I stalked as quietly over the ridge of rubble as I could, finally laying eyes on my so called enemies. Before me, there was a large group of ten oversized rats feasting on a corpse of some now unidentifiable monster.
The rats, completely enthralled by their meal, never even noticed as one of the group's outliers fell to a quick flash of darkness piercing its tiny skull. A second later, another met the same fate, this death also going unnoticed.
I ducked back behind the ridge and took a deep breath. I had taken two out instantly, but with that, I was out of mana, or OOM as Clair called it. Now it was me and my club versus eight of those rats, and I did not like those odds.
I got some experience killing the two that I did, quite a bit more than I expected. A <+100 EXP> notification had greeted me after each kill. If I remembered correctly, all ten rats would grant me just enough for my first level if they granted the same experience.
I was thinking it was to best not to go head to head with eight of them at once so I wondered when I’d be able to cast magic again. So I asked, still whispering, "Claire, how long until I can cast another dark bolt?"
“With your current mana regeneration, it will take ten minutes for each cast to recover,” she answered.
"I guess we will be here a while," I answered, "I don’t think it’s a good idea to fight eight against one with my skill," he continued, sounding a bit depressed. “It is not.“ Claire agreed with his assessment, a little to readily I thought. Either way, I settled in for what would be a long battle of stealth and attrition, hoping the corpse that they fed on would be enough to distract them for the duration.
***
Davila moved silently ahead of the group, scouting for a trace of magic far in the distance. One that Stelvia had detected almost an hour ago. After detecting the magic, every ten minutes, like clockwork, another faint hint would appear and vanish in an instant, like it was luring them.
The drow was on high alert as another hint flared. Davila did not have her Demoness friend's detection abilities, so she felt the tinge of magic, rather than saw it. It was like a chill running down her spine, and then it was gone. However, in that instant, its direction became apparent, and off Davila went, scouting further, seeking its source, but not wanting to approach too quickly. She did not want to alarm the enemy of her presence.
Stelvia and the others were some distance behind Davila. Following the same trace with her advanced abilities, Lug and the Ratkin coward lacked any stealth, so the space was merited. Stelvia would keep her distance until she got a report from the light-footed scout she sent ahead.
She was unsure if it was the undead or a rogue mage, or why they were casting so frequently. Was it a trap? Or were they in a battle of some kind? She could not be sure, and it did not hurt to be cautious. Her curiosity almost got the better of her reason a few times during the trek towards the source of it. Once, when she detected that it was a darkness type spell. Seeing as that type was just as rare as the dungeonless undead itself. Once again, at the pure amount of spells being cast, how much mana did this creature have?
Just as, by her count, an eighth spell was cast, Davila appeared in her usual fashion, seemingly out of nowhere. "I'll never know how you do that without magic, Davila," she nearly screamed, startled by the elf.
With a knowing smile on her face, Davila said, " We all have our talents, I happen to be best in the shadows."
"Ha, in da shadows?" Lug grunted, "even da shadows no can find you," he joked as he continued. A small chuckle was shared among the three friends. Jodrak, who was frightened and clutching his dagger desperately, was less than amused.
"What've you seen, Davila," Stelvia said, deciding it was best to get moving.
"It is as Jodrak said, an undead, it lingers to the north, slaying rats with spells." Davila, looking a little confused by the creature's actions, continued, "I can honestly say, I am not sure why it does this, maybe its goal is to wipe out rats?" she joked. Davila glanced over to Jodrak, smiled evilly, and continued, "or maybe a certain Ratkin annoyed it, and it is taking out its frustration."
Jodrak gulped at the elves' insinuation. He might have annoyed the undead while it was still stationary. Maybe it was aware of the happenings around it and was just unable to act on them yet. The thought of it made him nearly soil himself as his eyes went wide with pure fear.
Seeing this, Lug had to stifle a laugh. He knew Davila put on a kind front but was probably the meanest when it came to poking fun at anyone. Sometimes her "jokes" were so scary that he would let her intimidate people with them. She meant no harm with them, he knew this, but the target didn't need to know that, now did they?
Devila continued to report. “while it is a skeleton, its deffiantly not normal.”
Stelvia asked “How so?”
“Well its bones are pitch black for starters, and its got white eyes, that glow. Oh and some orb thingy floating in its chest.” Said Devila as if she was just talking about the weather.
“What the actual fuck, Rat? Did you not think that information was maybe a little important?” Stelvia Whisper screamed as she spun on Jordrak.
Jordrak just froze, and didn’t say a word.
“Fuckin Ratkin, they can’t even speak half the time out of fear. For fucks sake rat, that was more important than it being dungeonless. This things likely a unique.” Added Stelvia.
Lug asked “Whats unique?”
Delvia said “ it’s a special class of dungeon monster WITH intelligence. They are exceptionally dangerous. If this thing is even a dungeon monster, I’ve never heard of a unique leaving its dungeon.”
Stelvia said” Never been an undead outside of a dungeon that wasn’t a dungeon monster. Never been a Unique to leave its dungeon. This things a paradox. Wait a minuite, is there even an undead dungeon near here?”
Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.
She huffed "F it, Maybe we should ask the damn thing? If'in its hostile, we just kill it now before it gets too powerful. Off chance it's friendly, having an undead pet, sounds like fun, yeah?"
Jodrak was not alone in his protest this time. The rest of her group also sounded in unison, "Are you nuts?" Davila alone continued, "You want to approach an undead? A dungeonless unique, one that uses dark magic at that. So you know double rare, double dangerous, and say hi?" The other two only nodded at her assessment of the level of crazy their leader presented.
"Sounds like a plan," was the only response they got to Davila's statement. "Let's go say hi," she continued. Before anyone could protest, she was gone, off running in the direction of the undead.
Sighing, Davila chased after her immediately, while Jodrak was trying to escape, no shinnies are worth this level of crazy. "Oh no, ya don't!" He heard as a sizeable greenish hand gripped him up and hoisted him in the air. "We all go, you too, " said the large orc. Jodrack could only accept his fate. After all, he was no match for this Orc; better to escape later in a confusion than fight now.
***
Only two rats remained. I was actually impressed I had not alerted any of the other rats while picking them off one by one. I thought I should go ahead and get some melee combat experience, though, in truth, I was just sick of waiting.
I stood and charged as fast as my bony legs could, at the closest critter with my makeshift club raised, ready to crush it. When I got about halfway, both creatures, became very aware of the skeleton charging at them, and did the exact opposite of what I had expected. Being rats, I figured they would flee like the ones in the city. Unfortunatly, these were no ordinary rats, they were giant rats, the size of a medium dog. They were not akin to fleeing from prey. Instead, they saw a new and tasty crew toy running at them and rushed it.
The rats' actions threw off my plans a little, but I was able to adapt. First I stopped my charge, then turned to face the closest rat which was charging full force. The second one was a great deal behind its brethren, several meters at least. I met the first one with a poorly timed swing of my club. I missed it entirely and smashed the ground to its left. (Damn luck) I figured as I had nothing else to blame my poorly timed attack on, it was definitely not my lack of skill, right?
After missing my chance to land a solid blow on the first rat, it lunged at my leg, biting hard, but I barely registered it. A <-1HP> greeted my vision. I quickly swung down at the biting rat and landed a pretty solid blow, judging by the <-3HP> I saw fall from it as it landed, taking half its health. (Wow, either they are weak, or my spells are just strong, or both? Probably both.) I thought as I followed up with another swing of the club, ending the prone rat with a critical <-10HP> nearly exploding the poor creature. <+100 EXP> (Nah, they are just weak.)
Just as I finished off the first rat, the second reached got to me and was already mid lunge when I turned to face it. That rat, jumping much higher than its predecessor, slammed into my chest, knocking me flat.
I noticed this one hit much harder as the red<-4HP> floated by my vision. Inspecting the rat further, I noticed something I hadn’t before, when I focused, really focused on the target, a bar would appear above their head. Above this particular rat said
After a hard struggle with the rat scratching at my ribs I was able to toss him off, but only after losing another 3HP. Finally back on my feet, frustrated that I had made yet another dumb decision, I swung my club, striking the leader for a meager <-2HP>, and noticed that this one's health was not moving very much at all. (Yeah, not good at all) I thought as the rat leader chomped me again for another <-4HP>. The rat was barely injured were I was now the one under half health.
"Crap, crap, crap, crap," I chanted as I ran around the rats' pit. Sometimes landing hits, but still making very little progress and losing another 5 HP in the process. (One more good hit from that guy and I’m toast!) I shouted internally as I kited the beast around some more.
Luckily, after a few more minutes of this, having just enough EN to outrun the rats' own EN. I finally got the notice I was waiting for, Claire chiming in, "you now have enough mana to cast Dark Bolt," not wasting a moment, I spun on the rat. Instantly shouted, "Dark Bolt," as I continued to run, backwards, a good thing for me, I did not need to stand still while casting my spell.
Exactly one second later, the spell fired off and connected to the rat, and to my surprise, it hit really hard, a
Now, as I took note, I was almost out of EN, the regen finally unable to keep up after my backwards running stunt. It was now a one-hit kill for each of us, just had to be sure I was the one to hit first. Clutching my battered club, I charged at the rat and swung, the blow flying at its head, and when it landed, only a thud was heard. I looked down to see in my rush to land first, I failed to aim appropriately and missed, only slightly, to the right. The rat did not miss this chance and lunged in a final desperate attack, maw gaping at my neck.
I reacted in a panic. Seeing my death coming again, I punched upward from my grip, but I forgot to close my hand in my lack of fighting experience. This ended up being a good thing as my bone fingers were like daggers and pierced the flying rat in its abdomen, stopping it mid lunge.
I blinked, even though I did not have eyelids. I kept doing it and was somehow able to close my eyes, but no matter how may times I did it, the scene didn’t change. Stuck to my hand was the, now dead, rat leader. I freaked out and shook the creature off before I noticed a notification had come into my vision. <+300 EXP> and immediately following it was
"Woo," I cheered exhaustedly, but just as I was feeling too tired to move, a light enveloped me. Then a
"When a
Current Status
Name: Alex Samoson
Title: None
Level: 2
Class: Basic Skeleton
HP: 20/20
MP: 20/20
EN: 20/20
Unassigned Status Points: 5
AP: 5
STR: 10
VIT: 10
DEX: 10
INT: 10
WIS: 10
LUK: 4
ATK: 10 DEF: 10
SPELL: 10 SPELL DEF: 10
CRIT: 3% CRIT DEF: 2%
MP5M: 5
EXP: 200/2000
Magic Menu
Magic Name Level
Dark Bolt 1/100
Raise Minion 1/100
Skills Menu
Skill Name Level
Baking 3/10
Passive Skills Menu
Skill Name Level
Undead Resilience Max
Consumption Immunity Max
Of light, Dark and Gold Max