Seunghyuk felt almost every single fibre of his body being tugged forcefully out of his body and sucked away as his whole body disappeared from the back of the Obelisk. Seunghyuk immediately reappeared in a dark place with dimly-litted oil lamps hung on the walls, and Seunghyuk quickly scanned his surroundings and realised he was inside the Obelisk itself.
"Now what do we do. Yumi! Get someone else!"
Seunghyuk could hear Kim Seongwon's frustration at not being able to solve the Mayan Numerals at the back of the Obelisk. Seunghyuk really wanted to just shout from inside the Obelisk, hoping Kim Seongwon would pick up with his hearing skill, that he and his uneducated brain should never look down on University Graduates. However, ConcCube might be able to solve the Mayan Numerical System anytime, so he had to keep moving and hopefully get his hands on the treasure hidden somewhere in the Obelisk itself.
"So this is the first floor..." Seunghyuk told himself as he looked at the huge "number 1" hung on the wall, seemingly made out of bones, "Well, that's ominous. I'm guessing skeletons are going to come out now?"
Like Seunghyuk predicted, a full-bodied white skeleton of the height of a normal human dashed out into sight and ran towards Seunghyuk shouting in a weird language he did not understand at all. It wielded a weird looking shortsword, although strange in appearance, it seemed to be quite dangerously sharp as well.
"Well, looks like you're pretty weak, just like the random Conqueror who tried to kill me a few minutes ago, " Seunghyuk's Eye of Detection activated yet again as he said, and he remembered that he was able to overpower Yeoksang, the Conqueror who kills with assassin-like skills, even though he had lower stats compared to Yeoksang.
Monster Species: Whitebone Skeletons
Conqueror's Level: 2
Strength: 4
Agility: 4
Defense: 4
MP: 5
Skills: Slash, Gleam Of The Blade
"I shall test my extent of my abilities on you, I guess, " Seunghyuk said and went for a low hook on the skeleton's legs, but it seemed like its bones are pretty rigid and did not topple apart like those in movies, "Well, change of tactic. Face."
However, before Seunghyuk could do anything, the skeleton brought its sword up high and swung it down. Seunghyuk immediately leapt backwards in attempt to avoid the sword, but it still grazed his shirt and opened a shallow wound on his chest.
Seunghyuk was filled with adrenaline surging throughout his whole body and that wound did not stop him, he forcefully swung his right hand with the ring worn to the skeleton's skull, using the ring's hard and sharp material as a substitute weapon when he threw the punch. Similarly, it seemed like the Whitebone Skeleton's stats were much lower than Seunghyuk's even though in reality it was not the case. He questioned how he was able to leave such a big crack on the skeleton's skull even with his current stats. The broken skeleton shrieked in pain, screaming in an unknown language Seunghyuk still did not understand, but he merely slammed the skeleton in the chest with both his hands, breaking its chest.
"Lastly, take my kick, " Seunghyuk said as he did a simple, but effective kick on the skeleton's chest, kicking a huge hole through the skeleton, killing it completely, "Wow, that was easy. At least, it was easy when they are alone."
Seunghyuk felt the sharp pain in his chest after all the excitement drained from his body, and he looked down at his bloodied-chest, which is slowly starting to heal.
"Well, I need to get stronger."
The Whitebone Skeleton is said to be a normal skeleton fit for newly-awakened Conqueror's training. They do not actually die even after being slain, they would reborn from their bones after a few hours. However, what interested Seunghyuk the most was the small, grayish white pearl that dropped out from the Whitebone Skeleton's chest. Then, this time he requested himself as he wanted to know about the pearl, but Seunghyuk was not completely sure this command to the System would actually work.
"Er...System: Use Eye of Detection on the grayish white pearl," Seunghyuk still attempted to give that command, and the System answered promptly by flashing him a screen of information, making Seunghyuk happy as he at least knew that the Eye of Detection could work on non-living things as well.
Item Name: Whitebone Pearl (E-Grade Item)
Item Description: Obtained with a 56.67 per cent chance by slaying Whitebone Skeletons. It has no practical uses but it is an ingredient for Item Forgery and Potion Making.
"Well, isn't that kind of useless..." Seunghyuk questioned the use of the pearl as he picked it up with his fingers and analysed it, but, he quickly realised he ran his mouth a little too early as his family ring on his finger flashed with consecutively green light again, "Something is going to happen again...The System is going haywire again...I'm not sure if it's always a good thing, though."
The System screen spewed out the same binary codes and weird symbols, but this time the weird symbols seemed to be much longer as well, like it was a program that needed more code due to it being part of a bigger program. As the System was going through some errors, Seunghyuk's Eye of Detection was going through hard work. Even though he was unable to recognise the binary codes or even the random Ancient symbols, another miracle seemed to happen.
"The skill Eye Of Detection has been activated numerous times. Eye of Detection has been upgraded, currently one out of five stars."
"Okay, that's cool. I should take a look at my status window, System: Show Status Wind...Never mind, you're going through a huge coding breakdown. I shall just wait patiently, " Seunghyuk just sighed as he looked at the System slowly update itself, either that or it is ruining itself, but just a split second later, the System returned to normal again and spewed out a new set of information, "Wow. This ring is actually really, really useful for a Conqueror like me."
Item Name: Whitebone Pearl Essence (D-Grade Item)
Item Description: Obtained with a 22.11 per cent chance by slaying Whitebone Skeletons, or obtained by fusing three Whitebone Pearls together. It is an ingredient for Item Forgery and Potion Making. When consumed, it helps to strengthen the human body closer to perfection bit by bit, occasionally adding stat points to a Conqueror's body.
The Whitebone Pearl in his hands transformed mid-air into a glowing gray pearl which flew into the System, collected as an inventory object.
"I have to say. What in the world is my ring? I'm not really complaining but...Holy shit...It's overpowered," Seunghyuk exclaimed a little too excitedly as he continued down the Obelisk path, feeling more exhilarated to face Whitebone Skeletons in order to collect their drop loot.
However, his excitement was wiped off his face when a horde of skeletons rushed towards Seunghyuk screaming in that weird Ancient language that he did not understand again. This time, Seunghyuk knew he could not fend off all those skeletons even if they were of similar stats like the one he killed before. There were just too many and he had nowhere to hide or anything, the Obelisk was just too empty with only dim oil lamps lighting up in the intense dark and bones littered all around. He was, more or less, done for.
Catching Seunghyuk off guard, the angry skeletons' gibberish became understandable to Seunghyuk. The skeletons seemed to be speaking in Ancient Byeodae, which is a language used by skeletons specifically. Seunghyuk was confused why he was able to understand the language all of a sudden but he had no time to stop and contemplate, so all he did was...
"Hey! Stop, I didn't mean to kill one of your friends!" Seunghyuk exclaimed in Ancient Byeodae, and that seemed to have worked for now as it astonished the horde of skeletons.
"You have learnt the skill Ancient Language Comprehension, Currently zero out of five stars."
The skeletons have turned from screaming angrily to mumbling to themselves in confusion as to why a mere human could speak their own language, then, a barely-clothed skeleton marched out dangerously and gazed at Seunghyuk threateningly right in his eyes. The skeleton's empty eyes were like the abyss, and staring into the abyss will have the abyss staring back, and that sent chills and shivers down his spine.
"You...you must be the leader here? Right?" Seunghyuk continued to speak in Ancient Byeodae, and the skeleton nodded its head slowly and opened its dry bone-made mouth, "Human, would you care to explain why you are able to speak the Ancient Saengwa's derivative language, Byeodae?"
The skeleton leader mentioned Ancient Saengwa, which is the main language of the creatures. Think of it as English being the universal language of the world, similarly, Ancient Saengwa acted as a language bridge between monsters and creatures of different species and groups, hence, Ancient Byeodae is just a small derivative from the main language.
"I have a skill that helps me understand and communicate with you...I don't know if you can understand that..." Seunghyuk said warily, afraid the skeleton might snap all of a sudden, but the skeleton leader merely stepped backwards and straightforwardly stated, "It's not every day we see someone of different species that we can talk with, it's interesting. We did not rush to fight because we are angry, because we are bored."
The leader had a really straight-to-the-point tone in his voice and that really gave off a strong feeling that tells someone that it has the power to lead an army—An army of skeletons that is.
"Do I assume you will not kill me, eat me or harm me in any way right?" Seunghyuk continued to ask further for his own confirmation in Ancient Byeodae, and the Leader Skeleton merely nodded again and got every single skeleton to approach Seunghyuk.
"Wait. Actually can I ask for a favour?" Seunghyuk asked the skeletons and the leader skeleton nodded its head slowly, while listening carefully to what he had to say, "So, we humans are conquerors who came here to get our hands on the treasure hidden here. However, I can't get it too easily, can I have your help to stop other people from getting the treasure? Or should I say artefact?"
"I understand what treasure is...and yes, we will always protect this Obelisk to the end. You shall be exception and you can get treasure as you speak our native tongue," The skeleton leader gave its permission clearly, though omitting grammar articles, but Seunghyuk was happy he could get the Obelisk's treasure without using too much violence.
Seunghyuk heard a commotion, the wall of the Obelisk broke open and Kim Seongwon came in with his company. They seemed to have broken the wall down as they could not solve the Mayan Numerals, but that took them some time and effort, now that they've arrived, and they've seen Seunghyuk with the skeletons, they've started running maniacally towards him.
"Okay, the skeletons can't really die anyways, they will be reborn from their own bones, so, let's not worry about their safety..." Seunghyuk said to himself while he dashed like a horse on steroids, constantly looking back to check on Kim Seongwon, "I think as of now, I only have to worry about myself."
Seunghyuk continued dashing down the long path in the Obelisk like his life counted on it, and Kim Seongwon chased him from behind like a mad bull that has seen red.