I walked towards the closest of the 6 doors on the sides and prepared to open it. The door looked like it was made of metal, although it is now heavily rusted.
There was something like a knob in place, but that thing was way too old to be functional.
I ran up to the door and hit it with my shoulder to try and break it open. To my surprise, it worked after 3 tries, but as soon as I opened it, I realized my mistake.
The room had a skeleton in it! It had some kind of bat-like blunt object in its hand which was wearing some gloves.
As soon as it became aware of my presence, it lunged at me almost instantaneously.
'WHOA!', I immediately took up my shield to where the skeleton with the bat would hit me, and blocked the hit, although the shock of the attack still managed to reach me and staggered me a bit.
The attacking skeleton also got staggered by getting its heavy attack suddenly blocked.
I didn't miss this opportunity and dashed towards the skeleton with my shield in front of me. I hit the skeleton and didn't stop until I hit a wall. The skeleton was struggling to break free from between the wall and my shield.
I kept pushing into the skeleton and I could hear some cracking noises coming from the skeleton, and after struggling for a minute or two, The skeleton finally stopped moving and all of its bones fell to the ground lifelessly.
I fell to the ground too, out of mental exhaustion. Although I was calm, thanks to my immunity to mental instability, I was scared out of my mind. I could feel the skeleton's killing intent. I would have died there, if I was unlucky.
['Are you okay?']
'Do I look like I'm okay?!'
'You're a Helper, shouldn't you warn me about these kinds of things?!', I yelled inside my mind.
['I'm Sorry! I'm so sorry! I don't have that kind of information with me, so I didn't tell you anything...']
Shit... I could feel that she was becoming sadder and sadder.
'Umm... *sigh... its fine... what's happened, happened. Just do better from next time, okay?'
['Yes!']
'Damnit, I feel bad now... I shouldn't have lashed out at her like that...', I thought to myself.
['Umm... You gained some exp and leveled up after killing that skeleton...']
'Really?! Lets go!', 'Console!'
[Status Screen]
[Name: ???]
[Level: 2]
[Race: Skeleton Wight]
[HP: 100/100]
[MP: 100/100]
[STR: 12
STM: Infinite
VIT: 13
INT: 14]
[Immunities: Fatigue, sleep, poison, Instant death magic, miasma, mental instability, pain]
[Weaknesses: Fire (IV), Divinity (VI); Blunt Damage (V)]
[Skills: Dark Vision (Lvl. Max)]
'One level, huh...'
I clearly remembered that I had lost some HP during the fight too, I heard some of my bones crack slightly, and having an unpleasant sensation across the cracks.
'Can I recover HP by leveling up?'
['Yes, you can.']
'Wait, but there's no system of attribute points... how am I supposed to get stronger?!'
['You can get stronger after you reach Level 10 and change your race.']
'Wait, what? change race?'
['Yes. You will know more once you reach Level 10.']
'Right... can't have shit in this world, can I?'
['I'll always be with you, so don't worry too much : ) ']
'right, thanks...'
Anyways, I learned something very important from that fight. I have to be extra, extra careful to not take any damage. I got away this time, cause I leveled up quickly and recovered my HP, but as my level gets higher, I won't be able to recover any damage I receive in between leveling, cause it will take much longer to level up...
'I need to find a way to recover HP quickly...', I thought to myself.
I got up from the ground and picked up the gloves and the bat the skeleton was using. With the gloves on, it became much easier to grip the bat.
I then looked at the room more closely. The room was rectangular in shape, and was massive. It was at least 150 meters in length and 20 meters wide.
The left and right sides of the room were all filled with prison cells. Each cell had some menacing-looking devices in them, and had lab equipment like test tubes and distillation sets, although most of them were broken and covered in dust.
'Was this some kind of experimentation lab? it loo-', before I could even finish that thought, I heard a loud metallic bang. I turned around instinctively and saw 2 skeletons behind a prison cell's bars. They were extending their bony arms through in between the bars, as if they were trying to reach me.
I could feel their killing intent too. I wasn't as perplexed as the previous time.
I went near them and swung my bat, smashing their bony hands in one swing. Even then, they didn't show a single sign of backing down.
I violently swung the bat through the gaps between the bars and finally shattered the skulls of the 2 skeletons.
'I didn't level up?'
['You need 2 more skeletons worth of exp to level up.']
'Okay, thanks.'
['No problem! : ) ']
'She's extremely sweet...', I thought to myself.
I went forward more and saw more and more skeletons inside the cells. I killed them all using the cheese strat, and I had leveled up a whole bunch.
[Status Screen]
[Name: ???]
[Level: 6]
[Race: Skeleton Wight]
[HP: 100/100]
[MP: 100/100]
[STR: 12
STM: Infinite
VIT: 13
INT: 14]
[Immunities: Fatigue, sleep, poison, Instant death magic, miasma, mental instability, pain]
[Weaknesses: Fire (IV), Divinity (VI); Blunt Damage (V)]
[Skills: Dark Vision (Lvl. Max)]
['Congratulations, user!']
'Thanks...', it feels weird to be congratulated. I've never been congratulated for anything my whole life...
Anyways, It was time to go into the final door inside the corridor inside the first door (I know that sounds weird, but it makes sense, right...?).
Before Entering the door this time, the helper spoke up.
['User, Be careful opening that door. I am sensing a higher concentration of mana inside that room...']
'You can sense that?'
['Yes, I can.'], for some reason, she sounded prideful.
'Well, good for you... thanks for the advice, Helper.'
['No problem! : ) ']
'Okay, are you just programmed to say 'No problem' whenever I thank you?'
['Huh? No, that's not it. I'm saying it on my own. The only thing That's programmed in me is a learning algorithm...']
'Wait, does that mean, you have a personality?'
['...It does...']
I was dumbfounded. This girl wasn't just an AI helper? She has a personality?! It made no sense!
'Oh, I'm so sorry! I thought you were just an AI program, designed by some guy!'
['Haha, Its understandable. I'm not upset, if that's what you are worried about.']
'*Sigh... okay... if you say so...'
I regained my focus and slowly opened the door.