“YOU STILL HAVE THAT MUCH POWER ON YOUR SLEEVE? INTERESTING!” Delmourga was amazed by Cain’s show of power.

Cain used an earth magic, Marlork’s Hands.

Marlork’s Hands magic was an earth magic from the Book of Gomara. In the ancient times, Marlork was a savage beast with a gigantic body, it often destroyed villages and towns. When hero Gomara appeared, he slew Marlork and made its power his own by converging his hands with earth magic.

Cain was sweating a lot. He was pushing his limit to use some of high magic in a single day. For a talentless in magic like him, it was extraordinary.

“Here I come!!”

Cain jumped into the air, he threw a punch at Delmourga’s face. He hit Delmourga’s jaw with a power that forced Delmourga to take steps backwards. The punch broke Delmourga’s jaw in half.

“RRAAAAAH!!”

Delmourga countered with a heavy horizontal swing when Cain landed.

Cain put guard up with one of Marklork’s hands. But he was thrown when the spear hit him.

He was thrown not too far, Marlork’s hand dampened most of the force. He safely landed with a dive roll and stood back.

“(Damn! His power rose up!?)” what Cain had on his mind now.

“HAHAHAH! YOU THOUGHT YOU’RE THE ONLY ONE WHO’S POWERED UP, HUH?”

“Clearly I was wrong!” said Cain. “(Luckily I decided to use Marlork’s Hands! If I were to defend with those weapons, I’m sure I would have a fatal wound right now!)” thought he.

Delmourga’s swing got heavier after he healed.

“HMM… THOSE STONE HANDS…” Delmourga paused a bit. “HAHAHA! YOU HAVE SURPRISED ME EVEN MORE, FLESHBEARER!”

Delmourga realized those stone hands were not ordinary magic. He could break down the hall’s wall with his spear, yet the stone hands that he just hit were still in one piece.

Cain just grinned, So did Delmourga, with his half broken jaw.

They were staring at each other's eyes.

Then, Cain with a dash and Delmourga with a leap, they clashed again.

Delmourga thrust one of his spears, while Cain threw a punch. When they collided, a shockwave with a loud voice shook the area around them.

Not stopping the momentum, Cain threw more punches, Delmourga responded with swings and thrusts.

Cain spun with Backhand Punch and Delmourga leaned with Double Cross Slash. They kept unleashing moves after moves.

Each time the hands and the spears clashed, the shockwave and the voice echoed in the hall.

“You heard that, Jared!?” said Calbot, who was still trying to take the staff.

“Yeah! It’s from below us! Must be Cain!” said Jared. “You heard that Sun Knights!? He’s also fighting down there! We! Cannot! Lose here!” Jared shouted after he threw two undead skeletons with his bare hands.

“Uwooo!” The knights got pumped up with Jared’s shout. They were still holding their ground for Calbot.

...

After minutes of clash, Cain was finally starting to lose some power and speed. The fatigue caught up to him.

“YOU’RE GETTING SLOWER, FLESHBEARER!”

“Damn you, undead! You and your unlimited stamina!” said Cain, though he was still grinning.

They were still clashing for few minutes.

Then, because of the fatigue, Cain’s leg slipped for a split second, losing the momentum of his attacks.

Delmourga did not waste the chance. With a downward heavy double swing, he attacked the flinched Cain.

Cain did not have any choice but to defend with Marlork’s Hands, covering above him. When the spear and the hands clashed, the ground around him was cracked.

Delmourga repeatedly hit the hands with his two spears mercilessly.

Cain’s defense was also sturdy, the hands hardness was something not even Delmourga’s spear could break.

Actually, Cain intentionally took those hits and not countering. One of Marlork’s powers was its strength would get stronger with each hit it took.

Delmourga noticed something was wrong when his hit gave no effect, also the hands were glowing purple, and had gotten brighter with each hit.

Seeing Delmourga hesitated. Cain took the chance. He jumped towards his right leg. With a punch to the knee, Delmourga’s entire front right leg was blown to pieces.

“WHAT!?” Delmourga lost his balance.

Cain, still in mid air, won't let up this another chance. He threw another punch to Delmourga’s skull.

Delmourga leaned to his right side to avoid Marlork’s fist. Cain missed his skull but Delmourga’s left arm took the hit, it was blown to pieces.

“GRAAAHHH!!!” Delmourga was struggling to keep his balance.

Cain landed after the second attack. He took the spear from Delmourga’s broken left hand on the ground with Marlork’s Hands.

He swung the huge spear easily because Marlork’s Hands made the spear felt so light.

Couldn't avoid the swing, Delmourga desperately swung his spear on his right hand to parry Cain’s attack.

When the two spears clashed, Cain’s spear repelled Delmourga’s spear because it was simply being overpowered by Cain’s

With Delmourga wide open, Cain let the spear go and jumped with a powerful uppercut. Straight to Delmourga’s jaw. His skull was crushed to pieces.

Not stopping, Marlork’s Hands clasped to each other. Cain dived and performed a Double Axe Strike, crushing Delmourga’s entire front body. Only leaving his rear legs that crumbled to the ground.

In just a mere seconds, Cain brought down Delmourga after being forced on defense. Out of breath, his hands were on his knees.

“Is it… over?” Cain looked around to make sure Delmourga was not healing again with his undead skeletons and the blue flame.

“MOST IMPRESSIVE!”

Cain was startled and took a stance.

The bones started burning, but no skeletons were seen to mend those bones.

“DON'T WORRY, FLESHBEARER. YOU HAVE BESTED ME.”

All of Delmourga’s huge bones had turned into ashes. And the blue flames that burned the bones were merging into one big blazing floating blue fireball, as big as Cain.

The fireball was slowly floating towards Cain.

“CONGRATULATION, FLESHBEARER! YOU HAVE BESTED ME, THE LORD OF MYSTICBONE!”

Delmourga’s voice came from the fireball.

“AS I PROMISED, YOU CAN TAKE WHATEVER YOU WANT FROM HERE, AND I ALREADY HAVE RELEASED THE STAFF ABOVE.”

Back to Hanearian’s Rest, Calbot finally pulled the staff, after all of the skeletons before them crumbled.

“We did it! We got the Staff of Mgre!” The knights cheered after the long battle against the endless skeletons. Miraculously, the knights had no casualties, only wounds that would heal after a day or two.

Near the hole, Jared stared into the darkness, hoping Cain would come back alive.

Calbot tapped Jared’s shoulder. “You should get some rest, we will wait here for a while," said Calbot.

“He must be the one who stopped the skels from down there, right?” said Jared.

“He must be, and I have a feeling he’s fine.”

Jared nodded.

…

Cain fell on his butt. He was exhausted after the fight.

“Thank Goddess it's over.” Cain talked to himself.

The Marlork’s Hands already turned into a pile of sand.

“THERE’S A STAIRS BEHIND THE SKELETONS THAT WILL LEAD YOU TO THE UPPER LEVEL, FLESHBEARER,"

“Ah! Great! I thought a have to climb or something," said Cain.

“THEN, BEFORE YOU GO, ALLOW ME TO GIVE YOU THE TRUE TREASURE FROM MYSTICBONE HALL.”

“Huh? True treasure?” Cain got up and dusted off his pants.

A bracelet slowly materialized from the blue fireball. It was as white as bone with an asymmetric curved shape. When the bracelet fully materialized, the blue fireball became as small as Cain’s fist. As if the bracelet drained most of it.

The bracelet fell to the ground.

“THAT IS THE TRUE TREASURE, FLESHBEARER.”

Cain walked to it and when he sluggishly reached the bracelet with his left hand, the bracelet jumped and attached itself to Cain’s left wrist.

“Whoaa!?” Cain was startled, he almost fell.

“KHUHUHU, USE IT WELL, CAIN, THE BONEKING OF AZUREFLAME.”

The blue fireball diminished after it gave Cain a title.

“Azurewha-argh!!” Cain was holding his left wrist. A sharp pain came from his wrist because of the bracelet.

The bracelet’s inside part was drilling his wrist with two needles. Those needles drilled through the bone and to the other inside part of the bracelet.

Cain tried his best to endure the pain.

Blood dripped from his left wrist. Cain didn't dare to pull the bracelet, because he knew this bracelet just rooted itself to his wrist. He couldn't forcefully remove the bracelet without proper preparation. He could lose his left hand by doing so.

After a while, the pain gradually became less hurt, but his left hand now felt numb, he couldn't move his left hand and its fingers.

“What kind of treasure that renders its user’s hand useless?” grumbled Cain. “… huh?”

Cain felt a vibration from his waist bag. He took out the source of the vibration. It was the Book of Gomara.

He was excited, this had never happened before.

Because he couldn't use his left hand, he sat down and put the book on the ground. He flipped through the pages with his right hand.

Then, he found one of the empty pages now filled with writings and a drawing, a drawing of the bracelet he was wearing.

“The Bracelet of Azure Mysticbone? A forgotten item that grants the wearer a mysterious power. The wearer of Bracelet of Azure Mysticbone is entitled as the Boneking of Azureflame," that was written on the book.

“Fancy title. Hmm… even this mysterious book is giving me a mysterious description on an item," he grumbled again.

Cain closed the book and put it back to his waist bag.

His priority now to regroup with Calbot and Jared. He’s not too worried because he saw Jared in action, even the enemies were the endless skeletons, they won't be a match for him.

Cain walked around the Mysticbone Hall. When he walked over remaining skeletons, they kneeled down.

Cain stopped.

“This is the effect of Boneking title!? It’s cool!” he smiled and continued his walk.

After a vast number of kneeling skeletons, Cain finally found the stairs along with the unspoken treasure. Gold bars, diamonds, antiques and such were scattered around on the stairs.

He started ascending the stairs, along the way, he took a handful of diamonds. Diamond was very expensive in the market, often used on jewelry. With this, journey expenses more than to Krevias had been covered.

He ascended the stairs until he found a dead end, the stairs just stopped at the ceiling. But when he got close to the ceiling, the bracelet flashed a blue flame, then the ceiling split like a sliding door with a bit of tremor.

When he stepped up from the horizontal door, Jared and the knights were ready with their weapons. He finally returned to Hanearian’s Rest. The door was the altar where the staff was located.

“Cain!? Is that you!?” Jared lowered his weapon.

“Yeah, since when there are two or three Cain anyway.”

“Uoohh!!” some of the knights greeted him excitedly.

“Cain! Are you okay?” Calbot appeared with the Staff of Mgre on his hand.

“Just a minor injury," he still couldn't move his left hand fingers actually. Cain looked at the staff, Delmourga kept his word it seemed.

“Where have you been?” Jared was curious, seeing Cain came back with a tattered clothes, he might have battled against something down there.

“Defeating the skeletons source down there. Oh yeah, there are some real treasure down there, you can take them, also there are some skeletons there, but they are docile. It's safe down there," Cain slightly pointed the opened altar on his back with his thumb.

“Really!?” hearing the treasure word, the knights got excited.

Cain nodded and smiled.

“Captain!?” the knights were eagerly waiting for their captain’s approval.

“Uhh… Prince?” Jared looked at Calbot.

“Yeah! Sure! You’ve earned it!”

“Uuooohh!” with the Prince’s approval, the knights hurriedly went down, even the wounded one.

“Don't forget to share with our comrades at the camp!” said Jared.

“You won't go there, Jared?” asked Cain. He sat on a crumbled pillar.

“Nah, no need," Jared shook his head lightly, "you already take some?"

Cain nodded while tapping his waist bag. "Diamonds," said he.

"Is that enough?" asked Jared.

"More than enough!" Cain exclaimed, then he exhaled a bit. "What I seek is… the thrill, the feel when you find what was hidden, and something you've never seen before… and probably the treasure if I was me a month ago," Cain chuckled bitterly.

"What changes? Ah, nevermind, everyone has past," said Jared, he didn't want to pry. "By the way, is your wrist okay?” Jared looked at Cain’s wrist.

“Yep, no problem," Cain was holding his left wrist.

Jared didn't ask about the bracelet on Cain’s wrist that wasn't there before. He thought that must be some sort of spoils of the battle he earned himself.

“Then, I thank you again on behalf of the Sun Knight Order for helping us finding the staff," Jared slightly bowed.

“Don't thank me yet, Calbot still has no throne," said Cain.

“Jared is right, Cain," said Calbot. "With your help, we got this staff. You’ve earned more than our thanks," Calbot raised the Staff of Mgre.

They talked until the knights came back with large bags full of treasure.

With this, they returned to the temple entrance. Along the way, the summoned Yellowback Great Bear reunited with its summoner, it successfully fended off the undead skeletons. The bear also only had a minor injury.

The two knights that were waiting at the entrance rejoiced because their Prince brought back the legendary staff.

They camped near the temple for the night and went back to the main camp in the first light.

On their way back, Cain’s left hand finally functioned normally.