Chapter 6: It is NOT the Corpse

Time left: 00:00:01

"Is that okay with you?" Dylas asked, referring to taking the corpse as the third team member.

"I'm fine. Are you?" Edard asked. Not that he had a choice but he was curious about why Dylas was willing to take Nusi despite knowing she was dead.

Dylas laughed. "She is important to you."

Many had recognized Nusi but it would be surprising if Dylas recognized her, considering his thousand-year old imprisonment. It would probably make a good point to show her to him and see his reaction.

"I would like to take her, if that's okay with you." Edard said, walking into the second gate. Dylas followed behind, his eyes fixed on the corpse.

Welcome to Lancel, a Tier-1 dungeon.

Survive the hallway and kill the dungeon boss.

Time left: 03:59:59

The entire environment shifted and they appeared in a long empty hallway. The walls were made of brown concrete walls that emitted a dim light.

"Please, give me an hourly review." Edard said. His timer wasn't working and he needed to keep track of time. He also needed to know the net longevity he would have to pay to get rid of the corpse. It was at minus four hours when he last checked.

"Don't you have a timer?" Dylas asked.

Oops, he had slipped up and now he had to explain why his timer wasn't working.

"My timer has..." He hesitated, no matter how he looked at it he couldn't lie outright. "My timer has stopped." He said, knowing there was a minute chance of Dylas uncovering the truth from just that.

Dylas gave him a look of bewilderment. "YOUR TIMER HAS STOPPED?!"

Edard had expected such a reaction. What he didn't expect was Dylas's next question.

"You didn't see the one-eyed raven, did you?"

Edard looked stupefied. "The one-eyed raven?"

"Yes, the one-eyed raven." Dylas repeated.

"Why? What does that have to do with anything?" Edard asked.

"Well, you must have seen it. What a lucky man you are!" Dylas concluded.

"What the hell are you talking about?" Edard snapped. He had seen a one-eyed raven a few hours ago when he found Nusi but what does that have to do with anything?

"Remember, I was telling you how I survived the last one-thousand years? It's because I was Blessed by the one-eyed raven. I saw it in my dreams one week before coming here and when I woke up my timer had stopped. I can only tell time because of my Meditation. Where did you see it? Tell me, please."

"I think you are mistaken, I might have seen a raven but that's not what is causing this. It's this...." Edard halted and thought about it. Sometimes you just have to take a leap of faith. "It is this corpse."

"Huh...? The corpse?" Dylas blinked several times, pointing at the corpse in a very dramatic way. "It can't be possible. It's the raven not her, I'm sure of it."

Edard sighed inwardly. He knew it was the corpse not the raven.

"I have attempted leaving the corpse behind two times, both attempts ended in a near death experience." Edard said. He remembered how he ended up with four seconds when he entered the Reservoir and left the corpse behind, and how he ended up with one second after he buried the corpse.

"I am telling you the raven is responsible; the corpse has nothing to do with it. Haven't you read stories about the one-eyed raven? Everyone does, it's a popular topic in literature. Let me tell you more about it... " Dylas ranted for the next ten minutes, adding more points and giving references.

"Is it common for someone to have their time stopped?" Edard asked.

"Ita extremely rare, I have never met anyone else. It's against the law." Dylas answered.

It might favor Edard to say the raven was responsible because that would mean he could finally dispose the corpse. But the practical evidence supported the corpse. He'd one second to live and he was definitely not going to experiment on it. Either way, he intended to get rid of the corpse as soon as he gained enough longevity to pay back the debt.

"Perhaps, I should observe the corpse and see." Dylas said, taking two steps closer.

"No, not now. We should focus on the task at hand." Edard said, walking forward.

"Y...yeah, you are right." Dylas nodded and went on to explain his misgivings about Tyrant. "I built the entrance but I didn't bring the dungeons here. I know I sound stupid but a mysterious force pulled one-hundred dungeons from all over the world and joined them into a giant Hybrid. There are one-hundred dungeons which means one hundred dungeon bosses. Even if we work together we may not survive but we will definitely die if we don't. We should work together and protect each others back. What do you think?"

"A nice proposal." Edard said, thinking about what Dylas had just said. How would Dylas react if he found out he was the mysterious force that brought the dungeons together.

They continued slowly down the hallway. The only sound was their footsteps. Dylas maintained a friendly smile, wagging his tail whenever he could.

"Is that all?" Edard asked after an uneventful thirty-minutes.

"Let's keep going." Dylas suggested.

Edard knew very little about dungeons. He knew they were places he could gain longevity but besides that nothing. It was obvious the dungeons wouldn't give out longevity for free. There must be a challenge.

He needed information about dungeons, his attributes, skills, Classes, the world itself, the races and the power struggles. Without that knowledge he could easily walk into his death, unknowingly. The first priority was knowledge, then strength. Even his curiosity could wait.

"Dylas, do you have any books?"

"Books? I have two but they're basic things, I don't think they will be useful..."

Edard smiled, raising his hand. "I will decide if they are useful, just give me."

The first book was mainly about attributes while the second book described the basic geography of Màsar. He went straight to the description of the attributes. The immortal dais didn't explain things when he came, he was only using the literal meaning of each attribute.

Longevity is the lifespan of a conqueror. They are of two types: latent and active. Use appropriate cultivation methods to activate your longevity and use it to level skills. Longevity is commonly gained by: absorbing beast crystals; longevity potions from alchemists or by eating specially prepared foods. Other rare methods include the longevity Curse, longevity rituals and Blessings.

Life energy is used to power skills. It's affected by Curses. Your life energy regenerates at 0.5/sec.

Stamina determines your health. It's affected by injuries, poisons and hunger. You can die if your stamina is down to zero. Your stamina regenerates at 0.5/sec.

Willpower is the ability of a Conqueror to make breakthroughs and level up. For every +1 willpower you've +0.1/sec increase in life energy and stamina regeneration.

Resistance implies to the power of the body to repel and withstand attacks.

Strength: This implies to the sum-total power of your power. Some skills depend on it.

Intelligence defines an individual's ability to understand the world and decision making. An increase in intelligence by +1 increases life energy by +10.

Agility: This refers to your ability to dodge and evade attacks. It's a measure of your total speed and gracefulness.

Vitality: a measure of health and activity. Every unit is equivalent to 10 units of stamina.

NB: attributes may Branch, depending on your race.

He had already figured most of the things out but he didn't know the exact. Intelligence determined life energy while vitality determined stamina in a ratio of one to ten. Willpower determined the regeneration of both attributes.

He moved to the geaograhy. Màsar was basically divided into North and South by a giant sea called the Black Sea. The humans occupied most of the Southern hemisphere while the demons occupied the North. He didn't even know where he was but it was likely the South since all the people he'd met were humans.

"You are a demon, how did you end up in the South?" Edard asked. He both wanted to confirm he was in the South and to know exactly where in the South.

Dylas shrugged. "I'm a Lesser Demon, remember? Lesser Demons mostly live in the South."

So, he was in the South.

After walking for an hour, Edard became exhausted with hunger and thirst. Back on Earth he could fast for a day without becoming hungry. Apparently, he didn't come with that ability.

You have gained the skill Hunger Resistance.

You will not get hungry again and your body will not die from the effects of malnutrition.

Activate skill?

You have one slot remaining. Choose wisely.

Dammit! I can't waste my last slot on this.

"Aren't you tired or hungry?" Edard asked Dylas curiously.

Dylas smiled. This was the first personal question Edard asked him. "I'm not, when I first came here I gained an Acquired skill called Hunger Resistance. That's how I was able to survive the years."

"What a timely skill! But how many slots do you have? I can't imagine wasting your last slot on hunger."

"I have two slots. To be honest I was hesitant, but you know hunger... I couldn't hold on after fasting for a month." Dylas sighed softly.

Edard thought about what Dylas had just said. He needed to know what really determined the number of slots? He had five slots and Dylas had two. Probably, the next person he would meet would have different slots as well.

After another hour, Edard had sunken eyes and wrinkled skin, yet Dylas was unaffected.

"How long is this going to take? The whole floor is four hours." Edard finally voiced out his feelings. A drop of water was all he could think about. He dragged his feet closely, keeping his arms by the side, a typical Parkinson's gait. This coupled with the corpse on his back made his gait somewhat funny.

Dammit, I can't die from hunger.

He suddenly picked something trailing them with his Spiritual Sense. He fired a lava fist which bumped the target into the closest wall and exploded.

"I didn't know you are an elementalist! But what was that for? Did you saw something?" Dylas asked, observing the molten rock on the floor.

"I saw... a skeleton." Edard said.

Tyrant

Tyrant had already realized most of the surrounding people had motives to reclaim their dungeons. It would be difficult to survive if all the teams ganged up on him. So the best way was to create a conflict between them.

Tyrant observed all the teams carefully. If he could know what dungeon belonged to what empire. He could easily create a conflict by making sure he gave it to another. Fortunately for him this wasn't a big deal. He could use his nature energy and hear what the people outside said.

More than one hundred cultivators had arrived outside the dungeon. Seven different tents were erected facing the mysterious dungeon entrance. Each tent had a sigil printed on its entrance. The leaders discussed how to claim their dungeons. It was obvious nobody will let the other enter the dungeon but there were so many questions to be answered.

Luckily, the leaders didn't resort to violence, they formed a group of seven and stood in front of the dungeon entrance to discuss their next course of action.

"It's obvious everyone has a claim to this dungeon." A lady with a sword hanging around her arm said. She wore a sigil depicting a sky being ripped apart by lightning, the sigil of House Déniz.

"But that makes little sense." A man in black said. "We take this as a retaliation for your accusations against our league." Three, clad in a similar attire, nodded angrily. "How comes over thirty of our dungeons are gone without a trace and all of you only lost a few."

"Will you shut up! You 'rebels' are always like this." A man wearing a sigil of House Báyir said. "The lesser demons also lost just as many."

A strong argument broke out which took several minutes. At the end no point was reached, most of the groups threatened to resolve the crisis by a battle royal. Luckily for them a large window showed up in front of the entrance.

One-hundred dungeons have been joined into a giant one-way dungeon. Before the first three floors are conquered only Armed Conquerors are welcome to try their luck.

Every floor has a time limit and failure to finish in the set time means death.

Use a three-man team.

The simple explanation solved most of the problems causing the strife between the groups. At least now they knew where their dungeons were. The question was how would they claim their dungeons? But even as they thought about it another screen popped up. But this was entirely different from what they commonly saw. It was a live video of the first floor, showing two teams in two different locations.

"What the hell... that's our Lancel!!" A monkeykin demon with a flat face and a body full of black hair shouted, pointing at the floor on the right. "And who is that horsekin? I have never seen him before." He added, looking at Dylas's centaur's body.

"Who is that red-haired boy? Is he Cursed? And what's he carrying on his back?"

The audience resolved into a baseless speculations, trying to identify Edard and Dylas. It was obvious they could never guess right: Edard was an Outsider while Dylas had been imprisoned for one thousand years.

What helped them was Edard's sudden use of lava.

"Commander Dáya Báyir," The monkeykin turned to the commander representing Báyir empire. "I know you are involved, this is just one of your conspiracies. That red-haired uses earth element, he is one of yours."

"No, you can't say he is one of mine. He maybe a rogue or something. I have never seen him before. Look at his clothes." Commander Dáya Báyir countered. He turned to his tent and called a man who came running with a stone tablet. "That boy uses our earth element, confirm his Contract." He ordered.

The tablet was engraved with runes that came to light as a blue light shone from the slab. So many names with pictures flowed on the screen-like face of the slab. After a while, the man turned to the commander and opened his mouth to say something but he decided against it. He turned to the tablet and rerun the test a few more times before he turned to the commander again. "He's not on our list, he doesn't have a Contract with House Báyir!!"

A sudden silence spread across the groups. Commander Dáya Báyir was struck speechless and one of the representative from the groups had to answer in his place. "THAT'S IMPOSSIBLE! Someone like that shouldn't exist. Are you sure it's not some technical problem?"

"Maybe he's on a secret mission you don't know about." Another member who hadn't spoken cut in.

Dáya finally regained his composure. "That's absolutely impossible! Our Contract is absolute and if he were on a secret mission, I would have known."

The discussion transformed into another heated argument. A threat to one Contract was a threat to all. If Edard was truly not on the list then they had a bigger problem.

People had been arriving nonstop. It became obvious to the teams that if they didn't come to a decision soon, it would be too late. They put the Contract issue aside and each selected a three-man team to send into the dungeon.

The Lesser Demons selected Armed Conquerors from the lionkin race, the tigerkin race and the batman race.

The 'rebels' insisted on sending three teams instead of the one that everyone else sent. They claimed most of the dungeons were theirs and they had the right.

Eight teams were formed, with the 'rebels' providing two teams and six teams coming from each of the major Houses and the Lesser Demons. There were discussions about Dario's team that had entered, since Dario came from House Fáyra, the 'rebels' believed the Fáyras should not send another team but the empires disagree.

Other adventurers protested to get a slot but the empires were too strong. Though, it likely would not stay that way with the people arriving.

The people outside were divided into two: those focused on the video feed and those using the nature energy to cultivate.

Tyrant laughed uproariously. His plans were going just as planned.

The eight teams that had just entered and the two that were already inside made ten. Tyrant decided to put all the teams on the first floor but each team in a separate Tier-1 dungeon.

He threw Dario's team in a dungeon called Miyra while Edard and his team ended up in Lancel. The other teams all found themselves in different places.

Tyrant would broadcast the ten teams simultaneously. He would alternate, hiding whatever he didn't want the outside to see.