Part Zombie Part Dungeon

The first of those that remained alive from the party with which Riva had adventured was Jacob Valorn. A paladin and the party leader from back then. He had been an advanced rank adventurer at the time.

Now he had already climbed to a five-star high-rank adventurer. The highest rank before one became a rank surpasser.

According to his files, he blamed himself for the incident that cost seven of his party members their lives and pushed himself to become one of the most renowned adventurers in the kingdom. He was appointed extermination team captain and held in high regard by the guild.

From what Riva could tell, he was of noble lineage but not influential enough to have an influence on the guild's internal affairs.

Riva found the fact that someone of such extreme strength would lead such an insignificant party very suspicious. He was three ranks above Riva and the majority of other members.

The second and third survivors had quit being adventurers not long after the incident. Thus their files were discontinued. During the time they both were intermediate rank women.

The first one's name was Clarissa Kior and the second was called Jannis Kior. Apparently a pair of sisters that gotten into adventuring for the money. One was a proficient archer and the other one a fighter.

They wasn't really anything noteworthy about them.

The final survivor was Victor Gremory. A mage specialized in support. He was the weakest among the survivors with just a novice rank.

He was also the most suspicious in Riva's eyes. After the incident, he remained a normal adventurer and had risen to low rank. He regularly partied up with others and tackled the guild's quests.

Oddly enough, he never had the same party twice before he joined up with Riva's team nor thereafter. He was switching teams like clothes.

He also never got seriously injured despite being comparatively weaker than the other members. And it wasn't the lack of danger that kept him safe all this time. More than one of his party members died over the course of his career.

His background wasn't documented within the files and simply noted as ordinary. A fact that made Riva even more suspicious, when the others had been documented quite thoroughly.

Riva gave some thought to her next steps. In her opinion, it was unlikely that only one person was responsible for what happened.

She was certain that she died alone and that she felt a deep sense of betrayal. It couldn't be that simple. Especially when there were obvious inconsistencies between facts and report. Not only that. The whole report never mentioned any thorough investigation regarding the incident. The simultaneous death of seven adventurers should have resulted in an inspection. Yet there was only a witness report and not even a very thorough one. There was no in-depth explanation as to what happened with the boss.

It's obvious that there's more to it. I wouldn't be surprised when the guild played a part in covering up the incident. Riva thought. Why would they want the deaths of so many party members? There must have been a benefit to it. I checked the documents and only my personal effects were divided among the surviving party and adventurer guild. All other dead members had family or relatives and their personal effects were handed to them.

They could have stolen something from the dead members but why would they? Jacob was a four-star even back then, that's three stars higher than the majority of the party. There's little chance that he would have had any use for the other member's items. And he was already a rising star back then. There was no reason to possibly stain his reputation for something minor.

Why did we enter the golem dungeon? And why was the boss beaten in the end? How did the other members really die?

Come to think of it, if I lay there for three years wouldn't I have been found? I also remembered facts about the enemies within the golem dungeon. Which makes it likely that I entered intentionally.

It's best I meet with the survivors and get them to spill the beans. I doubt any of them are innocent anyways.

Riva checked what she knew and decided to pay Victor Gremory, the mage, a visit first. Not only was he the one with the most secrets, he also was the easiest to find, since she didn't know the siblings' location and Jacob was too high in the guild hierarchy to be an easy target. Not to mention his absurd strength as high-rank.

In contrast, Victor was pretty easy to track. He was currently registered with an outpost fortress to the west of Marinon.

Riva also considered paying the dungeon, which had been the one the party tackled three years ago according to the documents, a visit, but decided she'd leave that for after questioning Victor.

Having decided on a target Riva finally felt she had the freedom to pay her newly updated system the attention it deserved.

Riva used her magic sense to check her surroundings once more. She could feel the rooms around her vaguely. The walls obstructed her but it wasn't enough to drown out the signature of the other residents. Nonliving obstacles were much less obstructive to her mana sense than living ones, such as trees or people.

She wasn't able to perceive the exact details, but she could be sure that there was no one with a noteworthy magical gift within the building.

She checked because she felt safer that way. If there were no strong magicians in close proximity, it was less likely to be overheard, and it also meant that she wasn't being actively surveilled.

Maybe this was her being paranoid. Rao had put her on edge in that regard. He made it clear that he hadn't given up on researching her.

Having calmed her nerves Riva called out to the system. The first thing she ordered was to open her status.

[

[Name] Riva

[Race] Zombie/Dungeon

[Title] Not Equipped

[Status] Healthy

[Skills]

[Dungeon]

[Inventory]

]

and pressed the [Race] button.

[Zombie/Dungeon]

[Through the contact with an unborn dungeon, the user has achieved never before seen evolution into part zombie, part dungeon.

+

Zombie

An undead, often associated with apocalyptic scenarios. Zombification is said to be caused by a contagious virus. Well known for its greed and insatiable hunger for living human flesh. Nothing will stop it from pursuing its food, be it missing limbs or a door handle. It can infect others through its bite and is known to easily mutate. Its weaknesses are said to be its speed, which is especially slow during the daytime, anything regarded as holy, including most healing spells.+

Dungeon

A stationary entity of unknown origin that collects the energy of those that dare stray within its area of influence. A dungeon baits its prey with the promise of rich resources and digests its prey by corrupting it with its mana, turning it into an effective energy source. Dungeons tend to create their own subspaces. They can change their inner structure, manipulate the things within their influence and produce various objects.

A dungeon always requires a physical representative. Through the merging, the user's body has become the container for the dungeon and at the same time acts as its representative.]

Beneath the information about Riva's race was a button. The same one was also present on the status screen.

[Dungeon]

Riva clicked it with curiosity and anticipation.

[Synchronizing dungeon]

A third window opened atop the others. It displayed a simple loading bar.

With the bar filling, she became increasingly aware of her mind space where the willow tree had appeared following her evolution. This time the space didn't draw her in completely. Rather she felt the connection. It was very reminiscent of the time she split her mind into two. Just that this time she was the one on the outside and the one in control of her body.

The consciousness inside wasn't her and was her at the same time. It was difficult to describe.

She saw how the tree in her mind space wriggled its roots and dug them deep into the ground, smashing the floor tiles to pieces in the process. It was taking control of the space.

[Dungeon Management Unlocked]