Arris walked towards the barracks, fully ready to smite down to some skeletons. Arris strode boldly into the courtyard, glaring around defiantly, daring any skeleton to attack, but none of the skeletons aggroed on him. That was actually fortunate. It meant he could down one with a sneak attack before the real fight started. Looking around, he quickly analyzed the situation. There were two level 5 warriors, a level 4 archer, and a level 4 drudge.

He knew the two Skeleton Warriors had to go first and selected one for his sneak attack, easily decapitating it in a single blow. The skeletons then snapped to attention, recognizing him as an enemy, but it was already too late. Arris had already fully charged his Condensed Aether Bolt with 130 mana, and unleashed it into the other Skeleton Warrior, killing it instantly. He then Aether Blasted the one Skeleton Archer before his four Spirit Shards followed, downing it instantly. The only enemy left in the area was a single Skeleton Drudge. Arris dispatched it with ease.

He quickly looted the corpses of the skeletons he had just slain and the corpses of the skeletons he’d slain earlier while casting Condensed Aether Bolts into the barracks’ enclosure to bait groups of skeletons out. He then went into the barracks, searching for loot and enemies.

Unfortunately, there wasn’t really a lot within the barracks. The barracks was a single building, with a central hallway connecting all of the twenty or so rooms. Each room had two dessicated bunk beds each capable of fitting three people. There was a strongbox attached to the foot of every bed. Many were locked, but Arris paid no mind to this. He had a mace and plenty of strength. Using the yard of steel as a prybar to pop open the strongboxes was no issue for Arris.

The opened strongboxes, for the most part, contained the decayed remains of papers or clothing. For some reason though, his human need for cleanliness and repulsion for rotted, disgusting things had fled. Arris had no problem rifling through these ancient, rotted belongings and uncovered several copper coins and a few pieces of jewelry.

There was only a single surprise within the entire barracks. When Arris came to the very end of the hall, he encountered something he had not expected. A single, ominous, locked door. After he’d fiddled with the knob for a solid twenty seconds, Arris had decided that the lock had either rusted shut or that the door really was locked. In any event, it was the largest, most ornate door in all the barracks. There had to be something interesting behind it. He was gonna get in, one way or another.

Arris braced himself and then began using himself as an improvised battering ram. Once, twice, then thrice he slammed the door. On his fourth bash of the door, it finally gave way, exploding backward into a cloud of splinters and couple pieces of flying wood. Arris fell through the doorway, collapsing to the ground due to the sudden lack of resistance. And because Arris was on the ground, he didn’t see the skeleton rising up in front of him.

Congratulations, you have found and activated the hidden boss challenge Skeleton Quartermaster! Do your best to survive!

Arris’ red flames of eyes widened upon reading the notification. His head snapped up, viewing its nameplate, just as the Skeleton Quartermaster let loose a feral scream.

You have been afflicted with Fear!

-20% Stamina Regeneration

-20% Movement Speed

-20% Agility

30-second duration

This skeleton appeared more than willing to aggro on its kin. The Skeleton Quartermaster was already halfway across the room by the time Arris got to his feet. It was ironically wielding a spiked Quarterstaff, and the entirety of its upper body was clad in leather armor. It quickly closed the distance between itself and Arris, before it sent its quarterstaff sweeping down towards Arris. Arris, not prepared with his mace, simply allowed the staff to strike his arm, whereupon his vambraces actually broke.

> Skeleton Quartermaster deals you 34 damage! <

Luckily though, Arris’ hands were in just the right position to cast a spell. The spell matrix for Spirit Blast flashed into existence in front of his hands, before a blast of raw energy came thundering forth, slamming into and staggering the Skeleton Quartermaster.

> You deal Skeleton Quartermaster 51 damage! <

The quartermaster recovered quickly from being struck, returning its baleful gaze back to Arris. Unfortunately for the Skeleton Quartermaster, it was already too late. After casting Spirit Blast, Arris had immediately begun channeling a Condensed Aether Bolt. As the Skeleton Quartermaster raised its arm to strike, Arris released his spell.

> You deal Skeleton Quartermaster 247 damage! <

> Skeleton Quartermaster has died! <

The Condensed Aether Bolt impacted heavily into the Quartermaster’s chest sending it spinning to the ground, dead. After a half second wait of insurance to make sure it wouldn’t be getting up, Arris clacked his jaws together happily and then moved forward to claim his loot. It dropped a silver coin, its quarterstaff, and its bracers. Arris’ excitement grew greater as he looked at the item descriptions and realized that the quarterstaff and bracers both augmented his stats, and the quarterstaff actually gave the ability to cast a spell.

The quarterstaff and bracers descriptions were as below.

Iron Quarterstaff of Command Lesser Undead

Condition: Good

4 kg

Requirements:

18 Strength

18 Agility

Stats:

+22 - 27 Damage

Command Lesser Undead:

Command up to 1 Lesser Undead at a time to follow your orders. Can be used up to once every 12 hours.

Leather Bracers of Agility

Condition: Fine

2 kg

Requirements:

18 Agility

11 Constitution

Stats:

+11 defense to equipped area

+2 Agility

Not just did the staff deal more damage than his mace, it gave him a spell. A potentially game-changing spell, given that he was in a dungeon full of undead. Of course, then again, it only worked on Lesser Undead. Arris had graduated to Minor Undead at level 5. So could he only use it on Undead lower than level 5? That would be kind of a killjoy. Still, though, it may mean the difference between life and death in the upcoming boss fight.

The Bracers of Agility were also great. More than a perfect replacement for his broken steel vambraces. That 2 extra Agility could potentially do a lot in a fight, though Arris still wasn’t quite sure exactly what it was Agility did since it didn’t really have any quantifiable impact on a fight. The two Agility at least seemed to warrant the item being classified as Uncommon, and not common.

Arris was actually rather surprised the Skeleton Quartermaster had dropped quite as much loot as it had. It hadn’t seemed that tough of a fight. He had to admit though if it wasn’t for the fact that he had access to Condensed Aether Bolt, or if he was a regular warrior, that fight could’ve gone very bad very quickly. The debilitating debuff would screw over any regular warrior’s combat chances, and that thing had been incredibly fast. If he wasn’t a cheapass one-shot mage, he’d have lost the fight.

Of course then again, as far as Arris could tell, this dungeon wasn’t made for a single person to conquer. He’d imagine it would be far more suited for a group of five or six adventurers, complete with a tank, a healer, a couple ranged damage dealers, and maybe a rogue to counter any ranged opponents. Not a single mage. For any decent group with any form of communication, that skeleton shouldn’t have been much of a problem.

Of course, then again, Arris really shouldn’t be complaining. He’d been presented with good fortune over and over again. He shouldn’t look a gift horse in the mouth. The notification when the Quartermaster had appeared had also said it was a hidden boss. Maybe he was getting extra loot for finding it?

Then, Arris had an insightful realization. This was the first floor of the dungeon and was set up to be rather easy, and introduce adventurers to dungeon mechanics. Adventurers were given the opportunity map out the labyrinth, could find or avoid the boss very easily, get free, good loot from an easily found chest within the city, and now, they were given the option to kill this “Hidden Boss”, that had actually been rather easily found, placed within an area any adventurer with any sort of loot sense would have to search.

No, this “Hidden Boss” was most likely designed to be found. In fact, if Arris’ guess was right, there should be a “Hidden Boss” on every single further level which would also drop good loot which would be useful in the boss fight. In fact, it was probably the same way for the hidden chest, and for the vantage point used for reconnaissance. He could find all of those things in later floors within the dungeon. A notification popped up.

> Perception +1 <

The notification only served to confirm his assumptions. That was some useful information to have. Arris clacked his jaws together contentedly. He then made sure to look around the Skeleton Quartermaster’s room and check for any further loot. For the most part, there was nothing, aside from desiccated paper and rotted broken furniture. However, there was a strongbox which, once busted open, gave him 3 silver and another bronze ring.

After giving the rest of the barracks another brief search, Arris decided he’d thoroughly looted the place, and wouldn’t find anything else of significant value. With that, he’d more or less concluded his looting and farming of the labyrinth. There were likely two or three skeletons still roaming around but the experience for finding them simply wasn’t worth the effort. There was only the boss room to clear before he continued on to the next level.

Before going on to clear the boss room, Arris decided he’d take stock of his inventory, and sort out any trash. In total, he’d picked up another 0.1021 kg of bone dust, 27 copper coins, 2 more bronze rings, a silver locket, and 4 more silver. He threw away a bunch of lightweight human bones he’d been using for throwing. His inventory screen read as below.

Inventory:

0.2412 kg Human Bone Powder

58 Copper Coins

5 Silver Coins

0.018 kg 3 Bronze Rings

0.006 kg 1 Silver Locket

2 kg 1 Battered Iron Mace

Capacity 2.2436 / 40 kg

Arris actually decided to hang on to the mace on the off chance something ever happened to his quarterstaff. If he was ever out of mana and had lost his quarterstaff, he’d likely die if he had nothing to protect himself with. The mace would serve as a good failsafe until he found a more suitable weapon and could discard it.

Having sorted out his inventory, Arris was now ready to head to the boss room. Though, Arris decided to wait. He’d seen how that Skeleton Quartermaster had immediately aggroed on him. If all bosses would immediately aggro on Arris as soon as he walked within a certain range of them, then it would be foolish to go and enter the boss room until he was totally prepared. Once again though, preparation meant waiting around for mana.

He would also need to use his quarterstaff to command a lesser undead to follow him into the fight. As the boss had had 8 guards, an extra minion as backup could be used as a distraction and reduce that count to 7. Then, Arris had a epiphany. He could just command one of the undead in the boss room, and then have it turn on one of its brethren. If it got in a sneak attack, it may even be able to take down 2 of its undead compatriots.

Arris then went to take a look inside the boss room. Much as it had been with the barracks, the walls were simply too high and steep to climb or look over except from a couple vantage points in distant sections of the city. The boss, however, was actually visible from the entrance. Arris had to wonder. Could the dungeon be giving it him so freely?

It seemed like Arris could attack the boss safely from the exit, but he’d still wait for his mana to recharge before trying anything risky. In the meantime, he took stock of the skeletons which lined the walls of the short hall.

Arris' jaws clacked together in an excited manner. Luckily, it seemed that there were lesser undead in the hall, and Arris could command one of them to fight for him. In fact, an archer would be far better than any drudge could’ve ever been. It could provide support from the back, and provided he soaked up aggro and took out the rest of the archers, it wasn’t even likely anything would attack it.

The 4 warriors together may be a problem, but looking at the terrain, Arris believed he may be able to circumvent their advantage of numbers with clever strategy. The hall was not an empty corridor, but instead had a double set of pillars on each side. Arris supposed there could be more skeletons hiding back there, but he doubted it. It seemed more likely to be terrain that an enterprising solo adventurer like him could use to their advantage, using the pillars as cover so that the skeletons couldn’t all come at him at once.

Along each column of pillars in the center of the hall and also along the walls of the hall there were several large candelabras likely placed to add to the ambiance of the scene. They would make excellent distractions if he could tip them over.

His plan for the boss was more simple. He’d just use all his magic to kill the thing.

Though, it sure would be nice if he could hit the minions or the boss from outside of the hall. Then his entire problem would be solved. If for some reason he wasn’t allowed to hit the boss from outside of the boss room, which was entirely possible, then he’d need to spend more time waiting for his mana to regenerate. Testing whether he could shoot the boss from outside the hall or not would take a while. Then, Arris had a realization. He could just ask the System! He quickly sent out an inquisitory thought, asking the System, ‘How do boss fights work?’ A response window popped up only a couple seconds after.

Calculating parameters…

Referencing index…

Finding information for standard dungeon boss fights…

Standard Dungeon Boss Fights

Dungeon boss fights typically have two components: the boss and the boss’ environment. Typically, the boss is a powerful monster with increased base stats. They are often larger, more magically capable, stronger, and faster than their dungeon creature counterparts. If capable of equipping gear, bosses typically have equipment far better than that of their dungeon creature counterparts. The boss’ environment is always designed to be befitting of whatever boss occupies said environment. Many boss’ environments include several weaker dungeon creature counterparts. Bosses can command these weaker dungeon creature counterparts, which serve purely as an extension of the boss. However, these minions will continue to attack even after the boss is dead, and the fight will not end until a certain number of important boss environment creatures have been killed. Boss’ environments are specifically designed so that soloists, small parties, and large groups all have a chance at fighting the boss and triumphing. Bosses cannot leave their environments, yet at the same time, once a character has attacked the boss or its environment, there is no retreating from the environment. Bosses and their environments cannot be influenced from outside their environments.

There were a couple important facts in the selection, namely that he couldn’t retreat from the boss fight, and that he couldn’t attack the boss from outside. Arris frowned. Of all the ways things could be, this was just about the worst. There would be no cheating his way around this one, he’d need to be prepared to take out all eight skeletons and the boss by himself.

Damn. If Arris could, he’d totally avoid this fight. Could he simply skip the boss and go farm the next level of the dungeon? That would make things a lot easier. Arris was about to go physically check if he could proceed on to the next level when he realized he could just ask the System. After a couple seconds of thought to try and craft a question which would get the most thorough result Arris thought, ‘Are there any requirements to the progression to the second level of a dungeon?’ Sure enough, a window then popped up.

Calculating parameters…

Referencing index…

Finding information for dungeon level advancement…

Dungeon General Structure

A standard dungeon typically has a total of sixty levels. A mature dungeon is divided into three segments or zones. Each zone of the dungeon has a distinct monster theme, some more common themes being amorphous, undead, animal, humanoid, etc. In a mature dungeon, the zones are ordered in terms of monster strength and must be cleared sequentially. Each zone of the dungeon is further separated into four distinct floors, each housing a species which fits into the monster theme of the zone. Each progressive floor is more diverse and more complicated to clear than the last. Floors are divided into five separate levels. Each level is home to a boss, a hidden boss, and a hidden loot chest. At the end of each floor, a level is dedicated to a single, more powerful unique boss. After a final level of a floor the player gains access to a safe room which dungeon monsters will not enter. The very final level in a zone is home to a named boss, which is sentient and considerably stronger than any other boss in the zone. In a mature dungeon, the previous level’s bosses must be cleared to progress. Failure to do so will result in a -75% exp gain from all kills in future zones.

Upon reading the last couple sentences of the informative screen, Arris tried to curse but ended up just clacking his jaws together. He glowered at the screen. It seemed that he couldn’t just go farm the next level of the dungeon. He’d need to clear the boss he was staring at if he wanted to go anywhere. That -75% exp reduction would make leveling on the next floor near impossible if he didn’t clear the boss first. Though this need for bosses to be cleared raised another question. What about respawns? Would the bosses respawn and force you to go back and clear them as you progressed? If he was always needing to go back and clear bosses, that would suck. Arris phrased a question to the System, “How do monster respawns work?” The following window popped up.

Calculating parameters…

Referencing index…

Finding information for dungeon monster respawns…

Standard dungeon monsters do not respawn until the person who cleared them has exited the floor for at least 72 hours. Normal dungeon bosses respawn 144 hours after the person who has cleared them has exited the zone. Unique dungeon bosses respawn 240 hours after the person who has cleared them has exited the dungeon. Named dungeon bosses do not respawn at all.

Arris supposed that was pretty reasonable. What wasn’t reasonable however was all this information the System was so freely throwing at him. Arris was incredibly surprised he’d gotten even half the answers he had. In most of the video games, he’d played, getting this sort of information took hours of surfing forums and looking at guides. The System had told him all of it in five minutes without any complaint.

How far could Arris take his use of the System? What constraints would his questions have on them? For example, would he be able to ask what the best possible build for him to clear the dungeon would be? Could he ask for strategies against the boss?

Hope flaring, Arris asked the System another question, ‘What is the best strategy for Arris Graham to use against the Elite Skeleton Warrior boss?’ Unfortunately, after waiting a couple seconds, the following window popped up.

Calculating parameters…

Illegal question detected…

Inquiry session terminating…

Arris frowned, and then shrugged. A little disappointing, but nothing less than what he’d expected. The World System seemed to have been designed to be difficult to survive in. Arris was sure that if he wasn’t undead and had totally lucked out by getting Condensed Aether Bolt, he’d either be dead or still level 1 right now. If he was still a regular human who felt pain, needed to eat and drink, and felt overwhelming emotions, Arris wasn’t so sure he could’ve survived the apocalypse. While he may have initially freaked out and been pissed off at becoming a skeleton, it may be the only reason he was still alive—or at least undead.

He supposed that in a way the System was giving any person innovative enough to seek out answers their own personal guide to their new world so as to counterbalance the fact that the world under the System was incredibly difficult to survive in.

> Perception +1 <

Arris' jaws absentmindedly clicked together in satisfied ascent. Who didn’t like free stats for some simple critical thinking?

Refocusing, Arris returned his attention to the boss. He should theoretically be able to enter the boss room without any of the skeletons attacking him. Ever so slowly, Arris walked through the entrance to the boss room. The Elite Skeleton Warrior’s head slowly turned to regard him, but beyond that, there were no hostile movements.

After a couple minutes of creeping around and by the skeletons, Arris had finally come to the conclusion that unlike the hidden boss, the Elite Skeleton Warrior wouldn’t attack him. Now assured in his safety, Arris freely explored the hall. He spent nearly twenty minutes looking for anything he couldn’t observe from the entrance but found nothing which could give him any sort of advantage.

Arris now had to contemplate his various options. He could go to the next level of the dungeon and attempt to get another couple levels before coming back, but that would be a huge waste of exp. He could attempt to simply fight the boss as he was now: the odds weren’t totally stacked against him, provided he killed the boss with his full combo and mind controlled a skeleton to dispatch another, he’d only have to deal with six skeletons. That was more than enough to kill him, but if he used those pillars in the sides of the hall, he could effectively render the archers useless, and make the fight a four on one. But even then, the remaining skeletons would be skeleton warriors which were hard enough for Arris to take on alone. Four definitely had a good shot at killing him. If he could get another level or two before the fight it might give him the edge he'd need to win. Unfortunately, there wasn't anything else to farm.

Then, Arris had a realization. There were a bunch of skeletons wandering around outside the labyrinth. He could probably hit level 6 off farming those. And for that matter, couldn't he just leave the first level and wait 72 hours for everything to respawn? He'd probably be able to hit level 7 if he cleared the entire dungeon again.

While it would be going to be a lot of boring waiting around, better safe than dead. Arris turned away from the boss room and navigated his way to one of the exits to the labyrinth.

It didn't take him long to find his first group of three skeletons. He slaughtered them, then went off looking for more.

|~|~|~|~|~|~|~|~|~|~|~|~|~|~|~|~|~|~|~|~|~|~|~|~|~|~|~|~|~|~|~|~|~|~|~|~|~|~|~|~|~|~|~|~|~|~|~|~|~|~|

Four and a half days later, Arris had finally cleared everything in the floor for the second time. He'd just barely managed to hit level 7 and it would probably take him another few clears of the level to hit level 8, requiring more than a week of waiting. He wasn’t willing to wait that long, and the single extra level wouldn’t really make much of a difference. Level 9 would take more than a month to accomplish if he simply cleared this same level over and over again. No, if he couldn’t handle the boss now, he would never be able to.

And in any event, Arris wanted to hurry up and get on with the dungeon. There wasn't anything to do but sit around and scribble on walls with a rock while he was waiting. He also didn't have anything interesting in his inventory except the bone dust, but when he asked the System what he could use bone dust for, it merely told him it was most commonly used in alchemy. Arris didn't even know what alchemy was, so that information was practically useless.

The other thing Arris had done in his free time was attempt to explore the other tunnel which led out of the safe area. It actually led another zone, this one seeming to have an animal theme, being filled with low-level rats. But Arris got a 75% exp reduction for any kills he got in the zone, and the rats naturally aggroed on him, so he couldn't freely explore. After being mobbed by 0.05% exp rats a couple of times and almost dying, Arris simply decided that the level just wasn’t worth the trouble. He could just come back after he finally cleared the zone with the undead.

Now after three days of waiting and some additional time spent clearing the level again Arris had finally hit level 7. Arris had put the skill points from one level up into strength to give him the edge in combat and put the other six into wisdom for a small boost in mana regen. In addition to his stat increases, his blunt weapon proficiency had doubled to six, and his spell skill ranks had all gone up one, aside from spirit shards and blast, which had both gone up two skills ranks.

He was currently standing outside of the boss’ environment, just about to go in for the fight. He’d already summoned his Spirit Shards and was as prepared as he could be. He went over his plan for the twentieth or so time in his head. First he would blast the boss with everything he had, then he’d mind control a skeleton, and finally, he’d retreat to one of the sides of the room, hiding among the pillars and nullifying the archer advantage the skeletons had on him. There was nothing left to do but give it a go.

Back when Arris was still human, he didn’t know if he would have been able to take such an extreme risk like the one he was taking now. If he didn’t one shot the boss, or if his quarterstaff of command skeleton failed, or if the skeletons didn’t react exactly as he thought they would he could very easily die. This might've once terrified him. Now though, his fear was totally gone.

As much as his brain was logically telling him that he should be scared of the life and death fight he was about to engage in, he simply wasn't. Arris hardly felt any fear at all. No, in fact, if he felt any emotion at all it was excitement. That was really weird.

Before tests, matches in sparring tournaments, presentations, or important standardized exams, Arris had always been extremely nervous, afraid of failing and embarrassing himself. Now he just felt strange. Detached. Calm. Eager. The emotions were completely foreign from anything he’d felt before.

It was almost definitely some byproduct of him becoming a skeleton. Could he no longer feel negative emotions? No. That was certainly not the case. He was still scared of the fight, the emotion was just far less prevalent than it usually was. Maybe becoming a skeleton had changed something fundamental about his emotional state and mindset. Was he slowly becoming a monster, like so many of the other skeletons in the dungeon? He shuddered at the thought.

Nervous, he carefully asked the system the question, ‘Has turning into a skeleton influenced my thought patterns in any way?’ The following window popped up.

Calculating parameters…

Referencing Index…

Finding information on race change to skeleton…

Results inconclusive

Arris frowned. The System really hadn’t given him anything to work with this time. That wasn’t terribly reassuring. Arris clacked his jaws together in a self-reassuring manner and then tried to put his existential debate out of mind. He had no answers, and it didn’t really matter yet. No matter what form he was in, as long as he could use logic, as long as he had emotions, and as long as he could remember who he was, he could keep track of and adhere to his moral compass. Anyways, he had a boss to kill, it was no time to be distracted by an existential crisis.

Arris stepped forwards, clearing the threshold of the hall and entering it. As Arris could choose wherever he was going to start the fight, he decided to start as close to the boss as possible. The reason for this was simple. The four skeleton archers were much closer to the boss than the skeleton warriors, who were near the entrance of the hall. After he took out the Elite Skeleton Warrior, if he could take out a Skeleton Archer or two before the fight with the Skeleton Warriors broke out it would make all the difference.

Once in position, Arris turned to face the boss before opening the spell matrix for a spirit blast and channeling mana into it. The Elite Skeleton Warrior just stared at him, contemplating and judging him as he prepared to attack it. Creepy. Arris aimed the spell, and then let it loose, sending it slamming into the Elite Skeleton Warrior shoving it down further into its throne. Right after the Spirit Blast, the four spirit shards flew in, striking for even more damage.

> You deal 52 raw damage to Elite Skeleton Warrior! <

> You deal 19 raw damage to Elite Skeleton Warrior! <

> You deal 19 raw damage to Elite Skeleton Warrior! <

> You deal 19 raw damage to Elite Skeleton Warrior! <

> You deal 19 raw damage to Elite Skeleton Warrior! <

Arris immediately started channeling the mana for his next spell, Condensed Aether Bolt, before any of the skeletons could react to his attack. As he did so, he checked the nameplate above the Elite Skeleton Warrior.

Arris did some fast math. If it only had 61% hp after he’d dealt a little over 110 damage to it, then it had about 300 health which meant he needed about 200 more to down it. Arris channeled the necessary mana into his Condensed Aether Bolt’s spell matrix.

With a roar, the Elite Skeleton Warrior attempted to rise to meet its challenger. But it was too late. Arris had already channeled all of the 200 or so necessary mana into his spell. He sent it crackling away into the chest of the Elite Skeleton Warrior.

> You deal 228 mixed damage to Elite Skeleton Warrior! <

> Elite Skeleton Warrior has died! <

But there was no reprieve from battle for killing the boss. He still had another eight skeletons to deal with. Spinning, Arris smashed his staff into the head of the Skeleton Archer which was standing next to him, sending it staggering into the pillar behind it. He quickly followed the initial blow up with another heavy strike, and without any real weapon to defend itself the Skeleton Archer died.

> Critical Strike! You deal 96 blunt damage to Skeleton Archer! <

> You deal 50 blunt damage to Skeleton Archer! <

> Skeleton Archer has died! <

Having killed the first of his opponents, Arris then raised his quarterstaff, aiming it at one of the other Skeleton Archers, before activating its ability. A spell matrix flashed into existence at the end of the staff, before a notification popped up.

> You have gained control of Skeleton Archer! <

Arris pumped a fist. That was two enemies down. Now all he needed to do was kill the other six. Originally, Arris had assumed he’d use all of his mana taking down the boss. But he still had some 170 left. If he could last 30 seconds, he’d be able to cast another lethal Condensed Aether Bolt, which would make the fight effectively a five on one, and if the controlled Skeleton Archer did its job well, then the fight would be a four on one. Using the pillars to his advantage would negate the skills of the single archer left, and ultimately, the fight would effectively be a three on one, difficult but winnable for Arris.

Dancing back, Arris dodged around a pillar just as the two aggressive Skeleton Archers aimed arrows at him. Fortunately, neither of the two arrows they launched struck, instead clattering off the pillar Arris had jumped behind. Only a couple seconds later, the four Skeleton Warriors rounded the pillar, coming at him from both sides. He jabbed his staff at one, knocking it off balance and backward, and spun his staff into a strike at the other, which it unfortunately parried.

> Glancing Blow! You deal Skeleton Warrior 28 blunt damage! <

The four skeleton warriors fanned out into in front of him, mindlessly trying to attack him as quickly as they could without injuring themselves. It was very fortunate for Arris that these Skeletons had no real coordination, or he might’ve been screwed. With no real strategy to their attack, he could easily keep the skeletons back by swinging his quarterstaff in large sweeps in front of him while retreating around pillars. He could easily keep this going for 30 seconds and get off another Condensed Aether Bolt. It was right about then that the archers re-entered the fight.

All three Skeleton Archers suddenly popped into vision as Arris was transitioning between two pillars, with the Skeleton Warriors not far behind him. They hefted their bows, took aim, and released at Arris and the Skeleton Warriors. Flaming eyes widening, Arris leaped backward and behind a pillar, away from the hail of arrows. The Skeleton Warriors, oblivious the danger, ran straight into them. All three of the arrows impacted into the single, leading Skeleton Warrior, dropping its health by a whopping 62% and knocking it over.

> Controlled Skeleton Archer deals Skeleton Warrior 32 piercing damage! <

> Skeleton Archer deals Skeleton Warrior 29 piercing damage! <

> Skeleton Archer deals Skeleton Warrior 34 piercing damage! <

> Skeleton Warrior has been knocked over! <

Now, there were only three Skeleton Warriors left, and his Condensed Aether Bolt only had five seconds left on its cooldown. Much to Arris’ fortune, it also seemed that the Skeleton Warrior that had been shot by his Archer had shifted aggro to the Archer. When it got up, it instead turned and ran at the Controlled Skeleton Archer, which promptly put another arrow in it. The two uncontrolled Skeleton Archers were shooting at the Controlled Skeleton Archer the entire time, but they didn’t deal enough to damage to kill it before it launched its third and final arrow which took out the Skeleton Warrior.

> Controlled Skeleton Archer deals Skeleton Warrior 28 piercing damage! <

> Skeleton Archer deals Controlled Skeleton Archer 32 piercing damage! <

> Skeleton Archer deals Controlled Skeleton Archer 27 piercing damage! <

> Controlled Skeleton Archer deals Skeleton Warrior 29 piercing damage! <

> Skeleton Warrior has died! <

> Skeleton Archer deals Controlled Skeleton Archer 30 piercing damage! <

> Controlled Skeleton Archer has died! <

Arris' jaws clacked together in a happy manner. That had turned out far better than he’d thought it would. He’d expected the Controlled Skeleton Archer to only take out another Skeleton Archer, but a Skeleton Warrior was by far better. He wasn’t really sure how combat would work with a Controlled minion, especially once he realized he couldn’t actually give it orders, but everything had turned out better than he thought it would. And by now, his Condensed Aether Bolt was back up.

With a smug click of his jaws, he made an especially large sweep, shoving back the Skeleton Warriors, before leaping back himself, and funneling mana into the spell matrix. The Condensed Aether Bolt tore forth from his hands, impacting into an undamaged Skeleton Warrior and killing it.

> You deal Skeleton Warrior 146 mixed damage! <

> Skeleton Warrior has died! <

This fight was more or less over at this point. The remaining two uncoordinated Skeleton Warriors were easily dispatched. He’d simply block the blow of one, and spin his staff to level a powerful strike at the other. He mixed in a couple Dark Blows, Spirit Shards, and Spirit Blasts with his leftover 60 or so mana. He finished them off easily, only taking a grand total of two hits which didn’t even penetrate halfway through his toughness before he finally moved on to kill the Skeleton Archers.

The Skeleton Archers each managed to get off a shot for a total of 37 damage, reduced by his armor before he killed them. All that was left to do after that was loot the corpses.

Arris went around the hall, his jaws occasionally happily clicking together, as he absorbed the loot of the various skeletons. From the Archers and Warriors, he only got a few copper coins, some more bone dust, and some beaten up armor worse than what he already had. But the Elite Skeleton Warrior had a real treat. Yet another skill book, this one for a skill named Warrior’s Stance. With no reason not to, Arris immediately learned the skill.

Congratulations!

You have learned the skill, Warrior’s Stance! You may activate this skill to root yourself where you stand, becoming an immovable powerhouse! While standing still, you gain a variety of buffs, however, beware, because once the stance is broken a brief debuff will be applied to the caster. All skill and attacks are more powerful while in this stance.

Effects:

+10 Strength

+10 Agility

+5 Defense

+25% melee range ability damage

+50% increased Health/10

Penalty:

Lose 50% of all gains for 10 seconds after breaking Warrior’s Stance

It was a great skill. This would be immensely useful in future fights and could be used very effectively against any enemies which were slower than Arris, weren’t ranged, and didn’t use a lot of a strategy. In fact, if Arris had this ability during the boss fight he’d just won, he was reasonably confident he could’ve taken on the four skeletons without needing to retreat.

Unfortunately, it didn’t seem he was allowed to take the shiny metal armor the boss had on, but Arris was more than satisfied with this new skill. The boss had also dropped its sword, but it wasn’t magical and dealt less damage than both his quarterstaff and mace: Arris just left it behind. Now finished with the level, Arris decided it was time to move on to the next level. Though, just as he left the boss’ environment, a window popped up.

Congratulations!

You have met the requirements for clearing the first level of the Skeleton Floor of Malechian’s Dungeon (Boss slain, 75% Monsters slain)! As the first to clear this level, an additional 100% level 6 exp has been awarded! You may now proceed to the next level and kill creatures without any sort of experience deduction! Good luck, and may the worthy survive!

With the boss having given him 20% of experience towards the next level, Arris’ experience had risen to 78%, very close to level 8. He was kind of peeved that it wasn’t level 7 exp, but he wasn’t going to look a gift horse in the mouth. If he got this sort of exp every time he cleared a level, he’d be a really high level by the time he was through with all 60 levels of the dungeon.

With visions of his future running through his head and a slight spring in his skeletal step, Arris slowly navigated his way through the labyrinth before finally arriving at the exit. Another couple minutes of running around the edge of the labyrinth, and he’d finally reached the tunnel to the second level. Arris set off at a run and was at the end of the tunnel after just another couple minutes. Looking out into the new level, Arris’ vision was obstructed by large stone walls and pillars, ending before they met the roof of the cavern. There were skeletons wandering infrequently between the obstructions. Plenty of enemies to kill. Arris clacked his jaws together happily. He couldn’t wait to get started clearing this level.