A Lax Dungeon

"This is a cemetery with founding members of our city of Light buried within. Many come here out of respect and it is cleaned by the church of light. However, a dungeon developed here over sixty years ago."

"Since then, it has been a location for many young guards, adventurers, and visiting mercenaries to train. Today it will be only us from the academy here." 

While the history was for the other students, Malik could tell that as a mapper, the professor loved this aspect. The way he spoke became much more elaborate as he pointed out different gravestones. 

There was a great deal of history here that one could learn. It made Malik wonder if it would be valuable to him to explore later. That aside though, the atmosphere definitely held some weight. 

Since it was a small cemetery, there was that mysterious aura of death that hung in the air. But since it was well kept, there wasn't anything with malice slinking about. 

Instead it felt peaceful by comparison. Especially with the amount of light mana crystals shaped in to gems which radiated a soothing and purifying mana. 

The only aspect that stood out was a guarded crypt. This was different from the gravestones or other small crypts. It had almost black stone and the metal gate radiated a more devious undead aura. 

There was a team of ten guards around it, but this was less guarded than the clay man dungeon Malik had gone to before. Most likely since the undead were less popular to hunt. Plus the materials gained from the undead were of lesser quality and value in general. 

"Now, the guards and myself will remain at a distance. We will not act if there is a good enough reason to do so. Malik, that leaves you as the leader. Go ahead." 

Malik froze, he hadn't expected that he would have this dropped on him. He had expected that he would be a smaller group lead or somehow able to use his shadow wrapping skill to hide while instructing others to do something else. 

Now, he had no choice but to make a move toward the dungeon with all eyes on him.

Stepping in to the dungeon, Malik sensed the darkness mana all around. The environment within a crypt was dim, therefore the darkness was naturally a more dense mana type here. It was also why one of the potential bosses here could have the secondary darkness affinity to match its undead state.

When he had found this in a smaller journal referencing skeleton monsters and this dungeon, the system had completed the side quest. He had no notes about the actual name or species of the second type of dungeon boss, but he had enough to complete the quest. 

In doing so he gained a boost to meditation which he used to strengthen his darkness mana manipulation. This directly played in to the shadow wrapping skill which he could use to wrap his entire body now. 

While movements were still slow while using the skill, it was perfect for him as he was now. He could hide much better if he needed to.

The walls of the dungeons were flat with stone coffins in them. Some had broken bones or degraded cloth. Others were empty entirely. The ceilings were curved but made of the same dark gray stone as the walls. Nothing that stood out.

"Keep a look out for small black flowers. They are poisonous but if you wrap cloth around them you can Safely harvest them. They are good for alchemists that create decay resistance potions. They are called shadow lock flowers." 

There were murmurs through the group of following students. Malik felt a little sad since he would not be able to focus on looting everything possible from this dungeon. He could use it to boost his gold savings a little. 

The sudden sound of scraping on stone made the entire group tense. 

'Wandering skeleton- common monster 

The weakest of skeletons. Its smaller size and weaker bones are due to the weakness of their mana affinity. While they are undead, they are still technically related to death and life mana in an odd balance.

However, their weakness ensures that they lack inteligence along with dark mana affinities. They will attack slower than other skeletal monsters. Their attacks hold little weight as well. 

The bones harvested from them as they are defeated by breaking their bodies are useful in alchemy. Some unique charms can also be made from their bones but are often not worth the trouble.'

While Maloik didn't flinch seeing the monster, the other showed a lot of stress. He just stepped forward without even brandishing the metal staff or the daggers he could call out. While he had the dagger that was made by Tiffany, he didn't see the point in dulling it here. 

When his hand swung down, the small and slow wandering skeleton's skull was caught in it. Before anyone could grasp what Malik was doing, his body had twisted and the skull had slammed in to the stone floor. The skull shattered without much of Mlaik's effort. 

"These are just the wandering skeletons. They can overwhelm you if you let them, but they are weak and slow. You can all take a few hits from their bony hands if need be." Malik watched as one of the braver boys came closer to take a look. "The bones are good alchemy materials. Not that they are that valuable. I'll take these ones, you can have the next one coming our way." 

The boy wielded a small club. From what it appeared to be was that he was training to use a cudgel at some point. But he had not been allowed to wield one yet. Not that a real metal cudgel was needed here. The wooden one was more than enough here. 

This was how the first hour passed. The small wandering skeletons appeared here and there. The professor and the guards had no need to bother anyone. Malik even managed to find a night lock flower which he stored away. 

Imeitaly he received a small notice from the guide. 

'The night lock flower can be consumed by the humanoid slime stomach. It can assist in boosting slight dark resistance along with general poison resistances.'

Naturally he let the humanoid slime stomach handle this. Having resistances to poison and dark mana would be very valuable. Resistances to dark mana meant being resistant to decay. That was a great danger in deeper swamps and other places that had natural poisons or dense amounts of rotting dark mana infected plants. 

After his fellow students had begun to branch out a little, they had made more progress. A few of the students were focusing on recording a current map of the dungeon. The clacking skeleton dungeon was overall proving to be a decently simple path to take. 

They had not seen any splits yet, although they would most likely run in to one soon. Some small rooms had been here and there. One where a wandering skeleton had been within one of the stone coffins on the wall. It had led to the girl nearby being attacked. 

Nothing a small healing skill from another student hadn't helped though. The wandering skeleton had been easily dispatched within a few seconds by another nearby student with a single handed hammer and small shield. 

As they pushed forward after taking a moment there to compare notes, Malik got a sense that they were benignly watched. As the dim lighting ahead was made brighter by the approach of their torches, Malik saw what was making him feel uneasy. 

'Skeleton warrior- elite monster

This is a wandering skeleton that was born with enough intelligence to fight. It was able to find a small shield and sword allowing it to battle whatever it encounters. This is also how it is able to strengthen its body over time. 

The bones are significantly tougher than a wandering skeleton's bones. The same with its speed being much faster. As well as this, it has basic sword and shield battle techniques. This means that it can fight back much better than a wandering skeleton overall. 

The bones are more valuable along with the fact that the weak iron sword and rotted wood shield can be taken as materials. Some craftsmen will take them as raw materials…'

"Here we go, this is our first elite monster. It knows how to fight with that rough sword and shield. It is also stronger and tougher. Anyone want to give it a shot?" Malik had become more lax with the group. They had not been foolish. They were a little jealous that he was the one who gave the best report. 

However, they accepted he was strong and that he knew what he was doing. He was confident. That was until the sound of shattering bones made Malik's skin crawl. 

Another skeleton had just destroyed the elite monster they were facing. This one though, had partial armor all over its body. A larger sword. And worse off, a wider metal shield instead of rotting wood. 

'Quest: unrest…'