Fox Tale Of A Dungeon Boss 38 Chapter 38: The Path Of Realization

We came up to the foot of the mountain but... the area around the mountain had no tree, but buildings of wood and pathways overgrown with weeds.

In the buildings I could see broken wood posts, and aged polish still trying to shine...

My empathic senses were picking up something I can barely understand in scope.

I had felt the emotions of others, and had been working at getting better and more accurate at feeling it without letting it interfere with my own emotions. But here... it was as if I could feel the ages sunk into every stone and sliver of wood.

I felt stalwart determination from a long built building, with peeling paper walls, yellowed with time, showing the wooden slats holding up the roof.

I could feel love and family from each house, and so much more.

But overall... I felt death.

I could see a corpse lying Galway's built into the base of a tree bursting from under the front half of a house, that had grown through the front of the building.

I could see the bone with strange notches on top of its head... about where my ears are.

'This... was where they lived. And more importantly... it's where many of them died.'

Sorrow and despair so strong the rocks and trees that had grown or formed years later carried its traces.

Luna looked in concern as the Foxkin's face bleached white, staggering as he held his stomach.

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"Are you okay? Are you sick?"

I shook my head shakily. "I'm just a bit... overwhelmed."

I bit my lip, emotions feeling like a river ripping through me, and sudden pain snapped me back as a metallic taste entered my mouth.

'I... bit it till it bled?'

I shook my head, and starting shambling forward, staggering as the emotions felt stronger and stronger with each step.

Luna looked on with no small concern, but in Fenrirs eyes was a sense of respect and approval. His thinking was simply 'yes, you can't be unaffected, but you step forward anyways, as any true leader must.'

With support and concern I was unaware of behind me(it kinda got drowned out by everything else), I kept going forward, and looked up.

Built in terraced layers into the mountain were more buildings, and majestic, while a path of stairs led from one to the next, starting with the long building showing stalwart determination, and going all the way to the top.

And above all that, I could see some of the Fox's tails hanging over the plateau, in view on the side of the mountain. I would see him soon.

We looked up at the sign worn near away.

'Ph of Re-liz-ti-n'

Luna blinked a bit, while I ventured a guess. "Path of Realization?"

Luna nodded, and I walked up to the entrance, realizing it was a sliding door with only the frame left, all the paper long gone.

I don't know why I didn't just step through, but Luna and Fenrir both walked past through there, while I grabbed the notched indent on the right to open the 'door', or what was left of it.

Even after these centuries, it slid smooth and sound. I stepped forth, and entered the building. Along the walls were many items, likely once weapons, but all the steel was rusted, and only a few were recognizable, while a few instruments remained as well, and some other items I couldn't recognize, such as the remains of a Loom.

The air began to stir, wind breezing last for the first time we'd felt in the entire ghost town, and dust motes flying up as thick blankets, gathering into the center in a process similar to the Dungeons mob creation.

I didn't feel too surprised, but Fenrir got into a defensive stance, hind legs raised to pounce as his front half lowered, teeth shown. Luna outright took a few steps back away from the event. I could feel the presence being summoned out, and some part of me knew what was coming.

And out of the dust came a ghost.

Transparent, misty, as if made of colored fog. He stood a bit taller than I, and had bright red fur on his tail and ears, along with his hair, but his eyes were a green as pure as the color of the pool in the Dungeon.

"h.e.l.lo young one."

Luna blinked in shock, while Fenrir's guard dropped as even he was surprised. I simply gave a sad smile, feeling the absolute shock the ghost was hiding, and joy to see a living one of his kind.

I gave a wet cough, blinking away a tear, before looking up. "It is nice to meet another of my kind for the first time, even if you are no longer of the living."

His composure broke, a few tears at the corners of his eyes. He let them fall as his voice shakily asked, "do you have no one? If you live... is there not others?"

I shook my head. "I am the last, and have never met another."

He shakily drew a breath. "I see. Then allow me to explain the purpose of this sacred test."

Uh... test? Oh no...

"To ascend the stairs was a sacred ritual that every Kitsune was to complete as they came of age, to meet the Fox G.o.d. Here is the hall of talents, where you show your prowess in the skill of your cla.s.s, or if you have not discovered it, what your cla.s.s is."

'Oh I have a cla.s.s! It's called Dungeon Boss, and gives no cla.s.s skills! Ahahaha!'

"I uh... don't have talents I'm aware of?"

He blinked a bit. "Oh. Well I guess being a pessimist is normal for the last of our kind..."

Uh... when did you get so easy going about it?

He noticed my confusion, and gave a sad smile. "You think I should still rage and cry after being left to accept our death for over 3 centuries?"

Okay... fair point.

He gestured to the wall, and I could feel the power residing throughout the town, radiating all that somber negativity, gather here and... brighten?

It was welcoming... as if every last thing here was delighted to see me.

The power swirled in the air, and a shimmer came over the hall, and as it pa.s.sed by, it was as if we had returned to a prior time, seeing it as it once was. Paper walls filled with scenes depicting flower fields with a lone swordsmen, an image of a woman serenading a dragon with a violin, and more. The floor shone glossy and smooth, like the Kitsune Shrine, and the ceiling and posts were dark red-brown wood.

The weapons and many items were returned to prestige condition, awaiting... me?

The man before me smiled and gestured to the walls. "Find your talent, or demonstrate it if it lies in spell casting or your own athleticism."

Ah... what am I good at? This is where remembering little is kinda bad.

I stepped forward, gripping a katana as I pulled it off the wall, and swung it a bit, not really sure what to do. I looked up, sensing another presence, to see another Foxkin charging me with a sword the same as the one I held. Except... no emotion came from him. It was as if this one were a robot to test my skill... which it probably was.

Our swords clashed, and then he easily flicked mine away with a twist off his wrist, easily flowing the motion to my neck, and I felt my head get cut off.

I saw the world swirl around me, seeing my headless body standing there. And as darkness fell, my eyes opened to see myself in my original position holding the sword as if nothing had happened. The attacker was gone too.

I dropped the sword, startled, and grabbed at my throat as fear washed over me.

'So quick...'