The next hours became ugly and slow.
He searched for rooms before entering them. He listened for wet dragging sounds and tongue clicks. The clicks mattered more than he first thought. Dark Crawlers used them to understand the tunnel, and if he moved at the wrong time, they corrected their direction almost instantly. When he heard bones scrape, he looked for corners and narrow halls because Bone Archers were easier if they could not make distance.
He killed the second Dark Crawler in a side chamber with two stone shelves. That one hit him with poison once, but he learned to raise the shield higher when its throat swelled. He killed the third near a collapsed stair by making it slam into the broken steps twice. The fourth was worse because it appeared from a hole near the ceiling and dropped behind him. Boran had to run into a narrow crack between two broken stones, turn with his back almost scraping the wall, and force the crawler to come from the front. It was ugly and scary, but it worked. The crawler could not circle properly there, and front was where the shield was.
The Bone Archers were slower. Each one needed the same boring answer. Shield up, block arrow, walk forward, bash for two damage, repeat until the skeleton broke. Sometimes they tried to move through side tunnels. Sometimes they climbed over bone piles.
A few hours later, Boran sat in a narrow alcove with his back against cold stone and the lantern between his boots. His arms trembled from holding the shield. His clothes had more burns now.
[OBJECTIVE 1 PROGRESS: 6/20]
[OBJECTIVE 3 PROGRESS: 5/20]
[Loot obtained: Dark Scale x2, Bone Fragment x8]
[HP: 54/85]
[Mana: 12/20]
He had not died. That was the best thing he could say. He had learned that being a Tank alone was not about being strong. It was about making the enemy do the same stupid thing until it died from it.
Boran rested his head against the stone and closed his eyes for only a second.
Then something clicked in the dark.
Not the fast light click of a Bone Archer making an arrow. Not the wet sound of a Dark Crawler. This was heavier. Dry. Metal touching stone, then bone tapping after it.
Boran opened his eyes.
The lantern flame shook between his boots. Its orange light reached the edge of the alcove and stopped there, weak against the corridor outside. Something stood just beyond that light. At first Boran only saw a shape. Thin legs. A narrow body. Something long in one hand. Then it took one step forward, and the bones became clear.
It was not an archer.
A skeleton walked out of the dark with a rusted sword in its right hand. Old armor pieces hung from its ribs and shoulders. The armor was broken, but not useless. Some plates still covered the chest. Rotten cloth moved from its waist like dead skin. Its skull had a crack across one side, and red light burned inside the empty eye sockets.
[Bone Walker - Level 4]
[HP: 60/60]
Boran slowly stood up.
“Level four…”
The Bone Walker raised its sword. The sword came from the side, low and fast, aiming at Boran’s leg. Boran lowered the Burrowguard Shield and caught it on the edge.
The impact rang through the alcove.
[HP: 49/85]
Boran’s arm went numb for a second.
The Bone Walker pulled the sword back and struck again, this time from above. Boran raised the shield, but the skeleton twisted its wrist at the last moment. The blade scraped along the shield and cut across Boran’s shoulder.
[HP: 42/85]
Pain flashed hot under his collarbone. Boran stumbled back and hit the stone wall behind him. The alcove suddenly felt too small. Against Bone Archers, narrow space helped him. Against this thing, narrow space trapped him.
He tried a normal shield bash first.
The Burrowguard Shield hit the Bone Walker’s chest plate.
[Bone Walker HP: 58/60]
The Bone Walker answered with a thrust. Boran barely turned aside. The sword tip scraped the stone beside his ribs, throwing sparks.
He needed a plan.
The Bone Walker was not stupid like the Bone Archers. It did not stand still and shoot. It stepped in and out. It used the sword’s reach. When Boran tried to close distance, the skeleton cut at his knees. When Boran waited, it stabbed at his face. It did not hit hard like the Alpha Wolf, and it did not have poison like the Dark Crawlers, but every attack was clean. Too clean.
This was the most dangerous thing he had fought today.
The sword came again.
Boran used Brace.
[Brace activated]
[Mana: 10/20]
He planted his feet and angled the shield. The blade struck the Burrowguard Shield and slid away. No damage this time, but the Bone Walker was already pulling the sword back for another cut. Boran understood something ugly then. If he kept blocking and answering with normal hits, he would die before the skeleton ran out of HP.
He opened the skill description in his head, almost like grabbing a memory.
[Shield Slam]
Damage scales with Boran's current defense rating.
Current Physical Defense from equipped shield: +5
Mana Cost: 2
Seven damage was better than two, but Boran did not use it right away. The skill scaled with current defense. Current meant now. If he could raise his defense first, then the slam would hit harder. That was the whole point.
Boran looked at his mana.
[Mana: 10/20]
If he burned all of it, he would have almost nothing left for whatever came next. But if he did not burn it, there might not be a next.
Fortify was not an attack skill. It was supposed to make him harder to hurt. But Shield Slam used his current defense rating. If Fortify raised that, then Shield Slam should use the raised number too. Boran was tired, hurt, and scared, but he was not stupid enough to waste clean skill hits before using the buff.
Boran dragged in one rough breath.
“Fortify.”
[Fortify activated]
[Mana: 5/20]
[Current Physical Defense: 10]
The familiar heavy feeling settled over him. His body felt slower, but the shield felt more solid, like the weight of a wall had pressed itself into his arm. The skeleton advanced again. Boran tried to move out of the alcove, but the Bone Walker blocked the opening with its sword. The blade swept horizontally, forcing him back. It was keeping him inside.
That made Boran angry.
Not because it hurt. Everything hurt already. He was angry because the skeleton was using positioning better than he was.
The Bone Walker tilted its skull, then attacked again.
He dropped low and let the sword bite into the side of the Burrowguard Shield, then shoved the shield outward with both hands. The sword scraped free, but the motion pushed the skeleton’s arm wide for a moment.
“Shield Slam!”
[Shield Slam activated]
[Mana: 3/20]
[Bone Walker HP: 46/60]
[Stun applied: 2 seconds]
The hit was different. The Burrowguard Shield did not just bump the skeleton. It drove into the chest plate with a heavy thud and shoved the Bone Walker back one full step. Rusted metal bent inward. Bone cracked under it. Boran still felt weak and hurt, but for the first time the skeleton actually moved because of him.
The Bone Walker froze for two short seconds. Boran did not waste them. He stepped closer and hit fast, not with skill, just with the shield edge before the stun could end.
[Bone Walker HP: 44/60]
He hit again, shoulder screaming from the weight.
[Bone Walker HP: 42/60]
Two hits. Four free damage. Small, but free.
Then the red light in the skeleton’s eyes moved again.
The stun ended.
The Bone Walker tried to stab straight at his chest.
Boran shifted sideways before the point could line up.
The sword hit the stone wall behind him and stuck for half a second.
That was enough.
“Shield Slam!”
[Shield Slam activated]
[Mana: 1/20]
[Bone Walker HP: 30/60]
[Stun applied: 2 seconds]
The Burrowguard Shield smashed into the skeleton’s sword arm and chest together. The impact twisted the elbow joint and crushed part of the chest plate at the same time. The sword came loose from the wall with a scraping sound, and the arm did not return to the same angle. One of the bones had cracked.
The Bone Walker locked up again. Boran hit the cracked chest once before it could move.
[Bone Walker HP: 28/60]
He dragged the shield back and hit a second time.
[Bone Walker HP: 26/60]
The swing came slower after that. Boran ducked behind the shield and pushed into the skeleton instead of backing away. The blade scraped over his shoulder guard and missed skin by almost nothing. He drove forward until the Bone Walker’s spine hit the alcove entrance.
One mana left.
Not enough for another Shield Slam.
Then a small blue window appeared at the best possible time.
[Mana Regeneration: +1]
[Mana: 2/20]
An hour had passed since he entered the dungeon. Maybe more. He had never been so happy to see one mana in his life.
The Bone Walker raised its sword again.
Boran stepped inside the line of the blade.
“Shield Slam!”
[Mana: 0/20]
[Bone Walker HP: 14/60]
[Stun applied: 2 seconds]
The third slam hit the damaged chest like a hammer on broken pottery. More ribs snapped. The skeleton froze again, its sword arm hanging wrong.
Boran hit once.
[Bone Walker HP: 12/60]
Again.
[Bone Walker HP: 10/60]
The stun ended, and there was nothing left to spend.
It came forward with the sword low, but the cracked arm made the motion slow enough to read. Boran did not let it reset. He rammed forward. The shield hit for nothing important, but it crowded the skeleton and ruined the swing before it became dangerous. The Bone Walker tried to back away. Boran followed. If it had space, it had sword reach. If he stayed close, the sword became useless.
He slammed the shield into the cracked chest again.
[Bone Walker HP: 8/60]
The Bone Walker tried to punch the edge of the shield and pull him off balance, but Boran kept his feet under him. He twisted the shield, shoved the arm away, and hit again.
[Bone Walker HP: 6/60]
Boran hit again.
[Bone Walker HP: 4/60]
The skeleton reached for the sword, fingers scraping near Boran’s boot.
“No.”
Boran kicked the sword away.
It slid across the floor and dropped into the shallow dark water outside the alcove with a small splash.
The Bone Walker turned its skull toward the sound.
Boran used the moment. He slammed the Burrowguard Shield into its damaged knee.
[Bone Walker HP: 2/60]
The knee bent wrong. The Bone Walker toppled sideways, but Boran stayed over it and did not let it crawl away. He raised the shield and brought the edge down on its neck one last time.
[Bone Walker HP: 0/60]
[BONE WALKER DEFEATED]
[+60 XP]
[OBJECTIVE 3 PROGRESS: 6/20]
The body collapsed all at once, bones spreading across the floor like dropped sticks.
Boran fell backward and hit the wall.
His hands shook around the shield. His shoulder burned from swinging it so many times, and his side hurt from the earlier cuts, but after the stun chain started, the Bone Walker had not landed another clean hit.
[HP: 42/85]
[Mana: 0/20]
Boran stared at the dead skeleton.
The Bone Archers had been slow work. Dark Crawlers had been dangerous but trickable. This thing had almost killed him.
He swallowed and tasted blood.
“That was… too close.”
A loot window appeared.
[Bone Fragment x3 obtained]
[Rusted Bone Walker Sword obtained]
[Quality: Damaged Common]
[Class Compatibility: Poor]
[Warning: Tank class has no sword proficiency.]
[Bent Bone Walker Bracers obtained]
[Quality: Damaged Common]
[Physical Defense: +1]
[Rusted Bone Walker Boots obtained]
[Quality: Damaged Common]
[Physical Defense: +1]
Boran looked at the loot window for a few seconds.
“Bracers and boots?”
The System highlighted the parts still lying near the broken bones. They were ugly. Very ugly. The bracers were two bent metal pieces with old leather straps hanging from them like dead worms. One side had a crack across it, and the other side was rusted so badly that Boran was not sure if it was brown metal or metal-shaped dirt. The boots were not much better. Heavy, crooked, half-plate things that had protected the Bone Walker’s feet and ankles. They looked uncomfortable. They looked like something nobody sane would wear.
“Protection is protection.”
He picked up the bracers first. The smell was awful, dry dust and old rust mixed together. He shook them once, then immediately regretted it when little flakes fell off. Still, the System accepted them as equipment.
[Equip Bent Bone Walker Bracers?]
Boran looked at his bare forearms. One had a cut from before. The other had burn marks from Dark Crawler poison.
“Yes.”
The bracers locked around his wrists and lower arms with a rough click. They were too loose in one place and too tight in another. One edge pressed into his sleeve. He hated them immediately.
[Bent Bone Walker Bracers equipped]
[Physical Defense +1]
Then he equipped the boots. They were worse. His old shoes dissolved into inventory, and the rusted boots formed around his feet with a heavy clank. One boot leaned slightly to the side, like it had been kicked by a horse fifty years ago.
[Rusted Bone Walker Boots equipped]
[Physical Defense +1]
[Current Physical Defense: 7]
The sword was different.
It lay in the shallow water, red light pulsing around it in his inventory window even before he picked it up. Boran reached down and took it by the grip. The blade was not long, but it felt strange in his hand. Too forward-heavy.
[Rusted Bone Walker Sword]
[Quality: Damaged Common]
[Class Compatibility: Poor]
[No sword proficiency detected]
[Damage reduced by class mismatch and damaged condition]
Boran frowned.
“So I can use it? Hell yeah!”
He dismissed the sword into inventory. The icon glowed red there, like the System wanted to remind him it did not belong to him. Then he held out his empty hand and tried to summon it the same way he summoned a shield.
The sword appeared in his hand.
He looked down the corridor. He should have rested longer. Maybe he should have bandaged something. But the mission was still there, and now he had a weapon he could actually swing.
A few minutes later, he found another Bone Archer near a low bone pile. It rose from the ground with its broken bow already in hand.
[Bone Archer - Level 3]
[HP: 35/35]
The skeleton made an arrow from pale light and bone dust.
Boran raised the Burrowguard Shield first.
The arrow cracked against it and broke.
[Blocked]
“Still works.”
Then he summoned the sword into his right hand. Boran moved forward with the shield raised, just like before. The Bone Archer fired again. He kept walking until the skeleton backed into the wall.
“Let’s see.”
He swung.
It was bad. The motion felt wrong, and the sword dragged his arm farther than he wanted. Still, the blade hit the Bone Archer’s ribs and cut through old bone with a dry crack.
[Bone Archer HP: 30/35]
Five damage.
Way better than two. Worse than what an actual sword user could probably do.
The Bone Archer raised its bow again. Boran blocked the arrow with the shield, then cut again, shorter this time.
[Bone Archer HP: 25/35]
Five damage again.
“Okay,” Boran said. “Bad sword is still a sword.”
The fight was still awkward. He could not swing freely because he needed the shield in front. If he opened himself too much, the archer could shoot around the edge. The sword also did not listen to him the way the shield did. Every cut felt like borrowing someone else’s tool. But five damage meant seven hits instead of seventeen, and seven was much better than seventeen.
The Bone Archer kept firing. Boran kept blocking. Between arrows, he chopped at ribs, arms, and the skull when he could reach it.
[Bone Archer HP: 20/35]
[Bone Archer HP: 15/35]
[Bone Archer HP: 10/35]
[Bone Archer HP: 5/35]
The last hit broke the skull sideways.
[Bone Archer HP: 0/35]
[BONE ARCHER DEFEATED]
[+35 XP]
[OBJECTIVE 3 PROGRESS: 7/20]
Boran lowered the sword and breathed out. He sat down, leaned his back against the wall, and rested for a bit.
Boran rested for hours.
He did not sleep properly. He only sat with his back against the wall, ate a little, drank his last water, waited for his body to stop shaking, and let his mana come back. After that, he fought for hours again. Dark Crawlers, Bone Archers, and Bone Walkers. He did not think too much. He used what worked, survived what he could, and kept going until the windows finally appeared.
[OBJECTIVE 1 COMPLETE: Kill 20 Dark Crawlers]
[OBJECTIVE 3 COMPLETE: Kill 20 Bone Walkers / Bone Archers]
A damaged chestpiece had dropped from one Bone Walker, and a dented helmet had dropped from another. Both looked terrible. The chestpiece pressed wrong against his ribs, and the helmet sat crooked no matter how many times he touched it. He equipped them anyway.
[Rusted Bone Walker Chestpiece obtained]
[Quality: Damaged Common]
[Physical Defense: +1]
[Rusted Bone Walker Chestpiece equipped]
[Dented Bone Walker Helmet obtained]
[Quality: Damaged Common]
[Physical Defense: +1]
[Dented Bone Walker Helmet equipped]
[Current Physical Defense: 9]
The last Bone Walker had given him enough fragments before it broke apart.
[Bone Fragment x2 obtained]
Boran opened his inventory and counted again.
[Bone Fragment x15]
“Finally.”
Boran moved into a side chamber with one entrance, checked the ceiling twice, listened for clicks, then sat with his back to the wall. He dismissed the Burrowguard Shield and summoned the Adaptive Shield in Blank Form.
The white shield appeared on his arm.
Boran pulled the first Bone Fragment from his inventory and pressed it to the shield.
“Absorb.”
The white surface softened around the fragment. Pale light crawled over the bone, and the fragment dissolved into dust that sank into the shield.
[Bone Shield Form progress: 15/15]
The Adaptive Shield pulsed.
The white surface cracked from the center outward. Boran almost pulled his arm away, but the shield held him in place. Thin bone plates pushed through the smooth material, overlapping like ribs. The edges stretched outward into sharp rib-like points, sharp enough that hitting with the shield would hurt more than before. A real skull shape formed in the very center of the shield, its empty eye sockets staring out from the pale bone surface.
[New Shield Form unlocked: Bone Shield]
[Adaptive Shield registry updated]
[Durability: 25/25]
[Physical Defense Bonus: +4]
[Shield Damage Bonus: +1]
[Passive Effect Unlocked: Bone Exoskeleton I]
[Exoskeleton HP: 25/25]
[Effect: While active, grants a weak bone exoskeleton. Incoming damage is applied to Exoskeleton HP before the user's HP.]
[Weakness: Bludgeoning damage deals 2x damage to Exoskeleton HP.]
[Recovery: If destroyed, the exoskeleton regenerates after 24 hours.]
[Special Recovery: Drinking milk accelerates exoskeleton regeneration.]
[Activate Bone Exoskeleton I?]
Boran stared at the question.
He swallowed, then raised the Bone Shield a little higher.
“Activate.”
[Bone Exoskeleton I activated]
The skull in the middle of the shield opened its empty mouth.
Pale bone light spilled out from between the shield plates. It did not shine like holy magic or anything clean. It looked dry, old, and dusty, like moonlight passing through a grave. The sharp rib edges on the shield trembled first. Then the light slipped backward from the handle and sank under his sleeve.
Thin pressure crawled from the inside of Boran’s wrist.
He froze.
Something hardened under his clothes.
It spread along his forearm in strips, one piece after another, clicking softly where only he could feel it. The feeling was not painful, but it was not comfortable either. It was like cold fingers were measuring his body from under his clothes and building something against his skin. The bone climbed past his elbow, wrapped around his upper arm, then reached his shoulder without showing clearly outside.
The bone spread across his chest and back from the inside. Curved plates formed over his ribs, thin and uneven, leaving gaps between them. More pieces settled along his spine and around his waist. Smaller strips formed around his thighs, knees, and lower legs. It was not a full skeleton, nothing covered his head.,and it was not armor over his clothes. It stayed hidden under the fabric and equipment, pressed around the important places like a second, weaker frame.
For a few seconds, Boran stood very still because moving felt strange. His shirt and armor looked almost the same from outside, but under them something dry and hard had wrapped around his arms, legs, chest, and back.
Then the crawling stopped.
A second health bar appeared under his normal HP.
[Exoskeleton HP: 25/25]
Boran slowly pressed two fingers against his chest. He could feel the bone plate under the cloth. It was real. Hard. Thin, but real.
Still, it was extra life. In this place, twenty-five HP between him and dying was not something he could complain about.
Boran started to switch back to Burrowguard, then stopped before the thought finished.
A small warning appeared.
[Warning: Bone Exoskeleton I is linked to Bone Shield Form.]
[Changing the Adaptive Shield to another form will dismiss the active exoskeleton.]
“Oh, right.”
Burrowguard gave one more defense. Bone Shield gave the exoskeleton.
One defense was good. It was not twenty-five extra HP good.
He lowered his arm and kept the Bone Shield active.
“Yeah. Not changing.”
A final set of notifications opened while he was still sitting.
[Total recent XP gained: 1480]
[LEVEL UP]
[Level 3 reached]
[Level rewards available after mission completion]
After everything, after all the clicking, bones, poison, rust, and bad meat, the number finally moved.
[OBJECTIVE 1: Kill 20 Dark Crawlers - COMPLETE]
[OBJECTIVE 2: Kill 20 Gloomy Hunters]
[OBJECTIVE 3: Kill 20 Bone Walkers / Bone Archers - COMPLETE]
[OBJECTIVE 4: Eternal Guardian - Kill Mur-Azar]
Two objectives left.
Gloomy Hunters.
Mur-Azar.
He leaned his helmeted head back against the stone wall and closed his eyes.