Five minutes later, they came upon a wandering skeleton brandishing a sword. The blade gleamed with its full form intact, but whether it was dull or damaged remained a mystery. Enya could have activated her absolute focus, but the mental strain didn’t seem worth it against a simple skeleton.
Walnut and Dummy D. quickly resumed their battle stances. Walnut hoisted his sword onto his shoulder, while Dummy D. extracted the knife from his chest, gripping it firmly in his bony hand.
The wandering skeleton charged forward, moving much quicker than the sluggish zombies. It ran with its sword held low to the left, the blade angled upward to the right, ready to strike.
Enya understood that skeletons were generally faster than zombies; the decay weighing down zombies hindered their movements and compromised their skeletal structures. Their rotting flesh was dead weight, making it challenging to achieve significant speed. However, if a zombie managed to retain more intact muscles, tendons, and physical features, it could easily outclass skeletons in speed, strength, and lethality.
As the wandering skeleton charged, both of Enya’s minions sprang into action. The skeleton shifted its focus to Dummy D., who had already darted ahead of Walnut. But just before their clash, the wandering skeleton stumbled, falling forward and crashing to the ground. It slid and rolled along the stone floor, the sword slipping from its grasp.
Spell: Bone Shift [F-] has been activated.
Enya seized the opportunity before the clash, and activated her new spell. With a surge of energy, she delivered a forceful blow to its upper right tibia. The impact sent shockwaves through its knee joint, causing its legs to give way. The wandering skeleton stumbled, lost its balance, and fell, leaving its weapon behind.
It skidded forward, stopping just before Dummy D., who continued his charge. Dummy D. wound his arm back and struck down with the dagger, aiming straight for the skeleton's upper spinal cord. The blade didn’t hit solid bone but instead pierced the area between the spinal segments and the skull. With a sharp thrust, the dagger severed the skull from the skeleton’s body, causing its attempts to rise to an immediate halt.
System Notification: You have landed a killing blow on Skeleton (Level 2).
You have received 15 EXP.
Experience Remaining Until Next Level: 64/163
The skeleton was only level 2. This second kill during her little expedition had granted her a mere 15 EXP, a far cry from the nearly 300 she had earned from the demon rat—the rattle rat.
Enya approached the now-dead skeleton, while Walnut came from the left, lowering his guard as the threat of battle disappeared.
“Uh…” Enya muttered, feeling uncertain about her next move. The space in front of her palm shimmered briefly as her bonecarver’s quill manifested in her hand. Now, the question lingered: could she extract soul-energy from a skeleton?
Crouching next to the shoulder of the headless skeletal monster, she glanced between her bonecarver’s quill and the skeleton’s remains. Where was she supposed to stab it? Into a bone?
Her brows furrowed as she leaned in, and stabbed forth, pinching the tip of the quill onto its right shoulder blade; the scapula. Her bonecarver’s quill didn’t exactly pierce into the bone, but it did make a small divot, one almost imperceivable to the human eye. However, it seemed like as long as it made contact with something, it would work, judging by the now forming white mist surrounding the tip of the quill.
Soul-Energy: 63/100
Once she opened her status screen to check her soul-energy, her shoulders slumped, her eyes narrowing and her face pouting at the single point she had received. It was starting to seem that the lower the level of the monster she killed, the less soul-energy she obtained.
“Alright, guys, let’s keep hunting,” she said, her tired exasperation creeping into her voice. Both skeletons nodded, their bones rattling in acknowledgment.
image [https://i.imgur.com/ZiLMGqb.png]
Enya spent roughly two to three hours wandering through the dungeon, exploring unfamiliar corridors. As she ventured deeper, the surroundings grew increasingly decrepit. Fallen torches littered the ground, and walls were shrouded in moss and creeping plant life, giving the area an eerie, abandoned feel. It seemed almost fitting that Pell would choose to set up his “home” on the other side of the dungeon. The creepy, desolate aura was impossible to ignore.
Being in the dark was usually a problem for her, as she relied on absolute focus to see, but not this time. She had an ace in the hole—or rather, two. Fueled by the power of the ‘create light’ spell, her two skeleton minions walked beside her, their skull-lanterns casting a bright glow that illuminated the walls, floors, and the path ahead.
During this time, she had dispatched six more dungeon monsters—a mix of skeletons and zombies, naturally. However, one thing became increasingly clear: as she delved deeper into the dungeon, the level of her enemies grew higher.
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The last fight had pitted her minions against a pair of skeletons, forcing them to adapt their tactics from the usual “Dummy D. first, Walnut follows up” strategy. The foes were significantly stronger, being at levels 6 and 7, which meant they were much more formidable than the previous monsters.
The two skeletons had yielded 51 and 62 experience points, respectively. While that wasn’t an insignificant amount, it definitely paled compared to the demon rat. Still, it was encouraging to know that higher-level monsters granted much more experience.
In the end, despite their victory, Dummy D. lost his entire left arm, and Walnut sustained a crack in his left shoulder from a sword swing. Fortunately, the damage wasn’t too severe, and Enya managed to restore them by casting her summon skeleton spell once more. It was only afterward that she remembered she still had her gravemoss poultice. But oh well—live and adapt. She still had plenty of mana potions, so the gravemoss was more of a luxury than a necessity right now.
The three of them took a small rest, with Enya sitting against the wall, sipping a mana potion. Walnut and Dummy D. stood watch, flanking either side of her, eyes scanning both ends of the hallway.
With a face of mild disgust, Enya recorked the mana potion and placed it back in her backpack. Summoning The Grim Pullet into her hands, she began to skim through its pages.
She organized the book by tier and difficulty. The lower-tier items were in the front, and as she flipped further, the requirements for crafting the higher-tier items grew increasingly complex and rare.
Enya flipped to a random page deep in the book, her curiosity piqued.
Class Eradication Pill (Obsidian)
Description: A pill that, once consumed, will forcibly eradicate an individual’s chosen system class. Once consumed, this process becomes irreversible, and the consumer will experience direct damage to their soul as the pill resets their class over the course of two days. Any skills, spells, and passives from their class will be lost, but any spells learned from an external source, and within their spell list, will be retained.
Materials Required:
* Soul Container or Phylactery of the corresponding class
* Shadowmist Resin
* 3 Voidbloom Petals
* Soul-forged Obsidian Pill Base (Obsidian Pill capsule infused with soul-energy)
* Soul Anchor Or Soul Tether
* 50,000 Soul-Energy
If she was correct, the tiers went from copper to bronze, silver, gold, platinum, diamond, and then obsidian. That meant the class eradication pill was the highest rarity of item available. This also meant that she had access to creating obsidian-tier items, which were extremely strong and valuable. Enya frowned at this realization.
While it was incredible to have access to such a commodity, it also meant she wouldn’t be able to reveal this fact easily to others. If anyone found out she knew the recipes for nearly legendary items, she could expect others to come after her. She couldn’t share anything about The Grim Pullet or, more specifically, the kind of knowledge it granted her.
Flipping backward, she sought out the list of items she could craft in the earlier, more common rarities. There was no way she could find any materials listed in the book while trapped in an undead dungeon—unless they specifically required monster parts, like a zombie leg. The thought of lugging around a zombie’s leg made her shudder.
Eventually, she came across a more suitable recipe, one that didn’t seem quite so grotesque.
Undead Class Stigmata (Gold)
Description: A soul seal that can be applied to an undead construct reanimated by the user. By Applying the stigmata and imprinting it onto the target, a corresponding class will be temporarily assigned to the undead with limited skills and abilities. The stigmata must first be imbued with a soul of the corresponding class, and if destroyed, all class progress will be eliminated. It is recommended to only use this on stronger constructs, or registered constructs, to avoid premature destruction of the stigmata.
Materials Required:
* Soul Container or Phylactery of the corresponding class
* Soul Imprint Spell Circuit
* 100 Soul-Energy
It was another recipe that specialized in classes. But unlike the soul class eradication pill, this undead class stigmata actually granted an undead minion a class. Enya remembered how Walnut and Dummy D. had ‘unassigned’ classes, just like she once did. This confirmed her suspicion that undead could have classes, likely separate from whatever they possessed in life.
Both of these recipes required a ‘soul of the corresponding class,’ which implied that capturing souls was possible in one way or another. If she could find the soul of a necrosmith, perhaps she could transform Walnut into one, just like her. Custodian had mentioned that there hadn’t been a necrosmith for over 600 years, so maybe it was all just a fanciful dream.
Regardless, the Undead Class Stigmata appeared to be an extraordinary item. Two of the materials were already in her possession. If she continued farming monsters on this floor or the lower ones, she would eventually accumulate 100 soul-energy. The ‘Soul Imprint Spell Circuit’ was also provided. As she focused on the line describing that item, the next page reshaped itself, revealing the spell circuit. However, it wasn’t an easy one.
The circuit that appeared on the next page contained a simple spell circle frame, but within it lay nine different patterns—the largest array she had encountered that she could vaguely comprehend. There were others shown in the workshop books, but their patterns made little sense to her. Despite the complexity of this new circuit, Enya felt confident she could learn it if she had enough time and mana.
The items inside the book were truly amazing. This specific item even had two other craftable versions, but they required different or more specific materials, while this one held a more generic nature.
Right now, she was just looking through the book randomly, specifying her search for bronze to gold tier items only, and the pages didn’t seem to ever stop. As she continued looking through the silver tiers, the book within her hand shook. The text upon the page shifted around, dancing with a playful air, before reforming into a new set of sentences.
Hello? Miss Enya, are you available for a chat?
Yes! I’m here. What is it?
I just wanted to inform you that I’ll be going on a little business trip of sorts in the coming hours. Sadly, I will not be available to meet with you for an extended period. I believe my trip will last no longer than three days, but during this time, I won’t be able to converse with you quite as easily.
Oh… so… I won’t be able to contact you at all for the next 3 days?”
You can still certainly reach out, but my opportunities for replying will be very limited. The type of business I am conducting requires utmost secrecy, and crafter communication would be strictly forbidden. I may find a moment or two to spare during this time, but I highly doubt that will be the case.
Oh, okay. I understand.
My time is a bit constrained right now, but if you have any last-minute questions you’d like me to answer, now would be the time.
Ah, uhh…
Enya was now at a loss for words, her mind scrambling for questions to ask at such a vital time.