"And that was how the two of you were able to grow?" Darius asked with a frown.
"Quite so. Instead of getting five bottom tier skeletons you could summon freely, you got two growth type skeletons that are tied to your existence. A tradeoff if you will." Joneson answered.
Darius nodded and then said, "So that barely answers my second question. What about my third?"
Joneson and Mikey shared an awkward glance. "Well, when we spawned, we were basically the same as any other undead, brainless and running on instinct. However, there was a strong call in our bodies to kill any living thing we could find to gain basic sapience before returning to you."
"As we are basically creations of your system, even our personalities and knowledge were supplied by it, we could tell who were your allies and your enemies, which was why we didn't lynch any of the humans in the homestead while you were gone," Mikey explained slowly.
"Not to mention that scary Shanks bloke. We are skeletons summoned by a basic spell, how could we tussle with a Journeyman?!" Joneson cut in with a voice of bereavement.
"Shut UP, Joneson. Sigh… alright, like I was saying, when we achieved basic sapience, we immediately could sense your location and rushed towards you. Unfortunately, we met monsters on our way who we had to fight."
"Then we noticed you were moving to the east at a fast pace, so we changed directions and followed along, but it was even worse. The number of monsters and humans we encountered on our way were almost endless! After killing most of them, we got to upgrade our equipment as you see, and our sentience grew to this point thanks to all the death energy we absorbed." Mikey finished and a light sigh of relief.
Darius and Gunner shared a look. "So basically, you grow stronger by absorbing death energy from recently slain foes?"
Joneson nodded. "Right-O, Daddy-O."
"And how do you know all you told me?" Darius asked with confusion.
"Well, that one's a mixture of your system providing us info on mechanics since we are technically a part of it. Not to mention that we have access to your Database, which is how we know who are your allies and enemies, as well as who is who and what is what." Mikey answered.
Darius nodded, finally understanding what kinds of existences these two bizarre skeletons were and how they knew so much. Their knowledge would certainly prove useful to his cause.
"Alright then, Joneson, Mikey, we are currently dungeon diving. Lead the way and co-ordinate with Gunner. I'll stick to fire magic since it has an obvious advantage here." Darius commanded.
"Yessir! Boss Gunner, show us the way!" Joneson cried out cheerily.
Gunner smiled with amusement and banged his chest, greenish energy rising around his body. Without further ado, he charged into the vegetation and began wrecking everything he could see.
Joneson and Mikey shared a look, before the duo simultaneously shrugged and rushed in as well, swords raised. Darius simply chuckled and followed them with a slow walk, casting Ember on any patch of vegetation he could see.
Unlike other adventurers or awakened who would have to be careful not to destroy their loot, Darius' pickups were handled by the system, so whatever he killed would give him what he needed.
Even if it didn't, he would still get something useful. This was why he invested in his Luck stat, which in his candid opinion, was the most important stat of his entire repertoire.
Whatever the case, he was not like other adventurers who were reliant on whatever they earned here to make a living. He could print money and if he found the list of drops that emerged from this dungeon, he could make them himself with pinnacle quality!
Soon, Darius heard Gunner and co fighting ahead. He entered a small clearing to see that there were a large group of vines attacking his branded Servant and undead fighters.
Darius Inspected the monsters to see their levels.
[Killer Vine - Level 2 Monster
HP: 13/15 MP: 1/1]
Darius immediately lost interest. Neither he nor Gunner could gain experience from such low-level monsters, so he directly cast Ember upon them and watched as they lit up in flames.
In truth, most of the cavern was on fire after Darius wickedly threw his flames about, and he was getting many kill notifications for 0 Exp, but many random drops related to the dungeon.
This seemed to be the starter zone then, where the novices would fight for their lives as monsters like these could be the end for them. Since Darius set everything on fire, he beckoned to Gunner and co to move on.
They passed through a large tunnel connecting the first cavern to another even bigger room, this one with trees and various glowing vegetation that looked amazing.
Darius even hesitated to throw out his evil fire to burn the place down due to the beauty. Still, he cast out the spells as much as he wanted, watching as this cavern too was slowly set alight.
This time though, the monsters here were not pushovers that would wait for Darius to roast them for free. Many monster plants rushed over from the patches of vegetation and attacked the group with hatred.
[Man-Eating Pepper - Level 5 Monster
HP: 42/42 MP: 3/3]
Darius and Gunner sighed internally as such foes would still give them 0 exp. The level calculation mechanic was only beneficial when enemies were higher level than Gunner but lower than Darius.
Of course, if the enemies were higher than them both, it was party time! However, such enemies were hard to meet, which was why the duo chose the dungeon dive and see if they could find something that fit the bill.
As for Joneson and Mikey, they were having a grand time! When Darius cleared this cavern and counted his loot, he asked them why they looked so much stronger so quickly.
Their answer left him absolutely stunned.
