Chương 15: Tough Battles, Hard Teamwork

By placing the Five Elemental Crystal Ball inside his own thorax, Alex could safely secure it while also using its powers freely without needing to waste a hand holding it. He did the same with the staff, which he had attached to his spine using Bone Clay. This allowed him to benefit from their enchantments continuously without the need to hold them. His magical power and mana regeneration skyrocketed as a result.

The boost enabled him to control his magic more proficiently and keep pace with Gryg's much larger mana pool. Both of them clashed against the golems, taking them down one by one. Gryg was undeniably strong, but she tired quickly. Her heavy armor weighed her down, and despite her claims of being stronger than the males of her species, she lacked real experience in physical combat. In fact, she had barely exercised at all throughout her entire life.

"Ugh… damn it!" Three swordsmen golems and several archers attacked her relentlessly, slowly breaking through her armor. She stepped back and swung her hammer in a wide arc, but one swordsman golem dodged the strike with surprising speed. It countered by striking her arm, shattering part of her armor and dislocating her shoulder in the process.

"Uuuggh! Fucker!" She hissed in pain and fury, kicking the golems away with raw anger. However, they continued pressing forward, overwhelming her once again. In contrast, Alex moved to help her. He took down the two magician golems by delivering a super strong horizontal slash, pouring everything he had into the strike and splitting their bodies apart while securing their intact cores. Because he was a skeleton, he did not have to worry about any backlash his body might receive from overexerting itself.

If his bones began to break, he simply applied more Bone Clay until he became sturdy enough. Even if his arms or legs snapped completely, his Bone Storage would quickly rebuild him again. His Nether Core made everything far easier than he had imagined. Within it, he could feel a fragment of his own soul functioning like a secondary mind, almost like the brain of an undead being. With the Nether Core, he could direct his body to perform secondary actions such as self-regeneration using the Bone Storage.

Although he had to be careful not to overspend his Nether, he could rely on his rapidly regenerating mana to compensate. Unfortunately, his Nether Aura Nature—the laughing skull manifestation—did not work on these golems. They appeared completely immune to curses, likely because they were simply reanimated pieces of stone carved into specific shapes. He had no real way to test it properly here. Nonetheless, his magic continued to grow stronger. His Earth Magic advanced by leaps and bounds.

He fired tougher and stronger bone projectiles, shaping boulders and stone spears in mere seconds. These projectiles pierced through the bodies of the golems, causing them to crumble into pieces. Eventually, he caught up to Gryg. With all his strength, he swung his sword, which was enchanted to the brim with Nether energy. The single horizontal attack split three golems in half at once. BOOOM! The golems collapsed and exploded into pieces, their intact cores making Alex's violet eyes gleam with satisfaction.

However…

"Ah." His arms shattered into pieces, and his legs soon followed, leaving him as nothing more than a pile of bones on the ground. Gryg panicked and rushed toward him after smashing the final golem with her bare, bleeding fists.

"Alex?! Ugh, what the hell?"

"It's fine." Soul Threads surged from his body, reinforcing his frame and repositioning his arms and legs. He reforged them using what he had learned from Alchemy through Synthesis and Bone Clay, creating an even stronger bone structure. Did you know this text is from a different site? Read the official version to support the creator.

"This should do for now," he said.

"Unless I can find a deposit of metals and hard ores, I don't think I can reinforce my body to become truly indestructible yet."

"Wha…?" Gryg's eyebrows twitched in confusion.

"Uh, well, whatever you say. We're done here… Haaa… I'm exhausted. What the hell was that?"

"If you hadn't charged so recklessly into the room out of nowhere," Alex replied, "we might have had an easier time ambushing them. However, you seem to have completely forgotten that we are inside a dungeon."

"Ugh, look, we've been wandering for a while and finding nothing at all. Why would that be my problem?" Gryg asked angrily, crossing her arms.

"Because your lack of care almost got us killed," Alex said firmly.

"I will not refrain from telling you your mistakes, just as I don't expect you to hold back from criticizing mine. This is a team. We work together, not alone. When you make a mistake, it affects not just you but everyone else."

"I never thought I would get lectured by a damn skeleton," Gryg sighed, rolling her eyes.

"Listen, I wasn't even interested in this whole stupid little team you're building. I only did it out of survival. If it wasn't for that contract, I would've walked away and started killing humans a while ago."

"You wouldn't," Alex said calmly.

"I wouldn't have let you leave alive if you became a threat to humans."

"…" Gryg felt his aura flicker for a moment. It reminded her exactly who had beaten her before.

"Are we really doing this?"

"…No," Alex shook his head.

"I appreciate your company and I am enjoying it. I hope we can get along. I truly do."

"…" Gryg was surprised. Despite sounding strangely mechanical and emotionless, Alex's words carried genuine feeling.

"Whatever," she shrugged. She walked away, knelt down, and began gathering the cores left behind.

"Are you taking these or what?"

"Yeah," Alex replied.

"Thank you." After storing the cores, whether intact or shattered, Alex noticed the level-up notifications appearing before him. Ding! [You have slain [Stone Knight – Level 23] x5 – Bonus experience earned for killing enemies above your level. 100 TP earned.] [You have slain [Stone Mage – Level 22] x4 – Bonus experience earned for killing enemies above your level. 80 TP earned.] [You have slain [Stone Archer – Level 21] x3 – Bonus experience earned for killing enemies above your level. 60 TP earned.] [Class: Soulweaver Necromancer (F+) has reached Level 10 – Stat points allocated. +1 free points.] [Race: Undead Skeleton (F) has reached Level 11 – Stat points allocated. +1 free points.]"My Class is finally Level 10," Alex said, his eyes glistening as he sat down on a pile of rubble.

"What's your level so far?"

"24," Gryg answered.

"Not bad, honestly. Ah, you hit Level 10 again? What did you get?"

"Let me see." Alex checked his status and saw another new notification. [Congratulations, your Class has reached Level 10. You are now qualified to choose a Bonus.] Four choices appeared before his eyes, similar to before but now focused on Class Skills. [Self-Binding Upgrade +1: Automatic Orders] You can issue automatic orders on yourself that will continuously activate without requiring any further control.

These automatic orders can also run at the same time as you control your body normally, greatly enhancing multitasking and allowing you to prepare for any situation. [Summon Undead Upgrade +1: More Undead] You can summon one additional Undead under your control, increasing your slots by 1. [Soul Thread Weaving Upgrade +1: Soul Puppeteer] Allows for the seamless ability to puppet your own body and even other targets with greater ease using Thread Weaving.

It also enables complex, autonomous puppets built from compatible materials that will move on their own to assist you. [Fire Magic Apprentice Upgrade +1: Nether Flames] Transform your normal Fire Magic into Nether Flames, capable of harming a target's soul alongside burning at triple the strength of normal flames. Costs both Mana and Nether to conjure.

"Hm, more skill upgrades," Alex thought.

"It's a pity I cannot choose more than one, but this is interesting… All four are great." Alex felt torn. Each of these four options offered a powerful addition on its own and could greatly improve his chances of survival in this dangerous dungeon and those yet to come. Automatic Orders could let him issue several commands at once, boosting his ability to strengthen himself, fight, move, and even function daily as a skeleton. It felt less like simple orders now and more like programming himself.

More Undead was straightforward. He wanted more undead companions and was curious about what kind he might summon now, and how his Self-Binding might interact with it. Soul Puppeteer was particularly interesting. It would allow him to build an army of Bone Golems with much greater ease. If he mastered more of his Alchemy, he could eventually become a one-man army. Nether Flames, on the other hand, seemed incredibly deadly and powerful.

"All of these abilities can eventually be learned through training," he thought.

"However, the limit on how many Undead I can summon has no direct connection to training. It is something only granted by the system. Therefore, it is the smartest choice."