Spectral tales

Minor Dungeon of Altraud

Undead City - Altraud

Arya looked at the tall black wall that resembled the city wall she saw when she was first abandoned.
"Why are there two walls inside a single city?" she asked confused.

"This is the city's inner wall, it separates the child residence area from other working areas, I built it to protect the newborn undead from any threat. It also has the city's minor dungeon inside it " Arthur looked at the wall with a grin on his face and placed his hand in a depression on the door. The depression had a shape similar to that of his hand.

A second after he placed his hand on it, the door creaked open. Curious, Arya peeked through and saw a view that stunned her.

Loud bustling sounds emerged from inside the walls as many tiny skeletons roamed the rocky streets hurriedly. Many of them were carrying books that were larger than themselves, few were carrying weapons of all kinds, and even fewer were carrying scrolls.

The skeletons went from grave to grave, doing delivery services as they dropped books, and weapons near every grave and scrolls around specific graves, then briskly walked away to help another undead near them in their tasks.

The view left a deep impression on Arya but what attracted her attention the most was the dome-shaped tomb that stood majestically on a cliff and was visible even from the entry gates.
The tomb was a fair distance away from the entry gates with the distance in between filled with grey-coloured graves and stony streets with many spear-welding guards protecting and guiding the kids in their daily tasks.

Arya tugged Arthur's robes garnering his attention and pointed at the tomb,
"What's that? " she asked while an unknown excitement coursed through her body.
Arthur looked in the direction she was pointing and after seeing the tomb, turned back to her,
"That is the minor dungeon of Altraud" he answered while staring at her and observed as her eyes shone in excitement and her legs moved involuntarily towards the direction of the tomb. She appears to be in a trance, completely ignoring her surroundings and focusing solely on the dungeon. Before she could walk any more than a few steps, Arthur stopped her.

"Where are you going?" He asked, confused by her sudden behaviour.
"Dungeon"
She pointed towards the tomb and said. She was fidgeting and looked ready to run away as soon as he took his eyes off her. Sighing he responded,
"Here take these, learn them before you run into the dungeon" he took two skill scrolls out of his robes and gave them to her. Arya took them and peeked through their contents, it read
<blood absorption> and
<blood control>
She looked alternately between the scrolls and Arthur, puzzled by the sudden gift.

"Your current skills are weak, use those when you enter the dungeon"
Arthur walked away after saying that. Arya looked at his wide back as a smile slowly crept up on her face, touching her lips in surprise, she bowed her head as a sign of respect and moved towards the tomb.

**********************
Undead city Altraud
Near the tomb, inside the inner wall.

Arya looked at the pristine white tomb made out of marble shining dimly with a light blue radiance. There was a large blue magic circle on the floor of the tomb.

A group of undead with many small skeletons and a large undead around 160 cm tall leading them entered the magic circle. As soon as the group stepped foot on the circle they disappeared. Arya panicked upon seeing this and tried to follow them but was stopped by a large undead with a skull resembling that of a wolf skull. A pair of horns grew on its skull and it was welding a scythe.

"You cannot enter the dungeon without the city chief permission" it spoke while looking at Arya with interest.
"City chief? Who is that?"
Hearing her question, the undead-a death reaper, tilted its head and spoke,
"How did you enter the inner city without knowing the city chief? Don't you know Arthur?"
"Um, you mean Teacher Old Bones is the city chief?" Arya asked making the undead burst out in laughter.

"Haha, that girl gave him a good name, old bones, yes, he is the chief. Nice to meet you I am Paul, a death reaper. I am the guardian of both Maya and Ervin, are you their new friend?"
The undead, Paul asked while laughing.

"I know both of them, I am Arya. Can I enter the Dungeon?"
'Just know them heh', Paul sighed internally, glancing at the magic circle he answered,
"To enter this dungeon you need Arthur's permission, did he give you any crystal when you entered the city?"

Nodding Arya took out the obsidian black crystal that she received from Arthur. Paul examined the crystal for a few seconds and returned it.
"That will do, you can enter. Here take this" saying that he gave her a red crystal and then explained,
"That crystal is a return crystal. When you are done exploring, hold the crystal tightly and inject your Hue into it. It will bring you back to the surface"

Arya thanked him for the explanation and then entered the dungeon while recalling the past.......

It was three years ago, a month after the death of Victoria.
Arya sat inside her room, staring at the ceiling with a blank look on her face. It had been a rough month for her, she was tired and lonely.
Slowly rising back on her feet, she exited the room.

It was already 10 days since her last meal, and she was hungry but none came to give her food. As she walked, she observed the maids whispering among themselves.
"It's the devil "
"That's her. She killed her mother"
"That's not true, is it?"
"It's true, she is cursed, avoid her"
...

She tried to ignore the whispers but couldn't, even after explaining many times that she didn't kill her mother, no one believed her. Over time all maids stopped paying any respect to her.

As she walked cold water was splashed on her head, she looked at the maid who threw water on her.
" Forgive me, Miss Arya, my hand slipped" the maid spoke with a mocking smile, Arya looked around and saw all the other maids were snickering at her too. She just ignored them and after some walking entered the kitchen and found a lump of bread with mould growing on it and a piece of rotten meat.

She took them both into her room and ate them, the awful taste and the poison made her unconscious but soon after regaining consciousness she again ate it, the pain due to the poison was nothing compared to the hunger she felt.

She recalled all the cold shoulder she received during the month, not a single person talked to her for the entire month. She again stared back at the ceiling in loneliness.

"What did I do? Am I bad? Am I a devil?" she mumbled to herself and glanced at a kitchen knife nearby,
"Should I die? Can I die?"
Grabbing the knife, she examined its sharpness. It was sharp, very sharp.

With trembling hands she turned the blade towards herself and with a shaky grip she stabbed her stomach. Blood flowed, as Arya screamed in pain, her stomach felt hot, the colour drained from her face, and slowly her body grew cold. Within a minute she lost consciousness.

A few hours later she groggily woke up and examined her stomach, only to find that her wound was completely healed.
"Why?" She asked herself while picking the knife up again and stabbing herself, only for the cycle to repeat.

She looked back at the healed wound and remembered the only skill she had, <regeneration>, the only thing that her father gave her.

<regeneration>: helps heal any wounds in the body by consuming the user's Hue.
                                Secondary effect, when the user's Hue is less than half their normal amount, they fall unconscious.
                                In the unconscious state, Hue's recovery becomes faster and healing becomes quicker.
Note - when the users become good enough, they can resist the unconscious state.

Arya stabbed herself again and again as despair gripped her heart, She was hoping to die but was falling unconscious before she could kill herself.

"Please let me die " she pleaded but her prayers were unanswered. She grew accustomed to the stabbing pain, her hands stopped trembling but she just couldn't die.

She didn't know any other way to kill herself, She tried cutting her wrist and slicing her throat, but nothing worked, but then she recalled her fatal weakness, getting exposed to the sky.....