The Skeleton Soldier Failed to Defend the Dungeon

After a long silence...

”To think you’d come up with something like that.” The crow stared at me with something like pride and nodded. ”Are you sure that idea was really yours? You’ve got quite the head on your shoulders when it comes to saving that girl.”

A strange sense of unease crept in. Was it just my imagination? Isaac’s tone was full of satisfaction, yet underneath, there was a faint trace of discomfort, even displeasure. If I hadn’t been stabbed in the back by him twice in my first life, I probably wouldn’t have noticed it at all.

I examined the root of my unease. What exactly was wrong here? Maybe he didn’t like the fact that I was choosing to prioritize saving Rubia over maximizing my own strength. Maybe he was irritated that I wasn’t focusing on maintaining the front and offering up human blood to Malphas.

Or perhaps, he just wanted to keep watching humans destroy each other for as long as possible. Whatever his twisted reasoning, all that mattered was that he moved according to my plan.

”It won’t be easy. Many powers are involved in maintaining the front. The moment you start pushing the front line north, those who monitor for anomalies will begin to notice you.”

He was talking about followers of other Demon Kings. I couldn’t even begin to think about unpredictable variables.

”Still, with both sides locked down in Ember, this is the only time you can act. ”

”I see.”

Perhaps that unease really was just in my head. The fact that he agreed so easily left me with a strange feeling nonetheless. Regardless of his approval, I was going to do it, but he didn’t make any effort to stop me.

I called to the werewolf, ”Brody Valdorf.”

”Speak.”

”I plan to push the front line north. Help me do that properly, and I’ll give you information about Lumen Valdorf.”

Now that I thought about it, Lumen Valdorf was the Red Flake’s member, which was based in Ember. They were an independent assassination unit, sure, but there was no saying they weren’t fighting on behalf of Embermere as a whole.

If such were the case, the earlier I told Brody about Lumen’s affiliation with Red Flake, the higher his chance of meeting Lumen alive. Well, as long as the fact of Embermere’s fall didn’t change, anyway.

Put another way, the longer I kept quiet and stalled here, the more likely it was he’d end up staring at Lumen’s corpse. If they even found a body. A pang of guilt crept up my ankle like a vine—something that I should’ve felt when massacring a thousand lives on the battlefield.

Guilt was an irrational thing, sprouting, flowing, and attaching itself like noise to whatever tune it pleased. I stared at it for a moment, this dissonant, shapeless emotion, then crumpled it up and tossed it aside. Feeling nothing at all suited me better. My focus had to remain on one thing only: rescuing Rubia, who was trapped like an experiment in a cage.

The werewolf growled softly. ”How far... do you intend to push the front?”

I had already discussed this with Isaac, but it was still a fair question. Ideally, the allied forces would press all the way to the Tower of Azure, but that was clearly too much to hope for.

”To the capital. Once the front reaches the imperial capital, I’ll give you everything I know about Lumen.”

”The imperial... capital. Understood.” Brody Valdorf nodded. Then, with a sudden glance at Isaac, he narrowed his eyes suspiciously. ”That crow... is there something sealed within that machine? I sense an ancient... and powerful force.”

For someone with such a brutish appearance, he possessed an impressively wild and refined sensitivity. To have both innate combat intuition and the ability to sense residual magic, he seemed entirely different now.

Sniff, sniff...

As the wolf lightly sniffed the air and circled around, Isaac flapped his wings in irritation and flew up. ”Hey! Stop sniffing me!”

”To fly like that on your own... You really are just like a bird... sniff sniff...”

”You wild animal!”

After watching Isaac flee to the highest branch overhead, I looked at the wolf and said, ”He’s... something like a pet.”

”Hmph. Tell that mutt to back off, he’s stressing me out. Also, tell him to shrink down a bit.”

”Shrink? He can do that?”

”Obviously. It’s not even a full moon. No reason for him to be stuck in that form. Werewolves can shift between their human shape and a complete wolf form at will... or at least, they should be able to.”

I gave Brody Valdorf a slow once-over. It was a strange feeling, imagining this towering mass of violence transforming into either a regular human or some pint-sized wild wolf.

”Hmm... there aren’t any humans around, so is it really necessary?”

”Hurry and make him do it. We need to see how much he can transform.”

”Hm...”

I followed Isaac’s suggestion and asked him to transform.

Brody Valdorf nodded. ”Grr... not difficult...”

Crack!

Crackkk...

It was a stunning sight. His massive frame slowly shrank. However, rather than a purely physical transformation, it felt more like a spell, the kind cast by the moon.

”This is my human form.”

”Really?”

”Do you require more?”

His voice came out much more naturally now. Nevertheless, the razor-sharp fangs and vicious red eyes remained unchanged. Thick, gray fur still covered him in several places. Massive muscles clung tightly to his face, and he still stood well over two meters tall. His large, thick hands looked strong enough to snap a tree in half. If I stretched the definition to the limit, I guess I could’ve seen him as a human. He was walking a very fine line.

Brody opened his massive hands, fur sprouting from his thick wrists, and said, ”Grr... when I take human form, my combat strength drops significantly.”

”Is that so?”

Personally, I doubted both statements. He didn’t look the slightest bit human, nor did his power seem to diminish in the slightest.

As if reading my mind, Isaac said, ”It’s all relative. But if that’s the difference... then Lumen Valdorf is starting to feel truly dangerous.”

”What brought that on all of a sudden?”

”Think back to when we met him at the city gates. He was in full human form. Even when he tried to kill you, the power he released from that boyish frame was already at that level.”

”Hmm...”

While I was deep in conversation with Isaac, Brody Valdorf turned to me and said, ”It might sound foolish coming from the one who lost...”

His gaze dropped to my waist. His speech had become noticeably more fluid.

”What is it?”

”Your sword. For someone like you... isn’t that a bit beneath you?”

At my side hung a half-broken longsword, barely sheathed. He had a point. If I still had the greatsword of Grassmere, or a blade that could channel elemental power without disintegrating, my fight against Brody would’ve gone much smoother.

”Hmph. After all that fighting, now you pretend to be concerned?”

Clack!

Isaac snapped his beak in irritation, but he didn’t argue. Because, of course, Brody was right.

”I suppose you’re not wrong. You know of a better sword, then?”

I tossed the question out without much expectation.

Surprisingly, Brody nodded with genuine seriousness. ”I do. In fact... there’s a dwarf village in these mountains. If anyone could craft a sword to match your skill, it would be them.”

Dwarves?

”But would they actually do it?”

The question wasn’t about possibility, but willingness. Dwarves were masters of craft, worshippers of gold. Because of their unmatched skill, they were also one of the first races to be wiped out.

Isaac explained, ”They’re obsessed with profit.”

”Is that so? Then what could be used as payment...?”

I considered whether I could offer the gemstones Isaac had.

”If you’re planning to push the front line north, that alone would benefit the dwarves immensely. As long as the war front lingers here, their hidden village remains at risk of discovery.”

”Fair point.”

”They’ve always been hunted by humans. If the weapons are meant for killing humans, I doubt they’d refuse.”

”Dwarves aren’t that simple. That mutt’s probably never received a weapon before, so his impression of them is too kind. Tell him to give us an exact location.”

If these were the dwarves of the Eastern Mountains... I’d heard some things.

”Location, huh...”

I looked between Isaac and Brody, then used the broken sword to sketch a crude map in the dirt.

”Somewhere around here?”

I pointed to the spot the chief smith of Grassmere had once indicated, a place he claimed dwarves still lived.

”You know it, then.”

Brody’s brow furrowed. The idea that dwarves lived in the Eastern Mountains wasn’t unfamiliar to me. Even Lime had mentioned something while appraising the Grassmere greatsword long ago. According to him, it had been forged from rare, unrefined, and unprocessed ore that only high-ranking dwarven smiths from the Eastern Mountains could possibly recast.

”If you ever go that way, I really suggest asking around. With a rare metal like this, you’ll have craftsmen lining up to get their hands on it.”

Even the master smith in Grassmere had failed to properly shape the material. Not that it mattered now, since the greatsword had melted away inside the barrier. Still, it made me realize just how absurd that barrier had been. To melt a sword made from ore so rare even a slime wouldn’t dare touch it... What kind of being had cast that spell?

”No. It wasn’t that easy to find.”

Isaac’s voice broke through my thoughts.

”Actually...” Brody scratched his head awkwardly, picking up where he left off. ”The ones who used to live there are gone. Right before the war began, captured or killed.”

”What...?”

”It looked like a targeted strike. Someone knew their exact location. Maybe they shared it with someone they shouldn’t have trusted.”

Could it have been the smith from Grassmere who leaked their location? But why...?

My thoughts spiraled. It had been two years. By now, Baron Chandler, who had inherited the title, had likely been devoured by the larva. If that larva had asked the master smith about the dwarves’ location, he probably would’ve told them. The rest wasn’t hard to imagine.

Brody then said, ”The ones I want to introduce you to aren’t from that place. They live deeper underground... much deeper. They’re a bit different from the dwarves you’re used to, but they’ll be more helpful.”

Isaac’s eyes sparkled from above. ”Ho... I thought all he did was sniff, but turns out he’s got interesting contacts. We might even run into the Finshehied.”

”What’s that?”

”Dwarves who dug so deep to escape humans and mine ore that they were tainted by demonic energy. But if that mutt still calls them dwarves, they must not have undergone second mutation yet. Early-stage ones, probably. I’m not expecting much... but it could be fun. Let’s go.”

”...”

All of this was new to me.

”Shall we go?” Brody Valdorf asked.

”Of course.”

I nodded without hesitation. There was no reason to delay. If I could locate the dwarves in the Eastern Mountains, they’d be useful again in the future.

”Grrr...” Brody shifted back into his full werewolf form without asking for permission. ”Grrr... humans... I hate them... I don’t like that form...”

His voice came low and rough, stringing together fragmented words that filled the air with their weight.

”Uh... yeah...”

Not like he seemed very human to begin with.

”Grrr... I’ll lead the way.”