Birth of a Skald (Part One)

As soon as the thought came through Niles' mind, the red glint in the dungeon boss' eyes suddenly intensified drastically. Before long, the redness started to spread to its chest from its eyes and concentrated there.

Its aura became menacing. When Dante first saw the dungeon boss, it didn't give him this kind of feeling. It had just looked stronger than other pygmy skeletons.

However, now, it was giving off a baleful aura. Not just Dante, every newcomer could feel the ever-increasing evil atmosphere in the hall.

Niles was the closest newcomer to the dungeon boss, so he was affected by its aura more than anyone else. He immediately forgot about his anger and swung his sword in panic.

The longsword collided with the monster's body. The red aura resisted the longsword as if it was something solid. However, a flash later, the aura around the collision spot dispersed, and the longsword heavily crashed to the dungeon boss' body.

Its still intact arm instantly crumbled, but the strike still had power backing it. After half of the dungeon boss' ribcage also crashed by the blow, it was sent flying and landed ten meters away, hitting to a few skeletons in the process.

Dante couldn't do anything to block Niles' strike. The guy had acted in panic, so everything had happened quickly. He was also surprised by the developments.

The two didn't look at each other. The menacing atmosphere in the hall momentarily caused them to forget about each other's existence. They were staring at the dungeon boss with solemn faces.

There was still traces of panic in the eyes of Niles though.

The dungeon boss had lost both of its arms and half of its ribcage. Its spine was still in one piece, so getting up again wasn't that hard for it.

The red aura around it didn't decrease one bit despite receiving such heavy wounds. Instead, it was still intensifying.

Then a thought struck Dante's mind. The system had told the newcomers that there wasn't any monster in The Lower Catacombs whose level higher than 7. And in order to have mana, one had to be at level 10, or one had to have a hidden class. A part of this rule was also valid for the monsters, only the monsters whose level were higher than 10 had mana.

What if the knowledge that the system had given them was inaccurate? What if this red-lined pygmy skeleton, aka the dungeon boss, was at level 10 or even at a higher level? What if that red aura around its body was mana? ...And what if it was building up its energy before casting a skill?

As soon as Dante thought about this possibility, his expression sank.

"Niles... The dungeon boss is about to cast a skill! Leave aside your grudge for now! We have to stop it!" Dante said while swinging the rusty sword around, killing two incoming skeletons in the process.

The purple-lined pygmy skeletons were slow, and just one-third of their original number had left in the hall, the others were dead. However, they kept running at their position and attacking the two. Ignoring them was out of possibility.

"I'm not taking orders from you!" Niles said angrily. He discovered that whenever he saw Dante and heard the man's voice, he was losing control. But despite being angry, he ran toward the dungeon boss, crashing every skeleton on his way.

Dante gritted his teeth. He had no choice but running after him. But then, 'the mana' of the dungeon boss reached its peak, and four red balls of mana flew out from its chest!

One of the red mana balls fell between the dungeon boss and Niles.

Another one fell in front of Ulfred. He has been still struggling in the middle of the purple-lined skeleton crowd, trying to lessen their numbers and blocking their way in order to create a better chance for Dante.

There were still members of Niles' party in the hall. However, there were only around ten newcomers in the hall now, the others were either dead or left the hall long ago.

The other half of the Niles' party, Nathaniel and Iona were nowhere to be seen.

Those ten survivors were the clever ones. They had been fighting against the skeletons before the skeletons lost their interest in them, but now, they were watching the events and getting free EXP.

The other two red mana balls fell very close to those ten newcomers.

After dropping to the ground, all four of the red mana balls sank into the ground, and their red color spread onto the white floor of the hall. Before long, a red veil covered the entire place.

Ka...

Ka-ka...

Ka-ka-ka-ka-ka!

The clinking sounds of teeth were heard, after that, blood red colored and small figures raised from the floor. They were amorphous at first, but it didn't take them long to form a shape.

Dogs! At least two hundred skeleton dogs!

The dungeon boss was just a little tougher than the other purple-lined pygmy skeletons because it was actually a kind of summoner!

Its skill took so long to cast because it was a formidable skill!

The bones of the dogs were fairly small compared to the purple-lined pygmy skeletons, so they had to be more fragile. However, they were looking undoubtedly much faster.

The skeleton dogs haven't started their attack yet, but an air of despair had already gripped the hearts of every newcomer in the hall.

Ulfred had a gloomy expression on his face. He took a deep breath that completely filled his lungs, straightened his back and unexpectedly, gave out a beast-like roar.

"Raaaghhrr!"

He started his rampage. Ignoring the defense, he crashed, smashed and killed. Despite receiving many wounds in the process, he didn't seem like he would stop before giving out his last breath.

Like everyone else in the hall, he knew that this was the end. However, the old man refused to die just like that. He had to struggle until the bitter end.

The clever newcomers pissed their pants upon seeing the small sea of skeleton dogs. It took them just a few breaths of time.

After leaking down from their trembling legs, urine made small pools on the ground.

They couldn't escape anymore, because they were in the middle of two groups of red skeleton dogs. They were trapped now.

Without exception, all of them cursed at God for making them 'so clever'.

Niles' eyes widened upon the sight of the skeleton dogs.

*Clank*

The longsword dropped from his hand, and a second later, his quiet and despair-filled laughter was heard.

"He-he he... Ha ha... ha! This quest was the first for us newcomers. It should have been the easiest... and the quickest quest to complete in the entire Labyrinth of the First. But... look what we are against!" He pointed the crowd of red skeleton dogs with his forefinger. "He he... ha ha! This is a joke. It has to be a joke..."

Then Niles looked at Dante. "After knowing that how meaningless all of this is... I don't want to kill you nor I hate you anymore. Even those are meaningless now. Heh, he..."

Dante didn't give Niles a response upon hearing his words.

The man was really pitiful actually. Except for finding the longsword, everything else had gone terribly wrong for him. Because of Dante, he had to frequently shift his mood between being angry and calm. Naturally, all of this was too much for him.

However, Dante would never feel pity for someone like Niles. He has not felt anything for the perished souls of the newcomers either.

Unlike the other newcomers, he didn't feel despair or a shred of fear. Death was a natural occurrence for him. Even his own death was not an exception.

He also didn't have any regrets and wasn't sorry for his teammates because he believed that he had done his best.

Dante walked toward Niles and stopped near him. There was a meaningless smile on his face. Even he didn't know why he was smiling in this hopeless situation.

He took Niles' sword from the ground.

"What... are you doing? Don't tell me... you still have hopes for surviving!" Niles said with a bitterness-filled voice and a sullen face.

"I'm not delusional enough to think that I can survive here. I have little strength left, and I don't think I can level up one more time before I totally collapse due to fatigue."

Dante brandished the dual swords in his hands.

"However, If I don't even put a fight before I get killed..." Dante stopped for a moment. "That would be really stupid, don't you think?"

At this time, the dungeon boss opened its mouth and somehow made a guttural sound. It was the attack command.

*Guuhhh*

"Aaahhhh!"

Dante gave out a war cry at the same time and prepared to dive into the crowd of skeleton dogs, leaving behind a flabergasted Niles.

For some reason, the dungeon boss waited a considerable amount of time before giving the attack command, but Dante couldn't care less about its reasons now.