8 VIII.

"Okay, before we can really start going, I just have to say that your friend's body was sucked into the ground, seriously, that was weird as hell. One moment he was there, and the next he had definitely disappeared right in front of me. There wasn't even time to retrieve his belongings, money, book, or anything I was really interested in..."

Elie, listening to this, quickly understood.

"Oh, that's natural, the dungeon absorbs dead bodies to strengthen itself. Isn't it ironic? Adventurers seek to make a living by entering dungeons, but it's the dungeon itself that usually benefits from it."

"Wait, then why didn't you take the body to bury, cremate, or whatever you usually do?"

"What do you mean? Are you a bureaucrat or something? It's just a body; Christopher isn't really there."

"Well, if you say so."

"Now that you're ready, we should hurry. It's almost getting dark, and the dungeon usually closes after nine."

Dark at nine? Am I in the winter of this world? I just can't feel anything.

"Do you know where we're going? It seems like you're lost..." David was already finding the young woman in front of him strange; she seemed to be taking numerous turns in those strange corridors that only began to form well after where he was.

For him, it had all seemed like one grand straight corridor before, but it looked like the deeper he went, the more partitions he found. Perhaps most of these led to other exits or even to more dangerous and frightening floors.

"I definitely just went out and came back this way, so stop asking that every time, for God's sake."

David would have rolled his eyes at this if he had any, but seeing that everything was probably fine and that he probably wouldn't need to fight right now, he quickly focused on his status and noticed something new in that place.

System

name:David Moore

Specie: Skeleton (I)

Level: 027

points: 024

Attributes:

Vitality: 100

Mana:240

Strength: 12

Agility: 07

Mind: 47

Powers:

Night Vision(passive)

basic Regeneration. lv I

Mastery Spear level I

Telekinesis lv. II

Shop[new]

-New message!!!-

The shop tab showed something different, and he seemed to have received a message, whatever that meant.

Not caring much about the shop at the moment since he had points for almost nothing, or rather, for nothing, he quickly focused his thoughts on the message, which finally appeared as if by magic.

"Hey! David, how are things? This is God speaking. Well, it doesn't matter. Anyway, I wanted to let you know that I updated your system. I realized I had given you a rather outdated version of the project, and seriously, you'd be screwed if you continued with that... Anyway, have fun. - God"

This was unexpected. David didn't know that God still had control over him and his new system. Well, it made sense, but it was still strange.

Just the idea of being under the control of a superpowerful being gave him chills. However, wasn't that the case for definitely all beings in existence? The difference was that, for some reason, David, maybe due to pure schizophrenia, might have minimal contact with the being that governed his life.

Curious to know what had changed, David quickly entered the shop tab and noticed that there was now a tab that didn't exist before.

Attributes

-

Powers

-

Archetypes

Archetypes? What is that, psychoanalysis? Internet autism? Maybe both...

However, when David entered this tab, he was even more surprised when he realized that, despite having a new tab, there was absolutely nothing inside. Definitely nothing.

"That lazy God broke my system... and I thought programmers were sometimes incompetent... where's his manager?"

Returning to reality, David realized that his surroundings were finally starting to change. Instead of just seeing a simple forest as before, he was now in what seemed to be some kind of RPG game lobby.

In front of him, there seemed to be all different types of people, and the architecture of the buildings around him seemed more rudimentary, perhaps even military.

The people around him, mostly men, were wearing strange clothes, armor, or sometimes just common fabrics like David, but they wielded grand magical staffs.

This was too much for David's nerdy brain to process. And the worst part was that it had been a very long time since he had seen so many people. Strangely, he began to hyperventilate. Of course, it was all psychological, but it was real to David. However, he quickly tried to regain control because he had nothing else to do, except be discovered and killed.

Approaching Elie now, David spoke somewhat quieter than usual. "Where the hell are we? Did you bring me to the lair of people who want to kill me? Are you crazy?"

Afraid that someone might have heard that, Elie tried to smile as naturally as possible while still looking ahead on their path.

"Relax, I'm probably the only paladin in this city. Besides, I can barely sense you, and some beginner warriors and mages didn't suspect a thing... but if you start acting like a normal person, well, then I think we're doomed."

"...Do you know the penalty for helping undead?"

"Of course, I can act like a normal person... I am a normal person. It's just that I haven't seen a crowd in a long time; it's a bit scary. Can you imagine one of them coming out of nowhere just to stab us?"

"...I definitely wasn't thinking about that. Stop freaking out, and let's walk faster."

From where David was in the dungeon to the exit, it seemed they had walked for over thirty minutes. The reason David probably hadn't encountered any other adventurers was due to his location, which was basically in the middle of much more attractive areas, such as entrances to the second floor or places closer to the exit, which adventurers favored.

An exit from the city? This was really useful, and David didn't understand why it was just open to everyone. Seriously, an enemy army would probably love that.

After a while, the buildings stopped having the same shape, and the corridor of buildings finally opened up to what seemed to be a gigantic square.

"We're out of the guild now. We just need to get to the entrance of the commercial district. I think we should be able to do that in no more than ten, fifteen minutes, so, for the love of God, don't do anything strange. Tomorrow, I think we can get you registered with the guild, and after that, you should be fine. Your problem now is simply not having any documents with you, and that's really problematic in this nation, especially for you."

The further David walked, the more fascinated he felt with the entire place. How on earth could this be a small town? This was actually a city, by medieval standards, incredibly large. Not only did the buildings have an average height of five to six stories, but that square alone was colossal.

Now that David could start seeing people without armor covering their entire bodies, he also began to notice that there weren't just humans in that place, but various other beings.

Most were naturally human, but many people strangely had somewhat animal-like ears, resembling a bad Japanese fantasy costume, and others, much rarer, seemed to have large ears and extremely pale skin.

"What are these androgynous beings? Fairies?"

"What? No, these are elves. Stop staring at people; it's not educated."

Finally, the buildings seemed to get closer to David again, and they were now back on a narrow street. But unlike before, the architecture of the buildings was extremely diverse, yet never straying from European characteristics, often Germanic ones that he had encountered so far in this city.

"We're almost there. Just please, don't take off your mask until you're alone in your room. I don't live alone."

"Does that young lady live with you?"

"Kristin? No, no, she doesn't live with me. It's other people, normal people who don't expect to have a skeleton in their apartment, so please..."

"Sure, sure, my lips are sealed... I don't have any, haha, get it? because I'm dead!"

"...Okay, calm down. You don't need to look at me like that; I won't say or do anything."

Finally, they arrived where Elie seemed to live, and it actually seemed like a very pleasant place. It looked like a common residential building, something like an Italian Renaissance building. Nothing that David hadn't seen during his travels when he was still alive in Italy or even in Portugal and France.

It appeared to be a regular residential building. Elie seemed to have a key to the front door, but there didn't seem to be any security or anything like that. Maybe it wasn't really a condominium; if it wasn't, David didn't know how they kept the building from collapsing after decades of construction.