## Chapter 42 – Dungeon
The skeletons, forming a group of at least squad size, dragged their old weapons as they approached. I couldn’t figure out what principle they moved on, and unlike their horrifying appearance, they didn’t seem to be worth any money.
I couldn’t call those rotten, rusted, half-broken weapons ancient antiques, not even as a joke. In the end, they were just skeletons waving around sticks that weren’t even weapons. Thinking about it like that, the fear of the unknown undead seemed to disappear.
Combat power comes from muscle, bone, willpower, and good equipment. The [Skeletons], lacking any of these, were just pathetic things, like moving skull models from a science lab. Suddenly, the army of skeletons in front of me looked like a gang of sickly beggars.
At that pathetic sight, the [Weakling Oppression] dormant within me began to crawl out.
“Should we just charge in?”
Maria asked, lowering her stance. It sounded like a question, but she wasn’t really asking for agreement. Impact force is proportional to weight and speed. She pushed off the ground with her shield leading the way.
ㅡThud thud thud!
Her fierce running was like a charging wild boar. Soon, she collided head-on with the center of the densely packed skeletons.
ㅡWham!
“Yaha!”
Bones flew with a refreshing shout.
The skeletons flew away like bowling pins being knocked over. The weight of a human skeleton is said to be only 20% of body weight. And since these were old bones, they probably weighed even less than half of that, so there was no way they could withstand Maria’s charge-crash with her shield leading the way.
ㅡClack.
ㅡClack clack.
Four against dozens. The difference in numbers was overwhelming. But the individual combat power was so different that they could completely demoralize the enemies, despite the disadvantage in numbers. I shouted loudly and ran forward.
“Waaaaaaaah!”
More swinging than stabbing. A sword is basically a solid piece of iron, so getting hit with it is really painful. As Karin taught me, I swung at them with a disciplined, balanced stance that maximized power.
“Sans!! Why are you here!!”
ㅡThwack!
ㅡCrack!
I brought down a cleaving strike.
The skeletons were cut, crushed, smashed, and broken, scattering bone fragments as they fell.
These guys were just unbelievably pathetic. How dare these bastards try to mess with me? Now?
Even though the skeletons were right in front of me, engaged in close combat, they were so slow that my chest felt like it was about to burst with frustration.
These idiots took a whopping 10 seconds to complete a series of actions that a normal person could do in 1 second: moving, raising their arms, and swinging their rusty, broken swords.
There was no way those sluggish attacks could work on me, and even if they did hit, the impact was minimal. My extraordinary breastplate and expensive quilted armor could easily withstand such shoddy attacks with just their defense. It seemed like I just had to avoid getting hit in the head.
“This is really ‘bone’-headed!”
I said, smashing one of their heads.
These were literally just skeletons. Just like the dead can’t interfere with the living, they were just skeletons that were simply dead.
I personally returned them to where they should be.
“Seriously. One zombie would be harder than ten of these skeletons.”
Copson, worried about damaging his blade, put his sword back in its sheath and started dealing damage with clumsy fist and foot techniques.
No matter how clumsy, the skeletons were cut in half by Copson’s kicks and had their ribs scattered by his punches as they died (if you could call it dying).
“I wish I could just fight these guys for the rest of my life?”
The skull of a skeleton hit by Maria’s powerfully swung shield shattered, and its body slammed into the wall. Maria pulverized them with her shield, as if showing off her innate violence. As expected of a properly learned shield technique, her shield was not a piece of armor but a deadly weapon.
It goes without saying for Elise. She was the most excited. She was personally demonstrating the concept of destroying something.
That’s how we completely fucked up a squad of skeletons. A lot of dust was kicked up. The fact that this white dust filled the 4th basement floor suggested that other adventurers had also insulted the dead in a similar way.
“Now they will return to where they originally should have gone.”
“That’s a relief.”
Elise said, wiping the sweat from her forehead. It was hard to believe that she was the one who had caused the underground dungeon sledgehammer massacre that surpassed the Panmunjom Axe Murder Incident, but her expression looked more refreshed than ever.
I couldn’t understand at all. It seemed like she genuinely believed that she had done something very good. This was literally incomprehensible. In my opinion, Elise’s destructive behavior was more appalling than reverent.
Still, I was satisfied that my stress had been relieved, so I just gave her an awkward smile in response.
“Are their souls saved?”
“Salvation… that’s a rather unfamiliar word. Wherever their souls go after death, it would be a bit of a stretch to call it salvation.”
“Wouldn’t it be salvation if they went to heaven or something?”
“Heaven isn’t a commonly used concept either. Excuse me, but do you have a religion, Katt? The concepts of salvation and heaven aren’t really covered in our Holy Light Crusader Order.”
“Huh? No. I don’t really have a religion, but I heard from street preachers that you can go to heaven… I don’t really know much about it.”
For some reason, as we talked, she suddenly started explaining the doctrine like an aunt (churchgoer) you meet during the holidays, and I was about to freak out. I decided to change the subject appropriately. I didn’t know much about religion and wasn’t interested in it anyway.
“…I don’t think there are any pagans left in the current kingdom, but it’s best not to trust those who promise heaven.”
“Ah, yes.”
As soon as I heard the word “pagan,” an unknown chill ran down my spine. Was she suddenly going to smash my head for saying something wrong? I quickly dropped my head to the floor. In other words, I lowered my eyes.
“Um, is there anything to take?”
I looked at the floor with my eyes lowered.
I didn’t expect much and pushed the remains away with my foot. If I tried to sell these rotten blades to the blacksmiths, I would surely be met with a nice curse and a spiteful stab. Maybe they would use my corpse to make an Emille Bell.
I searched in case there was a sword with jewels embedded in it, but it didn’t seem like the common soldiers had anything like that. So there was nothing worth any money… I was very disappointed.
Maria seemed to be thinking the same thing, squatting down and using a thigh bone to rummage through the remains. She was just touching human bones. Not even a branch.
“Oh? This is…”
“Did you find something?”
I asked, not expecting much from her words that seemed to indicate she had found something. I was contemplating the serious value of the blackened leather. Recycling rotten leather. That could be the key to saving the Earth’s environment…
“It’s a necklace.”
“A necklace!”
I shouted reflexively. What Maria pulled out from the pile of remains was a long necklace! The color was faded, so I couldn’t tell what metal it was. But!
“So that’s it! Even if the weapons are gone, the jewelry might still be left!”
“Yeah! That’s it!”
Copson said what I was about to say. We regained our enthusiasm and immediately started digging through the bone mounds like moles. Was this an opportunity? A quick fortune flashed before my eyes!
“If I had known this would happen, I would have hit them a little softer!”
“I agree!”
“Oh, there’s one here too. What kind of ring is it?”
“The preservation isn’t very good.”
I hadn’t had any fun lately, but I was happy for the first time in a while, and I found jewelry with a big smile. It was a bit strange to be happy while rummaging through people’s bones, but if you were in this situation, even the most saintly person would be grinning and digging through skeletons. Even Elise was doing it.
“Found it!”
After searching for a while, the group succeeded in looting all the jewelry that the skeletons had.
The valuables that their long-gone families had prepared for the afterlife of the deceased ended up in the hands of adventurer grave robbers, who were like incarnations of human trash.
“Hooray!”
Oh my god, it’s a celebration!
I was about to dance, but I stopped and took off my cloak and laid out the loot on it.
“Okay, let’s put it all here.”
We had to gather the items in one place and distribute them equally. Since we all did it together, no one should get a special plus alpha. According to adventurer law, what you kill is yours, but this time was different. It wasn’t even clear who smashed what. Anyway, everyone contributed equally, so there was no problem with splitting it evenly.
We had to be clear about the money issue.
The group all laid out the items they had found on the cloak. The number seemed quite large.
“…”
Um, how should I put it.
“I was excited to collect them, but looking at them like this…”
“Hmm, these are too old. Brass? Bronze? If it was gold, it wouldn’t have discolored like this.”
“This crystal necklace is all cracked too. Is this black thing a pearl?”
When we put them all together, the jewelry all looked like old junk.
Could it be that they couldn’t withstand the ravages of time? They were broken, discolored, and rusted, so we couldn’t even tell what they were made of. All that was left was the shape.
That’s why I need an appraisal skill… Damn it, I don’t have any skill points. This sucks. These fucking poor bastards. Logically, shouldn’t you give your family at least a gold necklace when they die? There’s a limit to how immoral you can be. Crazy ancient bastards.
“Unfortunately, they don’t seem to be worth much.”
Elise shook her head. I thought so too. Still, if I went out and sold them somewhere, I’d get a few coppers. Following the tin cup and the mimic’s teeth, I acquired another piece of junk.
With regret, we moved forward again.
“Skeletons are never created naturally.”
“So someone made them?”
Elise said while walking. Maria said what I was about to ask.
“Make skeletons? Then it must be an evil magician.”
“What? An evil magician?”
“I’m talking about a necromancer. Didn’t you have anything like that in the barbarian’s neighborhood? The more I see, the more you seem to not know.”
“We can’t have that kind of thing in our neighborhood.”
A necromancer is the undead magician who resurrects the dead, right?
Elise continued.
