Upon a throne of stone sat a goblin king. Mountain of bones and rotting remains lay at his feet, scattered without order. Parts of corpses intertwined with randomly discarded weapons. Currently, four of king's five chins were shaking in delight. The fifth one was just too massive to sway.
He just sunk his teeth into a half-eaten limb. Goblin king's eyes narrowed in bliss. He felt no remorse. For him, there was nothing wrong with appeasing his hunger with the meaty flesh his own subjects. It was an acquired taste. And frankly, an atrocious eating habit did not cause him any harm. Eventually, they reappeared, ready to serve him anew.
Upon a throne of stone sat a lone goblin king. He was alone because he ate all of his goblin knights. His perverse eyes closed slowly.
Not far from where goblin king sat, a boy moved away from the door. Shin crouched and closed his eyes. He did it for the first time since he got transferred to the dungeon. It was one of the rare moments in his life when he decided to slow down and take a break.
He was fatigued. The fights had greatly exhausted his stamina. Of course, the feeling of growth after leveling up was great but he could not endure hostile environment for much longer. The boy was not a bold psychopath. He was bordering the limit of his mental fortitude and couldn't tolerate much more stress. Even though Shin has gone through a lot it did not help him much in the face of constant fear and violent, continuous fights. Despite the fact that his character toughened, he was painfully aware of his weakness.
"Ready."
Warlock opened his eyes only after twenty minutes passed.
The silver doors disappeared when he touched them. Beyond the door, an impenetrable darkness spread. The boy got used to the darkness by now but he still could not see even an inch inside.
Cautious, the boy decided to send the newer one of his undead to scout. The skeleton crossed the threshold and disappeared as if drowning in the dark, deep waters. Shin followed, sensing that skeleton was not attacked the moment it entered.
The fetor of decay attacked Shin's nose as soon as the darkness dispersed. The entrance disappeared, turning into unremarkable part of the stone wall. Torches flared, illuminating the round room. The undead scout was standing next to him, slightly to his left. The skeleton which wielded steel sword entered the room shortly after the boy and stood half a foot behind, securing Shin's right side. In the middle of the room, the source of the vile smell rested. When Shin took a step, something cracked under his heel.
[Encountered a boss.]
Boss is the title given to a powerful enemy standing in the way for the transition to the next act of the story. Boss is a strong foe and, generally speaking, a lot of effort or even group of people is required to deal with it. Usually, such fight is done in an accompaniment of specially composed music. This is to build tension and showcase the fact, that the grand opponent is unusual and one of a kind.
The music, which metaphorically sounded in the heart of Shin, was a sound of notification, spoken with a voice devoid of human emotion.
[Random skill granted.]
Old bones he had stepped on. Seeing what skill he obtained, he came to the sudden realization. Shin immediately knew what to do.
The goblin king opened his eyes. He was full and sleepy. He liked to nap after holding a sumptuous feast. Most kings did. Now, that the torches burned brightly, illuminating the room, he had to squint his, accustomed to the dim light, eyes.
Shin laughed like never before. He let out a laughter of a frantic madman and just could not stop. He got down, lying flat on the cold, stone flooring. Skeletons moved forward, shielding him with their bony frames. The boy covered his ears.
Boss did not even have time to be surprised.
[Exoplode]!
Mountain of bones shattered violently, sending fire and debris into the air. The powerful explosion shattered the stone throne. Its fragments flew out like a barrage of deadly bullets, hitting the walls with a series of bangs.
Dust and smoke filled the center of the room. It smelled of burned meat.
Necromancer picked himself up from the ground. The scale of the explosion exceeded his expectations, his ears were ringing. From what he could see, his skeletons were badly damaged. When the air cleared up Shin's eyes widened in disbelief. There stood the goblin king, impassive and unmoved. Smoke rose from all over his armor, but the huge monster stood erect.
"Just fucking die already!"
He cursed. The stay in the dungeon massively influenced his choice of speaking register. However, the waning of culture did not concern him now. The point of interest was how the damned abomination survived. The boy raised his hand, determined to suck the life of the monster up to the very last point.
At this moment, king of the goblins fell forward. Heavy plate armor rang dully, hitting stones. The fat was smoking. The lucky coincidence allowed to score an effortless win against a powerful foe.
Motes of light flew straight into boy's body.
Level 3:
Experience: 1000
Life Points: 100 | Essence: 140 | Mana: 40
Str: 10 | Agi: 10 | Int: 30
Drain [5] | Animate [1] | Explode [1]
100 points of missing mana detonated the nearby remains. Even shielded by the loyal undead guardians and spreading his body flat on the ground right next to the wall, the necromancer had lost 20 health points. The might of explosion turned out to be too violent to predict. The spell was truly too potent. Most importantly, the goblin king gave Shin a truly royal gift of one thousand experience points.
Explode [1]
Detonates nearby corpses.
Cost: 100 mana points.
"This is broken. Way too overpowered. But still, there were just too many bodies to count. Seriously, I wouldn't have expected the skill I exactly needed to appear the moment I actually needed it. Moreover, the voice said that it generated randomly. Lucky me."
He said, putting on his hood. Timely deus ex machina had snapped him back into a good frame of mind and elevated his mood. The young man grinned.
Four glowing, regular octahedrons appeared next to the boss' corpse. However, the boy did not look around for spoils. He was looking for a way out. Despite his efforts, no matter how much he stared at the walls of the round hall, he did not see the exit.
As he was about to come closer to the center of the room and examine it, four red balls of pulsating energy manifested around the body. Next second, four, muscular goblin knights stepped out from within.
The fight lasted half a minute. As soon as the boy noticed that he was dealing with new monsters, he swiftly used [Drain] on the nearest one. His skeletons managed to block the other two opponents. Thus, Shin had to personally deal with two goblin knights at the same time. He got wounded but managed to steal their life to heal himself well enough. Since the new opponents fought much better than normal goblins, the undead lasted only a few moments before once crumbling into bone dust.
After the fourth knight fell lifelessly on the floor, Shin fell right next to him, completely spent. The dungeon taught him to run fast. Experience points entered his body and covered him with the beam of light. He advanced to the fourth level.