The man's face showed nothing but agony. He panted as his breath was sucked from his chest. He stopped in his tracks, though, when the momentarily idle kobold skeleton held its dagger forward and rushed him.

Unfortunately, the kobold skeleton hadn't been able to heal up from its previous fight with the last of the guards, and the newcomer managed to dodge its wild cuts and bring his own sword down to shatter the minion's ribcage.

"Tom!" Millie yelled, recognizing the decisive way he killed that very kobold for the second time that day.

"You!" Tom growled. "I knew you were trouble." His movements were slowed because he was inside [Death's Favor]. Not because of any effect the spell had, but because his life was being pulled from him at a steady rate and not letting up. His essence was weakening, so his body was, too.

"I'm not," Millie said, still avoiding the kobold king's attacks. "I don't know what's happening! I'm so sorry, Tom!"

"I'm having a hard time believing that," he said. His words came through clenched teeth as he stalked toward her. His life continued to flow out of him and right into Millie. She felt refreshed as he was being drained.

"I mean it! Look!" she canceled the effect of [Death's Favor].

The kobold king laughed as soon as the aura disappeared. Tom grinned wickedly as the tension in his body faded away. Millie knew she'd made a mistake as soon as she did it.

Her enemy's—or maybe enemies'—health stopped ticking down, but more importantly, Millie's stopped ticking up. The kobold king was slamming his fists into the winged kobold skeleton, and after finishing a combo that ended with a surge forward and bump with its huge gut, the skeleton flew at least fifteen feet across the room.

With it no longer taking the heat off of her, the kobold royal's focus immediately went to the necromancer trying her best to avoid such attention.

Tom did the same thing, stalking toward her in tandem with the boss. The human was faster, but not by as much as it would seem. "I was telling them after I saved you, I should have let you bleed out. That it was going to come back on me." He swung his sword in her direction, and she hopped back, narrowly avoiding it.

The kobold threw a strong jab in her direction, and if she hadn't turned toward Tom when she spoke, it would have clocked her in the face. Instead, it took her in the shoulder, slamming her into the wall. Her head hit the stone, and her teeth clacked together so hard, she'd be lucky if none were broken.

Tom's sword flew right at her neck, and amazingly she ducked. "You're trying to kill me and make it look like the boss did it!" she shouted.

"I think you have that backwards." He slashed upward. The strike grazed her forearm as she managed a lucky parry with her staff. Otherwise, it would have cut deeply into her gut and torso.

She was trapped with two much stronger opponents. With no idea how close the boss was to being defeated, Millie did the only things she had at her disposal.

[Death's Favor] erupted from her, immediately beginning its life-drain. Having not had reason to access it yet, Millie quickly tapped the icon for [One With The Shadows] to activate her cloak.

The world lost its color, the light was dimmer, the smells lessened, the ground softened, the sounds of combat dulled. Millie charged forward forward, phasing directly through both entities trying to kill her.

Taken by surprise, Tom's stab clanged off the wall where she should have been. The kobold king popped forward, hitting the same spot on the wall with its huge belly.

In a stroke of luck, Tom pulled his sword back to ready himself again and managed to finish off the rest of the boss's HP. Blood slopped to the floor and covered Tom's feet. Intestines and other entrails followed immediately afterward.

The [Spidersilk Cloak]'s effect wore off, and the world came back to full intensity as Millie saw her only minion drive its pair of blades deep into Tom's back.

Millie hadn't told it to do that! She had specifically told Tom she wasn't trying to fight him. The cut on her arm had just finished knitting itself back together as it pulled the last dregs of life energy out of Tom's body.

That's why the skeleton had attacked him. It was defending her because Tom had landed a hit, because he had drawn blood, because he had hurt her. Oh, no. No, no.

If she had only used the cloak just a couple seconds before, that attack wouldn't have happened. She wouldn't have been hurt, and Tom would still be alive. There was every possibility that Millie could have talked to him and convinced him that she wasn't his enemy. That she wasn't trying to kill him.

******

[ACHIEVEMENT EARNED: STRAIGHT-UP MURDER!]

You've done the unthinkable. Or the thinkable, since you did it. A person no longer exists because of you. Whoever it was, they were marked by the System as Friendly, and you didn't care. Hopefully, it was worth it. For you. It probably wasn't for them.

[REWARDS]

—Reward Box: Epic

—XP: 1,500

******

A much fancier box than she'd seen before dropped onto the ground directly beside Tom's corpse. The splashed blood onto the skeleton's legs. It didn't react.

******

[ACHIEVEMENT EARNED: DUNGEON DELVED, REDUX]

Ding, dong, the boss is dead! After hours of trudging through the tunnels, you faced down the formidable King Guffin and came out the other side unscathed. Or at least less scathed than the king did. Gather your loot, complete your quests, and head back home for a good rest. You've earned it, adventurer! It only goes up from here!

[REWARDS]

—Reward Box: Rare

—XP: 500

******

If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation.

Another box dropped, slightly less ornate, and there were also two notifications that she had leveled up waiting for her. Turns out, killing the big bad of a dungeon—and another actual human person while doing it—was worth a boatload of XP. Millie had jumped from level 3 to level 5 after that fight.

Quickly reading over the notifications and checking her status pane, it turns out that killing the boss was worth probably 600 XP while Tom was most likely 1,500. A person was worth just under triple the XP that a boss monster was worth. So was the achievement.

So not only was killing other people a feasible method of leveling up—provided that the XP didn't have diminishing returns—any achievements she would get related to them would

She could feel the gentle touch of the [Death Mage] class as it worked to nudge her thoughts in the direction that was a viable strategy for her to take on her journey to power.

"No," Millie said. To herself, to her class, to the empty room itself. "It's not. I'm not going to level that way. This was an accident." The corpses in front of her were silent. "This…was an accident."

Putting off looting until she felt a little more stable, Millie looked around the room. The throne the fat kobold had lounged in was gone, and in its place was a chest with the same scrap metal and driftwood design. The chest appeared to be unlocked, and the lid easily lifted when Millie pushed upward on it.

Inside was a single item: a garment folded neatly in the center. Millie recognized it immediately. It was the same robe the boss had been wearing, but this one appeared to be sized for her.

Gripping it by the shoulders and holding it up to inspect, an info pane appeared describing what the spoils of victory were.

******

[GUFFIN'S ROBE (RARE)]

[DESCRIPTION]

This robe was once fit for actual royalty. Over the years, the attire has faded and lost much of its luster, making it the perfect covering for the so-called king who last wore it.

You gain +15% MP regen while wearing this robe.

******

That was a bonus that she very much needed, and as soon as she cinched the frayed belt around her waist, Millie could feel the magic within herself stir with increased vigor.

The chest didn't disappear when she removed the robe, nor did the throne reappear. How long did it take for a boss to respawn in a public dungeon?

Ugh, she was in a public dungeon.

How long would it be until more people rushed down to fight the boss and find the grisly scene she'd still barely considered herself.

"Hold the door," Millie directed the single remaining minion. "Close it and keep it closed. If you can, bar it." The [Skelemated Winged Kobold] followed directions without question or hesitation. It forcefully closed the metal door and quickly jammed both of its weapons in the space between it and the wall. Adding an additional bit of reinforcement to that, it pressed both hands flat against the rusted metal and unfolded its wings, pressing the bony tips between the stone pavers in the floor as a brace.

Millie stood in awe at the ingenuity a brainless skeleton could muster. Was that a [Death Mage] thing, or was it something else? It was almost like she heard that voice again, somewhere buried inside, thrum and say, Hmmmmm…

With no idea how long the makeshift barricade would hold, Millie left the empty chest behind and looked at King Guffin's body. She rummaged through his robe's pockets, finding a pouch filled with plenty of silver coins, a single gold one, with the rest being scraps of metal, wood, and stone. The king wore no weapon, but as Millie searched the body, the lopsided crown on the kobold's head became highlighted.

******

[GUFFIN'S CROWN (QUEST ITEM)]

[DESCRIPTION]

An item of actual worth. Return this to any adventurer's guild for appraisal and reward.

******

What an odd description. Millie tossed it on her head to see what happened. It was nothing. Nothing happened. When she inspected the king's robe that matched the one she now wore, no information popped up. Apparently, it was a simple robe with no bonus effects, not something she could keep on hand as a backup in case the one from the chest was damaged.

The human wore two pieces of uncommon armor—a [Chain Shirt] and [Leather Epaulets] that each granted +1 STR—and the padded pants, heavy boots, and worn gloves were nothing noteworthy. The [Longsword] that killed the boss was much nicer than the ones the king's guards had wielded, offering +2 STR and +1 DEX.

Still, Millie wasn't entirely certain she wanted to loot Tom's corpse. She looked down at the dead man with something just shy of remorse. She'd killed him, yes, but she didn't mean to. He'd attacked her. She'd flagged as a criminal as an accident when he barreled into a room.

She should have known that her spell would leech from even non-monsters in a public dungeon. The description of [Death's Favor] said so. Explicitly.

******

This spell creates an area of effect that leeches a small percentage of HP from all living things not in your party, while simultaneously restoring an equal amount to everyone in your party who is within the affected area.

******

Once again, she felt the subtle pull of the [Death Mage] at the edge of her mind. She looked at the corpse of the kobold king, and as she did so, the small icon for [Skelemation] flashed. Her MP was indeed regenerating at least quickly enough now that she could cast the spell on the boss.

Kneeling and placing her hands on its greasy scales, she did so and received a [Spell Failure] message as the scaly body resisted her magic at the end of the casting.

Her MP drained down to nothing again, and she sighed. That would have been just too much good luck.

Speaking of luck, she had the reward boxes from her achievements to open. Going for the rare one first, she undid the ribbon and popped the lid off. The contents were, at first, pretty disappointing for a rare reward box. It was a pouch made out of midnight blue cloth with silver embroidery and drawstring. An information pane floated above it when she focused on it.

******

[DIMENSIONAL POUCH (RARE)]

Bigger on the inside.

[Attune? Y/N]

******

Whoa. Millie had heard of these things, and they were rare. Not just classification-wise, as the item itself indicated, but rare as in most people wouldn't find or afford one until much, much later in life than Millie was. Her parents both had one each that they took with them at all times.

One. And they delved dungeons for a living. Theirs were bigger than this, being full backpacks, but for her to be low-level and the System provide her dimensional storage after getting a rare class, too…she was either exceptionally lucky or the System was preparing her for something.

Dimensional storage was a delver's best friend. Loot was heavy. Armor, weapons, magic artifacts, and almost anything else that was worth carrying out of dungeons was unwieldy and awkward. Packs and pouches like this let adventurers store items in a pocket dimension the System created. Not just that, they had a kind of cataloging system that let the person attuned to it almost instantly sort, withdraw, or deposit items.

Millie couldn't believe it. If this was in the rare reward box, she could only imagine what was in the other one, and there was only one way to find out.

Inside the [Reward Box: Epic] was a book bound in blackish-grey leather. The spine and cover were inscribed with glowing symbols from a script that Millie didn't recognize. They pulsed slowly, and the title So You Want To Be A Necromancer? formed as she watched.

Dozens of different kinds of System books existed out there in the wild. Some were spellbooks that mages could use to cast spells they didn't know or weren't from their class. Some were consumables that disappeared once you read them and enhanced or added stats or abilities. While others were guidebooks that offered paths to hidden class advancements, unique skills, or other kinds of mastery.

Somehow, here in Millie's hands, was an epic-level one. Again, she wondered if this was incredible luck or some sort of cursed preparation

As the info pane for the epic book popped up, the sounds of someone fighting outside the door started, interrupting Millie from finding out what amazing reward she'd gotten for being a murderer.