[DCI] Chapter 41 - Whack-A-Skelly

“Alright. Let’s grab all our stuff and get moving,” I said as we walked back into the apartment. “Though, would you like some more time to prepare your arcanas, Levia?”

“If we are not in a hurry, I could write down a few simple spells.” Our Witch nodded slowly.

“That’s fine. I think we will first open the weapon box and you can work on them in the meanwhile,” I replied.

“Oh? Are we opening that one? What are we getting? Are you planning to give something to Levia just in case?” Aisha raised a brow at me.

“Not necessarily.” I shook my head as we approached my desk. “We can buy something simple and small for her. Instead, we should try to get a weapon that will help us a little in the current Dungeon. Specifically you.”

“Ah. I think I can guess what you are planning. Something blunt could be of use to reduce the wear on my greataxe.” My drakan mate stroked her chin.

“Pretty much that,” I confirmed and gestured to Levia to sit down by the desk.

Our blue-skinned friend followed my instructions and I handed her a full deck of empty cards with all the markers I had on me. After she received everything, I brought my wheeled chair closer and sat down too.

I fully expected Aisha to take another chair from the kitchen to take a spot next to me, but no, she just nonchalantly dropped her sexy butt onto my lap with an impish grin, wiggling herself into my waist like the tease she was. Levia gave us a brief glance before returning to her drawing.

Ignoring my playful lover, I quickly navigated to the Inventory and located the random box with the weapon. Opening it up the same way as the previous one revealed a horizontal spinning minigame similar to what we were used to. The difference was that there was a dropdown menu where I had to pick a weapon type before trying my luck.

“Hammer? Mace? Something else? What would you like better?” I asked Aisha after displaying all the options to us.

“Hmmm… Two-handed mace would be the simplest choice…” she pondered out loud.

“Unfortunately, it doesn’t look like we can narrow it down that much. It’s all between weapon types like slashing, piercing, throwing, blunt, ranged, magical, and so on.” I frowned. “Though, there’s a division between one-handed and two-handed, which is nice.”

“As expected. We might have to rely on my gacha luck again.” She smirked at me over her shoulder.

“Bring us something good, then.” I grinned back at her and handed her the mouse.

Aisha chuckled excitedly and selected the two-handed blunt category. The silhouettes visible on the gacha strip switched up a little bit and we could more or less recognize some of them as hammers, maces, perhaps clubs, and some other, unidentified weapons.

After trying to intimidate the minigame by glaring at the monitor intensely, she tapped the start button strongly. The row of rectangular blocks of various colors sped to the right in an instant and we watched them zoom from one side to another.

Just as they began slowing down, we heard a soft thud and our eyes snapped to the side. Levia was just raising her face from the desk while rubbing her forehead with a soft frown, which looked incredibly adorable with her neutral, dreamy expression. She must have been observing our actions and had gotten too engrossed in the animation.

“Sorry. I forgot to warn you.” I snickered quietly as she looked at me in slight confusion.

“You can’t focus on the animation or it will make you dizzy.” Aisha smirked. “No one can fault you for doing so, though. It’s way too mesmerizing for the first time.”

“Is your forehead alright?” I asked, trying to peek behind her white fringe.

“Yes. It just stings a little. That was unexpected,” she replied quietly, still massaging the spot.

“Let Rose take care of it if you don’t mind,” Aisha suggested and our Pixie companion appeared between us.

She started the treatment while the two of us turned our attention back to the screen. I had a feeling that this would be a recurring trope amongst our newly recruited companions without any prior experience with modern technology.

The animation had long finished and our prize was visible in the middle section with a red border and a thick arrow pointing at it from above.

“A double-headed war hammer, huh?” Aisha mused. “Not gonna lie, I kinda wanted to try one back in the past.”

“Seems like your thoughts were too loud and someone up there heard them.” I smiled. “It’s time I relinquished my role of the smasher to someone more fit for it.”

She looked back at me with a playful grin. “I don’t think even dwarves come anywhere close to how good you smash.”

We chuckled together while staring each other in the eyes until we realized that Levia was looking right at us. My cheeks grew a little warmer and I cleared my throat. Of course, Aisha didn’t back down this easily and ground her ass into my crotch with a grin to support her statement.

“What was that animation?” Our witchy friend asked in the most natural manner.

“A fancy illusion-like thing to make opening the random rewards more fun and exciting,” my tease of a girlfriend answered.

“And addicting,” I added. “It’s a little, exciting activity that can easily make you crave more.”

“I see.” Levia nodded softly.

Aisha slid off my lap with the tip of her tail grazing my cheek and she sauntered towards the door without looking back. I knew perfectly well that she was smiling to herself from both this little action and the prospect of getting a new toy. I quickly ordered the delivery and she got the package shortly after the doorbell rang. After dragging it between the bed and the desk, she cut it open with a kitchen knife she’d grabbed on the way.

What greeted us after she brought the contents out was a war hammer of a similar size to her greataxe. Dark, almost black wood made its entirety, from the butt at the bottom to the sharp spike at the very top end sticking out from between the two big hammerheads on the sides.

Besides the decently sizable section of the grip, everything had a twisty design, like multiple branches were wound together. It resembled those massive metal cables upholding suspension bridges. The coiling pattern unwound near the top as it split to the sides where the hammerheads were. Their flat surface was comparable to my head in terms of size.

“Neat,” Aisha commented, taking a few swings. “It’s quite light, actually. It still has enough weight to be recognized as a proper hammer but you can feel the difference. The balance is surprisingly good too considering how it looks.”

“Won’t it break easily?” I mused.

“I assume it’s made of something similar to the armor we had seen on the Woodknights,” she replied. “Possibly strengthened with magic to some extent. We won’t know until we test it out and there’s only one way to do that.”

She grinned at me, resting the weapon on her shoulder.

I shook my head with a wry smile. “I can already imagine the havoc you wreak with your Ground Pound.”

“Still won’t be as messy as when you are the one doing the pounding.” She winked at me.

Rolling my eyes, I stood up from the PC too. “How are your cards, Levia?”

“I finished four of them. It should be enough for me to be useful,” she replied and showed her creations to me.

“I have no doubt about that.” I smiled at her. “Do you have a way to store them?”

Levia glanced at the chair in the kitchen. “The coat has inner pockets. They will be sufficient. I might need to figure something out when I want to carry a bigger supply.”

“It will be easier to have them where you can easily access during a fight… Hmmm…” I stroked my chin for a moment and turned to the PC once more.

With a few accurate keywords, I found what I had in mind and bought it immediately. Aisha kindly fetched the package and placed the small box on the desk. I brought out the item and showcased a pretty, leather card holder to the elf Witch. It had neat straps to attach itself to a belt and a stylish latch on two connecting pins to cover the open top.

“This should do much better, right?” I opened the holder and let Levia put her cards in it before taking it from me.

“Thank you. I shall make efficient use of this tool. It looks like it can fit a lot of cards.” She made a small bow.

I nodded and we got to gearing up. She hastily grabbed her coat and hat before sliding her belt through the openings in the side of the holder. It ended up at a perfect height for her to pull the arcanas out. In the future, we could strap additional ones to it if we had the need to.

We helped each other with Aisha and didn’t fall too far behind. It was already second nature to us. I could fasten her pieces of armor at the same time as she positioned my own gear on me as we stood in front of each other and turned around now and then to deal with some belts out there.

She handed me my one-handed mace and I snapped my fingers after slotting it into the ring at my belt. Through the open door to the storage, my trusty, bonded handaxe flew out and soared towards me. I caught it without a hint of trouble and dropped it into the ring on the other side. These two would be enough with the buckler on my arm just in case.

“You can use Telekinesis to move weapons?” Levia asked as she walked closer.

“Ah. I don’t think I showed you my abilities yet.” I cocked my head to the back. “While I do know Telekinesis, it’s still a little too early for me to uphold things this heavy for long. I possess an ability called Armsweaving which lets me bond with weapons. I form a deeper connection with them that way and can manipulate them freely. Or more like, they listen to my wishes.”

“I was sure that Overlords focus mostly on physical strength and mental domination, yet you have it?”

I made a weak gesture toward her and sent a light wave of force at her face, blowing her hair a little bit.

“I guess, but that doesn’t mean everyone has to follow the same path, right?” I shrugged. “I learned it on my own through a grimoire. Your Mana Control is already high so I can give it to you. Being able to manipulate objects will surely be handy for someone working with many ingredients.”

“I’m sure he wouldn’t mind giving you some private lessons too,” Aisha added with a sly smile.

“And I’m sure Levia is talented and experienced enough not to need advice from someone who is making first contact with magic through it.” I squinted at her.

“If that will not be of inconvenience, I would like to take you up on the offer of studying the grimoire,” Levia requested respectfully.

“Sure. I’ll bring it out after we are back.” I nodded.

“I wonder how long it will take for her to master it,” my drakan companion mused.

“About half an hour? Maybe less?” I guessed.

“What?” Levia frowned gently. “That is impossible. My prediction would fit in the range of three to five days most likely.”

“Really?” I stared at her in surprise.

Aisha laughed heartily before slugging me on the shoulder. “Told you. You are a freak. I could tell even without being a magic user.”

Levia looked between us for a moment before stopping her curious gaze on me. “How long did it take you to master Telekinesis?”

“Something like an hour?” I scratched my head.

Pure shock took over Levia’s composed visage as her eyes opened wide.

Damn. I might have really done something outrageous, then. Was it not supposed to be that easy with the help of the grimoire? Perhaps my additional knowledge had truly played a critical role in it.

“Let’s discuss it after we get back from the Dungeon,” Aisha interrupted the sudden silence. “We've been delayed a lot already.”

I exchanged glances with Levia and we both nodded at our draconic friend. As we started heading towards the entrance to the apartment, I brought up my phone and scrolled through a few options.

“This will be a good opportunity to test the experience distribution function. I’m setting it to a hundred percent on Levia,” I said. “As for our formation, Aisha in the front, Levia in the middle, and me in the back. Rose will be our scout. Just don’t move away too far.”

“You think you can make me work for free, you slave driver?” Aisha snorted.

“I’ll make it up to you.” I winked at her.

She focused on the front again and peeked past the door. Not spotting any immediate danger, she signaled at us to move into the Dungeon. We entered the spooky, stone corridors of the crypt or whatever it was.

“I really need to get in touch with Zeke after we are back,” I said to myself while looking around. “We’ll get lost one day when I mistake a turn even with the map. That’s how similar everything is.”

“Just leave it to Rose. She will save our asses. Right, girl?” Aisha patted the cheerful orb a few times and the Pixie buzzed happily. “Which way then, boss?”

“Let’s go the opposite of the last time. Maybe we will stumble on some enemies in the open instead of hidden passages and traps.”

“Perfect. My hammer is itching for some heads to smash.”

We started moving in the previously mentioned formation while I explained a thing or two about the Dungeon to Levia through Thought Communication. We didn’t know much but it was definitely better for her to know what to expect even if the information was limited.

Our first prey found us quite soon. A lone Skeleton Warrior wandered the hallways and I stopped scribbling my map. It was equipped with a shortsword and a round, wooden shield. Both were damaged by the passage of time and some other, more physical sources.

Confirming that there was no backup in sight, Aisha rushed ahead without wasting even a moment. She dashed towards the monster while it had its back turned to us and raised her wooden hammer above her head.

The pitiful Skeleton Warrior didn’t have a chance to react in time and received a powerful blow to the top of its skull. Aisha’s weapon drove through its entire bone body, shattering it into bits and pieces, and hitting the ground in a flash.

After all the bones fell to the ground with a quite pleasant clacking noise, she bent forward and reached out for something in the pile of whitish tubes. Bringing out a deep blue nucleus the size of a thumb, she held it between her fingers and grinned at us while resting her weapon on her shoulder.

“It will be so much easier to collect these now. And so much more fun.” She chuckled excitedly.

I smiled wryly and checked my wrist. “And our new friend has just reached Level 2. It looks like we won’t have any issues with boosting.”

“Already? It was just a single monster and I have not done anything.” Levia’s brows rose ever so faintly and she stepped closer to me to peek at my wrist.

“The common monsters here are like Level 7 to Level 9 if I remember correctly. That’s an average of Level 8. You were Level 1 and all the experience was redirected straight to you. So, from a technical standpoint, it’s like you were the one to slay it purely on your own thanks to the peculiarities of my Class,” I explained and then turned on the illusion display for her. “Here. You can check it yourself.”

★━━━━━━━━━━★

Congratulations!

As you push through adversity together, your Subordinate has gathered enough experience to strengthen themselves.

Levia: Level 1 -> Level 2

Gained Attribute Points: 5

New Class-Related Skill Learned: Minor Elemental Magic (F)

★━━━━━━━━━━★

“This is convenient. You receive such a detailed notification whenever you level up?” she asked as her gaze consumed the novelty hungrily.

“This and many other things,” Aisha chimed in, reaching our position. “As long as you are going to act like a good girl, you will receive yours in no time.”

I sighed and glanced at the pretty Witch. “Don’t listen to her. We will get you one whenever we are able to. I can’t be more specific than soon. You will be able to see your own notifications without having to go through me.”

“Regardless, it seems that we found some more magic for our new magical companion. That’s certainly a great first skill.” Aisha nodded to herself after reading through the text.

“It must have been influenced by my earlier activation of Ember. Minor Elemental Magic is nothing much. It lets the user manipulate the basic elements to the extent of allowing them to light up a candle with a small flame, create some drinkable water, dig a hole in dirt, produce a weak flash of light, and other similar feats,” Levia replied.

“Well, it should at least come in handy around the workshop.” My drakan mate shrugged. “Shall we continue? We might be able to raise Levia’s level to five or higher before it gets late.”

“That’s the plan.” I nodded and turned to the blue-skinned lady. “Is there anything useful for you in these Skeletons or do we care only about the nuclei?”

“Bone dust is a quite common and basic ingredient that could be of use. It is not of high importance, though,” Levia calmly answered my question.

“Since I didn’t bring a backpack, let’s collect it next time. I don’t think we’ll run out of bones here.” I shook my wrist to disable the watch and refocused on the path ahead.

We resumed our journey. Since all the arches, columns, doorways, and other parts of the stone corridors looked like someone had just copied one section and furiously hit paste, our pace was slightly slower than usual. I had to make sure that I noted everything down correctly and marked the regular, geometric intersections properly. It was surely a change moving from twisty, uneven caverns into straight, polished hallways.

With Rose’s scouting, we were able to spot our targets before they noticed us approaching. Whenever we stumbled on a lone skeletal monster, Aisha stepped forward and dealt with it quickly and efficiently. She used those encounters to get accustomed to her new toy and figure out the best ways to strike her enemies down with just one hit.

Finally, after almost an hour of slow wandering, we found an actual, bigger chamber. All the previous rooms we had passed by were nothing more than small resting places for a single coffin at most. Now, we had an incomparably wider place with its ceiling noticeably higher.

From the looks of it, it was something akin to a ceremonial chamber. Rows of ancient, decaying, wooden benches filled it. They were placed in multiple rows, all turned towards the center, where a raised, stone platform rested. On top of it was a solid block of intricately carved stone, where I’d assume the body of the deceased lay during some kind of ceremony or something. Besides the blue torches, a few bigger braziers lit up the inside, with one giant chandelier hanging from the ceiling right in the middle.

And, perhaps whatever community had operated this place in the past, hadn’t managed to escape whatever had come for them. Five monsters lingered in this small chapel. Amongst all the Skeleton Warriors, we could clearly see one wearing yellow tattered robes and wielding a neat but also utterly damaged staff. They weren’t doing anything special other than loitering around as a spread-out group.

~Are we taking them down?~ Aisha asked telepathically, eyeing her upcoming prey.

~It shouldn't be that much of a problem if this magician doesn’t surprise us with something game-changing,~ I replied. ~What do you think, Levia?~

~Judging by their attire, I do not think that this person was in a high position. Therefore, they should not have known any powerful spells during their life. But, if you would like to make sure nothing unexpected happens, I can inconvenience them a lot,~ Levia answered.

~Let’s do that, then.~ I nodded.

~Please, make sure to protect me as I need to prepare the spell through an arcana as I do not possess the necessary catalyst to cast it otherwise. The magician might notice my actions,~ the elf lady added.

~Got it. Aisha, take three. I’ll lure one to myself while staying near Levia. Leave the caster to me too. Let’s go.~ I exchanged nods with both women and we stepped forward.

Unhooking my bonded handaxe from its holder, I sent it hurling forward with just my thoughts while reaffirming my grip on the mace and holding my buckler ready. As soon as my flying weapon smacked one of the Skeletons in the back of its head, Aisha activated her Launch and soared in the other direction. Levia crouched down and brought out the black marker I had handed to her back at home, starting to carefully paint something on an empty card.

All the enemies in the room became aware of our presence and clacked their clicky teeth in annoyance. The one I had attacked was now jogging my way leisurely while two Skeleton Warriors lay on the ground next to Aisha’s kneeling posture. She had blasted the poor target of her Ground Pound into oblivion, tripping the rest of the squad.

The magician turned to her, perhaps judging her as the biggest threat, but I gave it no time to even take a glance at my beautiful Berserker and sent the handaxe after it while receiving a kind of strong blow onto my shield coming from the shortsword-wielding fighter. Parrying its attacks continuously, I did my best to peek at the mage now and then to verify that my trusty handaxe was doing its work of messing with the monster properly.

Loud cracking and clacking of falling bones filled the chamber as Aisha smacked her enemies around. After a while, I managed to fit a counter into my opponent’s wild flailing and struck its knee joint, obliterating it on the spot. As the bony fella fell to the ground, I smashed its skull, and then all the other joints just for a good measure. I had no time to shatter all of its body in search of the nucleus.

A slight tingle made the hair on the nape of my neck stand up and itch a little bit. The Skeleton Mage’s hollow eye sockets snapped to me.

No. They didn’t snap to me but to the person behind me. Most likely thanks to my proficiency with mana, it wasn’t the only one who had sensed the change in spiritual energy. It hastily smacked my floating handaxe away with its staff and started casting something, clearly aimed at Levia.

Bit by bit, thin, sharp, blue spikes began forming above its head. It took about three seconds for one ice javelin to achieve its final form. Taking a quick glance at Aisha, I confirmed that she was doing her best to finish off the last Skeleton Warrior and head right for the magical sucker. Just in case she didn’t make it, I stood between it and Levia, focusing my all on repelling the projectiles with my buckler.

But, before it finished its spell, the Witch was already done.

Levia quickly stood up with the card she had prepared surrounded by a silvery wisp of mana. She placed one hand on my shoulder and peeked past me with half of her lithe frame. The arcana flashed and she threw the card forward. Shortly after leaving her hand, it disintegrated, and the light gray energy took the form of two small serpents which flew at the monster while coiling around each other. They reached the target in a flash and sank their ethereal teeth into the Skeleton Mage’s spine.

For a moment, nothing happened, and the monster finished its casting. I gritted my teeth in anticipation of at least one or two javelins reaching me before Aisha turned the mage into bone dust… but they never came.

As the ancient priest directed its staff at us, the projectiles whirred threateningly... and proceeded to explode, one by one. It threw the monster off as tiny chunks of ice rained onto it, not doing much damage besides that. Before the poor Skeleton could figure out what was happening, my daring drakan partner forcibly made it about halfway shorter with the skillful use of her war hammer.

Letting her have some fun flattening the poor bastard into the floor, I glanced back at Levia. “What was that?”

“A low-level curse. Mana Eruption. If the target attempts to cast any spell, the gathered spiritual energy will violently burst out during the activation phase,” she explained in a calm manner. “It is easy to notice and simple to counter, but since I timed it at the last moment, the target had no chance of stopping itself.”

“Amazing. If this is low-level, then I’m really looking forward to what kind of stuff you can pull out with mid or even high-level curses. Thanks for the save.” I smiled at her warmly.

“I only did as I promised, fulfilling my role.” She made a polite nod.

“You gotta get used to it,” Aisha said, arriving next to us. “He gives praise whenever it’s due. No point rejecting it.”

“Did the priest have anything on him?” I asked.

“Nope. The robes are trash and the staff is so rusty I ain’t ever touching it even with my hammer.” She shook her head. “Especially not with my hammer.”

“No need to pick up waste.” I shrugged. “Now, do you want to wander around a little more?”

Aisha snorted. “You ask? I could do it all day. Besides, I bet Levia didn’t level up further than up to three with this. We haven’t reached our goal yet.”

“I agree.” The person in question nodded.

“I’m just asking.” I raised my hands in surrender. “I’m curious to see more of Levia’s magic so let’s bonk a few more Skeletons back to the unliving.”