The trio still had a long journey to the elevator. They weren’t exactly sure what would await them, but they felt a bit more confident than before now that Helios and Lunaris had access to more of their powers.

Though they didn’t have to wait long to find out. The moment they turned the corner to step into the next room, several hundred skeletons ambushed them. The entire room was filled to the brim with skeletons, they had to jump back into the previous room to avoid the mass of bones coming at them.

James almost laughed at the mental image of hundreds of skeletons quietly standing in wait behind the corner while the three of them were chatting it up. But he knew he had to get serious.

He didn't feel any fright at seeing the skeletons. But he was getting really sick of seeing skeletons every time he trained somewhere.

“God damn, skeletons again? I shouldn't complain, they’re relatively easy to beat. But why are there skeletons in every god damn dungeon? There are so many other types of monsters out there, why skeletons again god damn it?”

Helios and Lunaris looked at him for a second, almost confused at what they were hearing. But then they burst out laughing.

They had been in the Soul Grinder for a while now. Even though it wasn't technically much more than a bunch of huge rooms with powerful monsters inside them, it was still a dreadful place that took a toll on you. Especially since they were stuck here, with who knows what other "shenanigans" the agent pulled on them. Having a laugh in these circumstances was like a healing potion for the mind. James's unusual comments were definitely making their journey easier.

There is one thing other than humor that was making them feel much better. Power.

Even though a bunch of skeletons were jumping at them, moments away from reaching them, Helios just smiled. Seemingly with no effort at all, he spun around with his shield just once, and every skeleton in their vicinity was knocked down. He then spun around two more times, holding his shield in an orbit with his mana for greater range, knocking skeletons down in wider and wider concentric circles.

In just 3 spins, Helios stopped down the enemy's advance entirely. James began to understand that the gap in power between him and his friends was a lot bigger than he thought. It was more than just levels. Mere numbers can't describe true power.

He already cared for his friends like they were family, and he knew they cared about him just as much. But seeing a glimpse of their power made him feel even more appreciative. These two powerful individuals could be out there doing anything they wanted. Grinding more power, fighting the war on the Darkness. But they chose to be here with him.

From the very start, they went above and beyond to help him and be there for him. Such kindness and love wasn't something he had felt on Earth from anyone other than his own parents.

Such friendliness, affection and compassion from people he wasn't even related to was something that gave him a really warm feeling in his heart. Time and time again he kept thinking that the best thing about this world were his friends. Maybe his true gift from whatever god or cosmic force reincarnated him were these two people. His new family.

As James was thinking about how much he appreciated his friends, Helios was preparing to go to town on the skeletons. He looked at his shield, and it immediately burst into flames. It was covered in such a thick layer of flames that the shield underneath was barely visible.

“Wow, doesn’t that hurt?” James asked, genuinely impressed. He knew the true power of fire. He still remembered the feeling of burning himself with fire magic. Seeing Helios holding what was essentially a round piece of metal, red hot as if it just came out of the furnace, was actually making him a little anxious.

“Nope, it’s a skill I developed through my awakening. I don’t feel it one bit! Now check this out.” Helios smiled and threw his shield at the skeletons.

Even though there were skeletons everywhere, the shield was flying as if there was nothing in its way at all. It was passing through their bones like a knife through butter. By the time the shield ran out of momentum, twenty skeletons were on the ground, cut in half. The smell of burnt bone permeated the room, to the point James had to conjure a plug for his nose, the smell being unbearable.

As if to show off, before pulling the shield back, Helios unleashed a wave of fire through the shield, which instantly melted all the skeletons around it. Another five skeletons gone, just like that.

For a second James thought the maybe the skeletons were really weak. Helios’s shield defeated them so easily. But this was the Soul Grinder, a place even Helios had been reluctant about revisiting. Why would there be such weaklings here?

To test out his suspicions, he quickly made a lava saw and threw it at a skeleton. And it did absolutely nothing to the enchanted bones of the skeletons.

So apparently the skeletons weren’t weaklings after all. It’s just that Helios was very strong.

The skeletons weren’t about to let themselves die just like that though. Seeing as their enemies were strong, they abandoned all sense of tactics, prudence or patience and attacked all at once. A mad scramble began as hundreds of skeletons seemed to have lost their minds, if they had any to begin with.

They began running towards the trio without caring about their surroundings or the skeletons in front of them. Skeletons were climbing over each other, trying desperately to reach their enemy. In just a few moments, the three found themselves surrounded by an increasingly tall wall of skeletons, increasing every second. The haphazard scramble seemingly had the purpose of burying them in a skeleton pile.

If they had been stupid enough to let themselves be surrounded by skeletons, perhaps they would have been in danger. But they weren't about to be done in by a bunch of bones.

James took advantage of the time Helios had bought for them and he prepared a batch of saws that would have the penetrative power to deal damage to the skeletons.

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But Lunaris didn’t want to let Helios be the only one who was showing off, so she decided to jump in and display the might of her Holy powers.

The upper part of her face started glowing with an almost blinding light. A second later, the light subsided, but her eyes had turned completely golden.

She then opened her eyes wide and unleashed their power. A bright yellow light exploded forward. Any skeleton that was in her field of vision stopped moving. Not only did they stop moving, but it was as if they were frozen in place, not even gravity seemed to affect them anymore, some had been frozen in mid air.

She then turned around and unleashed her power again and again, until every skeleton in the room had been immobilized.

The AoE stun was quite impressive, but Lunaris knew that it wouldn’t last for too long. Wanting to show off some more, she decided to take care of the skeletons before they could move again.

Even though his friends were handling the situations well, so his contribution didn't even seem necessary, James also kept throwing out saws in order to maximize the amount of xp he would get.

She put her hand forward and a golden book materialized out of thin air, the same blinding yellow light shining from it.

Lunaris then grabbed the book and opened it as wide as it could open. Pages started flying out of the book, so fast that it resembled a machine gun firing bullets.

While they looked like pages, the things flying from Lunaris's book behaved more like thin, golden metal plates. Wherever Lunaris was pointing the book, pages would fly out and hit a skeleton, cleanly cutting through their bones.

Firing several pages a second, Lunaris looked like she was really firing a gun that was somehow transmogrified into a holy, golden book.

By the time the hundreds of pages that comprised the book had been fired, hundreds of skeletons were dead.

Seeing James’s astonished face, Lunaris smiled. “You think that’s impressive? It's not over yet!”

She then imbued some mana into the golden book that had no pages left, and suddenly every page that was fired flew up into the air. As if to maximize the potential number of skeletons they’d hit with their trajectory, they spun around and adjusted their positions. And then the pages rushed back into the book at blinding speeds, to the point all that could be seen were streaks of gold flying through the air, leaving several hundred more skeletons dead.

Helios and James applauded Lunaris, and she jokingly bowed at their applause.

“Wait a second! I didn’t get any xp!” James suddenly realized as he checked his level.

James didn't do much in this fight, but he still contributed. He should have received at least some xp from the massive amount of skeletons they killed.

"This is indeed very odd. I can't even think of an explanation, other than it having something to do with the Darkness. Whatever that agent did, I think it's safe to assume we haven't seen the full extent of his sabotage." Lunaris theorized.

"How about this? You should try fighting the next monsters all by yourself. Then we'll see if you get any xp. Also, it would be good practice for you to fight solo every now and then." Helios proposed, to which Lunaris and James both nodded.

As they walked into the next room, they didn’t see any monsters, the only thing they noticed was a coffin in the middle of room.

Helios immediately looked at Lunaris. “So it’s definitely a lich, right?” Helios asked.

“Yep, gotta be. Someone had to have summoned those skeletons. A lich is pretty cliché but at least it’s something we can easily deal with." Lunaris replied, but then she stopped to think for a second.

"I have to say though, skeletons, and now a lich? The Soul Grinder is pretty underwhelming now that we can use our awakening powers. If it weren't for the whole Darkness sabotage, I'd think it's too easy. Maybe even suspiciously easy.” Lunaris contemplated out loud.

“Should we just blast it before it wakes up?” James asked, tired of seeing skeletons.

“Wake up?" Helios smiled. "Nah, it’s already up. The coffin is a decoy. Look up.”

As soon as Helios said it, James looked up, and he saw a robed skeleton already dropping down on him.

Luckily, SARM activated in time, otherwise he would’ve had a gander at what the damn thing had beneath its robes.

“That's another important lesson you need to work on. Always be aware of your surroundings. All right, as we said, he’s all yours. Give him hell, buddy!” Helios said and gave James a thumbs up.

“Wait, what? Aren’t you gonna tank or something? Isn’t this thing dangerous?” James asked as he was dodging shadowy tendrils that sprouted up from the lich.

“It’s fine, we had a gander at its power levels already, you should be able to handle it. Don't worry, we won’t let you die!” Lunaris smiled and cast some buffs and shields on James just in case, he was still cursed after all. “But other than that, I won’t intervene!”

“We’ll stay out of it. Other than testing if you get any literal experience, you also need battle experience. The lich is probably pretty tough, but since all of its skeletons are already dead, it shouldn’t be too much trouble.” Helios said and then started nonchalantly eating an apple.

The lich was not only harassing James with shadowy tendrils spawning everywhere he jumped, the lich was constantly throwing out shadowy bolts out of its hands, which James was barely able to dodge while having to dodge the tendrils as well.

Other than testing for xp, James could see why Helios insisted on staying out of this one. He had been relying on his tanking too much. If situations like when they fought the tiger happened again, he’d have to do a better job of fighting when Helios was caught up in another fight.

If he wanted to become a man that could protect his friends, James knew he had to be powerful enough to deal with threats on his own. Determined to show Helios that he had what it takes to endure any challenge, James started conjuring his beloved saws while dodging the multitude of attacks the lich was throwing at him.

Seeing as James was preparing an attack, the lich intensified its onslaught, throwing shadow bolts even with its feet! Instead of panicking, James actually found that quite comforting. So he wasn’t the only idiot that did cast with his feet.

But the lava saws were too easy to prepare, especially now that he had some experience with them. He could do it even while dodging. Since the lich was probably even tougher than the skeletons, he didn’t bother with actually attacking it with the saws, so he just detonated them right away.

What he didn’t expect, was that the lich was completely unscathed! Except for its robe, which was now completely destroyed. Apparently, its robes had been hiding the various artifacts it was using.

The lava saw explosions not doing any damage meant James was in a bit of trouble.

“God damn, do I have to use a new spell every time I fight a new monster?”

James’s lazy side would have loved to just go through the motions and keep using the same spell to decimate his foes while leveling up effortlessly.

But he quickly changed his attitude. This was good, this was exactly what he wanted. He came to the Soul Grinder to push himself.

If he weren’t facing deadly monsters that made him have to push himself each and every time, he wouldn’t be progressing nearly as fast.

The adversity was good, the feeling of having to solve the seemingly impossible problem in front you was the key to progress.

By constantly repeating these thoughts to himself, James was not only defeating his lazy side, but he was also trying to program himself to love adversity, to love the struggle. He knew that was the only way to make it in this world. In any world, really.

He then smiled, slowly starting to enjoy the tango with death. He wouldn’t even want Helios to help him now, this … puzzle that was in front of him was exhilarating. Every could be seen as a puzzle, a challenge. And beating a challenge can be the most satisfying feeling in the world.

Perhaps that’s another reason why Helios and Lunaris decided to let him fight alone. Unlike the other fights, this was a one on one battle. A perfect chance not only to get more combat experience, but more importantly, to reinforce and improve his mindset once again.

Motivated and with the right mindset, James was ready to try out another one of his spell designs. He had plenty of ideas in his mind, all he had to do was materialize them in time, ideally before the lich turned him into pulp.