Chương 122: Interlude: Total Commitment (Epilogue for Book 1 - Coreless)

Caylee's longsword carved through the last ghoul's neck, severing its head cleanly from its body. The sickly green light in its eyes guttered out before it even hit the stone floor. She stepped over it without looking down, shield raised and breath steady despite the cold air burning her lungs. Another pack of undead shambled farther down the hall. She and her party had been inside The Desolate Crypt, Icespire Peak's Tutorial Dungeon, for almost a week and a half.

A week and a half of frozen corridors, burial vaults, ambush chambers, bone pits, and undead that never slept. Thankfully, the undead never followed when they backtracked into cleared sections of the Dungeon, which meant the group could hole up in rooms they had already secured and rest. And thanks to the time dilation between the Dungeon and the Tutorial outside, there was still one day left before the quadrant walls came down. One day.

The frozen hall stretched ahead of them, its arched ceiling lost in shadows and frost. Ancient pillars lined both sides, each carved with images of skeletal soldiers kneeling before a robed figure carrying a scythe. Rime coated the stone floor, and sickly green flames burned in bronze braziers along the walls, giving off light but offering no warmth. At the end of the hall stood a pair of bronze double doors nearly twenty feet tall. Undead clustered before them in a final defensive formation.

Skeletons in blackened armor carried jagged bone spears. Frostbitten zombies dragged broken icy blades across the stone. A handful of ghouls clung to the pillars and ceiling, their long limbs twitching as they prepared to spring. Ron stepped forward before Caylee could give the order. The tall, skinny man lifted both hands, fire gathering between his fingers in bright orange spheres.

"About time I warmed this place up," he joked. Then he unleashed his spell. Fireballs streaked down the hall one after another, each one screaming through the cold before detonating among the undead. Skeletons blew apart and zombies ignited. Ghouls dropped from the ceiling in burning heaps, shrieking as they hit the floor. Ron kept casting until the far end of the corridor became a rolling wash of flame and black smoke. When the last burning corpse stopped moving, Caylee raised one hand.

"Hold." Her party stopped immediately. That, more than anything, pleased her. They had each been talented individuals before entering the Dungeon. Now they moved like a seasoned unit, falling into position without orders and covering one another without hesitation.

"We'll rest here," Caylee said. No one argued. Jen lowered herself onto a broken piece of stone with a heavy exhale, both spiked tower shields resting against her knees. The short, broad woman's armor had been clawed open in multiple places, but she still looked like she would headbutt the next undead that tried to touch her squad. Ron leaned against a pillar and flexed his fingers, faint smoke curling from his palms.

Mark sat cross-legged near the wall, light leather armor scuffed and torn, the smile on his unassuming face doing nothing to hide his exhaustion. He carried no weapons, but he didn't need any. His method of healing was strange… strange, but effective. It had also saved more than one life. Who knew you could heal someone by punching them in the back of the head? Callahan checked his crossbow in silence, methodical as ever. The scout commander's beard had more frost than gray in it now.

A shallow cut ran along his cheek where he refused to let Mark slap it away, but his eyes stayed sharp. Henry Whitehollow, her father, dropped down beside a pillar and rested his new blunderbuss across his lap. The weapon was far better than the crude one he had carried earlier in the Tutorial. Items bought from the Tutorial Store were better than anything her gunsmiths could make. Her father grinned.

"Well, if nothing else, this place has been generous with experience. I've leveled up so much I nearly caught up with Caylee." Ron snorted.

"That's one way to describe being neck deep in corpses for ten days."

"Undead, not corpses," Henry said.

"We make them into corpses. It's an important distinction." Caylee allowed herself a small smile. Her father was right. They had all leveled several times since entering the Tutorial Dungeon. If the final chamber gave what she expected, she might even reach level thirty-five before they left. That thought warmed her more than the fire ever could have. Her gaze moved to the bronze double doors at the end of the hall and a System screen appeared in her mind.

General Tarn's Ritual Chamber Caylee's pulse quickened but she kept her face calm. Out of everything the System had given her, her assistant was easily one of the most valuable. The amount of information it provided could be overwhelming at times, but information was power. In this Tutorial, it was the difference between walking a Path that ended in the Tutorial or one that followed the limitless Path of the System.

In this case, it gave her a detailed breakdown of General Tarn's defenses on the other side of those doors. She looked over to her party.

"Those doors lead to General Tarn's ritual chamber," Caylee said. Everyone's attention snapped to her.

"When everyone's resources are at least eighty percent, we go in. Jen and I will open the doors. The rest of you will get into formation delta behind us." Her gaze shifted from Henry to Ron, then Mark.

"As soon as the doors open, Total Commitment." Henry's grin widened.

"Finally," Ron said. Henry reached into his pack and pulled out a metal sphere the size of his meaty fist. He turned it once in his hand, admiring the runework the crafters had inscribed, then loaded it into the mouth of his blunderbuss.

"I've been saving this beauty, and Total Commitment is just the right occasion to use her," Henry said with obvious satisfaction. The remaining time passed in near silence. One by one, each member of the party signaled that they were ready. Henry and Ron took the front of the rear formation, with Mark and Callahan positioned behind them. Jen approached the left door while Caylee took the right. Jen set her shields down within arm's reach, then wrapped both hands around the massive bronze handle.

Caylee kept her sword sheathed and her kite shield on her back. Even from fifty feet away, she could feel Mana building around Ron. Caylee glanced back and Henry met her eyes before nodding once. Caylee turned forward.

"Now." She and Jen pulled. The bronze doors groaned as they opened just enough for a three-foot wide gap between them. Cold green light spilled through the crack and a raspy voice drifted out from the chamber beyond.

"So," General Tarn said, each word scraping through the air like bone against stone.

"You and your little band have finally arrived. No matter. As a master of death, time is one luxury I possess in abundance. You, however—"" [Boost]!" Mark shouted as he slapped one hand against Henry's back and the other against Ron's. Henry's blunderbuss roared." [Triplicate]!" The fist-sized metal sphere shot through the gap between the doors, then split into three identical projectiles mid-flight, each one screaming into the chamber beyond. At the same time, Ron thrust both hands forward." [Firenado]!"

A bolt of crimson fire rushed past Caylee's shoulder and through the opening directly behind Henry's triple shot, dragging a spiral of heat in its wake. General Tarn's monologue ended there. As soon as Henry's blunderbuss roared, Jen released the door handle. She dropped low, snatched both spiked shields from the floor, and drove herself into the gap between the open doors. Her knees hit the frozen stone with a heavy crack, but she ignored the pain.

Both shields came up a heartbeat later and locked together to block the entrance. Caylee drew her longsword and stepped behind her. She raised her blade over the top of the shields and watched Henry's triple shot tear into the chamber beyond. The three metal spheres slammed into a sickly green barrier and detonated. The explosions hit in a rough triangle, each impact spreading cracks of volatile white light through the undead's magic. The barrier rippled as a triangular hole tore open at its center.

Ron's crimson bolt shot through the gap before the magic could mend itself. The chamber's interior erupted. Fire twisted outward in a violent spiral, blooming into a roaring tornado that filled the center of the ritual chamber. Zombies vanished inside the flames. Skeletons blackened and burst apart. Ghouls shrieked as fire crawled over their limbs until nothing was left but black ash. At least a hundred undead had been waiting on the other side of those doors. Ron's magic burned most of them in seconds.

But through the storm of fire, Caylee saw him. An undead figure stood at the back of the chamber, draped in a tattered black robe that barely concealed the bones and rotted flesh beneath. One skeletal hand gripped a long scythe, its blade glowing with the same sickly green light as the barrier. The undead turned toward her. Her assistant brought up a screen in her mind. General Tarn — Level 36 Commander of the undead legion that once infested Icespire Peak. Caylee's grip tightened around her sword.

She had already been feeding Mana and Stamina through her arm and into the blade. The power gathered there, waiting for release. She pointed the sword directly at General Tarn." [Judgement of the Vanguard]," she whispered. Light detonated from the tip of her blade. This beam was only a meter wide, but far more concentrated than her earlier Judgements. It tore across the ritual chamber in a blinding ray of incandescent brilliance. The sickly green barrier shattered as the beam punched through it.

Ron's fire tornado split around the attack, flames bending away from the light. Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on Royal Road. General Tarn raised his free hand and a personal magic shield snapped into place in front of him. Caylee's Judgement broke that too. The shield took some of the force, but not enough. The beam slammed into the undead general and blasted away his left arm and half of his torso. Rotted flesh and blackened bone scattered across the ice behind him.

Tutorial Dungeon Quest Updated: Silence the Desolate Crypt Progress: Stop the ritual: 1/1 Slay General Tarn: 0/1 Destroy General Tarn's Phylactery: 0/1 Caylee allowed herself a small smirk of satisfaction. General Tarn was damaged, his ritual had been stopped, and his forces had been devastated in their opening salvo. She quietly thanked her assistant. With its information, she knew Total Commitment had been the right call. Now it was time to finish this damned Dungeon.

Caylee lowered her sword and tapped Jen once on the back. Jen surged to her feet and charged. She made it only a few steps into the chamber before the trap waiting behind the doors revealed itself. Two massive ghouls, each nearly twelve feet tall, lunged from either side. Their gray skin stretched tight over swollen muscles. Each one wielded a giant spiked mace of dark metal. They swung at Jen from both sides in a brutal pincer. Jen dropped behind her shields." [Shield Wall]! [Reflection]!"

The maces crashed into her shields hard enough to make the chamber shake but the impact did not move her. Instead, both ghouls' heads caved in at the same time, as if their own weapons had struck them. Their skulls folded inward with wet cracks and their massive bodies toppled sideways. Caylee rushed past them as Ron's fire tornado snuffed itself out. The sudden absence of flame left drifting ash, scorched bone, and piles of charred corpses scattered across the chamber floor.

A few undead still moved among the remains, but she ignored them. Jen, Ron, Henry, Mark, and Callahan could handle stragglers. Caylee wanted the general. She reached over her shoulder and pulled her kite shield from her back as she ran. General Tarn staggered but did not fall. Half his torso was gone and one arm had been blasted away, but green fire still burned in the hollows of his half-rotted eyes. He dragged his scythe up with his remaining arm and swept it toward her." [Soul Sever]," he rasped.

The blade flashed sickly green. Warning: Direct contact will inflict severe soul damage. Caylee adjusted instantly, stepped inside the arc, caught the haft with the edge of her sword, and redirected the blade above her head. The green edge hissed past without touching so much as a hair. Then she ran her blade down the shaft, turned her wrist, and cut upward. Her sword sheared through General Tarn's remaining arm. The scythe clattered across the ice, but Caylee did not stop. A flick of her blade removed his jaw.

A thrust punched through his ruined chest and severed his spine below the ribs. A sweeping cut split what remained of his torso, sending pieces of robe, bone, and rotten flesh across the floor. Still, the green flames did not go out. Caylee stepped in and slammed the edge of her shield into his face. Tarn's skull cracked, and his eyes flickered. He was nearly dead, but not everyone had contributed to the battle.

She released the shield, grabbed him by the skull, and lifted what remained of his head and upper torso into the air.

"Callahan," she called.

"Take the shot." A crossbow string snapped and a moment later a bolt struck, punching cleanly into one of General Tarn's flickering eye sockets. Caylee drove her sword through the back of his skull and the green flames vanished. Ding! You have defeated [Tarn, General of the Desolate Crypt – Level 36]. You have gained additional experience for killing a creature above your level. Race: [Human – (F)] has reached Level 35. +2 to all stats.

Tutorial Quest Updated: Cull the Undead Progress: Captains Slain: 7 of 8 General Slain: 1 of 1 Tutorial Dungeon Quest Updated: Silence the Desolate Crypt Progress: Stop the ritual: 1/1 Slay General Tarn: 1/1 Destroy General Tarn's Phylactery: 0/1 Caylee let General Tarn's remains fall to the floor. The ruined torso hit the ice with a brittle crack. She stepped over it and scanned the room while the rest of her party finished clearing the remaining undead.

Jen had already drawn the last of the stragglers toward her, both spiked shields raised as three skeletons hacked uselessly against them. Ron flicked two fingers, and a ribbon of fire curled around the nearest skeleton's spine before burning through it. Henry's blunderbuss boomed a moment later, reducing a ghoul to a spray of frozen meat and bone. Callahan put a bolt through the skull of a crawling zombie before it reached Mark's ankle. These were good people. They were her people.

Her gaze moved across the ritual chamber. The room was enormous, with walls of black stone and ice-covered pillars rising into the ceiling. Most of the floor had been carved with circular inscriptions, though Ron's [Firenado] had destroyed large sections of them. Molten grooves cut through the symbols. Those inscriptions must have powered the ritual. Whatever General Tarn had been trying to accomplish, it had ended the moment Ron's fire tore through his ritual circle.

Caylee looked farther into the chamber and saw the throne. It sat at the back of the room, carved entirely from pale blue ice. Frost crawled across its arms and down its base, spreading outward. Set into the center of the backrest was a small sickly green orb, pulsing with a slow, diseased light. A System screen appeared in her mind. Caylee read it, and a smile tugged at the corner of her mouth. She crossed the chamber while the others finished their work.

The orb pulsed faster as she approached, the green light within it swirling like smoke. Caylee lifted her sword and, with a few precise cuts, sliced the orb free from the ice throne. Cold seeped through her glove as soon as she picked it up, but she ignored the sensation and turned back toward her party. The last of the undead fell a few seconds later. Ron lowered his hands, smoke curling from his fingers. Jen straightened, her shields dented and clawed but intact.

Henry rested his blunderbuss against one shoulder and gave the room a slow look, while Callahan nervously reloaded his crossbow just in case. Mark sprinted behind Jen and slapped her in the back of the head.

"Damn it Mark, I don't need healing, none of the bonies got through my shields this time," Jen snapped.

"I know, I've just been wanting to do that for a while now," Mark said with a chuckle. Caylee shook her head at Mark's antics and held up the orb.

"This is General Tarn's phylactery," she said.

"It is also the Core of this Dungeon. Once it's destroyed, we should be transported back to the Tutorial." Ron grinned.

"Sounds good to me. I've had enough undead ice tunnels to last a lifetime."

"There's more," Caylee said, and the group immediately quieted. Her assistant had already supplied the relevant information. It was one of the reasons she had pushed them through this Dungeon so aggressively. Experience was valuable. Quest rewards were valuable. But this was something that was priceless.

"This Tutorial Dungeon Core has another function besides teleporting us out of here," she said.

"A very valuable one." Henry's expression sharpened.

"When this Core is destroyed, five participants who contributed to its destruction can receive a boost to their own System Cores," Caylee said.

"It can upgrade Core quality, which affects future growth. It may even influence Class evolution at level fifty. Someone with a rare Class could receive epic options. Possibly even better, depending on the individual and the feats they performed from levels one through forty-nine." For a moment, silence filled the chamber. Then Ron let out a breathless laugh.

"You're kidding."

"I am not." His grin widened.

"That's… that's insane. Do you know what people would pay for something like that?"

"More than any of us have," Henry said. Callahan looked from the orb to the group, then his brow furrowed.

"There are six of us."

"Yep," Caylee said. Callahan straightened.

"Then I'll sit this one out. I wasn't originally supposed to be part of this assault team anyway. I only came because you needed someone who knew the route and could handle scouting."

"No," Caylee said.

"You five will be the ones accepting this reward."

"With respect, Paragon." Callahan inclined his head.

"I gained three levels from my contribution to the fight with General Tarn. That is more than enough reward for me. I appreciate you giving me the opportunity but a reward that big would be wasted on someone like me." Caylee looked at him for a long moment.

"Nonsense," she finally said. Callahan blinked.

"You are as much a part of this group's success as anyone else," she said.

"You fought through the Dungeon with us. You scouted, mapped routes, found traps, and put a bolt through General Tarn's eye when I called for it. You will not be excluded because you think your contribution was not enough." Callahan's mouth tightened, but he did not argue.

"I will sit this one out," Caylee said.

"The five of you will damage the Core, with Henry dealing the final blow." Henry looked at her, uncertainty plain beneath the frost clinging to his braided beard. Caylee met her father's eyes and tilted her head slightly, just enough to give him the signal.

"Paragon," Callahan said carefully, "I mean no disrespect, but upgrading your Core would be far more beneficial to everyone than upgrading mine. The settlement depends on you. The quadrant depends on you. Hell, this entire Tutorial depends on you." Caylee raised one hand and Callahan stopped speaking immediately.

"My decision is final," she said. Then she tossed him the Dungeon Core and Callahan caught it on instinct.

"Damage it," Caylee said.

"That's an order, Scout Commander Callahan." He hesitated for half a breath, then pulled a crossbow bolt from his quiver and struck the Core with the metal tip, causing a thin scratch on its surface. He passed it to Mark. Mark took it carefully, glanced once at Caylee, then scratched it with a small utility knife from his belt. Jen went next, pressing one spike from her shield into the orb until a crack formed. Ron burned a thin black mark across the surface with a line of concentrated flame.

Finally, the Core reached Henry. Her father crouched and set it on the frozen floor. He adjusted his grip on the blunderbuss, then looked up at Caylee one last time. She gave him the smallest nod. Henry brought the butt of the weapon down and the Dungeon Core shattered. White swallowed Caylee's vision. The next thing she knew she stood on an endless white floor that stretched beneath her feet in every direction. An equally endless expanse surrounded her on every side.

Nothing but infinite white, broken by a single figure seated behind a pristine white desk. Caylee's jaw tightened. She remembered this room from the Initialization. She remembered the way the System Entity had sat behind that desk, calm and unreadable, offering her power and a very suspicious Title for her contribution to the System's expansion into the 111th universe. The figure looked up and spoke directly into her mind. I offer my congratulations, Caylee Whitehollow.

You have successfully completed the Tutorial Dungeon…

"Cut the shit." The entity stopped. Caylee stepped closer to the desk, not bothering to hide the irritation in her voice.

"We both know why I'm here, and we both know you're going to give me some kind of reward. I don't care what skill you planned to offer. Convert it into an information request." That is impossible. Skill rewards for completing the Tutorial Dungeon Quest cannot be converted into an information request. Caylee's eyes narrowed.

"You and I made a deal," she said.

"I accepted your Title. I took on the role you wanted me to take because you said it was the only way to keep my family safe." The white System Entity remained perfectly still.

"You gave me part of what I wanted," Caylee continued.

"You couldn't find Cassandra and I accepted that as fact. You made sure my father was with me, you gave me power in this new world, an assistant that could give me almost any information I might need to stay on the System's limitless Path. But you have not completely held up your end of the bargain." She placed both hands on the desk and leaned forward.

"Tell me where my brother is! Where is Cade Whitehollow?" Information request granted: Cade Whitehollow has just finished the Tutorial Dungeon: Cynthia's Legacy. Shock cracked through her expression before she could stop it. Cynthia's Legacy? She had never heard of that Dungeon. Her assistant had given her information on Icespire Peak, the Desolate Crypt, the burial pits, the mausoleums, General Tarn, and all but one of the undead captains. It had never mentioned anything called Cynthia's Legacy.

But Cade had completed a Tutorial Dungeon. For a moment, pride rose in her chest. Cade was Coreless. He would have been useless, yet somehow he had survived a Tutorial Dungeon. Maybe he had found a good group. Maybe some decent people had taken him in and protected him. Maybe they had let him come along, kept him alive, and dragged him through the Tutorial Dungeon. That was the only way he could have completed it. Caylee didn't care how he had survived. Only that he had.

But her relief lasted only a second before anger returned.

"You were supposed to put him in my Tutorial," she said.

"That was part of the deal. Cade Whitehollow was supposed to be placed where I could find him. Where I could keep him safe." Information request granted: Cade Whitehollow would not have survived without a System Core in Icespire Peak, even with your help. He was placed in the Primeval Quagmire, a less dangerous part of your Tutorial. Caylee's fingers curled against the white desk as a memory flashed through her mind. Falling from the sky at the start of the Tutorial. The frozen mountain rising beneath her.

The vast, sprawling green to her right. It was a swamp biome. Cade had to be there. He was in the same Tutorial as her, separated only by the quadrant barrier. And the walls would come down in less than a day. Caylee let go of the desk and slowly straightened. For the first time since entering the white room, she smiled.

"I guess that is good enough," she said.

"Now, show me what skills you would offer your Chosen."