Spirit Taming

Chapter 286: Side Quest Found

The sounds faded away as the four walked through the entrance. The military tamers had allowed them through which was very nice and all four thought highly of them. But what they didn't realize was that they were entering a very different world than they knew. The dungeons they had been to before were very different.

'You have entered the old underground.'

The system said this as Clark moved in to the dungeon entrance. He was not used to the system doing this for the dungeons. He internally asked why.

'The sentient races call this an ancient dungeon. It is not, this is the appropriate name for this dungeon.'

The system's response was all Clark needed. He was glad that it had some intelligence and could respond at times to his questions. Now he knew that in terms of dungeons, this was not old enough to be considered ancient. Yet, it was old enough to be considered the old underground. The system also gave a little more information without saying it, this dungeon was more unique than others.

"The way these bricks are, and the ceilings…" Clark pointed out the roots and other things growing here and there as they walked down the stairs. "I would say this is an underground dungeon."

"Underground? So you mean that we have to deal with earth type monsters again?" Brad didn't feel like seeing another lizard that could slam him against a wall. It just didn't sound like a fun time.

"No, I am just saying that we might have found the best of the older dungeons. We think that this was once a city but somehow became a dungeon, right? That means this is a part of the underground sections of this city. We could have many different underground things found in a city here." This was what Clark was imagining the dungeon was telling him.

"So we could face the sewers, vaults, basements, and prisons of the ancient city?" Reese was able to catch on. Maria was clearly about to say the same thing but was beaten. She puffed up her cheeks but didn't fight Reese about it.

"That is what I'm saying. This old city seems like it was split in to multiple parts for sure. The basement or underground sections are here. The other dungeons probably have the indoor, outskirts, or the surface portions. That's my theory. Not that researchers couldn't have found this out already.

The main thing that we have to worry about is that we might have sewers which means poisonous beasts. Or the prisons which means violent beasts."

The assumption Clark was making was that the potential areas of a city would relate to the beasts within that portion of dungeon. It made sense that the most dangerous portion of a city would have the most dangerous beasts. Even if there were no living species from that city, the beasts that were here now could carry many unique dangers.

"So, by dangers do you mean that the walls will have some murals on them that show us warriors fighting wars?" Brad pointed out the walls that they had just come in to sight of after reaching the bottom of the dungeon entrance stairs.

'Paintings of the damned- uncommon

The paintings of the damned are a unique form of art style made by an old human civilization. They lived when they still erected temples to pray to lesser gods. The paintings of the damned were what they believed happened to those that did not pray to the god of fall harvest.

The beings depicted are unfed and emaciated corpses that went to war against those that lived and ate. The belief of the time was that the gluttony trait would fall as a curse on those that did not spare part of their harvest for the god of harvest. This belief was created when a swarm of undead attacked the outskirts of…'

The description trailed off and Clark wondered if the system was only able to share part of this history. The dungeon was only part of the city. This old area could only allow the system to share so much. Clark would often look at materials that were portions of a beast or other thing. These would give details about that portion. Biot about the entire beast completely.

It made sense.

Clark didn't hide his theories. He slowly explained his ideas about the murals of undead fighting humans. This made sense to the others since they saw that the living carried portions of food that they raised up to the sky. The undead were missing any filled out features. Overall, it was slightly shocking that there was such a painting along the walls.

"An underground temple section. Does this mean that we might be able to find their religious artifacts? Any researcher of ancient societies would pay a fortune for a single small piece of history!" Maria knew that some people valued relics from the past more than they did any beast or valuable material.

"We can hunt for them, but I still want to find where that rune carver perished." Clark kept his goal clear. He had to go down further. To the lower and more dangerous floors.

' side quest- old prayer book

The old prayer books left behind have all rotted due to the open air in the main sections of the first floor, old temple basement. But there are safe points where any self respecting religious organization would seal their items for safety.

Requirement: discover the hidden prayerbook and defeat the guardian there.

Reward: location of stairs to second floor.'

The system quickly dropped this on Clark. It seemed that it had heard and agreed with maria. Plus, it was a valuable experience. Clark could show Reese and Brad that the most explored dungeons still held secrets. It would get the two on board with finding the rune carver's remains sooner. It would also help for them to be more vigilant when it came to the rest of the dungeon.

"This kind of place often has a hidden section. If I remember, the church that prays to the creator and goddess of light have sealed tombs, right? I bet there are sealed areas with certain books or religious items here too." this made everyone look at Clark. They wondered if such a well traveled dungeon first floor would have that.

"It's worth a shot. If we don't find anything, we will find the second floor. It's not like we don't have the time. Plus it can sharpen our observation skills." This convinced them easily. They could train a way here.

'I will take that challenge. You want to see who can spot the hidden features of this floor before we move on, right?" The sudden ignition of Reese's competitive side surprised everyone. But in just a few minutes he was carefully walking along the walls examining every single tiny detail. Brad had to jog to catch up and keep guard.

It was clear that Reese would be the observer and Brad had realized he would need to be the defender. It was an unfair pairing but it would work for not.

"You have more on your mind, right?" Maria saw right through Clark. She had been around him enough to know that he must have caught on to something.

"I just liked what you said about the old things that might be here. I bet if we look around we will find something other people missed." Clark let Devi out of the taming space. He remained invisible and started to search around. He had been cooped up and was glad to explore a new and old place. He felt right at home surrounded by the murals that had both living and undead depicted within them.

"Hmm…" Maria knew that Clark was holding a little back. He could only give her a wink and smirk at the challenge. She just shook her head and began to move to catch up to the other two. They would follow what Clark was saying for now, but she would stop them if it seemed that they were wasting their valuable time.

What the other three didn't seem to worry over were beasts. The first floor was the most hunted area. That made it the safest in terms of wild beasts. They would be hunted or captured easily. That didn't mean there were none though. Beasts always found a way to worm their way back to where they liked.

There were always hidden beast eggs hatching in a hidden corner of shadows. That was the essence of survival for some beasts.

As they moved along, Clark saw multiple chambers with old petrified wooden shelves. The books on them had rotted or were already taken away. Some places had rusty chairs or broken portions of walls. It was clear that this dungeon was still decaying even though it was a dungeon and not a city now.

The murals were changing as well. Some showed long fields of food while some were paintings of clouds. None depicted the god of harvest that the system mentioned which caught Clark as strange. He wondered why none of the walls would be dedicated to the very thing the system had told him these temples were erected for.