Chapter 8 An Ominous Cellar

It wasn't long before I had a decent-sized fire raging in one of the corners of the dilapidated house. The fire's embrace brought back a similar feeling to the holy arc in a more sedated way.

I noticed a golden light in the base of the fire that answered one of my main questions since arriving in this ruin. Why was the wood so important that everything needed to be enchanted to protect it? I'm not hungry so the fire was unneeded to cook, I'm not particularly cold so why would I need heat? Light was convenient but it wasn't worth enchanting wood or a container to protect the supply. Not even to mention the fact you had to have some type of enchanted bag to bring that much wood into a dungeon.

{Essence: 7,590}

Lvl:19

Name: Ace Lothbrook

Mana: 155/200

Class: N/A

Rank: Human

Strength:8

Agility:17

Endurance:14

Dexterity:13

Intelligence:20

Faith:9

[Statistical Upgrade Cost: 14,500]

Fire was a key to this dungeon tower. I never would have guessed that just creating a fire could be so valuable, the 'Holy Arc' I discovered on the ninety ninth floor felt so otherworldly that the thought I could create my own never crossed my mind.

There were glaring differences though. There was no promise of protection nor did it feel like my mental fatigue was washed away. No, the only purpose of this 'Mortal Arc' was to be able to use essence and increase stats. 'Though I could be wrong' I withdrew the scimitar and placed the blade in the flame.

{Uncommon Grade Scimitar}

Burned Scimitar

Type: Weapon

"Huh..." I said unintelligently as I observed the partial description of my blade. 'So it had limits, though a lot could be learned from a name so it wasn't really that detrimental to not know the intricacies of the effect, at least in some cases'

'So the point of this village was to train novice adventurers on one of the weaker floors?' It was just a guess and there were glaring flaws in it. How could they have so much information about the dungeon to know to bring firewood beforehand, could enough people to fill this town really enter the dungeon together at once? Questions I didn't have near enough information to find an answer for. 

There was one thing for certain though, people just like me used this floor as a grinding area, so I needed to explore everything I could about these ruins.

Going over it with a fine toothcomb would surely give me at least a minuscule idea of what kind of world I've found myself in.

With that in mind, I began doing what I originally needed a fire for, exploring the rather large house. The first thing that caught my attention was a series of faded blue banners that decorated the room, a few golden lines decorated the edges in a series of entwining lines that gathered around a symbol in the center. A black wolf's head with two bastard swords clashing behind it.

It was a symbol of an organization that slightly resembled a knight order or a family crest, it could even be a symbol of Royalty or a noble house. I burned the symbol into my mind as I continued looking around the large open space.

A wooden bed frame sat in one corner of the room, I almost shed a tear at the rotten mattress that would most likely turn to dust the moment I touched it and the fact I could smell it from here.

A wooden table and chair in another corner and that was it. Well besides an ominous cellar door that sat near the center of the room. 

It was irregular for a simple reason, whereas everything else wooden was pristine. This particular door was stained in droplets, dark red and a very slight metallic smell emanated from it as I took a few steps closer.

"That can wait…....." I decided as I turned away from the door and headed towards the wooden table and chair. 

I'd lie if I said that hadn't spooked me.

It'd be foolish to enter a cellar that had what was possibly human blood on the door, at least without preparing myself.

Thus I placed everything I had acquired up to this point onto the table, intent on doing what I needed a base for in the first place.

I had my blooded spear, thirty bolts, a steel dagger, a hunter's bow, around a hundred arrows with steel tips, and a slightly worn crossbow.

I wasn't a carpenter nor have I ever fixed something other than a car, that was the purest of basics as well. Like changing the oil or a tire, maybe do a simple tune-up on a more forgiving model. Nothing that could make me comfortable enough to claim I was a 'handyman'.

But turning a regular arrow into two bolts wasn't that difficult. One would be the better of the two considering it had the arrow head, while the other half I simply sharpened to a point. A few notches were carved into the back to fit decently in the chamber and that was it. 

It took me a while to modify the crossbow enough that these thinner bolts could fly but after enough tinkering I made it work.

One hour and two hundred bolts later I was finished. One hundred bolts with a steel arrowhead and one hundred plain wooden bolts.

The last thing I needed to put my crafting skills to the test was to expand my bolt quiver. It could fit about a hundred bolts when I got it.

At this, I had to sacrifice both my dagger's leather sheath and the Hunter bowstring. A slit down the side and a few holes poked into both pieces of leather. A rather rough sewing process and that was it. 

It could now hold all two hundred and thirty bolts, though it was stuffed.

I could only sigh as I finished everything I needed to. 'No more procrastinating I guess….' I commented to myself as I felt the cellar door calling to be opened, or that might've just been my curiosity screwing me.