Skeleton Summoning in the Deer Meadow
After laying down on the summoning bed, Baek Seol scurried up onto my chest and stared at me. "Play!"
"Huh? You already played your heart out. You still want more?"
"Eung!"
She still seemed fired up from all the attention the viewers had given her. "Hmm, it's nighttime though. That could be dangerous."
Back when we went to the mountain, some bird of prey had tried to dive at her. Besides, the only safe place for her to play at this hour was inside the rooftop room. Still, watching her dig in the dirt on the mountain had been nicer than seeing her stuck in a concrete jungle.
While I was thinking it over, Baek Seol started poking at my fingers. Her belly was all puffed up from eating well tonight. "Ehehe, Baek Seol's ears, aahng!"
"Ate!"
"Baek Seol's cheeks, aahng!"
"Meow!"
When I stroked her, she squeezed her eyes shut. "Let's go play. You remember the place we went last time?"
"Fun!"
The moment Baek Seol waved her front paws, the world flipped over. Before I could even smell the grass rushing in, everything flipped again. When I opened my eyes, I was inside a familiar building. Come to think of it, I had been on my way to complain to Yoo Bit-na about the workshop not being to my liking, then came straight back.
Knock knock.
"Come in."
When I opened the door, Yoo Bit-na looked at me with a bored expression. "Weren't you going to the workshop? And when did you change clothes again?"
"It wasn't the workshop I was looking for. Do you know any place with good air and clean water?"
"Suddenly?"
"Yeah."
Yoo Bit-na gave me a suspicious look, like she was trying to figure out what I was plotting. I didn't look away, and eventually she let out a small sigh. "There's a dungeon the Silver Wing Guild uses for picnics."
"They hold picnics inside a dungeon?"
"It's a non-aggressive FF-rank open dungeon, so it's fine. It's one we manage. You going?"
"I'd appreciate it if you let me in."
Yoo Bit-na scribbled something on a sheet of paper and handed it over. The document was filled with details about dungeon entry permission. "It's only a ten-minute walk."
"Thanks."
Yoo Bit-na nodded, her face heavy with fatigue. Once I stepped outside the building, the sun was still blazing overhead. The contrast felt jarring. I walked a little with Baek Seol and, just like Yoo Bit-na said, found a quiet park nearby. A single person wearing a Silver Wing Guild uniform stood guarding the gate.
"Over here."
When I showed her the paper Yoo Bit-na had written, she stared blankly for a moment. "You may enter."
"Neng."
Whatever way the guild was being run, everyone looked exhausted. "Baek Seol, let's go play."
"Fun!"
The moment I stepped into the gate, the environment changed in an instant.
"Huu— Nice."
Just as Yoo Bit-na had said, it was an incredibly peaceful place. Deer grazed leisurely across a wide field. Warm sunlight poured down pleasantly. I spread a mat under the shade of a large tree and lay down, feeling my whole body relax.
"Baek Seol, don't go too far, okay?"
"Eung!"
The words had barely left my mouth before she was dashing across the meadow. She looked like a fish in water. I was starting to feel drowsy from the languid atmosphere, but I couldn't close my eyes because I was worried about Baek Seol. When I lifted my head slightly, I saw her chasing butterflies. Baek Seol was a rabbit who knew how to pick coconuts and use magic. On top of that, she was a rabbit who had smelled the scent of the Great Return Pill and eaten the Honey Return Pill.
"Huu—"
No matter how well she could roll a ball, this was still a dungeon. The deer that had been grazing only glanced over occasionally before going back to their own business. From the looks of it, Yoo Bit-na was right—they really did seem like non-aggressive monsters.
Ding!
When I opened the skill window and searched under summoning, a ton of skills popped up. The cheapest one sitting at the very top caught my eye.
Summons a skeleton.
Price: 1,000,000 won
There were plenty of skills that could protect Baek Seol, but I couldn't understand why Skeleton Summon was the cheapest. In the game, it was considered a pretty strong ability, so why was it like this here? From my experience so far, I knew that no matter what, skills were worth their price. Since there was no stacking message, that probably meant this was the end of it.
"Huu—"
Ding!
Crack crack crack!
The moment I pressed the purchase button, the sound of bones clacking together rose from the ground, and a single skeleton shot up.
"Whoa, that scared me."
The pure white bones turned its skull toward me, empty eye sockets meeting my gaze. Seeing it in person, the grotesque sight almost made curses slip out. "Hey."
Clack!
"Agh, that scared me again."
It actually moved. Instead of answering, it clacked its teeth together. I had definitely pressed the skill purchase, and the skull had popped out right away. "Look over there. See that deer? Try hunting it."
Crack!
The skeleton's head spun 180 degrees like an owl's. Every single movement was so bizarre it made me want to swear. "Damn it, just move your body."
After hesitating for a moment and checking where I pointed, the skeleton shuffled toward the deer. A little later, once it reached the deer, it waved its hands around. Thud! The stag that had been peacefully grazing lightly shook its antlers, and the skeleton shattered instantly. Seeing it turn to dust, it seemed like it was single-use.
"Worth the money."
When I summoned another one, I roughly understood what was going on. Seeing the money disappear, that wasn't the skill price—it was the price of one skeleton. In other words, it was an ability that turned money into trash.
Tap.
While I was examining the skeleton, Baek Seol, who had been playing, came over and placed the flower she had been holding on my thigh. It was a small white flower called clover. "You're giving it to me?"
"Eung!"
When I stroked Baek Seol, her body went limp. "Thanks."
"Eung!"
After curiously inspecting the skeleton once, Baek Seol scurried off again. Normally she would be scared, but this rabbit had no preconceptions at all.
Crack crack.
"Huu— What am I supposed to use you for?"
Clack!
Maintaining the skeleton didn't take any particular effort, but it was way too weak. A one-million-won skeleton couldn't even hunt a single deer that was supposedly FF-rank. It would probably make more money just working part-time at the haunted house. "How many of you would it take to catch one deer?"
Clack clack clack!
"Ugh."
It couldn't even run properly, just shuffled around. "Summon."
Ding!
Thinking two might be enough to catch a deer, I summoned another one. The ground rumbled and another skeleton shot up. "Huh?"
At the same time, a message appeared before my eyes.
The two skeletons looked down at me. The message kept blinking. "Synthesize."
Crack!
Crack crack!
The two skeletons, surrounded by black light, merged together with a loud clatter of bones.
Ding!
The name had changed from trash to slightly less trash. "Huu—"
The merged skeleton moved its neck as if following cigarette smoke. Nothing else seemed particularly different. "One step left."
Clatter.
"One step right."
Clatter.
It followed orders well. Just in case, I tried giving commands with my thoughts, and it moved fine. A two-million-won skeleton now. "Can you run?"
Clatter clatter.
When I ordered it, it started jogging slowly. The one-million-won skeleton marked as stage 0 had shuffled like it had undergone major surgery, but this one was a bit better. "Hit that tree."
Thud!
Crack!
Along with the noise, I heard the sound of bones breaking. Its arm bone was half-broken and dangling. Just like Newton said—without the hardness of bone to support it, the reaction force from the strike caused this mess. Integrating force over time produces momentum, and momentum is conserved. That meant the two-million-won skull had struck the tree with enough force to break its own bones.
"Return."
Clatter.
The skeleton just stood there blankly, as if asking what kind of order that was. It seemed it didn't respond to commands it couldn't execute. "Hmm."
When I opened my inventory space and gave the order, the skeleton slowly walked inside. After waiting a moment, I opened the space again, and it came back out. Since food inside the inventory didn't spoil, I had wondered if it had some magical treatment that made it uninhabitable for living beings, but fortunately the skeleton seemed fine. "Go catch a deer."
Clack clack!
Even after something like an evolution, it still wanted to keep clacking its teeth. The skeleton I ordered ran slowly with its broken arm bone dangling. Soon it began fighting the antlered stag.
What I had figured out so far was that a two-million-won skeleton could wrestle with an FF-rank deer before collapsing. If I could merge them one more time, it would obviously get much better. Skills I had just learned were inefficient to the point of screwing me over sometimes. But the fact that skills improved rapidly the more they stacked was an unchanging law.
Crack crack!
The ground rumbled and three skeletons shot up. Crack! Crack crack! I immediately merged two of them, leaving two different types.
"One more time!"
The worn skeleton and the worn and ugly skeleton stood completely still without moving an inch. Only after summoning one more skeleton and creating two stage-1 skeletons did the synthesis message appear. I still couldn't be sure, but it seemed the mechanism required merging same-stage skeletons.
Crack!
Ding!
"Oh!"
The bones of the skeleton, which had looked ready to break at any moment, had become smooth. The color of the bones was beautiful. It had taken four basic skeletons to create a stage-2 skeleton, meaning it cost a total of four million won. So making a stage-3 would cost eight million won. "Kya, as expected of a saint, I should at least summon skeletons."
"Good!"
Baek Seol, who had been chasing butterflies, had returned at some point and climbed up onto my shoulder. "Next."