Arris was sitting in the Safe Cavern, trying to decide what to do. If he was still a human and society hadn’t fallen yet, he would’ve gone and tried to get himself drunk, screw the fact that he was underage, the situation demanded it. Unfortunately, he wasn’t human anymore and couldn’t drink anything, let alone leave the dungeon to find a drink, so he was pretty much screwed on that count.

That didn’t mean though, that he couldn’t wallow in his own self pity. That was fairly simple to achieve, even without alcohol. In truth, despite the fact that he was a video gaming, martial art wielding, ivy league attender, he was really quite the needy guy. California Institute of Applied Sciences was a good escape from his past—it was also a good college. The faculty to student ratio was rather low, and he could find help whenever he needed it. There were always people to guide him through lab procedures, or point him in the right direction.

Now he was stuck in a dungeon for six months, with no obvious path forwards presenting itself, and nobody to tell him what to do. It was a novel experience. An incredibly daunting one. If he fucked up, he was dead, not just broke, not just flunking out of school, not just falling short of the expectations of his peers, but dead. That was pretty fucking final.

He’d come way too close to death earlier. 7 Health. If he wasn’t a skeleton with 50% resistance to dark magic he would literally be dead right now. That was his first mistake. Now that he had the assess skill, he would be sure to check everything that seemed magical before he used it. And he’d make sure to always plan before he walked into a situation. That trap had been made to kill careless noobs who thought they could cheat the System and score some free loot. The System had likely created many more traps to kill off such careless idiots. Arris would have to be sure not be a careless idiot. That would get him killed quickly.

Though one of the first steps to not being a careless idiot is to formulate a viable plan of action. Unfortunately for Arris, he had no clue what a viable course of action would be. Was exploring the dungeon solo a good idea? He felt like the first floor, with nothing but skeletons, seemed to be pretty risk free. The skeletons wouldn’t actively try to attack him, and he could use that to his advantage, getting a salvo of spells off before the fight actually began. As long as he played it right, levelling up a few times in the skeleton floor should really be no problem.

Of course then again, with nobody watching his back, some seriously nasty traps could get sprung on him without him having any inkling of their coming. If he got injured, there would be nobody to pull him out of the combat zone. And it seemed like the dungeon was for a group of people to clear, not a solo adventurer. The concentration of skeletons in the cavern he’d been in before had been huge. No single person would reasonably be able to clear them all out.

Weighing the options though, there really wasn’t much of a choice. While the dungeon surely was dangerous, what other options did he have besides exploring it? Hole up in the safe zone and pray that nothing found him? Furthermore, earlier the System had mentioned that monsters could and would enter the initial safe zone. The skeletons wouldn’t attack him, but whatever was down that other tunnel very well might. Staying in the safe zone may not actually be safe at all.

It would also be astoundingly boring. He had no pencils, no pens, no books, no iPhone, no TV, no nothing, in fact, now that he was a skeleton, he didn’t even have… other body parts to play with. He’d go insane from the inactivity over six months. There really was only one option. To go and try to clear some of the dungeon.

Though, Arris was more than a little low on health right now. He had lost a ton of health from that earlier trap on the chest and was still recovering from it. His health bar in the upper right-hand corner of his vision still only read 11/120. That was pretty much nothing. It would be idiotic to enter the dungeon without full health though. Arris guessed he just had to wait.

A little over four hours later, Arris was doing something idiotic. He was entering the dungeon without full health. After sitting around for four hours, Arris had realized the truth of the situation. Forget waiting around for six months with nothing to do. He couldn’t even make six hours. Plus, the tools he was equipped with should be more than enough for him to take out any enemy near his level. He would be fine. He just had to keep repeating that to himself.

Arris struck out down the first tunnel, the notification for him entering the tunnel popping up in front of him. He casually waved it away. After a couple minutes, he had jogged its length and was back in the cave with the labyrinth that was full of skeletons. He immediately began scoping out the skeletons which were walking on top of the Labyrinth. In total, he managed to spot seventeen, though there may be a couple more further off in the distance.

They were pretty much all low leveled. As far as he could tell, the highest level skeleton on this upper section was level 3.

Arris slowly walked around, trying to find a good target for his first attempt at a kill. Eventually, he found the perfect candidate, a level 1 Skeleton Drudge holding what looked to be a club, slightly further away than any of the other skeletons. Arris didn’t know if they’d aggro on him after he took out this first skeleton, so he was playing it safe. It should be an easy kill.

Arris raised his arms, then spoke the mental command for Condensed Aether Bolt. All of a sudden, time seemingly froze. A window popped up.

Hello Arris Graham, the World System has noticed you are attempting to cast a spell! As this is your first time using mana or a resource bar in a conscious manner, you are being given a tutorial to show you how to properly access your resource bars. First, think of your mana, then look within your core. There, you should be able to find a spark of energy. Pull on it.

Arris did so, reaching within himself mentally, questing for mana. Upon reaching a space near his stomach, Arris felt something in his mind twinge. This was the place.

Excellently done Arris!

Now, mentally attempt to cast the spell! The World System will give you a mental suggestion for a pattern. This pattern is called a spell matrix. Channeling mana through this matrix will result in the spell taking physical form! Be sure to direct your spell while casting it, or disaster may occur!

Arris mentally thought the words, Condensed Aether Bolt, and surely enough, felt the hints of a pattern gathering in his conscience. He tried to make manifest this spell matrix, and surely enough, a glowing orange pattern appeared in the air before his hands.

Congratulations, you have learned to cast spells! Good luck, and may the worthy survive!

Time then unfroze. The spell still hovered in front of Arris though, and he could still feel the mana within himself. Pulling it outwards, he fed it into the spell matrix. A second passed, then two, and Arris could see his mana bar in the upper right-hand corner rapidly draining. Another half second, and it was all gone. Now, all he was left with was a supercharged spell matrix. He mentally took aim at the skeleton and then released.

The spell matrix shuddered, and then a flash of red lightning poured forth from the spell matrix. It smashed into the skeleton, incinerating half its torso.

> You deal 208 mixed damage to Skeleton Drudge! <

> Skeleton Drudge has died! <

Arris blinked. That had been… rather impressive. He still didn’t know quite how much hp these skeletons had but… 224 damage was enough to one shot him with an extra 100 damage overkill. And his stats were probably more than a little above average. He seriously doubted that a level two skeleton would fare much better than this one had.

Over the course of the next several hours, he took out the skeletons standing on the walls of the labyrinth. His mana took roughly forty minutes to recharge, though while the wait was boring, better to play it safe than get himself killed in an aggrandizing act of stupidity. Maybe after he got a couple levels under his belt, he'd resort to more drastic tactics.

After about half a day of frying skeletons, there were only four left on the walls of the labyrinth. Condensed Aether Bolt had not ranked up, though that was to be expected, it seemed to be a higher leveled spell, and frying these skeletons didn't really take too much effort. Though aside from his lack of progression in Condensed Aether Bolt, Arris had managed to make gains in several other areas namely experience and loot. In terms of experience, it seemed he had gained 5% for every skeleton of his level, increasing by 50% for each level the skeleton had on him, and decreasing by 50% for each level below him the enemy was. In total, Arris had slain a total of twelve skeletons that were his level, and five that were level two, putting him at 97.5% of the total experience needed to make level two.

He’d also picked up a considerable amount of loot. Eight copper coins, 45.6 g Bone Powder, a battered cudgel, a sword rusted beyond use, a set of battered greaves, and more importantly, a Battered Iron Mace. When he’d first picked up his first packet of Bone Powder, which was dropped by the skeletons, the World System had shown him how to use his inventory, which was a dimensional space which could carry up to 40 kg.

Arris equipped both the iron mace, which was in far better condition than any of the other items, and the greaves, for whatever meager protection they could give him.

Battered Iron Mace

Condition: Poor

2 kg

Requirements:

13 Strength

Stats:

+15-20 Damage

Damaged Leather Greaves

Condition: Terrible

2 kg

Requirements:

8 Constitution

Stats:

+9 Defense to equipped area

With the mace equipped, his attack had risen to 22-27, considerably higher than the pitiful 5-9 it had been before. With a modicum of luck, he could kill a skeleton with his health in 5 blows. Arris was feeling considerably more secure about taking on higher leveled mobs. If Arris hit a higher leveled skeleton with his Condensed Aether Bolt before he fought it, it didn’t matter even if dealt triple the damage he did, he would likely kill it in one blow with his mace. And since it had been many hours since he’d been hit by the shadow bolt, his health had almost fully regenerated and was at 117. He could take on a level 3 skeleton, no problem.

Sighting down on one of the three level 3 skeletons on the walls of the labyrinth, Arris funneled mana into his Condensed Aether Bolt’s spell matrix. After a couple seconds, the spell was ready to cast, and Arris loosed it, sending it crackling through the air.

> You deal 197 mixed damage to Skeleton Archer! <

> Skeleton Archer has died! <

Congratulations, you have leveled up!

Arris lowered his arms, feeling a good deal of apprehension drain out of him. That hadn’t really been anything. Doing that a couple more tim—CRACK.

> Skeleton Drudge deals you 36 damage! <

Warning!

Surprise blows and blows to vital places will deal additional damage to you!

Arris lurched forwards, caught off balance by the sudden impact of a blade between his shoulders. Luckily though, as a skeleton, he felt absolutely no pain. Instead of going into a panic, Arris analyzed the situation like you would a book. His muscle memory activated and his mind went into combat mode and purged unnecessary thoughts. He quickly rolled, anticipating and dodging the next blow of the skeleton. Now looking up, and able to get a clear look at his enemy, Arris assessed it.

He should certainly be able to handle this. While the skeleton recovered from its missed, sloppy, overhead slash, Arris pulled himself back across the stone, increasing the distance between the two combatants. He lightly sprang to his feet, now out of its range.

Having actually seen the speed of the skeleton, Arris knew he’d have hardly any problem beating it. The skeleton raised its sword and stepped forwards, telegraphing the incoming lunge. Arris batted the oncoming blow away with a simple swipe, and then took a step forwards, using the combination of its momentum and his strength to launch a powerful blow into the spinal column of its neck. In a single strike, its head was smashed from its neck.

> You deal Skeleton Drudge LETHAL Damage! <

> Skeleton Drudge has died! <

Arris stood over the remains of his enemy, staring at them. That had been… really easy. He was fit, in good shape, and knew at least the basics of fighting with various weapons due to his years doing MMA, but that skeleton had been less of a challenge than members of his club with ten years less experience than him. And that was saying something, considering the fact that those kids were ten, and he could pick up half of them with one arm.

Maybe the skeleton could’ve killed an unarmed, trembling, shocked citizen who’d never been in a real fight before and had just had their world collapse around them. But to Arris, who’d been beaten bloody on several occasions, whether in the dojo or real life, knew what a real fight was like. To him, the skeleton was an easy mark. The tension eased out of his body.

Though, while he’d expected the blow to the neck to deal a lot of damage, he hadn’t quite expected it to one shot the skeleton. He guessed it made sense though. Landing a critical shot, one that would smash their heads in, should still kill them, regardless of level difference. This just meant that Arris needed to be more careful. If that skeleton had been just a little more even with his blow, and if he’d aimed just a little higher, it may be Arris’ head on the ground, not the skeleton’s.

And anyway, now that Arris considered it, the situation was weird. The blow had struck nearly his entire back, with extreme and considerable force. He felt like 36 damage for its blow and LETHAL, which was presumably a lot more was a little unbalanced. Glancing at his resource bars, Arris noticed that in addition to his health having decreased, his toughness was empty, at 0. He frowned and wondered exactly what his toughness was. In fact, toughness wasn't the only strange stat he'd received. He'd also gotten spirit since he'd become a skeleton, and Arris had no idea what either spirit or toughness were. Arris made an inquiry to the system, and descriptions for both popped up.

Toughness:

Toughness is a resource which increases a character’s resistance to all forms of physical damage. Toughness will initially substitute for Health at a ratio of 2 : 1. Toughness benefits from all the regeneration bonuses that Health does. Toughness may also be used as a resource to use abilities for certain creatures with exoskeletons or hard outer bodies.

Spirit:

Spirit is a resource most often used to cast spells. Many spells require Spirit to cast. Spirit is the raw essence of a person's soul, and should never be overtaxed. Over usage of Spirit drains both Mana and Health at a one to one ratio with the amount of Spirit used.

Those kind of made sense. The Spirit thing was pretty much just a specific resource for certain spells, it'd probably come in handy later. Arris didn't quite know why he'd gotten the resource but he wouldn't complain. Though the toughness resource made considerably more sense. As he had a hard outer frame made of bone he'd recieved the toughness resource which would absorb part of the damage of physical blows. So that blow which had dealt him 36 damage… should’ve actually dealt him 86. That made a lot more sense. Arris really would need to be a lot more careful. The next time something snuck up behind him, he may not be so lucky. 

Wait a minute. He’d let that skeleton sneak up behind him? How the hell did that skeleton get behind him? Arris was sure he’d checked to make sure there were no skeletons nearby. In fact, he’d even checked to make sure that there were no level 2 skeletons left. Where the hell had this one come from? Had it respawned next to him? If random mob respawn was part of the System, that would suck, and be entirely unbalanced. Monsters spawning on the heads of adventurers could happen with reasonable frequency, and would make exploring dungeons incredibly dangerous, likely not worth the potential profits. It was an unlikely scenario.

Looking around, Arris sought an alternative way the skeleton may have been able to sneak up on him. After several moments, Arris spotted the telltale indentation that was a stairwell. That made a lot more sense. The skeleton had been coming up the stairwell when Arris had been casting his Condensed Aether Bolt. Then when he dealt damage to the other skeleton, it had aggroed on him.

Having made sense of the situation, Arris then quickly looted the two corpses. From the drudge, he received another 0.002 kg of bone powder, and from the level three archer a copper coin and another 0.001 kg of bone powder. Then, he walked over to the stairwell, to figure out exactly what leveling up had done for him. The game hadn’t really given him any help telling him what to do, so he simply tried to open his stat page. The following screen instead popped up.

Congratulations, you have leveled up!

You have gained 6 distributable stat points! You may distribute these through your stat page which will open once you close this notification! Stat points will randomly distribute themselves 1 week after you have gained them!

Arris waved the notification away, and his stat page promptly opened. Arris now had a hard decision to make. He could either dump his stat points into wisdom or intelligence, and try to become a stronger mage, or strength or agility, and use his fighting prowess to level quickly. It didn’t take too long for Arris to make a decision. Ultimately, he went with strength, dumping all 6 stat points into the stat. While being a mage was nice, being a mage solo was an incredibly slow way of leveling. He killed skeletons at a rate of about 1 every 40 minutes. Doing it through simple melee combat would likely cut the time between kills to ten minutes. Strength would give him an edge in these fights. After distributing the points, Arris regarded his stat page with satisfaction. He was pretty damn strong.

Name: Arris Graham

Class

None

Profession

None

Titles

Trailblazer I, Original I

Synchronicity Rating

97.6

Renown

0

Level

2, 11%

Race

Human Skeleton

Health

89/125

Mana

1/220

Toughness

1/125

Spirit

80/110

Damage : 25-30

Attack Rating : 38

Defense : 3.25

Defense Rating : 21

Strength : 20

Agility : 18

Intelligence : 20

Wisdom : 22

Luck : 5

Charm : 0

Constitution : 13

Vitality : 8

Health/10sec : 0.02

Mana/10sec : 0.72

Toughness/10sec : 0.1

Spirit/10sec : 0.72

Resistances

+50% damage taken from fire-based attacks

+150% damage taken from holy sources

-50% damage taken from dark magic

+30% damage from blunt damage types

-30% damage from sharp damage types

-10% damage from magical sources

99% chance to resist mind control and other types of subversive magic

Attributes

Skeletal Frame

Lesser Undead

Immortal

Soulbound

Passive Skills

Mana Sense

Equipped Items

Crude Iron Chestplate (Chest)

Damaged Leather Greaves (Lower Legs)

Battered Iron Mace (Right Hand)

Active Skills

Assess

Condensed Aether Bolt (4) (30 CD)

Dark Blow (0) (10 CD)

Looking at his stat page, Arris realized there were multiple aspects of it which he didn’t understand. A lot of the stuff was self-explanatory, but he still didn't actually know what any of his stats actually did for him, or what any of his titles and attributes did. Arris went and pulled up the various descriptors for the things he wanted information on.

Trailblazer I

As the first one to explore an unknown region, you have been granted the title Trailblazer I!

For Rank I:

+50% Experience in Cartography based professions

+1 Luck

Original I

As the first of your race, you have been deemed an exceptional specimen and should stand at the pinnacle of your Race!

For Rank I:

+1 Stat point per level

+1 Class point per 5 levels

+1 Race point per 5 Levels

+500 Reputation with all members of your race

Skeletal Frame

As a creature with an outer coating made of bone, you have a Skeletal Frame! Having a Skeletal Frame grants access to the resource, Toughness.

Lesser Undead

Undead are strange creatures, halfway between life and death. They do not feel pain and are wholly reliant on magic to exist. Lesser undead are the weakest of all forms of undead. The following resistances are gained.

+50% damage taken from fire-based attacks

+150% damage taken from holy sources

-50% damage taken from dark magic

-90% damage taken from death magic

+30% damage from blunt damage types

-30% damage from sharp damage types

-10% damage from magical sources

99% chance to resist mind control and other types of subversive magic

Immortal

Your expected lifespan is over 100,000 years!

Soulbound

As a soul tied to an inanimate object, you are more closely linked to Aether and magic! As a result, you have gained the resource, Spirit!

Strength

Strength increases a character’s raw carrying capacity by 1 kg per point and damage dealt with melee attacks by 1 damage per 2 points. Strength also increases the literal strength of the character allowing them to lift or move more weight.

Agility

Agility increases the speed of all aspects of a character’s movement, arms, head, legs, etc. Agility also increases hand dexterity and reaction time.

Intelligence

Intelligence increases the size of a character’s mana pool by 10 per ranking. Intelligence also increases the values of any magic related resources, possibly at a different value per ranking.

Wisdom

Wisdom increases the mana regen of a character by 0.03 per ranking. Wisdom also increases the rate of regen for any magic related resources, possibly at a different value per ranking.

Constitution

Constitution increases health by 5 per ranking, also increasing the values of any resources which can substitute for health, possibly at a different value per ranking.

Vitality

Vitality increases stamina by 10 per ranking. Vitality also increases the rate of regen for all body related resources, at varying levels.

That was a lot to process. For the most part, the stats were not noteworthy, more or less what he'd expected them to be. It was the same for Soulbound, Lesser Undead, Skeletal Frame, and Trailblazer I. But the Immortal and Original I descriptors were shocking to Arris.

Glancing at his stat page earlier, Arris had seen the Immortal attribute but hadn’t really considered the implications. Now, reading the description, he finally realized the implications. He was going to live, practically until the end of time. 100,000 years was longer than modern humans had been on the planet. He’d outlive… everything.

100,000 years was a lot of time to do things with his life. All his wildest ambitions could be achieved thrice over in that span of time, and he’d still have another couple thousand of spare change. It was terrifying to contemplate. He’d live for what was essentially forever, and everyone he knew would be long gone and forgotten by the end.

Arris shook his head, clearing his thoughts of the doom and gloom, and refocusing on the Original I title. The title was absolutely broken. He didn’t exactly know what class points, racial points or relationship points were, but that extra stat point every level would prove to be broken, especially if he was Immortal. After reading the attributes over a couple more times Arris had more or less memorized them and was ready to move on.

Arris got up and walked down the stairs. He was done fighting skeletons on top of the ramparts. It was too easy to miss a stairwell leading up and get himself ambushed. He’d try his luck in the labyrinth. While he had no paper to map it on, he could compare his memory of what he’d seen from the walls to his location on his minimap to know relatively where he was.

Arris set off down the street going from house to house checking for chests containing loot while killing the skeletons he passed by. It was vastly more efficient than killing skeletons on the labyrinth walls had been. Whereas it had taken him nearly thirteen hours to get level 2 throwing spells at skeletons on top of the labyrinth, he was able to make level 3 in a mere five hours.

When Arris encountered a single skeleton, the process he used to kill it was simple. He’d creep up behind it, activate Dark Blow, and then execute it with a well-placed hit. For skeletons in pairs, he’d simply assassinate one with the same strategy, then dispatch the other with his mace. And for the one trio of skeletons which he encountered, he simply assassinated one, ran away and blasted the other with his Condensed Aether Bolt, and then dueled the third.

In total, Arris killed about twenty skeletons before he leveled up. He also gained two skill levels in Dark Blow, putting the skill to level 2. He'd been killing level 4 skeletons as well as level 1s, 2s, and 3s and it seemed he could handle any normal mob that was in the labyrinth, as he was yet to see a level 5 wandering the streets. Having always had a secret desire to cast fearsome magics, Arris decided to instead invest in his magical capabilities, not needing any more combat stats. He had to choose between Wisdom and Intelligence. Ultimately, Arris decided to put more points into Wisdom, as he felt his mana regen was sorely lacking. This brought his total count up to 28, increasing his mana regen by a considerable amount.

Having distributed his stat points, Arris simply decided to go around and keep farming skeletons on the level. The group of twenty skeletons around the barracks he’d seen earlier were certainly too much for him to take on now. He’d bide his time and slowly level off of the wandering skeletons before he took on a challenge which may wind up in him being dead.

Getting to level 4 was a much more difficult experience than level 3. As he killed the skeletons in the dungeon, the population of skeletons in the dungeon steadily lowered, making them more and more difficult to find. While he was hunting skeletons, Arris passed by the boss room and the skeleton barracks several times. Each time, he became more and more inclined to simply try baiting some skeletons away from the barracks and taking them out. The number of skeletons roaming the city had declined to virtually nothing, it was now taking Arris several minutes to find his next mark. He managed to make level 4 after another eight hours of exploring the dungeon and finding skeletons. He made sure to clear out all skeletons remaining on the labyrinth walls.

When he finally got the kill that put him to level 4, Arris decided that maybe it was time to take on the skeletons at the barracks. He’d gained yet another two skill levels in Dark Blow, bringing the skill level up to 4, and had managed to increase the skill level of Condensed Aether Bolt to 5 after smiting a couple more skeletons. Once again, Arris dumped all of his stat points from leveling up into Intelligence, further increasing the damage from his spells. His Battered Iron Mace was a little worse for wear, but for the most part, he’d been able to avoid trading blows with the skeletons, and its condition hadn’t degraded. He hadn’t found anything better either and had actually stopped picking up and dropped all the junk weapons he’d found.

However, while he hadn’t found any new weapons, he’d found a full armor set for himself. His kit was now comprised of a set complete with steel vambraces, iron gauntlets, leather pauldrons, the chestplate and greaves from before, leather thigh armor, steel boots, and an iron helm. The items were for the most part in poor condition, with only the greaves and gauntlets in terrible condition, though they still contributed to his defense. After he put the full set on, the following notification appeared.

Congratulations Arris, you have equipped a full set of armor. Your armor stat has become your total item defense divided by seven plus your vitality divided by eight

Total Defense Gained: 13.5

He'd also asked the system exactly what it was defense did, so he could figure out exactly what the armor was doing for him.

Defense

The Defense stat reduces physical damage dealt to the character by 1 per each point of Defense. Certain abilities and weapons are better at penetrating through Defense.

That was pretty useful. His new total of defense was at 16.5, which mean that he'd block 16.5 flat physical damage from all attacks. That would make farming skeletons significantly easier and much less dangerous. Skeletons would barely hit him for 10 damage.

In addition to the new defensive items, Arris also discovered several other commodities, most of which he took. After he’d realized the abundance of human bones, he’d simply stopped picking them up and actually dropped all of them, though he’d kept the bone powder, picking up another 0.0896 kg. He also found another 22 copper coins, and one silver coin, of which he kept all of, due to their reasonably lightweight and the presumption he’d have a use for them later. He’d also found a single bronze ring.

Now with his loot safely stashed in his inventory, and the streets almost entirely clear of any skeletons, Arris only had two places to search for more skeletons to kill. The boss room and the barracks. From what he’d seen passing by the barracks on several occasions, the skeletons there were levels 3 to 5, the highest levels that he’d seen in the labyrinth. And from what he could tell, his original estimation of their numbers was rather far off. There were about twenty skeletons milling around the plaza next to the barracks at any given time, sure, but they were constantly flowing in and out of the barracks. It seemed that it was more likely that there were thirty or forty skeletons in and around the barracks, with a large portion of their number concealed within the barracks. That was a lot of skeletons to contend with, and it would likely be rather dangerous to kill any of them, as he’d need to aggro a decently sized portion of the skeletons to get even one, and he likely would die to a group of skeletons larger than four.

Though from the single glance he’d gotten into the boss room, he knew his stats were nowhere near high enough to handle the boss. The boss appeared to be level 7 and had a guard of eight skeletons protecting him. That was simply too many for Arris to take on. And even if he could bait out the eight guards, the one level 7 skeleton could still likely take him: its nameplate read, , and it was the only Skeleton Warrior that he’d seen aside from the ones outside the labyrinth. Arris wasn’t sure how skilled in swordplay it was, and he wouldn’t risk himself until he had comparable stats. If it was decently skilled, he could very easily die to it simply due to stat differential.

There were simply too many unknowns in taking on the boss. The barracks were much more controllable. He’d take his chances there. His decision made, Arris now had to decide on the best plan to take down the skeletons in the barracks. He would be sure to take his time and make a careful, well-constructed plan. After all, he still had another 5 months and 27 days in the dungeon. He needed to spend that time somehow.