– Adventurer"s Life Day 45 (Wed) – Comnes Town – West – Abandoned Mine

Right now, this would probably make my biggest pinch I"ve been in since I started as an adventurer.

"Heh! In the end we got to s.n.a.t.c.h it."

"Darza bro! It"s a good thing we got these guys at the perfect timing!"

"Mind if I take care of the woman here?"

"… You can let yourself loose in here however you like… but first comes the treasure! You can have your way with the woman afterwards!"

These guys… they"ve been waiting for a chance while we were fighting against those skeletons!

… It"s hard to seal that wall off in the inside… then did they follow us! To think I didn"t even notice…

Benedetta had been taken hostage, while I"m tied up and my equipment taken off of me. They used the leather straps from my bag to bind my hands and feet, leaving me lying on the ground.

Even the stones I could have used to throw had been kicked away from me.

The reason why I wasn"t killed yet was only because I managed to scare them off, saying the skeletons might go out of control if I die…

Well because of that, I"ve been separated from my skeletons, and once all this is over, they"ll kill me outside while my skeletons are still in the room.

… Adventurers, rather more like thugs. I continued to stare at the one in the middle thinking I"ve seen the guys somewhere…

Ah, yeah… 

(That was the annoying guy with the injured party we saw!)

His appearance changed a little, but with that chestnut hair, that familiar breastplate and voice, I recall him shouting for some reason by the Mine"s entrance… From what I hear, that guy"s name is Darza…

Could the reason how he and his party got so badly injured was because they encountered the spear skeleton first?

It would"ve been difficult for them to have followed us since we don"t use a light source, but perhaps they figured that we might discover the covered hole and waited it out…

The ruffians here had two guys watching over me and Bendetta with our hands and feet still bounded.

In a spur, the man started holding down Benedetta… Trying to catch her breath, she tried to move, but being bounded and having just regained consciousness, she was unable to stand up.

"Stop struggling! I really can"t wait for it anymore!"

The thug with a scar on his cheek, spoke in such a vulgar tone as he pushes Benedetta down.

I stood up, but another thug with an eye patch pressed his knife against my neck… It"s annoying how vigilant they are against me… Even from just slightly regaining my posture has him pressed the knife against my neck harder.

I glanced towards the other group dealing with the treasure. No doubt, that glittering weapon slotted into the mound is the most valuable treasure in the room, and the thing that guy Philips wanted to protect.

"Oohh… To think the King"s remnants would be defiled by ones such as these… such a thing… Although I still remain conscious… If only I had a body…"

(… !?)

Behind those guys was a lingering voice… even though there should be no one else here…

No… there"s something. A hazy black figure standing above what would"ve been Philips remains floated.

(… You wouldn"t be Phillips are you? Can you hear my voice?)

I called out to it in my head, and the figure swayed in response… then a voice was heard echoing in my head.

(Are you able to see me?)

(I can see. Say… if you were get a body, could you defeat those guys? And not attacking us either…)

(A body into one of those puppets? … That would be difficult…)

The remaining 16 skeletons of mine had their weapons removed and bounded together in the other room.

The golem couldn"t use it"s legs either and still remained collapsed on the spot. If I were to try to replenish its legs from the ground, me and Benedetta would get in danger…

Even if there was some way for Philips to escape the bindings as the skeleton and able to defeat the group of thugs, it can"t guarantee our safety as both groups are in different rooms…

(I guess there"s no choice… Philips. Could you accept my power? It"s an activation contract for dead spirits.)

With the Necromancer"s power, giving Philips some capability as a spirit may be able to take us out of this situation.

However, it has a problem where it heavily requires the other party"s consent… Placing the spirit into the skeleton also has the same problem.

(… Would that be the same as with that doll from earlier? One where the contractee would have to serve under you… If it would allow me to guarantee my King"s remains…)

(Then I will swear to my G.o.d! In exchange for the safety of my companion and myself!)

Philips shadow swayed, then flickered and announced to me.

(… The image of us, lining up our shoulders as comrades in battle… I would like to believe in such…)

(Alright, then come here for a bit…)

I explained the utilities in the power he was given.

As the discussion of ours continued, the thugs by the elevated mound was playing along with treasures there.

"It really is a good thing huh Darza bro."

"That"s right, that"s right! With this much treasure on our hands, we can live like kings however we like!"

"A girl from the north huh… It"s easy to tell with the crystal white skin… It"s not easy to find something like this anywhere in Comnes!"

"… You lot, stop babbling among yourselves and hurry help me out with the treasure! Radom, you"ve always been annoyingly infatuated with women!"

"Gehaha!"

While bickering with his group, the leader Darza… stopped moving.

"… Bro? What"s the matter?"

The guy with the bootlicking-like character questioned as he peeked over to Darza, but the man continued to remain still.

"… M, my treasure… my only treasure… why, why do I have to share it…with you lot…"

"Bro?"

Darza in a daze muttered to himself, right before he took out his sword and stabbed the guy into the gut!

"Geh! … B, bro… why…"

Realizing somethings gone wrong, another thug nearby took out his sword and jumped at him, but it was. .h.i.t away with Darza"s hand. And a chilling scream rang out.

"b.a.s.t.a.r.d! You back stabbing us!?"

"Darza! So you really were planning on keeping the treasure to yourself!"

… It doesn"t seem like there was much trust between them to begin with.

It"s to the point where they even threw the "Bro" t.i.tle out already.

They don"t even think their "bro" keeping all the treasure to himself is particularly abnormal… This is convenient for me.

As the rest took out their weapons and took vigilance, Darza"s eyes came into surprise.

"… ? Oi, why are you lot pointing your weapons at me!"

"Don"t screw around! You were trying to monopolise all the treasure!"

"Drop dead! b.l.o.o.d.y traitor!"

The fight between Darza and two of his former companions has started…

Of course, this was all caused by the invisible Philips.

I"ve been gambling on this from what I could spa.r.s.ely remember other necromancer players using back in the game.

It"s an attack undead spirits would use against enemies that stops them in place and inflict an abnormal status on them…

I remembered ‘Confusion" definitely being the one… this would normally cause enemies to attack their allies. What I"ve been gambling on, was whether they would notice I did something or not, and as it turns out, this skill is more useful for this situation than I could have ever thought.

Had it been a skill where the enemy would simply go crazy, I would"ve been found out.

Within the midst of this situation, I made eye contact with one of the skeletons sitting at the other room…

Through its vision, I"ve been able to see what the situation is like more clearly inside the room with Darza.

The two holding me and Benedetta down had been worried from the conflict going on in the other room.

Putting that guy with a scar on his cheek aside, the guy restraining me was getting distracted, and I can feel the knife he was holding on my neck slowly getting deeper… Hey seriously, watch it I"m bleeding here.

(Modelling… and I"ll use modelling here… then…)

Time to start with the escape plan.

… Using sculptor"s skill "Modelling", I had the knife pressed onto my neck blunted… doesn"t look like anyone here noticed that…

It"s possible for me to use the "Modelling" skill from a distance in exchange for the extra mana cost. With it, it should be possible to do what I need it for.

From what I can see through the skeleton"s vision, there"s even an old bone lying just behind me.

First, I"ll have the floor protrude a 20cm spike at a set distance behind this guy…

Second step. As fast as possible, I"ll have floor where this guy stands on cave in, and push my weight behind me so he would fall on his back.

If things where to go like I imagined then…

"Ohh!?"

"… W, what"s the matter!?"

The man fell helplessly right on to the place I wanted him to, but just in case I"ll press my full weight down onto him!

And like that, I heard the sound of flesh piercing and a m.u.f.fled scream leaking from his voice.

"Guaaegh!"

"… W, what?"

The man with the scar continues to stand shock still in place, unaware of the current situation at all…

Immediately, I reached out the old bone lying on the ground near me… and sharpened it as much as I can.

(… My apologies.)

Thinking the bone might have belonged to Phillips, I apologized and  had the bindings on my hands and feet cut off, and stood up… It was only now did the guy finally caught on to what was going on, but he was too slow…

Shuu!

(Phew. I actually did it…)

The bone stabbed straight through the man"s right eye… of course, I threw it…

"GyaaAa… Agh…!"

For an instant, he screamed, then fell to the ground abruptly… Benedetta rushed over to me with her bindings already partially removed.

Seems like they had bounded her up quite sloppily…

The remaining 3, still stuck in a deadlock noticed something wrong coming from our end, but given their current situation, they"ve been unable to turn away from each other…

Me and Benedetta had been able to reach to the skeletons in the next room without any problems.

The weapons of theirs had been taken by the ruffians in the next room, but it"s not like we would need it anyways…

"Collect up the stones! Don"t leave a single one out."

Of the 16 remaining skeletons, I had 5 directly controlled, while the rest continue to pick up as many as they can…

Centurion"s team is in charge of defending us, in case anything happens, while Benedetta joins up with the 5 of my skeletons.

"Now!"

… With 18 of us throwing all at once, the 4 remaining all had been taken down one by one.

… After about 3 rounds, they"ve either been crippled or lay unconscious…

However, there shouldn"t be any mercy on sc.u.m like these. I had us all aim at a single person at a time, and brought us a little closer…

There should be no mistake in this, we need to be at full strength if we don"t want to be in the same situation again.

Once we had all our weapons back, we kicked off each of those thugs" weapons and had their equipment stripped off.

(… It"s really no good if we keep these guys alive…)

I"m hesitating a little, but with the crimes these guys commited, it"s enough to warrant the death penalty in Comnes anyways… I took out my bone dagger and held the head of the one closest to me. A stab through the neck should make this quick…

"Please wait… This place is where my King resides… Can you refrain further bloodshed in this place…?"

Philipos voice echoed in my head.

"… Alright."

We"ll do this elsewhere.

"Now then, try and get into this guy for me."

Philipos" figure, which I could still only barely see as a black haze, walked up to the skeleton.

"You"re having me take control of one of your skeletons… Why is that?"

"The stuff over there is from your king right? Since he"s such an important person to you, wouldn"t it be best if we were to not touch it?"

"… To not be able to understand your intentions from the very beginning was a fault of mine… I would like to apologize. Even so, there"s something I"d like to ask of you."

"I know."

Looking over to Benedetta, she gave a firm nod despite her slightly pale face…

We proceed to help out with Centurion"s team, that had hardly been damaged from the fight.

I took out a clean cloth from my bag, and collected the seemingly old yellowed bones into it.

Once Philips transferred back into the skeleton it was before, he walked towards the mound.

"… Benedetta, you okay? Don"t push yourself now."

"I"m fine!"

Putting up a brave front huh…

Among the relics, the most expensive looking ones were found stuffed inside those guys" bags, so Phillips would in charge of dealing with those.

After a while, I returned the bag full of relics back to Philips… his remains should be mixed in these as well.

"I give my thanks…"

"In any case, it"s hard to be saying this note but…"

"What is it?"

It"s that there"s the possibility of those thugs to have given the existence of this place to other people.

"What! Are you saying there"ll be more of those hoodlums coming here!?"

"Erm well, it should be alright…"

I explained to Philips of something I had in mind.

—- Summoning Memo —-

Centurion Team:

Members: Centurion, Skeleton 1, 2

Equipment: Hatchet, Shield, Armor and helmet

Other Skeletons:

3 – 16: Club, Round shield, Armor and helmet

Stone Golem: 1

Guest: Phillips