'A dark hole under the ground, huh? Looks like Necromancy.'
That was the first thought on Rey's mind as he saw the bright purple light shine bright and felt an emergence from underneath the floor's surface.
He had seen Ater use the Skill before, so he understood how it worked.
"BRACE YOURSELVES, EVERYONE!" Richard's voice reverberated amongst his fellows, and the many that stood behind him.
"FIRST WAVE INCOMING!"
The Adventurers, at least the sensible ones, tightly clutched their weapons and spread themselves out. They took battle stances and readied themselves for the incoming horde.
Those who could used Buff Skills began to activate them, and the Magic Users swiftly chanted out their Spells.
The air of tension did not vanish, and with loud noise radiating all over, many did not hear the pulsating sounds emanating from the ground.
They felt like chattering—lots of chattering.
The disgusting sound of bone grating upon bone, almost as unpleasant as metal scraping metal.
Those at the forefront heard the sounds clearly, though, and they prepared themselves for the challenge.
Then—
~SHWUUUUUUUU~
—The creatures from beneath began manifesting.
They had darkened white bodies, their forms a grotesque and twisted representation of false life.
Skeletons, animated ones, faced the Adventurers, all of them having some kind of purple glow within their empty sockets.
"T-that is…!"
"No way!"
"Incredible!"
Miasma was associated with Necromancy, so this sight did not surprise anyone.
It was the sheer number that made their eyes widen.
The Skeletons were at least thrice—no, perhaps four times—as many as the Adventurers that stood opposite them.
Some looked like ordinary bony Undead, but others were different.
About one-tenth had normal armor, obsidian black in color. They also had swords or spears in their hands, making them standard soldiers.
Another one-tenth had robes on, and while they had no weapons equipped, it was clear that they had no use for one. Their clattering teeth made it clear who they were and what they were doing.
These were Caster Skeletons.
Yet another one-tenth was dressed with light armor, having arrows in the quiver behind them, as well bows in their dominant bony hands.
These were Archer Skeletons.
Then, there was the last variant—smaller in number than the rest—yet having a much more dangerous vibe as mere individuals.
They had incredibly bulky armor, and their weapons were a lot bigger than the rest.
You could only count about ten of them, and each had distinct weapons that they wielded.
One had a halberd, while another had a long sword. The one beside it had a bastard sword, while the next one had a spear.
It went on like that.
These were clearly Skeleton Knights, at least B-Tier Monsters.
"To think we'd encounter B-Tier Monsters on just the ground floor…" Someone whispered, though no one knew who it was.
In essence, the entire army of Skeletons was about 36,000 in number.
3,600 of them were Soldiers.
3,600 of them were Casters.
3,600 of them were Archers.
All of these were C-Tier Monsters, just for clarity sake.
10 of them were Skeleton Knights—B-Tier Monsters—and the rest were mere Skeletons, which fell in the D-Tier Category.
Some thought they belonged in a lesser rank, due to their low offensive abilities.
However, since Undead were rare to come across, and they didn't feel pain, exhaustion, and couldn't really die unless you performed specific actions—in the case of Skeletons, crushing their head—they were ranked higher.
On the side of the Adventurers, there was no real count done to determine their Ranks, but there were only about a hundred Master Rank (5 Star) Adventurers in the City, and about a thousand Expert Ranks (4 Star).
Veteran Ranks (3 Star) were a few thousand, but the majority of Adventurers belonged to the Common and Novice Ranks (2 Star and 1 Star respectively).
In essence, when looking at the total number of Adventurers in the City, and the ones that made it to the Conquest, it was easy to see how clearly outnumbered they were.
'Based on what I can sense, only about three thousand of us are going to be of much use in this fight…' Rey sighed to himself.
The rest were fodder, but that didn't surprise him.
'Older and more experienced Adventurers tend to me more cautious, and they wouldn't throw their lives away on a mission that they aren't guaranteed to win.'
The people that would readily sign up for this sort of thing were ignorant Adventurers or those who were desperate to make a name or fortune for themselves.
Well, arrogant bastards existed too…
'In any case, the stage has been set.' Rey smiled, dropping his briefcase to the ground.
'I could easily kill all of them on my own, but… I guess we have to stick to the plan.'
The briefcase opened on its own, and just by stretching his hand downward, the blade within flew to his grasp.
After that, the briefcase disappeared.
"Cool sword." Noah's voice echoed from beside him.
Rey glanced to his side and saw that Noah had already taken the miniature blade off his neck. It now floated above his hand, brimming with so much energy it felt like the thing would explode.
"I could say the same about yours." Rey added as he witnessed the floating blade manifest even more power.
"Yeah." Noah smirked, ignoring the commotion in front of them both. "A friend gifted it to me."
For a moment, there was silence.
Then—
"Watch this…"
In a single second, the blade grew in size, becoming a katana that he swiftly wielded in no time.
"Cool." Rey smiled at him.
"Cool."
Noah's blade had three effects, and Rey still remembered them till date.
One was to grow and shrink in size in a mere second.
There were two other abilities it possessed.
~FSHUUU…~
The blade turned invisible, even the energy escaping from the senses.
'The second function…'
As soon as he did this, though, the Skeletons started moving, so all attention had to go to them.
'Here they come!'