Chương 2: Chapter Two: Floor 1 Level 1

TWO Roan blinked rapidly as his entire world changed. Gone from the overcrowded office he stood in a dusty hallway of black stone. There was an inch of dirt and sand on the ground, but he could feel the hard stone beneath that under the soles of his shoes. The walls of the hall reached twelve or fifteen feet and were covered in dense spiderweb that shone a silver-blue color under the flickering flames of dozens of candles. Every few feet was a sconce filled with a mostly melted white candle.

The wax dripped over the metal and down the black stone in frozen waterfalls. The light from them kept the hall dim, but Roan could see well enough that the stacks of corpses in the walls were evident. Every body was laid flat on their back in a bed carved into the stone itself. Six to a shelf with a shelf every ten feet or so. Sweat broke out along his back as he saw that everyone of the skeletons had a weapon placed over their chests.

Rusted battle garb covered their bodies while tattered clothes were nothing more than rags stretched over bits of leathery skin or bones." They're definitely going to animate." The thought spurred Roan to reach to the closest of the dried out corpses and grab its weapon. The long handled, single-bladed axe was stuck in the sinewy hands until Roan jerked and heard things break. Fingers detached from the skeleton's hands and fell to the ground at his feet.

Roan lifted the axe to his eye, looking over the thin line of rust along the edge of the blade. The handle felt wrong in his hand, fragile like it had dry-rot.

"Should have gotten a weapon," Roan complained to the skeleton he'd robbed. The creature's head turned from looking at the ceiling of its grave to stare at him with empty sockets. Emerald light flickered in the skeleton's eyes, candle flames of light as its mouth popped open to reveal crooked black teeth.

"Hell no!" Roan shouted as he punched the skeleton with his free hand on instinct. Its head rocked back and a tooth went flying, but the creature's legs started to move as it used one of its mangled hands to grab the edges of the grave and start to pull itself free. Roan chided himself as he shook out his aching hand even as he swung his axe around to strike the skeleton with a side chop of the axe. Rusted steel split ancient bone as he split the skull; the flickering emerald fire died in the creature's eyes.

It collapsed in a heap, whatever magic holding its body together failing as the bones separated into separate pieces. INFERIOR SKELETON 10 CREDITS Roan pushed the words out of his mind with ease, the notification feeling intuitive. He looked around himself but none of the other skeletons were moving yet, their bodies still at rest. Each second was a baited breath as he waited to see if the undead would rise to chop him into pieces. There were hundreds, if not thousands, of skeletons clustered all around him.

No matter how fragile they were, he'd be turned into piecemeal if they all rose together. When they didn't, Roan slowly let himself relax. A shaking breath hissed from his mouth as he leaned over toward the defeated skeleton and looked over the grave to see if there was anything in it. The beast-kins words about there being unique items were firmly in his head as he checked the shallow resting place. In the back corner of the grave, where the stone had cracked, was a single flower.

Its petal was bone white, nearly luminous in its intensity. The undead's head had been blocking it from his sight when he first looked at the grave, but with the bone's breaking apart he could see the corner.

"Bag of holding would be perfect," Roan said, still kicking himself over his choices as he reached into the grave and grabbed the flower by the base. It broke easily enough, coming free of the grave with a simple jerk of his wrist. Nectar flowed from the petals, running down the stem and over the pad of his fingers. This narrative has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. If you see it on Amazon, please report it.

"Into the pocket I guess," Roan said as he shoved it into his jacket pocket. It hardly took any room and he figured he could gather plenty of them depending on their spawn rates inside of the area." They're easy to kill, but how many can I wake before I draw aggro from the crowd?" This tower had been unconquered for a reason, it wouldn't stay easy for long. Roan also knew he couldn't just sit back and skate by, he needed to take risks if he wanted to be able to buy skills at the market he'd been told about.

"Alright, careful now, let's try one more." Roan reached up and grabbed the arm of the skeleton closest to the ground on the same shelf, jerking it slightly to see if it was enough to awaken it. The head turned to look at him just like the previous one, green light flickering into being. He axed the skeleton before it could move. The tight confines of the shelf it rested in made it difficult, but he got the swing right and split the skull with a single blow.

Its eyes guttered out and Roan shoved it to the side, looking around the grave to see if there was another flower. This grave was empty of anything that stood out to him. Just a skeleton with another of the axes that Roan had already liberated. He took this axe as well, tucking it carefully into his belt at the side, twisting side to side to see if the edge would cut him.

While uncomfortable, the thickness of his jacket kept the axe blade from cutting him accidentally, he'd just have to be careful about how he moved. Searching the rest of the skeleton took only a few seconds. A necklace made of black iron had been wrapped around its neck, a small amber jewel held in a brooch of silver the only thing aside from its ruined armor and clothes." Something in each of the graves so far. Need more data though." Roan reached up and started on the next skeleton.

It died just as easily as the others had, but this one had nothing on it or in its grave. The fourth of graves was at eye level for him with the final two above his head, the last one nearly at the thick layer of cobwebs. He'd need to climb to reach them.

"Fuck it, we ball." Roan put his feet on the lowest grave, only at ankle level, and started to climb up until he could properly attack the fourth skeleton. He killed it before it could wake and cursed as he received no reward at all." Need to awaken them if I want to get paid." The fifth skeleton was harder to get to, having to keep his feet on the third grave and hold himself in place with his free hand on the sixth.

He had to shuffle his hand a bit to get a good grip, but it took only a few seconds before he was lining up the fifth skeleton with his axe. Roan shook it awake with the head of the axe and hacked it apart with three awkward cuts, bone chips flying everywhere until the skull broke open.

This one had another of the necklaces which he put in his pocket before he awkwardly leveraged himself up to the sixth grave shelf. There was nowhere for him to put his hand to steady himself as he came face to face with the final of this shelve's graves. Burning green eyes were waiting for him as Roan rose up and above the ledge. Leathery hands reached for him, grabbing his hair in a vice-like grip and pulling him into the grave.

"Fuck!" Roan screamed in pain and shock as he leapt up, easing the pain in his scale as he scrambled into the grave with the skeleton. Its second hand was busy trying to bring around a longsword, but Roan trapped the blade between their bodies with his knee. Black hair tore out as the skeleton ripped, its strength surprising as Roan struggled in the tight confines to hit the skeleton.

They shuffled back and forth, Roan batting away its one armed attempts to strangle him while keeping the sword locked in place with his knee. Sweat dripped into his eyes, mingling with the blood from his torn scalp. Tears formed as he blinked the irritants out, dust rose up to choke him as they thrashed back and forth. Bones were cracking and popping as Roans' weight broke the ancient bones. Slowly he forced the creature closer to the edge, pushing its head over so its neck was perched on the sharp stone.

He grabbed the remnants of its clothes and armor and jerked it up and then shoved it down. Bone snapped as the weight of the blow drove the vertebrae holding the head in place into the sharp edge of the grave. It sounded like the sound of a branch breaking as the neck shattered, the skull falling down to bounce off and across the aisle to land on the shelf of another skeleton warrior. Roan froze as his stomach dropped. The hit skeleton woke, sliding out of its dusty crypt with surprising speed.

It didn't come for Roan right away, its emerald eyes stared at him mockingly as it reached over and began to wake the rest of its shelf of slumbering brethren.

"Shit!"