Chapter Thirteen

Random encounters happened in dungeons, even safe ones like Old Bones beneath Hazeldown. The flesh cube on the third floor had been one, a creature rarely seen and stronger than expected. Harmony reasoned that the shambler-host had to be one, even if it had left a trash drop. Even if she'd never heard of a random encounter on the first floor. Would the team think she was talking herself up? Trying to look good for the boys?

The Dig Boys would have stopped, packed up, and left the Old Bones if she'd spoken up here. Strange and new is dangerous. Running the first few levels of the dungeon and helping level escorts was a business. A way to survive working a dirty and dangerous job that puts food on the table.

Tyler's team, though… The necromancer didn't know them. Would Tyler want to dive into the unknown? If this even counted? Max could promise to slay all her troubles to woo her away from her employer. Or would they leave and take with them her opportunity of a lifetime?

"Harmony? Harmony?" Rose called

"What?" The maid snapped. Looking around to see the boys' quicker pace having them well ahead of them. Made sense strategically to have the archer and necromancer in the rear.

"You were looking a little out of it. It's all an ancient pipedream based on moth-eaten scrolls and old rock tablets about rising to a higher level. I wouldn't worry about achievements or constellations. Nothing beats hard work and repetition."

"Clearing the dungeon will be that easy? Even if we run into strangeness?"

Rose laughed. "Old Bones is as reliable as a clock. The only strangeness we'll see might be a surprise monster one floor above where it should be. This will probably be my last run. Fifteen is calling. Then I can be out of this little leveling creche for baby lords."

A flash of wizardly magic from ahead showed the boys had already started to interact with the foes of the second floor.

"Yeah, let's get you that level." Harmony accepted that getting what she wanted would be a dirty task. After all, she was the lowest level here and soloed that special shambler. These adventurers have all cleared the dungeon multiple times, while she'd never gone past the third level.

The two picked up the pace in time to watch Len explode a pile of unliving entrails with a fireball.

"Kitchen scraps," Harmony muttered.

Not only were the dead bodies disposed of to feed the dungeon, but it was also used to drop every bit of biological waste in every kitchen, butchery shop, and combat ring in the city.

"Come to join the fun?" Max asked.

Three more gooey piles slid into the fray. Twisted strangling intestines and brains mixed together. Fish guts and scales with bits of sharpened spines sticking out, Chicken feathers, half sticking wrong-side out of a multi-beaked nightmare.

Lord Tyler's maul swung into action, exploding the intestines into a red spray.

Three bolts from Rose's force bow plunged into the fishy one causing it to quiver still enough for Maxwell's sword to cut it into quarters.

Harmony knew she could [High Kick] the chicken into a paste, like Tyler had done. The goo-covered blunt weapon was not a state she wanted her leg in. She readied [Manipulate Dead], grateful this wasn't her first time on the floor.

“Bu-bu-krrk-ck.” A goorze choked out in a painful wail.

The unliving, neither quite alive nor dead. Animated with a force that Harmony knew was similar to her [Renew Spirit]. The monster's not-quite-dead status made it difficult for [Manipulate Dead] to work, making it almost as useless as trying the skill on a fully living creature. Years of experience working on just the dead parts, be it smoothing skin, or working on nails and hair, gave her an advantage here. The slap-dash creatures had plenty to work with. The beaks, chunks of bone shards floating inside, the feathers. Those bits all sharpened and enlarged, sending impaling spikes through the monster.

It took the energy equivalent she'd used to halve a dozen shamblers to do it. After all that damage, it still wasn't dead.

Hyacinth smashed his tongue into the immobile object caving in the side, saving her the extra effort of another attack. After that, the dungeon finally absorbed it, leaving a lowly iron coin in its place.

That was how the first two floors worked. Trash mobs leaving trash drops. Garbage guts sewn together, and corpses on their last legs fed to the low levels.

Max started laughing. "Doesn't this make you all feel alive? How about we get to the challenging portion of our run. Lem, Little Lord. Time to show your new friend what we can do."

Len started chanting, his hands crossing his chest and touching two symbols stitched into his robe.

Harmony activated [Mana Rotation]. The rush waiting for her next skill usage was there, but more importantly, she could feel what the Wizard was doing.

Len's mana felt denser than the others in the party. Tyler's pulsed out with a slow rhythm, Max's wove around his eyes, and Rose's pooled around her fingertips. The density dipped as Len's mana bled into the sigils on his robe. The arcane symbols flashed when full, and two shimmering walls formed a V from him to the edge of the dungeon pathway.

Tyler stood before the magical arts student while the rest was behind the makeshift barrier. Then the pair in front started running.

Harmony's mana sense picked up the unliving creations before her sight did. The things tried to rush around to encircle the group and found themselves blocked by the barrier Len kept channeling his mana into. They slid along that edge and right into Tyler's waiting maul.

The heavy weapon swung back and forth like he was threshing wheat, exploding the goorze into a splatter of viscera and animal waste. Sometimes two or three at a time.

"Woo!" Max yelled as the team jogged behind.

Iron coins clinked and slid under the shields as the dungeon absorbed most of the bits and left its reward.

The impressive level of coordination let Harmony's earlier worries fall by the wayside.

The splattering sounds ceased, and the team's jog ground to a halt. Len dropped his shield, and Lord Tyler stood there, covered head to toe in blood, bile, slime, and guts.

"Need a moment before we find out who the floor guardian is, little lord?"

"I got this," Harmony said.

[Manipulate Dead] had no issue with the unliving bits after they'd been pulped. A little bit of synergy with [Dust] To extend the range and get a grip on the fine particulates, then some more with [Beautician] to get close to the skin. The empowerment she'd been holding onto kicked in, and every bit was pulled off of the tank and thrown to the far wall, leaving him cleaner than he had been when he entered the dungeon.

"Thanks," Tyler mumbled.

"Yeah. Saved us ten minutes of shaking and scraping." Rose piped in.

"I still need five to recover my mana," Len said.

"Tyler. You want to fill in our temp on how this will go?" Max asked.

Lord Tyler nodded.

"I take the brunt of the attacks. If I step back, Max is set to relieve me. This will be where you pay attention to what we do. Feel free to use your skills to support or get some damage in at a distance, but try not to block anyone. We've cleared Old Bones with only four members several times, so don't worry yourself. Get some damage in when you can, and hopefully, you'll get a level or two out of this. Usually, we like new members to at least have their stats unlocked, but hopefully, you'll gain those levels by the time we finish. If you want to leave the run early, that's okay too."

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The necromancer realized why she hadn't been practicing with the group. She wasn't part of it. Oh, Lord Tyler wanted her here. The slight smirk on Max's lips showed he'd be happy either way. She could fail, run away, or simply not make the cut, and he'd get to use it against his cousin, or she could make it, and the knight would try to woo her. She was underleveled, so it made sense.

The vague sense of rejection stung. The fact that Tyler waited until now to tell her. The skills and the armor were to make her appealing. She fed some power into [Poise and Bearing] to keep calm as she was torn between cursing or laughing. Joining the team was never the goal. Levels, components, and the chance for the best pet around. A former royal pet, strong enough or soon made that way to win in the commission's arena and get her out of scut work.

"I understand." She managed to speak calmly.

Maxwell flashed his smile. "Good. I'm not expecting you to be useless. How you cleared the first floor was impressive. It would be dangerous to rely on you in a team role before we get your measure." With a pause, the knight turned to the rest of the team. "You all know your roles. Let's see what's in store for us."

The underground pathway ended at a wide room. At its center, what appeared to be a craggy white boulder sat.

Harmony's class could feel the death radiating off it and get a sense of what exactly it was.

"That's new." Rose blurted out.

Like the first floor, the second and even the third generally had a set rotating cast of floor guardians.

"That just means the guild will give us a bonus if we're the first to report this. Len and Little Lord would love to get their name's in the records. Poke it, Rose."

The archer fired a trio of force bolts from her bow. Three shafts of light stuck out like pins in a pincushion, except the necromancer could feel that wasn't right as they hadn't pierced it. The surface, the bone it was made of, merely held them in place.

Then the mass of bone started to move, uncurling slowly, standing up to reveal the creature's form. Hundreds of skulls fused together to form the legs, body, arms, and head of a giant humanoid that stood twice as tall as Lord Tyler. Every skull's eyes faced the front and glowed with a faint orange flame.

Rose peeled off to the side and started to rapidly fire her bow. The light shots do nothing, in Harmony's opinion.

She readied her own skill and released [Manipulate Dead] from a distance. Outwardly nothing happened. She'd meant to blow off a chunk, shatter one of the skulls near the skull giant's knee. At most, she felt the skull weaken.

"Challenge me with pawns?" It spoke a hollow voice of death coming from each opening, creating an eerie chorus.

Tyler [Roared], a skill empowering his maul as he charged in, smashing his weapon into its knee.

Harmony counted herself lucky as he hit the one she'd been targeting, and the skull she'd weakened cracked in the middle. It was the only one.

Len started raining fireballs at the floor guardian. Patches of flames licked the surface.

The giant swayed a little in response to Tyler and Max's blows whenever he darted to the side for a slash of his blade.

Mere seconds of combat and the necromancer's skills and senses told her it was all a show. No damage was being done. The giant lumbered about waiting… waiting for an answer.

With her mana skill, she empowered [Manipulate Dead]. Synergies, she fumbled with synergies as she felt about. Maybe [Dust] To encourage the bones to weaken. Then through the inspiration of how she'd deflect her team's blows [Small Armor], to use that prediction to create targets of where her team would be hitting the beast. The skills rushed and swirled together, and she released her own attack.

"Challenged." She answered back softly under her breath.

Tyler's strike took a chunk of the shin. Len's flames blacked and cracked a pair at the shoulder. Rose's next shot, a more powerful strike since she could see the other ones did little, managed to create a spider-web of fissures on its target, and even Max's blade left a long gouge. All parts she'd weakened.

It was only through her sense of death that it felt like those dead faces actually smiled in response, even as her magic got to work, making them vulnerable.

Challenge accepted. Now, whatever hesitancy the giant held was gone. The tiny orange embers in the eyes glowed brighter. Its body twisted to dodge or alter incoming attacks, making Harmony's work useless. In a game of timing and precision, only one of the incoming attacks managed to hit where the necromancer had weakened the beast. She could sense the deathly powers already undoing the damage to spots she'd hit. Each casting needed to count.

The skull giants turn to attack. The collection of skulls that made up its boulder-of-a-fist swung heavily toward Tyler, who quickly activated his defensive skill. The force of the blow sent ripples through the air.

Harmony worked overtime trying to predict where her team would strike and how the creature would dodge. Her only gratitude was that the creature didn't attack her, even as much as she felt its attention on her.

[Manipulate Dead] surged as she worked with the churn of [Small Armor], [Style and Grace], and even [High Kick] to coordinate her targets.

It was a grind. The giant managed to catch Tyler without his skill, knocking him down. A kick shattered Len's shielding, sending him dancing away. It used a damaged skull to fling Rose's way, catching her in the shoulder and causing her to tumble to the floor.

The strain caused the maid to miss whole rounds of attacks by picking the wrong targets. The skull giant raised its hand for another massive blow to Tyler to get him to burn his defensive skill. Harmony could see crashing down and how that would connect.

Inspiration took her. She cast again. This time using the giant's own strike against it, a line of bone made brittle right at the wrist. The impact shook the arena as a mighty blow hit the tank's near-invulnerable skill. The whole fist snapped off right where she wanted.

As the large bundle of skulls rolled across the floor, their glowing eyes dimmed until they went cold. Everyone could sense the tide turning. The team upped their attacks, feeling victorious.

Harmony could only grunt at their ineffectiveness, as she didn't have time to adjust to their new pace. It was the giant's new hesitation when it attacked and how Harmony used each and every blow the guardian struck to force it to damage the guardian in the process that wore it down.

She could feel the acceptance of death as the second-floor guardian slid to its knees. Every attack from the team focused on its now lowered head which Harmony obliged by making it weak. Maul, sword, force bolt, and fireball crashed into that primary skull nearly simultaneously, sending it shattered into a dozen pieces.

[Second Floor Cleared]

Max bent down and picked up the guardian's loot before turning to face the necromancer.

"You know, Harmony, I said to watch the teamwork, but it would have been nice if you'd done more than just stand there." He said a little accusingly.

"I was using my skill to weaken it."

Harmony caught the eye roll as he turned away. Anger and the strong desire to kick him filled her up. None of them would believe her if she told them what the battle felt like through her senses.

"Grroak," Hyacinth chastised her, telling her to calm down.

"Thanks. And don't think I didn't notice you lending me some energy during that. Extra cats for you later."

Harmony moved to where the team was talking.

"I've faced third-floor guardians who weren't as tough," Tyler said excitedly.

"No real projectile attacks, no focusing on the weakest members, and it fell apart in the end. It was more of a test of endurance type challenge." Rose added.

"It mentioning a challenge had to be a clue," Len added.

They were wrong. The maid chewed on her lip to keep from telling them how wrong they were. There had to be something… "My class felt it was tougher than it should be. My spells could only cause some internal damage. I feel this run will be unusually tough the deeper we go."

"That means better loot!" Maxwell announced. He reached out, displaying what dropped.

Five items for five members. Harmony Analyzed them. A bone wand titled Wizard Fingers, she wouldn't be shocked if it was fingers of wizards fused together. It added a death synergy to a single skill channeled through it. A potion of speed. Bone balm for healing broken bones. A signet ring that slightly boosted authority and a small bundle of ghost lace. The silky, nearly invisible fabric was prized by some clothing designers and, for the necromancer, a key component for her scroll.

Rose nabbed the speed potion. Lord Tyler slid the ring onto his pinky. Len inspected the wand, probably wondering what death synergized fireballs looked like before he pocketed it. Max held the last two times in his hand, weighing them. Bones were notoriously difficult to heal with most skills, so the bone balm was more valuable technically, not that you could easily trade for ghost lace.

Harmony pouted at the idea that she might not get what she needed. She feared her lack of visibly helping in the fight would be held against her. She could ask, but Maxwell had shown an erratic tendency to do whatever impulsively came into his head.

"Imagine how you'd look in a dress made of this." He handed her the lace.

The genuine smile that broke out on the necromancer's face and nothing to do with the comment. Mine was all she could think about.

"Come on. Let's head down to the third floor." Tyler insisted, interrupting the moment with an edge of surliness to his voice.