Chapter 866 Chapter 865: Terracotta Grottos (19)
"Well... that's rather..."
Leraie stopped beside me, and the two of us stared out over the grotto that we emerged into, only for the red skinned Demoness beside me to grunt as Ammit accidentally bumped into her, sending her skidding dangerously close to the edge of the cliff we stood on.
Grabbing her arm, I pulled her back into myself and glanced at Ammit, who was staring wide eyed at the scenery in front of us, uncaring of how she had potentially almost sent her comrade flying off of a really tall cliff to almost certain death.
And honestly... as I released Leraie, I couldn't really blame the Cimeriesa prodigy, my eyes returning to the grotto as I took in the sights, scanning over everything and wondering just what happened here.
Down below us, inside this giant ovular grotto that descended deep into the earth, were dozens of Undead monsters roaming around and groaning at one another, moving around aimlessly whenever there wasn't something living nearby - if there was, the monsters heads all snapped to look at the thing that dared to live in their presence as they swarmed towards it, going from completely stationary to running at incredible speeds that shouldn't be at all possible in their various states of decay.
Muscles hung off of exposed bones, fluids leaked from their torn and cut flesh, pus oozed from their disease ridden skin... the scent of rot pervaded the entire grotto, its sickly sweet smell wafting into our nostrils and almost making me gag at the tinge of acidity that lay beneath that disgusting sweetness, reminiscent of bile.
"How..? Interesting. Perplexing. Undead in such a high number... Undead variants of normal monsters. Turned. Infected. Not the usual catalogue of Undead. No skeletons. Zombies. Ghouls. Just..."
"Infected, like you said. All of them were killed and then brought back... which should have turned them into shells of their former selves, and yet here they are, stronger... The question is how? And what are they doing down there? They aren't approaching any of the entrances, even the ones that have monsters that are still clearly alive... They only attack those that step foot down there."
Ammit nodded, the gold skinned Demoness staring down into the depths and frowning as she tilted her head, observing the happenings of the Undead monsters that roamed around lazily and muttering to herself as she appraised this peculiar sight before us.
"Who would have thought we'd find something like this right away... I mean, we just picked this grotto of all grottos to follow? And it lead to this? What are the chances?!"
Leraie shook her head as she joined Ammit at the edge, staring down with her and clicking her tongue as she added "And what could they be doing? Guarding something? They don't leave this area, and the only sign of aggression is whenever something approaches; otherwise, they just... meander."
I had no answer, so I remained quiet as I too took in the large clearing filled with Undead monsters, trying to locate something that they might be protecting; the river that had traveled with us down the path rolled over the cliff and fell down into a small puddle at the bottom, which was currently being tainted by the Undead as they walked through it, leaving behind parts of themselves and various fluids that stained the clear water a cloudy greenish yellow.
A hundred feet below us, the monsters just roamed around aimlessly, and there was nothing of interest that I could see; small boulders and rocks littered the ground, whilst a thin layer of decaying grass covered the gravel ground, and no other shrubs, bushes, flowers or trees grew near the Undead, so there wasn't some kind of herb causing this or something.
Meanwhile, the two exits that were near the Undead were filled with monsters doing the same as us - appraising the horde of Undead and occasionally taking a step out to investigate, only to get promptly swarmed and torn apart.
Not turned into Undead, just utterly killed and devoured by the Undead monsters, leaving behind nothing as they crunched on the bones as well as slurped up the blood.
None of the Undead stood out as particularly strong or unique, so there wasn't some kind of leader guiding them or someone that they were protecting...
So then what is going on down there, and why are there Undead inside the grottos?
Like Ammit had said, Undead have their own catalogue of monsters; Zombies, Skeletons, and Ghouls are the main three that people see, and they tend to be naturally occurring as well as things that can be produced, but these weren't those sorts of monsters.
They were existing monsters - wolves, felines, birds and bears that had been transformed into something else, which shouldn't be possible unless someone was controlling them and changing them, but that begs the question...
Who was doing that, and why was there someone inside the Dungeon that had that sort of power?
"We can't learn more from up here. Let's head down. Observe. Learn. Kill. Perhaps we can find more clues after clearing them out?"
Ammit began to walk down the winding path right away, causing the rest of us to sigh and follow behind her without complaint, our own curiosity to learn what was the cause of this making it an easy decision; that, and the sight of the Undead struggling with a giant bear that we had killed with ease before was reassuring, so we knew that they were a manageable set of monsters to deal with, we just needed to be careful.
The stench of decay only grew stronger as we descended into the grotto, with the underlying metallic smell of blood and acidic smell of bile only making it a disgusting cocktail of scents that made me want to hurl; it was yet another strong case against why having a strong nose could be a downside as well.
This and the ash in Zhu'Rong were both strong cases against it, while the ability to smell more from my cooking and general nature was a rather strong case for it...
But right now, I really didn't like my nose, especially not when we came face to face with the sickly, pus ridden monsters that snarled and hissed at us, their decaying bodied moving surprising fast as they rushed towards us, their glassy, unfocused eyes glimmering with the familiar malice of a monster, as well as something else...
What it was, I wasn't sure, but I was sure that my Khopesh was going to need a thorough, deep cleaning after this... as would I.
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