We had been running for quite a while, probably covering more distance than when we were on the main roads. The noises of our pursuers had died away for quite a while. The map on the panel was also free of any enemy tags. But I was still apprehensive.
Had we lost them? No, it was unlikely that we had seen the last of the kobolds in such a large forest. There was also a chance that we'd been running in circles and the kobolds had decided to set a trap for us. I told Gunnar to slow down a bit to make sense of my surroundings.
The area here was somewhat different, apart from the never-ending rows of trees. The place seemed new and untouched, unlike the grassy soil that had been trampled and soaked with dark brown kobold blood. However, the trees showed traces of injured kobold. Their roots and trunks had patches of wet and brighter color.
The kobolds wouldn't be pillaging any nearby villages or towns for a few months at least. But it wasn't without losses. I had enlisted kobolds nearly 20 times, which had all been sacrificed in a matter of seconds to buy time. Which meant I had basically been throwing away my soul mana points.
Beep. [ Achievement Obtained: Soul Mana Spendthrift ]
[ Spent over x100 Soul Mana within 30 minutes ]
[ +5% Soul Mana Regen ]
Well, at least the losses were compensated in some way.
A sudden scuttling noise was heard from a clump of bushes, bringing up a red enemy tag on the combat panel. It looked like there was still some left. As we got closer, a small round kobold made a desperate dash toward another bush.
Before I could even act, Leftan had already jumped off his mount and onto the creature. There was a clang as his sabre went through the monster's head and hit a patch of hard white ground.
"There's concrete here." I observed quietly, asking Gunnar to help me down from the horse. It seemed to be a part of the structure I had seen on the combat panel. A small portion of an overgrown wall was visible, along with a rusty blast-proof door. "An underground bunker? It's quite far from the frontlines, what's a bunker doing in the middle of the Dreadland borders?"
The place was well hidden. Anyone could run directly over it and not know about it. It would probably the best place to hide in for a while and avoid the Armagator. I didn't fancy a fight with that thing in the least. But that was what made it riskier. Since it was so well hidden, the place could possibly be a kobold stronghold crawling with enemies.
Gunnar followed me off the horses and warily placed a hand on the door, his bones rattling on the rough metal surface. He examined it for a while before giving it a slight push. One of the hinges suddenly broke off from the doorway and the entire metal door fell backward and loudly slid down a set of stairs. Well, so much for trying to hide from the kobolds.
Leftan went down first, clearing out dust with his sword, with Gunnar closely behind. I followed them, shortly after confirming that the combat panel was still void of any enemy tags. In my opinion, running into a pack of kobolds in a confined space was a lot better than getting mauled by a 10 feet tall reptilian ogre.
Clouds of dust rose in the darkness as we walked through each room. The place was cold, empty, and a lot bigger than I initially thought. Old telegraphs and disassembled muskets lay scattered around the place, but I was more unsettled to find Lwich flags on the walls. An undiscovered Lwich command post on Felagan soil.
The corridors seemed to grow bigger the further we descended, branching off to more and more pathways. There was the occasional sighting of hiding kobolds and large spiders here and there, but other than that, the place was deserted. Were there even bunkers this big? At this point, it seemed to be more of a dungeon.
Perhaps it was even used as one. A few rooms were barred cells with metal-plated walls. Broken shackles. Moldy piles of hay. Rat-infested holes. It was disturbing to imagine the lives led by the prisoners here.
That was when it appeared. I suddenly spotted a pale indigo flame burning at the end of the corridor, somewhat like a wisp. But not quite. It neither emitted light nor heat and combusted eerily in mid-air.
Approaching it, I saw the flame moving about in one of the cells at the far end. It looked oddly similar to something, though I couldn't quite put my finger on it. It was circling something- a decaying skeleton chained to the wall. Its clothes were torn and rotting, though the white color of the Lwich army's uniform was still recognizable.
A sudden alert from the system flashed up in the darkness, startling me.
Beep. [ Soul Energy Detected ]
[ A lingering remnant of a soul is still present. Would you like to bring it back into its form? ]
< Yes > < No >
'That's... A soul?' I thought, staring at the indigo flame. It seemed to look back at me as it hovered above the chained skeleton, pulsing faintly with sparks. Just like the one inside my ribcage. In fact, I even thought I felt some sort of a vague reaction between the two. 'I knew it looked somewhat familiar. Well, sure. Why not?'
[ Soul Mana: 52/55 >> 2/55 ]
There was a sudden flicker and my soul seemed to dim significantly. My vision blurred as my Soul Mana took a plunge, and I stumbled onto the floor, feeling increasingly nauseous. It felt as if someone had sucked all the vitality out of me, or as if the fire inside me was blown away.
The indigo soul before me flickered in unison, before dying away into the air. Suddenly, in a few minutes... Nothing happened. The soul seemed to have vanished altogether, leaving behind no traces.
'What- Did it fail?' I thought in shock. I hadn't been expecting such a letdown from the all-giving system. 'So bringing back a soul from the dead is impossible after all... Or it was another scam, more likely. It took almost all the Soul Mana I just got back.'
Beep. [ Achievement Obtained: Soul Mana Squanderer ]
[ Severely suffer the effects of complete Soul Mana depletion ]
[ +10% Soul Mana Regen ]
"You make it sound like it wasn't your fault," I said to the system with a sigh, regaining the strength to get up again as the bar filled up again slowly. "But I guess a stat boost is better than nothing... And another skeleton soldier would probably be better than fragile kobold skeletons."
I looked around at some of the other cells while waiting for my soul mana to refill, hoping to find some other enlist-able corpse to add to the undead.
However, there was nothing of the sort, only finding an armory with all the useful items locked away in iron cabinets or chests, and a room full of gunpowder kegs that I decided to distance myself from, just like every other thing in my life.
The chained skeleton I soon returned to seemed to be the only help I could use in the entire place. I saluted it quickly once I had enough soul mana back and decided to leave as soon as I could.
But a sudden flash from the outflow of mana made me turn back. There was a crackle as the soul mana formed a layer over the skeleton before getting absorbed into it. Its bony hands slid out of the shackles, causing them to clang against the wall as it got up and approached me slowly.
It did not return the salute. Nor did an alert announcing the enlistment of the skeleton appear.
A pale indigo flame ignited in its right eye as it stared at me, the flame flaring up so much that it was a wonder there was still no light in the room.
"Who... are you?"