Taking a step toward the torch I reviewed what I could tell about it. It was wavering and flickering like a fire but there was no smoke or smell coming from it. Thinking about it, since we were in an enclosed corridor here in the dungeon and if there was smoke then we would all have been breathing fumes. I guess its a good thing they were smokeless after all.

Reaching the torch it was literally just thin pole set into the wall that was flattened to a circle on top about twelve inches in diameter. The torch head was above my head so I couldn't actually see what was keeping the fire going. Guess there was only one thing left to do.

I took a glance surreptitiously around then laughed at myself. I knew I was alone and even standing near the stairs to the second level. Of course there was no one here.

I reached out and gingerly touched the metal pole, just in case it was hot. Surprisingly it was very cool to the touch. Emboldened I grabbed it with my second hand and started to pull with both hands...

....to absolutely no effect.

Stumped I laughed, adjusted my grip and ended up placing one foot, then both on the wall while trying to pry the thing out. Again to zero effect however. The pole felt as sturdy as the wall itself and had absolutely no wiggle or bend to it after all my machinations.

Sighing I tried to think of some other way to figure out what was keeping the flame going. Remembering the metal was quite cool to the touch I grabbed the pole again and started inching my hands up as high as possible to see if there was any heat at all. Eventually I had lifted myself completely off the ground with very little actual effort.

Damn cheat isekai bodies.

Back to the torch I reached just a bit further to touch the plate, and found it too was cool. I stretched my fingers just over the edge and crept them forward. There was a bit of heat from the flame itself it felt like, but my fingers never brushed against anything else all the way until the full length of my fingers were over the whole thing and at that point the very tip of my finger did feel a ridge or something in the metal.

Not gonna give up now, I repeated the process with my other hand and placing my feet on the wall for some extra leverage, and to keep my face from being right in front of the fire, I lifted myself up to finally see what was going on with this thing.

And I was completely flummoxed.

Staring at the torch up close it was nothing I could have actually imagined. The flame did not even begin until a few inches off the top of the metal platform, and it looked like there was absolutely nothing fueling it.

Instead there was some manner of symbols below the flame. It definitely would be what would've been described from my previous world as a magical engraving in a fantasy story. The symbols looked like they were gouged into the metal and then filled in with something blue. I reached out carefully and snuck a finger under the flame to touch the symbol. The heat from the flame was very light, but as soon as I touched the blue part I felt like I had touched a hot pan.

I yelped and immediately let go of everything and dropped to the ground. I tried shaking it off and blowing on the finger to see if I could cool it down. The burning feeling was not leaving my finger though, it was sticking to my finger like oil would. Cursing my curiosity I stood up and walked back and forth for a bit. After about ten minutes it finally calmed down to a painful throb rather than the intense burn I originally felt.

Sighing at my misfortune I gathered my stuff and began to head back to the main room, when I suddenly hear an unfamiliar sound and stopped. Turning I tried to identify what the sound came from when it repeated and I was able to pinpoint it as coming from the ground itself. I crouched down and just stared at the floor where it sounded like the noise was coming from.

There was the slightest rumbling, slicking, squelching sound coming from the ground. It had me quite perplexed. I was going on four months here in this dungeon and never have I ever heard these sounds. As I stared the sounds started to get louder and increase in frequency and intensity. I stood up and slowly backed away. Finally they reached a crescendo and then suddenly went quiet.

I looked around and waited for something to happen.

And waited.

And waited.

Laughing to myself at the letdown I turned around and decided to head back. Suddenly a sharp cracking sound happened and I spun back around, and there I saw it. Right around the level two entrance there were dozens of tiny green hands literally clawing up from the ground. I stood there in shock for awhile as they pulled themselves up and out of the ground. I wasn't moved to action until they started sighting me and instantly charged at me.

As they charged at me I was acting on pure reflex as I was still kind of shocked by the whole thing. Is this where the goblins came from? I wasn't sure what I expected but it certainly wasn't this, bursting from the ground like a bad zombie movie.

I was about halfway through the goblins as I came to my senses and started putting more intent and effort into my culling of the little beasties. After finally dispatching of them all, I examined the room once more.

The locations they had emerged from were already starting to disappear, as the ground was just settling back into place. Despite the presence of the bodies I decided I needed to stay and figure out how this works, and besides I still had plenty of time till I needed to head back. I went around and gathered the bodies into one little corner so I could watch the floor a bit better.

It took about five more minutes but eventually the room was back to normal as if nothing had ever happened. I walked forward slowly and went all around the room. I determined that yes, the room was completely back to normal. Other than the pile of goblins in the corner of course.

Glancing at the corner where I had shoved the bodies it was time for me to be shocked again.

The mound of bodies had shrunk considerably, to about half the size it was before. I walked closer to see what happened and found that all the bodies were desiccated, as if they had been drained of all their water inside. Fascinated I got closer, crouched down and peered at them just like I had done to the floor earlier.

I know there were tons of sayings back in my world about watching paint dry being tedious, or if you watch a pot it never boils but things were happening so fast today I didn't dare look away.

The bodies kept drying out more and more as I watched, till the green skin was literally just stretched taut around the bones. Eventually the skin itself dried out so much it started flaking off and dropped to the floor in pieces. Eventually my mound of corpses I was watching was nothing but bones that fell into a pile haphazardly as everything holding them in a goblin shape disappeared.

Thinking back to all the goblins I had killed, I had wondered where all the bodies went of course but it was weird seeing it real time. And there were never any bones left in the corridor so I knew this was not the end of it either.

Sure enough even the bones were having the same treatment, as suddenly one and then another cracked and split in several places. Grabbing a piece I noticed it was hollowed out and had no marrow inside. I gave the slightest squeeze to the bone and it crumbled to dust in my hands. Seeing it happen in movies was nothing compared to actually experiencing it.

I stood up and took a few steps back and continued to watch the bone pile. Another minute ticked away and all that remained of the pile was white dust scattered over the floor and even that was disappearing fast.

Laughing at the incredulity of it all I looked back around the room I was in that went down to the second floor. This whole dungeon thing was positively intriguing. Emilia and Melania had mentioned that one was installed in Lucerne, and I wondered how it would compare to this one. Would it make as many monsters? Would they decay as fast, would it be as large? So many questions and not enough answers.

Something this world was full of really, but that would only make sense as I wasn't from here after all. I essentially have missed ten years of basic knowledge learning here.

Getting back to the room I was in I thought about the time-lapse of goblin encounter. I feel like from first bursting from the ground till the bones decayed took less than ten minutes. Remarkable how quick the dungeon was with the whole experience in hindsight.

I smiled to myself and sat down in the room. I still had plenty of time, let's experiment with this whole affair a bit.