It was wicked, sinful and immoral! But it wasn’t like he was robbing the graves of something of value! Bones thought to himself after picking the other shovel and starting digging the grave next to the one Skully was digging. I mean, it’s just convenient as I’m most familiar with bones and skulls would make perfect containers! Besides, I only need…thirty-ish skulls.

Yes, Bones almost had everything he needed to make the bombs apart from the containers, and instead of browsing shops looking for one, the first thing to pop in his head were skulls and a cemetery.

Bones only had a few hours to work with and the night seemed like it would be a peaceful one if not for the sound of shoveling and the desecration of graves.

Digging wasn't hard for a leveled person, but it still took hours to unearth thirty one skulls. A new day was dawning and Bones' senses detected movement in the cemetery. Someone is coming! This early? Must be a gravedigger. It didn't matter, Bones was almost finished!

"Take It Up a notch Skully, we have company!" Bones ushered Skully to hurry and exhume the last grave while he was checking the perimeter. Once he unearthed the last skull, they both took to filling the grave back with earth. Their work was sloppy and interrupted midway. The gravedigger was making rounds and was closing in on their location. Bones glanced sideways, looking at all the mess they've made out of filling back the graves. Out of thirty-two graves, maybe half were properly filled up and smoothed to be flat. The rest had noticeable mounds of dirt.

You'd have to be blind not to notice something was off, especially…Forget this, what's done is done!

Bones stored the shovels and Skully, and fled the area, leaving the last grave half filled in. The gravedigger walked absentmindedly, still feeling groggy from the sleep and fell inside the grave. The old man screamed in pain as he sprained his ankle upon falling, then cussed and looked on in confusion around him.

"Wha…what is this? Are…*gasp* The Zombies!!" The old gravedigger exclaimed before crawling out of the grave and making a run for it.

Bones dusted his robe while walking back toward the smithy at leisure pace. Things were looking up, sort of. He counted on Rayne to foil whatever Silva planned. Bones didn't know what the exact plan was, only that it entailed mana bombs and in large quantities. Two, or was it three?, rocked the tunnels and caused a cave-in in Westbrook. Having ten of them…that's a lot of damage in crowded places.

A new day started and Bones had work to do. It was still too early to start making noise in the workshop, so after washing off the dirt and changing the robe, Bones sat at the bench in front of the smithy and summoned one of the skulls. Bones' shaping skill has reached a high enough level to shape the skull and close almost all the orifices apart from a wide hole at the bottom of the skull.

He set the skull aside and took out one dispenser and one pouch full of powder. After twisting the top off, he carefully added the poisonous substance inside and then tightly twisted the top on. He took the skull in one hand and used the other hand to place the dispenser inside the skull from the bottom. He shaped a small gap at the top of the skull, leaving only the top of the dispenser visible and finished by closing the hole at the bottom too.

Bones stood up and marveled at the skull in front of him. He observed his work and made slight adjustments where needed. Once he was done, he stored the skull and left a note in the kitchen saying he went up the mountain to test the bomb. He left the smithy and headed toward the stone steps leading up the mountain. Bones was looking for a remote place to test the effectiveness of his newly made bomb.

The steps led up the mountain in a zig-zag pattern and Bones passed by more than one smithy on his way. After fifteen minutes of climbing, he no longer saw the houses or had a clear view of Stonefalls. He was surrounded by trees and high mountains. This should be far enough.

Bones summoned Skully and then the test bomb. The bomb needed one final touch to be explosion capable. The needle, or igniter as Mirami called it. Bones took out a single needle and as instructed, embedded it through the top of the dispenser, leaving only a miniscule amount sticking out.

"I think we're done! Skully, be a pal and go stand right over there." Bones said and pointed at the spot a dozen meters away. Skully moved over to the spot, stopped, and played the best test dummy he can be.

Bones gripped the skull with his right hand and went through the instruction in his head one last time. It's simple. All I have to do is guide the flow of mana out my hand and encompass the skull to activated the igniter

Hm…if I hold the skull by the top, I don't actually have to encompass the whole skull.

Bones turned the skull upside down and held it at the top of his palm. The igniter needle was touching his palm and Bones briefly expelled the mana through his palm. He felt it leave and activated the igniter. Without a moment of pause, he lobbed the skull at the Skully's location.

The bomb hit the spot at Skully’s feet and exploded on impact. An explosion of dark green smoke filled the area, obscuring sight of Scully and was spreading by the second. The smoke permeated the area five meters around Skully and only subsided within the minute.

“Come over here.” Bones commanded his golem after the smoke completely dissipated. Skully approached and Bones inspected the faint traces of green left by the smoke. The smoke caused by the explosion is dense! Denser than I thought it would be considering the amount used in a bomb. The radius is good as well, taking into account that I can’t sense the wind here. The wind would spread the smoke in a larger area but would reduce its density. That’s fine though. The bomb works!

The first test was a success but Bones wasn’t done testing. He walked over to the nearest tree and sat down, leaning against the tree. He summoned another skull, a dispenser and the pouch of powder he used in the previous bomb. He repeated the process and roughly five minutes later, made another bomb.

“You stay right there Skully, I won’t be needing your assistance this time.” Bones said and walked over to the clearing with the bomb in his hands and ready to use. Lobbing the bomb works but the impact is rather…impactless. It took around five seconds for the poison to spread up to a maximum radius. This time, I won’t be lobbing the skull.

Bones gripped the skull and smashed it down on the ground. The skull exploded in a cloud of green smoke like it did the first time but the impact and the speed at which the smoke spreaded throughout the area was greater. Even the radius increased by two-three meters. So the strength and the speed at the point of impact affected the magnitude of the explosion. Best used right at my feet, noted!

Satisfied with the result of his bombs, Bones didn’t continue with the testing. He sat back down, leaned against a tree and started making bombs. Hours passed and Bones heard voices coming in the direction of the stone steps. He looked up and saw Darsumi and Hemdus approaching.

“Wuts takin ye so long?” Hem asked.

“Obviously, he’s not testing anymore, Hem. He’s making more bombs!”

“He coudlva dun dat at da smithy too!”

“True, true. Greetings Bones. How’s it going?” Darsumi asked.

Bones grabbed one of the skulls and tossed it to Hemdus. “Catch!”

Hemdus’s eyes widened as he caught and fumbled the skull in his hands. “Cor blimey, Bones!!!”

Bones? I don’t think he ever called me Bones before. He must really not like the bombs. I’m sure there’s a story behind the reason why…or common sense?

“What brings you two here? Want to test the bomb?”

Darsumi said they have waited for Bones to return, but after he didn’t show up by noon, they decided to find him. Bones was so caught up making bombs, he didn’t notice the time. The bombs weren’t overly difficult to make, it’s the shaping and closing the orifices that took most of the time.

“I have a few more to make until I finish. Why don’t you test the bomb in the mean time. The result is best if you smash the skull at your feet.”

Both dwarves looked at Bones with eyebrows raised. “Aye, Dar? Ye can hav it.” Hem said and passed the skull to Darsumi.

*sigh* “Fine, I’ll do it.” Dar said, looking at the skull in his hand. He moved away from Hem and into the clearing. Bones nodded and said to Skully to go and play the testing dummy again. “There, aim at Skully. He will be fine.”

“Right, thanks…Do you often talk to your golem?” Darsumi questioned as he watched Skully walking.

“Wuts wrong wit talkin to yer golem? I still do dat sumtimes…when am alone o'course!”

“I’m not really expecting a conversation, Dar. It just comes naturally more than giving direction telepathically all the time.”

Darsumi shrugged, muttering "I suppose so", and focused back on Skully some distance away. Bones briefly instructed the dwarf on how to activate and use the bomb. He watched as Dar took a few steps back and hurled a bomb. The bomb made a nice parabolic arc and fell just short of Skully. The bomb exploded in a cloud of smoke and both dwarves exclaimed in amazement.

"Woah! Nice one, Bones!" Darsumi expressed surprise and gave him a thumbs up!

Bones looked at Dar, then back at the smoke and exclaimed surprise as well, looking at a cloud of smoke being carried further away by a slight breeze.

He stood up and walked over, stopping next to dwarves. They watched as the breeze spread the poisonous gas over a thirty meter radius and a green cloud still lingered in an area.

The dwarves glanced at Bones and he returned a questioning look. "What?"

"Ye made a bomb outta skulls? Were did ye get all them skulls from?"

"Bones, don't tell me…" Darsumi said, realizing what Bones had probably done. Bones scratched the back of his head and nodded.

Hemdus facepalmed, coming to a sudden realization. "Lets get outta 'ere before sumone comes 'nd question wut we doin eh?!"

"I second that." Bones concurred and added that he can finish the rest at the smithy.

Bones finished making the rest of the bombs within an hour and sat in the kitchen, writing a letter. Once he was finished, he asked Dar where he could find Thaddeus.

"He'll come by later so you can hand it to him then."

Bones nodded and made his way into the workshop. With bombs done, he still had one more thing he wanted to finish before the festival and that was to engrave the orc's skeleton.

Thaddeus stopped by in the evening. Bones handed him a letter with directions where to deliver the letter to and after receiving further instructions from Darsumi, Thaddeus saddled his horse and left for the capital.

"Making final preparations before the heist?" Bones asked, overhearing some of their conversation.

"Thaddeus is my liaison with certain people we sell the stolen goods to. What do you plan on doing until the festival?"

"Can I in any way help with the preparations for the heist?" Bones asked, but Darsumi shook his head, saying everything was already handled and that there was nothing else needed done.

"Then I'll stick to engraving." Bones replied and headed back to the workshop. Darsumi stayed and kept Hemdus company. The dwarves were rowdy and Bones could hear Hem’s slurred speech from way over there. Never quiet around here.

By midnight, Bones was half-way done engraving the skeleton when he heard an unexpected ding of notifications. He stopped working and brought up his screen. Well now, this is truly unexpected!

Level up!

Bone Shaping has leveled up to lvl 16

Level up!

Congratulations! Race: Undead Skeleton is lvl 25

Congratulation on reaching level 25

Undead Skeleton Race advancement available: 1