Releasing a sigh, Archie was a bit annoyed, to be honest, he had just made two new pieces of armor and it was already being treated like tofu. Albeit it was due to its non-existent mana resistance, but how was he to know that he was going to be fighting undead skeletons that were armed with magic guns?

  Finding metals with inherent magical and physical resistance would be on his priority list. At least until he figures out the runes to provide magical resistance at the very least. Which he supposed wouldn’t be long considering once he learned how the mana pistols worked, he could try to reverse engineer it.

  He had noticed that the rifles gave off a similar feeling that his runic scriber gave when it was being filled up with mana, just with a hint more undeath.

  Could he have taken apart his runic scriber and possibly found the answer he was looking for? Possibly. But the thought of dismantling his runic scriber to understand how it worked had never crossed his mind.

  He didn’t want to risk ruining his only means of etching runes by accidentally damaging the ones inscribed on the scriber—especially the holding runes that kept the liquid mana contained. Who knew what would happen if liquid mana spilled everywhere?

  Probably nothing in all honesty now that he thought about it. Whenever he failed to etch a rune, it just evaporated. But maybe something else would happen if he filled it with nature-attuned mana or some other mana type. Nevertheless, he had to collect his loot now.

  Archie placed the human Bonekiin’s core into his spatial storage and Identified its cutlass. Reading its description, it revealed that it was another Cutlass of Undeath. Tossing it into his spatial storage, Archie grabbed the core from the dwarf Bonekiin and gave a quick Identify to its pistol and bottle. Both revealing to be a Mana-Pistol of Undeath and a bottle of gin, which were quickly sent into his spatial storage.

  Making his way towards the elf Bonekiins, Archie tossed the non-crushed core into his spatial storage and Identified the mana Long-Gun-looking weapons the elven Bonekiins fired at him.

  Mana-Long Gun of Undeath (Common):

  A Long Gun made by an unknown E-Grade gunsmith. It can release a piercing manabolt from its chamber once charged with enough mana. Due to its design, the Mana-Long Gun is used to fire at those at a further distance compared to its pistol counterpart. This Long Gun has been saturated in the aura of an undead after many years of use thus attuning any manabolt fired from its chamber to be attuned to Undeath. Effects: Soul-bound, Piercing & Necrosis Infliction. Status: Moderately used. Requirements: Lv 75 +, Undeath Affinity & Humanoid Race.

  Archie stored both Mana-Long Guns into his spatial storage. Thinking back on the fight he realized that he had never deactivated his Vital Sight

  Now that he knew this dungeon would be filled with undead, he deactivated Vital Sight

  *[Bonekiin Elf Lv 78] has been slain – XP has been given. 936 Tutorial Points given**[Bonekiin Elf Lv 77] has been slain – XP has been given. 924 Tutorial Points given**[Bonekiin Dwarf Lv 76] has been slain – XP has been given. 912 Tutorial Points given**[Bonekiin Human Lv 79] has been slain – XP has been given. 948 Tutorial Points given*

  After taking a glance at his notifications he made his way towards the captain’s cabin. After all his goal was to kill Captain Dreadbone, not venture down and kill everything in the dungeon. And as a gamer, was it not his rightful duty to find shortcuts?

  Archie looked at the rotten cedar door that led into the large captain’s cabin with curiosity. In its center was an indent the size of his fist but in the shape of an inverted gem, a possible gem socket of sorts. Curious to see if it was blocked by some sort of rune script, Archie activated Gaze of the ForgefatherGaze of the Forgefather

  Pushing or pulling the door’s handle did nothing, the door seemingly refused to budge open. With a sigh Archie knew what he had to do. , Archie thought while turning around and looking around the main deck.

  Archie started to climb the main mast, intent on reaching the crow’s nest overlooking the ship. Something that he’d noticed was that the ship had no sails, which was odd; Archie questioned looking around the ship.

  Pulling himself up into the crow’s nest, Archie gave a quick glance around and found nothing other than a couple of golden doubloons and some mushrooms growing on the side of the nest. “I hate scavenger quests,” Archie complained as he slid down the main mast and softly landed on the main deck, not wanting a repeat of almost falling down into the floor below.

  Looking up at the place where the sails should have been, a thought came to mind,

  This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

  Looking around the main deck he found a cargo hatch leading to the lower floors. Archie slowly moved it aside, trying not to alert anyone below of his presence. Peering into the lower deck below, Archie saw many torn sheets hanging from above, most probably used as hammocks before they were torn. Various mushrooms and mold grew across the floor, eating into the rotten wood.

  From what he could see there were at least thirty Bonekiins and with a quick Identify he confirmed their numbers. Fifteen human, eight dwarf, and seven elf Bonekiins, with a new undead race that he hadn’t seen before were Identified as Wights; there were three of them.

  They were skeletal in frame, however most of their bones were obscured by rotting patches of flesh. Tumor-looking bumps decorated bits of its body and oozed out pus with every step they took. Thin strips of hair were scarcely attached to their scalps, while their bodies were covered in tattered robes. Their fingers were the most eye-catching feature about them, other than their tumors that constantly writhed and oozed. They looked twice as long compared to his own with not a single patch of flesh around them and had jet-black hues of malicious feeling mana around them.

  , Archie thought while furrowing his brows at the sight of them. He most definitely did not want to be hit by whatever they could throw at him. Especially with the amount of disgust he felt while staring at the potent dark mana they produced, instinctually filling him with disgust.

  It was commonly known to a living being that anything that was related to undeath was a big bad. This was due to the inherent nature of vital and undeath energy being polar opposites of one another, making it impossible to coexist with one another.

  The average level of the human, dwarf, and elf Bonekiins were 81, 80, and 82 respectively. While the Wights were around level 84.

  He would need to blitz in and kill the Wights before anything, they were too much of a danger to leave for last. While he would love to throw in some types of holy or firebombs into the ship, he unfortunately had none. But he did have an idea that he wished to try out.

  Archie previously gained the primary attributes of those he successfully bonded with; the Magma Hound’s strength, agility, and warmth and the Sigilgyph Gorilla’s strength, and endurance alongside its sigil. So, who’s to say he wouldn’t get some form of fire-related ability when bonding with the Lava Wraith?

  Archie quickly scaled the main mast and hopped into the crow’s nest, not wanting to be caught by any undead that climbed up the wooden ladder under the grate that led to the main deck while he was incapacitated.

  Archie sat in the crow’s nest, pulled out a Lava Wraith Elementalcore, and activated Spirit Bond

  Once the darkness receded, Archie found himself staring at the vast lava river and massive volcano once more. Archie waited for the Lava Wraith’s core to emerge from the river and hover above it.

  Once it did, Archie activated Thornscourge Expansion Taunt

  But unlike his previous attempts, nothing happened; he was still in the same place.

  He knew inserting his mana into the core would just override the effects of the core, thus making it a no-go. Archie’s eyes flickered towards the tendrils of magma slowly inching towards him, they always tracked the core no matter where he went. So obviously there is a connection between them and what else could it be besides mana? Spirits are manipulated by mana; his last Spirit BondSpirit Link

  Getting an idea, Archie coated his right hand in non-attuned mana and held the core with his left hand. Making his right hand flat, Archie focused on visualizing the mana around his right hand to be dense and sharp, like a knife.

  It was difficult to do at first, it was nothing like picking something up and moving it around, he needed to make his mana sharp, sharp enough to tear through something. His first few attempts were sloppy, uneven distribution, and soft. But Archie remained resolute, he had all the time in the world to figure this out, not even letting the unfair tracking of the magma tendrils disparage him from his practice.

  Focusing on his mana, Archie let out a breath, clearing his mind and overlapping his hand with that of a blade. He felt the mana build up around his hand and condensed it, wanting it to be durable enough to not shatter at the slightest touch. He also wanted the sides to be sharp, enough to easily cut through iron.

  Opening his eyes he found a light blue translucent blade enveloping his right hand. Archie poked it with his left index finger, and it felt as solid as a knife, he even tried to cut himself but quickly found out that his mana could not harm him.

  So, with the only option left, Archie stared at the moving tendrils of lava and swiped his mana-knife hand atop the core. He felt some resistance come from the blade as it swiped some sort of connection the core had with its tendrils.

  Smiling, Archie quickly cut all around the core, making the tendrils of lava fall to the ground lifelessly and everything around him going dark once more.

  Opening his eyes, Archie found himself back in the crow’s nest. The first thing he felt upon awakening was an intense, searing heat. If bonding with the Magma Hound cores rated a six on a scale of one to ten on the heat scaling, this new sensation was easily an eleven.

  Looking down at his body, he saw tufts of fire escape from his armor and flow across his limbs. His hands that held the now glowing Lava Wraith Elemental core, were now completely encased in fire. Archie felt his throat start to tinge as though he was having an allergic reaction to something, something he hadn’t felt in a long time.

  He instinctively knew why, while he was able to bond with essentially anything with a core and fulfilled the medium requirements, he was still human. There were limits on what his body could take, embracing the body of an elemental. While he hadn’t encountered any beastcore that could inflict a similar feeling as what he was feeling now, Archie was sure that some would after all in a world where an iguana killed two jaguars, who's to say?

  This Spirit Bond

  Not wanting to waste any more time, Archie activated Thornscourge Expansion

  Pushing aside the cargo hatch and taking a quick glance to see where the Wights were located before he was going to start his blitz attack.

  Once confirming their locations, Archie activated Adrenaline Rush

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