Demonic Skeleton God
Chapter 65: Dungeon 15

Chapter 65: Dungeon 15

Itai looked over the book—it was a silver tome with an image of ice in the center. He hoped it was a spellbook.

"You said you want to be a mage, but you can’t fight in a dungeon because you don’t have any spell. So now I’m giving you a spell I used during my beginnings. I used it when I was starting out, and it should be suitable for stage 1. You can show this spell to others freely; no one will be particularly surprised that someone with talent A received a spell from someone," said the Overseer.

Itai then said his goodbyes and thanked her for the gift, before heading out of the Adventurers’ Guild with the book in his pocket. He was eager to tell Flain about this, because such an important event was definitely something Flain should know.

On the way, Itai read a few pages but barely understood anything. So far, he had only read two spellbooks, both about necromancy—he had yet to study any other kind of magic. In any case, he planned to learn it for two reasons: he enjoyed learning magic, and he wanted to explore a different type of it.

The second reason was that he wanted to try fighting alongside Zheren in a dungeon. He could theoretically learn to fight with a sword, so he could have started fighting right away, but magic attracted him much more.

Itai entered the villa. Since all the windows were covered, Itai had bought special chandeliers that emit light nonstop because they’re powered by mana.

Mana can run out sometimes, so it needs to be refilled. But the amount needed is minimal, and the light lasts incredibly long. Each chandelier cost only 2 gold, which would be a fortune for a normal person—but for Itai, it was nothing.

Unlike when they first arrived, everything was clean and organized. Itai had assigned one of his skeletons as his cleaner, so he practically didn’t need to tidy up. He had chosen a skeleton who used to be a soldier guarding a gate.

Food in the Imperial City, when Itai was still a bartender, would have been extremely expensive—but now it was nothing to him. A single fresh meal usually cost him about 50 bronze coins, which was practically nothing. Of course, prices in the center would be much higher.

Itai opened the trapdoor to the basement and descended the stairs. The basement was an empty, cold room with only one armored figure sitting on the ground, leaning against the wall—that was, of course, Flain.

Itai stepped up to Flain and waited. He had long since learned that when Flain was in this position, he shouldn’t disturb him. He didn’t know why, but he trusted Flain.

After 10 minutes, Flain stood up and looked at Itai. "Is there a problem?" he asked.

Itai then began to recount in detail everything that had happened to him in the past hour. When he finished, there was a brief silence.

"We’re getting too much attention. I’ll consider whether we should leave the Empire of Light before stage 3," Flain murmured.

"But otherwise your lie was good. I did see a few small mistakes, but nothing major. Anyway, show me the book," said Flain.

Itai handed him the book. Immediately, a system window popped up in front of Flain, showing the cost of automatic learning.

[Automatic skill learning: 20,000 XP]

For Flain, that amount was very cheap—just leveling up now cost him exactly 180,000 EXP. At the moment, Flain had only 12,000 EXP, so it would still take a while before he could learn it.

Interestingly, the book that grants a spell to summon skeletons—the one Itai’s father passed on to him—costs only 3,000 XP for automatic learning, and it’s also almost an offensive stage 1 spell.

Flain handed the book back to Itai. "I’ll learn it later too," said Flain.

"Alright then," said Itai.

Itai then went upstairs—Dungeon 15 was still waiting for him, and he wasn’t looking forward to it at all. Zheren was already waiting for him upstairs, and together they set off. After about two hours, they arrived at the location.

Dungeon 15 was, just like Dungeon 11, in the form of a cave. There were almost no stalls around due to the dungeon’s low visitor count. Only a single alcohol stand like the one at Dungeon 5 and a basic refreshment stand were there.

Itai walked closer and greeted a few adventurers, then stepped into the dungeon. The dungeon was illuminated by eternally burning torches, just like in every dungeon.

Itai encountered their first enemy. There were four monsters, each about the size of a wolf. They had large, round, bloated bodies covered in fur, small heads with two shiny black eyes, and two long, thin arms ending in clawed hands.

Itai knew this monster well. It was weak, like all monsters found at the start of a dungeon. The rule of "the deeper you go, the stronger they get" applied to every dungeon—and this one was no exception.

Zheren stood next to Itai, indifferent and emotionless. An undeath inherits part of its personality from when it was still alive. Since Zheren had a short temper in his past life, he still does now, which also explains the incident with Greg. But now, there was nothing to make him angry, so he remained calm.

His empty eye sockets stared at the four furry monsters, which began to slowly walk toward them with a faint growl.

Itai stepped back and watched as Zheren dashed forward. The first monster didn’t even have time to attack—Zheren’s sword flashed and pierced through it, dropping it dead to the ground.

The remaining three roared, but before they could react, Zheren was already out of sight. He appeared right behind the second monster and stabbed it through the heart with a single precise motion. At the same moment, he ducked, dodged the claws of the third, and with a single graceful spin, sliced its belly in half.

Zheren’s dead eyes turned toward the fourth monster...