Stronger Lizards

"It can also only activate when touched by its owner's hand. I have no idea where those men got it. Judging by their armor, they don't seem very wealthy," Itai muttered.

"They have a waypoint marked on the map. Let's go there—maybe they've hidden some treasure," Itai added.

"How do you create a waypoint?" Flain asked.

"Where do you want to place it?" Itai asked back.

"Right here, so you know where you summoned your first skeleton," Flain said.

In reality, he wanted to mark it so he could find his way back to this area and its surroundings, including the caves.

"You need to tap the spot on the map quickly with your finger. But you'll probably have to do it with the dead man's hand," Itai explained.

Flain did as instructed, and right next to the blinking red dot, a new pink one appeared. Then they set off toward the waypoint. Just to be sure, Flain checked Low-DualSwords-Mastery.

[Low-DualSwords-Mastery

Level: 1

Stage: 1

Type: Mental Technique

Consumption: None

Description: Basic dual swords skills acquired by almost anyone who has fought or trained with them for a while.

Next level: Fight or train with dual swords.]

Flain read through it. It didn't grant him anything; it simply evaluated his skill level.

It was just another way to check his combat experience with dual swords—it didn't provide anything new, but at least he could see his progress, which satisfied him.

Flain slung the sack of loot from the men over his shoulder. Itai asked for the magical map, so Flain handed it to him. Then they followed the arrow on the map.

They traveled north for about ten minutes before spotting their destination on the map. There was a blue dot and some tents.

Soon, they arrived. There were five tents.

"Let's loot the place!" Itai called out.

They searched everything, adding a few more items to the sack of goods meant for sale. But the most valuable finds—and what delighted Flain the most—were two barrels: one full of clean water and the other filled with dried meat.

This meant that when Flain took Itai into that dungeon, they could stay there and grind for EXP, as Itai would have enough food and water.

"We're taking the barrels," Flain said.

"I'd love to know how you plan to carry them," Itai objected.

"We'll each roll one in front of us," Flain replied.

"That's actually a pretty good idea, but first, I'm eating and drinking," Itai said.

He ate a few pieces of dried meat and grabbed a wine ladle from the camp, using it to scoop water from the barrel. Then he stashed the ladle in his bag, just in case.

"Now we go this way," Flain said.

"Why? That's the way we came from," Itai objected.

"Since I'm an ultra-rare skeleton, I have many special abilities besides release air particles. One of them is a miraculous instinct—it's telling me that if we go straight this way, we'll find civilization," Flain lied.

"Alright, let's go there!" the gullible Itai exclaimed.

Itai removed the waypoint since they likely wouldn't be coming back. Flain sheathed his swords into his chest plate, and they began rolling the barrels toward the pink waypoint he had set.

Along the way, Itai kept complaining that his back and shoulders were hurting from all the effort.

They passed through the area with the dead men and continued forward. This time, they didn't encounter any wolves—they must have moved on.

'There should be a spot where the ground collapses into a cave,' Flain thought.

Flain wasn't worried that the barrels would break upon falling into the cave. They looked sturdy enough, and the ground was so muddy that when Flain had fallen in before, he had only lost 65 HP, which was relatively little considering the height of the fall. Even though he had been unconscious for a while after landing, he had woken up after two and a half hours.

As Flain continued, he heard a cracking sound and looked down—beneath them, the soil was splitting. This was exactly what he had been waiting for. Flain, Itai, the sack, and the barrels began to fall until they finally hit the ground.

[-65 HP]

Flain lost the same amount of HP as before. He quickly got up and went to check on the barrels. They were damaged but, fortunately, none of them were leaking. Looking ahead, he realized he had landed in the exact same spot as last time—at the entrance to the cave.

Flain pulled Itai out of the mud and checked the magic map. It was covered in mud, but it didn't seem to be damaged.

Flain took the severed hand of the man and used it to create a white waypoint at their current location. He planned to leave the barrels and the sack here since he couldn't carry everything—he didn't have ten hands.

He decided to head straight into the valley because he was in the mood to kill some Lizards. The last time they had passed through the valley gate, they hadn't encountered any monsters, but Flain assumed that the creatures stayed near the valley's edges.

Flain still had one bonus point, which he used on strength this time.

[Strength increased by 1]

However, he wanted to have full HP before fighting, so he waited until he had fully regenerated. After 22 minutes, his HP was completely restored.

"The one from above! Kill!" Flain heard the familiar sounds.

He had been about to enter the valley to search for Lizards, but he didn't have to—this time, they came to him.

But these Lizards looked different. They were completely black, with glowing purple eyes.

There were four of them—two wielding shooting slings and two with daggers. The ranged fighters were weak in close combat, so all Flain had to do was get to them.

Flain charged at the Lizards. All four spat toxic saliva from their mouths. He managed to dodge almost all of them except for one, which narrowly hit his leg.

[-55 HP]

Flain tried his best to avoid the toxic saliva, as it not only damaged him but also degraded his armor.

He swiftly kicked up mud from the ground and sprinted straight toward one of the ranged Lizards. They immediately fired another round of toxic spit, but this time, Flain better predicted their trajectory and managed to evade all of it.

His swords clashed. On one side, he was fighting one Lizard, and on the other, another. This meant he was fighting both of them with just one hand each.

The ranged Lizard fired a shot, and a stone hit Flain directly in the shoulder.

[-50 HP]

Flain couldn't afford to take another hit. He broke free from the blade lock and charged at the ranged attackers…