I mentally frowned as I watched the bandit group reach the entrance of the dungeon. I had been watching their progress throughout the forest to ascertain their strength, but it was a failure. They ran into few enemies, and the monsters they did manage to run into, they practically vaporized. All that I knew was that they were strong. Real strong. My stealth had failed numerous times as I was tracking them, but the skill grew quite a bit as a result.

In our desperation, Jenna and I through around many ideas of how to repel these bandits, as defeating them outright was not an option. The one with the large sword was cleaving trees with each swing of an axe. They were very much outside my definition of human. I put my head against a nearby tree trunk out of exasperation. In the end, we only came up with two.

Plan 1: Using our puzzle feature, we create something so time consuming and irritating to complete, that they just forget about clearing the dungeon entirely, and go away. The problem with this plan is it relies on the bandits not having a true desire to conquer the dungeon and take away the core. I had read several novels while I was a bum of a student, and usually dungeons were useful economically, and conquering them entirely was a negative. However, I had no idea the values of this world, and was unsure whether something like Jenna was even worth keeping around in her current state.

She was indignant when I thought that, though.

Plan 2: Attempt to kill one of the bandit members. This plan was to essentially discourage the bandits. It would demonstrate that we were as strong or stronger than they were, even as a group. They would lose the confidence to go too far within this dungeon. First impressions matter, as they say.

Each plan has significant disadvantages. Plan 1 essentially is a wait and pray plan. I’m forced to assume that I would be right about the fact that they would want to keep the dungeon around, unharmed. And with the ‘youth’ of this dungeon, we don’t offer much treasure, and the monsters are weak. It might be better to take the core and leave.

Plan 2, on the other hand, is hard to pull off. The bandits this time are strong. None of the animals within the dungeon even have the ability to fight evenly with the assailants, let alone win.

But they didn’t have to win. They just need to be distracting. Currently, I am the strongest member of the dungeon, so realistically, I was the one who needed to do it. My strengths lie in stealth, as long as I get one successful sneak attack, there’s a chance.

I gripped the handle of my knife tightly and vocalized in my mind as if to reassure myself, 'there’s a chance.'

I gathered myself as I slowly rose to my feet. So far, if I picked one thing I missed the most about not having a living body, it would be the fact that I couldn’t heave a sigh to ease my senses.

Jenna called out to me, her voice sounding just as unsure and shaky, 'Ozzy, things are going to be okay, right?'

'Of course! I will protect you,' I replied back with resolve. I won’t let Jenna get hurt. She gives me too much warmth. I won’t let them snuff her light.

I was going with Plan 2. I couldn’t just sit back and hope to that god that everything would be okay for Jenna. I had to take an active role. I was going to kill one of those bandits, even if it was the last thing I did in my new life.

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I watched the sun from the canopy of a tree I was perched within as it slowly broke over the faraway mountain range. I could dully feel the wind blowing against my bones. It was probably for the best that, as a skeleton, I could no longer sleep. I wouldn’t have been able to, anyways.

I toyed with my knife, as I ran over countless simulations of the fight in my head. None of the simulations seemed to end particularly well, though.

Jenna roused me from my thoughts, 'H-hey Ozzy, they're coming in. Good luck out there!' She tried to put some spirit into her words to ease my mind. Or maybe it was just to ease hers.

I looked towards where Jenna was sitting on her pedestal. 'I'm heading out.'

I positioned myself relatively closely to the pathway to the orchid lake. I was fighting with some of the best monsters within the dungeon. The ones that won their bouts frequently and were essentially the alphas of the group. I felt slightly apologetic that they were all doomed to die, but, they were still dungeon monsters. This was their job.

We had sent out a few advance groups of monsters to figure out how they fought. I couldn’t get close to them without being discovered, so this was the only way to figure out their formations. Based on the weapons they wielded, I had some ideas, but it was better to be sure.

As the bandits made their way further into the forest, my tension started to build. Jenna was relaying information about their advancement to me in relative real time. The old man with the shields played vanguard along with the man who looked like a younger, less tragic Guts. The robed hobo was a mage, and the woman was the midguard. They decimated the various groups of animals within seconds.

The shield-bearer would bash them violently and beat them to death, the young man used heavy swings to slice the animals apart, the woman used a rapier, quickly dispatching any monsters that made it behind the first two, or that appeared behind them. The magic user ‘popped’ the animals in large groups.

I wasn’t sure what Jenna meant when she said that the animals ‘popped’, but I don’t think I can ‘pop’, so I should be able to kill him. Well either way, it caused her to yelp every time it happened.

Their progress was slow, due to the overwhelming size of the dungeon itself. Unfortunately, this just made the wait ever more agonizing. I was shaking pretty intensely from the nerves. Even with most of my organs gone, it appears that one physiological reaction still remains.

It bothers me that I now am fearing death since I had so desired it previously. I guess ever since the time when I had fought the wolf, I worked hard to survive in this new world. I chuckled in spite of myself. I guess a lesson is better learned late than never. Then again, this shouldn’t really be the kind of lesson one learns late.

It seems that their plan of exploration was to head straight into the forest as far as they could. It was a little frustrating they they were actually on the right path, but it couldn’t be helped. It was not like we could up and move Jenna somewhere else, and we also couldn’t move the gap in the cliff face somewhere else.

It must be common sense to move forward in a dungeon.

The wait started to go from minutes to hours, and the sun again began setting on the horizon. The group decided to call it a night, and set up camp. My bones became less tense, and my mind cleared a little. It feels like I’m procrastinating, but I’m too relieved to care.

I started up a conversation with Jenna. 'Hey, Jenna.'

'Yeah? What’s up Ozzy?'

'... No, it’s nothing.' I decided to hold back my question. I'd rather not make her worry. The dungeon will still be ok if I'm gone, right? How could I ask that in a situation like this?

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I spent the night training with my knife, practicing with one of the nearby mountain lions, as it attempted to dodge my strikes and I attempted to hit it. After a few hours, I let the cat rest, and I practicing moving sizeable pieces of earth to train my magic. I should have been working on this stuff the previous day, but I just couldn’t think clearly. After a few hours, I took a rest to restore my mana reserves. I spent my time trying to meditate, but it was honestly not very effective. Well, just like last time, I’ll try to face the end as nonchalantly as possible.

I received a warning from Jenna that they had begun moving, so I climbed back up the nearby tree to lie in wait.

I heard them before I saw them. They were bickering about something, but I couldn’t understand them. Unfortunately, it seems that telepathy translates, but speech doesn’t. I guess it’s because it’s less that Jenna is speaking to me, and more forming thoughts within my mind that represent her ideas and such. It makes sense considering dungeon cores needed to be able to command multiple species of monster.

So, I had no idea what they were talking about. I asked Jenna if she knew, but apparently dungeons cannot communicate with humans. Humans can’t hear the voice of the core, and the core can’t understand their language.

Suddenly, their idle chatter stopped and they all quickly drew their weapons and began scanning the area. It seems I’ve been noticed. I tighten the grip on my weapon and tell Jenna, 'Jenna, it’s showtime.'

'Okay! You can do it! You can win!' She replied spiritedly.

'Heh,' I chuckled. 'I’m sure I can.' Now that it’s the real thing, Jenna managed to get my spirits up.

A group of our monsters crawled out of the undergrowth around the party. We had surrounded their party, something we had yet to do at this point, with about 20 Forest Rats and 6 Mountain Lions making up the attacking group. They were split evenly on each side of the party.

The bandits split quickly. The mage and shield-user took the back half of monsters, and the sword-wielders took the front half.

The mage began casting as the shield-user used his left shield to keep animals at a distance and his right shield to bash others to death.

The two swordsmen stood side by side and began to engage the animals while making sure they stayed at a distance.

To my surprise they were incredibly careful about the whole situation. For criminals they seemed quite cautious, especially around creatures that were so much weaker than they were. They also split up and took up positions without any words exchanged between them. They must have been working together for quite some time.

When the mage’s staff began to glow brightly, I made my move. I leapt from the tree, gathering mana in my hand for my landing. I touched ground instantly casting an [Earth Snare] around the mages legs. He lost balance and fell onto his back, and his staff ceased to glow. I quickly ran towards his collapsed body with my knife drawn. I would slit his throat and then get away. 'Got him!' I screamed in my heart.

But of course it wasn’t that easy.

I suddenly sensed something close to me. Alarm bells were ringing in my head. I quickly turned my head and saw the woman of the group stabbing at my skull with her rapier. My head quickly turned and lurched backwards, in a desperate attempt to dodge her oncoming onslaught. Her blade went deep into my eye socket, scratching the back of my cranium.

I was grateful that such a blow wouldn’t kill me.

As I jumped back I focused everything on the opponent in front of me. I completely forgot about my original target, this was the person I had to fight. I put my guard up, turned my body sideways, and pointed my knife at the woman. She shot a quick glance towards her ally who had been knocked over and shouted something. I immediately began my offensive at this opportunity.

I closed the gap as quickly as I could. She began thrusting her rapier as soon as I began moving, but I shifted my body, knocked the blade away with my unused arm, and then moved my knife towards the woman’s throat.

But suddenly, pain coursed through my bones. I backed off before I could land a blow. I was confused for a few moments as I gathered myself. ‘What happened? I should have blocked her blade… Unless…’ Unless she moved so fast that my sockets could only register the single strike. In that small window of time, she stabbed at me numerous times. If she wasn’t using a rapier that was mostly for stabbing and piercing, then I would be long gone. ‘Fast, she’s superhumanly fast.’

My window was closing. The mage was getting up, the shield-bearer and the brusque swordsman began rushing back to the girl. They were nowhere near as fast as she was, though. I had one more chance for a charge.

My grip tightened, I prepared an [Earth Snare], and I crouched low to get a leaping start, like a short-distance runner. The woman looked at me slightly interested, but mostly condescendingly, as if she saw a rat that completed a maze faster than she expected. If I could kill her here, there was no escape, but the plan could still yet be pulled off. I resolved myself.

As I was about to charge again, a voice broke into my head, ‘Ozzy, please, run! Don’t die! Don’t die, okay! Don’t!’ Jenna cried with absolute desperation. I wanted to ignore her but, ‘Ozzyyyyy!’ Her voice was too hard to ignore.

The bandits closed in on me, and I casted a spell.

A burst of dust blew up from the ground, obscuring my opponents’ views. They all backed off cautiously and waited for the dust to settle, but when it disappeared, so had I.

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I ran through the forest trying to get away. Jenna kept begging me not to die in my head as I ran. When I was sure I couldn’t hear anything more, I climbed a nearby tree and began to rest. I suddenly felt huge waves of mental exhaustion take me over, I could no longer think straight, and I definitely could no longer act. Before I fell into my state of unconsciousness, I told Jenna that I was going to be alright. I wasn’t going to fight them anymore.

I now had to rely upon that. I wasn’t happy that I had failed, and even less so that I had to trust in something that was so much of a gamble.

Yes, my backup method was “Plan 1”. As I slipped away I grinned to myself.

It’s not like I couldn’t use both.

The skill [Earth Magic] has increased to level 5! The skill [Stealth] has increased to level 12! The skill [Dagger Mastery] has increased to level 9! The skill [Presence Detection] has increased to level 7! You have learned the skill [Escape]!

I passed out hearing about my various skill increases.