After putting Globo away, we set out to explore.
The vast space was circular. The walls were made of brick, but the surfaces and gaps were oddly whitish.
When I touched them, they felt strangely slick and slippery.
"There's something off about these walls."
"Ah, ah, young Wof. You'd best not touch those. That's fat."
"Fat?"
"Mhm, mhm. Human fat, to be precise. Properly speaking, it's fat from corpses."
"Huh? Blegh!?"
I pulled my hand away quickly. It was sticky.
Fat from corpses?
"Hey. Don't tell me..."
"Waf? Um, um... fat from corpses means this is... adipocere?"
"My, my, you know your stuff."
"Um, um, well, Zecatria uses it a lot."
"Ah, ah, the one who's shut herself up in that catacomb, you mean."
"What's she up to. Rel's little sister."
Adipocere... right, that was the stuff where corpses turned candle-like.
When preservation conditions were just right, instead of rotting or mummifying, the body would become that.
And that adipocere was all over these walls...?
Covering every inch of these walls that disappeared into darkness above?
Tens of thousands — no, hundreds of thousands of people? The thought was staggering.
The witch gave a wry smile.
"Well, well, I must say. A Tomb of Death, of all things."
"Of all gods, it had to be Yomido. No wonder they launched a large-scale expedition. And it comes with a curse, too."
"Dear, dear. This really is a pickle."
What were the two of them talking about? Tomb of Death — I was pretty sure that came up in the description of Death's Offering.
In times like these, you wait. Juicy would ask the question soon enough.
"Um, um, what is Yomido, and what is the Tomb of Death?"
"The Tomb of Death is a designation for undead-type dungeons. City of Death. Valley of Death. Island of Death. Tower of Death. Tomb of Death. Castle of Death. Mountain of Death. Dungeon of Death. They're all bottom-of-the-barrel dungeons with a deepest level. The faithful of Yomido use offerings to summon and create them as places of worship."
"Summon and create?"
"Well, well, there are Relics that do that. They use every last offering to bring a Tomb of Death into existence."
"What do you mean by that...?"
I could have guessed without asking. Using every last offering. The Relic called Death's Offering.
Walls coated in adipocere. That's what it meant, wasn't it?
"Now then, now then, I wonder how they do it."
The witch answered quietly, vaguely. Nobody said anything.
Agaro spoke up.
"Oh, and one more thing — Yomido is an evil god. The death god Yomido who commands eight Kings of Death. Heretic cult equals Yomido's followers — that's how the term is used. If you lot are going to be delvers, you'd better remember that much. Yomido's followers are anti-dungeon ideologues. They're enemies of delvers."
"Y-yes."
"Um, um, got it. Yomido is the enemy of delvers."
"Good. Now for the main topic. Before you entered, you felt the Relics, didn't you?"
"Y-yes. The Relics activated on their own."
"Um, um, um... could this be a curse?"
"Yes, it is. A curse."
A curse. In other words, a debuff. A debuff Relic.
I knew those kinds existed, but I never expected to be hit with one before even becoming a delver.
Death's Offering: Upon leaving the Tomb of Death, one becomes Death's Offering. Also, in four days, one becomes Death's Offering.
Can't leave the Tomb of Death. In four days, become Death's Offering.
Was it safe to assume I'd become part of the dungeon? Like this adipocere... I didn't want that.
Would drinking an elixir break the curse? I'd try it later.
"Of course, of course. There is a way to break it. You need to liberate this Tomb of Death. In other words, reach the dungeon lord in the deepest level — defeat the King of Death."
"...What rank is this King of Death?"
"I don't know the exact rank, but it's definitely not a Treasure-class."
"Most likely, mid-tier Gem-class."
Mid-tier Gem-class... I had no idea how strong that was.
Could a single Gem-class monster destroy a city, if I recalled correctly?
"For reference, I definitely can't win alone."
"You, Agaro!?"
"I'm still far too weak."
He laughed at himself. Seriously? In my book, he was the strongest guy around.
"Um, um, what about the witch?"
"Hmm, hmm. At that rank, she could easily defeat 'Sword of Swords' or 'Ruinous Breaker,' and 'Seven Attribute Lords' or 'Fierce Saint' plus 'Second Coming of Generas' would be about even."
Quite the lineup. All Class I delvers, probably. And she casually dropped "Second Coming of Generas" in there, too.
Agaro tilted his gourd, confirmed a single drop had fallen, and then spoke.
"Well, well, it's not as though there aren't other ways."
"There's something other than defeating it?"
"Oh, that's simple enough. Just become a follower of Yomido."
"Wait, that's—"
Even I knew that was a terrible idea.
"Um, um, I really think we should avoid that."
"Yeah, Yomido's a no-go for me... not as a delver, thanks."
"Well, well, even Kon draws the line there."
Then why bring it up.
In any case, we decided to head for the deepest level.
Several passages branched off from the circular hall.
There was no way to know which one was right.
I used Danger Discernment and Wheel of Fortune just in case.
Juicy pointed to the second passage from the right.
"Um, um, I think this passage is the right one."
"Then let's go with that."
"Right."
"Um, um, is that really okay?"
"Hmm, hmm. Should be fine."
Leaving the perplexed Juicy behind, we entered the passage.
Neither I nor anyone else seemed to take this seriously.
I wondered why.
Unable to leave, and in four days we'd become Death's Offering.
To prevent that, we had to defeat the King of Death within four days.
The King of Death was mid-tier Gem-class. A rank for Class I delvers.
Yet no sense of tension hung in the air. I felt strangely detached, as if it were someone else's problem.
I found it odd.
And just like that, I slashed through a skeleton bearing a rusted sword and shield with my elixir knife.
"Are these the guys from the large-scale expedition? They look like soldiers."
"Hmm, hmm. Hard to say."
"Um, um, um... seeing bones gets me all excited."
"Don't bite them. Those are real human bones."
"Waf?"
They were real?
Well, real or not, I'd rather Juicy not put bones in his mouth either.
Skeletons kept appearing in the passage, and we cut them down. Globo showed up too, and we took it out.
Translucent Blood Slimes with skulls inside appeared as well, and we cut them down.
In a place that resembled the wax-coated walls of a castle, we encountered a band of headless knights, and cut them down.
A massive bone bridge spanned a river of blood, and hordes of zombies groaned beneath it — we cut them down.
"...This is going pretty smoothly."
"The upper levels are probably like this. But there are Class I and Class II delvers deeper in. And you lot aren't weak by delver standards either. That Tasan girl in particular is no ordinary fighter. Still, that witch — what is she thinking?"
"What do you mean?"
"There's no way that witch doesn't know about Tombs of Death. And yet she assembled this party. She even dragged you, her own disciple, into it."
"...You think so too, huh."
I'd thought something was off as well. The witch not knowing about Tombs of Death — that felt wrong.
As you might guess, the witch had a carefree personality.
But that carefree attitude was only possible because she buckled down when it mattered.
She was the type to work hard now in order to take it easy later.
There was no way that witch had gone into investigating the Forest without doing her homework first.
She was definitely pulling strings behind the scenes.
Still, this time I couldn't quite figure out her true intentions.
Did she know about this curse called Death's Offering? This debuff Relic?
I needed to get to the bottom of this one way or another.
We found a staircase and descended into a similar wax-coated space.
We defeated various undead, found another staircase, and descended into another similar space.
After repeating this for several floors, we suddenly emerged onto a withered grassland.
Though we were underground, the sky was perpetually sunset — a twilight hour that stoked unease.
Dead grass stretched out in every direction, and that only added to the growing sense of dread.
The monsters that appeared on the withered plain were bone wolves — Bone Wolves — and bone sheep — Bone Sheep.
Bone cattle — Bone Bulls — and bone boars — Bone Boars.
And bone bears — Bone Bears. There were also bone crocodiles — Bone Crocodiles.
Nothing but bones. After dealing with those at random, I caught glimpses of buildings here and there.
A village.
A village, huh.