“Hm, I wonder if Lamp gets a class from, well, literally being the lamp carrier...” he watched it for a moment as they walked to the back of the chamber.
“Red will level up soon too, but I haven’t really given it any special treatment. I’m guessing it will be a basic class since it’s just been using swords and hammers all this time.” he thought as they approached the back of the room.
Jay actually preferred this much more than to how it was with the mana conduit and humans; sometimes you would get a class which matched your experiences, other times it was completely random.
At least Jay could guide the skeletons, or even find ways to raise new classes. It would be better to hand-pick your own armies classes rauther than have it filled with all sorts of strengths and weaknesses arising from randomness. In the grand scale of war, it also allowed a tactician to shine.
At the back of the room there was a large stone table, about chest-height. Chips and dust of stone covered it, along with small scrapes and cuts all over the surface.
It seemed to function as part of the swordsmithing area which has its fair share of usage over the years.
Behind the table, a few broken weapons sat on weapon racks and a small passageway led further into the pyramid.
“Hm, probably the exit.” Jay guessed as he slowly walked around the table and all the other junk. Before departing, he had Sweeper and Red quickly search the area for any items but they came back empty handed.
Anya patiently followed him, while Sweeper covered the rear of the party, just in case.
There was always the chance that the walls could drop down and two of the dual-wielding statues would spring to ambush them after all.
The passageway was small compared to the rest of the pyramid, but large enough for a statue to walk through.
Two skeletons could walk side by side so they would be okay even if there was a statue present.
Jay assumed this passage was for maintenance as there were no decorations or even simple pillars - just some more pieces of broken sword or snapped spearhead occasionally on the path.
A light at the end of the passage appeared, and soon some distant steps could be heard.
Jay held his hand up, causing all of the party to stop as he listened.
“...Marching?” he whispered as he listened intently.
“Let’s get closer and see.” Anya whispered back as she gazed at the end of the tunnel.
Jay nodded, but decided to have Dark take the lead and walk further ahead of the party.
“If it’s going to become an assassin it would need to get better at sneaking, so it might as well start training now.” Jay thought.
“Hmm, come to think of it I haven’t seen many assassin classes….” he scratched his chin, “actually, I have seen none. I wonder if they’re forced into the military or something?”
“It might be a dishonourable thing to be an assassin, but it technically isn’t me carrying it out, so I don’t really care.”
“Besides, most people who bring up honour are like that Matheson brat. Just hypocrites using it to manipulate people.” he frowned slightly. He thought it was quite a sad thing, as the idea of honour would probably be a good thing if people used it correctly.
The sounds of marching became more apparent as they neared the exit; Jay’s guess was correct.
Crouched down just before the passageway ended was Dark.
Jay thought that Dark seemed happy that it made it to the end without being detected, though to Anya, it just looked like all the other undead skeletons.
The light greeted them once more as they found themselves in another courtyard.
Two walls on either side of them led to two pillars which acted as guard towers. There were statues patrolling on the walls while a line of spearmen statues stood between the pillars.
It was just like a mirror image of the entrance to the pyramid, except this time they would have to escape. The only difference was that there were no dihexapedes attacking or any of the magic-casting floating statues.
“Hmm…” Jay squinted, looking for any weakness or path of least resistance.
Suddenly, a statue on the wall turned and looked directly towards them.
Without saying anything it pointed its spear upwards and then slammed it into the ground.
*DOON!~*
A deep thud sounded in the whole courtyard, and all the statues suddenly turned to look at the undead and humans standing in the entrance.
For a moment it was silent. Both parties just watched each other, seeing what the other side would do, until finally the march began.
The statues were the first to make a move. They all took a step forward as they marched in sync, causing more deep sounds with each step.
“Shit.” Jay pursed his lips.
“So much for finding a weakness and busting out.”
He casually turned and walked back into the passageway as the skeletons went past him and made a defensive formation.
Three skeletons remained just outside the door with two behind them in the passage. Blue was at the centre of course, as it was currently the strongest skeleton.
Jay realised they would have to slowly retreat back into the passage as they killed statues, but that would work in their favour as it would be two skeletons versus one statue.
“Feel free to fire your bolts. The quicker we get this over with, the better.” Jay said, a tone of boredom in his voice.
Anya nodded, but looked a little confused. They were going to kill about fifty statues and he seemed bored?
How? Why? It didn’t make much sense. Most adventurers would be pumping with adrenaline and excitement right now.
In truth, Jay was a little more disappointed than bored. He had used this tactic before so all he had to do was keep summoning skeletons and wait.
It seemed that to excite a necromancer, one needed a diverse battlefield with fluid battle tactics; to manage the ebbs and flows of a full-scale war is what he subconsciously desired. While he didn’t have the forces necessary to wage a war, this still felt like child’s play.
Still, he would at least enjoy seeing his minions crush some enemies.
*Pshew!~*
Anya began launching bolts from behind the group of skeletons.
The statues simply raised their shields though, so for now she gave up trying. It was a fearsome statue formation; each of them had their spears pointed and their shields raised as they slowly marched forward, forming a semi-circle formation around the passage exit.
It was like a wall of pointy death with no cracks to get through. A perfect formation which had only been honed after all the centuries.
“Hmm. Get back.” Jay said.
The skeletons all retreated back into the passageway at his orders. It didn’t make sense to fight them out in the open like that.
All of them stood about 10 meters deeper in the passage.
“That’s better.” Jay smiled, seeing the first statue have to enter alone.
Unfortunately for the statue, all it could do was thrust its spear due to the narrow passage.
It would be a decent attack under normal circumstances, but since that’s all it can do here it became obvious and easy to dodge.
The skeletons displayed their nimble capabilities once again, easily dodging each thrust that came their way and retaliating with a hammer smash.
The only disadvantage of the skeletons was that they had to break down the statues shield before they could do any significant damage to the statue behind it.
The skeletons were already used to its thrusts and even seemed to get better at dodging them so it was only a matter of time.
*Crack!~**Crack!~**Crack!~**Crack!~*
Hit after hit they whittled down the first shield and it wasn’t long before it finally crumbled. The statue went down soon after - without its shield, it could only continue to thrust helplessly.
[100 Exp]
The enemy statue crumbled, and unlike the statues at the start of the dungeon these ones had no cares about stepping over their dead comrades.
The shield-breaking process started once again, and after a while the second one went down.
[100 Exp]
“Hm. Seems like it’s a battle of stamina?” Jay raised a brow, “maybe a test of stamina is more accurate…”
“Well, the undead have unlimited stamina so… I guess we just wait while I pass the test.” he shrugged with a slight smile.
“Yeah. As long as your skeletons don’t die it seems we’ll be fine.” Anya smiled, happy with the easy experience. She did a lot of the damage in the last battle so she didn’t feel guilty for taking a rest and letting the exp float in.
Time passed and the 2 vs 1 battles raged on.
At first, Jay and Anya watched with their weapons raised, but nothing happened so soon they lowered them - then leant against the walls, then stashed their weapons away, and eventually they were sitting down.
Jay of course was sitting down on the chair he brought from home, having a small feeling of superiority for being so prepared.
Anya began sharpening her throwing knives, bolt tips and examining her crossbow as she leant against the wall.
“Well, I might as well do something productive too.” Jay thought as he took out his old familiar book.
“Oh, a new page?” he smiled, opening his immortal book with hungry eyes.
For some reason, he was craving a new lesson. It was almost like he missed it.
