Monastery [2]

Just like the Kobold Cave, the Monastery also religiously adhered to its name, with it being just a big monastery, the whole world dark because of the menacing clouds in the dungeon's own sky. Around the several different buildings surrounding the huge church in the middle of the area, groups of skeletons were walking around with an assortment of different weapons in their hands.

"So this is a dungeon. It feels a lot more... real, than I thought."

Sophie's small reflection was incredibly on-point. Although the environment and the monsters were the same as in the game, it looked completely different seeing it in this world. The cracked, brittle bones walking around, the scent of death in the air, and the absence of life gave us a completely different impression than one would expect after playing the game.

"That is so. Anyway, let's get going. There are a lot of skeletons to get through before we get to the boss. Bobby!"

*Ruff!*

I didn't know why I yelled at myself when I started running toward the first group of skeletons patrolling the ground, but for some reason, it just felt right. Answering my main body also felt extremely natural.

As the skeletons noticed my approach, which took them much longer than if they would have been organic creatures, I withdrew my scythe and instantly threw out an area of mist amongst them. It didn't take long until they were completely enveloped in the abnormally thick mist.

It was another application that I had found for [Dome of Mist], being able to plant it beyond the scopes of my physical body.

Plunging in, I saw the skeleton warriors confused, one of them even beginning to frantically swing his axe, accidentally hitting his mace-carrying friend.

Even though it was possible that they would end up destroying each other, I still needed a lot of combat practice.

*Schwing!*

Swinging my scythe with spin, I quickly snuffed out the unliving life of one of them, splitting his skull in two.

*Bam!*

At the same time, sub-me followed up, jumping at the mace skeleton and slashing at him with my sharp claws. Unfortunately, because of my weak strength, it didn't immediately die and launched a counterattack targeting sub-me's skull.

However, to me, it was pretty slow. It might have been harder to dodge if he knew sub-me's exact location, but alas.

A small dash to the left was all I needed before I continued clawing at the bones until they finally gave way and crumbled.

It was pretty cool that my stats were automatically translated to whatever form I took, but it was a tragedy that my strength was so low.

'Two left...'

Not wanting to waste any more mana upholding the cloud of mist, I canceled it as soon as me and sub-me initiated combat with the skeleton who had committed friendly fire with his axe and a sword skeleton.

Dancing around them with my scythe, while I dodged in and out with sub-me, making sure I always managed to land at least a couple of swiped with my claws or a bite, it didn't take long until we had wiped the patrol.

Casually fixing my disheveled dark hair by pushing it from my face, I turned to the speechless woman staring at me.

"What are you waiting for? Aren't you going to join the party?"

[Sophie's Pov]

'Holy shit... That moron actually looked pretty cool...'

Before I had even readied myself for what we were about to do, James had rushed at one of the groups of skeletons with Bobby.

Just before the battle would begin, he had used his mist to cover everything, unfortunately making me unable to see what he was doing.

Unable to see, I could only listen to the sound of weapons and claws chipping away at the bones.

However, it didn't take long for the mist to dissipate, revealing the figures of Bobby and the goblin dominating the remaining two skeletons.

And this was where the problem was. Of course, Bobby was majestic, cleverly baiting out attacks before dashing in and landing his attacks.

What made me hate myself was the fact that I couldn't stop admiring the polished scythemanship, relative to the time he had spent here, he displayed.

Launching a flurry of attacks while he was spinning around, while at the same time skillfully utilizing the momentum of the weapon, it only took a couple of seconds before the skeleton crumbled to dust.

Never in my mind would I have believed him to be able to use a weapon like that. I had believed that his way of fighting would be a lot more cringe, like Peter.

The worst part of all was that now, he was looking at me smugly, saying some stupid words that triggered my pride instantly.

"Tsk! I'm going. Watch me."

Instantly, I used [Dragonize] and [Wings], making me look like the dragonoid my Manual made me become.

As all the groups were just walking around on the grounds, it didn't take long for me to initiate combat with a patrol consisting of three skeletons.

All three of them raised their swords as I approached, but I wouldn't let them.

*Roar! Crackle!*

I let out a sea of flames towards them accompanied by an embarrassingly loud roar. My flames made them stop in their tracks, desperately trying to defend their nonexistent faces from the fires.

*Bam!*

Not letting the opening go to waste, I pushed myself forward with my wings and destroyed the skull of one of them with my draconic fist.

'They are so weak!'

I understood that James wasn't strength-based like me, but from his battle, I had assumed that they could take at least a bit of a beating.

"Hup!" Continuing my onslaught, I swiped my claws straight through the ribs of the second one, which made it follow the footsteps of his crumbled comrade.

Having recovered from the flames, the last one raised his sword at me, but for some reason, he didn't move. Instead, his hollow sockets appeared to be looking around, trying to find a way to escape.

*Bam!*

And now, I was alone in a sea of bones and dust.

This time, it was my turn to look at the stupid goblin with a smug smile.

However, when I turned my body to look at him, he was already gone, having engaged in combat with another pack of skeletons already.

'You...!'

****

[James's Pov]

I truly didn't want to look at Sophie demolishing those poor skeletons anymore. In my mind, she looked a lot more like a monster than they did.

So I went ahead and began fighting another pack of skeletons instead. Though it was also because I didn't want to waste any of our precious time.

After all, I had an artifact to get my hands on.

========

"That's the boss?"

"That seems to be the case."

*Ruff!*

Having cleared out most of the boney figures, we had finally reached the church, letting us see yet another skeleton. Funnily enough, the only difference was that he was wearing the attire of a bishop and held a big golden staff with an orb on the end.

"I suppose so..."

In the game, the undead priest had been a lot larger, roughly the same size as if one would put three other skeletons together.

In this world, it just looked like an ordinary skeleton who enjoyed cosplaying.

Still, it had been pretty amazing that we made it here on our first dive, with there only being two of us, as I didn't count my clone.

The skeletons weren't necessarily all that weak, though they were the weakest monster of [E]-rank. Instead, our success had been based on the fact that they, just like the kobolds, couldn't deal with my mist, making it easy for me to deal with them.

There was also the fact that the woman beside me, who was currently munching on her fifth power bar so far, had utterly and completely massacred every enemy she went up against.

In terms of pure efficiency in bringing down her enemy, she was a powerhouse.

Crossing her arm, having finished her snack, she pondered, "So, what's the plan? In the game, he could use both his staff and... What was it again?"

"Darkness spells. And I'm not sure. Looking at it, it doesn't seem to be any stronger than the other skeletons, but I doubt that's the case..."

Although I was internally debating whether Sophie might even be able to take the boss on by herself, I decided that it would be too weird to say it out loud.

It couldn't exactly be called 'manly' to ask her to deal with the boss on her own. For me, I didn't really care about that stuff, but I was pretty sure that she had a bit of a complex already about her large stature.

In the end, I just decided to face our problems head-on, "Let's just attack. Please try not to fry me with that fire of yours."

"Tsk! Same to you, make sure not to blind me with mist."

All three of us ran forward, making the boss finally acknowledge our existence. Before we could even land the first hit, its body suddenly became clouded by dark smoke.

The boss started rapidly growing, taking up more and more space in the church until finally, it risked hitting its head in the ceiling.

*Graaawwrrr!*

'Ah... That makes sense...'