Thufrat had lived a tough life. Born as a dwarf in human society, the discrimination he faced as a child was nothing to scoff at, and as the other children grew taller and taller, he was quickly left behind. Now of age, no one wanted to hire him because of his race, finding a job was not something that he could do. In normal cases, it wouldn't be this bad, since most people had a degree of rationality, as well as good minds.
But Thufrat had been born in a rural village, where discrimination wouldn't be punished since the law was in the hands of the villagers. With no other ways out of his dilemma, Thufrat's only way out was to become an adventurer. Even though his dream had always been to become a master blacksmith, he didn't have the money to even become an apprentice, therefore adventuring was the only way out until he had made a name for himself, and earned some money.
As he was constantly putting his life on the line, his skills grew more and more refined, his weapon of choice was a large Warhammer since dwarves were born with more strength than humans. The only magic he had an affinity toward was earth magic, and he largely incorporated what he could into his own fighting style, but it wasn't good enough yet. Through sheer effort, he had managed to get all the way to level 33, but he only had a few special skills of his own.
But a month ago, his life took a turn for the better as he managed to find a rank D dungeon in the middle of The Twilight Woods of the Estridsen Kingdom. This dungeon was supposedly the tomb of an old Archdemon, and it was undiscovered until now. This was a great opportunity, to gain strength, wealth and fame, all at the same time. At the cost of the danger of course.
Today was his first day of ever entering the dungeon, and the experience was shocking, to say the least. And now, in front of him, a weird phenomenon was taking place once again. Since he was rather headstrong, he stretched out his hand to touch the weird barrier, a choice that would follow him for life.
...
Ark had been resting for a little while now to regain his Mana, and it was finally at its peak again, but just as he was about to stand up, he felt something entering the barrier he had set up. The barrier wasn't capable of stopping monsters or people, it was only there to stop the fog and notice him if something came close to him. As something had obviously entered, Ark stood up and got ready for battle.
Just as he stood up, he could hear heavy thuds resounding against the ground. It sounded like something massive was coming, since most monsters were quick and quiet on their feet, "Something that makes this much noise must be something powerful!" This was the thought that ran through Ark's head as he pondered if this was a fight he should fight. But since this monster seemed to be big and clumsy, he was pretty sure he could run away from it, and there was no guarantee that the monster was powerful.
Thud
Thud
Thud
As the sound drew closer Ark grew more and more vigilant. Ark also wondered what level this monster could be, and if it could help him level up. As he pondered this, some bushes in front of him parted, and a silhouette emerged from within. As he saw the silhouette in front of him, Ark was dumbfounded. Of all the things he could have thought of, this was not one of them. In front of him stood a short dwarf, or well, Ark didn't know if he was short compared to other dwarves, but that's beside the point. The dwarf looked youthful, but he still had a rich hazel-brown beard. He had brown eyes that lacked a little luster, and his nose looked like a small boulder resting on his face. All-in-all, he looked a little comical.
On his back he had a large Warhammer seemingly made out of iron, there were some simple engravings on it, indicating that it was a magical item. This was Thafrut's most cherished possession, this was essentially the only thing he had spent his entire savings on, and it was his trusted partner.
...
Ark wasn't the only one who was surprised. As Thufrat walked out of the bushes, he saw a large wolf resting underneath a tree. The wolf was a mixture of cyan and a pure white in colour, giving it a little bit of a divine aura. Thufrat never expected to run into something like this on his journey here, and he instantly went on high alert. This wolf was the greatest foe he had ever encountered. He didn't know its level, and he didn't have the inspect skill because of his lacking intellect, and his bad luck. But he felt a pressure he had never felt before when he looked into the eyes of the wolf.
The standoff lasted for a little while until the wolf tried to use body language to convey that it didn't want to fight him. Thufrat was skeptic though, but he lowered his weapon nonetheless.
...
As Ark saw the dwarf lower his weapon, he let out a sigh. He knew that the dwarf was still on high alert, as the earth Mana around him seemed to be restless, and his expression looked a little restless. Ark didn't mind though, it was normal, he would be the same in the dwarf's position. Since they had a ceasefire, Ark didn't really know how to proceed with the situation. The dwarf looked a little confused as well, so they just stood there silently for a little while.
But the peace was short-lived as they suddenly heard a massive rumble approaching. It reminded Ark of movies Ark had watched in his past life, about large battles, with hordes of soldiers. As he thought about this, the ground started to shake a little bit, and the surrounding trees started to sway a little. They both looked at each other in apparent confusion, as they got ready to run for their lives in case they needed to. This sound was sending chills down both of their spines.
As the sound grew closer and closer, the underbrush around them started to get trampled as their enemies revealed themselves. The figures that emerged were a massive horde of skeletons. But these were no ordinary skeletons, their bones had a metallic luster to them, and they wore crude leather armor, armed with a plethora of different weapons such as swords, spears, bows, and staffs. At the helm of this horde was a skeleton with black bones, in its eyesockets danced green flames, it was clad in scarlet armor, with a broadsword in its hands.
Both Ark and Thufrat were dumbfounded. They had never seen skeletons organized to such an extent, the bowmen and magicians were in the back, the vanguard was armed with swords and spears, while a commander stood silently in front of them. In normal cases, the commander wouldn't even go to battle, but this one seemed to be a big part of the team's force, therefore they would become a lot weaker if he didn't join in on the action.
A rough count told them that there were around 100 enemies in total, with levels between 21 and 27. The commander was a [High Skeleton] and was level 35. This was the highest level that Ark had ever seen, but he was sure he could beat it one on one, since he got more status points when he leveled up, and his skills and magic was really strong. But the problem was that this wasn't a one on one, it was a 2 on 100, and there was no guarantee that the dwarf would help him, he was seen as a monster after all.
The dwarf, or Thufrat, wasn't really sure of what to do, he knew he had to fight since he could never escape, due to his slow speed, as well as the enemies bows and magicians. He looked to Ark, and their eyes' met, both of them showed fighting spirit, and this wasn't the time to think too much about the small stuff. Therefore Thufrat took the initiative.
"If I take on the big fella, can you deal with the small fries?"
Ark thought that the dwarf's accent was a bit funny, but he assertively nodded his head and got ready to fight. At this moment, the High Skeleton took his broadsword and pointed it toward Thufrat and Ark. The skeletons instantly went on the attack, both Ark and Thufrat was a bit taken back by the eerie silence as they attacked, but they met the enemies head-on...