Chapter 286: Unearth (6)
One week remained. I already knew how I would spend it.
I looked down the vast tunnel. "Let's study this place while we can."
The tunnel's far end was hidden beyond sight. The record said it linked six cities. Recalling only what I had seen so far, it was enough to pique my curiosity.
Isaac asked me, "I'll head into the passage. What about you?"
"You mean we should split up?"
"Exactly. No need to stay together. The place is huge, and we've got a week. Let's use the time efficiently."
"Then I'll stay here."
This was the so-called secure zone. My eyes returned to the cages filled with abandoned bones.
Fwoosh!
After filling Isaac with mana, I let him go. I stood before the colossal bones locked in the cubic cages. "…"
Perhaps it was reckless. Even the smallest among them was larger than a troll. I had the Lord of Bones skill, yet I had only ever raised a wolf cub before. Still, if I were going to spend a week here, I might as well observe and see what happened.
I examined the broken fragments wedged between massive teeth, piece by piece. The fingers had been crushed in a giant's grasp.
Crunch!
I bent a bar aside, prying open the maw of a giant beast. Then I stepped in and matched the fragments.
"Humans…?" I mumbled.
The inhabitants had used this place as an execution ground or a torture chamber. Their experiments and diversions had not been limited to monsters.
I tossed the human remains aside and turned my focus to the beasts. I wandered among the shins, claws, teeth, and twisted bones. Though many shapes were strange and unfamiliar, they did not feel distant.
I looked up. Despite their collapsed state, I was a dwarf compared to the beasts in height. Some of their leg bones were as thick as pillars.
Even after a thousand years, their teeth remained sharp. Instead of menace, I felt a strange familiarity. I grasped the bones with hands accustomed to hilts. Through human eyes, I traced the ancient creatures' structure.
These monsters had once roamed the earth a millennium ago. Dust on the bones stirred something deep within me, pushing old emotions back into the shallows of my memories.
Cla…tt…er…
The massive lower jaw shifted on its own. It startled me, and I grabbed hold of it as it creaked upward again.
"This is…" I trailed off.
Bones that had been frozen for a thousand years were moving.
[Skill: Lord of Bones Lv.? activated.]
[You have moved the bones of an ancient monster.]
[Skill EXP has greatly increased.]
Impossible. I remembered when I couldn't move even a young troll's corpse. I hadn't even tried this time.
Creaaaak.
A three-meter wing bone groaned and moved upward. Just recalling their lives seemed enough. The bones stirred slowly to my presence.
[Skill EXP has increased.]
No memories surfaced fully—only fragments drifted through: sorrow, curse, birth, answer, rotten blood, compromise, thirst, choice…
Clatter.
A massive tail scraped the floor and curled. Although it was broken, I knew what it had once been. Notifications flooded my vision, and chimes echoed in my head.
[Skill Level Up.]
[Lord of Bones Lv. 1 → Lv. 2]
[— Your understanding of bones has increased.
— Increased chance to seize enemy bones during battle. Seizable range expanded.
— You can assemble more complex bone structures.
— Race: Skeleton base Affection toward you +5.
— Control power increased to 50.
— You can now train controlled entities. Training increases Affection and ability.]
[Assimilation Rate has decreased.]
[68.49% → 66.31%…]
A wave of vertigo struck me. First, there was the sharp collapse of my world whenever assimilation dropped. Then, the unease and confusion of losing more than two percent at once hit me.
Clatter. Clatter. Clatter…
Bones moved everywhere. Or perhaps they didn't. I couldn't tell if I was commanding them, or if the dizziness made it seem so. Their erased lives pressed vividly against me. It was as if time itself had left gaps in my mind.
[Skill Level Up.]
[Lord of Bones Lv. 2 → Lv. 3]
[— Race: Skeleton base Affection toward you +10.
— Control power increased to 250.]
The moment the skill leveled again, the bones stopped moving.
Thud.
"…"
I realized why the skill's growth had been so stunted and why control had been so weak. Lord of Bones was not about tying strings to corpses. They already knew how to move. All I had to do was watch the forms they had enacted tens of thousands of times in life.
Creak.
A creature with a neck over two meters long lowered its head to me. I touched its massive skull with one finger.
Someday…
I felt like I had wronged them grievously. Perhaps I could command them, but I did not want to.
[Special perk acquired: Link Exchange (A).]
[You can now share the controlled entity's perception of the world.]
[— Control Power increased to 350.
— If a linked entity dies, you will suffer temporary perception impairment.]
Rage, grief, despair, terror, rage… The moment the perk activated, their screams poured into my skull.
How did Gith-Za-Rai endure this?
***
Clack! Clack!
"Hey! Wake up! What are you doing lying there?"
"…"
"You said you'd study the bones. What disaster did you unleash?"
I looked at the cages I had torn open with my own hands.
Crackle.
"Stop stretching your wrists. It's your head that needs loosening."
"I'm fine."
"Not at all. You've turned this place into a wreck."
That was a side effect of my first attempt at Link Exchange. If I explained, Isaac would only insist I raise the bones as soldiers.
Fortunately, he didn't press me, so I asked, "Did you find what you wanted?"
"Of course. I've already scouted the path to Erast."
"Erast… because of Rubia?"
He nodded. "Naturally. She's the human you care so much about. We had to check it first. By the way, did you realize? Today makes seven days."
Seven days had passed already.