The cave was narrow and dark, the only light source coming from pitiful torches that flickered from rusted sconces along the walls. Darian’s body allowed him to see clearly despite lack of light, but Fria had no such benefits.
“I guess skeletons don’t need much light to see,” she said from behind him, her voice a soft whisper.
“Guess not.” How do skeletons see anyway, they don’t have eyes. Still pondering this, something small and chittering ran along the ground.
A rat, and a normal sized one. Sensing an opportunity, Darian used [Dominate Animal] on it.
“What did you do to that rat?” Fria asked, peering around Darian’s ribs.
“I used a skill on it, I’m going to have it follow us for a while.” He was only going off his gut, but a place like this had to be trapped. But the skeletons weren’t exactly agile or all that intelligent. If there were side paths, the traps would most likely be down them. And even if there weren’t any traps, he could command the rat to run ahead and bite any skeletons it saw. If it died, he knew there was trouble coming.
Run along and bite any skeletons you see, but stop if there is a fork in the path. The fat rat, with its green misted eyes, squeaked before charging off into the unknown. They went along in silence after that, the air growing colder, the torches further and further apart. Darian also started to notice two thick cuts in the earth, like something heavy on wheels had been pushed through the cave. Are they mining down here or something? He was still holding out hope the cave connected to the fort somehow, but the longer they walked, the less likely that seemed to become.
He stopped, his connection to the rat severed. He held up a hand and then they crouched. Light flickered ahead, revealing the tunnel they crept through joined with another. Darian pressed himself against the wall and inched forward. He stopped as he reached where his tunnel ended and the next began. Peeking around the corner, he saw two skeletons standing outside a thick metal door.
Stone edged the door, the cave seemingly dug out around it. That might lead into the fort. The two skeletons that guarded it wore rusted iron armor, each wielding a sword. One held a torch and was starting to head their way on patrol.
“You get the one in the back,” he whispered. “I’ve got the one in front.”
Without waiting for a reply, Darian burst from the shadows. Using [Arcane Blade] combined with his new spell [Corrosive Touch], Darian aimed for the monster’s neck. It brought its torch up to block, but Darian’s shimmering green sword cut right through it and slammed into the skeleton. Pushing with all his strength, Darian tore the monster’s head free of its shoulders. It crumbled, the one behind it struck right between the eyes by an arrow. Darian rushed it and hacked at its exposed knee. It buckled, sword stabbing at him. But he knocked the strike aside and then drove his blade upward. It pierced the skeleton right behind the teeth, the tip of Darian’s blade bursting out the top of its head.
----------------------------------------
Enemies Defeated
[Skeleton Lv. 3]
[Skeleton Lv. 3]
Class XP Gained: 14
Progress to Class Lv. 6 (61/175)
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“You’re fast,” Fria said, joining Darian. “You got to him before I could nock another arrow.”
But it wasn’t only that he’d become faster. He gave the sword in his hand practice swing, the blade flowing with a grace he didn’t possess in the previous battle. Spellblade did give me further proficiency with one-handed bladed weapons. Guess this is the result. He was still far from a master swordsman, but he enjoyed his new finesse.
Fria walked past him and gave the big metal door a pull and then a push, her hands tiny against the thick handle. “It’s locked.”
“Let me try.” Darian rested his sword against the wall and gripped the door with both hands. He pulled and pulled, pushed and jerked, but the door did not give in the slightest. “Yep, that’s locked.” He looked over his shoulder at the dark tunnel that curved deeper into the earth. “Don’t figure the key is down there, do you?”
This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.
“Might as well check,” Fria said, counting her remaining arrows. “This could lead into the fort, so it’s worth the risk.”
There was a small space near the top of the door, a little window to the other side. Iron bars blocked Darian from being able to reach through, but he pressed his nose up to the gap and sniffed. There was something in the air, but he couldn’t quite make it out over the moldy smell of the cave. But wait. He remembered one of his new skills, [Minor Transformation]. Willing the power forth, he transformed his nose into that of a wolf.
The sensation was incredibly bizarre. Darian’s nose felt like it was suddenly stretched, twisting and growing fuzzy. But his sense of smell was enhanced, there was no doubt about that. He gave the air another whiff, this time able to make out the scent of wildflowers and pine trees. This must lead somewhere toward the surface, at the very least. He dismissed the power, his nose mercifully shrinking back to its normal proportions.
“Alright,” he said. “Let’s find that key.”
***
The ground was uneven as they traveled and more than once the path split off only to come to a sudden dead end. There were also loose stone bricks poking from the walls here and there, with more laying along the ground. The cave they traveled through might have once been part of the fort above but a collapse destroyed whatever was below. But the skeletons had been busy. Pickaxes and carts full of the earth’s refuse lined the path. The tools were long abandoned however, swallowed by cobwebs. The odds of finding a key down here seemed more unlikely by the second.
Then they reached a point where the path split in two, but there were no torches flickering in the darkness ahead. Darian’s vision was great in the dark, but even he needed a small amount of light to see. Fria was even worse off, her eyes squinting even in the current light.
“Should we turn back?” Darian said. “This part of the cave looks abandoned.”
“Perhaps not,” Fria said, crouching and running her hands over the dirt. “Ground is softer here, churned by something coming through recently. Perhaps one of the carts.”
The sound of a pick striking rock echoed from ahead, but Darian couldn’t tell which path it came from. “Guess someone is still down here. Hopefully they have the key.” He moved forward, eyes scanning the darkness. “But which way is it?”
They both stood there a while, listening to the sound of a pickaxe carving into something hard, never able to tell from which path the sound came. Eventually, Darian activated his skill [Minor Transformation] in order to give himself the ability to use echolocation. Something churned inside his head this time, his throat also writhing and shifting. Fria looked rather horrified at whatever was happening and so Darian turned away from her, his new ability coming to him naturally.
He opened his mouth and something between a screech and a squeal emerged. He expected Fria to complain about the sudden noise, but it was like she couldn’t hear it. Eventually the sound came back to Darian, his mind able to make out shapes ahead.
“Grab my shoulder and follow me,” he said, opening his mouth for another round of screeching.
Together they went, down and up, up and down, until they curved around a bend and saw purple light shimmering ahead.
The room before them was massive, the walls and ceiling jutting with bright purple crystals. Light swirled within the curved shapes, drowning in the rocky room in dancing purple light. A lone skeleton stood at the far end of the chamber, his pickaxe rhythmically falling against one of the crystals.
“And it wasn’t even my fault,” the creature rasped. “Damn that Valmier, making me come down here. He knows how I hate the dark.”
Darian undid [Minor Transformation] and exchanged glances with Fria.
She nocked an arrow. “If it talks that means it’s powerful. We need to hit it before it sees us.”
Darian nodded and crouched. “I’ll get as close as I can and rush in after you shoot.”
“Just make sure he doesn’t hear you coming,” she whispered.
Darian smirked before he crept forward. His steps were extremely light now that his dexterity was so high. Each footfall was accurately placed between the shards of crystal that dotted the floor. He hardly even had to keep his eyes on where he was going. Instead, he focused on the back of the skeleton, its pickaxe still cracking into the crystal. He was almost close enough to hit with a [Dash Strike], he just had to creep a little closer and—
His foot crunched into a thick chunk of crystal, his boot reducing it to powder. The sound made him wince and the Skeleton spun to face him.
“Who? What?” The blazing green fire in its eye sockets narrowed as it saw Darian.
Then a flaming arrow ignited at the other end of the chamber, the flaming shaft speeding toward the skeleton’s head.
But the monster dropped his pickaxe and clapped his hands together, writhing shadows springing up all around him, cocooning him inside and protecting him from the attack. When he emerged, a scythe was in his hands and the shadows spread across the ground. Then a horrid moaning filled the room, mangled arms bursting from the darkness along the floor.
Zombies. They rose up, flesh and bone torn, their bodies covered in dirty rags. Darian counted about ten of them in total, each one with their milky eyes focused on him.
Darian activated his Ring of Summon Minor Undead, an armored skeleton appearing at his side. With it beside him and his blade lit up with electricity, he rushed forward.