60 - Brown Rock Labyrinth 2

In long caves the faint sound of clicking could be heard echoing, followed by the shadows of light and the sound of footsteps.

Anyone who would come across the source of the clicking would be either stunned or scared.

As the source came from a large group of moving skeletons slowly walking together in a formation down the tunnel.

The cave ceiling had stalactites every now and then, as the cave went from a transition of it being smooth to raggedy with stalactites.

It was at this time something dropped from in-between the stalactites and attacked a skeleton below.

It landed directly on-top of the skeleton and immediately began to attack by scratching with it rock like claws.

But completely unexpected by the attacker, the group of skeletons didn't panic because of its ambush instead they worked like a well oiled machine to gave it before pulling it off their companion.

Three Skeletons holding touches came forwards to join the encirclement, Now under the touch light the attacker could now be identified.

Short brown hard hair, long stone like claws on each one of it's four feet, a long grey tail and a pointy head with two large yellow teeth sticking out.

It was a huge Rock Rat, a Level 3 monster that could be found almost everywhere on the first floor.

The Rock Rat looked around at the group of Skeletons surrounding it, ready to attack at any moment, making screeching noises as a threat it had no idea that death was approaching.

As the line of skeletons opened before a large skeleton wolf jumped from the gap without giving the Rock Rat any time to react.

The wolf's cold teeth bit down upon the back of the Rock Rat's neck before trying to rip it apart bey shaking it's head side to side.

But the Rock Rat's defence proved to be too strong as it's teeth didn't even manage to break though the Rat's skin.

But it wasn't meant to kill the Rock Rat but it did complete the affect it needed to and that's to incapacitate it, effectively stopping the Rat from fighting back.

Once again the circle of Skeletons parted only this time it wasn't an undead instead a person in a full set of dark blue Armor walked out.

The dark Armor reflected the soft light from the touches allowing for you to see the tall silhouette of the Armor.

A medium shield that was around the size of his upper body sat secured to his left arm, on his left his connected to his belt sat a black longsword.

He didn't speak or say anything instead he slowly raised his right revealing that he was holding a one handed steel Warhammer.

Once the Warhammer was fully raised and he had entered an attacking stance the skeleton wolf stopped ripping the Rat around but held the dizzy Rock Rat in place.

Seeing this the armored individual swung down with immense strength directly onto the Rock Rat's head killing it.

[ Rock Rat Killed (Lvl 3) + 15 XP ]

"I don't know why you want me to use this this, it just doesn't suit me at all." Michael turned to look behind as he complained before he swung around the warhammer a few times.

Stand behind him was Victor, wearing a set of purple robes and holding a blue staff.

"Well unfortunately you'll have to put up with it as your sword won't even be half as effective against the monsters in this Labyrinth." Victor said not minding Michaels complaints as he too wouldn't like changing his main weapon randomly.

"I know that blunt force and magic is the best against these guys but is there anyway I can still use a sword." Michael thought of kicking the Rock Rat but upon remembering the last time he gave up.

"Actually there's a couple of ways to dramatically improve your combat ability." Victor collected the loot as he spoke.

"Oh, What is it? Don't hold out on me now." Michael nearly jumped up in excitement.

"Well there's Mana Blade, Blade Intent, Sword or Blade Arua, Penetrating Stab, Phasing Slash and a bunch more for the sword.." Victor held his chin in thought before listing a bunch of sword related abilities that could improve Michael's strength.

"Mana Blade, Blade intent... Hey they're all Battle Art or Mana Arts! I can't learn them even if I had them." As soon as he realised that they were either battle or mana arts, Michael immediately lost all his energy.

"Oh... So you have been studying." Victor gave Michael a interested gaze.

"Don't give me that look, I'm not stupid." Michael rolled his eyes before turning to leave.

Victor and Michael walked in the middle of the group of skeletons down the long tunnels, till they came to a spilt.

"So which way are we going?" Michael looked at the two new paths to pick from and asked.

"Well the fastest way to the next floor is the right one but there will be a constant large amount of monsters." Victor checked the map before answering.

"Oh then we're definitely taking the right." Michael immediately turned to the right in excitement.

"Yep, I knew you'd say that." Victor shook his head before following.

"Remember one of our objectives is to get used to our new abilities." Victor said suddenly.

"How am I supposed to do that with this stupid thing." Michael immediately complained as he raised the warhammer.

"Well unfortunately there isn't much we can do about that at this time." Victor also realised his mistake but there wasn't anything he could do.

As not only were the monsters incredibly resistant to most types of physical damage but their magic defence were also high, making it so he could only use a hand full of spells.

So unfortunately for the both of them they'll have to rely on that Warhammer for some time.

"So what's our goal for the day?" Michael feeling bored made small talk.

"Well first is to try and get used to our new equipment and abilities, second is to accumulate souls and level up. Finally we have to complete the five quest we've taken." Victor listed off their goals for the day one by one.

"Ok, so what's the lightest floor we're going to?" Michael nodded as he rested the warhammer on his shoulder.

"Well the highest floor we can do with our strength will be the third floor if we push ourselves. So if we're in a good condition I want to see how far we can push ourselves." Victor put away the map as his skeletons had sensed life force ahead, alerting him of the ambush waiting for them.

"Heads up, there's at least 11 ahead ready to ambush." Victor said as half his skeletons moved ahead of the group, ready to trigger the ambush.

Victor summoned fourth his familiar in preparation, actually little Skelly hadn't gone through it's Evolution yet as when Victor went to evolve Skelly it failed.

Only to later learn that the evolution required him to inject 50 souls in order for little Skelly to start it evolution.

Now before he had plenty of souls and could afford to use 50 souls but it was already too late as he had used almost all of the souls he had accumulated previously with helping Michael unlock his skills and learning new spells.

So that's why collecting souls is so important for them today.

Michael stood next to Victor as they watched the skeletons advance with Skelly leading them.

"I gotta say, sensing Life force is an assassins worst nightmare, after all stealth doesn't do anything. Hell your better off just waving a touch as it's no different." Michael whistled in marvel at how useful this simple trait was.

"Well it's not as strong as you think it is, after all you can still hide with a strong enough stealth ability." Victor said but he still agreed as it's already proven it's usefulness.

"Ok let's go with Formation C." Michael said as he took a step forwards and readied to strike.

"Alright." Victor didn't object, trusting Michael he moved his Skeletons changing their formation.

The skeletons moved into a V formation, so that when anything attacked they would be sounded on three sides.

Unfortunately the skeletona can't currently bring out the power of well... Any Formation as these skeletons for one don't have any weapons or combat ability, so realistically the formation only allows the skeletons to swarm their opponents.

Luckily they only needed too delay as Michael killed them, and as most of the monsters on the first two floors don't have much of any speed or attack power.

So the monsters aren't much of a threat to the skeletons but likewise the skeletons weren't much of a threat either.

Michael stood at the centre of the V as Skeletons went from both his right and left forwards.

Michael looked up to the ceiling full of stalactites before grabbing a stone on the ground, throwing the stone up before catching it.

Aiming at a certain spot Michael tensed his arm before activating Throw, feeling strength build up in his arm, he pulled back before unleashing the stone.

"Pew!!" The stone flew out powerfully with true aim striking true as a loud screech followed by a Rock Rat falling from the stalactites.

"Alright let's have some fun." Michael smiled as he picked up the Warhammer before twirling it as he re-adjusted his grip.....