As the skeletons approached, it became clear these ones were a bit more nimble than the others they had faced. Each of them carried a rusty blade, which meant their attacks would hit harder too. The weapons ranged in length from daggers to one-handed swords, but they looked more like they belonged in a museum than a battle. Cloth rags hung from their shoulders, reminiscent of religious attire.

Monster: Worshiper’s Skeleton

* Type: [Undead]

* Level: 1

“Huh, so these aren’t your average skeletons, then—a more religious variety?” Edgar said, lowering to a runner’s crouch and readying his skills in spite of his rising nerves.

He could feel the movement buff of [One with Darkness] like a crackling energy under his feet and he held [Acrobatics] at the ready. He felt like a coiled spring, ready to explode. The energy of the skills helped steady his nerves, but the sheer number of rusty swords pointing in their direction was unnerving.

He took a deep breath, watching the skeletons charge. They were definitely faster than the other skeletons, but they were still clumsy. He wondered what would happen if they tried to change direction. He smiled as the idea began to take shape and he imagined a nice tangle of skeletons.

A faint blue light appeared at Mirai’s hands as she readied a skill and settled into a fighting stance. “It won’t matter much once we put them back in the ground.”

“Nice. What do you call a dead undead?”

“Re-dead? Double dead?”

“…that’s better than what I was gonna say, actually.”

Pushing aside his nerves, just before the wave of skeletons reached them, Edgar unleashed [Acrobatics] and ran at them head on. Their shaking arms could only swing the swords so fast and he dodged easily past them, slipping right through their front line.

Among the second wave of skeletons, one had its’ arms extended in a lunging stab. Edgar reacted quickly, knocking its strike down and running up its arms onto its face. Continuing forward, he stepped onto the face of a second skeleton and then another, leaping forwards. With the last dregs of [Acrobatics] flowing through him, he somersaulted through the air and finished with a downward [Tail Whip], which crushed the majority of a skeleton’s skull and torso while propelling him past the last few skeletons in their mob. He felt the warmth inside him as the skeleton fell. Slightly more than the previous ones, but it was still faint.

He landed on his feet, sliding to a stop.

Mirai wasn’t far behind him. Her body was shrouded in the blue light of some skill. When one attack looked as if it would land, her sword flashed upwards, parrying the strike. The blue glow disappeared with it, but she easily dodged past the remaining skeletons. She even caught one with a kick and sent an arm skittering across the floor.

She slid to a stop, about twenty feet away, appraising the battlefield for a brief moment as she chugged a [Weak Stamina Potion]. She caught Edgar’s eye for a split second, excitement in her eyes.

His confidence rebounded quickly as they watched the skeletons abort their failed charge. They had a hard time changing direction as he had hoped, bumping into each other clumsily and stumbling. More than a few ended up on the ground, where they were trampled by the others.

Mirai dove back into action, skirting along the perimeter of the skeletons. As one strayed too close to her, she landed another kick and a skull lobbed over the battlefield in a slow arc.

Edgar smiled. They were vastly outnumbered, but they could do this.

From there, it took less time to mop up all the skeletons than he expected. Mirai and Edgar kept moving, playing it safe, thinning the crowd one skeleton at a time until the only ones left were the ones tangled in a pile from the failed charge. They dispatched these lazily, enjoying their first real victory.

“That was great! Oh man, the sight of them falling all over each other!” Mirai laughed.

“Your sword skills are incredible.”

“Thanks, but it was barely enough to keep up with your circus act, flipping through the air like that. You’re like a cat or something.”

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“I could live with being a cat, I guess, but I’d rather just be a human. I mean I’m kinda mostly human, right?”

Edgar held up his hands, retracting his claws so they looked as humanoid as he could make them. He also made a conscious effort to retract his teeth as much as possible, making what he hoped was a neutral, pleasant smile.

“Sure, just with razor sharp claws and teeth… and a tail.”

“Yeah… the tail is growing on me though, especially the clubby bit on the end…”

“Can’t deny it’s handy for bashing these skelies. Embrace it.”

“Easy for you to say.”

He found himself reflecting on the fight, replaying it in his mind on a loop. He felt something like the spark of an idea that he couldn’t quite grasp. At first, he thought it was something that had happened, but he realized it was something in the way he fought. His mind lingered on the moment he ran up the skeleton’s arms and jumped off its face.

Mirai smiled knowingly. “You have a skill brewing, don’t you?”

“What do you mean?”

“If you do something enough times, especially in combat, you can learn a skill related to it. It’s called an epiphany. If I had to guess, I bet it’s something to do with your flippy jumps, right?”

“I think so, actually. Wait, does that mean I have to jump off another skeleton’s face to learn it? It might be a bit hard to line it up a second time.”

“No, no... I don’t think so, anyway. When we rest tonight, meditate on it. When it comes to leveling and skills, meditation helps with pretty much everything. I used to get mad at my mentor for pushing it all the time, but it’s just the reality.”

She shrugged. “She’d say to just keep doing what you’re doing. Don’t overthink it. Just let it happen. Tsk… She loves telling me I’m overthinking things.”

Edgar gazed down at his tail and claws. “Well, at least that explains how I got my tail whip skill. I was just bashing things with it, testing it out. Same with scratch and parry.”

“Huh… Parry is a classic sword fighter’s skill, I’m kind of surprised you got it from an unarmed attack.”

She glanced around at the pile of bones they were standing in. “We might want to get started looting these skeletons so we can move on.”

“Leave it to me,” Edgar said, activating [Bulk Loot] and the skeletons began turning to dust. He threw a few [Rusty Sword], [Bone], and [Leather Scrap] items down for Mirai after. “Even split?”

“Sure, and anything that one of us can make good use of goes to them. Anything valuable that neither of us can use, we sell it and split it that way.” Mirai reached out to shake his hand. “Adventurers call it the standard split.”

Edgar shook her hand. “Sounds fair to me.”

“I wouldn’t say we’re a party yet, but having a loot policy is a decent step.”

Mirai collected her share of the loot and they progressed further into the temple. There were little chambers and statues off to the sides, but they kept to the center of the chamber while they explored for now.

Edgar pulled up his character screen. “Wow, I’m up to twenty-eight percent essence from seventeen this morning. Productive day.”

Towards the rear of the room, they encountered a stone staircase leading down into darkness. Peering through the darkness, Edgar saw only the grey shapes of stone and bronze sconces on the wall.

“I have dark vision by the way,” Edgar muttered. “Not sure if I mentioned that, but it looks pretty safe—at the moment, anyway. There are some fixtures on the wall that look like we can light, too.”

Mirai nodded, withdrawing a torch from her inventory.

“Makes sense that you’d get dark vision with a face like that.”

“What’s wrong with my face?”

She raised an eyebrow, looking away.

Edgar touched his face, despairing as he flexed his canines. “You know, I haven’t seen my face since I got here, so it’s kind of a sore subject.”

“Are mirrors common in your world?” Mirai asked, unconcerned at his ravings as she lit her lantern and carefully set foot on the stairs, testing each step before placing her full weight on it.

“They are, I was expecting one at the hotel—I mean at the inn.”

“We have hotels. Closer to Central, anyway. Closer to civilization. Out here, by the edge of the Network, people are a bit coarse, if you know what I mean.”

“Sure, salty folk, I hear you. But, how salty can you really be if you don’t practice your salty looks in the mirror. I mean come on, we’ve got a whole people not living up to their potential.”

She sighed. “Look, can you do whatever you need to and screw your head back on? I need the Edgar from five minutes ago. The one who raced me through an army of skeletons.”

Mirai shook her head and took the last step off the stairs. As she did, the torches along the wall burst to life. They found themselves in a small stone chamber with five closed stone doors and a hearth in the center.

“Well, at least the doors aren’t trying to kill us,” Edgar said, following Mirai’s careful footsteps.

“As long as we pick the right one…” She whispered.

~~~~~~~~~~

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