Whew. This fucking floor took me almost two weeks to clear. And I'm getting tired of killing ghouls. And this ladder's starting to look really good to me.

Let's just ascend it already. Just like before I get teleported to another floor. This one is same too. Pitch dark without any light. Caverns with ceiling I can't see.

Let's just hope that I won't see any more ghouls here. I walk heading north again. After a few minutes I get a life signal. But I can't see them from this far. So, I decide to use my echolocation. I let out a mana wave with an instruction to come back with information.

And as soon as I sent out my mana wave, rock next to me starts glowing with a blue light. That startled me. Did not expect that. After few seconds it stops glowing. This is interesting.

I put my hand on it and infuse some mana into it and it immediately starts glowing. This time it glows for a little longer. While I was playing with this rock my mana wave comes back. And I see what those life signals are.

Skeleton warriors and mages. Skeletons in a full body armor and skeletons in robe, holding a staff. It seems they work in a party. There are two warriors and three mages in each party.

Anyway, they can wait. What is attracting me right now is this rock. And more I observe it, more I think this might be mana crystal back in cave underground. But I think since they don't have any mana source, they stopped glowing like those mana crystals.

I guess those mana crystals don't grow only in The Forest. Well, now that I solved this mystery, let's concentrate on the problem at hand. I head to where the skeleton party are and observe them from where I can see them.

Warriors in full body armor, medium wooden shield and helmet, holding a sword, which I think is gladius. Mages in dark robe and for some reason there are black crowns on their skulls, holding red wooden staff.

I'm sure as soon as I attack them, warriors will intercept me, and the mages will bombard me with spells from behind.

So, I need a proper strategy to get rid of them. But my biggest concern is whether if they will call for others when I attack them like monsters before. Ghouls and skeletons all called for other as soon as they saw me.

And I will be in a humongous trouble if they call for others during our fight. So, I guess I need to check out if they will call for others during a fight.

First, I summon my wolf and approach them. While approaching them, I call out to Fenrir and make him circle around them and tell him to attack the mages as soon as we start fighting the warriors. He nods at me and melds into darkness.

After doing that, I increase my pace and approach the skeleton warriors. As soon as I got in thirty meters range, they notice me and walk toward me with the mage following them behind. It seems they don't call for others during a fight. Lucky.

But now another question is whether I need to use mace to kill them. Let's just test it. Warriors charge at me and the mages start to chant their spells. I get into stance and wait for the warriors to get into my range with my mace.

Mages finish chanting their spells before the warriors reached me. One throws a fireball as big as a human head at me. Another hurls an ice spear at me and the last one does something to the warriors' swords.

Their gladii suddenly start glowing with dark energy. I throw my fireball at the fireball. And simply dodge the ice spear. And just as I dodge the ice spear, warriors reach me. As soon as they got into range, they suddenly charges at me rapidly and hit me with their shields.

For some reason I get dizzy after getting bashed by their shield. Just as the warriors were about to cut me with their swords, my wolf crashes into them from their right side. Whew, that was close.

While my wolf distracts the warriors, I look to where the mages are and see Fenrir hitting one of them and biting another head. But for some reason they are fine after getting hit. They just get up and continue to chant their spells.

I guess they need to be bashed by a mace like the skeletons. I give my wolf command to stall the warriors and run to where the mages are and hit the closest mage with my mace.

As I expect its head to fly away, I get rejected as its head stays exactly where it was. Shit. It wasn't a mace?

Then something else. Morning-star. I will my mace to change. Its head falls off and gets attached to the handle with a mana chain. As soon as I finish making my morning-star, I hit the mage in its temple.

Still nothing. It simply looks to me and continues to chant its spell.

"Shit, how am I supposed to kill you?"

Well, suppose you won't tell me that. While pondering that I notice something else. I see a flickering pale blue flame where its heart is supposed to be, beneath its robe.

As soon as I notice that, I hit its chest and pierces through its chest and grabs that flame. It's not hot but freezing to the touch. I cast a fireball after noticing that. And it's pale blue flame gets extinguished by my fireball. And mage crumbles to dust as soon as it loses its flame.

"So, this is how you kill them, huh."

Just as I was thinking that, I feel something on my right side and gets knocked away by something. Just like before I get dizzy and have trouble focusing. As I look back, I see one of the warriors walking toward me with its gladius overhead. I try my best to raise my gauntlet to block its sword.

Clang.

And manage to block it with immense difficulty. And that hit helps me to clear my head. Dodge its next swing and spin to get behind it. As soon as I get behind it, I hit it on its back, but it manages to block my punch with its shield without even turning back.

Crap, that was good. It swings its gladius as soon as it blocks my punch. I squat to dodge its swing and manage to uppercut it on its jaw.

It flies up and falls on the ground and gets up like nothing happened. While concentrating on the warrior, I feel burning feeling on my back and swing my arm behind and hit a fireball flying my way.

Shit, that was close. As I look to where the fireball came, I see one of the mages looking to me, chanting another spell. I guess each mage got single spell they can cast. And just as it was about to throw another fireball at me, I see Fenrir standing over it in his avatar and breathe fire on it, thus extinguishing it pale blue flame.

"Take care of the other warrior."

I say this while turning around to face the warrior. Just as I turn around, I see it charging rapidly at me again. This time it won't work, dude. I put my left arm in front and receive its charge with it. And as soon as it hits my left arm, it stops.

I start pumping vitality into my arm to entangle the warrior. As my arm entangle the warrior, my branches start to enter into his armor through its armor gaps. After few seconds my branches snuff the warrior's pale flame out. Thus, the warrior crumbles into dust.

I look to where Fenrir is after getting rid of the warrior. He is having a bit of a trouble with the warrior. His flame is failing to enter his ribcage to extinguish the warrior's flame. After trying that few times he gets tired of that and simply swallows the warrior. After few seconds, his avatar dissipates, and I see white dust floating around. I suppose that did the job.

Hehe. Now that I managed to find out how to kill those skeletons, this floor becomes much easier.