"Alright, but please do not kill them."

'Indeed, the scythe you are holding seems a bit too sharp."

The scythe seemed to have been sharpened to perfection. It is as if a slight, feathery attack with the scythe can behead multiple guards like butter.

"Oh no, I am not a murderer. I only murder if it is an order from the necromancer. I will only show them my smile, and they will never dare to come back."

"Huh? You are a skeleton. Skeletons can't smile."

"You will get what I mean. Come, and you will see."

Dragoona and Terax followed Daskeleton as he walked up the stairway and reached the door to the secret entrance. "Do not let them see you two unless you want to get tracked forever by them."

Because of that, the duo hid and could not see what happened. But as Daskeleton opened the door, they heard the metallic armor of the guards. So they were indeed camping beside the door. But after a few seconds, the guards shouted in a terrified manner, and Daskeleton returned back to the duo.

"What the heck have you done?" asked Terax.

Nothing, I just showed them my smiley face and they left, forever."

They still had no idea what he did to them.

***

The next day, the duo followed the advice of Daskeleton and began their search for the lockmaster.

The Waterfall kingdom is made up of three large circles. The outermost circle is reserved for the traders, merchants, and workshops of all professions. The middle circle is for the residential houses of the commoners. And this is also where the homes of both Terax and Dragoona are located. The last and innermost circle is reserved exclusively for the royalties. Around this circle are guards who keep all commoners from entering it except with permission. The king lives in the innermost circle as well. The dungeon finally is located at the very south of the Waterfall kingdom as part of the outermost circle and is densely covered by guards for obvious reasons.

Now Terax and Dragoona had a problem. They did not know where to search for the lockmaster. The two never heard of the lockmaster profession before or of a person with a long white beard. And after spending two days searching aimlessly for him, they finally agreed to ask the most knowledgeable people in the whole kingdom about it. That is, the guards standing at the entrance of the kingdom.

If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.

These guards check every human and every piece of cargo before they get inside the kingdom. Their job is so delicate that they are required to hear all the news and listen to every gossip. This makes them less likely to get tricked by any suspicious personnel entering the kingdom.

The duo asked the guards about lockmaster, and with a little bit of under table money, the guards gave them a detailed map of all they needed to know about the location of the lockmasters. Terax was surprised at how much these guards knew about the kingdom. He felt they even knew about the location of the necromancer. It turns out that lockmasters are known in public as lockers, which are simply the people who create door locks.

"How come we did not notice it?" Terax asked. "That the people who create all these door locks are the ones best suited to unlocking them."

"Don't ask me, stupid human," Dragoona replied. She was pissed off from the same reason but did not want to show it to Terax.

Just what is wrong with this dragon?

With detailed knowledge about the location of the lockers, the duo visited each and every locker, sniffing for the old man with the long white beard. After visiting ten lockers, they have found him.

The workplace of this old man was striking. It was full of keys. At least thirty keys were lying on the floor, a few dozen glued to the wall, a few in a jar, and much more hanging on the roof. The old man was wearing key-shaped earrings and black robes.

"Oh, new customers." said the old man. He was busy making a new lock for a door. "My name is Kivok. If you want a new lock for your door, then come next month. I got a long waiting list."

"Terax," Dragoona whispered. "This guy fits the description of the lockmaster that Daskeleton told us about."

Terax got straight to the point, "No, we want you to open up a magically locked door for us."

The old man's hands stopped moving as he gulped his saliva loudly. "A magically locked door you say?"

It seems that it made him curious.

"Yes," said Dragoona. "You are a lockmaster, aren't you?"

"So you know about my old profession, interesting. Who told you about it?"

Dragoona ignored his question, "Is it true that you can open any locked door?"

"I think so. I managed to open any locked door, except for the doors of the dungeon floor levels."

So he used to be a dungeon adventurer as well.

"We want you to open a door that got locked by a necromancer. We already know that you opened a door that was sealed by a necromancer before."

Kivok gave the two a sharp glare. "Who are you two? You are saying things that no one should know about."

The duo spent about an hour explaining the situation to Kivok. But they excluded that Terax father is Arexus and that Dragoona is actually a dragon.

"So, in summary, you want me to open the door to the necromancer so that he can resurrect your father?"

"Correct."

"I can feel there are still a few gaps in your story, but I don't want to dig deeper than this. But what a surprise, I did not expect an incident that happened ten years ago to lead to this situation."

"I did not expect many things lately," said Terax. "Life loves to surprise us, I guess."

"Starting to act like a wise man Terax?" said Dragoona as she pocked his side with her elbow.

A human eater is getting more friendly with me. I should be careful.

Kivok kept tapping a key on a table. "I can assure you that I can unlock the door that you want quite easily."

"So, you will unlock the door for us?"

He seems confident. Great, this turned out to be easier than what I had expected.

"Sure, but I won't be doing it for free."

"How much money do you want?" asked Dragoona.

Kivok laughed. "No, I am old and single. Money is of little use to me,"

"Alright, tell us what you want, and we will give it to you."

"That is assuring. I need you to two help me unlock the dungeon level doors. This is the last thing I want to do before I die."