Ben and team were going through final preparations for their foraging trip. Luz had also agreed to join as she not only was better at identifying which natural treasures were worth taking, but also at harvesting them.

  Ben was looking forward to the trip, it was not an emergency, it was good getting out into the forest without too many people around, and he was excited about what they would find at the location that Mesa had pointed out as a reward for him being the worldwide first to make it to Tier 2.

  They had planned to spend one, max two nights in the wilderness for their trip and he hoped they would find more locations that would be worth harvesting or sending other teams to, than just the one marked by the system.

  They were on the way to the gate when Ben received a blue notification. He sighed and opened it.

  Mission alert – Evacuation / Dungeon Clear

  A dungeon very close to a small village in the Drakensberg Mountains will break within the next four hours.

  Evacuate the village and / or clear the dungeon.

  Target: Basotho village.

  Importance: Medium

  Urgency: Immediate (4 h)

  “Change of plans. We have a mission that needs to be done in four hours.”

  He looked to Luz, “apologies for that. Would you mind telling Adam that he needs to be ready to potentially receive people in the next few hours?”

  He turned to his team and informed them about the option to clear dungeon.

  “Let’s go and talk to the locals. They probably know what kind of dungeon it is,” Allison said.

  “Am I the only one who doesn’t know where Basotho is?” Jamal asked.

  Everybody shook their head, except for Anne, “I think it is in South Africa.”

  In a minute they were at the Plaza and Ben raised a Portal. Meanwhile, Allison had waved over a couple of teenagers and told them to get two Protectors to guard the portal on this side.

  They were ready to step through the gate.

  The view was monumental. They stood on a basalt cliff overlooking a seemingly endless landscape of mountains and plateaus, overgrown with a thin veneer of grass. Behind them clung a small village on a grassy slope, below a sharply rising mountain.

  A few scattered stone-and-thatch huts formed the core of the settlement, arranged in a loose horseshoe around a central firepit. A corral of thorn bushes and stakes kept a couple dozen goats in place.

  The villagers, about three dozen, were clustered around the firepit, seemingly getting ready to leave, as they were grasping what must be the majority of their belongings. They were wearing a mix of western clothes and traditional garb, colorful woolen blankets draped around their shoulders. Some of the older men and women were also wearing traditional head gear, conical straw hats and folded cloths.

  They all stared at them, or maybe rather the portal that had risen from the ground in the middle of their village.

  As always, Ben was happy for Allison to take the lead on making contact. They approached the group and his mother gave the same explanation that she had used a few times now.

  It turned out that the villagers had lost some of their own to the dungeon that was just a couple of hundred meters up the slope. They had hoped for a few days that the group would still make it out, but now they were just hours away from the dungeon breaking and they had decided, with a heavy heart, to leave their home.

  The dungeon had apparently three levels and was called Mosali oa Baloi’s Domain. Of course, none of them knew what that meant, even with the help of [Multi-Lingual], but the locals explained that it was a Witch of the Dead – a local Necromancer-like figure of myth. Accordingly, there were a minimum of two types of undead around, at least based on how far the villagers had successfully cleared the dungeon so far.

  The villagers were easily convinced to join them and very grateful. That they could take their animals with them was an additional boon, because they had resolved to leave them behind to be able to move faster, fleeing from the dungeon break.

  After they had arranged for their new citizens to make the transfer, Ben and team stood close to the portal home. He looked at them, “what do you think?”

  “Boss, having this dungeon break and a bunch of zombies running around this beautiful area does not sit right with me. Also, our likelihood to progress our perks to uncommon is higher in new environments than doing the same stuff all the time, at least that’s what Barry said,” Jamal said.

  Anne nodded, “we need to push ourselves.”

  “Let’s do it, but carefully, if we feel like it is too much, we can abort after level 2. But I am sure Adam would be delighted if we brought back another dungeon shortly before we get our monthly SCs.” Allison said with a wink.

  Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

  Michael just nodded along.

  Ben hadn’t wanted to influence the decision, but he was glad they had decided to enter the dungeon. He felt like it was a good opportunity to test his new strength in a new environment. “Let’s go!”

  Within a few minutes they had found the dungeon entrance. The portal was slightly hidden by a large rock, jutting out from the mountainside.

  You are about to enter a dungeon.

  Theme: Mosali oa Baloi’s Domain

  Tier: 1

  Min / Max party size: 1 / 5

  Instances: 3

  Levels: 3

  Average days to break: 5

  After the typical transition, Ben found himself in a landscape similar to the one they had just left. A windswept plateau surrounded him, the sky was dark gray, the air felt stale. A handful of abandoned-looking huts stood to one side, but the dominant feature of the area were the dozens and dozens of graves, most of them covered with rocks to form small cairns.

  Between them shuffled a dozen or so emaciated corpses in ragged, dirt-stained clothing, bones visible beneath parchment-like skin. Some were still wearing fragments of Basotho blankets, marking them as villagers turned zombies, their eyes glowing faintly with dark blue energy.

  Batho ba Shoeleng – The Walking Dead. Energy-Born. Tier 1. Uncommon Challenge.

  An Uncommon challenge seemed easy compared to some of the enemies they had faced recently, so the moment that everyone had arrived and was ready, they moved forward in their standard formation, Jamal and Ben at the front, Anne and Michael covering the flanks and Allison bringing up the rear, using her staff as a walking stick on the rough ground.

  Ben flexed his muscles and carved into the side of the first zombie-like monster they reached. So far, they had been largely ignored by them, but after the initial attack, the dead turned around and increased the speed from their slow shuffling to a more excited semi-jogging.

  The monster fell easily to Ben’s attack and he moved forward, the others at his side.

  Quickly, they had half a dozen monsters defeated, as Ben saw stones fall from the graves around them, and more Batho ba Shoeleng rose from the ground.

  They continued the attack when Allison called out. “Behind!”

  Ben turned and saw the zombies they had slain, or rather thought they had slain, rise again, either ignoring the grievous wounds, or pulling hacked off arms or legs back to their body.

  What had been a dozen, now was easily 30 of the zombies, threatening to encircle them. Fortunately, their attacks weren’t strong, but not everybody had the Constitution that Ben had, so he didn’t want to draw this out longer than necessary.

  “Anne, with me to the back. Mom, in the middle.”

  Allison had crushed a bunch of the zombies with her roots but currently focused more on hitting them with her staff, still seemingly unconcerned.

  Ben hacked into their opponents. Here an arm, there a leg, a head. Whatever came before him and his axe was destroyed. At least temporarily.

  Wait. There, that one is not getting up again.

  The zombie whose head he had cleaved off seemed permanently dead.

  He confirmed it with two more zombies, relayed the information to his friends, and after that it was an easy clean up of the first level.

  “You know, it wouldn’t have hurt the villagers to tell us about this…” Jamal said.

  “True, but in fairness, we didn’t ask, and they must have whiplash from all the emotions of what their last day must have been,” Allison replied.

  “That is true, boss mom. Your wisdom guides us.”

  Allison used her staff to hit Jamal on the shoulder, laughing, “I’ll show you my guidance.”

  Stepping through the portal to the second level, they arrived at a narrow passage that opened into a large chamber where skeletons were stacked in niches in the walls, and traditional bone charms dangled from the ceiling.

  Torches with dark blue flickering witch-fire gave a haunted feel to the room that was filled with a light mist that seemed to rise from the bone-filled niches.

  “This… is spooky.” Anne said haltingly.

  The moment they fully stepped into the chamber, the mist condensed into half-corporeal, half-decayed forms, looking like skeletons wrapped in cloaks of mist. A thin incorporeal thread connected each with one of the bone charms and skeletons.

  Badimo ba Tlamiloeng – Shackled Ancestors. Energy-Born. Tier 1. Rare Challenge.

  They had clear similarities with the zombies they had faced on the first level, but they seemed quicker, and while their last opponents had been eerily silent, their new enemies seemed to be whispering amongst themselves, and they moved faster and with more intent.

  As they formed, they started to circle around the team, looking for opportunities to attack.

  “Who will take a bet that those also don’t die right away and that we need to find a way to make that happen?” Ben asked while staying attentive to the ‘shackled ancestors’.

  “They are tethered to their bones. Should we try to crush them?” Allison said.

  “Worth a try. Jamal, taunt. Anne, you go and punch some bones!”

  “I hope that means what I think it means,” Anne responded with a smirk.

  Ben smirked and shook his head at the remark, then went to attack the advanced zombies as Jamal roared his taunt.

  Before he could hit his first target, one, then two, then all of the Badim oba Tlamiloeng started to increase their whispers until it reached a crescendo – and they did not stop.

  Ben felt his [Palisade of the Mind] perk trigger for the first time, and he saw the others, in particular Anne and Jamal stagger.

  “Change of plans! Michael, attack the bones. Anne, stay with us.”

  Jamal seemed to struggle lifting his shield and his reflexes were diminished.

  Ben took a couple of steps forward and attacked the relatively fragile enemies with wide sweeps. Every slice, cut, and swing left deep wounds with the zombies and when they crashed to the ground, they no longer whispered, but as expected, they slowly reformed and threatened to assault them again.

  As the mental pressure eased, Jamal and Anne also stepped up again, and the three of them managed to keep the mass of zombies under sufficient control to give Michael the time to destroy the skeletons and bone charms with targeted pommel bashes of his short sword.

  In the end, the level had felt easy to Ben, but he realized that for a group with lower Mind stats, this could have been quite lethal – fighting against unkillable enemies while barely being able to function did not sound like fun.

  ***

  They stepped out of the portal to the third floor and arrived in a grove, seemingly deep in the mountains. Surrounding the grove were a few withered trees, behind them steep mountain cliffs going up and at the center of the grove was a ring of stone pillars each covered with some of the bone charms they had seen on the previous level.

  Two dozen zombies, similar to the ones from the first level shuffled around, however their human heads had been replaced with decaying hyena skulls. According to their description they were an evolved, rare variant.

  Batho ba Shoeleng – The Walking Dead. Evolved. Energy-Born. Tier 1. Rare Challenge.

  Behind them, the creature that had given the dungeon its name.

  Mosali oa Baloi – Witch of the Dead. Leader. Energy-Born. Tier 1. Epic Challenge.

  The witch was a gaunt Basotho woman, wearing tattered blankets, covered in bone charms. She was as dead as the zombies she had raised, her eyes gleaming blue.

  An epic challenge – which was hard on its own, but in combination with the Walking Dead seemed very hard. Ben probably was supposed to be anxious. It was the opposite; he was looking forward to letting loose.