Chương 102: The Commander

[Main Quest: Gathering of Night Crystal] [Quest Details: Collect 20 kg of Night Crystal] [Countdown Limit: 10 Days] [Failure Penalty: Your right eye will lose 50% of its vision, and your left eye will lose 100%.] [Quest Reward: Omega Standard Special Affinity Core (Guaranteed Affinity)]'If I worked to complete this quest before, would the outcome of my second death be different?' Arthur thought, realizing that just imagining the Omega Standard Special Affinity gave him hope.

A single thought lingered in his mind: would the outcome truly be any different? He was not sure; nobody could predict the outcome. Arthur sat on a stone inside a Faunite mining chamber, a few Faunite Crystals lying before him. He was in the midst of checking his second quest, which had been given by the Notebook. The amount of Night Crystal needed to complete this quest was enormous. However, if he focused all his effort into hunting the Night Crystal monsters, he would achieve it.

At this moment, he held about 8 kg of Night Crystal, leaving a total of 12 kg still needed. As the first step to gaining immense strength, he was going to attain his first Affinity. While he was reviewing the quest details, the Maan Skeleton suddenly approached and placed a few Faunite Crystals in front of him. In the next second, Arthur willed a contract to the Skeleton. Nothing happend. Arthur was trying to hire a Skeleton using Faunite Crystals, but the strange thing about this Contract Payment was its display.

It simply showed as 'Faunite Crystal' rather than a specific quantity like 1 kg or 2 kg. Due to this, when he hired the Great Grand Skeleton, Repp, he lost all the crystals he had painstakingly collected for two days. However He was not going to regret spending those crystals and hiring Repp, becuase Repp was a good asset, serving as his personal guard.

Now, instead of searching for Skeletons that could be hired using monster materials, which required hunting monsters and spending a lot of time, he chose a different approach. Furthermore, the Skeletons that could be hired through materials were very limited and unwanted. Instead of wasting time, he could use Faunite Crystals to hire any kind of Skeleton, as the number of Skeletons available through this Contract Payment was staggering. He could hire any skeleton as long as he had Faunite Crystals.

But he could not blindly spend as many crystals as the Skeleton wanted. To avoid spending any extra crystals, Arthur ordered Maan to collect every mined crystal immediately and place them in front of him. This way, when he willed the Contract, he could check how many crystals the Skeleton would need as precisely as possible. The first thing he needed to do was accelerate the mining process. Currently, he had a total of six Beginner Skeletons.

Since it took at least ten minutes to mine a single crystal, the effectiveness of the Skeletons was very slow. Therefore, he was trying to hire a few Expert and Master Mining Skeletons to improve the mining speed. Once the speed increased, he could hire other Skeletons easily. While he was pondering how to proceed, the Fulbert Skeleton arrived and dropped the requested Iron Ore into the pile. Currently, the pickaxes used by the Mining Skeletons were very inferior.

They had to strike a specific spot half a dozen times just to break it. To improve their work efficiency, he needed to forge a few high-level pickaxes with a mix of Iron and Faunite Crystal. He did not know if those two materials could go together in forging, but that was left for Master Skeleton Ortiz to handle. Ortiz was already prepared and had set up the blacksmith equipment in the chamber. Now that the Iron Ore was here, Max handed over the two materials: the Iron Ore and the Faunite Crystal.

Pointing at the pickaxes currently being used in the chamber, Max explained what he wanted. After listening to the command and processing it for a few moments, the Blacksmith Skeleton started its work. Meanwhile, the Maan Skeleton returned again and dropped two Faunite Crystals.

"God damn it, it is too low." Frustrated, he willed the contract for the Skeleton he had been trying to hire for a long time. He was trying to hire this Skeleton for one specific reason. He wanted it to lead his Beginner Skeletons out to hunt and collect Night Crystals. Therefore, he chose this Skeleton, as it was capable of commanding a large army, or at least a small group, to effectively hunt the huge monster wave. [Worker Status] Name: Yabo. Designation: Sword Warrior. Specialist: Army Command.

Professional Status: Master Monthly Maintenance Cost (MMC): 22, 000 Credits Contract Payment: Faunite Crystal. However, the contract did not work this time as well. Just how many Faunite Crystals would it need? Currently, at least 15 crystals lay there. As far as his knowledge went, it was a huge amount of crystals considering how scarce they were. However, he quickly calmed down. There was no urgency. He had all the time in the world.

He could slowly do everything, as there was no longer a countdown ticking above his head like before. Thus, he could relax and proceed at his own pace. While he calmed himself, Maan returned again with a few crystals in its bony fingers and dropped them in front of him. Arthur willed the contract, and in the next second, he received a message. Startled by this, Arthur shook his head with a smile on his face. He would do things at his own pace from now on; getting angry or frustrated led to nothing.

Reading on this site? This novel is published elsewhere. Support the author by seeking out the original. [Contract Payment Successful.] A total of around 20 Faunite Crystals were needed to hire a Master Skeleton. It was a reasonable price to pay. If he were to hire one using regular materials, it might require at least 10, 000 monster corpses. That was a huge amount of materials and a waste of time. He summoned the Skeleton. A huge Skeleton, with two swords hanging on its empty hips, stepped out of the diagram.

As expected, the Skeleton looked imposing, carrying the demeanor of a commander. As a Skeleton with Master Status, Yabo came with seven Innate Abilities: Army Command, Tactical Formation, Shared Vision, Battle Sense, Target Assignment, Command Enhancement, and Mass Retreat. Seeing these abilities, Arthur was slightly taken aback. Every ability was related to Yabo's Specialty, rather than its Designation. This was a major surprise, as all the other Skeletons possessed abilities based strictly on their Designations.

Would this Skeleton actually use the swords strapped to its hips to fight? Or were they just for show? He was not sure, but every ability it possessed focused solely on one thing: command. This was the main thing he wanted, and he had gotten exactly what he wished for. Satisfied, Arthur did not wait and immediately summoned the other combat Skeletons. This included Maan, who previously handled small chores; Brog had now replaced Maan for doing that chore work.

Currently, standing in front of him were: 4 Beginner Swordsman Skeletons 1 Beginner Archer Skeleton 4 Beginner Butcher Skeletons 1 Intermediate Tank Skeleton 1 Intermediate Healer Skeleton 1 Expert Spearman Skeleton 1 Expert Jack-of-all-Trades Skeleton 1 Master Assassin Skeleton And finally, 1 Master Sword Warrior Skeleton. This Master Skeleton was also the commander of this small troop. Although it was a small army, he would hire more as more Crystals were mined.

But first of all, he needed that Omega Standard Special Affinity. Therefore, this small army's first order was to head out and hunt. This army contained balanced soldiers; they could not be stopped by any force inside this Alpha Standard territory. Even the Lizard on the lake would fall. Thus, the second order for this army was to hunt that very Lizard. Arthur gave a detailed command to the Yabo Skeleton regarding the objective of this expedition.

Their goal was to hunt every monster in sight and never return until they had collected 12 kg of Night Crystal. He also made Coburn the second-in-command. Although Arthur had initially considered keeping Coburn by his side for safety, he now had his personal bodyguard, the Great Grand Master Skeleton. Therefore, sending Coburn on the hunt would greatly accelerate their progress. Yabo walked out of the chamber, leading the small army of Skeletons on their hunt. Arthur stood up and stretched his body.

Currently, he could do one of two things: join the Skeletons in mining the crystals, or attempt to master materializing the Faunite Crystal outside of his body. Both matters were equally important. However, for now, he had to focus on mining. Once he collected enough crystals, he could begin the other tasks. Meanwhile, Ortiz was in the final stages of finishing the upgraded pickaxe. With a final strike to the head using its hammer, the Skeleton plunged the pickaxe into the water, completing the forging process.

The new Faunite Crystal-mixed pickaxe looked dashingly attractive, with blue veins running through both its handle and head.

Currently, Susanne sat on a floor made of living tree roots inside a burrow that the Ratkin person had brought her to. They had ridden the big rat for five minutes before reaching an enormous tree. Underneath that tree lay a colony of Ratkin people with rat features and human figures. When they witnessed Susanne's human figure, everyone in the colony was startled. However, the Ratkin person quickly explained how she had appeared on the ancient Gazebo, just as the etching showed.

Upon hearing about the Gazebo, all the Ratkin people immediately dropped to their knees, similar to the Ratkin she had first met. Susanne, however, was lost in her own thoughts when she heard about the ancient Gazebo and the etching. Quickly, she was brought into a hole or a cave to meet the elder of their colony. The hole had its own sustainable life that could accommodate all these people. Inside the hole, everything was made from the roots of the big tree, such as the huts, chairs, and roads.

Even the light was provided by peeling a layer off specific roots. However, the miraculous and weird thing was that these roots were still alive and well, not dead. It was a very odd and satisfyingly cozy place to live inside the tree. She was brought to a big hut made of roots, of course, and she entered alongside a few more Ratkin people. Inside the hut, an elder sat with his eyes closed. Matching his title, this Ratkin person was old; his skin was wrinkled, and his posture was slumped.

The Ratkin person slowly moved near his ears and whispered slowly and gently. After hearing this fully, the old Ratkin person opened his eyes slowly and looked at Susanne. Courteously, Susanne gave a small bow. The elder Ratkin person did not speak; perhaps he was unable to due to aging. With great effort, he slowly moved his right hand and signaled for her to come and sit beside him. Without fail, Susanne did as he asked. Once she sat down, the elder Ratkin signaled to the others.

Seeing this, they quickly moved deep inside the hut. Soon, they brought out some kind of document and placed it in front of the elder. However, this document was not made of paper or stone; it was made of tree bark. The elder signaled for Susanne to open it. Nodding, she opened the bark and saw some kind of drawing etched onto it. Although it was old and dark, she could clearly understand what was happening in the drawing. In the first drawing, there was a figure sitting on a throne with a crown on its head.

Before this figure were beings that looked like rats. She quickly moved to the next piece of bark. In that drawing, the figure was ordering something from the rats. On the next piece of bark, the figure appeared angry at the rats. Following that, the figure pointed at the rats, doing something to them. Then, in the next drawing, the rats were turned into human figures standing on two feet. These human figures were then chained and became slaves.

The drawing showed the human figures suffering under the rule of the figure on the throne. Susanne moved to the next piece of bark. On it, she saw a drawing of the Gazebo, and inside, another figure stood. Next, some human figures were kneeling and asking for something. Removing the next piece of bark, she saw that this new figure was using something resembling a symbol of fire. This figure fought the crowned figure and freed the people.

Finally, she used the crown to turn those human figures back into their original forms. Susanne stared at the last bark drawing, easily understanding the implications of this. She was the savior of these people who used fire. Furthermore, the objective of the Trial was to turn these Ratkin back into their original rat forms. To achieve that, she must obtain the crown; this was her true objective.