The Aftermath

As the creature laid there, no longer moving, not even the rise and fall of a breath. Zain stood up and walked over to it, with the heat still radiating from it and looked at the dagger, which was still in its skull it wore, or maybe it was its head. Zain did not know nor was he keen on trying to find out.

The room's chilling temperature was not there any longer, it was instead a humid yet warm environment now. The stones were still warm to the touch, and the drastic change of temperature seemed to have even cracked a couple that were on the walls and ceiling.

This thing, whatever it was, was definitely not something that was not a normal monster.

"Do you have any idea what that is?" Damascus asked out to Zain who was examining it.

"Not a clue. From what it looks like though it appears as if it was an undead that needed the cold to survive." Zain responded in a matter of fact type of tone.

 "It was a Wechuge." Zain's father chimed in before continuing. "If it hadn't been for the vial of that liquified fire you gave to your mother, we would all surely be dead at this point."

"What makes you say that?" Damascus asked perplexed at the thought that it wouldn't die with enough damage.

"The only known way to kill one is to burn it alive." Zain jumped in before his father could finish.

"Also, it normally takes a team of eight to ten soldiers to wrangle one and tie it up to do so. If we had tried to do it the traditional way, we would all be dead" Zain's father updated them in a matter-of-fact tone.

Zain nodded understanding the gravity of the situation they had just been in before Damascus spoke up again.

"But we do have a dilemma on our hands now. I cannot use a lot of magic that I am attuned to because of how little mana I have, add that with my only attributes being wind magic and I can only use about one spell during my stents of staying awake." Damascus informed the group.

"I only have one fire spell I know and can use, and it always drains my mana too." Sophia chimed in to back up what they were suggesting.

"Well, we need to wait for the corpse to cool off anyways, we can take a break and allow you two to gain your mana back." Zain spoke in an understanding tone.

Zain and Sophia were young compared to his parents and Damascus who were in their fifties but looked no older than twenty-five years in age by what he was used to on earth.

As they waited and the heat dissipated from the room, Zain noticed something glimmer in the corner of the room. As he stood up and walked over his mother was observing what was happening. She watched intently as he walked over to the corner and started sifting.

To his surprise, when he got over there, he found one thing he had never seen in this world. It was a sword unlike what he was capable of crafting. It was a katana but the metal it was made out of was not one he knew of. The blade was a soft blue-green color with small rune like engravings going down it. The hilt was made of aged wood that seemed to have been burnt and rehydrated before an oil finish was applied and as he looked closer the guard atop the hilt had been made to look almost like a circular cross made of silver.

He was still looking for the sheath when his mother came up to him. As she approached to ask what he was doing her eyes widened and he spun around to face her.

Being startled he jumped a little before asking, "What is it that has you so bug eyed?"

"Did you come over here to look at this?" she asked, almost perplexed at what had drawn him to such an item.

"Yes, I saw something glisten and just wanted to investigate. I saw this and figured it might have a sheath around for it, so I started looking." Zain responded in a calm collected tone.

"Well artifacts like this in a dungeon don't normally have a rhyme or reason but finding one is rare. Don't get used to it, and they don't normally have sheaths with them if they are found in a dungeon." She was almost scowling.

"This is my first dungeon Mom, how was I to know?" Zain asked.

"This is true, but I'm just letting you know." She spoke before trying to go back to rest some more.

"By the way, do you know what these engravings mean?" Zain asked, trying to keep the conversation going a moment more.

She inspected the carvings haphazardly and quickly before she spoke again. "That's a dead language son, you will have to consult with either a scholar or someone who knows it to try and figure it out."

With that she turned and went back to her spot, sat down and closed her eyes trying to rest. Zain grabbed the sword and placed it on the right side of his belt between his pants and the belt itself to keep it in place and went back as well.

After about two hours everyone was back up and Zain was over at the corpse once again trying to see if it had cooled enough to pry out the dagger. It had cooled but the metal was still hot due to its thermic properties but not too hot to pull out at this time. He grabbed it with his gloved hands and yanked it out in one fell swoop.

Sophia approached after seeing this and tried it with her glaive. The glaive was still too hot for her to fully grab so she immediately let go.

Damascus came up and with his gloved hands pulled it out without any incident. He looked at her at that point and handed her his broad sword and spoke in a gentle tone with her, "Take mine until this cools, you don't need to burn your hands with the hot metal." Then turned and walked to the end of the door.

The group soon formed back up at the door, Damascus pushed it open and before them was a staircase. It wasn't spiral like the last time, but just a straight down staircase to another door.

They walked it calmly and quietly and when they got to the next door, they noticed it was unmarked and untouched. Damascus kicked it open and before them in the center of the room that had just been opened stood a figure that was as this as a rail, contorted due to being so bony one would assume, with horns and a forked tail but colored a deep almost crimson like red.

It motioned them in so keeping formation they obliged and entered with the door shutting behind them.