Karma?

Rupert lay awake in bed, no matter how hard he closed his eyes or how many sheep he counted, sleep avoided him. The testimonies from the rescue group kept ambushing his mind whenever any semblance of tiredness crept upon him.

'A monster horde appearing that early on in the dungeon... furthermore, one with a Gnoll...' Rupert had never heard of such a ridiculous thing, but the implications of the existence of a monster horde appearing that early were grave.

'Alex Prim barely survived... if Cal came across it then...' Rupert suppressed that thought.

The man hadn't had a proper night's rest since Cal's disappearance, he had hoped that the rescue group would just find Cal with an injured leg or some light injury near the entrance of the cave and bring him back, he hadn't prepared himself for such a shock.

Rupert rose from his bed. A particular testimony from the Prim household's Alex Prim flashed through his mind.

'A friendly skeleton...'

Rupert abandoned any hope of sleep.

The man grabbed his cane and got on his feet with a determined expression. His face, twisted into a scowl when he remembered how the guild master had treated him, no longer would Rupert allow himself to be limited by the arrogance of another.

'It's time I take matters into my own hands.'

The elderly man hobbled out of his house while the moon shined brightly over him, each stride he took was clumsy yet determined. Rupert would save his grandson no matter the risks he needed to take or heads we needed to go over.

*****

'Like butter...'

Cal held the short sword up, looking at its silver blade, now speckled with flecks of blood.

After "borrowing" this sword, Cal had taken a few practice runs against some goblins, and with each strike, his reverence towards the sword only grew.

Never in his life had he been able to wield such a high-quality weapon, all the weapons he owned were merely mediocre. Swords such as these were the lifeblood of every adventurer, they were often monopolised by nobles or wealthy families, while Cal's grandfather did have powerful connections, he wasn't used to such luxury.

The excitement he felt from holding such a weapon quickly washed over the fear of angering its owner.

The skeleton made some quick cuts along the goblin's chest and plunged his hand in, expertly getting the core out of its now hollow body. Chimey eagerly gobbled up the core after being told to send all points to Chakra.

The quality of each goblin stone was now roughly the value of two normal goblins, Cal wanted to get to the bottom of this mystery but something more pressing took priority.

'What's my Chakra at now?'

[48.7! Almost there!]

'I was gonna hold off until 50 but, this should be enough right?'

Cal had held off on trying to harness Chakra's powers until he reached a value of 50, the same value where his grandfather had allowed him to start training in the usage of Ki.

Contrary to what most thought when first learning about stat values, they are broad terms for a general improvement in many categories. For example, an increase in Constitution will increase the robustness of your body while also increasing your strength, physical health, HP, and the efficiency of your internal organs. The Ki value that Cal previously used referred to both the quantity of Ki he had at his disposal as well as the extent to which he could manipulate Ki. Cal assumed the same for Chakra.

Cal focused his senses on his surroundings, making sure that his business wouldn't be interrupted by a stray goblin horde or anything of the sort.

'Chimey, keep an eye out alright! Ping me if anything big happens!'

Cal ignored Chimey's incessant dings about its name and sat down in a lotus position, after a few minutes, Chimey stopped annoying Cal and the skeleton relaxed his mind.

After growing more familiar with Chakra, he was able to quickly sense it without much preparation. The next step was to harness it.

'It's as strange as ever...' Cal mused, sensing the nature of this strange energy.

Just like he did so with Ki, Cal created a ripple of energy throughout his body, then he used the momentum from the energy ripple to direct the energy into the tips of his fingers. Cal imagined removing a small stream of water from a rocking, swerving, whirlpool.

'Strange...'

The energy felt direct and strong like Ki, yet it made his fingers feel as if they were "buzzing", a trait he only felt when he was using mana back in his academy days. Cal had grown accustomed to its weird quirks and directed his vision to his hands.

His fingers looked just as they did at the start, yet Cal could feel a considerable difference.

The skeleton swiftly got up from his sitting position and walked to where a stray stone lay. The rock was no bigger than a football; perfect for Cal's test.

'Huuhh...' Cal kneeled down and arched his elbow back, still ensuring that the buzzing of Chakra was present, eyeing a specific part of the stone.

'HAP!' as if his bones were a spring, Cal shot his finger into the stone.

*KRKK*

Cal ignored the pain he felt when his hands struck the stone and focused intently on his target.

A small cut, only about 2 mm in depth, was now etched onto the stone.

'Hoohh...'

'...' The skeleton's hand shook a little, he stood up from kneeling.

'I did it.'

He stared at his bony hands, hands he had cast aside and scorned. As he watched his newfound abilities show themselves on the stone, that hate slowly ebbed away, replacing itself with invigorated hope.

Cal was a little worried that Chakra and Ki were too distinct to use the logic of one onto the other, luckily, that fear was unneeded. Cal had used the same teachings for Chakra to manipulate Ki and it had worked even better than he imagined.

Since hearing Kent and the others for the first time, Cal had felt more motivation to grow in strength than ever before. The boy tried to suppress his glee, he knew that this was just a stepping stone to the power he wanted to one day wield, the power that would allow him to reclaim his life.

The skeleton's fantasies were broken by a chime.

[Hey Cal? Take a look at this!]

Cal gazed back at Chimey's message and the larger orange box that had popped up right beside it. This box was distinct from Chimey's usual messages. The rectangular box's writing was blocky and methodical instead of Chimey's usual graceful writing; beyond the words, the box had sharp edges with ornate red lines covering it's border.

<<The energy of the world has accepted you, your soul is now open to Karmic Events>>

Cal stared at the message dumbfounded.

'Karmic Events? Energy of this world?'

Phrases and statements he was unfamiliar with littered this strange new message.

'Chimey, what do you mean?'

[I didn't say that...] Chimey's usually annoying chime was gone.

'What? Then how'd it appear?!'

[It was involuntary!]

'C'mon how do you say something like that on acci-'

[A sneeze! It was like a sneeze that humans do!]

Cal tilted his head and stared at the system's sudden statement, not saying anything to urge it to explain.

[I felt an itch and then bam! Sneeze! But in word form!] the chime was urgent.

[I didn't know I could sneeze~!] the urgency relaxed as Chimey reverted to its usual, whimsical self.

'You... can sneeze?'

Questions whirled around Cal's head, he was already stupefied by Chimey's actions every other day but never to this extent.

'What... are you?' Cal eyed Chimey's rectangular body with a conflicted expression. Could Chimey be hiding something from him? Cal unconsciously edged away from the screen.

[Hmm? A friend~!] Chimey answered, no hesitation in its words.

Cal's gaze softened.

'Ah... of course.' The skeleton said sheepishly.

From what Cal could tell, Chimey harboured no ill intentions towards him and, beyond being kind, it helped him through the use of cores, allowing him to grow stronger. He wasn't about to suspect Chimey's goals just because of some strange behaviour. Without someone to talk with, Cal felt like he might've gone nuts in this new body.

'Chimey... next time when we're not so busy, I want to ask you some more questions, alright?'

A chime responded in acknowledgement, the "sneeze" made Chimey temporarily forget to protest against its name.

Cal tabled this discussion for another day.

The cataclysm was approaching.

'It's been about a day since Kent arrived in the dungeon by my approximation, I don't have much of a grasp on time but... the A ranks aren't too far off now, we have 3 days at best, 1 at the worst.'

[Ooo~! I know what that means!!!] a short chime responded, waiting for Cal to fulfil its expectations.

'Chimey... we need to get a lot more cores.'

A barrage of chimes responded with glee.