When Ella and Elo entered the camp, they were bathed in sweat. They had run out of the mansion as fast as they could. After they had left the ancient city, they started walking again, but they didn't pause even once.
They could not see their teammates, which was no big surprise, because it was already night.
Elo was about to say that they should eat something when Ella suddenly started falling. He stepped to her side to catch her, but when his hands touched her back, his field of vision turned black.
When he woke up again, he felt like he could eat an entire elephant.
Only when he tried to stand up again, he realized that he had been lying on Ella's chest for the whole night. When he finally managed to sit up, he suddenly saw Gordan's grinning face.
"So, what exactly were you two doing here last night?"
"We didn't do anything, what do you even…"
When Elo realized what Gorden meant, he turned beet red.
"No, we really didn't do anything, especially not what you may think."
"Well, it didn't look like you were doing nothing…"
That was when Elo suddenly heard a loud yawn from behind him.
"What were we doing? … And why does my chest hurt?"
When Elo turned around, he could see that Ella had dark circles under her eyes and still looked very sleepy.
"That's what I wanted to know, but Elo didn't want to tell me. So…?"
Elo was a bit annoyed.
"I'll tell you when we have eaten. I am starving."
He walked into the forest without saying another word.
**
When they had eaten, Elo told the others what had happened to them.
"…and as soon as we reached this clearing, we both fell unconscious."
"Wow, that sound like there could be some seriously good stuff in there. An ancient city must have something outstanding, right?"
Gorden seemed to be very excited. He looked like a child that had been told that he would get his birthday present a day prior.
"Yes, we think so too, and we already got some gold coins, but so far we haven't seen items or anything like that. That's why I wanted to regroup and try clearing the house.
How about it?"
"Yes, I would love to."
Gorden clapped his hands in excitement. He looked at Lara.
"How about you?"
"I'm ok with it, if we want to survive here, we need to become stronger anyways."
"Yes, I think so too. If we rest enough and we fight the black skeleton together, it should be doable."
"Ok then, let's go."
They made their way back to the ancient city. They knew where the city was, so even with pauses, it only took them 2 hours to get there.
When they reached the city, Gorden and Lara looked around in awe.
"Wow, this really is huge. I wonder who lived here."
"There were human faces on the coins we found, but the black skeleton we saw was far too big for a human. I guess we will know more as soon as we kill the thing."
"Ok, let's go in then."
They entered the same house they had visited the day before. As soon as they stepped inside, they got attacked by a group of skeletons.
"Ding"
"Slave Skeleton (pathetic) has been defeated (X10).
The resources are being transferred to the leader of the team."
"You resaved:
-26 bone fragments"
Elo looked around.
"This is the same number as yesterday, and I also can't see the bones of the skeletons we killed yesterday… this is really interesting."
Actually, all the skeletons were still about on the same spot where they had been killed in the day prior, except they weren't dead anymore.
"It seems like the skeletons in this house actually respawn."
It sounded dumb, but nobody could contradict Elo. They had no idea how the skeletons would be the same number on the same spot otherwise.
"It may be, but that's not too important right now. Let's rest and then go up the stairs to fight the black skeleton. I want to have my revenge for yesterday."
-"They don't understand. That the skeletons respawn means that everything they can drop is an infinite resource. The others might not realize it, but in reality, that's a really great thing."-
When they had rested, they started going up the stairs until they saw the black skeleton again. But even though the skeleton saw them, it didn't move an inch.
Elo had positioned himself behind the others, so he was the last one to see the monster. Even though Elo had already seen the skeleton, he still was surprised.
The skeleton was even more giant than he had thought. It was over 4m (13' 12") tall, and it's bones were about as thick as Gorden's arms. Its red glowing eyes seemed to follow each of their steps.
As soon as Gorden took another step in his direction, it started moving.
It wasn't moving fast, but it only needed three steps to get to them anyways. When as it reached them, it tried to kick Gorden, who managed to evade in the last second.
As the skeleton was trying to regain its balance, Ella bashed forward to hit it in the other leg with her bone weapon.
As the bone hit its leg, it fell on both knees and almost crushed Lara in the process.
When they were about to attack again, the skeleton suddenly started crying. There were no tears, but the sound of a crying child could be heard in the whole house.
The entire team froze in their movements.
-"Is this thing actually crying? How is that possible, it's just a skeleton, it doesn't have feelings."-
When he was about to say something, the skeleton suddenly stopped crying and reached out for Lara. Before she knew what was happening, the skeleton's hands already covered her waist.
But before it could lift her up, Ella had already reacted.
She jumped forward, while her body started glowing in red light. When her bone hit the skeleton's neck, it broke, and without anything supporting the skeleton's head, it fell to the ground.
"Ding"
"Giant Infant Skeleton (normal) has been defeated.
The resources are being transferred to the leader of the team."
"You resaved:
-5 black bone fragments
-2 ancient gold coins"
"What? This monster was an infant?"