I telepathically call my party to talk in person so I can save the Inspiration of using it from however many meters away. [Telepathy] doesn't cost me much to use, but I want to put all my Inspiration into yard art.

"Alright, everyone, listen up," I say.

I shunt the tedious process of very slowly moving vines and replenishing my Inspiration to a fractal. Everyone is here and paying attention, though quite curious about what I'm doing.

"I discovered a hidden subzone while scouting with [Ghostly Watcher] last night," I say. "I can guarantee there is nothing higher than Heroic rank in there and none of the enemies have any significant weapons, but other than that, I can make no promises. We will be the first ones in here. I would recommend Amethyst stay outside, but the first floor is only Basics with one Elite boss, so if you really want to come down here, you should be alright."

"Nah, I'll pass," Amethyst says. "I'll stick to the puzzles. An unknown is too dangerous and I don't have any armor or good defensive skills."

"Fair enough," I say.

Anise looks pyromaniacally at the briars and suggests helpfully, "You know, I could just burn those down."

"No," I say firmly. "I'm getting so much experience for this."

"How much further is it?" Hemlock wonders, peering past me to see if he can spot the crypt from here.

"I think it'll take me another two hours to get through," I say.

"The rest of us can head back to Corwen for additional supplies," Basalt says. "For a new dungeon branch, we're going to want to overstock on consumables we didn't need just for a baby dungeon."

"I'm going back to the inn," Melody says. "I haven't found anything music-related yet and I want to keep searching."

You have discovered the Spooky Crypt. Congratulations! You are the first to discover the Spooky Crypt! Your Max Inspiration has increased by 1.

My patience pays off, and an absolutely ominous tunnel of thorny vines now leads from the main path to the crypt door. The yellow sky above silhouettes the razor-sharp briars. Once I complete the exit and smooth it out, I receive a second notification.

You have crafted a Fair structure.

I'm satisfied with what I've managed. [Plant Control] is a lot like [Rope Trick] when you're just dealing with vines, and I find it even easier than [Rope Trick] because I can make my class think I'm crafting with it more easily. Trying to make it grow, much less bloom, tanks my Inspiration almost instantly, but just coaxing them to lift up to form a "pergola" was manageable.

"It is a pity you do not intend to become a Druid," Aunt Savannah says, admiring my handiwork. "But this skill will doubtless prove useful in your explorations."

"Oh yeah," I say. "This is so cool. I'm going to build so many stairs and bridges."

My party returns and Amethyst sets up a little healing station outside in case we need to retreat. She brought a cauldron and some fresh herbs, and she's getting some brewing going for potions, happy to contribute in some way without going into the creepy, undead-infested hole in the ground. Anise and Aunt Savannah stay with her outside, leaving my Elite party to attempt the dungeon with minimal experience penalties.

"Now don't hesitate to pull out if things get too much for you to handle," Aunt Savannah says. "You do not need to clear it all at once."

We prepare ourselves and head inside warily. Rowan takes point, leading the way down the stairs and into the darkness. Guttering torches emitting no smoke or heat line the walls at intervals to give just enough lighting that we can see where we're going, but dim enough to be atmospheric. The musty air tickles at my nose as we make our way inside.

I scan the auras of the undead, and find [Empathy]'s results very confusing. I hadn't understood why someone would actually want to be a zombie, but these are the happiest zombies in existence.

"Barhah!" groans a zombie, trying to grab Hemlock.

They go down, one by one, their good cheer not fading for a single moment.

"What's 'barhah' mean?" Hemlock asks.

"I think my translator glitched," I say. "Something about the spirit of zombie brotherhood?"

Although the zombies seem to be capable of minimal speech, most of what they say is things like "Grab harmanz!" My system helpfully subtitles this with "Grab humans!"

This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

They're unarmed, and the Basics don't have any interesting abilities, so most of what they do is try to grab us. This would not be a problem if there weren't so many of them, forcing us to bring out anti-swarm tactics.

[Hemlock, that dagger's not doing much against these things,] I observe telepathically. [How good are you at Wizardry?]

"I'm okay with it, but I didn't have any magic items of my own," Hemlock replies quietly.

I pull out my frost wand and pass it over to him. [You might as well use this, then. I don't like using it because it's psychically gross because its previous owner was a sadistic jerk, but you don't have Clairvoyance so you should be fine.]

Hemlock takes the wand and blasts the next pack of zombies with a wave of sleet. They don't take much real damage from it, but they're significantly slowed down, making them easier to deal with.

Jade's mist dagger has the same problem, but at least she can use that at a distance. Basalt's axe, on the other hand, is making a fine showing in removing legs.

We make it to the final room, and Durian Treharris the Elite [Revenant Jester] pops out of his coffin with a hideous giggle.

"I am so very pleased to see you all," he says, or at least that's what [Communication Analysis] says his gurgling means. "Welcome! Why don't you stay with us... forever!"

The zombie clown dances aggressively around my party, only to get quickly torn apart by our attacks. He is, after all, only a single Elite miniboss and we're an entire Elite party. I'm sure he would make for a fun fight for a Basic-rank party, though.

In the distance, the clattering sound of metal echoes through the crypt, like a gate has been opened. The boss chest contains some coins, a skull, and a pumpkin seed. I don't detect any unusual or strong aspects in either item, but we take them anyway.

The stairs down aren't located behind the boss room, but rather in the main room steps away from the entrance. A wrought iron gate had been blocking the way down when we came in, but is now open.

We step outside and take a short break before we tackle the next floor. I make sure everyone's at full health, and we rest to top off our resource meters.

After testing with the three caduceuses (caducei?), I've determined that [Copper Affinity] is perfectly happy with all of them. The copper-related concepts are lower in the wands with less copper in them, but that's more than balanced out by being higher with the concepts related to tin. In fact, the one that got partially melted has the strongest concept of 'connection' of the three. They all work perfectly fine for [Electric Current] and [Symbol of Healing].

Given how much greater the effect is from the alloy, I have to wonder if complex alloys with many types of trace elements might give even greater benefits. I have barely scratched the surface of conceptual metallurgy.

After everyone is healed and rested up, we continue down to the next floor. The narrow stairs have no railings, of course, and the torches are further apart and dimmer down here. This isn't a problem for me or Basalt, but the others don't have Clairvoyance or darkvision. On the second floor landing, another set of stairs leads down past a closed wrought iron gate.

"Hold up," Jade whispers. "I think there's a trap. Anyone got a torch? We brought torches, right?"

I pull out a light crystal and hold it over her shoulder to give her light as she identifies and disarms the trap. Jade gives a thumbs up, and we move in cautiously.

Rather than a single Elite boss, the second floor contains Elites scattered amid the horde. They don't go down as quickly to my chain lightning, and I carefully pick out each of them from the crowd and highlight them to my party as well as analyzing abilities to look out for. My new [Skill Analysis] ability proves invaluable in calling attacks.

A zombie sprays projectile vomit at me from a good three meters away. It stops in midair before reaching me from Rowan's [Protection] spell, leaving it to splatter into a puddle of green slime on the floor. Fortunately, it doesn't seem to have much smell to it, either. It's like fake haunted house goo. Not actually that gross.

By the time we reach the end of the second floor and get the next staircase unbarred, a rest is definitely warranted. We haven't run into any serious trouble so far, but haven't run across anything above our rank yet. Still, electrocuting that many zombies left me low on Inspiration. We pull back to the surface to get something to drink and have lunch before we tackle the third floor.

"What are we looking at for the next floor?" Basalt asks. "More Elites?"

I nod. "Elite swarms with Heroic bosses. We'll definitely want to be topped off before we try it. There's three bosses, one in each room, so at least we won't need to try more than one Heroic at once."

The third floor has another gate next to the stairs, but there's nothing but a small alcove containing a chest behind it rather than more stairs down. The dungeon might be planning ahead for further expansions, but at the moment, the crypt only has three floors.

The entire floor is completely dark barring the tiniest sliver of light making its way down the stairs, lacking the courtesy torches on the upper two floors, leading us to have to bring out whatever light sources we have available. I make a mental note to research light spells later as I doubt this will be the only time I have to deal with dark areas and juggling light sources is awkward. I can simply make things glow, sure, but it's inefficient and not terribly effective.

After Jade disarms another trap, half a dozen Elite zombies all come at us at once. They groan, spew goo, and try to bite us in a chaotic mass. I do hope they aren't infectious, but I don't think they're that type of zombie. (If Treharris actually spawned infectious zombies, I'm going to have words with a chunk of crystal in a moment here.)

We take it slow and clear out the Elite zombies in the main hall before entering one of the side rooms containing a Heroic boss. A fancy sarcophagus sits alone in the middle of this room, waiting for us to get closer, and I scan the aura and relay the information to my party before we proceed.

Name: Rose Treharris Tempest Tiganna Race: Human | Gender: Female | Rank: Heroic | Tier: Ancient | Class: Revenant Druid Disposition: Hostile | Mood: Eager, excited, proud

The withered potted plants sitting innocently in the corners of the room suddenly seem a lot more threatening. When we take a step forward into the room, the lid on the sarcophagus goes flying off to land on the floor with a crash, and an undead form wearing tattered robes rises from her resting place.

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