The journey down was quiet, uneventful, and even peaceful. The only sound in the tunnel was the echo of boots as they descended.
As their altitude lowered, a dizzy sensation began to creep up on SV, making him feel lightheaded. He shook his head and tried to see if there was any poison, but he couldn't smell anything strange. But he knew something was strange and that he couldn't continue going down.
As he made his way back up, the dizziness gradually receded. SV pushed the bookshelf aside and felt a cool air hitting his face. He was stunned for a moment before realizing that the dizziness might've been because of the lack of oxygen.
But that was a problem; how was he supposed to overcome this? It wasn't like he could find an oxygen mask around, could he? And that man, how did he overcome the need for air?
Then it suddenly struck him that he didn't seem to need air when in possession of someone. He could risk possessing one of the maids in the mansion, or he could go back and possess that corpse in the graveyard. Both had their disadvantages.
Possessing a maid risked his entire level while he didn't know how to get the corpse out of the graveyard. It wasn't a simple task to scale the wall with a body in tow and he didn't know where the key to the graveyard was. He also didn't know if he could possess a soulless corpse yet.
He thought long and hard, and in the end, he decided to just possess a maid here. He didn't want to spend so much time going back and building a higher platform to carry the corpse out. Moreover, he was pretty sure the people here were ordinary people, as evidenced by his superior strength when dealing with them previously.
As a level 2 powerhouse, SV's SPR was now a whopping seven points. A full seven points! Surely an ordinary person's SPR couldn't be higher than his, right?
Another reason was that he remembered how back at the gate, the man was back on his feet after he had broken his neck. If he managed to pass the check and kill a maid here, the system message will provide him some insight into their being.
So it was worth taking a gamble. No, what does a level two powerhouse like him fear? What gamble? It's obviously a well-founded experiment...
No matter.
SV cleared his head, and just as he wanted to leave the office to look for a maid, he stopped in his tracks. Wouldn't possessing a maid alert the group?
He smacked his forehead and remained silent for a long moment.
Then, he thought of how to make it feasible. The only solution he knew right now to the disruption was to escape the town. So he could possess one of the townspeople near the gate and then head outside.
Actually.
Another thought suddenly occurred to him. What would happen if he carried one of the townspeople out of the town? This time, it truly was a well-founded experiment.
Having a clear plan in mind, SV decided to implement it right away. But before that, he quickly scanned the office to see if he could find anything useful.
He picked out a few books from the bookshelf but couldn't recognize the characters on it. He searched the drawers and found several keys. But they didn't match the size of the graveyard's keyhole. He still took them with him, putting them all in a shoulder bag he found nearby.
The only truly useful thing was a ceremonial dagger mounted on the wall; it wasn't sharp by any means, but it was better than nothing.
He left the office with a bag around his shoulders, a dagger belt around his waist, and an apple in his hand and made his way back to the town's gates as he munched on the apple.
The streets were empty at this late hour, and SV only met a few wary-looking pedestrians along the way.
Halfway along the journey, the pedestrians in front of him suddenly went limp and fell to the ground. He swore he saw a red light flash from their body and disappear into the ground. Then, without letting him ponder further, the earth began to quake.
The sudden shake caused him to drop to his knees. SV braced himself as the shake caused the houses around him to rattle. The stone walls began to crumble as debris flew off. Thankfully, he had been walking in the middle of the road, so he didn't suffer from random rubble.
Some cracks formed along the road, which SV had to roll to avoid falling into. After a few more seconds, the shake gradually died down.
He got up and dusted himself off, wondering what the fuck that was about. He approached the pedestrians and checked them. No pulse, no breathing. Of course, that is assuming they were alive before.
Well, no matter.
He wondered what he should do now. He stroked his beard and looked at the pedestrians. He didn't think he'd get anything from the experiment now that they were in this state. Plus, that red light escaped underground, so the party must be held there.
He backtracked to the mansion. Thankfully, the mansion didn't suffer much. SV hoped the tunnel would be fine too, but looking into the dark tunnel, he realized that he could only go down to know whether it was blocked or not.
But first, he needed a vessel. He found one of the maids lying near the office. She was a brown-haired woman with dark brown eyes. She looked to be in her early thirties, had her hair in a neat bun that was shared amongst all the maids, and wore the maids' common dark-green dress. He crouched down and touched her, activating his talent.
Immediately, he turned into a mass of fog that drilled into the woman, his bag and dagger belt falling to the ground.
[Possession has been initiated.]
SV found himself lying supine on the floor, staring blankly at the ceiling for a moment. Surprisingly, he felt that he had full access to the body from the moment he was in.
[SPR check has been initiated. 0<7. Check passed. Possession successful.]
He sat up stiffly and stared at the pop-up. So it was possible to possess soulless husks after all. But then, what qualified as a target for possession? If he could possess soulless husks, did that mean he could just possess about anything? Did it have to be a living creature, humanoid? Would he be able to possess animals?
Well, stuff for later. He summoned his panel to check his stats.
======
[Name: Bandit Emperor(Dorothy)]
[Race: Human(?)(Human)]
[Sex: Male(?)(Female)]
[Lv: 2 (Exp: 108/300)(0)]
[Class: None]
[Attributes: STR 12(6), DEX 9(7), CON 11(6), INT 9(7), WLL 10, SPR 7]
[Talents: Possession Lv1]
[Skills: None]
======
Huh, apart from INT, there wasn't much difference between her and that corpse. Heck, the corpse at least had a surname.
No matter.
He stiffly tied the dagger belt around his waist and hung the bag around his shoulder and went to the office. He picked up a torch hung on the wall and ventured into the tunnel.
Maybe it was reinforced with magic, but the tunnel didn't seem to have suffered much. A minute or two into the journey, the torch started to sputter. SV then remembered why he needed to possess a corpse to begin with. He speechlessly continued forward.
Another minute later, the flame was gone, and SV had to complete the journey in complete darkness. Thankfully, he didn't need a light to descend the stairs, though it did make his journey several times slower.
The descent took him nearly an hour. He was sure since he used the possession cooldown to keep track of time. He could finally see a light at the end. Not only light, but he could faintly hear sharp shrieks and curses.
When he was finally at the opening, he looked to see the tunnel opening up to a wide cavern lit by strange moss attached to the ceiling, giving it a starry sky feeling. There was a clear lake at the center of the cavern with a magic circle glowing black at its bottom. Strange blackish-red light dropped from the ceiling like snowflakes into the lake below.
A battle seemed to be underway in front of the lake as thousands of red lights spiraled around a blue barrier. The red lights would slam against the barrier every now and then, causing it to flicker with strange patterns.
Howls and shrieks filled the cavern, intensifying whenever a hit on the barrier occurred.
Inside the barrier was a frowning group of five people, two men and three women. The men were dressed in flowing robes, while the women were dressed in layered dresses. He couldn't see the details clearly, but it seemed that the leader was a veiled woman dressed in white and gray holding a glowing talisman, the barrier carrier no doubt.
Opposite them was the manor master, a magic circle glowing crimson red under his feet. His expression was hideous as he waved his hands, and the red lights seemed to follow his commands and moved as the man's arms did. He was muttering something under his breath.
SV stared speechlessly at the scene. He seemed to understand something but also had many questions as a result.
Were those people immortal cultivators? Wasn't this a western fantasy game? What the hell?
Also, is this the final BOSS fight? Why did we skip directly to it? Why wasn't I informed? Who are you people?
Just then, the people involved seemed to sense his gaze, and six pairs of eyes landed on him. Immediately, SV felt that he was being dissected. Several screens popped up in succession, but he couldn't process them quickly enough. He only managed to catch one.
[You have been identified.]
Apart from that, he could only see checks failing and ridiculous numbers flashing by.
What the hell? The whole area had weak mobs, but then suddenly he got thrusted into a high-level BOSS battle? Where was the logic here?
Wait, he seemed to have come here himself...
SV smiled stiffly and said, "Boss, this is me, Dorothy; I just came to check up on you. Since you're fine, I won't bother you anymore. Pardon my intrusion."
Just as he was about to turn around and leave, a suction force came, and before he could react, he was in the man's hand, held by the neck, the man's other hand still controlling the red lights. Just then, two pop-ups came into his view, one after another.
[You have discovered Cavern of Wishes.]
[A quest has been generated.]
Before he could process this information, two other screens popped up.
[Your 'Quest: Where the curse began' has been completed. Exp +300]
[You have leveled up. Lv2 -> 3. Attributes +1]
He leveled up? No wait, how did he complete the quest already?
The man didn't let him finish his thought and forced him to look into his eyes. SV instinctively closed his eyes. The man seemed to mutter something as he tightened his grasp on his neck. But SV didn't feel anything. The man frowned and released his hand.
SV landed, and before he could move, the man brought his index finger to SV's head. SV heard a woman shout behind him before his head exploded. The man looked at the headless corpse, and his frown deepened.
Just then, grey fog rose from the corpse, and before it could coalesce into SV's form, the man waved his hand, and the fog scattered.