BXBX NOVEL Chapter 164: Signet Spokes
The words spoken were exactly the same as those the skeletal figure had spoken in the previous Undead Woe and the things it did were also the same.
Henry decided this event had to have been a massive conference with all the Knights during which they had all been transformed but because of their devotion, the Knights all remembered it differently. They all remembered it as their Lord paying them particular attention when they were just one of many.
Anyway, Henry was glad this Knight looked up more than the last. Maybe out of curiosity or maybe because he was so awed by his Lord that he wanted to look even further up and not further into the Skeletal figure\'s face.
Either way, Henry saw the glowing pulsing thing rise toward the high ceiling where a contraption awaited it. It touched the center of the contraption and with grating sounds and Arcane symbols glowing all over its widely opened parts, the Contraption sealed up. Covering the glow of the pulsing thing completely and, Henry assumed, keeping it safe.
The Undead Woe ended and Henry was back in his body.
[Kill-Reward: 800 Exp]
[Undead Woes: 1000 Exp]
With a thud, the last Undead Knight in the hall met its end and it met that end by Eloise\'s sword strike. With that, the predicament they had walked in on was at an end.
While the others around him couldn\'t take their eyes off Henry —who they still couldn\'t believe had the audacity to steal their kill—, Norbert found his attention drawn to Eloise who was now putting her sword into her scabbard.
"Incredible," Norbert mouthed.
Unlike he and everyone else who had started the fight with the Undead Knights and were now sporting injuries of varying levels of seriousness and fatality, both Eloise and Aurelius looked as well as they had when they first stepped into the Hall.
He contemplated, with a shiver, that the fate of him and the others would have been horrible had there not been more numbers to divide the attention of the Undead Knights.
At this thought, Norbert\'s eyes roamed the Hall even further as though to observe the others he had to thank for their intervention besides Eloise and Aurelius.
Norbert recognized the Squires —they were dressed in better armor than anyone else in the Hall besides Eloise and Aurelius— but he looked at Andor with curiosity. He recognized his armor. It was the cheap leather type he had seen on the Cuff-wearing slaves outside the Dungeon.
Norbert\'s eyes went to Henry now and he saw the same Armor on him. Now that he was taking care to pay attention, he was sure he had seen Henry wear a cuff. In fact, he was sure he had seen Andor and Louis wear them too even if Louis had changed out of the Leather armor into a Mage robe.
"What happened to Doherty?" Norbert wondered with his brows pulled together.
Despite the lack of communication between them outside, Norbert had known Doherty. Or more importantly, he knew Doherty\'s employer; Ralph Gribbo. A man whose name and status carried a lot of weight in the city of Alvareen.
Now, quite a bit could have happened to Doherty. The Dungeon had proved a very dangerous exploration but to think Doherty would fail and these three would have made it out had Norbert thinking something was fishy.
Henry didn\'t care or notice the attention on him.
[Quest Completed!]
[You have received 2000 Exp] Embark on a quest with m,vl_em|p_yr
[Nyx has received 1000 Exp]
When the notifications arrived, he got down from Nyx\'s saddle with his eyes on the metal door and his mind on what was behind it. He noticed someone getting closer to him and he turned to see Eloise about two feet away.
"Shall we?" She asked.
Henry looked around the Hall. Those who had survived were mending their injuries as best they could and those who did not require too much first aid —a very few— were now gathering up the weapons of the Undead Knights to serve as Loot. Henry saw Andor stash some weapons away and allowed himself a smile that the Fighter knew what to do without being hinted.
"Don\'t you want to rest?" Henry asked Eloise in response to her question.
"I want this to be over," Eloise said through gritted teeth. She closed her eyes for a second but to her, it seemed longer and dragged on as the image of her halved-up Squire kept flashing in her mind,
"Let\'s end this and get the hell out of here," she said then she walked toward the metal door.
Henry watched her walk away. He could feel her melancholy and he knew the reason for it even before he looked toward the Squire\'s corpse and saw Aurelius looking it over with his lips pursed.
Aurelius seemed to feel Henry\'s attention on him because his eyes flicked up and he frowned deeply before looking away to address the Squires whose faces all shared a look of loss and some shame. They had done next to nothing to help in the fight against the Undead Knights and had certainly not done anything to save their now-dead comrade.
"Head back down the Corridor," Aurelius said in a hard voice, "Stay there, and once all this is over, we\'ll leave the Dungeon."
"What about you and Dame Eloise," One of them asked.
"We\'ll be fine," Aurelius said, "Go."
A moment of silence passed before more than half turned around and walked down the corridor. The two that stayed looked scared, and worried but all in all, determined.
"What are you waiting for?" Aurelius asked, "Go."
"I\'m sorry, Sir Aurelius, but I want to see this through," The girl said.
Henry remembered her. She had gotten slammed in the head and struck against the wall by the Spear shaft wielded by the Undead Knight Aurelius had first fought against.
Henry guessed she had probably missed most of what happened next since the hit knocked her unconscious. He wondered if she was embarrassed and this was her way to make up for it.
He shook his head and decided that was dumb to assume because the other Squires had not done much better and had walked away still.
"Alice…" Aurelius said to the girl with a tenderness Henry wouldn\'t have thought he was capable of.
"I can do it," the Lady Squire named Alice said, as determined as ever.
"I can do it too," said the second Squire to hang back. He was male and his lips were hard set on his decision.
Aurelius looked like he was about to insist again but then he sighed and smiled lightly,
"Very well," he said, "Alice, Darren, Please, try not to die."
Alice and Darren nodded solemnly once in response.
"Hngh!" Eloise cried out then, "It\'s still locked!"
She had tried pulling the door open but it had remained solidly sealed and had not latched open as other doors had done within the Dungeon thus far.
Henry frowned but then noticed the \'LOOT\' button rotating above one of the defeated Undead Knights.
He clicked it and received a notification;
[You have Looted 1 Signet Spoke]
Henry furrowed his brows and clicked the universal button the System presented to him and received the same notification over and over again from every single Undead Knight on the Hall floor.
Henry walked up to the metal door and he realized now that while it looked like the door of a Vault, it lacked the Spokes that most Vault doors had. Spokes that could be turned in a circular motion to unlock it.
Missing Vault Spokes…
And Signet Spokes looted from Undead Guardian Knights…
Surely, that couldn\'t be a coincidence.