Change: New World

Treasure Trove

Taking the lead, I opened the window and jumped out into the courtyard.

The sound of brittle bones cracking and snapping beneath my feet filled my ears.

Although it’s been only two months since the apocalypse started, the collection of bones that blanketed the ground was so weak and fragile, that it wouldn’t be a surprise if these bones were in fact 10 or even 20 years old. It was as if all the energy and vitality was sucked out from them. Without a doubt, the only thing that could do this was the monster that had built this nest.

As my eyes scanned over the surroundings, from behind me, I could hear the sound of more cracking. The others had followed me with trepid, yet excited footsteps. Their eyes scanned the courtyard cautiously.

The President was the first to approach. His hand were pale white as he tightly gripped onto the handle of his sword. He quietly stood behind me, ready to attack at a moment's notice. Followed by his arrival, Narise rushed forth, brimming with enthusiasm. Although she let out a startled yelp, the moment her feet landed on the carpeted ground, her composure and enthusiasm quickly returned as her eyes locked onto the egg in the center of the garden.

Cielle, who had a somewhat similar enthusiasm also feverently stared at the egg. A part of me doubted that she truly wanted to eat the egg, although after seeing her current expression, hearing the noises that escaped out from her stomach, and remembering Cielle’s own gluttonous nature that had surfaced a couple of times during our stay at the school, I could not help but frown in unease.

Hina placed a gentle hand on her sister as she tiredly sighed out. Her eyes momentarily landed on the egg before they meticulously scanned her surroundings. Cher and the other two also entered the courtyard, but their enthusiasm was noticeably less than the others.

I stared briefly at the group, and gave a cursory glance over at the surroundings, before I immediately walked over to what had drawn my attention.

After 40 steps forward, in front of me was a rather large piece of long bone. Going by the shape of its ends, it was most likely a part of a humerus of a humanoid monster. The only difference between an actual human’s humerus, and this, was that this piece of bone was slightly yellowish in color, like a piece of old, weathered paper. In addition, it was also extremely large. Going by the size of this bone alone, its owner was a monster that was as large or even larger than the Dungeon Boss.

I used [identify] on it, but the results were rather disappointing. It did not give me any useful information, such as the species it came from. Instead, the system labeled it as [Weathered Bone Fragment]. It was an utterly useless item that gave no benefit whatsoever. This was in part due to how bad its current condition was. The monster that had built this nest was indeed quite thorough and ruthless.

Most likely, the rest of the bones within this courtyard were also in a similar state. I could only sigh in dejection after realizing this.

As my eyes continued to wander, I paused, and after a moment of contemplation, I brought out Fynch.

I hesitated for a moment before I thrusted the tip of the grey sword into the aging bone fragment. The sword smashed into the base of the bone, shattering it into a dozen pieces while sending out a puff of dust with its destruction.

“...”

One, two, ten seconds passed yet what I had wanted to happen did not happen. Fynch’s skill, [Devour] did not activate. Although I had expected this, still, the disappointment in my heart could not be entirely contained, as an unwilling sigh escaped my throat.

“As expected, there are special requirements in using Fynch’s weapon skill…” I muttered to myself as I stared at the weapon in my hand.

Previously, I had also tested Fynch out on a variety of things. Rock, and concrete, some of the monster corpses lying around the school, the withered tentacles from the Boss fight, even the mangled and bloodied aftermath of my recent dissections. All the same, [Devour] did not activate.

Fynch was a truly great weapon, and its skill was similarly quite overpowered, but at the same time, this weapon was an exceedingly picky fellow. Aside from the Dungeon Boss’s corpse, it did not accept anything I tried feeding it.

I knew that there were special requirements as to what this thing could and would [Devour], but with my current knowledge, I could only begin to make guesses.

What sort of requirements did this soul bound weapon have? Did it only devour high level monster corpses? Was their a minimum “freshness” to the corpses it devoured? Could Fynch [Devour] living things? Could Fynch [Devour] inanimate things? Could it [Devour] weapons? Items?

All these questions filled my mind, but I was powerless to answer them. I would have at least tested out whether Fynch could eat weapons, but right now, each weapon I possessed was a valuable lifeline. On the off chance it did work, I could easily discard them for such an experiment.

After sighing once more in disappointment, I put away the sword before my eyes continued to travel downward and locked onto the item beneath the remains of the yellowish bone fragments.

I suppressed a smile as my eyes widened in excitement.

The edges were slightly frayed, and a few of the pages were damaged, but without a doubt, it was unmistakably a skill book.

Skill books were objects that dropped from monsters upon their deaths. Regardless of how or what killed them, the chances of a skill book or any other object dropping still existed. To find a place like this, with so many high level corpses, this nest could only be described as a treasure trove.

If my thoughts are correct, then this skill book that I found was just one among many. As this idea formed in the back of my mind, the excitement I felt could not be suppressed anymore as a low, somewhat creepy chuckle escaped from my throat.

The others around me all threw perplexed and confused stares my way, but I ignored them all as I quietly activated [identify].