Nindroid

Even after walking carefully for a few minutes in this gloomy, dark forest, they didn't find anything, as if there were no life in the forest. A dungeon without monsters? Can this even be considered a dungeon? But the quest did say Nindroid—simply who were they? As adventurers, they'd never heard of such a monster—it was dangerous, and having zero knowledge about said monster could lead to death.

Frowns couldn't help but emerge across their faces as they looked around, still with nothing in their sights.

"Strange," Aurora said. "Why haven't we sensed any sign of them? Amia, your psychic skills are sharp; anything?"

"If you're unable to sense them! Why would you think I could? After all, your level is double that of mine."

"Tsk…" She found it upsetting that she couldn't locate the dungeon's monsters. At this rate, they'd be here for days, and she couldn't afford that—a sudden thought ran through her mind. 'With the two of us, it'll lead nowhere; we'll need to increase our numbers... but I don't have a summoning skill nor any skill of the like.'

She wondered,

'But… perhaps Amia could have it?'

With her mind made up, she went to ask Amia, and in return, Amia's answer was no. She was left in the same position as when she started. Suddenly, it dawned on her: she discovered that she had a talent—a skill that can create skills through imagination—imagination creation.

There are two types of skills that can use servants: summoning and necromancy. The summoning skill involved contracting with beasts or monsters from another world, while necromancy was the resurrection of the dead to do your bidding; however, as a summoner, one would need help from a veteran summoner unless one desired to fail or be shredded to pieces from the spatial gate, leaving her with the option of obtaining necromancy.

[You've created the Skill: Necromancy]

Narrowing her blue eyes, she pressed the Necromancy. Immediately, a message box popped up, showing the description and summary of the skill.

[Necromancy]

[Manipulate the dead and their souls, either to resurrect them to be your servant or for other uses; you've got many...]

[Necromancy Skill: Undead Conjuring]

She pressed Undead Conjuring, and another screen with skill information popped up, displaying the description and summary of the skill.

[Undead Conjuring]

[Type: Active]

[Kill, Kill, Kill... Resurrect, Resurrect, Resurrect... For every entity one kills, one may resurrect them all; their souls are automatically stored, ready to be summoned.]

[Killed: 1.001 Billion]

'Over exaggerating, but... the skill fits my needs; I'll have them scout the forest. It'll save time.' Holding out her hand, a deathly purple glow appeared in her eyes, and she voiced these words:

"Arise!"

Suddenly…

"Auuggh…!" An unimaginable amount of heavy, dry moans permeated the area—from around their feet and as far as they could see, the ground started to move as if something were wiggling its way to the surface.

In seconds, a purple, shadowy hand emerged from the surface, followed by a dozen others. The hand pressed down on the ground, hard, and pulled the rest of its body above the surface.

"A-Aurora…! Why are there so many undead? This shouldn't be a dungeon with un-"

Her words were interrupted by Aurora's index finger. "There are my summons."

She then faced them and ordered...

"Now, servants, survey this forest in search of life! If possible, avoid getting into a confrontation!"

She sent out her servants, and they scurried out of their sights in seconds—not only was having them sent out quicker, but it was a safer strategy than wondering around. Aurora couldn't directly see what the servant could, but she could feel when one of them was fighting or injured and pinpoint its location. As she waited, a nagging feeling couldn't help rising in the corner of her heart! This feels wrong! Killing them to use them is wrong; let them rest! Let them rest in peace! Return them! Return them!

'It's wrong! I know, but what can I do? I could return them, but then what? What if Amia is unable to enter the next world like before? I'd fall apart! I can't endure another world without her! Doing it once put me on the verge of breaking!' Breaking the temptation to follow the nagging feeling in her heart, she averted her attention to her current situation.

~~~

Even after several minutes, no attacks fell on any of the servants she'd sent out. Altogether, they must've surveyed an adequate amount of the forest by now, covering about halfway of it.

'It strange… Even after sending them out, they haven't found anything, and they weren't attacked! Is this dungeon really empty? But then, why would there be a gate and quests? Could it be they're a stealth type?'

It was a well-known fact that monsters easily distinguished their own race from other races. As this dungeon was equivalent to a newly opened dungeon, there was no way for there to be human/monster mutations—an occurrence from the failure of a quest such as this, one where the penalty was transmutation—so why...?

Just as she was thinking this, the signal from several thousand of her servants suddenly vanished. Immediately, her eyes snapped wide open, and she glanced in the direction where it had disappeared.

'Impossible…'

There was no struggle. The undead servants did not even have a chance to react before their lives were forcibly ripped away. Although this didn't provide any clues as to what kind of monsters were hidden in this dimensional dungeon, it did prove one thing: whatever it was, it was incredibly strong, strong enough that it was suitable for a nationally ranked dungeon.

At the very least, it wasn't a common monster.

'Could it be... the boss?'

No, that wasn't likely; the boss itself would not attack at first; it'd send its subordinates before taking the initiative. Also, the signal from the servants that had just disappeared came from not too far away; they were at the entrance.

But then again... There are not many people who have entered the national dungeon—most of them are unknown, and only a few adventurers have met the entry requirements.

In the end, Aurora decided to investigate. If this really was the work of the Dungeon Boss... then from the moment they stepped inside this place, they'd already fallen into a trap.

Either way, she'd have to kill the boss to leave...

~~~

In a matter of a few minutes, Aurora and Amia arrived at the location where her servants had disappeared. On her way, she recalled the servants, returning them to their resting place, but several dozens of thousands were lost along the way. Only half of those she summoned were left, with all the rest's signals suddenly cutting off with no sign of struggle or fight.

What was even stranger was the fact that nothing seemed out of the ordinary where they were. It looked like a normal, dark forest, eerie just like the rest of the places. The air was cool, and the atmosphere was cold from the chilly night. Apart from that, there was nothing particularly remarkable about the forest, apart from the lack of lingering traces left by the monster.

One thought came to her mind as soon as she saw this... Assassins! They were well known for leaving no traces behind. After all, their main objective was to kill without a trace. Only one possibility could lead to this: the monsters weren't on the surface but high up in the trees.

Narrowing her eyes, she slowly glanced above her; a deep blue glow emerged in her eyes as she viewed the still trees. Using thermal perception, she scanned the trees...

And the moment Aurora did so, she saw them.

Despite the darkness, her eyes outlined several thousand figures hidden in the trees. They weren't humans, nor were they anything she'd ever seen. In her eyes, a circular core floated in the center of its chest.

The moment she suddenly realized it, a sharp blade stabbed at her lower back. Sensing the danger, Aurora swiftly reacted, swerving her body forward, evading, and slamming her hands into the ground before she locked her legs around the assailant's head.

Moving her body back, she flipped her body, and in doing so, she slammed her assailant's head into the ground. Taking advantage of it being knocked into a daze, she stabbed her hand into its chest and pulled it out, leaving a big gash in its chest. Her hand wasn't empty though; there was a core in her hand that was still beating with a blue glow.

'Wires?'

As she pulled out, there was no blood nor was there anything an authentic living entity would have—her assailant, the monsters weren't living but were droids, ones with assassin abilities.

"Target found; unable to eliminate target; error, error, error!"

"You finally showed up!" Aurora commented, a fire lighting ablaze in her palm. The core was quickly incinerated right before the droid's eyes. "This is your punishment for making me wait!"

As if on command, the core droid's eyes turned dead once its core was incinerated to ash. Following the droid's death, an unfamiliar screen appeared before her eyes...

[Nindroid (Lv. 6330)—Defeated!]

[+11,330,000 exp]

'This wasn't there before. Did Alexa update?'

[Precisely.] Alexa answered with pride in her voice.

Facing Amia, she voiced, "Amia, I'll need your assistance in this; there seem to be tens of thousands of them here."

Amia nodded, and that marked the beginning of their hunt. A hunt for robotic prey...