A skeleton that would commonly be seen in the early levels of video games entered their line of sight. It stumbled after every step, explaining the long time it took to approach. It was clad in the skimpiest of armor Drew had yet seen. A pair of boots and one glove adorned the bleach white skeleton while its head was cracked in multiple places and the rest of its bones appeared as brittle as a pretzel stick.

The hand not covered by a glove was missing at the elbow and no weapon was visible anywhere on its body. It was immensely anticlimactic but seeing an animated human skeleton was a rather jarring experience for him. The presence of summoning magic should have let him know that other forms of magic were present but seeing the rattling bones of a person coming at you without a hint of flesh was going to be unsettling at the least.

Despite the momentary pause caused by the creature, the duo watched it approach while studying its stumbling gate. Drew inspected the creature closely and noticed that it wasn’t heading for where they were at but rather where they had been. The creature came closer and closer to their spot but made no correction to go for them, seemingly intent on heading straight for where they had last been talking.

Deciding to ride out his intuition, Drew pressed himself against the wall and shooed Nurgle with him. The poor creature was oddly terrified of the ambling skeleton despite his show of fearlessness with the fish. Maybe getting eaten awoke the fear in his soul.

It continued forwards to the entrance of the dungeon completely passing them over. The skeleton came to a complete stop and froze in place, almost waiting for a command on what to do next. Drew crept up behind the clueless thing with each step muffled by the bare skin on stone. Within 5 feet of its back, he rose the torch into the air and rushed the last few steps ahead to bash the skull in.

The force of the blow cracked the top bone and blew straight through the entirety of the skull all the way to the shoulder, knocking its left arm off. Drew reared back in hopes to finish off the creature with one more blow, but the rest of the intact bones clattered to the floor in a pile of shards and dust. The boots and glove dropped to the floor in the center of the brittle bones.

+20 xp for defeating Skeletal Shambler

[Summon small monster] has inherited the xp in your place.

85/100 xp

He backed up to the wall they had started at and watched the bones slowly scatter father from the body and disintegrate into nothingness.

“That was underwhelming.”

Nurgle went over to the equipment and hefted the glove up in his small hands. He inspected it closely and finally decided on what to do with the garment. The glove was pulled taught over his head and the extra protection lightened the small creature's spirit. Nurgle stuck a pose with his new fingered hat and brought his club up to the sky in a show of newborn resolve.

“Wow, you look…… good.” Drew walked over to the new boots on the ground and shook out the leftover dust created by the shattered skeleton. “ Hope these fit alright.”

He unstrapped the buckles and pulled the tongue of the boots around to loosen the fit more. Sliding his feet in and tightening the bridge, the boots fit him nearly perfectly, better than most shoes he would find back home. If only socks were included, it would have been perfect.

With the first battle of the dungeon over, the pair looked down the way the skeleton came and weighed their options, or one single option realistically. They needed to continue further inside the dungeon and hopefully work their way to some kind of exit.

Forging ahead, they traveled down the hallway with Drew’s new steel toed boots making significantly more noise than his bare feet would have. The clanging of the earlier skeleton was seemingly due to the constant stumbling which he paid close attention to not cause the same noise.

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After walking for a few minutes and checking every corner before continuing ahead, they came to their next fight, much to Nurgle dismay. Two more skeletons stood in front of them ready to intercept intruders.

Emboldened by their previous success, Drew took the lead and charged the human bones that motionlessly stared in his general direction. Before the torch made contact, the skeleton stumbled forward which caused the blow to smash the creature's right shoulder and arm to pieces.

Undeterred by the damage, it reached for him in a slow grasping motion. He quickly ducked out of the way and went for the final swing to crush its skull only to be interrupted by the other skeleton swiping at his face in retaliation. A quick bob backwards got him out of both monster's range.

“That was a close one. Any help Nurgle?” The little creature looked to be mustering his courage as he rushed forward and smashed at the damaged skeleton’s leg with his small club. As a testament to the brittle nature of the bones, the diminutive creature's attack shattered the tibia and brought it to its knees. Enlightened by this tactic, Drew kicked the kneecap of the completely healthy skeleton.

A rain of shards blew back behind it as they both stumbled around the ground trying to get some semblance of bearings back. Not one to let a good opportunity miss him by, Drew bashed both of the skeletons heads in.

+40 xp for defeating Skeletal Shamblers

[Summon small monster] has inherited the xp in your place. 25/200 xp Level Up!

Nurgle matures slightly.

“This shit isn’t easy. It's starting to take a real toll on me.” Drew’s earlier resolve to fight on was a struggle to keep alive with the current reality of combating human skeletons with a torch. “I thought I was ready for this, not gonna lie, Nurgle.”

The rapid bursts of adrenaline wore at his body and mind equally. Not one to let its guests be unentertained, the dungeon must have sensed his inner turmoil and sent ahead another small group of skeletons at the duo. They were better equipped than the earlier group with actual gear on this time as compared to the naked skeletons of their first group fight.

“Heads up, Nurlge. No time to think.” Their earlier tactic of breaking legs was repeated with similar success to their earlier confrontation and they left combat with more experience and a buckler shield for Drew’s effort. The other pieces of equipment attached to the boney beings were tattered beyond use for the living. Nurgle’s attempt at scavenging for new armor didn’t yield any good results.

+40 xp for defeating Skeletal Shamblers [Summon small monster] has inherited the xp in your place. 65/200 xp

“I really hope these weren’t real people before.” The Thought of desecrating more and more corpses was not on the top of his to-do list by any stretch of the imagination.

The desire to be done with the dungeon and back to safety overwhelmed his distaste for skeleton combat. The pair continued on their journey through the torch lit tunnels when the path branched in 2 directions

The ever confident Nurgle marched ahead of Drew down the right tunnel, fully confident in his decision, and proceeded a few feet down the bend till he froze in place. He quickly clopped back behind the tunnel they just came from and watched Drew expectantly.

“It can’t be that bad.” And with that, he walked down the path and confidently strode around the corner expecting maybe a few more skeletons than they had fought earlier. The view that welcomed him was beyond his expectations. A large skull with 4 pairs of arms was crouched on the floor 15 feet ahead. The sudden intrusion brought the horrific creatures attention to fruit as it started to scuttle towards him with surprising speed that had yet to be seen in any of the other skeletons

“Oh come on.” Drew turned around and bolted back the way they came, picking up Nurgle on the way out. “That better be the boss cause I don't think I can handle anything bigger than that.”

The chase brought the duo in line with a wandering group of skeletons that had appeared near one of the earlier battle sites. They rushed past them and continued down the hallway with some new enemies in tow. A quick glance back erased that fear as Drew saw the large creature from earlier truck through the skeletons, shattering them to pieces. The pace they had made allowed them to slowly gain distance but the straight nature of the path guaranteed it would eventually find them and, with the speed they were traveling, the end would be quickly approaching.