Skeleton Army

The hall in the underground was at least a hundred meters long and forty meters wide. Giant stone pillars in the form of two straight rows were reaching from the ceiling to the ground. There was equal space between each one.

The floor was paved with white parquets. It looked costly. There was no such an area even in Sunfell Town.

The hall's ceiling had many glistening stalactites, reflecting the strong light produced by the hundreds of roaring torches.

This hall was built by intelligent beings, or it was man-made, there was no doubt about it!

When the party of four saw the scenery in front of them, they held their breaths, and their movements came to a sudden stop as if they were frozen statues!

In this spacious hall, there were at least a hundred purple-lined pygmy skeletons! Their names contained the word pygmy, but every single one of them had the size of a normal human! The purple lines on their bones were wider and glossier than what the party had ever seen so far!

However, none of these things were shocking enough for them!

The skeletons were in a formation as if they were the members of a regular army! They stood there like battle-hardened soldiers!

Fortunately, they didn't have weapons on their hands. Except for one!

In the middle of the 'regular army of skeletons,' there was a gap. On that gap, there stood an unusual pygmy skeleton. It was a little bigger than the others. It had two different sized horns on its misshaped head. It was holding a rusty longsword with both hands!

It was the general of the skeleton army!

The tip of the longsword was slightly buried into the ground, and the skeleton general was looking to the floor a few meters in front of it, unmoving.

After getting rid of the shock, the party realized that all of these skeletons, including the skeleton general, were in a slumbered state. They had not detected the party yet!

However, Dante was sure that they would all wake up if the party took a step into the hall!

As they stared dumbstruck at the scenery in front of them, the party noticed a brutal truth.

There were three more caves that open into the hall! And there was no torch near their exits! The only cave that had a torch in it was the cave they were in!

They had chosen the rightmost cave-path before, and their choice brought them here.

These three caves were undoubtedly the other ends of the other three cave-paths!

What could have happened to them if Dante had chosen another path instead of the rightmost one?

When the party members thought about this question, their backs drenched in cold sweat in no time!

"Boss, let's move back slowly!" As the member of the party's eyes became saucers, Nathaniel managed to squeeze out three words from his mouth.

However, Dante didn't give a response. Currently, his eyes were on the other end of the hall, as if he saw something there, causing him to become frozen.

There was a door. It wasn't a cave entrance or anything. It was a door that entirely made of various kinds of skulls... and instead of the yellowish light of torches, daylight was coming from there!

The party was so deep into The Yellow Peaks, but unexpectedly, they saw the daylight here!

"Something... is calling me." Dante murmured and took a step forward!

He felt an indescribable feeling in his heart which he couldn't give a name. In the following second, he lost the sensation of his body.

He unknowingly took that step, because, in that room, he felt like there was something very familiar to him as if that room contained a part of him!

However, before he took his next step, Ulfred grabbed him from the waist! He was the first one who has noticed Dante's unusual behavior.

At the same time, Nathaniel also grabbed Iona's hand! He couldn't trust her in this situation! Here and now, even stumbling on a stone would be a grave mistake!

The party slowly and very quietly fell back, until the yellow torchlights entirely disappeared.

...

Five minutes later.

"Put me down, old man," Dante said calmly.

As Ulfred did so, he asked; "What happened there to you?"

The old man and the rest of the party were curious. Dante wasn't a man who would do such a thing. There had to be something going on.

Dante looked at the hall's direction. For the first time, there was a confused expression on his face. "I don't know." He said and refused to talk more about the topic.

"That's not actually important. My Boss is well right now." Nathaniel was focusing on more important problems. "It's been more than two days since we entered [The Lower Catacombs]. Niles' party can show up at any minute. We should make a plan."

"I don't think we can kill off that much skeletons in one go, especially The Dungeon Boss in the middle will be a serious problem. Since dungeons are designed places, there has to be a way of killing them all." Ulfred had the usual stoic expression on his face.

After making a few more comments about the situation, an unexpected silence took place between them. Right now, every pair of eyes were looking at Dante. His quietness made them feel fear in their hearts.

Dante wasn't the strongest in the party, but he was the undisputed Boss here. He had the highest intelligence and luck stats, and so far, his decisions have never created a disappointment for the party.

Unknowingly, everyone was waiting for him to speak. That was the reason for the silence.

Dante was still thinking about the room. What was there? Why did he get that weird feeling with just a stare?

If he couldn't get in that room, the answers would remain secret forever. Therefore, thinking about the possibilities or wondering over answers wouldn't earn him anything. Instead of doing so, he had to take action immediately.

Dante took a deep breath.

"I don't think we can deal with those skeletons. Their numbers are too many for us to handle. I'm not saying this just because they look stronger than the other purple-lined skeletons we killed before. I'm saying this... because they are like an army led by the Dungeon Boss. They won't be mindless and blind this time. Our chance of killing them all is basically zero."

"However, I don't think we have to deal with them head-on. Remember, skeletons are a kind of undead monsters, they don't like daylight."

"We all saw the daylight coming from the other end of the hall. I don't know what will happen to the skeletons when they exposed to the daylight, but it is worth a try. Our aim should be reaching that door. If they follow us into the daylight, then we'll fight with them. We'll have the advantage that way."

Dante checked his quest log. They killed so many skeletons and explored the dungeon until this point, but the dungeon quest remained the same. There was nothing in the quest log that showed their progress.

Although Dante has found it strange, he didn't care about it. Since this quest was their first dungeon quest, he didn't need to think too much over it.

But now, thanks to the absence of a progress sign, he had an idea about what it means to clear a dungeon.

"Clearing a dungeon either means killing its boss or reaching the dungeon's end. Perhaps we'll need to do both of these." He said with furrowed brows. No matter which angle you looked at it from, it would be hard to do so.

"If it is like as you said, your plan is worth a shot. But how will we reach that room? I'm afraid just running won't work." Said Ulfred and threw a look to Iona without changing his expression, causing her to lower her head.

"Heh he he." Dante smiled dangerously. "Our close friend Niles will help us on that matter."

"But... Boss, when Niles gets here, he'll find us first. There are no crevices in the cave walls. I don't think we can avoid him."

"Avoiding him is the easiest thing to do. All we need to do is reaching the hall from one of the other three cave-paths. Since we have already lit the torches, it shouldn't be dangerous for us."

"In addition, Niles' party won't encounter skeletons until they reach the hall. Naturally, they will not have known anything about the skeletons at that time."

"Even if they run away upon seeing the skeleton army, they'll unavoidably make noise. It would be best for us if the skeletons chase them."

"So when the newcomer army and the skeleton army starts killing each other, it will be our chance," Ulfred said with a smile. As always the smile didn't look good on his face.

"Exactly! But there is more. We'll be watching them when the 'war' starts. Whether it is a skeleton or a newcomer, every death will return to us as EXP!"