in place before returning to reality a couple of seconds later and reprimanding him.

“Hey! I was in the middle of my introduction and you just ignore me?!”

She expressed outrage similar to a child throwing a tantrum. It seemed that she was not just a child on the outside but on the inside too. However Morgant continued to ignore even the cute outrage of the pint sized demon as her voice faded into the white noise in his head and walked to the center of the boss room.

In a ritualistic manner, Morgant stood at the center of the room and waited a couple of seconds for the ‘real’ boss of the dungeon to spawn. The other children and the demoness watched him with curiosity.

The demoness leaned into whispering distance of the children and asked.

“What’s Morgant doing?”

“I… don’t know. He’s been acting weird since the second floor… wait, how do you know his name?”

Ren asked as he picked up on that small detail. Acting as if she had been caught up in a lie she covered her mouth comically, trying to stop herself from saying anything further. Ren and Alice glared at her, pressuring her to give some sort of answer back but the demoness averted her gaze with cold sweat running down her back.

Before they could start interrogating her something else happened that took their attention. A small translucent blue flame hovered around ghostly, circling Morgant before bursting up in a spectacular fireworks and forming into the figure of a slender woman.

“Ingrid… the one demon that I cannot get a proper answer out of.”

The demoness whispered to herself as she tensed up. However the next series of actions the humanoid blue flame took surprised even the demoness. Like the monsters on the floor above, Ingrid knelt down in front of Morgant and spoke in a foreign language.

“[I have been expecting your arrival Director Callahad, Welcome to Munitions Lab B741; GLADSHEIM].”