“Huh, is it over now?!”
“Seems like it.”
“Wow~ I thought I was gonna die.”
“Me toooo…”
“Is everyone okay? Any injuries?”
“I think I have a bruise on my arm.”
“Can you extend your arm?”
While Karina moved around to heal the injured, I inspected the mangled corpse of the dragon.
First off, the teeth should be useful for crafting weapons, and since the blood is for alchemy, I filled my flask to the brim. The skin can be peeled off so that Lewis can turn it into armor.
It really pays off to hunt dangerous monsters.
It was tough to catch, but it was just a ground dog, so I smashed it into the ground and left it dazed.
The last breath was a bit threatening, but I forced its mouth shut with a pillar and made it explode from within, leading to its easy demise.
“That dungeon was finished easily.”
“The wyvern was really annoying, though.”
Renny plopped down next to me. I pulled out some jerky from my pocket, tore it in half, and handed it to Renny. She accepted it and bit in.
“Ugh, salty…”
“Thanks to that, you’re wide awake, right?”
“True.”
“Johann, what’s the next schedule?”
“A few days of rest, then we head to the Fog Graveyard.”
“Ugh, finally some time to relax…”
Sif sighed in relief and flopped onto the ground. She didn’t seem to care about getting her clothes dirty. Honestly, after all the dust we kicked up getting here, it’d be silly to worry about cleanliness now.
“Sif, set up camp here and let’s go extract useful materials from the drake and wyvern corpses.”
“I hope the materials are intact. If they’re too damaged, the price will drop a lot…”
“Crafting.”
“Wow, it’s huge.”
“With this, we should have enough space to rest. Everyone, take a break inside! And Renny, sorry to bother you, but please watch the perimeter outside. Elisa and Shuri, please put protection magic on the building. Weak is fine.”
“Got it!”
“Ugh, okay.”
“Sif, we’ll finish up quickly and come back.”
“Leave it to me.”
We quickly moved on to extract materials from the corpses of the monsters.
——
“This is the Fog Graveyard…”
[Hey, Contractor, this atmosphere is a bit chilling…]
What if you get scared?
I patted Rue, who looked surprisingly terrified, three times to indicate that she shouldn’t worry and took a look at the dungeon entrance.
“Hmm.”
There’s fog starting just around the entrance. I bit the nearby people and ignited flames from the Phoenix all over my body. I looked like I could win a barbecue contest, but once the fire was out, I’d return to normal anyway.
I felt the fog pushing against me, but I then checked that it kept seeping back in and eased off the power.
“Warm~”
“Uncle, can we cook by placing a pot on top of your head?”
“Now that’s a fresh idea. Sif, do we have enough supplies on the cart?”
“We’ve got a week’s worth of food, extra iron bars, and all the utensils! We’ve also got the map until it was confirmed by the Explorer Guild!”
As expected from Sif. Without me needing to say anything, she hurried over and handed me the map.
Glancing over it, I noticed there was nothing drawn beyond the entrance area.
“Hmm.”
Honestly, it’s pretty much the same as having no map. Well, that’s how unexplored dungeons are. What did the map look like in the original… It was a constant monster spawn from the fog, but the dungeon itself was closer to a large circular square.
“Everyone, focus.”
With my call, everyone simultaneously turned their attention to me. The serene expressions on their faces seemed to reflect the splendid experiences we had in the previous dragon tomb expedition.
Well, we’ve faced wyverns above and drakes below in the dungeon, so how scary could undead be? It’s true the grotesque appearance is more terrifying.
“The Fog Graveyard isn’t like the dragon grave or steel forest we explored before; it isn’t a place with powerful monsters.”
The steel forest was terrifyingly sturdy, where only level-two magic or aura would deal significant damage.
The dragon graveyard, where drakes and wyverns constantly tormented us.
Unlike those two, the Fog Graveyard is filled mostly with enemies you’d expect from a low-level dungeon.
By basic difficulty standards, it’s the easiest, but unique obstacles in this dungeon skyrocket its difficulty.
“Can you see? No matter what we do, this fog won’t disperse but instead push back.”
“W-wait… if we get too far…”
“Exactly. Once we enter, we must not stray more than ten steps away from the party. The moment we do, we’ll be surrounded by fog and have to battle unknown monsters.”
It was infamous in the original for the vision limitations. No matter how weak the monsters were, having limited visibility is a frustrating penalty, and while minions are easy, bosses are not so simple.
Furthermore, the bosses roam throughout the dungeon, making it another hassle to track them down.
“In this dungeon, Karina, your role is crucial. For this dungeon, you’ll need to stay positioned at the group’s waist level and signal when you use Purification Magic.”
“Leave it to me!”
Karina nodded with a cheerful smile. She seemed excited to have a job after feeling guilty for just watching from the back in the previous two dungeons.
“Millia.”
“Yeah?”
“Hold onto this.”
I pulled a small lamp from my bag and handed it to Millia. Millia accepted the lamp and tilted her head in confusion.
“Why do we need a lamp?”
“It’ll serve as a last resort to confirm your position if you get too far from the group or if the fog thickens. If it feels dangerous, better stick close to Renny. It might be a hassle, but it’ll be better than being bitten by zombies.”
“Got it! I’ll do that!”
“Just make sure you don’t grab my arm when you stick close, okay?”
“Got it!”
“Uncle, what kind of power does that lamp have?”
“It was simply lit with the Phoenix’s flames.”
“Oh.”
The lamp lit with the Phoenix’s flames possesses a slight purification ability. It might only be enough to block access, but for low-level undead, that’s usually sufficient.
“You all should have one too. And just stand right behind me.”
“Got it!”
“Yep…”
I took out the extra lamp, lit it with the Phoenix’s flames, and handed it to Elisa and Shuri.
“Sif. You’ll be tightly pulling the cart for this dungeon exploration.”
“So we have to move in a tight formation in this dungeon, huh?”
“Exactly. And if it gets too hard to pull the cart, switch places with Viola.”
“Me?”
“Given the nature of this dungeon, you won’t have much to do unless we run into the dungeon master. Did you bring plenty of flasks with flammable liquids like I instructed?”
“Everything hanging on my waist is just that.”
“Good. We’ll deal with low-level undead using the sword built into your prosthetic, but let me know if it doesn’t work. I’ll repair it right away.”
Who else do we have left?
“Lewis. You’ll lead as usual, but if you spot a large figure in the fog, raise your hand and signal immediately. The undead will be swarming around that figure, so when it’s faintly visible, we’ll need to wipe it out with mass magic.”
As long as we stick to the protocol, it should be an easy dungeon.
That is the Fog Graveyard.
In gaming, the norm was to exploit Karina’s abilities constantly to clear it.
But unlike the game, I planned to tackle it relatively fairly. If I used Karina’s power to clear everything, we wouldn’t get the true rewards of this dungeon.
While the item had effects that bordered on gimmicky in the game, it would turn out to be much more useful in reality.
“Renny, you stay back to guard.”
“I feel a bit uneasy being away from Karina.”
“You’ll be fine. Karina will be right in the middle of the formation.”
Renny nodded to my words and returned to the group’s rear guard.
“Then I’ll form the ranks before we enter. Everyone, move to the positions I mentioned.”
Lewis at the front, followed closely by Karina, surrounded by Elisa, Millia, Shuri, losing Renny at the last behind Sif.
With this much, we shouldn’t have any problems advancing through the dungeon.
“Everyone, check one last time if you forgot anything and tell me! Once we enter, it’ll be hard to get out until we clear it!”
“I’m ready, Johann!”
“I-I’m ready too…”
“Lewis and I have everything packed!”
“Karina and I are all set.”
“Uncle, I’m completely ready!”
“I’m ready to go!”
“I’m set to pull the cart!”
“Then we’re heading into the Fog Graveyard now!”
“Yes!”
We stepped into the last dungeon, the Fog Graveyard.
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