My skeleton, the one who had given me the sword, turned to me after killing the Hollow Knight. He didn't say anything—of course, he wasn't capable of that—but somehow, I could tell he was satisfied.
"Good work," I said, returning his saber.
He just nodded, as if accepting the compliment and the saber. I looked ahead, into the dark corridors of the castle.
The mission said I had to defeat twenty of these Hollow Knights. One down. Nineteen to go. And now, I knew exactly how to kill them.
But first, I needed a weapon for myself better than the simple knife I had bought for a silver coin.
So, I bent down and picked up the sword the Hollow Knight had wielded.
[Item obtained!]
[You have obtained a 'Common Steel Sword (Rank D)'!]
I slung the sword over my shoulder and looked into the darkness, already hearing the creaking of several suits of armor.
"Time to get this party started."
As we advanced through the castle, the darkness grew denser.
Fortunately, I was able to use the same torch that had been next to me when I woke up. Most of the time, I held the torch myself, since my two skeletons were in the vanguard, but at other times...
SHINK!
My sword pierced another joint in the armor of an Hollow Knight, and the creature inside writhed violently before withering and collapsing.
[You have defeated 'Hollow Knight (Rank D)!]
[You have received +50 Soul Fragments!]
Combat was simple now that I understood how these things worked. Sometimes, my minions would eliminate an Hollow Knight on their own, absorbing that same ability from before, [Slip Away], and then eating the remains of the parasites that had been inside them.
Just like when I had them eat the remains of the Shadow Spiders, they gained more Soul Fragments by eating these alien-looking parasites.
[1.4 Soul Fragment was granted and consumed by a summon.]
[1.7 Soul Fragment was granted and consumed by a summon.]
[3 Soul Fragments were granted and consumed by a summon.]
It was strange to think about it, but my skeletons weren't just puppets that followed commands. After a while, they had become accustomed to the process of killing monsters and then eating them.
They were quickly becoming more independent.
"I feel like a proud father right now," I said aloud with shining eyes.
Thus, we continued advancing through the dungeon.
Of course, I was trying to find the other members of my party, because if it was dangerous for me, who was literally alone, to be in this place, the others were probably facing problems.
However, I found nothing but more monsters along the way.
SLASH!
The blade of my sword cut through the air, straight into the open junction of another Hollow Knight. My skeleton on the right dashed forward and struck as well, finishing it off.
[You have eliminated 'Hollow Knight (Rank D)!]
[Your summon defeated 'Hollow Knight (Rank D)!]
[You received +100 Soul Fragments!]
"This is getting easy," I muttered, wiping the sweat from my forehead. "So far, it's been... 18 out of 20 Hollow Knights. Too bad I haven't found the boss room yet. It would be cool to fight the boss before finding Lord Hawklight, Rosella, or the others."
The fights were starting to follow a pattern. We'd find a group of Hollow Knights, my skeletons and I would lure them into a more open area, and then we'd take them out one by one.
Thanks to the new skill my Skeleton Soldiers had acquired, [Slippery], which made them better at dodging direct attacks, fighting these Hollow Knights had become almost boring.
"You guys are getting better! You were really helpful just now, Ban."
I called one of the skeletons by his nickname as I lightly patted him on the back.
After spending almost an hour fighting alongside them, it would have been strange to keep calling them just different versions of the word "skeleton."
["Summon 1" was nicknamed "Ban."]
FWOOOSH!
A fireball suddenly crossed the air, hitting Ban directly in the chest.
BOOM!
His bones were thrown against the wall, shattering on impact.
[Your summon named 'Ban' has been destroyed!]
My head spun in the direction of the attack, and my eyes widened. What had attacked us this time was not an Hollow Knight, but a creature floating a few inches above the ground, its body wrapped in a long, transparent cloak.
There was no face—only a plain, expressionless white mask with two hollow eyes that looked like windows into an endless void.
Its ghostly hands held a crooked staff, from which small embers still flickered.
[GHOST WIZARD – RANK D.]
It raised the staff, and I quickly looked at the other skeleton and shouted:
"Dodge, Foolish!"
['Summon 2' was nicknamed 'Foolish'.]
Another fireball ripped through the air, exploding against the ground where I had been a second before.
The impact kicked up dust and heat, but I rolled to the side.
"This is going to be a problem..." I said, lifting my head.
Foolish ran to the side, trying to flank the Ghost Wizard. Again, the staff pulsed, and a jet of red flames shot from its tip, sweeping across the chamber.
I threw myself backward, using my hands to do a somersault, and quickly hid behind a pillar.
I needed a plan.
Unlike the Hollow Knights, I couldn't defeat this wizard with brute force. I needed a distraction.
Foolish was still intact and armed, and close enough to strike.
After all, if he got close enough, he could dodge the Ghost Wizard's melee attacks thanks to his [Slippery] skill.
"I'll be your bait, buddy," I muttered, gritting my teeth.
I took a step back and raised my sword as if to run, drawing the wizard's attention. He took the bait—figuratively speaking.
His staff glowed, and another fireball launched directly at me, but I jumped back behind the same pillar.
Fortunately, my warrior skeleton was smart and used my distraction to run toward the Ghost Wizard. At that moment, I shouted:
"Hit the jewel on his staff!"
CLANG!
Foolish did what I wanted when he approached the wizard, but the blade only grazed the staff.
It wasn't a fatal blow. In fact, it didn't even seem to do any damage, but luckily, it was enough to make him retreat.
That was the opening I needed. I ran forward with my steel sword at my side and jumped.
The wizard raised his staff to cast another spell, but he was already too late.
My sword struck the Ghost Wizard's staff squarely, shattering the jewel into hundreds of pieces.
The creature let out a distorted groan and scattered like a whirlwind around us.
[You have defeated 'Ghost Wizard (Rank D)!]
[You received +120 Soul Fragments!]
I looked at my sword, still covered in ectoplasm—a green, sticky substance—and shook it to remove the disgusting slime.
'Luckily, I was able to quickly remember the right method to defeat these annoying ghosts. If I didn't have the knowledge from The Journey to the Beyond, I probably would've run instead of fighting.'
Unlike the Hollow Knights, who could be defeated with a simple strategy, the Ghost Wizard was an enemy that required a plan and knowledge of the monster.
If I hadn't known that the Ghost Wizard's essence was in his staff and not his body, and if I hadn't gotten Foolish to help me, the fight would have been much more difficult.
Then my gaze fell on the staff lying on the ground. For a moment, I remembered that brief conversation Kyle Barlow and I had had in the forest.
"Normally, Summoners summon magical creatures such as Soldiers of Light, and I've heard that a Summoner from a large guild can even summon a lion with a flaming mane, but I've never heard of a Summoner, regardless of rank, who could summon the undead. Wouldn't that make you a Necromancer?"
At that moment, Kyle wasn't completely wrong, but Anton Wilxes made a point of correcting him.
"... If he were a Necromancer, he would need corpses to raise..." Anton replied to Kyle.
Anton was right. Just summoning undead didn't make me a Necromancer; to become a Necromancer, I needed to know how to raise the dead.
So, looking at the staff, I thought:
'I can try to take this staff to sell or maybe try something else with it.'
I hadn't had much time to think about it, but I knew what I had to do. I raised my hand and reached for the staff on the ground.
"Sorry, Ghost Wizard, but you won't get eternal rest just yet."
[Do you wish to activate the Stigma: Necroarcane?]
+
[Stigma Details!]
Stigma Name: Necroarcane
Description: You looked into the Abyss, and the Abyss smiled back, granting you access to the forbidden knowledge of the Primordial Necromantic Art.
Effect: Allows you to raise dead creatures to fight for you.
+
In The Journey to the Beyond, stigmas were what the system called the unique abilities granted to Hunter Ruse by gods and entities of that universe. On each route, he could have up to three stigmas. If he obtained more than three, his body could not withstand such power. Because of this, if I chose to activate the Necroarcane Stigma, which I obtained from that mysterious entity in the Necromonicon, I would only have two other spaces left for Stigmas.
I looked at the notification, but didn't think for long. The answer was obvious, because this was a stigma that Hunter Ruse himself had never experienced.
"Activate."
[Activating Necroarcane Stigma...]
[Target: Ghost Wizard (Rank-D).]
[Processing... 10%... 50... 100%!]
The temperature in the room dropped sharply, and a chill spread through my veins. The staff on the floor shook, and the shadow of a person began to emerge from the floor like a distorted reflection of the Ghost Wizard I had seen defeated.
But this was not the same being. It wasn't exactly him. This one belonged to me, and I recognized it through the red flames in the empty eye sockets.
[Congratulations! The Ghost Wizard has been reanimated as your summon!]