Even a Skeleton Needs Style
Thud.
Do-ha stepped into Canteas's studio apartment and set his dimensional bag down by the front door.
"What the hell is this…"
He looked around the room and let out a hollow laugh.
A month ago he had found the place for Canteas and never once come back. Today was only his second visit, and the atmosphere had changed completely.
"Where did you even learn to do all this?"
The whole room was done in white, beige, and gray, with white-toned curtains. One wall held a glass picture frame edged with soft LED strip lighting. A beam projector hung from the ceiling, and the opposite wall had a screen installed specifically for it.
"Lighting by the bed… and you even put plants on the windowsill?"
"Well?! Looks great, right?"
"…"
Canteas puffed up with pride and gave a little shrug of his shoulders. Do-ha just stared at him blankly.
He decorated it well enough, sure — but does he actually think this suits a skeleton…?
"I looked it up. There's a ton of studio apartment decorating content out there. So I made it match my vibe."
"And you think this matches?"
Does he honestly believe a room this pretty suits a skeleton? Shouldn't he have stuck a few skulls in the corners, hung some cobwebs, and gone for something properly grim?
"That's prejudice. Even a skeleton with nothing but bones needs a little brightness."
"You mean you died by fire? Brightness as in hwa-sa — death by flame…"
"Oh, come on! I worked hard on this!"
"No, the room looks good. It just doesn't suit you at all. Beige? Seriously…"
Do-ha shook his head and started taking off his shoes.
"Wait!"
"Ah, what now!"
Thud.
"Put these on."
"…You've got to be kidding me."
Canteas held out a pair of slippers, and Do-ha's irritation spiked.
Indoor slippers. In a studio apartment. Now.
It wasn't that he had a problem with slippers existing in a one-room place.
"You're nothing but bones — why are you even wearing slippers?!"
"These are for guests."
"And what guests do you have besides me?"
"Exactly. They're for you."
"Ugh."
In the end, Do-ha slipped them on and stepped inside.
"Hey."
"Yeah?"
"You're nothing but bones. Why did you buy body wash?"
The bottle sitting in the bathroom left him speechless. At this point it looked less like a tenant and more like someone who had murdered the original occupant and stolen the place.
Toothpaste. A toothbrush. And foam cleanser — why was there foam cleanser???
"I still have to take care of myself! I don't want to smell!"
"Did you live like this back in Belhart too?"
"Yeah."
Even then, he had decorated his own space however he liked. No LED lights or beam projectors, of course, but he had made it similarly nice.
"Being a skeleton doesn't mean you have to live like you're in a dungeon, my child."
"Don't do the Shaolin monk voice."
Zip. Clatter.
Do-ha pulled several mana stones straight out of his dimensional bag.
"…You're really going to do this?"
"Of course. You getting stronger helps me."
"I already work hard collecting mana stones! And I lure monsters!"
"Beyond that, you're useless."
"…That's so mean."
Canteas's face crumpled with wounded pride.
Whoosh.
"Ugh, why is there a carpet on the floor."
"Hey! That's an expensive rug!"
Do-ha kicked the beige rug aside, and Canteas nearly had a heart attack. That thing had sold out — he had waited two full weeks to buy it.
"Hmm…"
Watching Canteas carefully gather the rug back up, Do-ha narrowed his eyes.
Seeing it in person… this guy really does treasure every single object. No — not just the objects. He treasures the space itself.
"Canteas. Don't you want a bigger place? Somewhere you can decorate with a lot more stuff?"
"Well, of course I do."
"If you cooperate properly, I'll buy you a whole house instead of a studio. How about it?"
"Oh… for real?"
"Not a studio like this — a two-story house. Then you can decorate the interior however you want, and the yard too."
"Ooooh…"
Do-ha sidled closer and sweet-talked him. Canteas's eyes lit up.
A two-story house with a yard — he could make it so much prettier. He had already been frustrated for ages by how little he could do with just a studio.
"We could even expand and build a basement. You could put a research lab down there."
"Deal! I'm in."
Hooked by Do-ha's coaxing, Canteas nodded with pure excitement on his face.
What a sucker.
Do-ha smiled to himself. He had been worried about how to talk the uncooperative skeleton around. Violence would have worked, sure — but long-term, sweet-talking him like this was far better.
"All right. Let's draw a magic circle on the floor."
"Got it!"
Scramble.
Thrilled at the prospect of a house, Canteas started sketching the magic circle at top speed — without a single thought for the agony the mana conversion technique was about to put him through.
Crack.
Crackle-crackle-CRACK!
"Gyaaaaah!"
Hissss.
Smoke rose from every bone as Canteas screamed and collapsed where he stood.
"Hmm… so not all the energy extracted from the mana stones is getting absorbed."
One one-hundredth. Only a tiny fraction was converting into mana and being taken in.
Higher-grade mana stones would convert more power, then.
Even if they converted everything they had on hand, he wasn't sure how much would actually accumulate.
Clatter. Clink-clink-clink.
Do-ha cleared away the faded stones and set fresh ones down in their designated positions, one after another.
"Why did I ever agree to this…"
Canteas stared blankly at the ceiling, soul half gone from his body.
I got so excited about the house that I made a terrible decision, didn't I…
"How much power have you built up so far?"
They had run the process ten times total. Fifteen mana stones per run. That was already a hundred and fifty stones burned through.
"I've gone up… half a Circle…"
"Only half a Circle?!"
Do-ha jolted in surprise. He had expected at least a full Circle — half was absurd. A hundred and fifty mana stones, and the efficiency was abysmal even by low standards.
"Ha. Emilton could have made this a lot more efficient."
His old comrade and friend Emilton came to mind unbidden. She was so gifted at invention and research that even the dwarves acknowledged her. In real-world terms, she was a genius scientist.
"Back in Belhart, you should've taken this to Emilton. She would've improved it."
"It's not like I never thought of that…"
"But?"
"I was afraid she'd experiment on me, so I kept quiet."
"Fair enough."
Do-ha nodded. She was absolutely the type to do exactly that.
She once experimented on me with a demon horn I'd brought her, after all…
If Canteas had gone to her, he never would have escaped her hands.
"Let's convert the rest of the mana stones too."
Efficiency be damned — they were going to use every stone he had brought.
"Uh… how many are left…?"
"About eight hundred?"
"Waaaaaah!"
And so, all through the night, Canteas howled in agony.
Zwoooom.
Summon Wraith
Kyaaaaah!
Kyaak!
"Heh heh heh heh."
As the ghost-type monsters — wraiths — answered his summons, Canteas broke into a grin. Enduring a full night of torment had paid off. He had gained power. Look at this sight. The wraiths he had called were toying with hundreds of monsters.
"Nothing can stop me now!"
Whoosh. Smack!
"Ow!"
A flying shard from the battle cracked him in the head, and Canteas rubbed the spot.
"Ugh…"
Watching him, Do-ha let out a sigh.
Look at him — one little Circle boost and he drops his guard immediately. He's barely Fourth Circle and already getting cocky like an idiot. Anyone watching would think he'd hit Eighth.
Still, we got a decent haul by the end.
Trying this and that, they had found a method slightly more efficient than the original. Thanks to that, Canteas had climbed one full step from Third Circle to Fourth.
Dumping more mana stones in from here won't mean anything.
The low grade left them without enough punch. Put simply, the output was too weak. Low-grade stones held little mana to begin with, and the force they released was feeble. There was no explosive surge of power. Even the Fourth Circle they had managed was only barely formed because they had kept the connection going without cutting it off at the end.
"Canteas. I get that you're excited, but don't let your guard down."
"Don't worry!"
"You didn't even notice a flying shard. What am I not supposed to worry about?"
"…"
"Harpy coming in over your head."
"Where?!"
Shwoooosh!
Dark Ball
BOOM!
Canteas snapped a spell into place, forming a sphere of pitch-black darkness and detonating it.
Thud-thud-thud.
Hmm. Still, things are definitely easier now.
As harpy corpses and mana stones rained down, Do-ha nodded to himself. On the ground, ghouls and skeletons were already drawing aggro from the monster horde, while Canteas surveyed the battlefield from the air and kept summoning undead at just the right pace so the numbers never thinned. That left Do-ha free to handle only the powerful monsters one-on-one.
"Do-ha! I think I need help soon!"
"Not yet."
Watching the situation in silence, he shook his head. There was a monster he absolutely had to catch today.
"A- and B-rank monsters are starting to pour in!"
C- and D-ranks his undead could handle, but anything above that left him with nothing but stalling. At best he could scratch them.
"Hold on a little longer. Until the one I told you about shows up…"
"There! That minotaur you mentioned is charging in!"
Cutting Do-ha off, Canteas pointed.
"GROOOOAR!"
BOOM-BOOM-BOOM!
A minotaur gripping a massive axe came barreling through, hurling monsters aside at terrifying speed.
"There he is. Beef boy."
The minotaur was a B-rank monster — the one he had been hunting for hours.
Wooooom!
Blink × Geumganggwon — Vajra Fist
Whoosh!
BOOOOM!
"GROOOOAR!"
Do-ha blinked into range and drove a fist into the monster's gut. The minotaur clutched its stomach and screamed.
Ssshhh.
Wind Blade
Shwoooosh.
As the minotaur dropped to its knees, a sword of wind formed in Do-ha's hand. He had a real blade of his own, but the Plum Blossom Falling form worked better with a Wind Blade.
Wooooom!
His sword began to flush pink.
Twenty-Four Hands Plum Blossom Sword Art
Fifth Form — Plum Blossom Falling
Slash-slash-slash-slash-slash!
"GRAAAAH!"
Blood streamed down.
Plum blossom petals whirling on the wind carved through the minotaur's body, and blood began to flow across the cracked asphalt.
Plum Blossom Falling really does pair perfectly with Wind Blade.
Watching the petals whip through the air at blistering speed, Do-ha smiled. He had always felt it — mana and internal energy clashed with each other, yet when actually used together, their compatibility was outstanding.
Drip. Flutter.
"Why aren't you killing it? You keep just wounding it."
Canteas dropped down beside him and eyed the minotaur. It didn't look like Do-ha was toying with it out of boredom — he was wounding it with deliberate precision, as if he refused to let it die easily and only wanted it to suffer.
"Got a grudge against that thing?"
"Of course not."
"Then why not finish it?"
"I need its blood."
"Huh?"
Canteas tilted his head at that. If he needed the blood, why wasn't he collecting it? It was seeping down between the cracks in the road.
"So that's why you told me to call out if I saw a minotaur. But if you need it, shouldn't you be scooping that up?"
"No. No need."
Do-ha shook his head and looked toward a ruined apartment building in the distance.
Rumble.
"There. It's reacting."
A massive tremor rolled out from the abandoned complex, and he smiled.
"Uh… uh… is that—?"
Something enormous launched skyward from the upper floors of the apartment, and Canteas nearly jumped out of his bones. If he wasn't seeing things, that was a monster neither he nor Do-ha could currently handle.
"Aaaagh! Hey! That's a manticore!"
"Correct. Its favorite food is minotaur."
The wounded minotaur thrashing and spreading the scent of blood had been enough to draw the manticore from far away.