Osteology?

The back of the tent blew open as bone shards flung outside, resulting in both a gaping hole in the back of the tent and the golems outside to pick up their pace.

Kasdeya ran through the jagged hole right as the first few golems arrived at the entrance and consequently, above the other exploding bone she had placed down.

Suddenly hearing a resounding crash behind her, Kasdeya looked back for only a second to see bones being scattered everywhere as multiple golems were blown to pieces, their cores shattering under the impact, before they were obscured by her running around the sides of the tent.

It appeared that due to the two explosions, the golems didn't see Kasdeya, but they were now on alert and constantly running everywhere, making her job much more annoying.

'It would be really useful if all of these golems just jumped into a single pile, at least then I'd be able to kill them instantly and get lots of experience.'

Kasdeya kept moving and had searched over half of the tents without finding the relic, however she found something else that was quite interesting. A giant map made out of a bone slate, how you could have a slate of bone was unknown to Kasdeya but she didn't think about it. This map depicted quite a wide area, including a place called the 'hunter's cliffs', which had small annotations on it, in the direction of the opposite wall to the one Kasdeya came in from.

'I remember the greater imp mentioning something about the hunters cliffs being dangerous, but these annotations seem to suggest that the exit to this place is past the cliffs which means it's somewhere I have to go, how I can read this is once again unknown to me but I'm not going to think about it.' Kasdeya thought as she listened to the frequent noises coming outside of the golems looking for her, though why they weren't entering here was total mystery.

Kasdeya peaked out of the tent and dashed into the next closest one. This tent was the most decorated, with bone furniture along the walls. The obscene number of bone tables was quite weird as there were well over 20 of them, all of varying sizes and designs, randomly filling the tent, but Kasdeya didn't really bother with that as an ornate table with a specially designed stand holding a flat, circular object had drawn her attention.

'Wait a second, is this the relic? It certainly looks special, especially since it's the only thing in this place not made of bone.'

Kasdeya eagerly walked up to the crystal like disc and inspected it closely, it looked like it was made out of some strange crystal and it was roughly 2 centimetres tall with a diameter of 15 centimetres and runes carved both on and in it.

[Crystal Altilium]

'Well this was really easy, now let's grab this and get out of here.' Kasdeya thought happily as she reached for the object and lifted it from its stand.

"Give that back!" An eerie, hollow voice spontaneously cried out as Kasdeya felt danger from behind her and ducked just in time to see a long, white pointed object shoot over her.

Kasdeya placed the relic into her pouch while she spun around in order to see her attacker.

[Level: ???

Race: Ascendant Bone Weaver]

'HOLY SHIT! THIS THING IS THAT MUCH HIGHER LEVEL THAN ME!?'

The bone weaver took the appearance of a hooded creature wearing a long, tattered robe which didn't reveal any distinctive features. The only suggestion towards its true appearance was the glimpses of the thin, chalk white hands that Kasdeya got when it performed gestures, looking like it had nothing but skin and bones to make up its existence.

Kasdeya grabbed out her second last exploding bone and used it to destroy the wall of the tent, which she promptly fled through and was followed by an awful screech.

"GIVE ME BACK MY RELIC!"

"NO!"

Kasdeya bolted towards the bone wall in the direction she last saw the brute.

A crunching sound could be heard from behind her and Kasdeya spun her head around to see a long line of bone spikes rising from the ground in the direction where she was, closing in much faster than she was moving.

She leapt to the side and suppressed a shiver as dozens of spikes rose from where she was just standing.

The bone weaver projected an ear splitting screech which seemed to resound within Kasdeya's body and she instinctively started pushing her mana into her bones as they began to creak.

She could feel the foreign power trying to infiltrate her being, but much to her dismay, she wasn't powerful enough to resist, and had to fight the waves of pain and nausea that resounded from the constant cracking within her body as she took out a mana disruption rune and activated it, right when a burning pain erupted in her left shoulder.

Kasdeya was thrown to the ground by the force of the bone spear piercing her body but it seemed that the mana disruption rune had worked once again as her bones were no longer straining to stay together.

Kasdeya immediately deactivated the rune and tried to heal her injuries as a familiar creaking sound was heard from behind her. Recognising the sound, Kasdeya leapt back up and started running again in order to not let the bone golems catch up.

'Finally I reached the wall.' Kasdeya thought in relief, right when dozens of bone spears shot out of the wall towards her.

'SHIT. I REALLY NEED A WAY TO DETECT MANA!' Kasdeya cried internally as 4 spears pierced the front of her body, sending her staggering back and falling over, allowing her to see the brute leap over the wall and look at her with a smug grin as it landed next to her body. Luckily the wounds weren't deep, but it was enough to stun her for a second, even if only due to the impact.

"Good work on a job well done, you can give me the relic now." Stated the brute with a sadistic grin on its face while looking at her battered form.

Kasdeya was quite tired of constantly having this creature look down on her, so she immediately came up with a plan suitable for the stereotype of her species.

"I'M VERY SORRY MASTER FOR GETTING CAUGHT! I KNOW YOU SAID THE BONE WEAVER WAS WEAK AND INSIGNIFICANT TO THE LIKES OF YOU, BUT I'M SIMPLY NOT THAT POWERFUL! EVEN AFTER HOW MUCH YOU STATED THAT IT WAS PATHETIC AND WORTHLESS, NO MORE DANGEROUS THAN A PITIFUL LESSER IMP, I STILL GOT BEATEN. PLEASE JUST GIVE ME A MOMENT TO TAKE OUT THE RELIC AND GIVE TO YOU SO YOU DON'T HAVE TO WASTE YOUR TIME FIGHTING, WHAT YOU CALL, 'A LESSER SPECIES!" Kasdeya cried out loudly, hoping that her idea would work.

"What? I never said that? Stop messing around and give me-"

"So you think I'm pathetic and worthless do you? No more dangerous than a lesser imp? You, who can't even compare to a tenth of my strength, you, who hasn't even evolved past the species barrier of an imp, YOU, WHO FOOLISHLY INSTIGATE A THEFT ATTEMPT AGAINST ME! DARE, TO CLAIM SUPERIORITY?! I WILL TEAR APART YOUR RIBS AND TURN YOUR CORPSE INTO A FUCKING TABLE!"