My Dungeon Life – Chapter 2820-2822

Chapter 2820

After leaving some orders and some provisions with the mayor so that he and the remaining townspeople would have the ability to protect themselves, I headed out. As for how confident I was that I could free the townspeople, it all depended on whether I could reach them before they reached whatever stronghold they were headed to.

Thankfully, I knew exactly where they were going, because I could see the direction Hope was in. My time spent recovering had been useful in other ways. While trying to piece back together my soul, I had gained a deeper understanding of how a soul worked. If I could access the dungeon system, I would probably see the percentage grow a bit. Such comprehension was very important at this stage. Experience no longer meant fighting monsters or repetitive skill usage. I had to understand how the world worked.

It was like the difference between playing a video game and following the rules of the game, and being able to read the code and influence it directly. The more you understood, the more you realized you could shape the code however you wanted, and the less it mattered even what game you were playing.

Souls, for example, were composed of small threads. These threads were like a language. Their body held information and bound it all together. Millions upon millions of threads were tied together in a complex tapestry that ultimately created the soul. Hope had used the word weave around me before, and weave seemed to be a very apt name for what souls seemed to be made out of.

Every soul was a bundle of weaves, with threads running out and connecting them to everyone they influenced. Some threads were light and easily broken, while others could be thicker than chains. This was the basis for a lot of what I understood as skills in Gaia’s World System. Everyone you influenced had a thread. Those you were closer with had thicker threads than those you only met in passing.

The slave mark was a means of creating a thick and long-lasting bond. Party formations were another form of bond reinforcement. Yet, reinforcement wasn’t always necessary. My Harem Master job allowed me to grant anyone in my harem countless benefits, just because the thread that connected us fit some condition that fell in line with the job they possessed. Jobs in general found their respective host through a thread, which could be amplified through the use of tokens.

I was connected by a thread to everyone I had ever influenced in one manner or another. Most of those threads were so thin and faint that I could barely perceive them, even now, but the ones I could see were more important to me. There was Alysia, who, despite my not knowing where she was, I did know was still alive. As a sword, she should be able to hold up, so that was why I hadn’t been too worried about her while recovering.

However, the connection that was most important at the moment was my connection to Hope. It was just thick enough that I could follow it, and through it I could find her and those taken with her.

I moved at a brisk pace, eager to catch up before it was too late. Yet, my journey soon came to a pause. That was because, about two hours walk out of town, I came upon a blood-soaked battlefield. It looked like the caravan that took our people had been attacked by monsters.

Chapter 2821

Even though I couldn’t use my mana, there were still thousands of skills that I had encountered with all of the jobs I had absorbed. My skill with all of those jobs might not be at the level of a master, but I was also far from being useless, even without my ability to control the law. One such skill was the ability to track. Even if I didn’t have Hope’s thread guiding my way, I was able to see the mass movements of so many people.

This is why I could instantly recognize that the place I had just arrived at had been a battle between people and monsters. Why would I be confused? Well, I could see blood stains everywhere, but as for corpses, there were none. It was only through looking at signs, a tuft of hair caught on a branch, a horse’s hoof print, and, of course, a sword that had been abandoned. In fact, there seemed to be a couple of good steel weapons just randomly left lying where they were.

If I hadn’t already witnessed it in the village, this scene would have left me flummoxed. By my best guess, a group of monsters came upon the soldiers traveling north. They fought and killed the monsters, and perhaps fearing more were coming, left in a hurry. Soldiers and monsters both died in the exchange. However, neither side stayed dead. The undead got back up again. In fact, this might have been what caused the survivors to flee.

The undead soldiers were too stupid to grab their weapons and merely left. As for the undead monsters, perhaps they were harrowing the group all the way back home. Why did this battle happen in the first place? Well, I originally thought the monsters were coming from Shie Gescar. That was when the time lock broke; the beasts of old began the hunt once again. I now suspected something else.

These monsters weren’t hunting. They were running. The attacks on the town, and this attack as well, must be from a monster migrating. They were likely starving and on the run. As for what they were on the run from?

“Arrghhhh!”

A single soldier who had been pinned to the ground with a spear appeared to still be alive. Well, alive wasn’t the correct word. He let out snarling sounds as soon as he noticed me, desperately trying to reach for me and grab me. Of course, I stayed out of reach, but if this undead thing was happening in other places, wouldn’t that mean that the monster migrations could be a sign of the undead rising?

I shook my head. It was all just theories until I could prove it. I missed the time when I could just summon a map of the area around me and know exactly what was where. Instead, I relied on tracking, and that’s when I found a discrepancy. It looked like a large group headed off in one direction, but a smaller group went a different path. Perhaps the smaller group was used to distract and lead the undead away?

That group was being used for the distraction, though… that was the direction Hope had gone. I only considered things for a short time until I started heading in that direction.

Chapter 2822

I continued to follow Hope’s trail into the forest, the dense canopy above blocking out most of the sunlight, casting dappled shadows on the forest floor. The air was thick with the scent of pine and earth, and the only sounds were the occasional breeze, rustling through the canopy and the sound of my feet upon the forest floor. As I moved deeper into the woods, I noticed more signs of a struggle: blood spatters on the ground, broken branches, and the occasional discarded body part. My heart raced as I worried that I might be too late.

I picked up my pace, moving as fast as the forested terrain allowed. Suddenly, a blade swished past my head.  I managed to dodge it, slamming into a tree with a pained grunt. Groaning, I used the tree to pick myself up.

I looked up to see a bear-like creature with long, curved claws standing on its hind legs, its eyes glinting in the shadows. It was unlike any bear I had ever seen, with a humanoid-like torso and arms that ended in razor-sharp talons. Its fur was matted and dirty, and its breath came in ragged gasps, carrying with it the stench of decay.

“A bear… man?” I muttered.

Without my mana, I couldn’t identify it to learn its official name, so looks was all I had to go by. That’s when the creature stepped into a shaft of sunlight, revealing that half of its face was missing, the flesh torn away to reveal bone and rotting muscle.

I sighed. “Make that an undead bear man.”

The creature let out a guttural growl and lunged at me, its claws slashing through the air. I managed to dodge the first few attacks, but this thing was a much stronger creature compared to the wolves from before. Its speed was frightening, not like an undead creature at all.

I tried to circle it, looking for an opening, but the creature was cunning and anticipating my moves. It swiped at me again, and this time, I narrowly jumped back before it tore my shirt away. This time, I waited as it circled me. When it lunged forward, I pulled a sword out from my soul world and slammed it into the creature’s head.

It didn’t seem to care, trying to swipe at me even with a blade entrenched in its brain. Just as the creature was about to land a decisive blow, I pulled the sword out and with a flash of steel, took off its head. The head bounced and rolled on the floor, and with that, the battle seemed over. For a second, I was worried were weren’t following zombie rules.

“The beasts in Imperial Cloud Meadow are far too ridiculous,” I muttered to myself.

However, as I was trying to catch my breath, another bear man lunged at me from a place I hadn’t noticed. I cursed myself for letting my guard down. I didn’t have time to protect myself physically. I had no choice but to depend on mana. However, just as I reached for it, the bear erupted in a blinding white light and then collapsed to the ground, dead. I blinked, surprised, and then a familiar voice called out from the forest.

“Looks like you could use some help.”

Hope stepped out from behind a tree, her eyes sparkling with amusement as she took in the scene before her. She was unharmed, her clothes and hair neat.

I raised an eyebrow at her. All in all, it looked like she was faring better than me.