Ex-Human Morphus [A Mutant Evolution Apocalypse LitRPG]
Chapter 211

Chapter 211

It didn’t take him long to arrive at one of the black obelisks he had discovered earlier. He was glad he hadn’t destroyed every single one he had encountered, because if his idea worked as well as he hoped, he would soon gain access to the second floor of the dungeon.

The black obelisk was positioned at the center of a four-way intersection. Jake stopped at a safe distance from the imposing structure. He needed it to unleash magical energy, with which he might be able to charge his rune stones, but the obelisk would only do so in the presence of undead nearby.

That was why he had allowed a group of skeletons to follow him for a while. He glanced over his shoulder at the tunnel he had just emerged from. Only the two wall-mounted torches closest to him were lit, leaving the rest of the tunnel in darkness. For that reason, he couldn’t see the undead shuffling along the tunnel yet, but he could hear them as they were gradually getting closer.

He waited. When the first of the undead finally emerged from the dark section of the tunnel, he prepared for battle. A skeleton archer took aim and fired its crossbow at him. Jake effortlessly dodged the bolt but refrained from rushing at the undead, knowing he needed them to get closer to the black obelisk.

At last, a few drew near, and he sprang into action, quickly engaging them. It took little time and effort for him to eliminate the threat.

Multiple enemies killed. +6,135 XP

The cobbled floor was now littered with the remains of the undead he had just defeated. Jake waited, and soon, his patience was rewarded. Some of the mysterious symbols etched into the black obelisk began to glow, and the defeated skeletons’ bodies started to reassemble.

The process was pretty quick. Just a few seconds later, all the skeletons were animated and ready to fight once again. Unfortunately, the black obelisk hadn’t turned any of them into elite, so he hadn’t had a chance to charge his rune stones yet. He had no choice but to defeat the undead again, hoping the obelisk would make use of its ability after that. 

Since he had already defeated this group of undead, he received no XP for killing them again. The same symbols flared to life on all four sides of the obelisk, and the defeated skeletons sprawled around the structure began to rise once more.

Then, additional symbols ignited, and a torrent of energy flowed from the top of the obelisk toward one of the skeletons, wrapping it in a warm orange glow. This was the moment Jake had been waiting for. The black obelisk was bestowing fire magic upon the skeleton, and hopefully, he would be able to charge his flame rune stone with this energy. 

The skeleton, surrounded by an orange glow, lifted a few inches off the ground and hovered motionlessly in the air as the wave of energy continued to flow toward it. Jake rushed to where he had set down the rune stones and grabbed the one with a flame-like symbol engraved on it. He then hurried back to the beam of the energy, holding the flame rune stone toward it.

He wasn’t sure if his idea would work at all, so he was pleasantly surprised when a tentacle of energy snaked from the main flow toward the rune stone in his hand, as if drawn to it. The symbol engraved on the front of the stone flared to life, gradually glowing brighter as it filled with magical energy. Meanwhile, the main wave continued to flow toward the skeleton hovering in the air, infusing it with fire magic.

Once the flame rune stone was filled with magical energy to the brim, the secondary flow ceased to exist. Jake looked at the now glowing rune stone in his hand. One down, two to go. He hurried back to the corner where he had left the frost and plague rune stones on the floor and placed the charged flame rune stone beside the other two.

He quickly glanced around. The skeleton, being imbued with fire magic, was nearing the completion of its transformation into an elite version of itself. Jake knew from experience that elite skeletons were incredibly tough opponents. He would much rather stop the process of transformation than face the elite flame skeleton. The only issue was that he had no idea how to disrupt the transformation. Attacking the black obelisk was out of the question because the structure still brimmed with energy and could trigger defense mechanisms against an attacker, like unleashing lightning bolts on assailants.

So Jake didn’t have another option than to wait for the transformation to finish and defeat the undead—including the elite flame skeleton—once again. The revived undead attacked him all at once, but Jake focused entirely on the elite flame skeleton. Since it posed the greatest threat, it needed to be dealt with first.

Soon enough, all the undead were defeated once again. The black obelisk wasted no time in beginning to resurrect them. This time, rather than a single beam, multiple rays of energy shone from the top of the tall structure, each enveloping a skeleton in a glow of a different color. One beam was orange, indicating it was imbuing its target with fire magic. The other two glowed blue and green, meaning it was Jake’s chance to charge his frost and plague rune stones.

He hurried to where they were lying, grasping one rune stone in his left hand and the other in his right. He then dashed toward the nearest beam of energy, glowing blue and bestowing frost magic upon a skeleton. Jake extended the frost rune stone toward it, watching as some of the magical energy branched off from the main flow and drifted toward the rune stone in his left hand.

Once it was filled to the brim with magical energy, the engraved symbol glowed brightly with blue light. Jake wasted no time rushing to the greenish beam to charge the plague rune stone with energy. Moments later, all three rune stones brimmed with magical energy. It was time to go.

Jake picked up the flame rune stone from where it lay on the cobbled floor, then scanned his surroundings. The undead continued to rise, with three skeletons evolving into elite versions of themselves. Waiting for them to revive was pointless because he had defeated them once and wouldn’t earn any XP for killing them again.

He planned to return later to destroy the black obelisk for extra XP, but for now, all he wanted was to get back to the portal to transfer the magical energy from the charged rune stones. Taking a moment to orient himself, he set off in the right direction.