Leon arrived on time to see a tall man smas.h.i.+ng a skeleton with a ma.s.sive hammer since the monsters were undead creatures; the only way to kill them was to smash them into dust. The man who killed seemed to be a very experienced fighter, his movements were fluid, and Leon saw no hesitation in him. But that much was to be expected since he had been selected to be a rank A member in William"s organization.

"It looks like this is a special dungeon," Leon said. "I haven"t seen any skeletons so far, so there must be a reason for that."

"Master, I heard that the longer those skeletons stay on our planet, the stronger they get," Gisela explained. "I also heard that the directors partic.i.p.ated in the battle to exterminate the skeletons that invaded our planet, and they had a hard time killing all of them."

"I think killing is the wrong word here..." Leon frowned. "Still, I wonder why they are having a hard time clearing this dungeon, that guy just killed the skeleton in a single hit. By the way, how can the dust of the skeletons can be used?"

"I don"t know how, but I heard that that is used to increase the defense of some equipment, master," Gisela explained. "The process of creation is a secret, and it belongs to the directors."

"Just like the method of creation of the magic items," Leon added.

Leon wasn"t interested in increasing his defensive gear, but he was really interested in the process of creating magic equipment. If by chance, he discovers the method, he could create several items to increase the aspects where he was lacking. Health was an excellent example of that.

"Well, let"s greet these guys I"ll be working with for the next few days, after all" Leon said.

Although Leon wanted to do that, it looked like everyone was resting in those houses. Only the guy who had killed the skeleton was on watch duty. Leon approached him and finally could see his appearance. He was tall and had long black straight hair; it had been a long time since Leon saw a man with long hair... Regardless, Leon hoped for the people who founded the organization with William to be shady people, but that man didn"t pa.s.s that image through his face and light-brown eyes. He looked battle-hardened due to the several scars in his body, but he didn"t look that savage.

"Who are you?" The man asked when he saw Leon approaching.

"My name is Leonard. It is nice to meet you," Leon offered a handshake. "I got promoted recently, and director William sent me here to help."

"Is that so..." The man grabbed his hammer and swung toward Leon"s head.

Leon acted fast, sending mana through his feet, he made earth around him become a head-size cube and blocked the that guy"s hammer. A huge thud echoed through the air that made everyone inside the houses check what was going on, and they frowned when they saw a mage blocking their leader"s hammer without flinching.

"Hoh... it seems the first guy to be promoted isn"t so bad." The man said. "Sorry for testing you, my name is Tom, and I"m the leader of the team here... It seems you won"t have any difficulties working with us."

"That is not a problem," Leon smiled. "It is only natural to test an outsider. On the battlefield, you can"t trust a weakling to watch your back, after all."

"Well said, but to think a mage would be the first one to join our group…" Tom rubbed his chin. "Anyway, you should accommodate yourself in one of the free houses. It is not big or comfortable, but there is enough room to store your luggage. We can talk later."

Leon nodded and then headed to one of the houses that looked empty. Although there were ten of those, only five were being used. It looked like William and the others thought they would be able to find strong individuals to join them quite fast considering the benefits they offered, but soon they understood the cursed ring was like a two-edged sword. It protected them from spies, but it also made his possible allies afraid of them.

There wasn"t much to unpack, so Leon and Gisela finished rather quickly. Since she didn"t have to partic.i.p.ate in the meetings, Leon created a few knives and a bucket of water for her to train and practice Water Manipulation.

While Gisela was playing with water, Leon headed toward where Tom was. While he was away, Tom called the other members of the team; surprisingly, aside from Leon and Tom, the other two were a man and a woman who looked bored out of their minds.

"This is Leon, our new teammate," Tom said. "He is a mage, and considering that the directors sent him here soon after he was promoted, I can see that they expect a lot of things from him and us. We can"t waste that much time here; we have to clear this dungeon in the near future."

"Yeah, yeah..." The man said.

"Whatever," The woman said.

Leon noticed that those two would be useless, so he didn"t even bother memorizing their names. According to what Leon heard from Tom, the others the same as those two, pretty lazy despite having the power recognized by William. Those two would return the next day and while the other would return to New York to fool around.

"Great... only Tom is working seriously here."