Re:Monster - Re:Vival

Day Six

The skeletons of the next floor were stronger than the last and seemed to show some semblance of teamwork. It wasn't anything to be proud of, but it was nice to know that they were getting stronger. Unfortunately, their growth rate was far slower than my own, leaving me lacking any meaningful foe that could help me get even stronger. I suppose it had only been a few days since I was revived so I shouldn't get too impatient.

Though I had to keep reminding myself of this, I could feel something inside of me pushing me to become as strong as possible as fast possible. Like a cold sweat or maybe even dread. What was I dreading though? What kind of feeling or being was it that could have ingrained such fear inside of me without me knowing what it was?

I had to push those uncomfortable thoughts to the back of my skull as more skeletons made themselves known. Three of them. Two ordinary skeletons with rusty, iron swords and one skeleton who seemed different. I thanked my lucky stars that the abnormal appeared. After all, something outside the normal meant It had a pretty good chance of giving me a skill.

It was the same height as the others, holding a spear in both hands. Even it's clothing was just like the rest. So what made it abnormal? The colour. It's bones were bright red. I hadn't come across a skeleton with that kind of unique appearance yet so I was admittedly rather excited.

The two swordsman skeletons came at me first, striking from the sides while the red spearman kept to mid-range, stabbing at me through the gaps in our movements. I had to give it credit for the being able to do the basics. That wouldn't be enough though.

With my mace in my right hand, I countered the skeleton's swords, knocking them off balance before activating [Slash]. Although I'm sure they had [Slash Resistance], the same as me, it wouldn't mean much when I aimed for the joints in their necks with [Increased Arm Strength] active. They were quickly decapitated, leaving just me and the red spearman to face off.

It thrust, I parried, it knew how to keep its distance. Neither of us were going to get anywhere like this. One of us needed to take the next step. Push when we'd been pulling. Pulling... good idea.

I sheathed my sword in preparation. The next time the red spearman thrust it's spear towards me, I dodged to the side, grabbing ahold of the shaft with my free hand. I firmly planted myself in position with [Increased Leg Strength] before using [Increased Arm Strength] and [Throw] as I rotated my body and flung the skeleton across the corridor.

With the skeleton still recovering and the spear now in my possession, I readied myself in a javelin throw-position. After getting my balance and aim right, I used [Sharpen] to increase the odds of a kill and followed up with [Throw] again, tossing the sharpened spear towards the skeleton. Unfortunately, the spear missed anything vital, chipping the bone before getting lodged in the ground.

The skeleton struggled to free itself as the spear, stuck between its spine and ribcage, kept it in an awkward position. With the skeleton trapped, I sauntered towards it, gripping my mace tightly. Moments before I ended it, the red skeleton did the unthinkable. It breathed fire. The flames caught on my gear but I was able to quickly step back out of the stream of flames and use [Pyrokinesis] to quell the burning leather.

I looked back at the skeleton, watching as it flared at me, forcing flames out of its skull in my direction in a feeble attempt to take me down. From my perspective, the perspective of the victor, there was no point to the fight. Even if it somehow managed to kill me, what would that really accomplish? Maybe it would get out but it's injured. It wouldn't be long before a human came along and finished it off. Honestly, it seemed pitiful now.

Unfortunately, I didn't really have anything else to throw at the poor bugger so sitting there waiting was the best I could do. Well, that was until I remembered the skill I'd recently obtained from the Greater Skeleton. [Lesser Summoning: Undead] proved to match its name. I was able to summon four basic skeletons, each wielding a single, one-handed weapon each.

It would do. They seemed to understand my intentions without the need for me to speak, or perhaps it was simply because they were my summons, so I had them surround the stationary red spearman and used [Issue Command] to have them strike it when it's attention was focused on one of the others. I ended up losing three skeletons like that, though it wasn't long before I was able to summon four more to take their place. Eventually, I think the red spearman gave up and I was able to deal the final blow.

{Skill Gained: [Thrust] [Flame Breath]}

{Blessing Gained: [Demigod of Fire]}

I was surprised. I would have thought the divine ruler of fire would be something more than a "Demigod". Maybe there was some kind of divine politics I wasn't aware of. If that was the case, I decided then and there that I would continue to remain unaware of it. Politics had never been my thing. Bunch of old people lying to everyone about making things better only to fill their pockets or abuse their authority. Didn't matter which side they claimed to be on. Those were the types of people I killed while I was alive.

The clacking of bones pulled me away from my thoughts. I'd almost forgotten about the skeletons I summoned. I had four left, though only two of them were intact.

Looking at the group, I got a fantastic idea. First, I had them follow me until I found another skeleton. Then I sent one of the injured skeletons over to it. Not to fight or cause a fuss, mind you, only to get close. I wanted to see whether my summons would be recognised as enemies by the dungeon's mobs, at least when I hadn't ordered them to hunt.

I received an affirmative when the skeleton turned to face my summon for a few seconds before carrying on its way. That would be incredibly useful. After calling back the injured skeleton, I summoned four more. At first, I thought I'd have four pairs of two summoned skeletons do the searching for me, mapping out the floor to speed things up. Then I realised that the two injured skeletons were in no shape for such a thing. In the end, I decided to split my summons into three pairs, ordering one of them to mercy-kill the injured skeletons. Perhaps it would make them stronger.

With the teams ready, I sent them off in different directions while I stayed behind for the first rest I'd had since awakening in this place. Not to say I slept or anything. I physically can't do that. No, I checked my gear and skills, looking over what they do and seeing if I could come up with any interesting or useful combinations and strategies.

Lastly, I decided to see if I could get that weird voice to speak up again. Mostly by asking random questions that seemed like they'd have some kind of relation to the things it's already talked to me about. I'm not proud to say that it took thirty minutes to come up with the question "What level am I?".

{36}, was the answer, by the way. If I assumed that the max level was 99 or 100, then I still had a fair ways left to go and depending on whether I needed the same or more experience per level-up, I could be level 100 by anywhere between the tenth or final floor, whatever number that would be. My bet was on 25.