Dungeon? This Tree? Why Don't You Join Me for Lunch? (Dungeon Core)
Chapter 44: The Mammoth Graveyard

Chapter 44: Chapter 44: The Mammoth Graveyard

Now, as much as I didn’t want my sons to become fathers just because I said so, we needed an army. To throw Alexios’ stones at his own head was something that I had never thought about.

But, hey, maybe it was time for a very big family?

"Domination!"

"Death!"

"Destruction!"

"Dada!"

The last one was Mordred, who was still trying to get a toddler to stop chewing his blonde hair.

I ignored him.

That should have been his first word. He missed the chance to butter me up ages ago!

Which is to say... five days ago.

I should have really done something about the fact that my children were aging at the speed of light, but as Solas pointed at the entrance of the Mammoth Graveyard, I just stood up and looked at Mordred.

"Son, there are times in the life of every father when he has to do the hard thing, and..." I began. I felt that such a speech was the best life lesson I could impact on Mordred.

But he...

"Dungeon time!" He yelled, as he deposited the toddler into the overflowing lap of his vampire husband.

"What am I going to do with all of you?" I felt like a failure as a father. Not just that, but I felt so, as if something was wrong with this world.

But I didn’t want for my babies to become lazy. Besides, I needed them so I could conquer the dungeon.

Because I did purify myself, Aron and Nate from all that black tar goo.

For all I know, it could have turned us into strong necromancers.

Or sent us camping over the latrines.

I believed that the second option was the most likely.

And so, I made the first step towards my future. Aron got in front of me, Nate took a hold of my hand.

Soon, Mordred and Mortimer freed themselves from their children and got behind Aron.

I could not help but smile.

We were a family. And we were going to do this! Together!

The undead Mammoth which was blocking the way to the entrance seemed to have other plans.

"I’ll eat its eyes!" Mortimer yelled, and I could swear I saw a tear fall down Nate’s cheek.

"Are you proud?" I asked my second husband, as his son began to climb on top of the rampaging mammoth, which was slowly but surely getting away from the entrance.

"More than you know," he kissed me on the cheek, and soon he joined the fray.

I watched them cut up the Mammoth. Made a mental calculation to pick up the meat to try to poison Alexios with it, and then entered the Mammoth’s Graveyard.

I looked around. It was not like I was going to delve in without them. That was just me asking to get kidnapped and held hostage by a ghost.

But I wanted to see this place. This ancient bastion of the giant’s culture.

Because to me the giants were these brutes who came by Methuselah or the Tree of Memories and threatened to uproot them.

But here I was. In the place where they wanted to make their final journey.

I put some mana into my eyes. Wanting to see what sort of decorations this place had.

There were handprints. Huge ones. I nodded to myself. The humans liked to do that too, once. I made one step forward. A strong cold wind ruffled my blonde curls.

I made a step back, looking around.

Something was watching me, I knew. But that didn’t mean that I was going to challenge it.

No, I was here for the cheese.

Nothing more.

Then I saw it. A strange statue. It was small. That was the strange thing about it.

Oh, sure, a human could make something so small that one might think that an ant had carved it out of a tree. But we were talking about giants.

They shouldn’t be able to carve something so small. Even if it was about as tall as me.

I made a step towards the statue; the cold wind blew again.

"I’m just looking around, ok? I mean no offense!" I yelled at the darkness.

The wind ruffled my curls once more, but this time it was gentler.

"Thank you! And please — do rest in peace! Move on, follow the light!"

It was a misguided attempt on my part to get rid of the strange ghost who seemed to be about as attack ready as I was, but I did hear something like a chuckle.

And no wind ruffled my curls.

So, I guessed that I could go and look at the statue.

I looked at the face of the strange man made from wood, only to find that he had no eyes or mouth.

Just a nose.

"Strange," I murmured, as I looked at the statue’s neck. There were carvings of different animals on it.

Ants were following elephants. A wolf had a lamb prancing behind it. And much to my amazement, there was a dragon and a nymph, one in full bark armor, at the end of the column! Right at the back of the neck!

Where the pressure points which could kill you were!

"Hm," I looked further down.

The robes of the statue were plain, but they had all kinds of plants on them. The collar had wheat motives, the lower half had thorns, and the part which was touching the stone ground had grass and... forget-me-nots!

"Ok..." I looked at the darkness once more. I had no idea what this was on about. "Is that your God?"

The darkness ruffled my curls with a lukewarm wind.

"No? Please tell me this is not a prophecy!" I hated those. They always ended up with countless people dead.

The warm wind which enveloped my body was answer enough.

"But it’s not for me, is it?" I got both a cold and warm wind as an answer.

"It is for me... and for Pan?" I didn’t want for Pan to get mixed in with this. I didn’t want for him to lose himself to fate’s games.

But I got a light, warm push to the back.

And so, without waiting, I ventured inside of the Mammoth’s Graveyard.

The entrance sealed behind me...