After calming himself the skeletal acolyte continued looking around the room, finding some small coins that looked like they were made out of gold with a hole punched in the center, he took them, but he realized that he no longer had his cloth pouch, so he left the coins where he found them, and began looking for some piece of cloth he could make use of.
He found tattered some tattered rags, all of them had holes big enough to let the small coins fall through, frustrated the skeletal acolyte kept searching the room, he found some wooden tables and chairs, most had a fragile appearance, so the acolyte decided to keep away from them.
"Hmm just another empty room, besides the coins that is… very sad… no precious to be found! Yesss… yes…" thought the skeletal acolyte, he felt sad, as his efforts weren't rewarded, only the thought of the small golden coins drove off the sadness.
Taking a last look at the room, the skeletal acolyte got out of the room, and made his way towards the stairs, taking the first step to explore the temple, he looked towards the downwards stair, seeing an ominous and strange mist, quite similar to the one exuded by the core, however this mist had a sharp and threatening aura, malicious intent could be felt, at this the skeletal acolyte moved away from the downwards stairs, taking a few steps to go upstairs, he then heard a voice, it was guttural, almost abyssal, it had a seductress tone to it, clearly this was a female voice that spoke in Draconic.
[Alive?… no… undead?... not mine!? INTRUDER!?... no…it can't be…] shouted the voice before falling silent, the strange mist looked as if it had retreated downstairs "SHIT! FUCK IT! Ignore it, just ignore it… yes yes! Not my problem! Not gonna do something truly idiotic! Yes yes!" thought the skeletal acolyte, as he resisted the strong impulse caused by the bewitching voice, he then simply ran upstairs, he had become somewhat familiar with his massive body, however his long tail made it difficult for him to run in an stable manner, which made the skeletal acolyte hit the walls with his boney tail, making long marks on the stone.
He arrived to what seemed to be an open hall, there were neatly organized rows of wooden chairs and tables that time hadn't pardoned, with some scattered tableware, suddenly he heard the familiar sound of rattling bones and from the rows of tables, an skeleton then rose up, assembling itself with every step, it began with the chest area where a very deep black mana core laid buried, protected by what seemed to be a thin plate of bone, the strange thing lacked the skull, but this didn't matter to it, it took a shape similar to Throzahk, as it was tall and reptilian looking with clawed hands and feet, it tail was wrapped around its waist, as if protecting something important, the reptilian skeleton patrolled the hallway, crouching to touch something on the floor, then resuming its walk, after it had left the spot that it touched, another skeleton rose up in the same way, and so did more, some lacked an arm, others lacked ribs and vertebrae only one did not have the tail, and like that some ten or so skeletons now stood on the hall, nonetheless the only one that moved was the one that lacked the skull.
"Well… this is… unexpected… yesss… but finally PRECIOUS! Yes! Precious cores! Yes yes!" thought greedily the skeletal acolyte, he was once again taken by greed, taking a crouching position preparing to bolt forwards to attack the nearest skeleton.
However, the skeletal acolyte quickly stopped his actions, he then patted his boney arms looking for the leather sling that he had attached to his arm, it was still attached to the bones, but the skeletal acolyte lacked the pellets that he had stored in the pouch.
Seeing that he lacked the pellets he resumed his position, preparing to bolt towards the nearest skeleton "Brute force it its! Yes! Yes!" thought the skeletal acolyte, who then bolted towards a skeleton that was smaller than the rest, crashing against it chest, taking the thing by surprise, smashing it against a wooden table that was destroyed in the process, the skeleton tried to resist the brute force of the assault, but to no avail its arms were soon smashed to smithereens by the punches of the skeletal acolyte, then he dislodged the core with a powerful punch to the foe's boney chest, launching it flying across the room "AH! MY PRECIOUS!" thought the skeletal acolyte, being distracted by the core that had gotten away from him.
The acolyte then felt a hit on his ribs, that made a cracking sound, however the ribs didn't gave to the assault, the skeletal acolyte regained his concentration, and turned towards his attacker, it was another skeleton that attacked him again, launching a kick towards the skeletal acolyte, the acolyte tried to catch the leg of his attacker, but he was too late, it impacted against his chest with another cracking sound, enraging the acolyte, who then used his powerful legs to bolt towards the skeletal assaulter, knocking it of its feet, and pushing it against another skeleton that had tried to join in the assault, the skeletal acolyte then began his onslaught on the first skeleton, clawing at the torso, trying to dislodge the core, however he was hit by the second skeleton, that had recovered from the initial assault.
"GIMME! GIMME! GIMME! GIMME!" thought the skeletal acolyte as he ignored the hits, clawing evermore on the plate that covered part of his foe's core, cracking the plate with one of his claws, and dislodging the core with a final punch, sending it rolling a few meters away from the now unmoving enemy.
He then focused on the still attacking skeleton, that launched a fast punch towards the snout of the acolyte, hitting the skull square on target "GIMME! YOUR! DAMM! CORE! MINE! MINE! MINE!" thought the enraged acolyte, launching a punch towards his enemy chest, hitting it square center, obliterating the bone plate and dislodging the core.
The ruckus caused more skeletons to rush towards the acolyte, they were soon dispatched by the powerful onslaught, at first they had been difficult to deal with as they pressed their assault in teams and some had tried to stop the punches of the acolyte just to be kicked instead, some of them had tried to pin the skeletal acolyte just to make the acolyte realize that he could whip them away with his powerful tail, he proceeded to claw the cores from the chests of his foes.
Soon only the headless skeleton remained unharmed, and suddenly it began to exude a black aura, rushing forward the acolyte, unrolling its tail and use of it as an improvised weapon in the shape of a spear made out of bones, trying to pierce the skeletal acolyte chest, aiming to hit the core.
Seeing this the skeletal acolyte ran to the side, narrowly avoiding taking a hit from the spear "ARE… ARE THOSE CORE! YES! MINE! MINE! THOSE ARE MINE! GIVE PAPA HIS REWAR!" shouted internally the skeletal acolyte, seeing that the thing that the headless skeleton had hidden with its now weaponized tail were several exposed mana cores of different shades of blue.
The skeletal acolyte was overtaken by his greed, as he bolted forwards, smashing directly against a sideways hit that came from the improvised bone spear, this hit made incredible cracking noises come from the ribs of the skeletal acolyte, the ribs groaned like a wooden ship would under the assault of fierce storms on the seas.
However, the skeletal acolyte didn't care, as he simply took the hit and used his maw to bite onto the enemy's shoulders, as he made his enemy fall to the ground breaking the headless skeleton's spear holding arm, once he had disarmed his enemy, he was overwhelmed by a rush to roll around in the floor, this attack had no effect however, as the skeletal enemy discarded that shoulder, getting away from the skeletal acolyte, then it tried to run away, it tried to avoid the skeletal acolyte, as it was now headless, unarmed and crippled.
"OY! YOU! DON'T RUN! YOU CAN'T DO THAT! GIMME THE CORES!" shouted internally the skeletal acolyte as he chased the fleeing foe, the skeleton ran as fast as it could, but it was futile as the powerful boney legs of the skeletal acolyte made him catch his fleeing foe, knocking the skeleton to the floor.
[GOTCHA! MINE! MINE! MINE! MINE! MINE! MINE!] shouted the skeletal acolyte, as he had caught his enemy as he begun the onslaught, first was the core in the chest of the crippled skeleton, as it was extricated from the crippled skeleton chest by a punch from the skeletal acolyte, then followed the cores on the hips of the skeleton, these were easily extracted, as they weren't protected by the bone plate that protected the other core, it was as simple as pulling them out of the sockets, as the skeletal acolyte placed them carefully on the floor.
The skeletal acolyte stood up, as his foe laid defeated and coreless, he examined the scene, cores were scattered around in the hall, and a number of tables were damaged or downright destroyed, the skeletal acolyte then began collecting the cores, one by one placing them inside a ugly looking makeshift box made out of wooden shards and sharp pieces of bone that had been crudely attached by way of punches from the skeletal acolyte.
[My precious! yesss... beautiful cores... yess....] said the skeletal acolyte looking at his newly acquired collection of mana cores, admiring the things, he then began to make his way downstairs, as he had acquired quite a number of cores [Good... good! yess... these core may help my endeavours! yess.... yess...] said whispering the skeletal acolyte, as he made his way through the hallway towards the egg chamber.