∗ ∗ ∗
There’s definitely a lot of them, but we can handle this, I thought as I swung my sword at the skeletons. They were the lowest tier of the eerie, bone-rattling undead. I wondered where their source of power was located. There was solidified mana in the form of magic stones somewhere inside their bodies, often in their skulls or torsos. To defeat them, one only had to strike it. But I could tell from the skeletons’ movements that it wouldn’t be that easy.
Most undead spawned from corpses, so their abilities were influenced by what they had been capable of in life. For example, many of those which had been warriors would be adept at close combat, and those which had been mages could often wield magic. However, if they were powerful enough, they would instead be classified as skeleton knights or skeleton sorcerers, which were higher-ranking monsters. Luckily, these were just normal skeletons, so they wouldn’t be nearly that strong.
“Haaah!”
By the time my sword smashed through the third skeleton’s head, their numbers had already been reduced by half. I’d been keeping an eye on Cath, Mataza, and Liber, and they were battling without risk. Cath’s fighting style kept her completely out of harm’s way; she specialized in rapid-firing wind magic from a distance while defending herself with a magic barrier.
One of the more obvious characteristics of normal skeletons was their poor mobility. Their bodies were formed of only bones and magic, and since they only had normal mana capacity, they couldn’t cast any significant enhancements on themselves. But they still had enough physical strength to bash a person’s head in, so they weren’t exactly pushovers either.
Fresco had told me that a good number of novice adventurers were killed by these things each year. And without anyone to care for their bodies, they would rise as new skeletons...
There was a sort of circle of death going on here. It was rather saddening, and I wished it didn’t exist. The least I can do is wipe out all the skeletons from this ghost town, I thought as I gripped my sword tighter.
✦ ✦ ✦
∗ ∗ ∗
“This is the last one.”
I felled my seventh skeleton. I’d crushed its feet already, so I had the spare energy to say this out loud. Its dark, shining eye sockets turned hollow once I’d smashed its head, and the undead skeleton went back to being a mere cadaver. Its surface, which had been hardened with mana, soon degraded into rough, weathered bones.
When I saw this, I knew for sure that this really was the skeletonized remains of a person’s corpse.
“Meow?”
We couldn’t sense the presence of any other enemies around, so Cath jumped up to her usual spot on my shoulder. She was probably asking about what I’d just been thinking.
“You wanna know how I can tell it’s from a human corpse? That’s simple. The undead are broadly split into the unadulterated ones—which are produced just from solidified mana—and ones produced from mana that has condensed into mana stones inside corpses. The latter type tends to leave behind regular corpses when defeated, but in a weathered state, like they were before they became undead.”
“Ruff, woof? (Then what happens to the unadulterated ones?)” Liber asked with curiosity.
“Yeah, those leave something physical behind too...but the lower ranked ones usually just vanish entirely besides their mana stones. With basic skeletons, their bones weather into sand on the spot, and that’s it for them. They’re a lot like labyrinth monsters.”
Labyrinth monsters were known to vanish when defeated and only leave behind certain materials and mana stones. That was why it was said that labyrinth monsters weren’t living beings, and might not even be from the natural world. This was another assertion by the Church, but as much as I disliked them, they had a point on this one.
There were plenty of noticeable differences between regular monsters and labyrinth monsters. The ones outside definitely felt alive. For example, goblins in monster territories moved like people and behaved with a degree of sentience. They could come up with logical strategies and spring traps on people.
But those inside labyrinths almost seemed like tools. They didn’t lack coordination, but it was like they were just repeating behaviors that they had been programmed with in advance. Their movements were so rigidly predictable, the only explanation seemed to be that they weren’t alive. They were just mechanisms of their labyrinth. There was credible cause for this conclusion. It irked me to no end to accept the Church’s word, but in this instance, I couldn’t really argue against it.
“Woof? Woof woof. (Is that so? Then were these skeletons once the residents of this town?)” Liber asked me.
That was the natural conclusion. There were plenty of cases where towns went under and became skeleton dens. But...
“No. This place became a ghost town a while back, but skeletons have only started causing damage here recently. So we can’t be certain about that yet.”
It was possible that something like the dissemination of mana had greatly altered the surrounding environment and caused skeletons to spawn recently, but I really couldn’t say for sure.
“Well, we can think about that later. Let’s start with gathering mana stones. These’ll get us money too,” I instructed everyone.
“Woof! (All right!)”
“Woof (Understood!)”
Liber and Mataza responded and got a move on.
Cath stayed perched on my shoulder, seemingly unmotivated.
“Oh, you... Well, I guess it’d be tough for you to pick up stuff anyway, so there’s not much we can do about that.”
“Meow.”
She sounded like she was saying “that’s right.” But I knew that she could use her magic barrier or warding techniques or other skills to do that kind of work.
I’m pampering her, but it’s not like we’re in a hurry. I guess it’s okay.