Steel Soul Online

"...How?"

Skeletor appeared in the same place where it "spawned", it was exactly the same but his sword was nowhere near, he checked the inventory and the surroundings searching for it but in the end, he asked in the help section and a little notification appeared in front of him:

[When a Conqueror and a Heart of the Abyss disconnects, their troops remain to execute the last instruction they received before the disconcection]

[items are not kept in death]

David sighed and subconsciously bit his virtual nail, rubbed his face for a couple of seconds and finally g.r.o.a.n.e.d, he turned his attention again to the little skeleton that was, again, staring at the ceiling without moving as if he was watching a film or something similar.

"Stop staring at the ceiling"

The skeleton straightened its back and stared blankly ahead of it.

"First of all, I need to know what kill you and where..." he clicked the map and examined it carefully, it didn't have anything that stood from the rest, just the fact that Skeletor walked 300 meters before being killed, it was a mostly straight line in the shape of a "cone", as it gets farther, it was getting broader and possibly taller too. "Well, that's not too far, but it will be very stupid to go th- STOP!"

The skeleton was already walking again towards the place it died as if it was trying to complete the "mission" set by David, who felt a little touched but mostly annoyed at this behavior.

"Ok ok, first we need to get you something to fight back, you'll be crushed if you go unprepared...let's start with the crystals, pick up some of them"

The skeleton nodded and tried to take a piece of the purple crystal off the wall until his arms dislocated, but the crystal remained unperturbed.

"Stop, stop, first try to put your bones in the correct place" it nodded and shook his arms until cracking sounds resounded in the silent cave, he opened and closed his hands slowly and made some small moves to see if its bones were in their right place, "very good, now, dig around the crystal"

The skeleton tilted its head in confusion and stared at the crystal

"Dig, just remove the dirt around it, come on, you can do it"

The skeleton started to remove the dirt a little unsure about its task, David clapped his hands a couple of times and praised it, just then it got a little more "confidence" a dug faster until a big irregular crystal rolled to the ground almost 30 minutes later, a notification popped up shortly after

[Skeletor has learned Mining lv1]

[Skeletor can be assigned to a gathering role or remain in a combat role]

[Skeletor has gained +1 int]

"Whew, it was bigger than i thought, pick it up big guy" The skeleton lifted it with almost no effort and kept it in his arms, the crystal could reach its cervix and had "horns" that curved to one of the edges. "that's probably the reason he couldn't just take it..." murmured David, "Try to break it"

Skeletor tried to break it from the middle but to no avail, then he tried to use his leg to break it from the middle but his entire bone cracked like brittle glass and his soul was pulled and absorbed by the crystal, that started to emit a purple miasma shortly after.

[YOU HAVE DIED]

[Your last unit will respawn with you]

[Your last unit will have -20% XP upon respawn]

"Huh...that's pretty OP" he murmured while Skeletor was being respawned in the same spot as before. "This time, let's check the wreckage first" The debris and destroyed objects that came with him were far behind him, he wondered why Skelly spawned here and not there, where he acquired his class. "Walk there and try to find something useful"

The skeleton nodded and started to pick up random stuff like bricks, broken windows, frozen wood, a couple of destroyed doors, David got bored quickly and jokingly requested in the help tab to be able to access the internet, surprisingly they approved it, a new tab appeared called "AFK" where he could at least watch some videos, check his social network and chat with Kevin when he was freer.

An hour later, David paused the video about some old stuff about RuneScape and saw in delight that his Skeleton found something useful: a hammer, an ugly and shabby hammer, but a hammer nonetheless.

[Poor quality hammer:

Strength: +2]

"Well, it's better than nothing i guess" he equipped it immediately and clicked the crystal the skeleton dug out earlier "hit it with the hammer".

Skeletor lifted the hammer and hit it with all its might but it only left shallow cracks on the surface of the crystal, "huh, harder than I thought...well, it can be useful for future projects but I doubt you can do it right now" David shook his head and sighed "truly a pity, start walking to the place you were killed, this time be cautious please and be ready to retreat when you receive my order".

It nodded and started to walk again towards that unknown place, this time however it was more thoughtful about it, It was looking at the deep crevices, looking back every now and then, and having the hammer ready to pounce towards an enemy, it made David feel a little proud about his little stupid skeleton.

The cave was getting progressively brighter and bigger, soon the little skeleton reached a giant dome with lots of crystals in the walls, strangely, some of them had different colors like red, blue, white, etc. Skeletor poked a red crystal with curiosity and bit it, resulting in 3 broken teeth.

"Stop fooling around, try to find something useful and drop the teeth already, it's gross".

Skeletor dropped the teeth and some parts of his jaws that were stick stuck to said teeth, he looked left and right and walked in a random direction without dropping its guard, but only a couple of seconds later something appeared: a worm, it was as big as a man's arm and had purple crystals growing on its back, it didn't have eyes and only a mouth full of teeth and a wriggling proboscis was the only thing that it had on its face, it turned towards Skeletor's direction before releasing an ungodly screech that resounded in the caves and stunned Skeletor.

"Skelly! Retreat!" screamed David but the skeleton was not responding, it was disoriented and stumbling across the room trying to find the exit but he would never make it out alive.

More worms appeared from the ceiling, from the floor, from crevices in the walls, some of them were under rocks and other were "invisible", they had different traits like scales, legs, plate-like skin, wings, even one of them had compound eyes, David got a scare at the sight of so many critters and shivered a little behind the screen, but tried to remain calm.

"Retreat!" he repeated when he saw that the skeleton was more steady and it nodded before making his retreat...only to be shot down by a barrage of acid, that came from nearly all of the worms in the room, its bones got dissolved very quickly and only a pool of white liquid remained on the floor a couple of seconds later.

[YOU HAVE DIED]

[Your last unit will respawn with you]

[Your last unit will have -20% XP upon respawn]

"Hmmm...so, these worms are very dangerous when they attack in groups because they have an acid attack, some of them didn't shot but that doesn't mean they don't have a means of attack...it appears that their species is very...curious towards their growth" mumbled David, he turned off the mic and ordered his skeleton when it spawned to strat digging crystals out of the wall. "fortunately i noticed that their acid is not effective on the crystals, but again, it doesn't mean that some of them can melt them, I need to be cautious and creative..."

"The only plan that comes to my mind is to create a weapon using the crystals, if i can recruit some of them into my army i can further study them and formulate a plan from there...but how? i hardly see something that can aid me with this problem..."

[Skeletor's ability "Mining" has leveled up!]

[Mining lv 1 ---> lv 2]

He looked at Skeletor's direction and saw him pilling the crystals that he obtained from his activity, but some of the smaller ones were crushed by the heavier ones, David narrowed his eyes and ordered the skeleton to grab a shard and throw it with all its strength toward the wall, the crystal got stuck on the wall and was still intact, David narrowed his eyes and looked at the pile of crystals again.

"Get the largest of the bunch and put it...here" he used the click to select an area away from the other crystals, "nice, now throw the shard towards it with all your might", the skeleton repeated the same movement as before but when the projectile collided dead in the center a loud cracking sound resounded in the cave, the shard didn't disappear or was crumbled to dust as David expected, instead it pierced through the bigger one and was stuck on the floor still intact.

[Skeletor has learned throw]

[Dexterity +1]

[You have discovered a new material!: High reactive amethyst]

[High reactive amethyst: a purple crystal that has the power to absorb large amounts of energy and release it, if it can't release the energy it will produce a highly venomous miasma]

[All of your units will receive +1 Int!]

"Nice but...where did it get the energy?" he looked at the panels and saw that his poor skeleton only had a single health point, "this may be the biggest discovery I had ever made in the game but...I need to counter this drainage" David sighed and cracked his joints "Time to get to work"