Book Eater

Before moving on, Leonardo’s group neatly burned the shattered ghouls. There was no chance that the ghoul-like creatures could be resurrected in this state, but the remains of the undead were toxic in their own right. If there was enough time, not a single thing should be left behind.

The three of them cleaned up and headed further inside.

They quickly found the entrance of the dungeon after they made their way through some dense bushes. Something had caught the eye of Leonardo, who was in the lead.

“...It is obviously a suspicious cave at first glance.”

Adellia and Verus also nodded when they saw the cave.

It was exactly as he said.

The entrance was wide open like the mouth of a deep-sea fish. The appearance was just suspicious. The foul smell that flowed to the tip of their noses was also another piece of evidence.

Leonardo briefly spread out his energy to check for an ambush. He didn’t find anything and looked back at the siblings.

“As I warned several times before setting off, don’t let your guard down. The two of you must take turns maintaining detection magic. You shouldn’t miss any signs of approach or retreat even during battle. Do you understand?”

The two of them answered with their eyes instead of words. Leonardo looked ahead without any more warnings.

He penetrated into the darkness without a moment of hesitation.

As Adellia and Verus followed behind him, a deep darkness wrapped around them.

Adellia didn’t panic and raised her index finger.

“Light.”

A bead of light floated from her finger.

It was a light that wasn’t bright but extended far. The visibility of the three people instantly increased by dozens of meters.

‘Hoh.’

Leonardo briefly exclaimed.

Transformation magic optimized for real-life situations? It is a technique that experienced war magicians sometimes do...’

Adellia had done it with a single spell. Usually, it was common to only focus on the intensity of light or to maintain a few light spheres in an inefficient manner.

It wasn’t something that could be done if the person only knew theory.

The three of them didn’t talk even after expanding their field of view like this. While it was mainly to maintain their concentration, it was also because the undead were good at using sound as a means of detecting enemies.

They couldn’t hear as they were dead, but they were quite sensitive to vibrations.

“...”

Leonardo, who was advancing a few steps ahead, stopped.

[It is the enemy. It is coming.]

The voice contained in the aura reached the ears of the two people.

Leonardo quickly explained after he felt Adellia gripping her staff and Verus forming fists.

[The passage is one-way, so we have to fight. There isn’t any high-level undead and they number around 30. There isn’t a lot of space, so don’t cast large-range attack magic.]

A sound came before the siblings could answer.

Kiiiiiik! Kiiik!

They were loud sounds that came from leaking wind through rotted vocal cords.

It meant that the undead in the dungeon had found their group.

Moreover, in addition to ghouls, there were other undead mixed in. The footsteps were divided into several types.

Leonardo drew his sword and said softly, “I’ll help you in dangerous situations, but until then, it is self-study. Take care of your own body and protect yourselves.”

“Yes, Uncle.”

“It is unnecessary to say it again!”

This was the end of the conversation.

Suddenly, the undead came rushing out of the darkness right in front of them.

Kyaaaak!

Some ghouls rushed in like beasts. The undead were also in the forms of goblins, kobolds, and other monsters. Different from when they were alive, their movements with all their limbs were like animals.

In other words, they were at the level of a beast at best.

-Kakiing!

Once again, there was a shrill sound and the ghouls were shattered.

However, Leonardo’s eyes were staring at the guy approaching from behind the rest.

“It is an Abomination.”

The large figure was clearly revealed even in the darkness. The stench of blood and death was overflowing from it.

An Abomination.

It was a failure made of dozens of undead lumped together. Their appearances were all different, but with all of them, the flesh and bones of the undead they were made from intertwined together, resulting in inefficient movements.

However, there was a reason why this monster couldn’t be looked down on. It had a durability and regenerative power befitting of its size.

“It will be a long battle. Adellia, Verus. I’ll let the little ones go to the back, so you guys take care of them.”

Blue aura started to soar from Leonardo’s longsword.

Shortly thereafter, the fight began.

Kuwaaaaaah!

The Abomination sensed the enemy and roared loudly. The smell of rot spread through the air and the undead gained momentum.

It seemed to have the ability to strengthen the surrounding undead.

The ghouls with swollen muscles, opaque evil spirits, and a group of wights rushed in. Each one was at the level of an apprentice knight. Their level was quite high for a dungeon that was only a week old.

“But still, they are just weaklings.”

Leonardo smiled cheekily and took a step.

Clovis One Sword Style.

Hidden Technique Combo.

Kill the Arachne.

The longsword held in both hands instantly split into two and four, forming a cobweb-like slash. A dozen ghouls were turned into pieces of meat, while the rest trampled on the corpses and ran to Leonardo’s rear.

It was up to Adellia and Verus to take care of them.

“Left.”

“Then I’ll go to the right!”

The siblings quickly divided their roles and raised their magic power.

Icicle Arrow.

Fire Arrow.

The magic arrows of two attributes rose in the darkness and shot toward the undead, who continued to run fearlessly.

Pipipipiping!

The magic arrows worked even on the tough skin of the ghouls.

Ice arrows pierced through solid skulls and came out of the back of the head. The wights, floating in the air, burned like a moth due to a few fire arrows.

They were blows that could kill a human, or even a monster, instantly.

Nevertheless, only three or four of the undead stopped running.

“I broke their heads but they are still moving!”

Adellia was so shocked by this that her eyes widened.

None of the ones with their heads broken, their waists cut in two, or their limbs severed stopped moving.

They were many times more persistent than the ones she fought outside the dungeon.

“Che, Sister! I’ll fight them head on!”

It was impossible to get rid of all of them from a distance. Seeing this, Verus jumped forward first.

At the same time, red flames rose around his body.

“Come on, you bastards!”

Verus shouted fiercely and then his fists burst the incoming ghouls one after another. His fists were stronger than an iron hammer.

The blow covered in flames smashed the ghoul’s head, but as an undead who didn’t know pain, the ghoul lunged once again. This time, a kick crushed both knees and it fell to the ground.

“Ah!”

Adellia saw this and realized it before the person involved.

'I see. It isn’t about killing, it is about destroying. The concept of vital points might not apply, but if I disable the joints, they will inevitably lose their ability to act!’

She immediately applied this realization to her magic.

“Freeze, Chilling Field.”

She slammed down once with her staff and the ground froze. It stretched out from beneath Adellia’s feet to reach Verus and the undead. On the surface, it didn’t seem like a big deal, but it was actually 5th circle ice magic, a ranged attack that froze the enemy’s legs to the bone.

Normally, she couldn’t use it where her allies were. However, Verus was born with a strong tolerance to ice magic.

It was hard for him to get even mild frostbite from this level of coldness.

However, this wasn’t the case for the bodies of the undead.

Their frozen soles stuck to the ground. The chill that rushed up from the soles of their feet froze their ankles and knees in an instant.

The ghouls lost their mobility in just a few seconds and struggled, but their frozen lower bodies couldn’t move.

Verus wasn’t the type to miss this gap.

“Burning Fist!”

Huge pillars of fire gushed out from his fists.

Kwaaaaaaah!

‘Fire’ was one of the most powerful attributes against the undead, and it was even more effective when the power was high. The ghouls struck by Verus’ fists had the lower half of their bodies shattered, while their charred upper bodies fell to the ground.

Most of them had their heads turned to charcoal, but some of them made a crackling sound with their few remaining teeth.

Kiaaaaaaaaak!

It was simple once the most annoying ghouls were dealt with.

The wights were undead who were immune to physical attacks but weak to magic, so defeating them was much simpler.

“Good, we’ve taken care of them all.”

Adellia eliminated the last wight and lowered her staff.

Verus raised both fists and replied with a bright smile, “It is thanks to you freezing all the undead!”

Adellia shook her head with a faint smile.

“You guarded me from the front. Thank you, Ver.”

“Hehehe, what’s wrong with you? It is embarrassing.”

“It would be nice if you were always so reliable.”

“What?!”

Perhaps it was to relieve the tension immediately after the battle that they talked to each other about inconsequential things.

Just then, a tremendous roar erupted from dozens of meters ahead of them.

Thunder rang out in the cave without a sky.

The stunned Adellia and Verus looked in that direction and their mouths dropped open.

There was a man with his back to them who was holding a sword.

Then before their eyes—

Clovis One Sword Style.

Leonardo summed up the devastation in a clear voice.

“Hidden Technique Combo, Claws of Thunder.”

It was a technique that divided aura into several thunderbolts and exploded them. It was considered one of the three most destructive techniques of the Clovis family.

The Abomination was properly hit and was now in a terrible state.

There was no mass of flesh longer than four meters remaining. There were only a few pieces of bone that stuck out like a bomb had struck. The undead’s unique regenerative power was useless when the damage was at this level.

It was truly fitting of the name Claws of Thunder.

It was as if thunderbolts exploded inside the body.

Leonardo moved to confirm that the Abomination was dead. It was only after all the traces of the monster had disappeared that he put away his sword.

‘As expected, it can’t stand the hidden technique.’

The sensation wasn’t as bad as he thought.

Looking back, how long had it been since he used the hidden technique in practice?

If possible, he wanted to fight on a higher level, not just with power, but with skill.

‘Is it my greed?’

Leonardo smiled bitterly and looked back at the siblings.

“Good work, both of you. It was a bit sloppy at first, but you quickly figured it out. If you keep responding like you did now, there won’t be any problems.”

Adellia and Verus looked surprised as they nodded.

They still seemed surprised to see the state of the Abomination.

After calming down, they checked the undead the siblings had killed once more, and Leonardo felt a strong sense of discomfort.

‘Isn’t the number a bit small compared to the level and size of the dungeon?’

The ghouls were quite strong for low-grade undead and the Abomination had held out against a swordmaster several times. On top of that, considering the size of the dungeon and the scale of the death energy, it wouldn’t be strange if more than twice the number of undead came. Yet there were only 30 ghouls, some wraiths, and an Abomination?

Leonardo thought about it for a moment and came up with a hypothesis.

‘Brother told me that there is a core room or a monster that takes on that role in a dungeon. Don’t tell me...?’

There might be a core monster that was concentrating the power that needed to be distributed to the undead in itself.

At the very least, Leonardo’s senses were certain of it.

‘...Interesting.’

He smiled at an angle invisible to the siblings.

‘I hope you don’t disappoint me.’

His competitive spirit was telling him something.

Go forward. There is an enemy that can threaten you.

You might not necessarily lose, but you shouldn’t let your guard down.

It was the revelation that Leonardo Miller had been hoping for.

“We’ve rested, so let’s proceed again.”

He didn’t know about mental fatigue, but the consumption of physical strength and magic power wasn’t great. Adellia and Verus followed him without saying a word.

In the dimly lit dungeon, only a bead of light shone brightly.

* * *

As they proceeded, Leonardo’s group encountered the enemy several times. The undead were defeated without difficulty. Adellia and Verus had learned the ropes in their first fight and quickly wiped out the hordes of ghouls. Leonardo was looking forward to a fight with the core monster and picked up the pace.

In front of the serious swordmaster, the intermediate undead were no different from rotten leaves.

Therefore, the attack speed of the three people became several times faster.

“Hoh.”

“Wow...”

“Waaah!”

They proceeded smoothly through the dungeon, and it wasn’t long before the group reached an open space similar, or even greater, in size than the Pentarium.

How could such a space exist inside a mountain that wasn’t even big? If it wasn’t for the dungeon having an unusually high durability, there would’ve been a landslide or a collapse.

However, before they could enjoy the vastness, there was a disturbance.

-You have come, the living.

It was a heavy voice filled with a presence that crushed them.

"Kyaaak!”

“Gasp!”

Only Leonardo could overcome it.

Leonardo stepped in front of the siblings and roared violently.

“Haaap!”

His presence and aura immediately shook off the unknown intimidation, allowing Adellia and Verus to barely breathe and collapse to the ground.

This was a presence that made even a 5th circle magician freeze. The owner of it must be a master-level powerhouse. Breaking through the veil of darkness, an unknown monster walked out from the other side of the main hall.

An armor of darkness covered it from head to toe.

It was a knight in full body armor with an antique sheath hanging from its waist.

Adellia recognized the enemy’s identity and her voice shook.

“Don’t tell me, a death knight...!”

-Yes, girl.

A purple glow emanated from the helmet’s eye sockets and a gray-white aura seeped from the surface of the armor.

It was an aura color that only the dead could have.

-If you want to live, run away. If you refuse, you will die.

A master-level undead, a death knight, had appeared in front of them.