"So this dungeon might not be life threatening but we might stay trapped here forever?" Thɪs chapter is updatᴇd by NoveI[F]ire.net
"That might explain why nothing that comes in here ever gets out."
The two of them observed the eerie environment around them and understood well why there was a strange gray sky and blue grass here.
The dungeon was not natural, it was an artificial trial ground created by someone powerful in the past.
This was a place made to keep the legacy of someone, something the creator had cherished for a long time.
They needed to clear the quest in order to complete the dungeon. Only after the quest was cleared, perhaps, they will all get to escape this place.
"Hmmm… understandable. The map of the first ten floors would not be a small thing. It might contain clues to various other opportunities." As the representative of the north, she wanted this map as well.
But, she knew how the association could use the map in a better way than a regional power like them.
It wasn't up to her to give up this amazing item, but as they had agreed on beforehand, by the signed contract, every item was going to belong to the association while they were going to get all the resources that they might find here.
So, even if they finish this quest, the map would still go to the people of the association.
"Smart bastards. Did you know about the map already?" She looked at him with a playful smile while questioning him.
But he did not answer her question and instead moved his hand over the grass below their feet.
"I can ask the same question, M'lady. Did you already know this place would be filled with so much of the moongrass?"
The blue grass that was present practically everywhere in this place wasn't any normal grass. This grass was something that one would only find in the places where the Mana of the moon saturats the entire atmosphere.
There was something about this place that helped with the growth of this special kind of grass. It was a pretty important ingredient in the creation of various famous portions from the game… and since it also contained concentrated Mana, mages can use them for ritualistic magic as well.
"Haha, it seems like we both will get something out of this at the end of the day. You're sure this place won't disappear once we clear it, right?"
"Yes, unlike most of the dungeons that are created for various purposes that are related to the higher beings of the tower, the legacy dungeons in their entirety are a test.
Once the test is cleared, everything within the dungeon including the resources become available to the players."
That's just how it has always been in the Tower of Beginning, and as the association has tested already, the same is true in this new tower as well.
"Great. It's good that you guys have some experience with this kind of dungeon. It makes things a little easier for us." Dame Althea stored some of the grass in her inventory as the two of them moved towards the rest of their party members.
Even though they all had been separated when they got here, many of the party members had already gathered together.
According to their reports, they had found the graveyard, and along with that, they had also run into a big problem… The two of them encountered the same problem when they were on their way to the rest of the party.
{ "Hello… travellers from… far beyond…" }
A spooky voice was heard in their surroundings as a green, translucent ethereal figure popped out of nowhere.
They had a humanoid body, but they were anything but mortal. One cannot call them spirits from how spooky they seemed, so the two of them simply called them ghosts.
"You have a skill that resists mental effects as well, right?" Ziggy was the one who asked her this question since he found the situation surprising.
"I don't, actually. Instead, I have this screen popping up every time these ghosts appear asking me if I want to purge them with my Holy power.
I guess I'm like their archnemesis here."
Ziggy simply nodded in understanding when he heard those words. It was truly a fact that there was a ghostly aspect to these creatures.
They weren't resentful spirits, they weren't evil, they were simply creatures of negative emotions that wanted to talk with them.
They weren't harmful themselves, but as they had found out, once someone starts listening to them, they would fall into a state of trance and there would be no way to move them after that.
Only people with a strong mentality could resist these beings' voices, and only someone with a skill to block the mental debuffs one could actually resist it completely.
Ziggy has his {Mental barrier} skill to go against these beings, but unlike him, as someone who possessed holy power that directly nullifies all evil intentions, along with a strong Aura, she could practically burn these spirits if she wanted to.
But they weren't doing that for the time being.
The green ghosts weren't actually harming any of them. They simply wanted to tell the stories of their lives to someone who might remember them.
"It is the innate, most primal wish of all living beings to be remembered by someone." Ziggy understood this fact awfully well thanks to his past experiences.
"There are times when people forget what they were never supposed to forget, and there are times when people remember what was never meant to be remembered by the future generations."
Dame Althea made the comment but she did not say anything on the same topic. She simply shook her head as if she did not want to continue whatever she was saying and glanced back at the green ghost who now stood there with a sadder look.
It seemed like getting rejected even after death still had some effect on the supernatural being.
"I feel bad for them… and we have to convince them to let go of the only people that are truly listening to them?" The dilemma was haunting for someone who followed her ethical boundaries as closely as she possibly could.
She did not kill the green ghosts despite the fact that it would increase her holy power simply because there was no need to do so.
The ghosts want to tell their stories, the objective of the quest is to offer flowers to their graves so that they can be freed, and above all, we have to convince these grieving souls to let go of the people they are telling their stories to, people who had fallen to their ghostly debuff.
It wasn't a nice situation for any of them. But then again, to get out of the dungeon as soon as they could was the endgoal.
"There they are." Ziggy spotted his crew as the two of them walked up to them… or were going to before they saw something that made them halt their steps.
The people that they were seeing at a distance were surrounded by the green ghosts like the one they saw earlier.
There were some younger ones, some older ones, some mothers with their babies, and there were men who looked to be as simple as the normal dads of their age.
However, these weren't people.
They were ghosts of the past that were haunting this place. And, as of now, they had all surrounded a few of their party members, as well as what seemed to be parties of the previous groups who had vanished inside this dungeon.
"Captain, over here!"
When the two of them reached their destination, a desolate graveyard was spotted at a distance.
Just like the open area where the previous parties were being held by the ghosts, the graveyard was entirely saturated with ghosts who seemed to be lamenting.
Their screams, the ghastly noises were heard all the way to where the two of them were, and these noises alone could have given the debuff to anyone who walked too close to the grave.
"Is that why you're here? ?" As the two approached the group that hadn't fallen to the screams, they saw the barrier of holy energy that was covering them.
This holy energy, as dangerous as it was to the ghosts, kept them away.
They were safe inside here, and the members of their parties who could use Holy power like the Dame, were taking turns maintaining this holy barrier.
"This is bad, Captain. They aren't listening even if we punch them! Aide fell to them as well!"
"They got the professor too!"
Since two captains were here, the remaining members of the team gave their reports first, however, the two of them weren't focused on the panicked members.
Throughout their walk, they had only seen the blue grass covered field.
There had not been a single flower anywhere in their sight even though they looked far and wide.
However, they had finally spotted the objective item of the quest.
A singular translucent crystal like flower growing in the very center of the graveyard infested with the green ghosts of the past…