Another knight charged across the bridge, this time not noticing Jay in the corner or its dead comrades below its feet.

“Hmm… They use smells to get around and communicate. I’m surprised they don’t release a smell after death. A death-scent?” Jay thought.

“I bet they don’t like windy days, although in the crucible there’s probably not much wind, anyway.”

As the knight left through the giant stone doors, Jay only called up one skeleton from under the bridge.

(Sweeper. Remove your armor and get up here. Quick.)

Sweeper stripped off its rusted armor and jumped out of the trench as Jay pointed upward to the balcony.

(Jump up there.) Jay commanded.

Jay picked Sweeper over the other two as it had no real armor or stolen skin weighing it down – real armor being that which is looted, rather than physically removed from enemies, and can leave the dungeon.

With its weapon in hand, Sweeper jumped over one story high, which was impressive, but it only made it halfway to the platform. Without its weapon, it gained more height, but it simply wasn’t enough. On the third attempt, Jay helped it by giving it a push upwards too, but it made the skeleton spin and land on its head, while still not getting close enough to even touch the platform above, much less find a handhold.

“Damn…” Jay thought, making a mental note to make himself a simple bone ladder.

“Sometimes the simplest tools are the most useful.” he nodded, pursing his lips.

Jay sent Sweeper back to hide under the bridge and equip its stolen armor before another knight came charging through the room.

“Hmm, they will have found the body we stole that armor from by now, and they don’t even know we’re in here, which is the best part. In the meantime, we’ll just have to go deeper.”

As the knight left through the doors, the skeletons emerged from the bridge and Jay quickly re-summoned Blue. Again, Jay was a little disappointed seeing that it had lost the squire armor upon death, but at the very least, it kept its spectral bone armor.

Jay sent the skeletons forwards through the hallway to stand just before the T-intersection while Blue reformed. This way, a knight would blindly charge around the corner into the skeletal arms of death.

Blue was nearly ready as the skeletons were in place, but making the most of his time, Jay made Blue wield one of the knight’s rusted swords. It wasn’t the best, but it would be enough to get between the enemy armor and sever the spinal parasite.

The knights themselves had health they could whittle down with standard attacks, but the parasites made it pointless to even bother with it.

“I’m glad I autopsied the corpse of the first knights we fought, discovering the weak spot, otherwise this low level dungeon would have been a k-nightmare.” He smiled to himself, really wanting to have said it out loud and fill the dungeon with echoes of his own laughter.

Jay told Blue his joke and was repaid with an empty stare; Jay had never seen a skeleton be so emotionless and undead.

With Blue ready, they both dashed down the hallway towards the other three skeletons. The hallway itself was about as wide as two knights, but only one knight could fight properly in it.

As Jay came closer to his skeletons, he didn’t give Blue command over them just yet, as he had his own plans.

*Clang~*

A knight suddenly dashed around the corner.

It met the skeletons with its chest plate and helmet, smashing into the wall of bones. It couldn’t even raise its sword.

The knight lost its step, grazed against the wall and fell on top of Lamp.

Instead of pushing it off, Lamp held onto it, embracing it on the ground as it struggled.

Of course, it wasn’t an act of passion as its claws plunged through the knight’s neck; green blood squirting everywhere.

The knight pushed against the ground but couldn’t even move; two skeletal feet were pressing on its back, one from each skeleton.

Two clean thrusts, and the other two skeletons instantly executed it; Sweeper and Red helped Lamp up.

[115 Exp]

Jay, however, looked back down the hallway he had just ran through; the darkness through the doors gave him a tense feeling.

“The doors will remain open for now… I can’t let anymore knights leave as they may alert the army outside.”

“I’m just counting on none of them coming back through these doors.” he thought, and turned back to looking at the T-intersection.

Looking T-intersection, he spotted two signs on the wall. Painted onto the wall was a large yellow letter ‘R’ with an arrow to the right, and a large letter ‘C’ with an arrow to the left.

“R or C?” Jay thought for a moment as he approached.

For a moment he wondered what they could mean, but Blue caught up and he didn’t want to waste anymore time.

Jay turned around, and a wave of bones flew from his gauntlet once more, blocking off the hallway they just ran down. This bone barrier didn’t reach the ceiling, but was taller than Jay.

(Blue, hold this area and don’t let a single enemy pass. Take Lamp and Sweeper for help.)

Blue nodded, and Sweeper moved into a fighting stance at its side.

“Now… R or C?” Jay turned back to the intersection.

“… C.” Jay impulsively decided and sent Red left before following closely behind.

The letters meant nothing to him, but he remembered one key detail: the plant had entered on the left side of the grand stone gate.

Another thing made Jay wonder, though, which was why the knights came from the right, but the plant, presumably, lived on the left.

As he ran left, he noticed Lamp was following him.

(You can take Lamp too, Blue.) Jay added, but Lamp simply kept following.

“I guess Blue doesn’t need Lamp? It’s quite confident now… or far too cocky.”

The left passage went straight, then turned right for a while before opening into a larger hall.

The floor was a smooth, polished stone, but most of the walls seemed to be covered with metal sheets and pipes. Various doors led to different rooms, while a staircase on the left side of the room led deeper.

“No staircases going upwards. Damn. Maybe the gate controls were through the right passage.”

There were no glass jars filled with luminous fluid here, as there were still the pure-white glowing rods in the ceiling, chasing away every shadow.

“I wonder what kind of magic that is.” Jay wondered.

Red stayed at Jay’s side while Lamp crept into the hall and peered through a doorway on the right side.

(Look for any signs of the plant.) Jay added, making sure Lamp was not just searching for more skin.

Jay followed along cautiously and began to scan the rooms.

The first room had many shining, silvery cabinets in rows, along with racks mounted to the ceiling with hanging pots, pans, and other cooking implements Jay had never seen.

“A kitchen?” he raised a brow, though to Jay it looked nothing like one.

Luxurious and advanced, he wondered who could afford such food from this giant, metal-filled kitchen.

He did a quick loot, but nothing came of it.

“Alright, well, not every room’s gonna be filled with weapons and treasure.” He shrugged, leaving the room.

As Jay walked back into the hallway, a noise sounded from behind.

*Vrr~ Click~*

Jay jumped back with his sword ready; Red was at his side and ready to strike at the assailant.

“…”

Yet there was no enemy.

“Uh…?”

There were originally no doors, but now, in the doorway, two metal panels had appeared with a seam in the middle, forming a door that seemed to come out of the walls.

Jay curiously lowered his sword.

“The doors close themselves?”