My Dungeon Life – Chapter 2823-2825

Chapter 2823

“What did you do?” Hope asked.

“Why are you assuming I did something?” I shot back.

“You’ve been in the Imperial Cloud Meadow for a few months, and now the dead are coming back to life. You’re telling me you don’t understand what is happening?” she demanded.

I sighed, noticing that the blood on my blade was smoking. I hadn’t noticed this from the previous undead, so this must have been a feature of those bear monsters. I tossed the blade down and then looked over at Hope, who was watching me suspiciously.

“Believe it or not, I don’t happen to know everything. This is something that is outside of my own understanding,” I explained, but she only frowned harder.

“You were gone last night,” she said instead.

Now it was me who was frowning. “What are you implying?”

She gave a nonchalant shrug. “Just an observation.”

“Well, did you observe what happened here?” I demanded unhappily.

“We were attacked by a large group of frantic, panicked monsters. The soldiers fought back, but there were casualties. While we were recovering, the dead all stood up and began to attack the living. The soldiers were going to use the villagers as a distraction so they could flee. I convinced them that I could lead them away. In fact, they seemed very interested in me. I fled, and they chased me instead of everyone else.”

“And you survived against a horde of undead all by yourself?” I asked, not hiding the skepticism on my face.

“I’m not as innocent as you think, Deek. I have seen worse situations,” she responded. “Rather, how did you know where I’d be?”

“I… followed you,” I responded with a cough. “I naturally have the tracking skill and had you as my target.”

That was a lie. I hadn’t targeted Hope. However, for some reason, I didn’t want to tell her about the thread that connected us. Thankfully, she didn’t appear to be suspicious and merely nodded. Of course, that meant that she had already assumed I had her marked as a target.

“What do we do now then?” she asked.

“I need to go rescue the others from the soldiers. You can return how and start resurrecting those that died,” I told her, turning away and heading back.

“They went that way.” Hope pointed.

I blinked. “Are you sure?”

I was planning on heading back to the split before Hope parted with the others and then taking the other path. However, I wasn’t confident that I’d be able to track them perfectly, and I would certainly be moving more slowly.

“Have you never looked at a map of this valley? There is a central city with a castle. That has to be where Lord Bastion has set up camp.”

“I’ve glanced at a map,” I retorted.

However, I was used to my map skills updating. I never really memorized maps because a glance had always been more than enough. However, I wasn’t going to tell Hope about that. I turned and began walking in the direction she pointed. That was when I noticed her following after me.

“What happens when you encounter more undead?” she said when I glanced back. “You can’t cast magic. You don’t have a party to rely on. Even just two ursine abominations nearly killed you.”

“Ursine abominations!” That was the name of those creatures, but when I noticed she was staring at me, I coughed again. “I’ll be fine.”

“Yeah, you will be… because I’m coming with you!”

“But…”

“Resurrection can be done in a few days just as easily as today. The dead can wait. You need to help now!”

I opened my mouth, but then closed it. Why was she being so stubborn and bossy? Who did this woman think she was, my mother?

Chapter 2824

Hope and I rushed through the sunlit forest, the sound of our feet cracking the dry leaves and branches underneath. As we moved across the wilderness in a more direct path toward Valley City, I couldn’t help but notice that the forest was eerily quiet. There wasn’t a single bird singing or insect chirping. It was as if the world were already dead. How long had it been like this without me noticing?

Hope’s voice sounded particularly loud in the silence. “Why did you rescue me before the other villagers? It would have been much easier to rescue them before they reached the city.”

I couldn’t help but let out an irritated sigh before responding. “I needed your resurrection to bring back the dead.”

“Is that so?” She looked at me suspiciously, but for some reason, that only made me feel more irritated.

“Don’t get me wrong,” I growled. “It’s not that I like you or anything. I just needed your abilities.”

Her face turned slightly red, and she mumbled something under her breath that I barely made out. “Tsundere?”

I nearly stumbled before shooting her a glare. “There are only two white mages in this world, you and me. Until I can use magic freely again, I’m depending on you. That’s it! Once I have my powers back, you’ll mean nothing to me!”

Even I couldn’t help but wince inwardly at those words, but I managed to keep myself from showing any of it on my face. She looked back, and her expression soured.

“If I recall, you say you don’t remember much of your past, but your parents must not have raised you very well.”

I snorted and looked away. “If you want to blame anyone, take it up with my mother. I never had much of a father to speak of.”

I heard a noise and looked back to see that it was Hope’s time to stumble in shock. She stared and me, her lips slightly parted, her eyes wide as saucers.

“What do you mean by that?”

I blinked, wondering what this was, the thing that shocked her. “I said I was raised by my mother. My father left very early on. I don’t have very many memories of him, and none of them are good.”

“So… your mother raised you…” She looked like she was lost in thought before she glanced at me firmly. “You said I could meet your mother?”

I made a strange face. I had already had bad experiences bringing girls to meet my mom. There was the time with Carmine, Bernice, and Sapphire. Then, there was the time with Shao.

“She doesn’t want to see me,” I responded.

Hope frowned. “What do you mean?”

“I visited her once.” I shook my head. “It doesn’t matter. I spent my life burdening her. She had to raise me by herself. She’s better off without me.”

“I-is that what you think?”

“Why not? She moved on. So should I… all I… ah!” Hope suddenly grabbed onto me tightly. “What?”

I turned to see her looking up at me, her eyes full of tears, her lips trembling. Her look was fervent, even desperate.

“She loves you.”

“H-huh?”

“Your mother… she loves you.” Her voice shook as tears began to fall down her cheeks. “Coming from a mother, I know…”

“Hope… I…”

“Promise me you’ll return to her and confront her properly after this is all over. She’s been looking for you all this time. She’s been hurting…”

“I don’t-“

“Promise me!”

“Okay, I promise! Jeez!” I shook off her hand as she finally relaxed it, but I had an odd feeling when I made that promise, as if something in my future had just shifted.

No, that feeling was more than just intuition. It was the law. I tried to bring up my dungeon store, and then a smile formed on my lips. I had reconnected with the dungeon system.

Chapter 2825

Since my soul world had nearly been annihilated, I had lost my connection to the dungeon system. After working so hard to obtain it, I had been worried. After all, I also didn’t get access back to the old job system from Gaia’s world either. The result was that I had been left in limbo, relying only on the native powers left within my soul.

Now that I had regained the dungeon system, I could break out of the Imperium whenever I wanted. Although the second I tried to cast anything, the Imperium would know, and they’d launch an attack. If I was merely creating a portal to leave, it could be completed, and I could be back in Chalm before they even began to send anyone.

However…

My eyes couldn’t help but land on Hope. She was leading the way through the forest, lost in her own thoughts. She hadn’t noticed the change in my expressions, and I was quick enough to hide it. She was just some crazy girl with her own strange thoughts. Could I really leave her behind? Or should I kidnap her and take her with me? I didn’t really know. At least, I’d help protect this village before I left for good.

Even though Hope was leading the way, I still brought out my map, relieved when I could once again see where I was within the Imperium. I didn’t realize how much I had felt lost without having access to my original skills. It felt like regaining the use of a limb. The so-called valley that we receded in was actually inside the mountain range that bordered Shie Gescar. It had mountains on all sides, making it nearly inaccessible to the rest of the Imperium. It was also not much bigger than the distance between Chalm and Deek’s Crossing.

I put the map away and instead focused on using the extra mana I could absorb through law to begin to repair the cracks in my soul world. I presumed that I was under restrictions not unlike when the Demon Lord put a barrier on my magic. I could still use sense mana and use spells internally, but if I wanted to cast spells outside of my own body, that’s when it would be noticed by the Imperial Cloud Meadow.

My soul world up until this point had been painstakingly put back together, but the cracks were as deep as the oceans, and they weren’t healing very quickly. The only energy that could heal it was Hope’s heal spells, and she would only offer one a day. To put it another way, my soul couldn’t heal by itself. It needed external input. The dungeon system was exactly that, a means of reaching outside the narrative restrictions of the world you found yourself inside, making use of the laws that defined a world to rise beyond it.

In short, I’d reached a state where I could finally start healing myself. Soon, I’d be back to my old self again.