Battle in the cave

‘Huh? How am I even supposed to do this?’

While Clinton asked this question in his mind, the Stone Ogre who was frustrated to see that it was not crushing the tiny creatures before it suddenly jumped, hitting the roof of this cave then it came crashing back down with force.

It hit the ground with devastating force, then…

KABOOM!

…Earthquake Stomp!

Hitting the humans with one of its trademark active skills, this powerful Stone Ogre caused a literal earthquake as the humans staggered.

Watching the tiny creatures stagger disorderly, some even panicking, the Stone Ogre’s eyes gleamed deviously as it chomped down with its sharp stone teeth at one of the humans.

But at the last moment, a dagger crossed its path.

Clang!

The clear ringing sound of 2 hard objects colliding reverberated.

It was the level 12 human.

In the world of this dungeon, to combat the powerful beasts, humans evolved, awakening different powers under myriad classes.

Some awakened as mage classes, others as assassin classes, others as Berserkers, and some even as healers.

There were myriad classes of awakened humans in this world.

The level 12 human who fought against Clinton once already was an assassin. His strength was not his greatest attribute but he had stealth and incredible agility.

Besides, he had deadly assassination skills and it was one of them that enabled him to parry the deadly bite of this Stone Ogre, protecting one of the humans that was assigned by the chief in their squad to capture the runaway undead skeleton.

Theoretically, considering the fact that he was more than 5 levels higher than the Stone Ogre, he should be dominating this battle but this was not the case.

In the dungeon, monsters were far more fearsome than humans.

A same-leveled monster was more powerful than a human, having superior attributes in literally every stat except intelligence which was also partly the mind stat. The intelligence of humans was how they’ve suffered in this insufferable world.

By creating martial arts and techniques, devising powerful spells, and by studying their enemies extensively to glean their weaknesses, they had been able to put up a resistance against the monsters.

Despite all this, it was still incredibly hard for a same-leveled human to go toe to toe against a same-leveled monster.

And among the monsters, there was something even more fearsome, the boss monsters. These were far more threatening versions of normal monsters.

A boss monster was not just more powerful than a regular monster in every sense of the world, they also had more skills and magical abilities.

And of course, it reflected in their health points, they were far tougher.

Mother*ckers were as tough as cockroaches.

This was why a level 12 and level 13 human warrior combined could not bring it down immediately, they would take some time to bring it down.

The human mage, the female was the leader of this extraction unit. “Stay in control!” She barked orders, forcing them to regain their composure.

“Do not rush it, this is a boss monster, we can’t kill it in one fell swoop”.

“Fights against bosses are not sprints, they’re marathons”.

“Take your time,” she took this time to stare behind the massive Stone Ogre where she saw the undead skeleton doing something. “Our target is not escaping”. She reassured.

And then, they focused on dealing with the monster properly.

“High-tier spell: Fiery Metal Spike!”

She led the charge against the level 5 boss monster.

They barely restarted the battle when the Stone Ogre extended its right stone hand before materializing a thick stone bat out of nowhere.

This was another of its active skills.

With the thick stone bat, it rushed at them rabidly like a dog to attack.

While all this happened inside the same cave with him, Clinton was stuck in a dilemma. ‘How the f*ck am I supposed to do this?’

It was when he finally stood before his anvil that it came to him. Preoccupied with many things since, even struggling with his sense of identity, the thought of processing the mythical materials never crossed his mind.

He remembered how much effort he put into crafting the wooden spears and wooden daggers, and those were just wood.

Staring at the 2 bones on his hand, he grimaced. ‘What will I use to reshape and forge these into weapons?’

‘I doubt anything in this 1st level of the dungeon is powerful enough to work on them’.

Bam!

The sound of battle kept on reverberating behind him, leaving him tensed. It was already a dozen seconds since the battle started and every second more that passed, the more he feared that the Stone Ogre would be killed.

And then…

“F*ck it!” He mumbled under his breath.

Clinton decided to throw plans and finesse out of the window.

‘I’ve always been a man of aesthetics my whole life, always so nitpicky about how I look and how my accessories look’.

‘Heck, I’m no longer that Clinton’.

‘I’m ugly now, I’m a f*cking skeleton so why hold on to all that?’

‘Who cares whether it’s pretty or not?’

‘All I want is a weapon,’ he looked back at the humans battling the Stone Ogre. ‘And I need it fast’.

The next moment, placing both of the bones on top the thick slab of stone, Clinton exerted all his strength as he started grinding them against each other.

Who cared about creating some fancy weapons?

The edges of the bones were rounded, he would simply try to grind them together until they formed a sharp edge.

That was all the weapon he needed right now.

The bones were mythical tools, grinding them together would require a lot of strength and effort. Strength, Clinton may lack but he was definitely not lacking in effort as he started immediately.

Amid the backdrop of battle, the roars of an angry Stone Ogre boss monster, and the treacherous calculated hunt of humans, an undead skeleton ground 2 bones together.

Sparks kept on flying from the 2 bones as he ground them together.

Clinton didn’t have muscles but he started feeling his bones ache at some point. He even started feeling dizzy but he didn’t care, he kept on grinding away.

3 minutes, 5 minutes, 8 minutes, 12 minutes…, the Stone Ogre lasted longer than he ever expected but that was it.

Boom!

The Stone Ogre finally collapsed in a heap, its gigantic body fragmenting into stone particles that scattered around this cave.

The level 5 boss Stone Ogre was dead.

Sweating underneath their suit, the humans finally focused on the undead skeleton again but the skeleton paid no heed to them.

In Clinton’s head, only one thing dominated. ‘Grind, grind, grind…’

He kept on grinding away with the bones.

“What is he doing?” One of the humans asked in a raspy voice.

“Doesn’t matter, let’s get him”. The female human warrior who was the leader said as they started walking closer.

Thud!

Clinton didn’t even hear their steps, he heard only the roar of grind that kept on ringing in his head, over and over again.

Right until one of the humans grabbed him by the shoulder.

He was about to be captured.

But right at that moment, it happened.

Beep!

{Congratulations! You have crafted a high-tier weapon of the mythical rank: ???}

{…}