Dungeon? This Tree? Why Don't You Join Me for Lunch? (Dungeon Core)
Chapter 45: The Still Halls

Chapter 45: Chapter 45: The Still Halls

My eyes were like two candles. I could see what was in front of me, but if I wanted to see the walls, I needed to get close to them.

And I did want to see them.

Every so often, I went next to one. Placed my hands on top of the giant’s handprints. Wondering how these creatures which I feared so much came to be.

I didn’t get an answer. Just the occasional warm wind current, for which I was grateful.

It was freezing in here.

This was no dungeon, I knew. This was a holy place. A place which held answers. I needed to get these answers more than I needed to breathe.

I just knew that there was something that could win us the war in here.

Hidden. Waiting to be discovered.

My steps echoed in the halls of the dead. I looked at the end of the hall I had been walking in. I could feel the warmth from the other side.

I smiled.

"I come to pay my respects," I said, for even if that was not the case at the start, it was now. "And I won’t touch your cheese."

I placed my hand on the doorknob. Turned it.

The door did not bulge.

"Hm... Mister Ghost?" I asked because I thought that the ghost was some spiritual leader who had come in here to help me get to the bottom of this mystery. "May I please go into the chamber?"

The wind which knocked me off my feet was a freezing one.

I shook my head, only to see that there was another tunnel off to the side.

"Ah, puzzle time... Sorry, my bad," I said with all the enthusiasm of someone who was going to have to dodge spikes in the coming minutes.

Getting up, I shook the dust off myself. My mana was running out. I needed to find a torch or a lantern, or I was going to have to find my way back in the dark.

Probably with a stick.

But the good thing was that the floor was smooth.

And, besides, there were no sticks in here.

I made my way down the hall to the side corridor. It was a short trek, and then I saw the most beautiful sight in the world!

A brazier!

Naturally, I parked myself next to it and began to warm myself up. It was a huge one. Practically a campfire in a metal and stone cage!

I looked around.

"Nice of you to point me to the stove, Mister Ghost," one must always be thankful when life gives them lemons. "Are there torches in here...holy!"

There it was. A pile.

It wasn’t just a pile. For a couple of minutes, my brain couldn’t even process what I was seeing. My normally functioning brain was overcharged.

My thought process went something like this:

"It’s yellow."

"It’s huge."

"Coins on the floor!"

"Is that a goblet made out of a skull?"

Now, even as flabbergasted as I was, I was not so brain-dead as to rob a grave. If I were an adventurer who could fight, sure! I would have gladly done it.

But I wasn’t.

"Are there any torches in here?" I asked because I didn’t dare move from the brazier. Something told me that this was the grave of the mysterious Mister Ghost. "Or even a candle? Or... dare I ask for a lantern?"

A small oil lamp appeared before me. I took it, made a couple of steps backwards, and began to go back to the door with the lights.

The lamp was plain. It looked about as broken up as something that had been in use for many years.

I didn’t care. I could finally get some mana back in my mana pool!

As I made a stop before the door, I knocked on it.

The lamp disappeared!

"Oh, come on, Mister Ghost! I’m not a cat!" I protested. Only for something made out of mist to appear before me.

I couldn’t guess if it was a man or a woman. But I could recognize the shape of three lit oil lamps in its hands.

I bowed low because I didn’t want to die.

"Which lamp did I give you?" The ghost didn’t bow. There was something red dripping down its mouth.

I was pretty sure it wanted to eat me.

But as I saw my lamp, the beaten-up lamp, I pointed at it without a second thought.

"Are you sure?" The ghost asked, as it raised a golden lamp encrusted with something shiny.

I blinked.

That wasn’t just something shiny! Those were mana stones! And right at the lid, there was a black pearl mana stone! A legendary mana stone which could have come only from the Son of Hades!

I needed that pearl! I could end the war with it! Or solve the aging problem of my dear sons!

But I needed to play it smart.

"No, that’s my lamp. But, you know, I’m looking for a job!" I said, as I smiled at the ghost.

Its eyes began to shine red. Oh, I was certain that it thought it was going to trick me.

"And what sort of job are you looking for?" It asked me.

"I’m a chef by trade!" Which was even the truth. After all, I did spend my days cooking for an army. "And would like to cook something for you! If you like it, you can pay me anything you wish!"

"Even your life?" The ghost asked, probably thinking that it could get food and give me peanuts.

Corporate slave master!

"Sure!" I said with my best dimpled smile.

The ghost gave me the old lamp, the other two disappeared. The locked door slung open. Warmth spilled out of the cavern.

I smiled. Thinking that, I had wood and already burning fires to work with.

I entered the cavern, only to step on something that crunched under my boot.

I blinked.

Why was there a bone lying on the ground? Didn’t the giants bury their dead?

"Meat!" I heard a guttural sound coming from above.

And then... darkness.

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