-----

  “The forbidden fme, ever-bzing crystal! Devourer of all…!”

  The skeletons that had merged began speaking nonsense, perhaps for the first time. her Paul nor Chris had ever seen these monsters speak a single word. The only one who could speak was their Lord, however.

  But this was surely different; it was as if something else had possessed them! The four surviving skeletons merged, bones and crystals moving as if they were worms stig together, creating an aberrant four-headed and winged monstrosity.

  “Bone and crystal, fire, ah! Bee his ungracefulness’ sacrifice!”

  With a roar made out of the bined voices of all four skeletons, the monster charged forward, summoning a gigantic spear of crimson crystal, and aiming at Chris.

  The thing happened so fast that both Chris and Paul had almost zero time to react. Chris tried to fly away, but the spear was about to pierce his stomach.

  CRASH!

  “Woof!”

  However, instead of pierg Chris' stomach, at the very st moment, Rocky appeared in front of Chris, having already predicted the trajectory with his beastly instincts. The Stone Wolf Summon took the hit head-on.

  “Rocky?!”

  Chris was surprised as he saw the summon sacrifice itself for him; its entire body gained tless cracks, fmes erupting from their cracks as they started to engulf the creature.

  “Awoooo!”

  BOOOM!

  With a howl full of pain, the creature exploded into pieces. The shockwave of fire and stone alo Chris flying down. Vd rapidly went to catch him with his arms, using Float to make his fall much gentler.

  “Fuck, are you okay? Nothing is broken, right? I hate how this game has no freakih bars,” sighed Vd, carrying Chris as far as possible.

  “Rocky died!” cried Chris, almost about to cry.

  “It’s a summons, Chris! You’ll be able to summon it again ter!” said Vd. “He’s not teically dead; he has gone back to your equipment, the gloves.”

  “Oh… Really? I… I almost cried." Chris sighed. “I got too emotional for nothing!”

  “You sure did! Have you lost a pet before or something?” Paul wondered.

  “Maybe… What does that matter now?! The thing’s ing!” Chris cried.

  And indeed, it was ing.

  The flying skeletoion rushed down, giving chase and spreading out its wings.

  Spears of red crystal grew from the wings, which were fired like deadly projectiles.

  Upon tact, they exploded, creating small eruptions of fire.

  BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!

  “Give it! Give your life to the crystal fme! To the ever-living and the ever-dying!”

  “What kind of nonsense is it talking about?!” Chris said.

  “I have no idea, but you better get behind me, use your bow, and shoot that thing with ice arrows and anything else you have!" Vd said. “I’m going to front it one-on-one!”

  “What? Are you insane?!” asked Chris. “Your character’s going to die, dude!”

  “Trust me, bro, I got this... Or well, at least trust this armor,” Vd smiled.

  “Ugh, fine! But don’t bme me if you have to wait months to create a new character!” said Chris.

  He quickly skipped in the air, using his little incubus wings to fly as far as possible. While wielding his Magic Bow, a veil of shadows suddenly enpassed him, almost making him invisible.

  He pointed his bow at the ining monster, and three arroeared: wind, fire, and ice. Their elemental affinities cshed against one another, but through his Aura of Ara, Chris mao biheir essence, creating a single, rainbow arrow.

  “Woah, this is a thing?” He muttered to himself. “No! trate!”

  As he tried to trate, Vd cshed against the skeleton, juring a Stone Wall that was quickly shattered, only to jure a dozen Ice Shards, sharp, spear-like ice projectiles.

  The projectiles reached the four-headed skeleton before it could shake away all the rubble c its body when it destroyed the wall.

  FLASH!

  The shards not only pierced its crystal exterior and cracked it, but quickly spread ice across its body, slowing down the beast. But it didn’t back down; even as it was freezing, the monstrosity stepped forward.

  Its spear cshed against Vd several times, the young vampire using his arms and gauo take os. The durability of his armor went down by over a hundred with each blow!

  BAAM! BAAM! BAAM! BAAM!

  Explosions of crimson fmes erupted with each spear strike that Vd took, but the vampire tried his best to not back down. However, his weight wasn’t enough to hold him in pce.

  “I guess this is the perfect time!”

  The rings on his hands quickly activated oer another, small blue lights surged from each of his fingers, and his Aura of Ara surpassed everything that any pyer has achieved yet iire game, erupting into the ceiling and blowing up a hole through it!

  FLASH!

  “Guhh?!”

  The skeleto shaken by the tremendous aura of raw magiing not from the vampire but from his equipment! However, Vd was immobile, the weight of his Ara so high that he could barely breathe.

  “Feed your Ara to the lord of the red crystal, the soul eater, and the devourer of death!”

  The skeletons roared, g against Paul, and trying to push him away and blow him up, but...

  BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!

  Each blow was incredibly strong and made Paul’s entire body tremble, but it was not making him move a single inch.

  He strategically used the tremendous weight of his own Aura of Ara defensively, being an unmovable sentinel.

  “GRAAAH! What art thou?!”

  Whatever the malefic spirit ihe skeleton monster roared at that moment did not matter, as a rainbow arrow was fired right from behind, pierg its bad then staying stuck there.

  “Ugh?!”

  “Well done, Chris.”

  BOOOM!

  The skeleton exploded into pieces as the arrow erupted into an explosion ht green, blue, and red light. The crystals and bones shattered, leaving nothing behind but a pile of materials.

  Both pyers quickly fell to the floor, resting their exhausted bodies. Paul deactivated the overwhelming pressure of his Ara Aura, and Chris threw the bow into the ground.

  “I’m beat,” sighed Paul. “Maybe we should just retreat for now?”

  “What?! No way I’m retreating now, dude, this is... Oof, this is the… Hahh…” Chris couldn’t believe how realistic the feeling of exhaustion was in the game. “This is a big opportunity to cash in with a video of what I’ll call a “Dungeon Mutation”! So there’s no way we’re bag down.”

  “Hah… I thought you would be all over that idea; that’s why I suggested it in the first pce,” Vd gently floated towards Chris. “ you heal yourself with yic?”

  “Yeah, yeah…” The incubus suddenly jured a bright sphere of golden light from his hands.

  “{Healing Sphere}”

  The sphere then stantly exuded an aura of light; anybody who touched it would feel their body heal rapidly. Vd didn’t have to worry with his False Immortality Skill, but Incubus didn’t have any super regeion power.

  “Much better~ Phew…” Chris sighed. “Anyways, did we get any good loot out of that bozo or what?”

  “Hmm…” Paul walked towards the pile of bones and found something. “Oh? It did drop something! I had no idea monsters could drop items like this; usually, it’s a dureasure chest.”

  “What is it?!” Chris greedily asked, rushing to see.

  “A book,” Vd said. “A Skill Book, to be precise.”

  “Wait, what? That’s a bit... iing,” Chris smiled, resting his head over Vd’s armored shoulders. “So?”

  “It’s called… Bzing Soul Skill Book, weird,” said Vd, analyzing it.

  -----

  [Skill Book: Bzing Soul (A Grade)]

  A Skill Book fed by the Crystal Fme, the Devourer of Death, and the Unending Crimson.

  Upon usage, the Racial Skill: [Bzing Soul] be learned.

  “Turn your soul abze; show me the resolve of the living and the despair of the dying. Bring forth fme and burn it all; the fire shall crystalize, and that is where I will give you form.”

  -----

  “Creepy…” Chris read the description and had the same thoughts as Vd. “But it’s just a Skill, right? It couldn’t be so bad.”

  “I suppose, let’s store it for now,” said Vd. “But what is this thing anyway? Crystal Fme, Devourer of Death, and Unending Crimson?”

  “I don’t know, maybe something like some sort of... Hmm, boss? Maybe a big boss of the game?” wondered Chris.

  “I guess so. Is this some sort of world event or something? Like he’s clearly trying to take over this dungeon,” said Vd. “I had a bad feeling about this... I think we should hurry before things get worse.”

  “It’s a game; it ’t get worse, silly giggled Chris, poking Vd’s handsome face.

  “I know, I know what you mean, but I mean it iher sense, in-game. It could still cause a disaster to the NPCs, you know?” said Vd. “And well, the worst that happen is having all our progress deleted, so I don’t really like that either.”

  “Hmm, true, I guess we should take this more seriously—I mean, I was the ohat said we should tier all,” Chris nodded, quickly sitting over Vd’s head.

  “ you not?” Paul sighed, grabbing Chris' tail.

  The moment he grabbed his tail, the Incubus reflexively jumped away out of the sensitiveness it had.

  “Ouch! Don't touch that!”

  “Hahah, I khat was your ot.”

  “Eeeh, you asshole…”

  “Now let’s go; we have to hurry; no time to py around.”

  “True… You ready?”

  “I am.”

  The two stepped forward after st the corpses left behind and the skill book. The door opeo reveal twenty Obsidiaons, all of which were covered with red crystals.

  This was the sed out of five rooms before the boss, yet it was almost the same as before. The skeletons immediately charged upon seeing them.

  The formation was simple, and they already knew how to do this. Vd charged forward, Redy, the familiar fire wolf, stayed behind him, Chris in the air firing arrows, and his trident.

  “GRAAH!”

  The skeleton’s ruthless charge impacted Paul head-first, dozens of explosive spear attacks g against his fists as he quickly puheir bones and crystals into pieces, abs their souls with each blow.

  His soul gained power; it grew rger with each attad with each bite he took from his foe’s soul. The skeletons suffered, staggering, trembling, and crumbling.

  “{Fireball}!”

  This time, he decided to attad move forward more. Fireballs bombarded the skeletons, and their bodies quickly crumbled, exploding into pieces.

  Chris took down the orying to escape, firing his trident, imbued with lightning, into their skulls through the power of the spell imbued into it [Lightning Strike]!

  BOOOM!

  There was no special mini boss this time, though, and after their initial charge, the entire room was cleared. The Crystal Fme blessed these skeletons and made them strong, but Paul and Chris were just stronger.

  “Doh the third room; that was awfully easy!” Chris said. “I’m loving this too!”

  The trident quickly flew back to Chris' hand through the power of {Float}, a miraculous spell that allowed things to simply float above, and through Ara, to be able to trol the trajectory in which they floated around.

  “Gd you like it? Let’s advao the fourth room and then the fifth.”

  “Alright!”

  However, strangely enough, the fourth and fifth rooms...

  Were empty.

  “Huh?”

  “Why is there nothing here?”

  The two were surprised and fused. The more they checked the dungeon information, the more it showed that there were roughly forty monsters left ao be sin.

  The boss was also alive and on his throhe two quickly realized this could only mean a sihing.

  “Don’t tell me that forty skeletons are waiting for us in the boss room?” Chris sighed.

  “I think that’s it… Yeah,” nodded Paul. “That’s insane. How are we going to handle so many at the same time, plus the boss?”

  “Well, time to use your Heavenly Demon powerup.” Chris smiled, pointing his elbow at him.

  “I mean… I guess I could do that, but I don’t want to rely on it too much- It is something I’ll only use in emergencies or speed runs for now,” said Vd. “I o learn how to fight without relying on that power.”

  “Hmm~ Okay, sure, whatever… The’s go. If things get too hard, you’ll have to use it anyway.” Chris said.

  “Don’t you have the power of the Heavenly Emperor or something?” asked Paul. “’t you use it?”

  “It’s different, okay? Not the same as yours.” Chris said. “Hm, but okay, I guess I try using it ter... I’ll try, but no promises, alright?”

  “Sure, as long as you try.” Paul smiled. “Are you ready? This might be the hardest challenge we’ll ever face together.”

  “Yeah, let’s go; don’t be gy about it,” Chris giggled. “e on.”

  The two opehe door at the same time, and what greeted them was...

  A temple made of red crystal.

  Ohrone of bck bones and fmes.

  And the Obsidiaon Lord is covered pletely by red crystals.

  “Wele, little fmes. I made sure to prepare a good challenge for the final battle. Are you looking forward to it?”

  His voice was different from before.

  And the two were certain.

  This wasn’t scripted dialogue anymore.

  This thing was se.

  And then they saw it—a system message.

  [The Instance Dungeon has bee a focal point for a special World Event: {Invasion of the Outer Ones}!]

  [The First of Many, {The Unending Crimson} has takehis Instance Dungeon and mutated it acc to his wishes.]

  [Defeat the Boss to stop him before the entire vilge of Elderbridge is overrun by monsters.]

  “Fuck…”

  “Shit…”

  -----

  Pach