The day before he would climb the dungeon, Bones went over his progress one last time. Since the dungeon run with the dwarves, two months have passed and he did two solo dungeon runs without completing the second stage. The difference in experience was noticeable now that he over-leveled most of the monsters. He only gained one level in each class and a race, during that time.

The remaining time in between the dungeons was spent on the profession and it was time well spent. His mana engraving leveled from level 4 to level 9, netting him one free attribute point at level 5, that he added to VIT attribute.

With adding all the free points gained from his Soul Weaver class further into WIS, Bones decided to invest the free points from his profession and his Bonemancer Adept class to VIT from here on out, strengthening his Bone Armor and increasing the effect of his passive Calcium Carbonate skill. The increased mana regeneration from Meditation gave him just enough oomph to regeneration to feel comfortable casting spells without running out of mana.

Status

Status

Attributes

Name: Bones

Race: Undead Skeleton lvl 23

Class: Bonemancer Adept Lvl 30

Soul Weaver lvl 9

Profession: Mana Engraver lvl 9

Hp - 510 (5.1 hp/s)

Mp - 910 (38.3+7.66 mp/s)

Sta - ∞

STR: 27

AGI: 5

END: 5

VIT: 51

INT: 93

WIS: 29

Free points:

His point distribution was a bit of a mess and started to be hard to follow as he didn't have a set distribution path. He added his points how he felt and it wasn't going to change in the near future.

The constant engraving he did for the past month, mentally and spiritually exhausted him and he felt the overall strain on his body from using too much mana. That was also one of the reasons he felt like boosting his VIT, hoping to elevate some of the strain he felt.

On the day of the dungeon run, Solin gathered the team in a small pub by the tower known to host adventurers. He introduced the team to Bones and explained a few rules they followed as a team. Their party was made of a veteran defender and damage dealers, making it a very offensive oriented party. The team didn't start from the first floor as the first floor had monsters below level 30 and the party's average level was 32 with Bones gaining a level previously and being the lowest level in the party at level 30.

While Solin was the one to set up the dungeon run, the middle aged defender was leading them. The party leader was an old man named Vern that had an odd variant class focusing on shielding abilities and shield attacks. He held a giant shield horizontally instead of vertically with no weapon equipped. The other party members were a rogue, like Solin, with a sword and a dagger in off hand and a ranger variant class with a lesser heal and a short duration, spectral wolf summon ability. Bones' role was of a support mage with a golem fighting by his side.

The skill he gained at level 30 was a greatly beneficial skill and it came at the perfect time. Once they were inside the safe zone upon entering the dungeon, Bones proudly summoned the golem from the dimensional space his newly gained class skill Bone Collector provided.

Bone Collector [passive] - is an add-on to the Inventory which allows the user to store and separate bones according to type, size and quality. The Bonemancer gains an ability to store created constructs and have a separate slot to store his golems.

Bones had stored bones he collected in his inventory before, the difference was that they were now stored in a separate tab and neatly organized. His golem had a private slot too.

Solin whistled, leaned in closer and asked him if the golem wore his old gear? Bones confirmed he did in fact, had a golem wore his old gear as it made it look like a proper adventurer.

"Well, it's great we have an another addition to the party. Our ranger also has a summoning ability but it's short term." Solin said and walked back to the rest of the team. Bones followed and shortly after checking if they were all ready, they stepped outside the safe zone and onto the path leading them forward and deeper into the lush green vegetation of a tropical forest.

Bones glanced around, observing his surroundings. "Is it not an open space?", he asked. One of the damage dealers, the one with a sword and a dagger answered his question. "Nah, not this floor anyway. The path is pretty straight-forward and the instance is private, just us inside.”

The second floor was a massive area with many linear paths and each path made for a single instance. Each party was in their own instance of a stage, preventing any loot stealing by other parties. The high walls of roots and vines blocked from reaching the other side where most likely, another instance existed. Whether they could somehow interact directly with it or not, Bones couldn't say, nor did his teammates to their knowledge.

The dungeon's theme on the second floor was plant wildlife which would be a first for Bones. Solin warned, however, not to relax and underestimate the monsters as it can be a real struggle fighting against plants and Bones soon saw why. The party had no road to walk on but an earth path covered in vines, coming from the sides. Bones sensed movements in the forest. He didn't say anything as he saw the others looking in the same direction but remained unresponsive.

The leaves rustled as whatever was moving was now approaching them fast and a second later, a wild boar charged through. It collapsed onto the path in front of them and slid to a stop, the vines entrapping its hind legs. Bones watched as more vines sprung forth from the forest, wrapping around the boar and dragging it back through the bushes it charged from. Moments later, squeals were heard from somewhere deep but were silenced soon after. Bones turned to Solin who just shrugged and said, "monster plants, man." Apart from the plants, they expected to encounter insects, in small numbers beasts like boars, venomous snakes and arthropods, with one of them being a miniboss they were heading towards right now.

The party dealt with beasts and monsters alike with ease. The team was already used to working with each other and knew each other's habits and abilities. Bones was following from the back and had his golem on standby near him and ready to deal with any vines or monsters reaching him. The defender knew what he was doing and seemed like a capable party leader. The ranger and rogue were doing a good job keeping most of the vines and beasts from getting past them. Solin was most surprising as his abilities made a qualitative jump from the last time he and Bones trained together.

Bones found the experience so far to be quite different from his dungeon run with the dwarves. Back then, the trio went through the dungeon like they went on a stroll as the dwarves outleveled and pummeled everything with ease, but the present dungeon was at their level and the team progressed slowly but at a steady pace. They reached the first obstacle when a mushroom creature rushed the team and Vern, the defender, yelled at the team to spread out. Bones didn’t question the leader’s orders and took a step back while identifying the creature.

Myconid Sprout, level 31

As the sprout was closing in, Vern rushed forward and slided - intercepting it. The moment the sprout and the shield made contact, a loud boom sounded out, knocking the defender a few steps back. In the spot where the sprout had been was a cloud of a green substance Bones recognized as poison.

"Everyone good?" Vern shouted and, after receiving a positive response, motioned for the team to continue moving forward. More sprouts rushed the team, sometimes two and on a few occasions, even three at the time and it became evident that the sprouts main attack was to blow themselves up once they got close to their target. There were a few close calls, mostly because the poison fog spread fast and both Solin and the other rogue, as melee damage dealers, got caught up in it.

Solin apparently had a skill to deal with the poison as soon after he activated the skill, the poison subdued. The other rogue took out a potion and drank it, nullifying the effect of poison and raising his poison resistance for the duration. The ranger's nature affinity raised his natural poison resistance and some passive healing regeneration he got going on negated the effect of the poison. The defender had high constitution and vitality and had a greatly reduced effect of ailments on him. Bones was naturally immune to poison and spent time looking at the plants around them, while others rested.

Soon after, they encountered a split in the path and they headed down a sidepath, towards the first miniboss. In a large area clear of vines and under the shade of trees, the team stopped and everyone got into formation with the defender at the front, the rogues on the sides and Bones with the ranger at the back.

"Alright, everyone knows what to do! Bones, keep at range and close to Gareth and you'll be fine!" Vern warned. Gareth was the ranger, The boss was coming and the skittering of hundreds of legs was heard thumping on the tree bark.

When the boss was closing in on the team, the thumping grew louder and then abruptly, it stopped. The leaves rustled and branches snapped and up high from the trees, a giant centipede fell down in front of Vern. Without a moment of pause, it striked with its venomous fangs. Vern recoiled from the impact, then scoffed and bashed it's head away. Solin was already by its side aiming at the soft spots between the segments forming its body. The other rogue was on the other side and was presumably doing the same. The ranger moved before the giant centipede ambushed them, aiming to position himself better and Bones casted Bone Spikes, aiming to cripple some of the many legs of the centipede.

The centipede was hard to pin down as its segmented body and numerous legs allowed it to move erratically and with flexibility. Vern kept its attention to himself by using a taunt skill. Bones sensed the mana concentrating around the centipede every time the defender used the skill, but couldn't make out what made it taunt the target. The two rogues danced around the giant body, avoiding the trashing of its legs and inflicting bleeding wounds on its body. The ranger had more success in slowing the centipede's movements with his two spectral wolves clutching its frontal legs and keeping it from injecting venom in Vern through its poison glands. Bones’ golem was behind the centipede, going wild on its body with its berserking attacks. One in every five attacks went through the segment and over time, the damage accumulated.

Once it reached the lower health threshold at 20% life, the centipede's violent thrashing made everyone take a step back and it foiled itself into fetal position. Vern shouted a warning just before a poisonous gas burst out from the gaps in-between the segments of its body and spread throughout the area. Vern had a great helmet covering his head and with his high vitality, mostly resisted the paralytic properties of the poison. Solin did his thing with the skill but it took him some time to recover and the ranger and the other rogue were both affected and remained unable to move. Bones, as expected, was unaffected and together with the golem, continued a barrage of attacks until the rest of the team got their bearings back.