The Skeleton Soldier Failed to Defend the Dungeon

Like the woman I had caught and hung up had said, there was no such thing as ethics in this world.

Whoosh!

The man who demanded surrender swung his axe. He wielded it like someone who had chopped a fair amount of wood. Perhaps he was tired of a life where all the firewood he chopped was taken by the lord. Now, he was here in an F-rank dungeon, chopping down weak skeleton soldiers.

Swing!

He might as well have been in the Lumberjack class.

Crack!

He skillfully swung his axe. The already broken skeletons were shattered again. Skeletons that had just risen, unable to regain their full strength, were caught off guard and destroyed. Fortunately, they didn’t feel pain.

I watched them from my hidden spot.

”Huff... huff...”

All the skeletons were destroyed. The men swinging their weapons were panting. They were amateurs, unable to control even their breathing. Among humans, they were of the lowest caliber. They were purely F-rank adventurers. After catching their breath, the men noticed the woman hanging in the spider web.

”Hmm?”

Their discovery was rather late. The woman dangling there didn’t even look at them. She didn’t beg to be rescued. She remained quiet the whole time.

The men exclaimed in surprise, ”Hey, it’s a woman!”

But they didn’t reach out to help her right away.

”How did you end up hanging here?”

They began interrogating her. I watched with interest to see what they would do. The woman didn’t answer.

”What the...? Isn’t she going to ask us to help her?”

They showed a subtly mocking attitude.

”Aren’t they going to help her right away?”

I was a little surprised but quickly came to terms with it. Maybe such behavior was natural. The woman in the spider web was weak, bound, and powerless. Humans showing kindness to the weak was unnatural, especially in this situation. Dungeons were places of savagery.

Even if the three men who entered showed malice, the woman hanging there had no way of retaliating with her own malice. They had nothing to fear in terms of retribution and no one to hold them accountable. They could do whatever they wanted.

”A bit unexpected.”

Thus, it wasn’t the behavior of the men that was surprising. It was that the woman wasn’t asking for help that was unexpected. The man who had been holding the axe grabbed his water bottle from his belt.

In front of his fellow human suffering from thirst for three days, he lifted the bottle and said, ”Your lips are really dry. Want a drink?”

Then he guzzled the water down in front of her. The bottle emptied quickly. The man then used the empty bottle to thump the woman’s head as she hung there.

”Smile, come on, give us a pretty face. We might decide to save you.”

”Yeah, yeah! Why are you hanging there, huh?”

They poked at the spider web with their iron rods, laughing loudly. It was amusing to see them surrounding the woman, teasing her with their backs turned to her. Waiting and watching had its rewards.

The men looked around and asked the woman, ”Don’t you have any companions?”

The question had no hint of intention to bury the bodies of her dead comrades with dignity. They were simply checking if anyone might interfere with them doing as they pleased. Or they were asking if anyone else had strung her up in the spider web. If there were, they would either negotiate or fight. The woman remained silent.

The atmosphere grew tense. They were being ignored by someone they could kill and trample at any moment. The realization enraged them. In their small world, such a thing was unthinkable.

The man with the axe frowned.

”Hey, are you ignoring us?”

”In that situation, shouldn’t you be begging us to save you? Ask for help! Beg for your life! Then ask, ’What can I offer in return if you save me?’”

The man outlined the scenario he wanted quite specifically. The woman sighed dryly, seemingly unaffected by his shamelessness. For many, shame was still a challenging virtue.

”Sigh.”

”Sigh?”

The men’s eyes narrowed.

The woman enunciated each word clearly. ”Why are you guys so stupid?”

”What?”

The woman, still hanging, spat out her words like she was vomiting.

”Wouldn’t you get annoyed if a worm started talking to you? Slimy things drooling all over the place like this.”

”W-what?”

The men were flustered. They looked as if they were questioning their own hearing. One of them even touched his own ear, wondering if it was still attached. After confirming it was in place, his hand slowly lowered.

”Can’t understand words, huh?”

The face of the man with the axe turned red. The veins in his neck bulged.

”This... is this woman insane?”

”Get lost. Go drool on each other, you idiots.”

I was a bit taken aback too. There was a certain sincerity in the woman’s aggressive tone. It was genuine irritation. There was a force that seemed to come from deep within her. It would be difficult to act like that after starving for three days. Despite her hunger, the woman’s voice still had strength. Even after three days without food, she still shined brightly at this moment.

The man in front muttered harsh words about what he would do to her, mentioning things about her body that wouldn’t end just with words. He raised his axe, ready to strike.

Clatter.

I stepped forward. It seemed like there would be bloodshed if I left them alone. Maybe they were too excited. The three men didn’t even notice me approaching.

I spoke softly from behind them. ”Do you know anything about the Necron Society?”

This was an important question that would determine their value to me. If they knew something, I might consider sparing them. While I was speaking, I was more than willing to keep them alive.

”What’s that?”

”What society?”

”Eek!”

For a moment, they thought the question had come from one of their own. But when they turned around, they were startled. I only wore armor and hadn’t put on my helmet. I didn’t want to hear them ask me to take it off again.

I asked again, slowly, ”Do you not know about the Necron Society?”

”What... what is this?”

”A skeleton... it spoke!”

The three men surrounded me. One of them nearly tripped over his own feet.

”I guess they don’t know anything.”

If I could have sighed, I would have.

Clatter.

I moved my cervical vertebrae, lifting and lowering my ribcage slightly.

”What the hell is this? Why is it wearing armor?”

”Hit it!”

I tilted my head and asked them, ”Isn’t it a bit much to attack me without even bringing a sword?”

They might’ve thought I was joking, but there was a bit of sincerity in my words. Approaching them unarmed and getting attacked right away was certainly something to question. There was, of course, a reason for approaching them barehanded. I was confident.

These men were even weaker than the silver-haired woman who had died from a dagger. The men didn’t answer my question. They didn’t even try to figure out what was happening. Instead, they let out a battle cry.

”Yaaah!”

Whoosh!

One of them swung the iron rod he was holding at me. The same rod they had used to poke at the spider web. He was the more agile of the group, but he was still tediously slow. I raised my hand. As the iron rod swung at me, I grabbed it firmly.

”Eek!”

The rod was pulled away smoothly, as if he had intended to hand it to me. The man stumbled forward, and I brought the rod down hard.

Crack!

The man’s head was crushed. Brain matter and blood splattered into the air. The brain matter seemed a bit pale, perhaps because it wasn’t filled with much.

”Well, I guess that doesn’t matter.”

Reflecting skeptically on my biology knowledge, I took another step forward.

”Aah!”

The remaining two men recoiled in fear. Terror quickly overwhelmed them.

Clang!

I dropped the iron rod to the ground. I had no intention of scaring them. I was simply asking them out of curiosity, like asking for directions.

”You really don’t know, do you?”

”Eek!”

The remaining two men screamed but stopped backing away when they saw that I was unarmed.

”Hm? They stopped.”

After all, this was a dungeon where skeleton soldiers appeared. They had come to hunt skeletons. I was wearing armor, and something seemed to have happened just now. But in the end, I was just a skeleton...

Was that what they were thinking? The man with the axe and the one with the sword exchanged glances and gripped their weapons tightly.

”Oh?”

I found it amusing that they were about to charge in despite witnessing the overwhelming difference in strength.

”It’s just a skeleton! Don’t be scared!”

I could call them brave if I wanted. To them, I was still just a Skeleton Soldier that deserved to be broken. In a way, it was a pure perspective. The situation was strange, but they didn’t care and charged in. Many people tended to immerse themselves in a single view without any thinking. Because of that view, they were cut down.

”You... you killed my friend!” the man holding the axe shouted loudly.

”If that’s how it is, what about my friends here?”

I pointed at the broken skeletons. He didn’t refute my words, nor did he reply. Of course, I didn’t expect a calm discussion.

”Die, monster!! Aaaaah!”

He swung his axe fiercely. The axe handle was impressive. I thought about the trees he must have chopped with that axe. I had no loyalty to speak for the trees. I just pondered the lifestyle of constantly having to chop something down.

”Yaaah!”

The other man swung his sword from the side. I dodged the swinging axe blade lightly, taking a step to the side, and tripped the man wielding the sword.

”Ugh!”

The man who stumbled and fell struck the neck of the man holding the axe. The sword swung weakly. For such simple men, maces and axes suited them better than swords. The man was not familiar with wielding a sword. The axe barely cut into his neck.

”Ugh, ugh...”

The man with the axe clutched his neck and collapsed. Blood was trickling out, but it hadn’t even cut an inch deep. It would take a while for him to die. I took the sword and drove it into the man’s chest.

Slash!

If one carried a sword, they would eventually meet someone else who carried one. If they swung it, they must be prepared for their heart to be pierced by it. Judging by his expression, he had not been prepared. The eyes of the man with the sword were wide open with disbelief.

Splat!

Blood spurted like a fountain from the gaping wound in his chest. I sidestepped to avoid the blood spray. Then I swung the sword and cleanly severed the head of the man with the axe.

Thud.

The axe wielder’s head rolled across the floor. It was almost embarrassing how low their level was. Even if I killed several of them, my experience wouldn’t increase.

However, killing the three of them raised my level.

[Experience increased by 121.]

[Experience increased by 134.]

[Experience increased by 125.]

[Level up!]

My level was absurdly low compared to my actual abilities. The adventurers coming here were of a low level, but so was I.

I checked my status.

Status window.

Ding!

[Name: None

Skeleton Soldier Lv. 10 (66)

Health: 30

Strength: 39

Agility: 39

Wisdom: 11

Remaining Points: 1]

I allocated the remaining point to Strength to balance that and Agility. Sometimes I raised Agility first, sometimes Strength. Keeping these two stats balanced was important.

[Strength: 39 -> 40]

I began to search the bodies of the adventurers. Ever since I rose from the grave, I had been doing this frequently. These were the bodies I had just killed.

”Am I getting used to this?”

I checked the chest pierced by the sword and rummaged through the bag slung over his shoulder. I inspected the stiffening body with my hardened hands.

Clatter.

Their wallets were thin. Only a few rotis, but they had a decent amount of food.