BXBX NOVEL Chapter 175 One step closer
Jay gestured to go deeper into the room – he didn’t actually mean to retreat, but to get a little further away and keep shooting at it; unknown to Jay, it was typically called kiting.
Anya gave him a confused look for a moment but happily grabbed her crossbow and began to run too.
The statue almost seemed disappointed seeing this, it had made all the effort to materialise a fragment of a distant memory, one of its soul-bound sword – now the enemies simply run from it?
This was like a slap in the face.
*BOOM!~*
In its anger it immediately launched one of its stone swords at Anya – but unlike Jay, she was simply too fast and agile.
Immediately she went into the black mist and re-materialised behind a few weapon shelves with her crossbow ready to fire.
*Pshew!~ Phoonk!~*
Needless to say, the statue didn’t expect this at all; after losing its target, another bolt suddenly pierced its chest. It had no time to deflect it at all.
*BOOM!~* tat tat
[8]
Jay flung one of his unstable teeth while it was looking for Anya again. He and the skeletons took advantage of every moment it paused. They were becoming quite an efficient killing force.
The statue was slowing down, and weakness began to spread across its body. Its transparent ghostly sword disappeared as it dropped its arm to the side..
The floating sword behind it got slower and now the skeletons were taking full advantage of it as they smashed their hammers at it with no remorse or honour.
Finally the statue dropped to its knees, collapsing. Its floating sword dropping to the ground and shattering.
[800 Exp]
Jay exhaled, it was finally over, It was slain.
The skeletons were still smashing it and turning its body to chunks, but Jay ordered them to loot it first, bringing him the rewards.
[Greater Soul stone] (Empty) x 1
[Helvetian Ring] x 8
“Finally, another greater soul stone.” Jay smiled, “I knew there would be one in this pyramid… Oh, eight rings? Nice.” Jay nodded.
Anya ran back to Jay after she saw the statue fall.
“Here’s your cut.” Jay gave her four of the rings.
“Thanks.” she nodded, looking over the statue.
Jay looked a little more closely at the statues’ gauntlets as they seemed to be exotic compared to the other statues, but after touching and holding them closer it was clear they were just stone. Purely ornamental.
He sent his feeble creature to grab his luminous orb so he could see a little more clearly as he looked around the rest of its body, though there was nothing to grab, and nothing of use.
“Well, I’ll see what the others have…” he looked around the room for the truth guards.
Jay got two more helvetian rings from them and checked over their bodies, recalling their ability to cast magical spells.
There was a strange coating on them. It was extremely thin and see-through but it felt smooth to the touch, similar to a varnished table.
Jay tried to scratch some off, but it was of no use; bringing a dagger out of his inventory he finally managed to scrape a piece away – but it suddenly evaporated into nothingness.
“Dammit…” he pursed his lips, “I guess this belongs to the truth guards even in death.” he tossed the piece of stone he had scraped it off back to the ground.
“Alright, let’s see how close I am to finishing this quest.”
<[Hidden Quest – Soul Liberation]>
[Gather soul stones and bring them to Sedulus]
[Progress]
– Soul stone: 420/500
– Large Soul stone: 2/2
– Greater Soul stone: 2/3
[Rewards]
– 3 Skills: Mind, Mark, Host.
– Weapon: Sedulus’s war spear.
At first the quest rewards seemed really generous, but now it seemed like an appropriate reward for the hard work he put in.
Jay wondered if it was somehow made harder because he asked for more rewards, but still, he had solo’d most of the dungeon so far so that would have naturally made it harder. Being a necromancer, he didn’t have any idea how hard it would be for normal adventurers; there was no way to gauge it.
Either way, he was managing it well.
“One more greater soul stone… hmm. And two more pyramids? Odd…” Jay scratched his chin.
“Wait, fuck! Did Hessven drop a greater soul stone? Dammit, he jumped into a fucking furnace!” Jay kicked the remains on the truth guard in anger, only causing it to fall apart even more.
“Come to think of it, why did Hessven have a name and this one didn’t?” Jay tilted his head and looked up in thought.
“Hmm… I guess the sword whisperer was dishonoured, so perhaps that’s part of it?”
“Oh well…” he frowned with a shrug.
Walking back to Anya, he was still a little disappointed after realising there was no loot from Hessven.
Anya saw Jay with a solemn expression again after the battle, but again, she decided not to ask about it.
After all, the choice to enter battle always came with the potential for personal sacrifice and hardship, but many never realise the choice of inaction also comes with sacrifice.
The skeletons were waiting next to the bone pile; some were eating to recover health and armour while Blue stood by and watched over them. Jay thought that he seemed like a worthy commander, watching over his troops while they went about their business.
The pile got smaller so Jay gave them a warm smile and added more bones.
“Hey… you aren’t injured… Why are you eating?” Jay gazed at the small skeleton.
It neither made any sense that it would eat since it didn’t get the bone eater skill till level three – but that’s when he realised why.
“Oh, you levelled up. Good.” Jay patted it.
Anya grimaced a little seeing Jay patting the skeleton, there was something discomforting about it.
As it ate, it grew before their eyes as its bones creaked, cracked and reformed. It was still below shoulder height but much taller than it was.
“Well, I suppose I should name you.” Jay looked around, “Dark.”
“Aw, no ceremony?” Anya teased with a smile.
“Nope. You should never declare an assassin. It defeats the purpose” Jay said as if it were a matter of fact.
Anya shook her head with a smile as she looked at the young level two skeleton, twirling its dual daggers.
“It seems like it’s getting used to them again… now that its body is bigger” Anya thought.
“Shouldn’t be long till Red levels up either…” Jay said, hoping Red would get an interesting role choice.
The skeletons had already collected all their weapons, but Jay gave them another order to collect the bones too – he simply couldn’t be bothered to go around and get them himself.
The skeletons each scurried off into the dark corners of the room, each of them knew exactly where they had died so it didn’t take too long to collect their own remains, bringing them back and adding them to Jay’s bone pile.
Jay stood by waiting, and considered how he didn’t realise the skeletons had levelled up.
After all the skeletons were healthy and healed, and had gathered the bones, he gave them a new command:
“If any of you need bones, come to me.” he squinted at them.
Jay landed his eyes on Blue for a moment to make sure his order would be ingrained in their skeletal skulls.
Blue was becoming a competent leader, and strangely, Jay felt a sense of trust growing in the skeleton; the trust in its reliability.
Finally, Jay added the bone pile back into his gauntlet and gave his orb to Lamp, letting Dark continue to dual wield again.
“Hm, I wonder if Lamp gets a class from, well, literally being the lamp carrier…” he watched it for a moment as they walked to the back of the chamber.