Level 23 Undead Nathir Slave - 100%

Trouble. Not as high level as the first skeleton, but that one only had a dagger and seemed like an assassin-type. This one still had all its gear and that massive greatsword. Probably a warrior class, but Wade wasn't sure how dangerous it would be given how everything had been up and down the map so far.

But skeletons? He could potentially get some ideas on the level system finally. Because he'd seen all kinds so far. Miners, kids, potential assassins, and now this warrior-looking one. All of them had different levels, but they were all the same skeleton.

Maybe higher levels always won one-on-one. Without his boons, Wade was pretty sure anything higher level would destroy him. Boons and his stats were how he beat higher levels.

Thus to Wade, the real question here is: Did the enemy have stat points? If yes, they used the same leveling system as players. If no, then player levels really only tracked stat increases while enemy levels indicated general threat level. That would explain the first boss skeleton: Higher level didn't mean better stats everywhere including strength, since he'd pinned it against a wall with leverage alone. Just meant it was more dangerous for other reasons. Like skills, training and weapon use.

And it just so happened this skeleton bloke up ahead was listed as higher level than other skeletons, and it had a giant fuck-off sword. If it charged with that weapon but was still as strong as a normal skeleton physically, Wade would finally get a definite answer.

The lone skeleton lifted its skull to stare out at the newcomers, then slowly got up, holding the greatsword in one hand.

Wade thought he saw a glint of intelligence in those hollow eyes. Maybe it could reason, and that's what made it dangerous?

Then started running at them, jaw wide open in a feral silent scream, loping on the ground like a beast on three legs while it still held the greatsword over its shoulder.

Nope. Zero intelligence.

Leon charged ahead, followed side by side with Selena. Wade yanked a tiny pebble off the ground, took a quick hop up and tossed it at Leon, letting the giant get his knockback buff handled for the next ten seconds. Both he and Illy then sprinted left and right respectively, aiming to surround the skeleton. Illy managed it just fine. Wade stumbled on his feet as a flare up of pure pain hobbled him for a short second.

His fucking leg. As usual. One point in vitality and two in strength had masked the pain up to now making him feel almost normal. The golem fight had been easy, he hadn't even moved much, just fired artillery from a distance.

He gritted his teeth and relied on his other leg to kick him forward, making his limp a strange kind of lopsided sprint.

In the frontlines, the skeleton attacked first, its blade starting to glow bright blue, before it sliced with a horizontal slash. Leon brought his warhammer up, but the enemy pulled some kind of reverse movement that forced the greatsword's angle into a vertical slash instead, faster than Leon could reangle his own hammer to block correctly.

Okay, that thing clearly knew how to use the weapon, same as the miners and their pickaxes. Was that why it was higher level then? Overall danger assessment?

The only reason Leon wasn't cleaved in two was his quick reflexes with his footing, dashing him backwards. Then Selena barreled into the enemy with her shield, knocking the greatsword out of alignment. She wasn't a player, and her level was slightly higher than the skeletons.

And he knew for a fact Leon was stronger than Selena physically already. So far the pieces were clicking together now that he could see a skeleton actually using a deadly weapon as a deadly weapon.

It turned to her, the jawbone wide open in a silent scream. The follow-up attack sliced with far faster speed than that giant two handed sword should be swung around as.

The paladin-in-training quickly proved why the System had classified her as a level 25. She blocked hit after hit, retaliating when safe and keeping the skeleton focused on her while Leon moved to the side and swung for the skeleton's leg.

Illy tossed a knife at the thing, but it seemed to have predicted that might happen, as it executed a quick side jump to barely evade the dagger, while pressing the attack.

Well. If Illy could miss with her dagger throws, then Wade knew he had no chance at all to land his rocks. "Pin it down when you can!"

"Okey, get ready, giving chance soon!" Leon called out, advancing after the skeleton with slow steady steps.

Like the golem, Leon's tactic of going for the feet turned out to work. He'd simply waited for the skeleton to be overextended against Selena, something the boxer seemed to have intuition about.

The knockback blew the skeleton's foot out of position, almost making it look like it had badly kicked forward. It managed to turn the knockback momentum into some kind of spin, trying to recover despite the setback.

Illy took the chance and threw her dagger. This time it struck. The red rings appeared as a debuff. The next hit would do excellent damage.

Selena didn't waste that moment, diving forward with a spring as blue wings materializing behind her. Her shield slam caught the skeleton right before it had managed to stabilize itself, and knocked it fully off its feet, shaving off ten percent of its health. She then continued the motion, landing on top of it, using the weight of her shield, armor and force to keep the skeleton down.

Wade saw his chance and took it, executing his dodge exploit to trigger the lightning debuff then exiting the dodge roll into a jump, throwing Illy's dagger down at the skull. He knew he wouldn't get Illy's debuff, but he didn't have time to call out for it and verify it landed. Already the skeleton was lifting Selena clean off itself.

The Scot moved even faster than he could, quickly shanking the skeleton for low damage, while triggering her debuff once more, just as his own dagger slammed into the skull, actually chipping off parts of bone. Lighting shocked through the enemy, everything empowered by Illy's well timed debuff.

Its health started ticking down hard.

In hindsight, Wade realized it was a little dumb of him to expect someone as trained as Illy to not take every chance she got just because her teammate didn't call out directions. She's a commando, of course she knew what was happening from the moment she saw Wade doing a random dodge roll in the middle of nowhere.

The skeleton rose up, knocking Selena backwards with inhuman strength.

"Selena!" Wade called out, "Play defensive!"

She waggled her ears in affirmative, holding her shield up and spear ready to stab out.

His skyviper debuff was eating away at the targets health, chunking it down to the low seventies. Health was certainly something that seemed higher than regular skeletons at least. But then again, he didn't have his Blackrot enhanced arm this time, so the damage was much lower and this skeleton had armor still on it while all his prior skeleton kills had been mostly rotted down mining leathers. Jury was still out on that one.

"Let's have another go once Wade's got his stamina back!" Illy hollered. "Mind ya keep yer distance now, only strike when you're safe!"

That last part was mostly to Leon, who moved like a piranha, looking to bite anytime the ancient warrior got too involved with its back and forth duel against Selena.

Each time the sword glowed blue, Selena's shield matched the intensity, glowing as well. The result was a spectacular deflect, Selena's boots digging into water and dirt backwards a few inches while the skeleton was knocked the other way off guard.

Leon went in for the kill. And the rest of the gang followed the exact same unworded tactic, this time with Leon giving the skeleton a follow-up hammer smash into its skull, just to rattle it back down.

For a level twenty three, it gave as good as it got. Any of those hits could have been lethal. But the team worked far too well together, and it was four against one. Soon it had lost an arm from a lucky hit by Leon and weakened bones growing brittle from Wade's debuff. The fight took two minutes, but Wade felt like it was a small eternity before that healthbar finally hit o%.

One moment it was standing, greatsword held in stance as it calculated how best to attack, faint mist floating outwards from the bones, like acid eating away at it. And the next moment it simply fell apart into pieces, turning into a small pile of half-connected bones. The health bar showed zero percent.

"Holy shit, we did it!" Wade pumped his fist in the air, feeling the rush of adrenaline.

Leon lifted his hammer up and shook it a few times, in silent victory.

"Not too shabby for a bunch of dobbers." Illy grinned, then immediately crouched down by the remains, fingers picking through the armor pieces. "Let's see what friend here gathered up for us, shall we?"

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Leon joined her, carefully lifting pieces of the ancient armor. "Mostly rusted up. Pity."

"Shut it, don't jinx our loot ya big oaf." Illy hissed. "Now properly check for what we can find."

While the two scavenged, Wade noticed Selena standing apart from their celebration. She wasn't cheering or laughing. Just staring at the fallen skeleton with her ears twitching back and forth. Then, to Wade's surprise, she gave a formal nod and salute to the dead enemy.

Wade approached her, curious. "That was some impressive shield work back there."

Selena's posture remained rigid, but her ears continued their subtle movement. "The opponent fought with... unusual technique."

"Unusual how?" Wade asked.

"Its swordplay was not of any style I recognize. The movements appeared to be self-taught rather than following established forms. More effective than wild swinging, certainly, but lacking the refinement one would expect from a true greatsword wielder. And yet it moved with some practice. Its spell choices were equally odd. Reinforced swings, and weight enchantments, yet no field of control when pitted against multiple targets."

Wade glanced back at the pile of bones. "You think it taught itself how to fight?"

"Perhaps. I do not know what happened down in this Nathir city, however I feel as if I've come across someone who could have been a great warrior, had they been trained properly." Selena's gaze lingered on the broken skeleton. "Even long lost to insanity, it still had the discipline to rely on its training. That deserves acknowledgment."

There hadn't been a level up, but that skeleton's XP was shared basically four ways, or maybe three ways if Selena didn't count. Under his current model of the System, it would mean Selena couldn't level up like they could and the only ways to make her stronger would be more gear or skills. They'd have to cross that bridge soon enough.

Illy was already struggling to pick up the two handed sword. It was taller than she was, which made the whole thing seem absurd.

"Identify." Wade muttered, curious.

Nathir Display Shortsword (High Quality)

"Wait, that's a display sword? And what the fuck does it mean by shortsword?"

"The manholes here were way bigger than the ones in london." Illy shrugged. "Whatever these Nathir turnips were, 'smol' wouldn't be the choice."

That was true. Whatever the Nathir were, they were larger than humans by a good amount, and they'd used swords at one point.

He could imagine any slave rebellion used what they could. If that meant giant decorative wall swords that were just small enough for a human to use, then that's what they used.

"Hey Selena, how did the skeleton manage to make the blade glow like that? Is that blade enchanted or something?"

Selena's plumage flared up and down in the same way someone would hum to themselves in thought. "That was an individual spell. The reinforced swings, and weight enchantments. These are standard combat techniques and abilities combined with mana."

"Think it's got a mana crystal somewhere?" Wade knew at least that much from Zin. Mana needed a battery.

Selena shook her head. "These skeletons have been dormant for ages, their remains gathering mana until it pulls the wandering spirit back inside. It uses up that mana to move and animate itself. It was essentially consuming its own lifeforce, you could say, to power those combat moves. Of what I know about bone and mana, is that after bone fully dies, it is no longer damaged by mana."

"Do you think it was sane? Or some part of it still alive?"

Once more she shook her head at that. "It takes at the very least ten year-cycles for a body to decompose to the point of being a skeleton. And I suspect far more time has passed here given how sturdy and strong the skeleton are. No matter how strong the willpower of the soul is, the spirit realm slowly erodes away sanity."

"How long does it take?" He knew Selena had a lot more information about souls compared to Play's info, mostly because Selena worked with the dead as part of her spell kit. They continued talking while Illy and Leon shifted through the dead remains. The Scot declared there was nothing of use, and had gone off to go explore the surrounding dead golems.

"The timeline varies." Her ears flickered slightly in the equivalent of a shrug. "Some souls surrender quickly to the process. You could lose someone close, venture into the spirit realm seeking them within the same hour, and discover only a faint shadow of their personality remaining within. In other cases, the soul might persist for years. Communicating with spirits always demands caution, as their thought patterns have changed and they no longer behave with normal rationality. Never go anywhere near spirits without salt at the very least."

"Oi! Gang! Think I found the jackpot." Illy called out, having gone to explore the insides of the warehouse the skeleton had been propped next to. Within it, Wade realized what she'd meant.

It looked like a headquarters. Tables all over, maps of the city laid out, weapons like the greatsword all lined up on the sides. Everything except the people.

But pinned up against a wall was something Wade recognized immediately. A detailed schematic of Lapushka. Drawn from above, and then drawn again from different sides.

It was detailed. Not to an engineering perspective but clearly made to outline weak points and help organize plans. There was writing scribbled all over. Notes, and descriptions of their behavioral patterns. Some of those were crossed out with an X, clearly tried and attempted.

But on that same table, he saw a bound book.

Mana-preserved Book (High Quality)

Illy and Leon were busy looking around the room for supplies, and examining the weapons there for anything of use while Selena remained on guard, shield at the ready. Wade's hand reached out and he opened the first page, easily reading the familiar Nathir script.

The same words he knew using Market's blessing were only allowed to be written by a leader's. Even the penmenship looked the same. But unlike the letter, this one didn't wobble, nor trail off. And there were no drops of blood on the parchment.

I am Eri LE-10. These are the records of our attempts to destroy a Tier Nine Security Golem.

The others, understandably, consider this an impossible task. Standard patrol golems such as the tier three's and four's are difficult enough to fight or even flee from, and the Nathir Tier Nine Golems are only a single step removed from a lesser war golem.

As of this record, none have ever been defeated. Neither time nor mortal weapons has found success.

I have come here on this fool's quest with nine others, each of us seasoned warrior and accomplished golem-hunters. And the reason we have come is that we believe in Liem NA-17's tale.

The wardkey access points are likely still active within the tier nine golems, and more importantly: They can be used by humans.

Liem NA-17 swears what he saw was the truth: The richest of the Nathir paid to escape with their favorite pets.

He claims to have been ferrying food to the lines and saw it firsthand. The Tier Nine's scanned each Kneebender at the shuttle gateways and they walked through without being burned. It can be done.

I know my old masters. In the evacuation, I have equally only seen the Tier Nines granting wardkey access. No officers, nor lesser golems like before. I believe Central Command expected the lower-caste would panic and wouldn't wait their turn while the rich escaped first.

So my theory: They reset all active wardkeys then revoked all wardkey access points from every golem model - except for their strongest. That way none of the lower-class Nathir would think of banding together in an attempt to commandeer one of the escape shuttles. Their prior keys were now useless, there was no way to skip the line, and no wardkey access anywhere except those granted from the Tier Nine models. That is why the evacuation lines were so large.

The Nathir never bothered to turn off the city-shield after they left. They didn't bother to restore permissions to the rest of their golems. And so I believe they didn't bother to remove permissions from the Tier Nine's.

They left us to rot and starve, trapped along with the rest of their discarded tools, but that very hubris may be how we can escape.

I and the others will do whatever it takes to break one of these golems apart. We will return with the keyward, or we will not return at all.

If you are reading this section of the records, then I have failed. But I will be going great lengths to write down everything we learn, so that someone else might succeed.

As always, keep hope kindled.

One of us has to make it out of this cursed city alive.

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