The biting cold winds hit Leo before anything else. He felt the cold in his bones, and quickly adjusted the fur collar of his coat to cover more of his face as he shivered and looked around. They all stood at the foot of a mountain, the peak of which he couldn’t see from dark clouds and heavy snowfall. Directly in front of him, he could see a large, stone door, easily ten feet tall with four empty slots, likely waiting for the sigils that opened it.

  “The Mountain Lair of the Crushed.” Leo said, managing to keep himself from stuttering out the words in his shivering. “I wonder what’s the story there.”

  “It’s not too complicated.” Layne answered, walking up to the door. “Kuldru the crushed led a warband to this mountain range and tried to seize the divinity at its peaks. He was stopped here and cursed to become their guardian. The other four were his underlings.”

  “Divinity…?” Before Leo could inquire further, a clap of thunder shook the ground and a bright flash of lightning lit up the sky.

  “Let’s get inside, yeah?” Axilya offered.

  “Right.” From his storage space, Layne pulled out three sigils and placed them in the slots. They fit in awkwardly at first, but then shifted into place as if pulled by a magnet. “Your turn, Leo.”

  Layne stepped away from the door and made way for Leo to approach. As Leo walked up to the door himself, he took the sigil of the Drowned from his Storage space. Sliding the last sigil into place, he felt a slight tremor as all four sigils began to glow, and then he looked toward Lanye, who nodded.

  Taking a deep breath, Leo went to push against the door with both hands. It didn’t budge, at first. Leo leaned in and put all of his weight into it, and didn’t feel the door moving at all. Seconds passed, and he heard the sound of crunching snow as someone walked up behind him, but before they could reach the door, to Leo’s relief, the door finally opened with a drawn out groan. He still had to put his full weight on it to get it open, but a warm breeze from within gave him a refreshing break from the cold.

  With a huff, he stepped inside, and the rest of the group followed behind him. Before he could get a good look around, the quest notification finally popped up for him.

  Sub-Objectives? Leo hadn’t seen a quest with those before. He glanced around, and judging from the even reactions of everyone else, he was the only one seeing this kind of quest for the first time. They all stepped into a wide cavernous chamber, notably warmer than the outside, with only a single path heading further into the dungeon.

  “Alright everyone, move like we discussed. This shouldn’t be too difficult, but you never know what might happen.” Layne said, shifting to get into position. It wasn’t much of a marching order to Leo, given the general composition of the party, it basically meant that Layne led at the front, Axilya brought up the rear, and everyone else could mingle in the middle. “Cario.” Once they were in position, Layne glanced the Lifetender’s way.

  “On it.” As Cario spoke, his eyes flashed green. After several seconds, he spoke again. “There’s a large group about 200 feet ahead. I think they’re all undead, and none of them seem particularly strong.”

  Layne nodded and looked toward the rest of the party. “You heard him. Unless anyone has any reason to delay, it looks like we’re going in hot.”

  Almost in unison, Leo watched Rize’s, Axilya’s, and Hayumi’s ears flick in response, but no one had anything to say. Leo considered pulling out his sword from his storage as everyone else made their preparations, drawing weapons and the like, but he thought better of it, instead moving to cast the spell he’d spent time learning. In seconds, he had a spectral, translucent bow in his left hand. Even for his rank, it cost a negligible amount of mana to summon and maintain, and while it cost more mana to conjure up arrows to fire, as long as he used regular arrows or any of the special ones he’d mixed, he could keep it up indefinitely. The spell also had another use, but depending on the quality of the undead, he doubted he’d actually need it.

  Weapons in hand and spells cast, the group proceeded. Hayumi cast a spell that caused a blue mote of flame to float above and slightly ahead of Layne, illuminating the way forward as the light from the entrance faded the further into the path they tread, until it became their only source of light. Leo’s head whipped back and forth, watching every shifting shadow as Layne set a steady pace and continued on, seemingly without a thought or care as to what might lurk in the tunnel. Leo supposed Layne had confidence in whatever skill or ability that Cario used.

  Soon enough, they could see a light at the end of the tunnel. Leo tightened his grip on his spectral bow. As they approached, Hayumi dispelled her foxfire, and as Leo’s eyes adjusted to the new light source, he could see into the chamber. The ground shifted from cave rock to carved stone, though Leo could barely see said stone due to bones covering it. Human bones-- or at least humanoid, took up most of the space of the wide chamber. Leo could see the occasion glint of metal from rusted weapons interspersed between them.

  Leo thought they’d start to slow down, maybe talk about how they were going to approach the chamber, but Layne kept walking, all the way up to the entrance of the chamber itself. “Get ready, everyone.” He said, and took a step inside, to Leo’s bewilderment.

  Leo barely had time to notch an arrow into his bow before the bones started rattling on the ground, making a horrible, echoing racket. They shifted and began to float as skeletons reassembled themselves. Leo quickly lost count as Axilya pushed to the front of the party to stand beside Layne, drawing her claymore from its metal sheath as at least a couple dozen skeletons sprang to life in the chamber. A quick scan with Appraise revealed most of them to be E or D-rank.

  Layne rushed in first, his sword crackling with lightning as he dove into the fray with Axilya following behind him. Everyone else stayed close to the entrance, with Hayumi and Rize beginning to cast spells and sling flames, and Kazato summoning a pair of spectral, floating swords that flew toward the skeletal crowd in her place. Cario stood by with a crossbow, while Mille started casting a spell of her own.

  As she finished, Leo felt a soft breeze beginning to flow around him. He wanted to check his status to figure out what it did, but decided not to once he saw the skeletons begin to close in around Layne and Axilya, who were shredding through the ones directly in front of them. Leo readed his bow and pulled an arrow out of storage and notched it before taking aim. He took in a deep breath to steady his aim, and then fired. It sailed into the horde of skeletons, Leo heard a crack as it connected with something.

  Leo didn’t have the best aim, but he figured that he’d do some kind of damage by firing into the crowd. He made sure to avoid shooting toward the others, pulling out more arrows from his Storage to fire out. On his fifth shot, he got a solid hit, striking one of the skeletons directly in the skull and shattering it, sending the rest of its bones and the rusted spear it carried clattering to the ground. This caused five of the other skeletons around the one Leo killed to turn their heads and start rushing in his direction.

  You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.

  He notched another arrow and started moving back. Skeletons didn’t particularly scare him after all his training, but he didn’t want to get near five of them with their rusted weapons. Another quickly chanted a spell from Millie, and she conjured up a strong current of wind from behind Leo, wide enough to catch the oncoming skeletons and slow their approach from the force of the wind. Leo fired the arrow, and watched it sink into another skull, without shattering it this time. Another on the same target and a crossbow bolt from Cario managed to finish the job, and seconds later a wave of white fire from Rize burned the rest.

  All in all, Leo went through 11 arrows before he ran out of things to shoot at. Layne and Axilya tore through the bulk of them, to the point where the rest felt like stragglers. “That…was quick.” Leo commented.

  “Just fodder.” Layne said, sheathing his sword. “I know I rushed in there, but if we struggled with this much, it probably wouldn’t have been worth it to continue on in the dungeon. I’ll make sure we have time to assess the situation when we run into other things. Speaking of which, don’t hesitate to speak up if you see something odd with your Appraisal.”

  Leo nodded in response, glancing at Axilya as she rejoined the group cradling an arm that had a sizeable cut near her shoulder. Cario quickly walked up to her as soon as he noticed. “Here, let me.” He brought his hands up to her arm, stopping just before touching the wound, and chanting a spell. His hand sprouted a green glow, and within seconds the wound on Axilya’s arm closed altogether.

  Axilya flexed, and swung her arm a couple of times, before looking back up at Cario. “Good as new, thanks.”

  Cario nodded and looked around. “Is anyone else hurt?” He asked. “If not, I suppose we should get moving.”

  They had a brief look around, but couldn’t find anything in terms of loot except for old, rusted weapons. They started down the path ahead, which alternated between carved stone and cave. Layne told the group not to worry about proceeding stealthily, having Rize and Hayumi light the way with motes of white and blue fire. Even Leo participated with his small, candle flame that flickered on his fingertip, however much that actually contributed to their overall light.

  As they progressed, they passed by rooms, prison cells carved into the cave, and their progress slowed as they passed to make sure they got a good enough look into each room to make sure nothing tried to hide. Fortunately, they only had more skeletons attack them on the way, and they usually came from a distance. Far enough that Rize and Hayumi could sling fire, or Leo could fire an arrow or two and be done with them, and they either attacked alone or in small groups, to the point that it barely impeded their progress.

  Minutes passed, in relative silence until once again, they could see light flooding in from another chamber. A look inside revealed more cave than stone, and a lack of any immediate visible threat, or indication of one. “There’s something strong ahead.” Cario noted. “B-rank, at least.”

  They slowed to a stop just before the entrance, and to Leo’s relief, Layne didn’t waltz right in, instead opting to turn back toward the party. “Alright, that’ll be a little hard to deal with. If you have anything you want to prepare, you should probably do it before we go in.”

  He didn’t need to tell Leo twice. With a flick of his wrist, Leo pulled out a D-rank stoneskin potion and drank it, looking over his skin as it gained a rocky texture. Around him, he spotted Axilya unsheathing her sword again, and Cario pulling out his crossbow. After making sure they were already, Layne gestured to go forward and they all moved into the chamber.

  Everyone looked around, searching for the threat Layne seemed convinced was there, several seconds passed before Mille shouted. “Look! Above!” Pointing to draw everyone’s attention.

  Leo didn’t particularly like what he saw. On the roof of the cave, in between several large stalactites, a massive snail-like creature hung. As large as an elephant, with a shell that Leo could comfortably walk inside, its most striking feature was the head of an elder, bald human man, fixing the party and elated, toothless grin.