Continuing down the corridor, I made sure that I checked every nook and cranny in case there were any threats. You never know when something might show up and kill you. For all I know, a spider could be extremely strong and kill me in seconds.
It was deathly silent and unnerving, the only sound I could hear were the echoes from my own footsteps that seemed to amplify and sound throughout the corridor.
It didn’t take long before I reached the end of the corridor, and what greeted me was another skeleton, shambling across the small cramped room. This time, the skeleton had a rusted iron helmet defending his most obvious and most vulnerable weakness.
The room the skeleton was in was absolutely empty, the walls were made of stone bricks that were mostly intact with some cracked bricks, the walls were also partially covered by moss slowly eating up the bottom part of the wall.
At this moment, the skeleton turned its head towards me slowly, I could almost hear a creaking noise coming from his skull. The fire in its eyes were similar to the previous skeleton, except the blue fire was a little brighter, unnoticeable if you weren’t paying close attention.
We stared at each other for a moment before the skeleton started walking towards me in a human-like fashion but it could still be easily outpaced by me. Above its head, a line of text could clearly be seen, below it was a green bar that indicated the health of the skeleton.
Even though it had a helmet, the rest of the skeleton’s body was still vulnerable to the stones that would break its bones. I gripped the stone, steadying my aim at the skeleton and hurled it towards the skeleton’s leg but it barely scraped its knee, landing onto the hard floor with a thud.
Not being despaired by my initial miss, I tried to hurl another stone at the skeleton’s legs in an attempt to cripple its movements.
This time, the stone hit the skeleton’s knee dead on and broke the bone in half from the impact.
The skeleton fell onto the floor, but did not stop for a moment before clawing its way towards my direction using its hands. This made the skeleton even slower than before, giving me time to think of a way to dispose of this pesky skeleton.
After a while of thinking, I concluded the best way to kill this skeleton was to get in close combat since it was already crippled.
I moved nearer to the skeleton, avoiding his hands and quickly making my way behind its body. I leapt onto the back of the skeleton before it could make a full turn, forcefully removing the helmet and proceeded to bash the skull in with a stone.
The health quickly depleted from every hit and within seconds, the skeleton was dead and fell lifelessly onto the floor.
Gained 6 XP
You have gained a level, Level 3
Name: Kellan Flint Level: 3 Race: Human Health: 36/36 Mana 10/10 Stamina: 115/115 Class: None Titles: Discoverer Attribute Points: 5 Strength: 10 Dexterity: 12 Intelligence: 10 Constitution: 13 Willpower: 30 Luck: 20(x2)
I quickly allocated 3 points to strength and the last 2 towards constitution, for both power and survivability in this dungeon.
Picking up 4 copper coins from the corpse of the skeleton and keeping it in the inventory, I quickly checked for other loot before quickly finding the next doorway that led to a different room.
The doorway led to another corridor, much larger compared to the narrow corridor earlier.
It was 3 meters wide and stretched seemingly endlessly, I couldn’t see how long it was since this dungeon was covered in dark mist that obstructed my view.
The corridor had many statues carved into the walls, they were all generally the same, depicting many human-like figures which I assumed some to be worshipped beings and the like.
The walls were still identical to the other two rooms, but it looked a bit more maintained, with less moss growing at the base of the walls.
This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.
The floor was different from the rock-like floor of the previous rooms, the floor here were laid in with stone bricks, but showed signs of age nonetheless. There was a strong stench of rot permeating from one direction of the corridor, making the air feel stagnant and suffocating.
Obviously, I walked the other direction, away from the rotten stench, for all I know it could be a very strong monster, it would probably be safer to stay away for now. Walking down the corridor, it didn’t take long before I saw another skeleton shambling about in the corridor.
This skeleton held a short sword in its hand instead of a bone like the other two skeletons I had fought earlier. Just like how I had fought the other skeletons, I first crippled it by hurling stones at its leg before engaging it in a close combat fight.
Gained 6 XP
You have gained a level, Level 4
This time I placed 3 points into dexterity and the other 2 in strength, I felt that I needed more power and speed to combat any new opponents other than slow skeletons.
Name: Kellan Flint Level: 4 Race: Human Health: 36/36 Mana 14/14 Stamina: 115/115 Class: None Titles: Discoverer Attribute Points: 0 Strength: 15 Dexterity: 15 Intelligence: 10 Constitution: 13 Willpower: 30 Luck: 20(x2)
When I examined the pile of bones, I picked up the old short sword that the skeleton wielded before it died. It wasn’t in perfect condition but it was still useful in my situation since all I had were stones I could throw.
There were stats shown on the weapon unlike with the stones I picked up from the cave. When I kept 6 copper coins I looted from the skeleton’s corpse, I tried keeping my sword into the inventory, which turned into a virtual icon when it entered the slot.
Wielding the short sword in my hand, it felt heavier than I expected. I’ve never wielded a weapon in my whole life, after all I’m just a high school student.
Swinging the sword around in my hand, making a series of basic slashes and swings I normally see in games and movies, it felt heavier and more taxing on my wrists than I expected.
Skill learned: Swordplay (Basic) Swordplay: A passive skill that improves the ability to use weapons categorized as swords (Two-handed swords included)
Skill Proficiency: G Skill Rarity: G+
Just like that, I suddenly learnt a skill that helps improve my ability to use this short sword, which is definitely helpful in this situation. I felt like I suddenly knew how to properly grip a sword, thus adjusting my grip on the shortsword.
Giving me no time to rest, two skeletons appear from within the dark mist, both wielding bones in their hands. Even though they were both level 1 skeletons, I could still be killed by them if I wasn’t careful.
For a start, I wanted to focus on one skeleton at a time, so I tried crippling one of the skeletons with my remaining stones. Using up all my stones, I managed to break one of the limbs and incapacitate the skeleton.
I approach the uninjured skeleton, brandishing my sword and getting ready to kill it. Once it got into range, I lunged at it and made a slash to its head. The skeleton swung its bone horizontally and managed to hit me in my left arm.
From that strike, I managed to shave of 1 HP from the skeleton, but I lost 1 HP myself. My left arm hurt a little, but it was nothing more than a bruise that can be overlooked.
I once again lunge towards the skeleton, this time I blocked its bone weapon with my left arm, taking 1 damage from it, but I grabbed the right arm of the skeleton and landed a hard kick towards its chest, ripping off its arm.
I figured that blunt damage would be more effective than using the sword from the first exchange, so I refrained from using my sword to attack the skeleton.
Once again, I charge towards the skeleton, this time dodging its bone weapon and delivering a sweep kick, making it fall towards the ground. I immediately used the heel of my foot to smash its skull into pieces. Sure enough, the skull broke into pieces.
[Gained 4XP]
Using the same tactic on the crippled skeleton, it was already on the floor, making it easier to dodge its clawing hands, I easily killed it.
[Gained 4XP]
[You have gained a level, level 5]
If I’m already having trouble with a few level 1 monsters, I can’t imagine how strong other monsters are, especially boss-class monsters. Walking down the corridor, I am greeted by 3 more skeletons, fortunately, they were all level 1 and had nothing more than a bone in their hands.
Like before, I used the same tactics and easily trumped them with my kicks. I’m starting to remember my Taekwondo lessons that I took years ago, maybe that training wasn’t that useless after all.
Skill learned: Martial Arts [Legs] (Basic) Martial Arts [Legs]: A passive skill that improves martial art techniques involving legs, such as kicks, the flexibility and strength of your legs.
Skill Proficiency: G Skill Rarity: G+
I think I roughly figured out how this skill system works, it's a bit different from games where you just add skill points into whatever skill tree you have. It seems like you have to earn your skills in this world.