Upon slipping through the opening of the metal doors, the party met face to face with tall metal pillars that stretched all the way to the tall ceiling. To their right, laying slanted in the corner was a blade so large that it put Louis’s greatsword to shame. It stood over five meters tall from hilt to tip of the blade, spurring the party’s imagination of what could possibly lift this thing. Afraid of accidentally triggering some sort of mechanism, the party silently stood rooted to the spot.

Ezekiel was the first to break the tense silence, giving them both a heads up and warning.

“Over there.”

He pointed to their far left, prompting the party to turn their heads in that direction. What they saw pretty much confirmed their fears for what was to come.

It was another skeleton, but what made this skeleton different from the others was its build and size. It stood nearly three times Kayden’s height despite being in a sitting position. Its skeletal wrists had thick, heavy chains that tied it down to two tall, stone pillars with runic carvings on them. If it weren’t for that, the party would have immediately booked it upon seeing this creature. Nonetheless, the situation was still incredibly unsettling.

Its skull hung limp on its neck, giving it the impression that it had been long dead. However, knowing the types of creatures that came from this dungeon, it was practically guaranteed to rise up and attack them if they somehow stepped out of line.

“It’s pretty dark in here, so I can’t be a hundred percent sure, but there’s some sort of workstation and storage chests lying behind that giant skeleton.” Ezekiel quietly added.

None of the other party members could confirm this, so they could only choose to believe it. Alice didn’t dare cast any spells to light up the room, for it could potentially wake up the slumbering monster.

“So… what are we going to do? We aren’t just going to stand here until the end of time, right?” Kayden whispered.

“Let’s leave this room… we don’t know how that undead might awaken, so let’s regroup and come up with a plan first,” Ezekiel whispered back.

The party unanimously agreed with the idea, and they left as quietly as they entered. Once they were out of the room, they could finally relieve all the nervous tension that had built up.

Cathy let out a shaky breath as soon as she made it out of the room and would have probably collapsed to her knees if it weren’t for Alice being there to support her. Louis himself didn’t have his usual confident look, and Kayden immediately looked to Ezekiel to discuss their next move.

“What now? I’ll be honest, I don’t have much experience dealing with something that big. A bear or a boar is the largest kind of beast I fought. Maybe we should go down another path?”

Louis cut in to disagree with his suggestion, the previous nervousness he had seemed to have evaporated completely. “I’ve fought sea creatures far larger than this wimp of an undead. I reckon we’ll be fine.”

Alice seemed to agree with that notion. “It’s just one singular skeleton that’s a massive oaf, right? I can probably reduce it to ash pretty easily.”

“W-what? You can’t be so reckless, Alice! It could potentially be very powerful! I mean, look at how scary it looks…” Cathy said while clutching her sides. Despite being completely unfazed by blood, Cathy seemed to be deathly afraid of the undead, especially the big, scary one. Kayden couldn’t blame her for he too didn’t want to face the thing if he could help it.

Alice quickly noticed Cathy’s reaction and corrected her previous statement.

“Never mind, it could be pretty powerful. Let’s not face it!”

And just like that, her mind was changed.

“…Seriously?” Kayden rolled his eyes before turning to face Ezekiel, awaiting his decision on the matter.

“Let’s decide with a vote,” he eventually said. “Since there’s five of us, there won’t be a tie, so we’ll just go with whichever the majority wants. I’ll go first. I’m for us confronting the skeleton. Back in my hometown, I’ve faced demons of similar size.”

The vote didn’t take long, and it ended up like how Kayden had expected it to. Louis and Ezekiel wanted to try, while Alice and Cathy didn’t. Although, Kayden was sure that Alice was super confident in her ability to incinerate the giant undead, so it was really only Cathy on the opposing side.

Now, it was all up to him to break the tie. Of course, he was going to pick the option that he could profit the most from, but he also had a suitable idea in mind.

“I’m going with the fighting option—” Sighs could be heard from Cathy and Alice. “—Let me propose an idea. How about I sneak in and steal the loot? You guys distract the skeleton if it wakes up.”

Rubbing his chin, Ezekiel considered the idea and its potential flaws. It certainly wasn’t a bad idea, but there were many shortcomings. What if the skeleton was too powerful and the party cannot handle it? Kayden would be too far away to help them retreat. What if there was a trap that Kayden could potentially fall into? Ultimately, the party simply didn’t have enough knowledge to make an informed decision.

Since that was the case, Ezekiel came up with a relatively safe approach to this situation. After a few minutes of hashing out the details of the plan, the party was finally ready to give it a shot. With weapons at the ready, they stepped into the room once more.

The time has finally come. It was all or nothing—

“Wait wait wait… Hold on. Wait— Let’s get out of the room first.” Kayden whispered urgently, and the party once again left the room.

“What?” Alice hissed.

“I just thought of something. Can’t we get rid of that massive blade somehow? It’s kinda obvious the skeleton will try to use it, right?”

“There’s no way for us to lift that thing, and trying to destroy it without alerting the skeleton is impossible. How about this? We’ll shift our positions closer to it to try and prevent it from arming itself.” Ezekiel offered.

Kayden nodded, and the party entered the room again. While this was happening, Ezekiel stared at him intensely.

“…What?” Kayden was unnerved.

“You aren’t going to tell us to get out of the room again?”

“Pfft, who do you take me for?” Kayden snapped his fingers and vanished on the spot. “Okay, I’ll see you later.” His voice trailed off into the distance.

Ezekiel sighed and quickly got into position right by the massive blade. The rest of the party also didn’t waste any time and readied themselves according to the plan, treading cautiously to their positions.

***

Thanks to the four hours of rest, two hours of searching books, and two mana recovery potions, Kayden was now charged up and ready to go. He swiftly moved toward the area where Ezekiel specified, trying to make his presence as undetectable as possible. Footwork, speed, timing, and various other factors came into play, and he was certainly not being carried by his spell.

As he moved, he also kept a keen eye out for any potential traps or mechanisms, and he used the mana sensing technique to detect any magical triggers. While it was slightly taxing for him to do this all at once, he didn’t have to do it for long, as he very quickly arrived at the location.

There was a small staircase with uneven steps that led to a small platform where everything was held. Currently, Kayden held a small, burning matchstick in hand that allowed him to see. He didn’t have to worry about him being discovered as he covered himself with an additional layer of illusion to make the place look unlit. Though that was assuming that the skeleton giant relied on sight instead of something else.

He came up to the platform without issue and immediately began to look around. There was an empty desk with four storage chests that surrounded it, which made Kayden’s objective very easy.

‘Okay, I’ll go for this left one first. Let’s hope whatever’s inside hasn’t disintegrated into dust already. It would be a damn shame if that happened.’

Kayden cleared his thoughts and focused on the task at hand. He had to quickly pick the locks on the chests and then stuff whatever contents into a bag that he had brought with him. Without wasting any more time, he immediately got to work.

Crouching down, he took a good look at the lock with the help of his burning matchstick. It was slowly but surely burning out, and he would have to change it for a new one later. As the flickering flames illuminated the small area where the lock was held, Kayden observed it with a careful eye, trying to discern what type of lock it was.

‘Alright, so there’s a keyhole here. That should be easy enough to pick… what’s with these uneven metal rings with numbers on them? There are four of them and I can turn each one… Don’t tell me…”

A sudden realization hit Kayden, and it made him hate whoever made this place even more than he already has. First the staircase, now this. Why can’t they be normal?

He most likely needed to try turning the rings until he had the correct combination before being able to pick the lock. Never before had he seen this kind of lock, not even in the ancient museum that he had robbed.

‘Guess I’ll start slowly then… Okay, 0000, 0001—"

A sudden tremor in the ground sent a chill running down his spine. There was no mistaking the source of that movement and Kayden anxiously glanced back at the giant skeleton.

Sure enough, the skeletal titan of a figure steadily got to its knees, causing the surroundings to shake fiercely in the process. Dust began to fall in spades from the ceiling, and the rattling of the chains signaled the start of the battle.

Standing at a hulking eleven meters tall and with a ribcage so wide it made the skeleton look bulky, it trembled violently in its shackles. More and more dust began to fill the room, as the pillars that held the shackles in place began to quake as well.

In the distance, Kayden could hear Ezekiel’s yell to get ready, which quickly snapped him out of his stupor. As tedious as it was, the lock wasn’t actually impossible to pick, he just needed time. Time, that his party would have to buy for him.

‘Stay safe, you guys! I’ll do my best to solve this as fast as possible, so hold on!’ Kayden prayed for his party’s safety, before resuming his work.

***

As the giant skeleton rose to its feet, it struggled against the shackles that held it in place, and with each violent shake, cracks began to form on the pillars. It seemed that whatever magic that strengthened the shackles had weakened considerably after such a long time, and now it could no longer keep the giant in check.

The party firmly stood in their positions, Louis in front, Ezekiel and Alice in the middle, and Cathy at the back. Their backs were facing close to the wall, preventing any potential sneak attacks, and they stayed close to the doors to facilitate a quick escape if they needed it.

The shackles shook violently once more and they finally reached their limit. By pulling its two arms forward, it tore the chains from the pillars, bringing down large chunks of rock at the same time. It crashed onto the ground with a resounding thud, forcing dust to blow in every direction.

Ezekiel had no problems seeing through this dust cloud and determined the location of the undead easily enough. It moved with the grace of a short-circuiting golem, jerking awkwardly left and right as if it didn’t know how to move. Yet.

It didn’t take long for it to gain its bearings, and it immediately began to turn around and shambled towards the other direction. The direction that Kayden was in.

“Seriously? We can’t let him go there! Distract him!” Ezekiel yelled as he drew several arrows from his quiver.

Alice also began chanting the incantations for a spell, while Louis and Cathy couldn’t really do anything at the moment. Soon enough, another Blazing Serpent formed in the air, ready to strike in full force.

Ezekiel aimed his bow at the giant, knocking three arrows on his bowstring. The giant skeleton might just destroy the precious loot in the process of attacking Kayden, and so they could not let that happen at all costs. Raising his voice to the absolute limit, he yelled.

“Attack!”