Novel Lived
Chapter 1333
Thankfully, the zombie queen was more willing to take me to the location of the other murals than the boss room that contained her father. It seemed like her territory was on the outskirts of his territory, although given the desiccated and broken state of the dungeon, it was difficult to tell what form this dungeon took. It was all sort of just mixed into the great Labyrinth that was the Deep.
I was afraid that I’d have to travel with a hundred zombies trailing behind, but the zombie queen seemed to trust me after I gave it candy. No, wasn’t that too trusting? Well, I wasn’t complaining that this was all easier. She grabbed my hand, and I followed her down the paths. She moved faster than I had on my own, confident in the path she was going.
Whether it was her aura as a boss or her ability to control the undead, we seemed to be mostly left alone as we walked from one corridor to the next. The corridors all took on a similar aesthetic, which I guessed was the aesthetic of the original dungeon. It seemed to be a series of eloquent and well-lit hallways. Perhaps it was taken after the castle of the Deep King. Well, they were underground, so I wasn’t sure if the castle was the right name. It might just be a few corridors and fancy rooms apart from the rest of the Deep.
After about an hour of walking, she introduced me to the second safe room. It was a similar size to the first. There had been something living in it, but it had scattered before we arrived there. The zombie queen’s ability to intimidate other monsters was very useful. I rather wished I had that same ability. I wondered if I worked on leveling Necromancer, I’d eventually get such an ability.
This mural had a bit more of it intact. It showed dwarves fighting something, although that something appeared to be black. They were black forms, almost reflections. Were they shadows? Something in the darkness… that’s what her video had claimed. Also, someone had once returned from an expedition talking about the darkness. Just what had they found down there.
I checked the transportation relay, which was more intact than the last one, but I found it couldn’t be activated or registered at all. We left that room and continued. For the rest of the day, I let her take me around. We ended up visiting four murals. By the end, she ended up having me carry her while she pointed out each way. I had also gone through almost half my supply of candy. If I kept using this to bribe her, I’d have to come up with an alternative source of candy or start cutting things down significantly.
One mural was destroyed to where I wasn’t able to make out anything, but the other three painted a picture. There was a mural of a happy and prosperous Kingdom. Then there were shadows and running and screaming. The last image seemed to be the king holding back the darkness while his daughter ran.
If I was making a guess, I’d say that the unfinished story came from the daughter who tried to flee the darkness. Her father never knew if she had made it, leaving his story incomplete and unsatisfied. Little did he realize she hadn’t made it, or maybe she had, and this was only a clone of her. Either way, if I wanted to resolve this dungeon curse, united the daughter and her father might do it. However, that dungeon curse was already dead, and the lore is broken. There was nothing to cure, no blessing to be had.
All that was left was the remnants of hate and fear left over from the king as he made his last stand. It was him I would have to destroy to begin my dungeon.