Temperant Dungeon (Final)

My mana had surpassed its cap, and now, I knew I wouldn't be defeated.

[Conjure of Darkness]

A large shadow spread from my feet, encapsulating the sea of blue flames and turning them into a sea of shadowy flames.

Every inch of it seemingly swallowed the light from above and kept it in a chokehold, not allowing any bit of it to escape from my grasp.

Surprised by my sudden retaliation, the skeleton flew towards me, its blue flames conjured in both hands.

It slammed them together and from it a large magical staff appeared, but instead of using it to aim its magic, it attempted to swat me away with it.

SHING

But, it's movements were crude and rough, clearly showing its inexperience with close combat, so as I deflected the staff with my single knife, I used my free hand to charge up and insanely strong punch.

I felt the rest of my go limp for just half a second as all my power was directed into my left fist that ripped through the air.

BAM

But, somehow, the blue flames had caught my boney fist and pushed me back, sending me off balance into the shadowy flames that slowly began to crack with bright blue colors.

They exploded from my coating of darkness and attempted to swallow me, but they did absolutely no damage… though, the skeleton was already aware of that.

FWOOSH… BAM

I felt something conk the side of my head as I began to recover from my slight trip up, sending my mind into a whirl.

The world around me spun as I felt the crack in my head slowly grow bigger with each passing second, sending a wave of worry down my spine.

[HP: 12/25 MP: 6/25 SP: --/--]

I attempted to focus more, but the only thing limiting my skill was my stats body since bones weren't nearly as flexible as flesh.

Being a ninja, I was supposed to be moving around and quickly changing directions with incredible nimbleness and flexibility, but with bones, all I have are joints and shit.

Everything that I was meant to be doing had been practically taken away.

[Darkness Manipulation]

So, I just decided to stick to my roots and allowed the slowly fading darkness that attempted to cover the blue flames to spread out once again.

It quickly began to concentrate in a swirling motion around the skeletal mage, who fought back against it with its blue flames.

Both elements ate away at each other, leaving them in a stalemate.

But this time, the skeleton was busy defending itself while I was focused on recovering my mana that had been eaten away by the usage of this skill.

"Huff… huff… huff… alright… if this doesn't work, then I guess I can say goodbye to this second chance at life," I muttered, and if I had flesh, I would've been smiling right now.

A feeling of adrenaline pumped through me as a sense of excitement arose from the depths of my soul.

I stared at the skeleton who had rid himself of all attacking shadows and snapped its head towards me before charging in.

I charged in towards it as well, ready to sacrifice my life to try and fight this thing off.

FWOOSH

The skeleton reached into my hollowed body and grabbed my rib cage with both hands, pouring in an insane amount of blue flames that reinforced its boney grip.

My ribs began to crack and groan, and as it slowly moved its hands up toward my head, I also reached into the center of the skeleton.

My health points were quickly dropping, and my hand was getting pushed back by the eruption of blue flames that attempted to shield the skeleton's soul from the glowing blue hands.

CRACK

My spine was shattered at the same time my hand pushed straight through the barrier of blue flames and grabbed the squishy soul that gripped as tight as I could within the center of my left boney hand.

The skeletal system that made up my body fell to the ground that slowly reverted back to its normal state as the skeleton in front of me began to turn to dust.

A wave of exhaustion rushed through my bones as I attempted to turn my head over, which was pressed against the ground.

Crack… Crack… Crack… Crack…

In a desperate series of attacks, the disintegrating skeleton tried to burn me with small bursts of flames, and they actually slightly worked due to my exhaustion and how injured my bones already were.

Some began to melt away, but the remaining ones began to gather together, allowing me to sit upright and see a few notifications fill my vision.

.

[You have slaughtered a Hidden Boss]

[Reward has been granted]

.

A singular leather book with a skull on its cover appeared in my hand, seemingly comforting me through the painful experience of my bones suddenly regenerating.

I clenched my remaining teeth together as my body regenerated, and a flood of XP also began to flow through me.

The euphoric feeling eased some of the pain… but after what seemed to be hours, I finally managed to get a grip on myself as my bones finished reassembling themselves together.

[Hand of the Souls]

My flesh slowly regenerated around my skeleton, and once it had finished, I decided to make some fake magical armor to avoid any suspicion as I walked out of the dungeon.

I decided to leave clearing this dungeon for later as I was way too mentally exhausted to actually proceed with the rest of this place; on top of that, I wanted to hone some of my skills in an arena before I was to actually encounter some monsters again.

I was decent with my skills, but in tandem, I sucked… I mean, it was pretty obvious such a thing was going to happen since I had just acquired these skills, but I initially thought my experience could make up for it… and boy, was I wrong.

"Geez… what a shitty day-"

As I walked down the crowded street, limp with exhaustion, I passed by a familiar face that made my eyes go cold.

"Helu? Is that you?"