Rise of the Living Forge

Chapter 96: Murals

Arwin slid down the rope until the ground was close enough to drop the rest of the way safely. He readied himself as he fell, armor snapping to place around his body even as he landed, but the room was just as empty as it had appeared.

It was, however, far larger than he’d initially thought. The room was likely three or four times bigger than the one above it. Massive murals covered the ground and ran up the walls and ceiling, all made out of lines drawn into the stone with powdered green and purple crystal. Arwin’s shadows seemed to duplicate and dance across the ground with every move.

The hole that he’d seen covered by crystal in the room above ran through its far end, spikes of crystal frozen in their slow crawl around its edges. In the center of the room, just a short distance away from Arwin, was a chest made from bone and covered with more of the purple crystal.

Arwin turned in a circle, his eyes widening in disbelief. There was no doubt that their rewards waited for him in the chest, but the rest of the room was like nothing he’d ever seen. They weren’t just art. It was a story.

The mural on the wall nearest to the chest depicted a skeleton clad in beautiful metal armor setting out from a village. The next showed the skeleton arriving at a cave with green crystals lining its entrance.

It entered the cave, killing the monsters within it with a blade made of purple energy. Trails of shimmering blue traced across the murals and the skeleton followed after them, its hands outstretched in desire.

That must be the magical call of the dungeon that brings monsters to it.

Arwin walked along the mural, heading down the side of the room to continue viewing it.

The skeleton continued deeper, delving into the depths of the dungeon. It ripped apart a coven of Chiropires with its purple magic and devoured their largest one. And still, the swirls of blue called the skeleton deeper.

It traveled into the depths of the dungeon, following the energy, and finally found what it was searching for. An enormous cavern full of green crystal, power gathered within them and waiting to be claimed.

The skeleton tore into the crystals, shoveling them into its mouth. It devoured them, and the magical energy gathered around it. Even though the skeleton had no facial features, Arwin could see the delight etched into its form on the mural.

It didn’t stop there. The blue lines were back, and they led up a familiar looking passageway in a now-empty room. In pursuit, the skeleton ascended the wall and entered the passage. Beyond was a room with a plain stone chest nearly twice the skeleton’s height. The lines all up to a single, beautifully carved crystal resting within the chest.

That crystal went right into the skeleton’s jaws. It threw its head back, seemingly roaring in victory as lines of blue power raced into its body.

The story wasn’t over, though. Arwin’s eyes were drawn to the floor. Instead of entering the skeleton, all the energy poured into the crystal still lodged in its chest. Its body warped, parts of it nearly doubling in size while others lagged behind. Green crystal jutted out from it at random spots.

The skeleton ripped the crystals off itself, but it was pointless. With every mural that followed, the crystals grew – and so did the skeleton. Digging into the earth beneath the empty chest, the skeleton worked to hollow it out.

It carved out a room even as its body grew and warped. The very same room, Arwin realized, that he was standing in right now. And then it sat down. Almost a dozen murals followed of the skeleton sitting in place.

The crystals on its chest slowly turned from green to purple. All the uneven growth evened out. For a while, it seemed as if it had gotten the crystal growth under control. Then the skeleton’s eyes flickered, sparks of green lighting within them.

But the peace was temporary. The purple crystal cracked and fell away. In the center of the skeleton’s body, the beautifully carved crystal rested, as green and untouched as ever.

Lines of blue continued to swirl around the monster, but they weren’t entering its body. They were entering the crystal in its center. It seemed like the purple crystal had stalled the crystal’s growth, but not enough to completely stop it. Slowly, the green started its return – and the skeleton grew once more. It barely even fit in the room anymore and had to crawl on all fours to move around.

The skeleton thrust a hand into its chest and wrapped its hand around the glowing crystal. Its mouth split open in a roar of pain as it ripped it free. The fragments of its body rained down, turning into green crystal as soon as they hit the ground. Those crystals then reached out, growing toward the skeleton and climbing back up its body.

It tore itself free, still holding the carved gemstone. Desperate hunger shone in its eyes as lines of purple energy left its body and started to bind around the carved gemstone. Nothing stopped the advance of the green plague. It continued to climb up the monster’s body and force it to grow even larger.

The lines of purple energy finally faded. They’d bound the crystal completely – and yet, the crystal growth didn’t stop. The skeleton looked down at itself. Gem had worked itself into its bones so deeply that it could never be removed – and it was still growing.

Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.

It had removed the source, but it was too late to halt its effects. The skeleton snapped a piece of bone off one finger and set it down. The bone formed into a chest in its fingers and it set it on the ground, placing the crystal within it. It ripped the pieces of purple gem that still remained on its body off and placed them on top of the chest. They grew, spreading slowly to cover the whole chest and the area around it.

The green crystal stopped as it grew closer to its purple counterpart – but it was too late for the skeleton. Its growth continued. The monster grabbed pieces of crystal, grinding them to dust in its hands as it turned to the walls of the room and started to draw.

It was making the murals that Arwin was now reading. The final panel was of the charged green crystal, swirls of blue light pouring into it, and the bands of purple that the skeleton had put in blocking them from entering.

After that, there was nothing. He stood by the huge hole that the Bonehemoth had emerged from. The same one that it had dug to escape from the room it had built itself.

Arwin swallowed. He didn’t know exactly what the strange gemstones were or how they worked, but he’d used them himself. He knew they absorbed magical energy – but it was clear they absorbed more than that. The monster he’d come against was far larger than the one in the murals, and it showed none of the intelligence that would have been needed to make something like this.

They’re some form of magical parasite.

A parasite that had worked into the skeleton and transformed it into a hulking beast devoid of any intelligence… and the very same parasite that resided in Arwin’s armor and hammer.

He swallowed.

No reason to panic. It seems like they’re somehow inert. The skeleton managed to suppress the main crystal with that purple energy it had, but I think they’d grown so much inside its own body that it couldn’t resist them any longer. From the look of things, the crystals were stealing magical energy and using the monster’s body as a host.

“Arwin!” Lillia yelled down, her voice echoing through the darkness. “Are you okay? What’s down there?”

“A bunch of murals,” Arwin called back. “Whatever you do, don’t touch the crystals up there. They’re dangerous. I think they seek out and consume magic, but they’re inert right now. Probably.”

“Probably?” Lillia asked. “What’s down there? Are you sure?”

“Not yet, but nothing has happened so far. I think it’s safe to come down here, but make sure one person stays back to watch the exit.”

A few seconds later, Reya slid down the shadowy rope. Anna followed after her and Lillia took up the rear. Any words they may have said died on their lips as they took in the room around them. Arwin looked to the bone chest as the others examined the murals.

I can see how the Mesh registered that kill as saving the Bonehemoth rather than slaying it. It was being tortured. It’s likely that its last sentient act was sealing the crystal and stuffing it into this box.

Did the skeleton actually manage to completely seal it? If it did… that would be a powerful crafting material. A really, really powerful crafting material.

But, if it didn’t, that could be a magical time bomb just waiting to go off and consume everything in the area. What in the world was something like this doing in a Journeyman dungeon?

Arwin’s eyes went wide.

“Shit,” he breathed.

“What is it?” Lillia asked, her eyes snapping away from the mural to look at him.

“The dungeon. I don’t think it was a Journeyman dungeon at all. Not originally, at least,” Arwin said. “The rating got downgraded after the skeleton ate all the magic in it and then modified the core crystal. The only strong monster left was the skeleton itself, and it looks like the crystal degraded it and stole so much of its power that it probably grew weaker even as it grew larger.”

“That would explain a lot,” Lillia said, her gaze returning to the murals. “Have you ever heard of something like this? If something like this managed to get out of the dungeon…”

“I don’t think it can,” Arwin said. “I’ve worked with this crystal. It’s in most of my gear. If it were still as strong as it used to be, it would have absorbed magic from me and grown, not just sat there. I think whatever this parasite was is long dead. The skeleton killed it and locked its corpse away, and all that’s left are the equivalent of its fingernail clippings.”

“So the skeleton died to lock it away?” Reya asked. “That’s kind of depressing. I thought it was just trying to kill us.”

“At the time we saw it, it was,” Lillia said. “There was no intelligence left in that monster. That’s why the Mesh said we saved it.”

“It’s still sad,” Reya said. “I wonder what would have happened if it hadn’t sealed the crystal. That’s the purple stuff, right?”

“Seems to be,” Arwin confirmed. “And I don’t know. The crystal was already leaving the cave at the time the skeleton arrived, but that was all gone when we got here. It may have overrun the region, or something stronger might have stopped it. I think the bottom level of this dungeon is basically a battlefield and a graveyard.”

“Which leaves us with a bit of a problem.” Lillia turned to the chest beside them. “What in the Nine Underlands are we going to do about that? If the murals are right, the heart of the parasite is right here. Even if it’s long dead, it could be a powerful item.”

“Or we could release a magic plague,” Anna said, walking up to stand beside them. “We don’t know for sure it’s dead.”

“Would the Mesh really give us something like that as a reward?” Reya asked.

Arwin shrugged. “It’s impossible to tell. It does love its challenges.”

“But the only things that makes challenge worthwhile are rewards, and we’ve already done the challenge,” Lillia pointed out. “The crystal didn’t do anything until the skeleton ate it.”

“If it’s still alive, it may have changed.” Arwin chewed the insides of his cheeks, then let out a huff. “I just don’t know if we’re in a spot where we can pass up on more power. The Wyrm issue still needs to be dealt with, not to mention Jessen. This was the final reward in the dungeon. It won’t be trivial.”

“Open it,” Lillia said. “I don’t think the crystal is still alive. Like you said, it was all inert above us. We’ve already put in the work. Think of what you could make with something that powerful.”

“I’ll go with what you all decide,” Anna said.

They all looked to Reya.

“Don’t look at me. I’ve got sticky fingers.” Reya held her hands up. “I take everything that isn’t nailed down. I think Lillia is right.”

Arwin nodded. He turned back to the chest and set his hands on it. The purple crystal crumbled away at his touch and his hands met the lid. He drew in a deep breath and let it out slowly, adrenaline coursing through his veins.

Then he opened the chest.