'Shit…'
The situation was pretty bad…
While it was mostly random, people tended to be transported near the convergence zone, a safe zone of sorts, with high frequency. Peace had been sort of banking on being one of those lucky people.
Of course, he'd been prepared to be summoned in a harsh condition as well… but right next to the Bone Temple?
'Seriously?'
Peace grimaced as he looked at his bare feet.
'I wish I had enough money to buy shoes…'
But alas, he was broke, and he took the maximum loan allowed to someone with no credit.
At least he wasn't in the Glass Desert. That would probably be the only predicament worse than his current one.
Peace had no time to waste as Skeletons began to populate the area, having crawled up from the gashes in the ground, which closed as if they'd ever existed.
Knowing he didn't have the liberty to wait around and risk the skeleton's noticing him, he stepped off the summit and began his perilous descent down the mountain of bones.
Each step was painful, with the round edges of the bones digging into his skin, but thankfully, none were broken, and they were oddly smooth, almost to the point of looking soft.
Peace stared down at the path in front of him and bore witness to the reason this area was rarely visited… even by higher-tier Divers.
There were zero terrain obstacles on this mountain, and the only ones down below in the plains were the gigantic ribs, the knolls of bone here and there, the river, the desert, and the occasional remains of large creatures of a bygone era. But, for the most part, it was absolutely open.
Meaning, there was nowhere to hide…
Add that to the fact that skeletal beasts spawned at a terrifying rate, especially as one got closer to the Bone Temple; it was clear why this place was avoided.
For the higher-ranked Divers, it was simply bothersome and tedious to climb the mountain and constantly fight through the endless undead; for weak adventurers, it was not only dangerous, but there were minimal benefits compared to a place like the Dark Forest.
The beasts here rarely dropped anything good and were inedible. Plus, the area itself lacked a water source. So, if a Diver lost their rations, they were screwed.
Peace had only made it a couple of steps before the couple of skeletons in his path turned into dozens… then hundreds, each armed with either a sword fashioned from bone or a bone bow with a bowstring of muscle fiber — arrows fashioned from shaved-down humeri were lodged in their ribs, their own body serving as a quiver.
Peace slowed for a moment and tossed his dagger into the bag on his back.
It was useless against creatures who were only affected by blunt force.
The bottom of the bone mountain seemed terribly far away and was soon obscured by another wave of spawning skeletons.
'Shit!'
The only thing working in his favor was that the skeletons were not only all Rank 9 and probably weaker than him, but also blind. He wasn't entirely sure how they sensed the world, but he knew they could.
In any case, they hadn't sensed him just yet. But if the wrong one did, all hell would break loose.
Peace slowed his jog to a walk as bone clanked against bone around him, more skeletons spawning.
He had two current options. Hide and wait while praying that some group decided to come his way and use whatever path they cleared to escape… or attempt a daring escape of his own merit while the skeletons were still spawning.
'I don't really have a choice, do I?'
Where would he hide anyway? What would happen to this body if his mind were ejected and returned to that of the monster?
That was another potential problem, but if Peace's theory was correct, he should be safe from the swapping while in the labyrinth.
Peace looked around at the increasing number of skeletons… and broke into a dead sprint.
The mountain of bones was tall, but the slope wasn't steep, which allowed him not to lose his footing even on such unstable ground.
Peace skillfully aimed his steps for the smoothest looking bone so as not to injure his feet, and bounded down at an incredible speed. Even if he had the lowest stats possible, his slight buff of the night was enough to give him speed unattainable by the average mundane human back on Earth. Not to mention, he was running downhill.
Of course, he was still heavily lacking if he were to compare himself to a true athlete who trained their body for speed, and he was also running on uneven terrain…
'But I digress.'
Hope began to swell in his mind. After about two and a half minutes, he'd made it about a sixth of the way down the 3-kilometer mountain without incident, despite the vast repugnant beats surrounding him.
'I can actually do this!'
Peace let off a slight smile at his accomplishment as he lunged forward with his next step… All of a sudden, a dull pain radiated from his ankle, and he lost his footing.
[You have slain a Rank 9 Beast, Skeleton Archer]
[+2 EXP]
Peace tumbled to the ground, falling into the vast array of bones that bit into his skin, but didn't puncture his flesh. He slid a little, forming an indent in the ground and displacing a mound of bones, some of which began rolling down the mountain, clanking against the other bones.
Peace honed in on a couple of clinks and swiviled his head just in time to watch the separated head of a skeleton bounce down the mountain and hit another skeleton a little down the mountain in the spine, which immediately turned around and arggoed onto him.
Peace, flat on his stomach, craned his neck and looked back to see the vertebrae of a skeleton sticking out of a newly formed rift in the ground… a Skeleton Archer had started spawning right where he was about to take his next step, and he'd ended up kicking its head clean off.
He'd be thankful for the free kill if he'd gotten anything rewarding from it, but since it hadn't even made it out of the ground, its body merely sank back into the sea of bones from whence it came, and the scar closed up.
Peace drew his gaze back forward and locked eyes to eyesockets with the abomination barreling toward him, which bumped into other abominations, which in turn joined it in its ascent in pursuit of Peace.
The single skeleton Peace accidentally killed immediately resulted in four more clamoring up the slope toward him, their murderous malice on full display.
Thankfully, they were all sword bearers… If he ticked off an archer, that would be the death of him. He had no defense against arrows.
Peace rolled a little to position his feet below him, then used a nearby femur to help himself up.
His ankle was bruised, but it didn't seem to be broken or fractured. Once he had concluded this, Peace prepared himself as the first skeleton nearly entered striking range.
'What did that guy do…'
While Peace would have loved to run, these skeletons wouldn't stop chasing him, and just keep aggroing nearby ones until he has an entire army chasing him. So, he needed to kill these four before he had the right to continue.
Peace replayed Captain David's swift execution of Lacan in his head and emulated the strike on the first Skeleton Warrior.
'Ah, I'm an idiot.'