Chereads / A skeleton's journey / Chapter 4 - Grinding

Chapter 4 - Grinding

After accquiring my new gearsi set out to the next floor which seems to be an abandoned castle. While fighting more slimes to gather more {slime essence} i figure out that i can also [observe] enemies.

Slime

Level:1

Hp:5

Atk:1

Description:a common monster that spawns in caves, forest and dungeons

Looking back at it i still feel shame for nearly dying by one when i first met it. Other than that i also encounter new enemies along the way such as:

Ghoul

Level:5

Hp:50

Atk:7

Description:common undead that spawns in dungeons, graveyards, tombs, or crypts. The undead can spawn naturally by concentration of dark energy or it can be a converted body of an adventurer that is effected by dark energy.

Skeleton

Level:7

Hp:45

Atk:13

Description:a common undead that is although less sturdier than ghouls, they certainly hit harder than ghouls and always spawn with weapons of their own. Skeletons spawn in dungeons, tombs, crypts and occssionally at graveyards.

Skeleton soldier

Level:15

Hp:100

Atk:20

Desrciption:uncommon type of skeletons that only spawn in crypts or dungeons to guard the owner of said places or treasures within them. Although armed with only basic weapons like normal skeleton, the skeleton soldiers have additional chainmail armor and knowledge of combat making them formiddable that they should only be confronted with at least 1 silver adventurer.

Skeleton knight

Level:25-30

Hp:500-650

Atk:70-90

Description:rare skeletons that are significantly stronger than skeleton soldiers. Unlike them, skeleton knights are armed with full plate armor, steel swords and shields along suprrior combat skills making them a menace that is best dealt with the help of gold adventurers. Skeleton knights because of their strenght are quite rare and only spawn within advanced dungeons and crypts.

Most of them didn't give me troubles as {blood reaver} can cut through ghouls and skeletons with ease. Skeleton soldiers did make it harder to kill them with their chainmail and they do have techniques in which i lack so they utterly beat me for the first few encounters. But after a lot of pain and experience, i figured out their pattern and it's a walk in the park from there. The skeleton knights scared the shit out of me when i see them but they immediately became a joke when i see their speed. They're complete garbage compared to Sangress, their endurance and strenght don't compensate for their crappy speed(at least in my standards) and i can constantly get behind them and do backstabs.

Overall i killed a total of 100 slimes, 73 ghouls, 56 skeleton, 42 skeleton soldiers and 4 skeleton knights. The dust i absorbed from them all enhance me to a point where i can jump 2 m up and 5 m across and give me the ability to punch skeleton soldiers to death(which i have been doing after i kill the knights because it's easier to kill them that way than use {blood reaver}) I also developed the ability to regenerate without the needing dust though it's slow, it's better than nothing. I also got items and apparently money too from some of the mobs.

{rotten flesh}

Rarity:common

Description:a piece of infected flesh dropped from ghouls. Though generally useless, with enough skill, one can turn rotten flesh into leather.

{bone powder}

Rarity:uncommon

Description:a rare drop from skeletons, a useful alchemy ingredient usually used for potions mainly ironskin potions.

Scrap metal

Rarity:common

Description:basic metal to make basic weapons, there's nothing more to it.

Shard of decay

Rarity:rare

Description:a rare bone shard dropped by powerful undeads, collect 10 of them to create an artifact, currently:1/10.

I have a sum of 16{slime essence}, 146 {rotten flesh}, 21 {bone powder}, 43 {scrap metal} and 1 {shard of decay} from a level 30 skeleton knight. My current balance is automatically exchange at the ratio of 100 copper coins= 1 silver and 100 silver=1 gold. So at the end of the grinding i have a sum of 55 copper 17 silver and 3 gold. (if 1 copper = 1 dollar then that was $31755) considering the medieval setting i may be as wealthy as a noble. On another hand, with a stroke of luck i was able to find the crafting area of the place that includes a library, a forge and an alchemy lab. I wonder if the prople here need an enchanting table for enchantments or do they just cast spells on their gears. In the library i found 3 skillbooks of [cooking] [smithing] and [brewing]. 2 of which were obvious why i choose but i also choose cooking because although i don't need to sleep or eat, i can still choose do it so i don't go mad from acting like a machine. I found out i still have my sense of taste the hard way wgen i fought a green slime with my visor up and i ended up hitting it so hard that it exploded and some of the slime got in my mouth... It tasted like weeks-old vomit that was cooked under the sun.

Next to the alchemy lab was a garden with mostly weed but i also discover some flowers that turned out to be herbs.

{Vitality poppy}

Rarity:uncommon

Description:a herb that is used in the making of a healing potion or can be combined with higher grades material for stronger restoration potions.

I braced myself for the pain when i use the skillbook but it wasn't severe like lasf time. Instead of feeling like getting my head bashed in with a hammer, i just felt like having minor migraines.

And so i got to work... I started by going to the forge and convert the {rotten flesh} into a total of 49 leather. I then smelt 13 pieces of {scrap metal} and use 13 pieces of leather to make basic {iron dagger) and another 26 pieces of leather to make a belt to hold those daggers so i can easily access them in combat. And next was alchemy, i gather some dusty old bottles and clean them in a pond in the garden before filling them up with water. Since the forge was already hot, i decided to grab some burning coal to start a fire for boiling. First i grinded the {vitality poppy} into paste which i then roll in slime essence like making dough. I kept rolling until the essence turned light pink and i decided to add some strawberries too for flavor and better coloring. Then i just dump the content in a cauldron letting it boil for roughly 20 minutes. I still have 11 {slime essence} leftover because i only had 5 {vitality poppy} to make potions.

{healing potion}

Rarity:uncommon

Description:the most basic potion out there and an adventurer's best friend. Iron copper silver and even some gold adventurers alike all use this to gain an edge in battle. Capable of healing minor wounds completely and slightly patch up major wounds.

But this is not the best thing i made. Thanks to my former chemistrt knowledge i had the ability to create something that is undoubtedly undiscovered in a medieval fantasy world... Gunpowder. You see on my joirney throughout this place i notice that some of the walls have collapsed revealing the rocky surface behind it. Said surface ith moss growing on it which isn't important as the other thing i found which is Potassium Nitrate, 1 of the ingridients for gunpowder. However, now that i have discovered the crafting area, i have also found the rts of the ingredients:charcoal from the forge and sulfur from thr lab. And then it was just doing some basic math for the correct ratio for potassium nitrate:charcoal:sulfur which is 74.8:13.3:11.9 and grind with a pestle while continuously adding small amount of water and voilà, you have gunpowder. I know magic is powerful and all but i can't use it, not yet at least so i need an alternative for range. I would've gone with a bow but it takes too much practice to get the accuracy right. So i went for a 14 inches flintlock pistol. If i were the old me, i wouldn't even dream of it because of how complicate to make the individual parts of the gun. But now that i have [blacksmith] my crafting is greatly superior and i just need to picture the part then make it. It took me 20 pieces of {scrap metal} to make the pistol and i spent the last 16 pieces making 8 bullets in total. Additionally i also have to use the rest of my {leather} 6 for the pistol holster abd 4 for the gunpowder pouch.

Current inventory:

1 Flintlock pistol

13 iron daggers

Blood reaver

Helm of clairvoyance

Old knight captain's armor

11 slime essence

16 bone powder

1 shard of decay

Leather accessories(belt, pouch, holster)

5 healing potions

55 copper 17 silver 3 gold