A Rare Moment of Leisure

In a vast, circular room, iron chains and shackles hung from the walls. At its center stood the final boss of the first floor of the Skeleton Dungeon: a towering skeleton gripping a broken greatsword, a Skeleton Warrior.

Skeleton Warrior

Race: Bone Undead

Rank: Common

Level: 14

Health: 40

Attack: 16

Defense: 8

Agility: 6

Traits: Bone Physique, Undead Mind, Heavy Weapon Mastery

The setting and decor had a nice atmosphere, and the Skeleton Warrior's stats were pretty intimidating too. It was in a whole different league from the Normal Skeletons and Skeleton Warriors that wandered the first floor.

But for some reason, it didn't put much pressure on Xiao Yang.

He had cleared the hidden area, fought his way through that Zombie Corridor, and even seen a fully developed elite boss. After going through all of that...

This Skeleton Warrior just didn't seem all that impressive to Xiao Yang anymore.

Xiao Yang had originally planned to play it safe. After the second Myriad Realms Trading, he'd raise his Strength to five, equip the Blackrock Prison three-piece set, and then try challenging the final boss of the first floor of the Skeleton Prison.

But things never went quite as planned. In just two days, Xiao Yang had cleared out every enemy in front of the first-floor boss—or, more precisely, it had only taken him a day and a half.

He still had time to spare, and suddenly had nothing to do. So Xiao Yang decided to get an early look at the first floor's gatekeeper boss.

That was how he ended up trying his hand at it. He had to say, the encounter wasn't all that satisfying. In the end, though, Xiao Yang decided to retreat and stick to his original plan.

His weapon was simply too lousy.

Xiao Yang was having a hard time fighting this Skeleton Warrior Knight. His Wilderness Hatchet only dealt six damage, and when it struck the boss, it barely scratched it—apart from the single point of damage that was forcibly deducted.

And if he tried circling the boss and leaping about like a nimble monkey, the way he'd fought the Skeleton Warriors before, the Skeleton Warrior's Agility was just a little too high.

Even though there was still a five-point gap in Agility between them.

Well, he could fight it, but it wouldn't be easy, and there was too little room for error. He might as well wait until he had five Strength and the Blackrock Prison three-piece set before trying again.

By then, he should be able to crush the Skeleton Warrior outright.

"Better to play it safe."

Thinking this, Xiao Yang slowly backed away from the boss room. The Skeleton Warrior in the circular prison tried to chase after him, but it barely managed a few steps before the thick chains binding it pulled taut.

Clearly, the gatekeeper boss had been given some restrictions. At the very least, it couldn't be fully unleashed unless Xiao Yang actually stepped into the arena.

Xiao Yang left without disturbing the boss.

Well, things were back to a stalemate. He'd have to wait some more. During these days of fighting, Xiao Yang and Little Bone had practically cleared out the entire first floor of the dungeon with nothing but a single beginner's axe.

Over the past few days, Xiao Yang had found time to return to the Zombie Prison. The familiar rumble of wheels rolled on, and he was still chased all over the place by that Bone Ball.

The Zombie Prison was empty now, too. Apart from a few Prisoner Zombies in some extremely crowded cells, there was hardly a single moving thing left in the area Xiao Yang could explore.

He'd returned to the Zombie Prison to check whether the Corpse Mushroom he'd dug up was still there. From a distance, and very cautiously, Xiao Yang spotted the tip of the mushroom poking out of the filthy room.

It was still there. That put his mind at ease.

The day before the second Myriad Realms Trading, bored, Xiao Yang turned his attention to the Prisoner Zombies he'd left behind. One by one, he dragged out and dealt with the ones in those overcrowded cells that had been too difficult to tackle before.

After clearing out those Prisoner Zombies, Xiao Yang returned to the surface dungeon and went back to the original Safe House. He flopped down on a pile of clutter.

Xiao Yang decided to bring more things to the Myriad Worlds Trading Area this time, especially the gold coins that had fetched a high price last time and some of the things he'd collected that might be considered antiques.

Hopefully, another kind Dragon Girl would come along and snap everything up!

This time, Xiao Yang was even considering going into the boss room and beating the boss with the Wilderness Hatchet in his hand, despite its measly six damage. That was mostly because there were fewer skeletons now, which meant fewer materials dropping. After all, most of his Spirit Coins in the last trade had come from those green-quality Large Bone Clubs.

But now he'd cleared out all the skeletons, and had only managed to get five or six green Large Bone Clubs.

His main offerings this time would probably be these Fine-quality Zombie Flesh Boots. Oh, and a white Heavy Strike Skill Scroll.

Worried that he wouldn't have enough goods to sell, Xiao Yang had even kept this Heavy Strike Skill Scroll aside.

Since entering the Skeleton Dungeon, Xiao Yang had lamented twice that the monsters here didn't respawn like they did in games.

The first time had been when he entered the dungeon. Back then, he'd cautiously cleared away the skeletons that suddenly climbed out of the ground, and had been immensely relieved that the monsters didn't respawn like they did in games.

Now he was looking at the empty Skeleton Dungeon, dejectedly lamenting that the monsters didn't respawn like they did in games.

Of course, it wasn't necessarily that they never respawned. Maybe he just needed to wait a little longer.

Now that things had suddenly gone quiet, in this rare moment of leisure, Xiao Yang realized he was starting to miss home. In truth, he wasn't far from his home at all—just one corridor away.

Of course, going back wasn't that easy. It wasn't for any other complicated reason. There was simply a terrifying skeleton dragging around a huge axe, pacing back and forth through the corridor, ready to kill anyone who entered it with a single swing.

To be honest, he thought the reason he'd been dragged into this Skeleton Dungeon was pretty strange: he'd been cleaning out the basement, only to be forced into a skeleton dungeon full of monstrous undead and become a player in the God Game.

As he lay back in the clutter, Xiao Yang let his thoughts wander during this sudden lull.

Nearby, a small figure had appeared at some point. It crouched in the corner of the Safe House without making a sound, silently watching Xiao Yang as he lay against the pile of clutter. The soul fire in its eye sockets flickered.

It really was a rare moment of leisure!