Undead Slayer

With his hands raised, Xiao Yang grew more and more delighted the longer he looked at the armguard. Behind him, a petite Skeleton Thief dragged a bulging sack, rummaging through the bones of the fallen Skeleton Warrior.

It was Xiao Yang's summoned servant, Little Bone.

Before long, it found something and happily held it up, then ran over to Xiao Yang.

Xiao Yang took what Little Bone handed him. It was a broken bone fragment—and an item, too.

Undead Slayer (Skeleton)

Quality: Common

Type: Accessory

Effect: Deals 1 additional damage to skeleton-type undead.

Description: Yes, yes, you dug a smooth fragment of bone out of a skeleton's bony frame. That means you're no longer afraid of these guys.

Though it was only a white-grade item, it was still useful to Xiao Yang. He accepted the broken bone fragment and, with a smile, patted Little Bone on the head.

"Great job, Little Bone!"

Little Bone couldn't show its delight, but it seemed quite happy. It began pulling all sorts of things out of the little sack on its back.

A Large Bone Club

Quality: White

Type: Material

Description: This is a large bone club. It does everything a large bone club ought to do.

Little Bone kept pulling out these white-grade large bone clubs and bringing them to Xiao Yang.

These skeletons dropped materials, but they basically never dropped anything good—just bones. If he was unlucky, they wouldn't even drop bones, only low-quality bone fragments and the like.

This was the first time Xiao Yang had properly obtained items from these things. Well, calling them items he'd obtained himself was a bit of a stretch.

He collected the materials Little Bone had dug up. Though it wasn't a servant with any combat ability, Xiao Yang was already quite satisfied. After all, the little fellow not only gathered all sorts of materials for him after every battle, but also kept him company in the silent, dim Skeleton Dungeon.

Lifting the Wilderness Hatchet in his hand, Xiao Yang called to Little Bone, delighted.

"Let's go, Little Bone! On to the next room!"

With an excited shout, Xiao Yang and Little Bone continued exploring the first floor of the Skeleton Dungeon.

In just a few days, Xiao Yang was close to clearing out the first floor of the Skeleton Dungeon.

The first floor wasn't exactly small, but how should I put it? For an enthusiastic gamer who'd figured out how to clear a dungeon, it was a quick job.

Of course, the Dark Dispelling Lantern had helped him a lot. Its slow health recovery outside combat was fantastic. Even if one of those skeletons managed to crack him on the head with a club, Xiao Yang could run for his life, find somewhere to hide, and wait until he was back at full health before poking his head out again.

To make sure he didn't miss anything during his thorough exploration, Xiao Yang had even drawn the layout and map of the floor on the Safe House's wall.

Exploring the Skeleton Dungeon felt like playing a game, but also not. The game-like parts were that he could level up and monsters dropped things. The parts that weren't like a game were that death was permanent, and the world ran on a world engine based on reality.

Xiao Yang had dragged the wooden box containing the Adventurer's Armguard back to the Safe House and used the Dark Dispelling Lantern's miraculous, inextinguishable flame to light it. Then he'd used the charred wood to draw a map on the wall.

Beyond his progress exploring, staying in the Skeleton Dungeon for a long time had brought some very real problems to the fore. As a living person, he needed food and water.

The five bread rolls could keep him going for food. The five pieces of bread in the starter set were baguettes, and one was enough to last Xiao Yang two days. Water, however, was harder to come by.

Fortunately, along the outer edge of the first floor, moss grew on the damp, cold walls of smooth stone bricks. Like sponges, the moss held plenty of water. He could heat it in the skulls of the skeletons and drink it.

Xiao Yang had turned an ordinary dungeon exploration into something like wilderness survival.

In the Safe House, Xiao Yang studied the simple map he'd drawn. He still hadn't found the way to the next floor. The map showed two unexplored paths on the first floor of the Skeleton Dungeon: one to the east and one to the west. Today, Xiao Yang planned to explore one of them.

The most important thing now was finding the way to the next floor.

Just like the God Game, the Skeleton Dungeon was both a game and not a game. There were treasure chests, but monsters didn't respawn. Neither the ordinary skeletons nor the Skeleton Warriors came back.

This presented a problem. Even if Xiao Yang wanted to grind levels, once he'd cleared out every skeleton on the first floor, there'd be nothing left to grind.

At that point, he'd have to head down to the next floor.

He still had some reservations.

He felt that even if he cleared out the entire floor, he still wouldn't be able to beat the Dungeon Guardian wandering around.

After stretching, Xiao Yang looked back and peered through the little window in the iron door. The Dungeon Guardian, gripping a giant axe, was still pacing the corridor.

"What if I go down to the second floor, the door closes behind me, and this turns into a one-way trip? What if I can only climb back up after clearing the whole dungeon?"

Xiao Yang muttered under his breath.

It was a question he couldn't avoid thinking about, but he didn't have any good way to solve it. For now, he'd just have to find the way to the next floor first.

Xiao Yang scratched his greasy, messy hair, which he hadn't washed in days, and made up his mind.

So, which path should he explore?

Xiao Yang took a dim golden coin from his pocket and tossed it onto the table. He'd found it in one of the dungeon rooms. It was a pure gold coin, and if he could take it outside, he'd probably be pretty happy. One gold coin would be enough to keep him going for a long time. But after spending so long in the Skeleton Dungeon, he'd come to accept that he might not even make it out and back to his home. In a situation like this, whether he had gold coins or not didn't really matter.

The coin stopped spinning with a crisp clink. The side stamped with a gate of bones faced Xiao Yang.

"All right! West it is!"

Having made his decision, Xiao Yang knew which direction he'd head today.

"Westward!"