The Mage's Path: Chapter 26

Hi all, 

Here’s the first chapter of the week. The second chapter will be posted within the next hour. 

Chapter 26

The projector stood at the back of the theatre room, its lens focused on the screen ahead, ready to project the second half of that fateful Halloween night. 

Harry turned the projector on and it whirred to life, casting flickering images onto the wall.

"Finally," Harry whispered, settling into a seat. 

“Are you sure you're ready for this?” Celeste asked. “You might not like what you find.”

“It’s fine. Even if it turns out my mother died, I’ve lived without her for a decade. You can’t miss what you’ve never had.”

Despite what he said, his fists were clenched in his lap.

The scene materialised, right where the first memory had finished. Lily and Uriel were confronting each other, while Harry sat in the runic circle. The modified runes beneath them burned brighter, their configuration altered by a baby's innocent touch.

Lily and Uriel's spells collided mid-air, creating a pulsing orb of volatile magic. At the same moment, the runic circle activated. A gate materialised, its surface rippling like disturbed water—identical to the dungeon gates Harry had encountered. 

Time slowed to an absolute crawl. The explosive magical collision hung suspended, frozen in mid-expansion. It was as if the gate was a black hole, distorting time around it.

"Interesting," echoed a cold, inhuman voice from beyond the gate. "Girl, why do you feel so familiar to me?"

Harry's breath caught in his throat as two massive tentacles erupted from the portal. They lashed out with impossible speed, wrapping around Lily and Uriel before either could react. The tentacles constricted, dragging them toward the gate despite their struggles.

"No!" Lily screamed, her eyes locked on baby Harry as she clawed at the tentacle around her waist. Her fingers reached toward her son, stretching impossibly far.

In her final moment before being pulled through, Lily's wand flashed. A streak of crimson light struck Harry's forehead, sinking beneath the skin. Blood magic—the Veil of Blood—taking hold within him.

The spell manifested physically, burning into his flesh to anchor itself more firmly against the chaotic magic saturating the room. What should have been invisible became corporeal—a lightning bolt scar etched into his forehead.

Lily and Uriel were dragged into the gate, and it vanished, leaving no trace of its existence. Time resumed its normal flow. The suspended magical explosion detonated with catastrophic force, blasting through the nursery walls and ceiling.

Baby Harry should have died, crushed beneath falling debris. Instead, a wooden beam collapsed at precisely the right angle, creating a protective pocket around his crib. The ruins of the house settled around him, leaving him crying but unharmed beneath the improvised shelter.

The projection flickered and died, plunging the room into darkness.

Harry sat rigid in his seat, knuckles white as he gripped the armrests. His mother hadn't died—she'd been taken. By what, he couldn't begin to imagine. The implications crashed through his mind like a tidal wave, sweeping away everything he thought he knew.

Celeste remained silent, her tiny hand resting on his shoulder in quiet support.

Harry ran a hand through his hair, feeling overwhelmed. He had so many questions. Who had spoken from inside the gate? Where had those tentacles dragged his mother and Uriel? Into another dimension? A dungeon? And most importantly, could his mother still be alive somewhere after all these years? 

The mere thought sent a surge of excitement through him, but he quickly tamped it down. Years had passed since that Halloween night. Even if she'd survived being dragged through the gate, anything could have happened to her after that. 

Still, the possibility that his mother might be alive somewhere—that she hadn't died protecting him, but had been taken against her will—changed everything. 

The gate troubled him. How had he summoned it? It couldn’t be explained away as accidental magic—the gates were Gaia's creation, part of the System. Had Gaia interfered that night? Had she chosen him as the player even then, marking him for this path without a choice in the matter?

His fingers brushed the scar on his forehead. Despite the shock, he felt oddly relieved after watching the scene. The Veil of Blood wasn't meant to harm him; she'd cast the enchantment only as a desperate final protection to conceal something.

"Something must have spooked her," he murmured. "Something to do with that voice, perhaps?"

He recalled the entity's words with a shiver: "Girl, why do you feel so familiar to me?" It was as if the creature recognised his mother somehow. A connection he couldn't begin to understand.

"I need to watch it again. Maybe I missed something—"

Before he could get to his feet, a notification pinged in his HUD.

======Congratulations! You have completed the Main Quest: Divided Memory. Quest Completion Rewards: 50,000 XP. ======

The reward caught his attention momentarily but he had something more important to do. 

Harry dismissed the notification and reached for the projector controls. The memory restarted. This time, he paused the projection repeatedly, searching for details he missed on the first go around. Unfortunately, the image quality was bad up close, preventing him from reading the runes in the ritual circle.

He had an idea to replicate the ritual to see if he could summon the gate again. But even if the quality had been perfect, it would have been hard to read. The memory was at a fixed angle. While it provided a broad view of the room, it didn’t allow him to change the angle to catch other details. 

“What are you looking for?” Celeste asked.

“Anything that can help me find my mother.”

Harry advanced the memory frame by frame until the gate materialised. He squinted at its rippling surface, trying to read the description that should have appeared—the same text that materialised on every dungeon gate he'd encountered.

But the text was too blurry. Feeling frustrated, he was about to lash out at the projector when another notification appeared. 

======New Main Quest: Hollow Memories

Description: The player’s ruined family cottage in Godric's Hollow may hold secrets that will provide a clue for him to find his mother. Though the Ministry has converted it into a memorial, some things may have been preserved and remained hidden.

Main Objectives:

• Travel to Godric's Hollow and investigate the Potter cottage ruins.

• Find an improved version of the theatre room memory. 

• Watch it to trigger the next main quest. 

Sub-Objective: Find the counterspell for the Veil of Blood enchantment.

Rewards: 50,000 XP; 2 PP; New main quest.

Sub-Objective Rewards: 1PP; requirement for completing the Mark of Mystery quest.

Time Limit: None 

Quest Difficulty: High======

Harry stared at the quest description, his mind already leaping ahead to Godric's Hollow. If his mother had left something behind, something the Ministry had missed during their investigation, it might fill the gaps in what he'd just witnessed. It might even lead him to her—if she still lived. Though the difficulty suggested it wouldn’t be easy.

He dismissed the window and opened his status page. The fifty thousand experience points from completing the quest were a welcome boon. With that massive influx, he could level up multiple times.

“No wonder the system gives out these quests," Harry mused. "Without them, it'd take ages to reach higher levels."

The requirements between levels had been increasing exponentially. Besides the boss, monsters gave far too little experience. However, the boss didn’t respawn, so he couldn’t grind them for experience.  

Harry spent his experience points, and his level jumped from thirteen to seventeen. He'd gained twenty attribute points and eight path points.

He tackled his attributes first, allocating eight points to Vitality, bringing it to forty. His HP bar expanded to four hundred points—a substantial buffer that might make the difference against the Goliath. Five more points went into Spirit, while the remaining seven boosted his Agility to thirty-five.

"That should help me dodge the Goliath's attacks," he said. "Now for skills."

Harry turned to his newly acquired Fire Elemental Grimoire path, examining the skills beyond Flame Dart. With both the normal monsters and the Goliath weak to fire, investing in this path made strategic sense.

He spent six path points to unlock the next two skills:

======Arsonist | Passive | Level: Max | Upgrade: -- | Attribute: SPI 

Description: Fundamentally alters the caster's magical attunement, creating a powerful resonance with fire magic. The caster's flames burn hotter, spread faster, and consume less magical energy, making them a devastating force on the battlefield.

*Increases all grimoire fire spells damage by 20%

*Increases the chance of inflicting the burning status effect by 5%

*Reduces MP cost of fire spells by 10%

*Grants immunity to your own fire damage

*SPI > 50: Increases all percentages by 10% ======

======Flame Cloak | Active | Level 1 | Upgrade: (0/15) | Cost: 40 MP | Attribute: END/WIL 

Description: Enshrouds the caster in a protective mantle of flames that serve as both shield and weapon. These flames respond intelligently to threats, intensifying when struck and reaching out to burn attackers. At higher levels, the cloak becomes more responsive and defensive, automatically surging to intercept incoming attacks.

*Absorbs 300 points of damage. 

*Provides +10 Defence while active. Stacks with the player’s armour.

*Deals minor fire damage to enemies that strike in melee range

*5% chance to ignite enemies who strike you, causing damage over time

*Reduces the effectiveness of cold-based attacks by 50%

*END > 40: Increases defence bonus to +15

* WIL > 40: Reduces MP cost by 25%

* Upgrades to level 2 after burning 15 enemies with the retaliatory effect ======

Harry nodded with satisfaction. These skills would serve him well against the hordes of undead. The Flame Cloak offered particularly good value, doubling as both offence and defence.

"Why do you get all the experience?" Celeste complained. "I helped complete those quests too."

“You’re not wrong,” Harry said. “But I have no way of giving you the experience points.”

"Because the system automatically gives it to you," she grumbled. "I'm not just a sidekick, you know."

“But I’m the player. I should be getting the bulk of the rewards.”

“What?” 

"Just kidding," Harry hurriedly added. "How about I adjust the settings so you get more experience points than me?”

“That will do for now.” 

He rose from his seat, ready to leave the theatre room, but Celeste zipped in front of his face.

"Wait a minute," she said. "Shouldn't we search this place first?”

Harry paused. "Good point."

They methodically examined the room, testing walls for hidden panels and checking beneath the seats. 

Celeste flew behind the projection screen. "Harry! Come look at this!"

Behind the screen, a narrow door stood flush against the wall, its outline barely visible. Harry opened the door, revealing a short passage. They followed it to the end, where it opened into a spacious chamber. As they stepped inside, a notification appeared.

======You have discovered the Forbidden Cellar's Safe Room. 

This area provides protection from the dungeon's dangers and enemies cannot enter. You may rest here to restore all resources, but you can only use the bed twice before completing the dungeon. Please note that time still passes in the dungeon while in the safe room, affecting the monsters' respawn rates. ======

“How sneaky,” Harry said. “If you hadn’t noticed the hidden door, we would have missed the safe room completely.”

“See. Not just a sidekick.” 

Harry gazed around the safe room. The layout was similar to the tutorial dungeon, with a bathroom, kitchenette, and a small living area with a squishy sofa. It was as if the safe room wanted you to get comfortable and give the monsters outside the chance to respawn. 

He pulled out his inventory and retrieved his potions’ equipment, the recipe, moonshade mushrooms, and the other ingredients he needed. 

"Let's get started.”

Harry set to work, arranging the moonshade mushrooms and other ingredients across the workbench. His first attempt ended in disaster—the mixture bubbled over, releasing acrid purple smoke that sent him and Celeste into coughing fits. The second batch fared no better, congealing into an unusable green lump at the bottom of the cauldron.

Undeterred, Harry tried again. The third attempt simply fizzled out, leaving only clear water behind with no trace of magical properties. He frowned, reviewing the recipe more carefully before measuring his ingredients for the fourth batch.

This time, success rewarded his persistence. The potion turned a vibrant blue, which matched the recipe’s description. After the mixture had cooled, he poured it into the empty vials. 

"Appraisal." 

======Minor Mana Potion | Uncommon | Effect: MP Restoration | Quality: Medium 

Description: A potion that restores MP when consumed. The moonshade mushrooms give the concoction its potency, but the brewer still hasn’t perfected the recipe, affecting the quality.  

* Restores 100 MP instantly

* Consumption +5

======

"Not bad," Harry said, stoppering the vial.

He brewed several more batches, continuing to refine his technique. By the fourth batch, he'd created a high-quality potion that restored 150 MP while keeping the same consumption cost.

"That should be enough for now," Harry said, storing the potions in his inventory. "We should get back to exploring."

Celeste poked her head out of the pantry. “After we’ve had something to eat.”

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=--=-=

They ventured into the corridor, alert for any sounds of heavy footsteps. The path back to the forge remained quiet, save for the occasional distant moan of zombies. When they reached the smithy, Harry immediately headed for the anvil. Before he got started, an idea struck him.

He cast a spell on the hammer, a silencing charm he found in the library that he thought would be useful. It occurred to him that the noise from the hammer striking the anvil had attracted Goliath's attention.

Working methodically, he refined his technique with each dagger. His movements grew more confident as he learned to read the metal's colour, judge its temperature by sight, and strike with precision. After he made the ninth dagger, a notification pinged in his HUD:

======Congratulations! You have learned the Blacksmithing skill!

Blacksmithing | Active | Level 1 | Upgrade: (0/20) | Attribute: STR/END 

Description: The art of forging weapons and armour from raw materials. This skill encompasses metal selection, heat management, shaping, and finishing techniques to create durable and effective equipment. More recipes in the Blacksmithing handbook will be unlocked as the skill’s level increases.

*Increases equipment level by 10%

*Increases equipment durability by 10%

*Reduces material waste by 20%

*Reduces the level requirement to equipped by 10%

*5% chance to create equipment one quality level higher than normal

*STR  > 40: Improves weapon damage by 10%

*END > 40: Increases armour defence by 10%

*Upgrades to level 2 after crafting 20 uncommon items======

"Brilliant," Harry muttered, examining his latest creation—a dagger with decent balance and a reasonably sharp edge.

He opened the handbook again, running his finger across the pages. To his amazement, new text and diagrams materialised before his eyes, the once-blank pages filling with advanced designs.

"Look at this," he called to Celeste.

Celeste zipped over. "What's that?"

"The Inferno Blade," Harry read, tracing the blueprint. "A fire-imbued weapon specifically designed to exploit the undead's weakness to flame. The metal is forged with phoenix ash and cooled in volcanic spring water, creating a permanent fire enchantment."

The recipe listed several rare components: heat-resistant ore from deep in the dungeon, phoenix ash stored in a special container, and the sinew of a Sprinter for binding the heat-resistant grip.

"We already have the sinew," Harry said, checking his inventory. "We need to find the ore and phoenix ash somewhere in this dungeon."

Celeste nodded. "Where should we look first?"

"Let's return to the theatre room and continue from there."

They backtracked to the theatre, keeping watch for the Goliath. From there, they methodically explored corridor after corridor, mapping as they went. Harry dispatched smaller groups of zombies, the flames proving devastatingly effective against the undead with his new passive skill.

An hour later, they had completed a full circuit of the main cellar level. Their map had filled in considerably, revealing the dungeon's circular layout.

"There's still a lot we haven't found," Harry said, studying the map. “We have to be missing something.”

"What's that?" Celeste pointed to an unexplored gap near their original entry point.

They made their way there, discovering a narrow stairwell leading downward. A cold draught rose from below, carrying the scent of damp stone and something else—a metallic tang that reminded Harry of blood.

"Another level entirely," he said, peering down. 

Harry and Celeste descended the spiral staircase. The air grew colder with each step, carrying the sharp odor of chemical solutions and decay.

The stairwell opened into a vast underground chamber. Stone arches supported a vaulted ceiling where rusty chains hung like macabre decorations. Wooden tables lined the walls, their surfaces cluttered with glass vials, copper tubing, and bizarre contraptions whose purposes Harry could only guess at.

"It's a laboratory," Harry murmured, moving cautiously between the tables.

Celeste drifted toward a collection of leather-bound journals stacked haphazardly beside what appeared to be an operating table. Dark stains marred the metal surface, and leather restraints hung from its sides.

"Harry, you need to see this."

He joined her, carefully opening the topmost journal. The handwriting matched the journal they'd found in the monster's cell—the same childlike scrawl. Harry flipped through the pages, skimming entries that detailed gruesome experiments.

"He was dissecting zombies," Harry said, his voice flat. "Trying to understand how the infection spreads."

The journals chronicled Frankenstein's monster's descent into scientific obsession—a cruel mirror of his own creator's work. But where Victor Frankenstein had sought to create life, his creation sought to understand death, or more specifically, the half-life state of zombification.

"Listen to this," Harry read aloud. "'The infection spreads through blood and saliva, transforming the host within hours. I've observed the progression in seventeen subjects now. The mind deteriorates first, then the body adapts to its new state. I must find what preserves my consciousness while others lose theirs.'"

"Seventeen subjects?" Celeste's face contorted with disgust. "He was experimenting on people?"

"Looks that way." Harry turned the page. "He was desperate to understand why he retained his mind while other infected became mindless zombies."

"So, it's possible to bring people into the dungeon?" Celeste asked.

Harry paused, lowering the journal. He hadn't considered that possibility before. The implications were disturbing. Could real people be dragged inside here? Or were these subjects merely constructs—sophisticated imitations the dungeon generated to create its own macabre history?

"I'm not sure," Harry admitted. "These could be actual people from the outside world, or they might just be fabrications—part of the dungeon's narrative structure. The line between what's real and what's simulated blurs in these places."

Celeste wrinkled her nose. “If it is simulated, I wish Gaia would be a lot less creepy with her designs.”  

“I don’t know. I kind of like the atmosphere,” Harry said. "Anyway, if Frankenstein's monster could bring victims here for his experiments, that raises some disturbing questions."

They moved deeper into the laboratory, discovering more evidence of the monster's work. Glass containers held preserved organs and tissue samples. Detailed anatomical drawings covered the walls, annotated with observations and theories.

"He’s quite intelligent for a monster," Harry observed.

In the far corner of the laboratory, they found a section separated by iron bars—a makeshift prison. Most cells stood empty, their doors hanging open. But from the furthest cell, a soft whimpering echoed.

Harry approached cautiously, Magelight illuminating a figure huddled in the corner. A female zombie in a tattered Victorian dress rocked back and forth, her hands clasped as if in prayer. 

"Elizabeth," Harry murmured, remembering Sam's photograph. 

The zombie woman's head snapped up, milky eyes fixing on Harry with startling clarity. She scrambled to the bars, reaching through with gray, decaying fingers.

"Help," she croaked, the word barely recognisable through rotted vocal cords.

Unlike her husband, she could speak. It made communicating easier but no less disturbing.

Just to be certain it was Elizabeth, he used Appraisal on her.

 =======

Elizabeth | Level: -- | Type: NPC | Non-Hostile

Description: Sam's beloved wife, transformed during the monster's rampage through Borley Rectory. Though undead, she retained her humanity and consciousness through sheer force of will. Unlike common zombies, she maintains limited speech capabilities and purposeful movement. Her tattered Victorian dress suggests her former life of gentility before tragedy struck.

=======

Harry examined the lock—a complex mechanism that might take hours to pick, and he hadn’t learned the picklocking skill like he had planned to. But this was a perfect opportunity to use magic rather than brute force.

"Alohomora," he said, focusing his magic through his arm-wand.

The lock clicked open with surprising ease. Elizabeth stumbled out, her movements jerky but coordinated. She clutched Harry's arm, her touch surprisingly gentle for a creature of her state.

"Thank... you," Elizabeth managed, each word a struggle.

A deep rumbling vibrated through the stone floor, followed by a mechanical grinding that grew louder by the second. Harry spun around as the wall opposite them split open, revealing a hidden chamber. The smell hit them first—the overwhelming stench of rotting flesh intensified a hundredfold.

"Oh no," Celeste breathed.

Dozens—no, hundreds—of eyes gleamed in the darkness. The zombie horde packed the chamber from floor to ceiling, a writhing mass of decay that had been sealed away until this moment. With Elizabeth's release, some mechanism had triggered, unleashing what must have been the monster's failed experiments.

"Run!" Harry shouted, bolting toward the stairs.

The zombies poured from the hidden chamber like a flood, their collective moans building to a deafening chorus. They moved with surprising speed, driven by hunger and the instinct to pursue living flesh.

Harry, Celeste, and Elizabeth reached the stairwell just as the first wave of undead closed in. The narrow passage created a perfect bottleneck—only two or three zombies could approach at once.

"Get behind me," Harry commanded, pushing Elizabeth toward the stairs.

He summoned fire to his palm, the flames dancing eagerly between his fingers. As the first zombies lunged forward, he unleashed a volley of Flame Darts directly into their faces.

The fire erupted spectacularly, igniting the dry, desiccated flesh. Zombies screeched as they burned, their bodies becoming impromptu torches that set their companions ablaze. The fire spread through their ranks with terrifying speed, creating a wall of flame that momentarily pushed the horde back.

"Celeste! Shadow Lance on any that get through!" Harry shouted, preparing another volley.

The fairy zipped overhead, her tiny form glowing with dark energy as she targeted zombies attempting to climb over their burning brethren. Each lance pierced rotting skulls with surgical precision.

Harry maintained his position at the bottleneck, alternating between Flame Darts and Gale Force Push to keep the zombies at bay. His MP drained rapidly, but the zombies' weakness to fire made each spell devastatingly effective. 

"We can't hold them forever," Celeste called.

Harry continued to send wave after wave of Flame Darts into the zombie horde. The bottleneck worked perfectly—for a time. Then he noticed something disturbing.

"Wait, are they...?" Celeste gasped, pointing to the first wave of zombies they'd taken down.

Instead of disappearing, the charred corpses were twitching, their blackened limbs jerking with renewed purpose. Singed hands clawed at the stone floor as they dragged themselves upright, their burnt flesh regenerating before Harry's eyes.

"They're reanimating!" Harry shouted, firing another volley of flames into the crowd. 

A zombie he'd dispatched moments earlier lurched to its feet, its body still smoking but moving with frightening purpose. More followed, creating a second wave behind the fresh zombies still pouring from the hidden chamber.

"We can't keep this up," Harry said. "There's too many, and they won't stay down."

"What's the plan?" Celeste asked.

"Elizabeth," Harry called over his shoulder, "can you run?"

The zombie woman nodded jerkily.

"Then we run. Now!" Harry unleashed one final blast of flames to create a momentary wall of fire, then spun and bolted up the stairwell.

The trio scrambled upward, the moans and shuffling footsteps of the zombie horde echoing behind them. As they reached the top of the stairs, Harry risked a glance back. The stairwell was filled with undead, a river of rotting flesh flowing upward like a nightmarish tide.

"They're following us to the main level!" Celeste warned.

"Just keep moving!"

They sprinted through the corridors. A Sprinter lunged from the shadows, its claws sweeping toward Harry's face. Elizabeth surprised them both by intercepting the attack, her hands closing around the Sprinter's throat with unexpected strength. She slammed it against the wall, buying them precious seconds to continue their escape.

"This way!" Harry shouted. "The wine cellar is ahead!"

They burst into the expansive wine cellar 

"There!" Celeste pointed toward the far end where a familiar figure stood motionless, watching their approach with milky eyes.

Sam stepped forward as they neared, his gaze fixed on Elizabeth. The female zombie stumbled toward him, arms outstretched. Their reunion—two undead creatures finding each other amid the chaos—held a strange, macabre beauty.

As the couple embraced, a notification pinged in Harry's HUD:

======Congratulations! You have completed the Side Quest: Till Death Do Us Part. Rewards: 2 PP; Sam will offer better trading rates.======

"How touching," Celeste murmured, her earlier disgust softening into something like sympathy.

"We should map out the rest of this maze while we're here," Harry suggested, gesturing toward the unexplored sections of the wine cellar. "Those zombies will disperse throughout the dungeon soon enough. Better to deal with them in smaller groups than that massive horde."

Celeste nodded. "Makes sense. Besides, I'd wager there are more bottles of wine hidden around here."

"And I still want to buy that dungeon map from Sam," Harry added, glancing at the zombie merchant who was now guiding his wife to a safer corner. "It'll save us time stumbling around blindly."

They set off into the labyrinthine paths between wine racks, Harry's Magelight illuminating their way. Something bothered him as they explored—they'd covered significant ground in the dungeon but hadn't unlocked many new areas.

"There have to be more sections we're missing," he said, checking his mini-map. "We've explored most of the first floor and that laboratory level, but there's nothing else connected to the second floor that we've found."

"Maybe there are more hidden passages like the one behind the theatre screen?" 

Harry's brow furrowed. "Perhaps. Let's finish mapping this cellar first."

They continued their systematic exploration. In a secluded corner behind a fallen rack, they discovered a treasure chest. Inside sat three more bottles of Swift Step Wine, which Harry promptly stored in his inventory.

The familiar whoosh of air warned them seconds before a Sprinter launched itself from above. Harry pivoted, raising his dagger to parry its slashing claws. The narrow confines between wine racks severely limited his movement options.

The dungeon has shifted into the Weapon Phase.

"Brilliant timing," Harry growled, ducking as the creature lunged over his head.

Celeste swooped low, unleashing a Shadow Lance that caught the Sprinter in its knee. It stumbled but recovered quickly, its unnatural agility allowing it to bounce off the rack and dive toward Harry again.

The fight dragged on longer than it should have, the cramped space preventing Harry from properly manoeuvring. By the time the Sprinter finally dissolved into motes of light, Harry was feeling peeved.

"These confined spaces are a nightmare for combat," he grumbled.

They encountered three more Sprinters as they completed their exploration, each battle an exercise in frustration due to the restricted movement space.

Harry was relieved when they finished mapping the wine cellar and collecting the treasure. They returned to the merchant, who greeted them with what might have been a smile, though his decayed facial muscles made it difficult to tell. 

He browsed Sam's updated inventory, noting with satisfaction that the prices had indeed dropped considerably. He purchased the map for fifteen bottles. He also selected an anti-undead enchantment gem and several metal ingots for his blacksmithing practice. 

"We should head back to the entrance," Harry decided after storing his new acquisitions. "I want to use that enchantment machine we saw when we first arrived."

Celeste raised an eyebrow. "With that zombie horde wandering around? Are you mad?"

"I've got an idea." Harry turned to her with a grin. "Why don't you summon some shadow creatures to scout ahead for us? They can warn us about any large groups of zombies so we can avoid them."

"Why didn't we think of that sooner?" Celeste muttered, extracting her Shadow Orb from Harry's inventory.

She focused her magic, and three shadow fairies materialised. They zipped off, following Celeste's mental commands.

With the shadow fairies scouting ahead, they navigated through the dungeon with surprising ease, avoiding two large zombie clusters. They reached the entrance chamber without a single confrontation.

Harry approached the enchantment machine and placed his Ranger's Treads into the designated slot and inserted the anti-undead gem into the adjacent compartment.

The machine hummed to life, its gears whirring as magical energy flowed between the boot and gem. When the process completed, he retrieved his boots.

"This should protect me from being infected," Harry said.

Satisfied, Harry pulled out the recently purchased dungeon map and spread it across the floor. The parchment displayed the dungeon's layout in meticulous detail, including several areas they hadn't yet discovered.

His finger traced a path to a section marked "Crematorium."

"I think this will be our next destination,” Harry said. 

“Why would they have a crematorium here?” Celeste asked. “They don’t stay dead.”

“Maybe Gaia is trolling us?”

“That wouldn’t surprise me.”

So, what do you think? In the next chapter—nah, forget it. That’s completely unnecessary. 

Thanks for reading.