The Grace-Blessed Skeleton Knight
I had to carry the woman whose face was twisted in agony to a safer position in the rear.
“Ahh… it stings… It hurts! Ugh…!”
“Clack clack clack!”
“Hic—! Ah… I-Ilwol…? Ugh!”
By now the other hunters in the party had grown used to my name. I still remembered her casual self-introduction during one of the breaks. Her name was Sim Yu-jeong; she had joked that because she’d practiced archery all the way through middle school, every single one of her traits leaned toward the archer path. Something about her felt faintly familiar. Perhaps our paths had crossed once or twice in my previous life.
“Ugh… ow, it tickles.”
Scratch, scratch. As the water from Irmana’s lake began healing the burns on her arm, the itch became unbearable and she started clawing at it. If those filthy hands—covered in every kind of battlefield grime—kept tearing at the blisters, she could easily end up infected by some unknown dungeon pathogen and require amputation.
I seized her scratching arm and shook my head. She threw her head back as far as it would go and bit down hard on her lip.
“Hngh… mmmph…!”
She was trying her best to endure, but few sensations are harder to resist than an itch. I set her down in the spot farthest from the fighting, poured several more splashes from the brown bottle, then bound her arm tightly with Big Boar leather so she couldn’t scratch anymore.
‘Truth be told, I didn’t have to go this far…’
But I hated the idea of anyone getting hurt because of me, so only after doing this could I feel at ease.
“Ah… um, th-thank you?”
I nodded, pried her mouth open, and poured a low-grade potion down her throat as well.
“Urp—gulp, gulp—”
Some of the liquid spilled from the corner of her lips because I had poured it too quickly, but we weren’t exactly in a leisurely situation. I wrapped a towel soaked in Irmana’s water around her arm and flew straight back into the fray.
“Uh, w-wait—!”
She seemed to have more to say, but she wasn’t someone I would be chatting with again.
High-Speed Flight
Swooosh—
With the tide no longer something I could flip in a single moment with fireballs, close-quarters combat was once again my only real option. I sprouted spikes across my entire body like a porcupine, extending them outward to the limit. Then I charged straight into the thickest clusters of monsters.
Stab-stab-stab—Riiip—
The [Vicious Claws] effect triggered in rapid succession. Every monster my spikes grazed fell into temporary paralysis. Because so many of the creatures I passed were left rigid, my allies quickly shifted their focus to the immobilized monsters I left behind.
‘That’s right. The kids catch on fast.’
Once I grew more comfortable racing across the battlefield, I began swinging both my dagger and club as well. There was no need to aim with care. As long as my sensory waves distinguished friend from foe, I could swing wildly and bodies would shatter with satisfying crunches. The tactile feedback was far more enjoyable than anything I had felt while I was still a Skeleton Knight. Skeletons really were best smashed with blunt weapons.
Even while I turned the battlefield into utter chaos, I kept shaping the bones in my chest into a round pouch and simultaneously crafting [Skeleton Bombs]. The fact that ideas I had only imagined before could now be put into practice filled me with excitement.
‘Hmm… Maybe I really do have talent?’
Of course, the ability had come from slaying the Giant Skeleton, but a little self-praise now and then helped keep my spirits high. Finished bombs went straight into my inventory, and I repeated the manufacturing process. The speed was less than half of what I could manage by hand, yet it was the best solution I had come up with for replenishing explosives in the middle of combat. This too was only possible because my proficiency had risen.
Time flowed on and the battle crossed into its final phase. The tense collision between the hunter–Skeleton Knight allied forces and Nargul’s army began to tilt sharply to one side.
“We’re almost done! Just a little longer!”
Nargul’s monster troops had to cross the portal to reach us, so they lost a great deal of numbers simply passing through the exit. Thanks to that, we could fight with the upper hand.
‘I should thin our own forces appropriately, too.’
The Skeleton Soldier Thousand-Man Army now numbered fewer than three hundred. That was the result of my quiet adjustments from the middle ranks. Even though his own subordinates were dying by my hand, the Skeleton Knight only watched for any chance to charge at Nargul.
Just how deep must his grudge run for him to act this way even after death? Actually, the fact that he even remembered it at all was the truly surprising part.
‘What’s he going to do if the portal closes while he’s crossing? He’ll be crushed flat the moment he’s trapped inside the space.’
I knew the Skeleton Knight possessed very high intelligence, yet rage seemed to have blinded him; his reason no longer appeared to be working. Still, perhaps because he had abandoned reason and poured every ounce of energy into obsession, he had already taken several steps inside the portal.
‘Is he seriously trying to enter the portal? Can he really handle three Narguls alone?’
Even for a Skeleton Knight that would be difficult. And it was something I could not allow. I didn’t know the exact situation outside the hidden dungeon, but a Skeleton Knight was a rare monster worth harvesting.
‘Hand over your skills, you bastard!’
The momentary burst of speed he had shown while fighting me might not be a skill, but even without it, both [Superior Commander] and [Forgotten Ancient Swordsmanship] were incredibly tempting traits. Especially that swordsmanship! I wanted to snatch it and devour it whole!
I approached the Skeleton Knight who had finally crossed the passage, remaining hidden.
Flame Slash
Crunch—! Crack— Thud!
The Skeleton Knight, distracted, took all three strikes of Flame Slash head-on.
[SWOOOOO?!]
‘I don’t know what’s going on with you, but I’ll give you a hand!’
I seized the Skeleton Knight—who now had five Flame Marks stacked on him—by the waist and hurled him straight through the portal toward the Nargul bastards. It hadn’t shown when we exchanged sword blows, but my strength far surpassed his. The bony fellow floated helplessly into the air and flew toward Nargul.
‘Time to bounce—’
Of course I darted out of the portal immediately afterward.
[NATALAAAAAAN──!]
All three Narguls screamed the Skeleton Knight’s name at once, voices filled with shock. They tried to put distance between themselves and him, but it was already too late.
At that exact moment, the flying Skeleton Knight’s eyes met mine perfectly.
Grin—
‘—?!’
For an instant it looked as if he smiled faintly upon seeing me. Was it my imagination?
To shake off the chill crawling down my spine, I gathered every ounce of magic power I possessed.
Giiiiiiiiiiiiii─────
As my magic power surged, a sharp tearing sound like space itself was being ripped apart exploded outward in every direction. The Flame Marks blooming across the Skeleton Knight’s body resonated with that energy and formed a perfect pentagram.
And then—
Flame Explosion
KWAAAAAAAANG──!
Jet-black flames that resembled pure darkness swallowed both the Skeleton Knight and the Narguls at once and roared upward toward the ceiling.
‘Urgh— it’s incredible no matter how many times I see it!’
It looked far more powerful than the explosion I had used against the golden Werewolf last time.
You have defeated Natalan Jackmon, ruler of the Hidden Dungeon - Lair of the Corrupted Knight!
The trait Thievery has activated.
You randomly steal a skill from the Skeleton Knight!
You have acquired the skill Phantom Dash!
Experience points increase significantly!
Your level has risen!
‘Ah, so it really was a skill.’
"Consumes 10 health to increase movement speed by 20% for 5 seconds."
⟨ Phantom Dash ⟩
‘Hmm… The exchange rate is a little ambiguous, but it should still help me land Flame Slash much more reliably.’
It was a reasonably useful skill. It was a shame I couldn’t steal a trait, but there was nothing to be done about it.
‘My health will rise a bit once I obtain some artifacts.’
You have acquired a new skill. The achievement Pioneer activates!
All stats increase by 1!
‘Yeah! That feels amazing!’
There was still one more gift-giver left.
You have defeated the dungeon ruler Nargul!
The trait Thievery has activated.
You randomly steal a skill from Nargul!
You have acquired the skill Arcane Deflection!
Experience points increase significantly!
Your level has risen!
‘Oh! Arcane Deflection! So now I can bend the trajectory of magic too!’
The achievement Pioneer has activated!
All stats increase by 1!
A pleasant tingling ran through me.
‘Kuuuh… Two consecutive all-stats +1! How thrilling! But did I only manage to kill one Nargul? No way—did two of them survive that explosion? Is that even possible?’
It seemed only one had been fully caught in the blast radius. The portal had already vanished, so I couldn’t check on their condition.
With Irmana’s Blessing and the Nargul dungeon buff fully applied, the Pioneer achievement had raised every stat by two. Adding the level-up points on top, my overall power had risen to a clearly noticeable degree.
‘Whew— at this point I could probably hold my own against the Skeleton Knight in pure physical strength.’
Unfortunately the Skeleton Knight had already disappeared into the distance, so I would have to wait for the next opportunity.
“Huh? Where’s the Skeleton Knight—?”
“He charged into the portal and then there was a sudden explosion!”
“Skeleton Soldier Ilwol charged in and shoved him through!”
“Wait, didn’t he slash him with a sword and throw him?”
The hunters had somehow managed to notice my actions amid the chaos, yet few had grasped exactly what I had done.
“What was that massive explosion? Did the Narguls do that to him?”
“I didn’t know those things had that kind of power… It was insanely strong.”
“Three of them were clustered together, so it wouldn’t be strange if they used something besides Arcane Deflection—maybe another attack spell at the same time.”
“Still, thanks to that the portal is closed! Let’s finish off the rest quickly! Something about the whole situation feels off!”
A few of the more perceptive hunters already seemed to sense it.
‘The aftershock of the Flame Explosion is finally arriving.’
Rumble rumble rumble—!
The entire cavern shook as if struck by an earthquake. Cracks spiderwebbed across the walls. Because the explosion had occurred far away, the shockwave reached us with a slight delay. The tremors were impossible to ignore, so the hunters poured out every last ounce of strength to eliminate the remaining monsters.
Having lost both the Skeleton Knight and Nargul—the two great mountains that had held them together—the monsters were clearly thrown into disarray. On top of that they had lost all their buffs, so cleaning them up was as easy as eating cold porridge. It was almost impressive how those two monsters had made this ragtag bunch fight like well-trained soldiers.
All monsters in the area have been defeated!
The trait Obsession hurriedly collects and organizes the mana stones scattered across the battlefield.
You have obtained your 766th mid-grade mana stone in this dungeon!
‘Whew… Is it finally over?’
Even so, the undead I killed at the end had netted me more than twenty million won in mana stones alone. That was only because the spikes covering my body had done the work of seasoning the kills; originally I should have harvested well over a thousand. What a shame.
Rumble— Thud!
Once every monster had been cleared, a massive staircase carved from stone descended from the farthest corner of the ceiling.