Bittu's body was now different from all the others in this world. He had a unique existence and similarly had a unique constitution at this moment.
His body was that of a human, and acting as a parasite was the corruption that was present on the left part of his chest and upper half of his left forelimb.
This was because of his skill; Sufferance Synergy. It was such a unique and mysterious skill that it could stop the corruption from spreading to all corners of his body and instead use it to fuel him with a power that he had yet to discover.
The corruption is boundless. It won't stop until it turns Bittu into what it wants; a zombie. Using these characteristics of the corruption, the skill was powering up Bittu's power, but with this power came a serious problem; a weakness.
The area that was the borderline between his human self and zombie self, where the skill was working it was a sensitive area. He would experience boundless pain if that area stimulates and experience the amount of pain that is mind blowing. It's just insane and Bittu was currently experiencing just that.
"Ahhhhhhhhhhhhh"
He experienced the same pain near his gut and because of the sudden, intense pain, he was paralyzed.
Not caring about Bittu's condition, the skeleton, bone by bone, just like others, came out.
While the skeleton was trying to come out, Bittu was giving his all to keep himself awake and not give himself away from the pain.
'What happened?'
'Why did I feel that pain again?'
"Ahhhhh.... Argh..... Ahhhhh"
'Have I not recovered?'
'I don't think that bag of bones had the strength to make me feel that pain again.'
'Damn, I can't think of any reason for this pain.'
Bittu, with great difficulty, opened his eyes to look at the skeleton. The skeleton was still not out of the ground, only its upper body was out.
'What should I do? What should I do?'
'This skeleton looks different from the rest. It's slightly... grey.'
'And the strength it used earlier, I can assume that it has what it takes to kill me, unlike the previous one.'
'What should I do?', he thought with worry.
Because of his condition, the trait activated, making his mind calm while Bittu was also trying to make himself calm.
"Argh.... Huff.... "
He took a deep breath as he thought, ' I should look into the status to find a solution. At this critical moment, this is the only one I think could help me.'
'So this dungeon's name is Graveyard of the Ancients.', He thought in surprise.
'I also have a skill called Sufferance synergy.', Bittu was a bit startled by this skill.
'Amazing! What a skill.', his eyes widened in shock seeing what the skill could do.
'It's a superb skill but right now, it can't help me.', disappointment flashed in his eyes when he remembered his current situation.'
'What should I do?! ', worry, once again, consumed his mind seeing the hopeless situation he was in. If not being paralyzed after the punch because of unknown reasons, he could have put up a fight or else run if things took a turn for the worse. But right now, he couldn't think of anything which put him in a worse situation.
Unable to come up with a solution, Bittu could only use the skill that he didn't think was of any use.
Bittu raised his head to look at the now out, slightly grey skeleton with a white skeleton at its back coming towards him.
'Card manipulation, right?'
'Let's see what you can do.'
He thought as he planned to put up the last fight, at least according to him.
As the skeleton rushed to his place, he closed his eyes and called out loud.
"Card manipulation!"
Bittu didn't feel a change when he said that, so he opened his eyes to look. But, nothing that resembled cards appeared before him when he opened them.
"What?! Why? "
Slight panic took place in his heart when nothing happened when called the skills name.
"What... What happened?", unable to understand why the skill didn't activate. He tried other ways to call forth the cards.
"Card manipulator!"
"Come forth, Cards!"
Right when Bittu was about to say something else, the skeleton arrived before him. It ignored his cries and punched him in his stomach.
"Ca–Cough.... Cough–rds"
Bittu, from the force behind the punch, formed an arc with his body and then flew away. He slammed right into the wall that was behind him.
"Argh"
The skeleton, not giving him any opportunity, instantly arrived before him and aimed its punch right at Bittu's face. He was trying to kill Bittu with this shot.
Unfortunately,
The moment it arrived, Bittu's body, that was in a clumsy posture stuck to the wall, suddenly glowed. The glow was greenish black. It had this otherworldly feeling to it that gave Bittu goosebumps. It was a strange sensation.
The glow grew so much so that in a matter of seconds; it blinded Bittu himself.
Clank!
The next second, a sound of two metals collision entered Bittu's ears.
Clank! Clank! Clank!
Blinded, he couldn't see what was going on. All he could do was hear the sound amidst his pain. He couldn't even stand up properly to look at the scene because of his paralyzed body.
Only after a while did the glow subside. His vision restored, Bittu opened his eyes to see the grey skeleton punching him, only to be blocked by a dull card that arrived right before the punch, stopping it from striking him.
Clank! Clank!
The skeleton kept on striking him. It was attacking him near his weak spots, like his organs, neck, head, but the cards, as if acting as an unbreakable defence, didn't let a single attack land on him.
Clank! Clank! Clank! Clank! Clank!
Bittu, unable to move because of his paralyzed body, could only watch himself, assaulted. Quite slow from the grey skeleton, the white skeleton finally approached Bittu. The moment it reached him, it raised its skeletal hand and punched Bittu in his face.
Bittu thought the cards will stop it but they didn't. They let it pass as if it didn't exist, focusing solely on the grey one. The punch landed on his face. Bittu was speechless.
'Even if it doesn't hurt, you should have stopped it, right?'
'Suppose this one was unlike the rest? What if it had poison? What if, because of some unknown circumstances, it gained power?'
"..."
He didn't get an answer since the cards had no way to reply to him and even if they did, they wouldn't have, because the questions he put forth were just too damn paranoid.
Clank! Clank! Clank! Clank! Clank!
As time passed by, Bittu felt worried that more skeleton will soon join in to kill him, but even after two minutes, nothing happened.
'I don't sense anyone in my perception.', Bittu thought seriously.
'Could it be that the skeletons come out in the group?'
'and others only come out once the previous ones are totally eliminated.'
'Now that I think, the first skeleton kept on torturing me for an unknown time and in that time no other joined it.'
'After that, it multiplied by two again and again until this point.'
'.... So, unless I kill these two, others won't be able to come out.', he made a guess, and he was getting increasingly sure of his guess.
'If that's the case, then it's some goo–.... Or rather amazing news.'
'I can take this time to recover and also learn about this new skill.', he thought in relief as he let go of his worries.
Clank! Clank!
He ignored the sounds, as he concentrated on the cards...at least he tried to. But, no matter how much he concentrated, he could only see that there were two cards before him. He could not find anything else about the cards.
Though this was enough to surprise him....in annoyance, that is.
'What the hell–Only two? What am I going to do if there are more enemies attacking me?'
Bittu was quite dissatisfied with only two cards. He thought that he had gotten a defensive skill which can help keep himself safe. But, now, how would that be possible with just two cards?
Suddenly, he had a thought, ' Is it because of this that the cards didn't block the white skeleton's attack since it was blocking the grey one?'
'This must be it! ', Buttu felt sure that he was correct about his guess.
Deeply thinking, Bittu failed to notice that his body has now loosened and was gradually recovering back to the normal state. It wasn't his injuries that were healing, but his paralyzed state, because the pain from his weakness was slowly settling down.
A couple of moments later, Bittu suddenly felt his headache, his body sluggish as well as tired. This pain baffled Bittu. He didn't understand why he was feeling sick suddenly.
Suddenly and instinctively, he stood up and jumped back from the skeleton almost immediately after the headache. Only after keeping his feet firmly on the ground, a little distance from the skeleton, did he know that he had jumped away from the skeleton.
'I...am fine... I am fine.'
'Ufff', he released a sigh of relief. He then raised his head to match the hollow eye of the grey skeleton, which was now filled with ferociousness.
With a serious gaze, he raised his hand to start the attack this time while simultaneously commanding the cards to appear before him but, as he took two steps he realised, the cards didn't appear before him. He looked around in all directions, but still the same.
Not sure why they didn't appear, he called it out once again," Ca.... Rrrrr.."
The skeleton wasn't a statue to let Bittu once again call out that annoying thing and dk nothing but stare at him. It immediately attacked when it saw Bittu distracted and with an opening.
Bittu could only react because of the sudden danger he felt from his skill. The danger sensation this time made his blood run cold. It felt more dangerous than the zombie dog on the bridge.
Bittu, not completing the word, focused on his safety. He dodged to his right and did a back flip to distance himself. The moment he did, he immediately called out to the cards but...