BXBX NOVEL Volume 1 9
Chapter 9: Skeleton Squad
About a week passed since I heard the story about the [Crimson Cavern] from Marcho.
During the past week, I have made a stock of weapons using [Creation]. All while focusing on leveling up.
And so, even at this moment, Tenko was engaging in battle.
Free of any danger, Tenko dodged an attack from the C rank monster Orthros and proceeded to close in on it. She defeated it in a blow using her shotgun, the Remilton M870P.
The Orthros turned into blue particles and vanished. At the same time, Tenko’s body shined palely.
“Oto-san, I’ve become level 10!”
“Great job.”
“With this, we can now go to the [Crimson Cavern]!”
At last, Tenko reached level 10. I guess it’s because of her great delight but her eyes were sparkling while her fluffy fox tail was swinging.
I had already reached level 10 ahead of her so that meant Tenko and I had then cleared the requirement given to us by Marcho in order for us to be taken to the [Crimson Cavern].
“Oto-san, let’s go right away. Hurry, let’s go to where Marchosias-sama is!”
Tenko lead me by the hand as if to say she couldn’t wait anymore.
We were only able to fight three times a day so we had begun to accumulate a fair amount of stress.
“No, not today. Let’s go tomorrow.”
“Muuuu. Why?”
“I want to give the Skeletons one last tuning.”
Each passing day, I diligently made M&K MK 416 assault rifles. In the same span of that time, I had also purchased nine skeletons.
I was able to afford the Skeletons due to the 660 DP I earned by doing the daily monster hunt.
The storing away of monsters, which was a Demon Lord skill, allowed one to bring up to 10 of their monsters. If that was the case, I thought it would be a waste for the number of my monsters to be far below the limit. And so, I bought the Skeletons.
Each one was a cheap monster that costed only 20 DP. When created to be at a fixed level, they would randomly be at level 1 to 10. Because of that, it didn’t really matter if they were created to be at a fixed level or not and if so, somehow the better option was to let them be able to grow because, in their case, they were able to level up up to level 20.
By the way, in the case of a Celestial Fox, they would randomly be born at around level 70 to 80. If they could level up, they could go as high as level 90.
“Skeletons are, like, weak monsters, aren’t they?”
Tenko had a dislike towards Skeletons. Well, she is a girl so it’s understandable.
“Well, yeah, they sure are weak. I won’t deny that.”
The Skeleton’s status was terrible.
Race: Skeleton G rank
Name: Unnamed
Level: 1
Physical Strength: E+
Endurance: E
Agility: F
Magic Power: F
Luck: G
Special: G
Skill: The Deceased
The act itself of comparing it with Tenko was presumptuous. From the start, the Skeleton had nothing of note except for its cost to performance efficiency.
“I can fight all by myself.”
“Maybe but even if they were to only guard our backs, I’ll appreciate it. They’ll also provide us additional firepower which we need. So, they’ll be fighting alongside us. Let me show you that they aren’t just things to cast aside.”
Total attack power in this world was calculated by means of an addition. Even if the attacker’s own offensive ability was low, the gun’s firepower would compensate for it. The attack power of Skeletons equipped with M&K MK416 assault rifles could be compared to B rank monsters.
Tenko had a dislike towards the Skeletons so she wasn’t there to witness their training but this looked the right opportunity to show her their abilities.
“[Release] Skeletons”
I summoned the nine Skeletons I stored away in a different dimension.
Each of them carried an assault rifle in their hands.
“Skeletons, you are now able to put up quite a fight due to my training. Today will be your last day of training.”
“...”
The Skeletons looked at me with eye sockets that didn’t have any light.
They were but just bones so they didn’t understand things like emotions. For the time being, they held only enough intelligence to hear my orders. Issuing a response was something they were not capable of.
Teaching monsters with low intelligence was a difficult task; I almost gave up half-way through.
Nonetheless, after all my hardship, I was able to teach them three commands.
“All members, ready!”
The Skeletons readied their guns to the target I pointed at.
Before they shoot, they must first aim at the target. For this instance, the target was a wooden pole dressed in armor.
“All members, fire!”
As I uttered those words, the Skeletons started firing.
The tatatatata sounds were like music to my ears.
The MK416 the Skeletons were holding were not on full-auto mode but was instead set to semi-automatic mode.
The full auto mode was a system wherein there was an automatic operation between the reloading and firing of the bullets. In other words, as long as the trigger was pulled, the gun would continue to fire in quick succession.
In contrast, the semi-automatic mode was a system wherein only the reloading of the bullets was done automatically. The amount of bullets fired would be the same as the amount of times the trigger was pulled.
If the full auto mode was selected, the Skeletons would just exhaust through their ammunition without even giving a thought.
Ideally speaking, I wanted it to be set on full auto mode and just make them do burst fires by lifting their finger from the trigger. However, I was not able to make them remember such a complicated action and so I instead just gave up on it.
“All member, stop.”
The Skeletons released the trigger and stopped firing.
The commands I was able to make them remember was these three: ready, fire, and shoot.
I guess they’d be able to fight somehow.
It took a while for them to reach this point. In the beginning, they not only regarded the gun as a blunt weapon but they also had trouble pulling the trigger.
It took four days but they had finally learned it. Well, even to this point, they were still unable to change magazines so I have to be mindful of it in each battle.
But it was worth it. The sight of the nine Skeletons firing all at once was a magnificent. When I have my own Dungeon in the future, I will increase their number and also build an even more vicious unit.
“How is it? It’s amazing, isn’t it?”
“But Oto-san, if you’re going to have trouble teaching them such things, wouldn’t it be much better to just make a smarter monster? The Mythological Fox, a monster in the same lineage as Tenko, is smart and strong, you know? ”
“I know but they’re expensive.”
The Mythological Fox was a B rank monster. Their basic abilities were high as well as their intelligence. Learning how to use a gun was probably an easy thing to do for them.
However, each one would cost 1200 pts. I would be able to buy 60 Skeletons with that amount.
“I know... But the Skeletons seem quite inefficient to me. When they die, which they do in an instant, all the time it took to train them would then become a waste. In that case, right from the start, strong and hard-to-kill monsters should be bought, right?”
I had thought about that.
The Skeletons were cheap and I would still have the weapons anyway. Unfortunately however, the time it took to train them could never be gotten back.
No, wait.
“Wait. What if I made a monster that will train the Skeletons and then afterwards let that guy take care of the Skeletons?”
It’s simple if you think about it.
There were a lot of monsters like the Lich that made use of the undead. Those kind monsters were extremely intelligent as well as being capable of understanding speech. They might even be able to do a much better job than I did at training the Skeletons.
I’ll think about making an undead the next time I obtained an original medal.
“Thanks, Tenko. I’ve decided. I’ll think about making a ruler of the undead as soon as I obtain a medal related to the undead.”
Moreover, if I’m not mistaken, there should be a fellow among the undead that does something like using corpses and making further undead. If it used the corpses of powerful humans and monsters, then it was able to create powerful monsters at no cost.
My dream just kept on getting bigger.
“Uggggghhh. Tenko doesn’t like the undead but for Oto-san, Tenko will endure!”
“You’re admirable, Tenko.”
“Yay! ♪”
And so, the training of the Skeletons ended.
Afterwards, we reported to Marcho that we have already reached level 10. It was decided that tomorrow, Tenko and the undead equipped with the guns will towards the [Crimson Cavern].