Learning the Hard Way

The battle against the centipede had been… a mess.

Sure, they had won.

But barely.

Beren had nearly lost his axe, Tomas had slammed into a wall, Leila had disappeared mid-fight without warning, and Mira's fire magic had almost crushed half the group.

Now, sitting in a cleared-out cavern, the group had finally admitted what they all knew.

They were not ready.

Tomas exhaled, rubbing his sore shoulder. "Alright. We suck."

Leila nodded. "Yup."

Mira groaned. "No arguments here."

Beren grunted. "Could've gone worse."

Arlan muttered, "Could've gone better."

Bones, perched on Arlan's shoulder, clicked his teeth smugly.

Shade, flickering at Arlan's side, hissed with amusement.

"Weaklings."

Arlan sighed. "Not helping, guys."

Tomas pointed at him. "See? Even your summons think we're a joke."

Bones snapped his teeth. "Me Stronger."

Shade clicked his claws. "Me Faster."

Bones rattled his tail. "Me Better."

Leila watched the exchange with a blank stare. "Are they… competing?"

Mira pinched the bridge of her nose. "Arlan, control your undead before they start fighting each other."

Arlan muttered, "They're always like this."

Beren groaned. "Can we focus? We need to figure out what the hell our class changes actually did before we go deeper into this dungeon."

Leila nodded. "Yeah. No more guessing in the middle of battle. Let's actually read our skills."

Tomas sighed dramatically. "Fine. But if this takes too long, I'm taking a nap."

Mira ignored him and pulled up her status screen. One by one, the others did the same, their glowing system windows appearing before them.

Arlan's [Gravebinder] status window hovered in front of him.

He scanned through it, ignoring his usual stats and focusing on the new skills.

[Deathbound Pact] – Strengthens permanent undead summons over time.

[Eclipsing Maw] – Temporarily merges with a bonded undead, 

[Veil of the Grave] – Can partially phase into the spirit realm, making physical attacks less effective.

Before he could dwell on it, Mira spoke. "Okay. My class came with some expected fire magic… and some unexpected ones."

Leila smirked. "Like what?"

Mira frowned. "For one… [Inferno Surge] lets me boost all fire spells for a short time, but it also makes my flames harder to control."

Tomas gave her a look. "And you already struggle with control."

Mira's eye twitched. "Do you want to be set on fire?"

Tomas raised his hands. "I'm just saying."

Leila grinned. "Go on, Mira. What else?"

Mira exhaled. "I also got [Cinder Step], which makes my movements faster while leaving a burning trail behind me."

Beren raised an eyebrow. "You mean if we fight on the ground near you, we might get burned?"

Mira hesitated. "…Maybe."

Tomas groaned. "Great. So now we have to dodge you too."

Leila grinned. "This just got way more fun."

Beren cracked his neck. "Mine's simple. [Frenzy] lets me keep attacking without slowing down, but it lowers my ability to block."

Tomas raised an eyebrow. "Didn't you already fight like that?"

Beren shrugged. "Now it's worse."

Tomas muttered, "Gods help us."

Leila smirked. "Mine's [Shadow step]—which, as we already saw, makes me teleport short distances."

Arlan blinked. "So that wasn't a mistake? You just—vanish now?"

Leila grinned. "Yup."

Tomas crossed his arms. "That's unfair."

"Cry about it."

Tomas scratched the back of his head "Mine's [Iron Wall] It Increases shield durability and reduces incoming physical damage. And i also got my new favorit! [Shield Bash] 

Mira groaned. "Okay. Now that we know what we can do, let's figure out how to not kill each other while doing it."

Testing the Skills

The first "practice round" lasted exactly ten seconds before everything went to hell.

Tomas charged at Beren, testing his [Iron Wall] ability. Beren, activating [Frenzy], was supposed to block—but instead, he swung too early, sending his axe spinning out of his hands.

Leila, attempting to dodge a fake attack from Mira, miscalculated her teleport distance.

She blinked too far—

And reappeared directly above Tomas.

"—Oh, crap."

Leila landed on Tomas' head.

Tomas staggered. "Leila—what the—"

Mira, meanwhile, had activated [Cinder Step]—and instantly regretted it.

The moment she moved, the ground behind her caught fire.

Beren swore. "Mira, turn it off!"

"I'M TRYING!"

Arlan, watching from the side, was about to step in—

Until he accidentally activated [Veil of the Grave.]

His vision blurred.

The world dimmed.

For a brief, eerie second, he saw something else.

Flickering shadows. Whispering voices.

Then—

He snapped back just in time to see Tomas and Leila crash into Beren, knocking all three of them to the ground.

Mira, panicking, stomped on the flames she had left behind. "Okay. Maybe we need to—"

She turned—

Mira yelped. Arlan, still halfway phasing between realms, had partially disappeared.

For a horrifying second, Mira felt like she had stepped through cold mist.

Then—

Arlan snapped back to reality.

Mira stumbled back, wide-eyed. "What the hell was that?"

Arlan blinked. "Uh."

Tomas, from the ground, groaned. "I hate everything about this."

Leila wheezed with laughter. "That was amazing."

Beren muttered, "We're doomed."

Bones clicked his teeth. "Weaklings."

Shade whispered, "Pathetic."

Arlan sighed. "Guys, not now."

Mira, still staring at him, muttered, "You disappeared."

Arlan cleared his throat. "Yeah. Apparently, I can do that."

Leila snorted. "So let me get this straight. Tomas can take more hits, Beren refuses to block, Mira lights the floor on fire, I teleport into people's faces, and you just… vanish?"

Arlan shrugged. "Seems like it."

Tomas sat up. "I repeat. We suck."

Mira groaned. "We need a lot more practice."

Leila smirked. "On the bright side, this is hilarious."

Beren muttered, "I hate you all."

Arlan exhaled, rubbing his temples.

Break time

After an absolute disaster of a training session, the group took a much-needed break. They sat on the stone floor of the cavern, catching their breath.

Tomas groaned, rubbing his shoulder. "I think I've been tackled more times today than in my entire life."

Leila smirked. "To be fair, you make a great crash pad."

Tomas winked at her

Beren cracked his neck, his axe resting against his shoulder. "We're getting used to our new powers… just not in a good way."

Mira sat cross-legged, arms folded. "We need better coordination. If we don't, the next fight is going to be worse than that centipede."

Arlan exhaled. He had barely participated in the training outside of the weird moment when he accidentally phased through Mira. He still needed to test one last thing—his strongest new skill.

He hesitated.

[Eclipsing Maw]

His gut told him this one wasn't going to be as simple as his other abilities.

He pushed himself up. "Alright. One more test."

Leila groaned. "Arlan, please don't make me fall on Tomas again."

"I make no promises."

Arlan focused inward, pulling up his status screen. The text for [Eclipsing Maw] pulsed faintly, waiting to be activated.

He hesitated for a second longer. Then—he triggered it.

A wave of cold surged through him.

His entire body tensed. He felt something pull.

Then—

Bones merged with him.

Not in a physical way—more like something deeper. His vision blurred for a moment, and then he felt it. His arms felt longer, heavier, stronger. His fingers curled into sharpened claws. His breath came out in a low, almost predatory growl.

And his teeth—his teeth felt wrong.

The reaction was immediate.

Tomas scrambled backward. "WHAT THE HELL?!"

Leila, halfway through standing up, tripped over herself and landed on the ground again.

Beren's grip on his axe tightened.

Mira's flames flickered to life instinctively. "Arlan?"

Arlan wasn't sure what he had become. His body still felt like his own, but not quite. The presence of Bones inside him was strong. He felt a hunger—not for food, not for violence—just raw instinct.

He moved—his limbs felt faster, heavier. His breath fogged in the air unnaturally.

And then he saw his reflection in the cavern wall.

His eyes, already emerald green from his class change, were now glowing intensely, almost too bright. His face still looked human—mostly—but his jawline was sharper, his teeth slightly elongated. His hands… looked less human, more skeletal for a brief moment before flickering back.

And then Bones' voice spoke inside his head.

"We… are one master."

Arlan immediately panicked.

"Nope—Nope. Turn off. Turn off right now."

He forcibly deactivated the skill.

The shift was violent.

His body snapped back to normal, his breath ragged, his muscles still buzzing with leftover power. He stumbled, gripping his knees, panting hard.

Silence.

Then—

Tomas pointed at him. "WHAT WAS THAT?!"

Arlan held up a hand, still catching his breath. "Give me… a second."

Leila sat up, blinking. "You—did you just—"

Mira's fire dimmed, but she was still staring at him like he had just grown a second head.

Beren, the only one not losing his mind, simply grunted. "That was different."

Arlan finally caught his breath and sat back down. "Okay. So. That was Eclipsing Maw."

Tomas exhaled sharply. "Maw? That's the worst possible name for that skill."

Leila's eyes narrowed. "You merged with Bones."

Arlan winced. "Uh. Yeah. Kind of."

Mira's expression was unreadable. "And you didn't know that would happen?"

"Not… exactly."

Tomas groaned, running a hand down his face. "You mean you just activated a skill like that without knowing what it did?"

Arlan shrugged helplessly. "It seemed like a good idea at the time."

Leila snorted. "Famous last words."

Mira was still staring at him.

Arlan was not going to think about that.

Bones, still curled up on the ground, rattled his jaw. "Fun."

Shade, who had been silent until now, clicked his claws together. "Me... Better… Rat weak."

Leila sighed. "Okay. So Arlan is now part skeletal rat when he wants to be. That's great. Totally normal."

Mira rubbed her temples. "I don't even have the energy to process this right now."

Beren stretched. "So. We done here?"

Tomas groaned. "Let's just get back to the dungeon before Arlan grows a tail or something."

Leila smirked. "I'd pay to see that."

Arlan sighed. "Let's go find some monsters."