"Ok, calm down, follow the plan," Astre related to a crystal on his neck with some amusement in his voice. He was sitting on a high pillar next to the wall overwatching the fight in a dark room with his Eye for Details ability.

"BUT THIS IS DISGUSTING!" Ken's loud voice came from the same crystal Astre spoke to, as the red-haired warrior deflected another tentacle with his flaming two-handed sword down on the ground. Before he could say another word, two more slimy limbs headed for him, each one releasing deathly vapor as they were struck down. "IT STINKS TOO!"

"Sure it does, wait till it opens its mouth," remarked Astre.

The Wheel of the Reaper was currently laying under rocks, unable to spin madly around its arena anymore. The team came to the idea on their own, with a bit of Astre's prodding. Ken and Sora guided the boss under one of the walls of the arena, and Blast blew it up, causing stones to fall on the boss.

Milk quickly pulled them out before they got squashed with his Rescue ability. Afterward, the healer focused his attention on purifying a cloud of miasma that the boss kept releasing after it was pinned down. Sora was currently throwing bolts of Arcane Arrows on the boss tentacles that tried to get behind Ken while waiting for the next phase.

The Wheel of the Reaper started as a giant wheel made of bones with a murky black portal filling its insides. It rolled around fast, unstoppable by most means. It would only slow down to turn around or by hitting a wall of the arena. You could defeat it in that state, and it would end the fight, but the team didn't have enough firepower for that.

The other path to victory led through phase two and phase three of the boss. First, you had to obstruct its movement. Then it would release tentacles and vapor while trying to get up. If afterward, the boss couldn't return to rolling, it would enter phase two.

"I think it's shuddering," announced Blast, who was kneeling next to a mortar, "Do I prepare it now?"

"Be ready," Astre said simply as they already went over it before. The wheel did shudder, the murky black substance filling it insides had ripples all across its surface.

"Did the smell increase!?" Ken complained.

"The miasma is increasing!" Milk shouted. "Jump back!"

Ken immediately released fire under his feet, dashing backward just before a giant cloud of miasma released from the boss, as the healer dropped his spell.

During the next ten seconds, no one said anything. Drops of liquid miasma melted the ground. Two giant rotting hands grasped the field. Torso releasing toxic clouds from all holes that were missing flesh, with the biggest one where a heart should be. Red glowing eyes looked at the party as a giant rotten tongue flooded the ground in a vile black substance. Half melted head widened its mouth. A howl of the agony of thousands of years reverberated the walls.

"I know that it's a charming sight," Astre chuckled, "but go back to following the plan."

"What the hell is that!" Milk shouted, looking at the horrifying beast.

"An undead giant. I already explained that" stated Astre.

"I'm gonna puke..." Sora spoke covering her face trying not to inhale the stench in the air.

While all of this was sentimental and amusing to Astre, the beast began to move, dragging itself with its arms as the lower part of its body was still connected to the bone wheel. He opened his mouth to push the party to start moving, but before he could utter a word, Ken fire boosted himself into the air and combined his Fire Slash and Power Strike and Heavy Fall to strike at the monster's face.

The combination of the skills forced the monster's head into the ground. Taking skillsets that combined well could achieve considerable force, even if they lacked versatility. Still...

"This beast is nothing to worry about!" declared Ken. "Come on! Let's beat it!" Turning around with his flaming sword raised, he shouted to his teammates.

Then a giant hand grasped him up, raising him into the air.

"Jeez! You idiot!" yelled Sora as she resumed waving a spell she prepared beforehand. "Blast! Now!"

Two transparent blue arms grew from Sora's back stretching towards the boss; one grabbed the boss by the neck while the other put itself over its jaw, pulling it wide open. The cursed liquid from the monster's mouth slowly dissipated the limb, but it would last long enough.

Blast used two of his abilities Aimed Shot and Delay Explosion. Then he set up his mortar fuse and released his once a day ability Nova Grenade he prepared earlier. The grenade arched in air and landed directly in the boss's widened mouth. Quickly the Aether Hands closed the mouth shut, and just before they disappeared, Sora pulled on the hand grabbing Ken.

Once Ken was free and falling, Milk used Rescue again to pull him close. Just as the red-haired warrior landed next to the healer's feet, the giant undead gulped the grenade back into its throat. Then just as it prepared to attack again, yellow light shone from the monster's holes in its torso. Then before the boss could even do anything, a raging explosion started. Everyone from the party had to shield their eyes and brace themselves for the impact to prevent themselves from getting blown away. They were used to it though, as they had a trigger happy halfling in their party.

Astre whistled at the explosion as the ball of fire climbed upwards, truly some skills were broken in this game. On the other hand, their daily limits and chance to blow oneself up balanced them up.

Once the explosion died out, there was nothing left of the giant undead but a charred skeleton and the wheel.

"Ha! Take that!" asked Blast. "Did we overdid it? I didn't get any notification, so probably not. It must be still alive."

"Are you hurt?" the healer directed his question to the warrior resting by his feet.

"Poison status and Paralyze. That hand was nasty..."

The healer nodded and used his Cleanse skill. Its effect resembled silky white liquid entering the wounds of his friend and purifying them.

"How long do we have before the next phase?" asked Sora.

"Probably a few more seconds," said Astre, maybe he should have brought some snacks for this.

"Get into positions!" Sora shouted an order.

The party snapped up into motion, soon all of them were in a position, with Ken standing in front of the group with Sora and Milk just behind. Blast picked up his mortar and waited for the next mechanic to position himself.

Within the next few seconds, a few things happened. First, on the opposite side of the room, a large part of the wall collapsed. A dimly lit corridor was revealed on the other side of the collapsed wall. It was 50 feet wide and 100 feet high. The walls of the passage were covered in runes and some kind of scriptures. A lore fanatic that Astre knew mentioned it was some kind of legend about the reaper.

At the same time, the boss was transforming into its final form. The giant skeletal wheel snapped into parts. A dark aura emanated from each bone as they floated and gathered into a shape. Soon 70 feet tall skeleton was standing above the party, carrying a bone hatched. Every part of its body was radiating an aura of darkness.

Ken, without waiting for a signal, shouted, "Provoke!" and sprung into action using a combination attack to damage the skeleton leg. The sword bounced off the thing, and it didn't seem to do any damage at all.

"Ouch. It's hard," Ken remarked, correcting his grip on his weapon. "Still, it seems I got its attention."

The skeleton turned its head to look downward, and after noticing the annoying ant with a flaming metal stick, its eye sockets shined in dark red.

"Okay, let's go!" declared Sora running in the direction of the corridor.

The trio ran for the corridor. The boss soon followed swinging at Ken, who did his best to avoid the attacks with his few movement skills while making sure he didn't overtake the two-party members in front of him. Soon though, he was forced to parry the strikes and being pulled back by Milk's Rescue.

"I have never used this skill so much in combat," stated the healer as he continued to run. "Usually, I use it to annoy Blast. Do you need a heal?"

"Fine, for now, that parry was quite good. Didn't lose any LP," affirmed the warrior with a smile.

Soon though, the smile was wiped off as he was forced to dodge another strike. In the meantime, Blast positioned himself by the entrance to the corridor and readied his mortar.

After entering the corridor, the party turned around. The creature followed soon after, but when it went into the passageway, it stopped. The black aura surrounding it faltered, and some of its energy was siphoned away by the runes on the walls.

Then a grenade exploded on the monsters back, causing even more of the dreadful power to disperse into the walls. The undead monstrosity tried to look back, but Ken renewed his Provoke ability, causing the monster to refocus on him. With a mighty howl, the boss released even more of it's a black aura to counter the walls siphon.

"Good," applauded Astre. "Now, whittle it down!"

It seemed his remark, made mostly for the fun of it, was needless as the party jumped at the monster, not letting it recover. It was a new experience for Astre. He never had rookies to take care of since he never belonged to any guild. Maybe the position of an officer in a guild wasn't such an undesirable job. Still, by now, no one would hire him. If he joined a guild, all other guilds that have a grudge against him would complain if not declare war.

Ken bent backward just in time for giant bone cleaver to bass above his head. Another grenade exploded on the monster's back, and pair of giant icicles hit it on the skull. Then a pillar of white energy enveloped the boss—each strike taking large bites out of the black aura that surrounded the undead.

"There goes my once a day greater turn undead," announced Milk.

"Good job," celebrated Ken, striking at beast legs with his flaming sword.

"Pillars of darkness coming," announced Sora as dark energy seemed to gather in circles under her feet. She quickly created an air blast that pushed her to the side as a surge of black mass shot upward.

One by one, the party used their skills to avoid the attack. Blast used a weakened blast to get away, and Milk teleported in a white flash. Ken dashed away, easily dodging the attack.

"This is quite easy," the warrior remarked, turning to face the boss.

"Above you!" shouted Sora.

Ken looked above him, just as black cleaver headed for his head, ready to cleave him into two. A white barrier appeared above to stop the attack, but it got crushed failing the stop the blade in any meaningful way.

The weapon struck, releasing enormous amounts of miasma, obscuring the view. Then another grenade exploded on the undead back. The giant skeleton turned around to look at the halfling.

"Ken!" shouted Sora as she released her most potent spell. A multi-colored beam of energy struck the head of the undead, causing a surge of black energy that filled the walls. Parts of the monster's skull cracked and fell apart. The boss howled in anger and turned around, walking towards the mage.

"Run away!" shouted Milk, but Sora didn't listen instead of preparing her next spell.

Thanks to its enormous size, the monster seemed to cross distance faster than it's walk would suggest, especially now that it looked angry.

Soon it was upon Sora preparing its weapon menacingly to strike as its red eyes shined with rage. Then a grenade and an arrow of white light hit the monster on the shoulder, causing it to stagger and fail its attack.

"Reset Cooldown, Limitless Arcane, Magical Surge!" as Sora shouted her abilities names, her eyes flashed in a multitude of colors, and her hair rose up as wind surged from her surroundings.

The undead thought didn't wait for the mage to finish her chant and raised its hand to strike again. Milk teleported to Sora's side and raised his barrier again, but he knew it was futile action as it failed entirely once.

Astre wondered if he should do something, but then he noticed something move bellow and smiled. Truly warrior builds like to show off.

"PROVOKE!" shouted Ken enveloped in flames as he supported himself with his sword.

That was enough, the monster stopped in its tracks, and as it turned its head around its whole upper body was enveloped in giant a multi-colored ball. The energies and wind surged through the passage, as the runes on the walls filled within seconds.

When the spell died out, the skeletons' head and left side of its torso was gone entirely. Still, it seemed the monster wasn't done as it raised its cracked hand once again.

"You don't know when to give up!" Ken shouted as he fire jumped up, and using his skill combination struck at the monster spine.

Finally, it seemed to have done it, the monsters whole bone structure was covered in cracks, and as final strands of black energy left it, it crumbled apart to dust.

You defeated the third stage of the Wheel of the Reaper. May the Death watch you.

"Ken! You live!" declared Sora. "Good, I never want to do this boss again. I don't want to know what higher rank bosses are like."

"How did you do this, bro!? And why are you on fire?" Blast asked as he ran up to the party after storing his mortar.

"Oh, right. I unlocked an ability, Fiery Rage it also brought my Fire Magic skillset to level 4. It grants me four additional LP for five minutes. It also grants some passive bonus flame damage," explained Ken. "Speaking about can you cast heal on me, I have one LP left and will die if the spell goes off."

"Heal!" cast Milk as silky white energy left his hands.

"Thanks," replied Ken. "So, we won!"

"Congratulations," said Astre, still he didn't go down just yet.

"Come down," spoke Blast. "We need to have a celebratory party!"

Just as Blast finished shouting, a sudden mechanical sound filled their eardrums. The ground itself shook under them.

"What the hell is this? Didn't we defeat the boss!"

"The skelly boi revenge!" shouted Ken.

"Astre-san?" asked Sora looking around confused.

"Oh, so you are Japanese, after all," declared Astre. "Well, I can't tell much, it's secret for those who beat the boss the intended way. It shouldn't kill you, though."

"Shouldn't..." repeated Milk, worried.

On the opposite side of the corridor, a black doorway that wasn't there before could be seen. Its frame had carvings of a scythe and a hanged man on its two parts.

The dark energy left the runes on the walls turning into black strands of mana that made a path towards the door, sinking into it. Gradually, the cracks in the door glowed in purple light.

When all of the mana entered the gate, it slowly unsealed itself. On the inside was pure blackness. From the all-encompassing void of the inside of the gate, a figure appeared. It wore a black cloak covering its whole body. Yet while it didn't carry any weapon, it didn't seem defenseless. The air around it shuddered and twisted, and black ooze footprints were left in its wake.

"Ehm, is that aggressive?" asked Blast. Slight tremble could be heard in his voice.

"Calling a lady it," a feminine voice resounded from under the figure's hood. "You don't have a lot of luck with women, do you?"

"Ehm," Blast released unnerved sound. "Sorry?"

"Apology accepted," the figure nodded.

"Sorry, but who are you?" asked Ken, he took the silence from Astre as a sign that he wasn't going to explain.

"Ah, it seems I'm the rude one now. I'm Death," the Death spoke calmly. Despite the calm tone, the hairs at the party's necks stood up at that pronunciation. The proclamation was filled with such surety that she could as well be the real, Death.

"No need to fear. Your time hasn't come yet," Death remarked, amused. "Quite otherwise, I would say."

Milk whispered to his party, "Is this some kind of event, chain quest maybe, or some reward?"

"You outerworlders really have weird terminology for everything. I guess this could be all of those," Death stated, raising her hand from under her cloak. The pure white hand outstretched as energy gathered in her hand. It seemed to be made of absolute darkness. "I'm going to watch you closely from now on."

As Death announced that, four strings of blackness reached toward the chests of each member of the party. They tried to move away but found themselves paralyzed. When the tendrils reached them, they felt as if something icy entered them and tried to steal all the warmth in their bodies. Then they collapsed to the floor. Each of them was under paralyzed status effect.

"With that done, I would normally disappear in a cloud of darkness," she chuckled. "But it seems someone I once declared unworthy has acquired beautiful aura around him."

She looked up as she spoke those words. Astre shuddered. He even used his Cover ability from his Camping skill. Scattering rubble around as he stood up, the effect of his ability automatically covered him in stuff around him to obscure him. It helped him to hide from most detection skills.

Without much choice, he slid down on a line arriving before the Death herself. "Long time no see, your last message left me quite heartbroken," he remarked jokingly.

"Forgive me. It seems even after all this time, I am prone to mistakes," declared Death. "I will need to revise my ways. To think you could acquire such a beautiful aroma. It must have been hard."

"Good things are never easy. Though I'm not sure if it's a good thing for me. If I'm guessing the condition for this correctly."

"Mortals should never feel good about taking others' life," declared Death. "Even I find such people untasteful, despite them doing my work."

"So, will this be the trial I heard about?" asked Astre. He heard before that if Death finds you worthy, you will receive a chance to grow stronger.

"Yes, indeed," she stated as a white scythe materialized in her hands. It was simple in design, with only detail being a white face of a crying woman carved in its blade.

Astre pulled out his sword and examined it. Compared to the uniqueness and elegance of the scythe, it looked quite crude.

Sword of Trickster (Peak Legendary Weapon)

Sword made by Legendary Blacksmith Wayland for the Trickster God. It contains many tricks, which the user has to discover himself. Increases damage done with sword attacks by 150%.

The sword was made of many interconnected parts, and the handguard had two triggers and four buttons on it. The handle was also made of many rings he could twist and turn. Overall it looked more like a tricky puzzle than a sword.

It was his reward for placing fifth in the tournament. While the damage bonus was the same as his last sword the tricks, he discovered with it already were more than worth it.

He returned his attention to the Death before him, then without giving any signal, she attacked. He Parried the first strike calmly, ducking under second horizontal slash he countered with his own Slash to the waist.

The strike he put his skill into got casually stopped with the shaft of the white weapon. Yet he didn't end his attack, pressing one of the buttons on his sword two parts of the blade separated from it and struck the robe of Death, leaving small cuts. It seemed it was somewhat resistant to half-hearted attacks, despite it having enough force to cut off a finger if it got a chance.

"Ah!" the Death exclaimed, her voice was filled with weird excitement. Soon Astre was forced to use his footwork to escape multiple repeated slashes. If not for his passive boosting his speed, he would have gotten torn to pieces already.

"So skillful, to think I missed you, maybe Death truly is Blind," said the Death continuing her attacks.

Astre, on the other hand, didn't have the leisure to respond. Finally, he saw a chance, jumping backward with the full force of his legs; he widened the distance between the two.

Death paused for a while, compared to the skillful movement from before this looked like a mistake. Still, there would be no letting this chance pass. She lunged forward with twice the speed of the man.

Then a raging explosion blasted Astre away with enough force to send him rolling few steps away. It seemed the crystal he got from Loki worked perfectly with his Instant Trap ability. He could prepare a schematics for trap beforehand and apply it instantly. It only allowed up to three parts, though, so one part being trigger and line at the same time allowed him to double the flaming runes and cause a cross explosion by overflow.

He got to his feet instantly and ready, just in time to avoid another attack by stepping to the side and countering with Stab. Death unnaturally twisted her neck at the last second and avoided the attack. It still left a huge hole in her cloak that now didn't seem so pristine.

She jumped backward and waved her hand. Her cloak returned to its pristine glory. "Hmph, it seems, I will need to be serious about this. You passed already, by the way. I simply want to play with a handsome man like you some more."

Astre opened his mouth, but she already leaped at him with incomparable speed to before. He parried the first strike and Parried the second one, but the third one caught him on his left forearm. The weapon left a small gush on his skin, but the strike alone reduced his LP by one. He shuddered as he stepped to dodge another downward attack.

The next attack left him no choice, but to Slash at her attack. He blocked it, but it seemed that Death's strength was monstrous compared to his own, and his hand halted from the shock. It felt like hitting a stone of stone.

He couldn't avoid the next strike, nor did he want to. The blow cut its target in half, and a giant gush of water sprayed Death. Despite it being useless in most situations, it seemed for Death holy water was effective as steam raised from her body.

"Snipe." An arrow with a green tip fired from a black bow flew straight for Death's head. For the first time in the encounter, Death's hood slid off her head, revealing a pale-skinned woman. Her white hair flew freely in the air. Her equally white face had an enormous smile on it as she touched a small unbleeding cut on her cheek. She was a beauty that words alone couldn't describe. Her face, despite the wound, reminded him of being above mortals. The delicate and pristine details of her face untouchable even by the time itself.

She laughed, "I think my heart throbbed for the first time in eternity. If you continue like that, I may just fall for you!" Death announced as she crushed the doll's head that Astre substituted for himself.

She jumped with enough speed that all Astre could see was a blurry figure. He released three arrows with Rapid Arrow and final fourth arrow with Trick Arrow. The first three projectiles got deflected with a single swipe. The fourth seemed that it would have been diverted too. Instead, it ricocheted off the blade and hit something in the wall. Then three white beams hit Death square on, burning holes in her cloak and freezing her. Despite all of this, her speed didn't slow down.

Without another choice, he used Dodge Shot just before the scythe sliced his neck. Dashing into the air, he had no more room to dodge as Death dashed at him, stepping from the pillar. As he threw away his bow and pulled out his sword, he pretended to Slash. In the final moment of his swing, he let go of his weapon. With free hands, he grabbed the scythe with all his force.

He didn't stop it. Instead, he moved with it. Hanging on it, the two of them started falling. Death was looking at him with a smile that sent shivers down his back.

He pulled on the string attached to the ring on his finger, and just before he hit the ground, the sword returned to his hand. A cloud of dust raised and fallen as silence encompassed the underground cavern.

"Do you know what this place is?" Death asked, not bothering about the sword that split into three parts, piercing her stomach.

"Some kind of tomb?" Astre spoke with a cough. The fall alone took off three of his LP. Holding the scythe for some reason took one LP too.

"My tomb," declared Death. "I died in the era of the birth of humanity. From then on, I guided the souls to their afterlife."

"The small trial I left here is to find promising young souls and watch them. And if they proved worthy, I would help them. I don't support murderers or psychopaths, but at the same time, I won't help those who fear taking others' life. You were in the other category, yet in the time, I didn't see you, you changed. You grew up to an amazing degree. There is no inefficiency in your ways. Every step is made to deal and toy with the threat. You no longer fear to kill."

Astre looked at her a bit stupified. He didn't feel like he ever feared to kill. Yet it was true that he always avoided it. Only after he learned the costs of his sister medicine, he no longer stopped at killing bosses if a guild came into the area. He no longer left bandit camps alone. He no longer feared hunting guilds that were marked by the system as criminals to get their gold.

"It was just for money," said Astre.

"Half-lie," stated Death. "But it's fine, and I like you a lot. So I will give you a gift. Normally those who pass my trial get treasure marked by me, but I think I will give you something that will help you more."

Your Danger Sense evolved into Death Sense.

He never heard of skill evolving. Instantly he opened the skill description, but despite the name change, it itself didn't change.

Death Sense If in times of crisis, your focus is undisturbed, you will receive a warning.

"Don't worry, it will be boon to you," she explained. Her smile as she looked at him, never faltering. Then to his surprise, on her deathly pale face, a small rosy tinge appeared, "Till we meet again, my love."

Astre laid down as he processed the words. Did he just?

"It seems you got a waifu, friend," Ken's voice brought vigor to the still air.

Astre, shuddered.