"Okay," Boran said. "We need to know what you can actually do."
Boney Stark tilted its skull.
Boran pointed toward the far wall of the chamber. A cracked skull still sat near the stones. It had not given any material, so at least it could be useful as a target. "Shoot that."
Boney turned toward the skull. His movement was stiff, but not slow. It looked like he knew what to do, but his body was still remembering how to do it. One bony hand reached over his shoulder and pulled the bow free. The other hand drew a pale bone arrow from the quiver. The arrow was thin and a little crooked. Boran noticed that right away and did not like it.
"Wait," Boran said.
Boney froze with the arrow half drawn.
He moved two steps aside and crouched a little behind the Bone Shield. "If I say wait, you wait. If I say shoot, you shoot. If I say stop, you stop. Understand?"
Boney nodded once.
"Okay. Shoot."
The arrow flew and missed the skull so badly that Boran turned his head and followed it all the way to the wall. It hit a crack, broke apart, and scattered into small pieces.
"That was... not even close."
Boney lowered the bow a little.
"No, no, I'm not saying you're useless," Boran said quickly. "It was just a bad shot."
Boney's eye fire dimmed a little. Boran sighed and rubbed the side of his helmet. Somehow the skeleton looked sad without having a face, and that was annoying because Boran did not want to feel guilty about a skeleton missing a target.
"Don't do that," Boran said. "You don't even have a face and you're still making a face."
Boney drew another arrow. This time Boran watched more carefully. The skeleton's hands were steady at first, but when he pulled the string back, the bow trembled. The arrowhead moved left, then right, then left again. Boney released anyway. The arrow hit the floor two meters in front of the skull and shattered.
"Okay," Boran said. "So accuracy really is poor."
Boney lowered his head again.
"But the draw looked strong. You pulled it fine. Your aim is just bad. We can work on it."
Boney's head tilted even more.
"Try one more," Boran said, pointing at the skull. "Aim slower."
Boney raised the bow again. This time he waited. The arrow still trembled, but not as much. The bow string creaked. The blue fire in his eyes dimmed.
The arrow flew. It hit the skull on the side and cracked it open.
[Damage dealt: 30]
Boran stared at the number, then slowly turned to Boney.
"You do thirty damage?"
Boney Stark shrugged.
Two arrows could kill things he had spent minutes beating with a shield. His mouth opened a little.
"That is not low damage, right?"
The System did not answer.
"It says low damage, Boney. Thirty is not low for me. Do you know how much I hit for?"
Boney Stark shrugged again.
"Thirty is eight normal shield hits. Eight. Do you understand numbers?"
Boney raised one hand and held up five fingers.
Boran stared at it. "That is five."
Boney raised the other hand with 3 fingers.
"Right..." Boran closed his eyes for a second. "We need to work on numbers too."
They spent a few minutes trying to understand each other. Boran learned that Boney could nod for yes and shake his head for no. A tilted skull meant either "I don't understand" or "I don’t know." Boran could not tell the difference. One finger raised seemed to mean wait. Two fingers meant enemy. Three fingers meant something else, but Boran gave up because Boney kept showing three fingers and pointing at different walls.
"Point at enemy," Boran said.
Boney pointed at Boran.
"No. Not me. Enemy."
Boney pointed at the broken skull.
"Good. Point at another enemy."
Then Boney pointed at Boran again.
"Why am I enemy?"
Boney tilted his skull.
"I'm not enemy."
Boney slowly lowered his hand.
Boran stared at him. "Are you are doing this on purpose?"
Boney's eye fire flickered.
"I can't prove it, but I know."
The first real test came sooner than Boran wanted. A scrape came from the corridor outside the chamber. Dry bone on stone. Not one sound, several. Boran raised the Bone Shield Form III and moved in front of Boney without thinking.
Boney tried to step beside him.
"No. Behind me."
Boney stepped behind him.
"Not directly behind. Don’t shoot me from the back."
Boney stepped to the right.
"Good. There."
A Bone Archer crawled out first, pulling itself from a crack in the wall. Its skull turned toward Boran, green-blue light forming in the eye sockets. Behind it, a Bone Walker dragged a rusted sword across the stone.
[Bone Archer - Level 3]
[HP: 35/35]
[Bone Walker - Level 4]
[HP: 60/60]
Boran's stomach tightened. The Bone Walker was the dangerous one, but the archer could keep shooting while he handled the sword. Before, that would have been a slow problem. Now maybe it was simple.
"Boney," Boran said, pointing with the shield. "Shoot the archer."
The Bone Archer fired first. The arrow struck Boran's shield and broke.
[Blocked]
Boney released.
His arrow went over the Bone Archer's shoulder and hit the wall.
"You’ve got this, Boney—come on!"
The Bone Walker came forward with its sword low. Boran stepped back instead of blocking. He did not have extra exoskeleton HP anymore while Boney was outside. If he took damage now, it was his real HP.
The Bone Walker slashed. Boran moved aside, and the blade scraped stone close enough to throw sparks near his boot. This was Boney Stark’s test, so Boran should only dodge and block.
"Again!"
Boney fired. This time the arrow struck the Bone Archer in the chest.
[Bone Archer HP: 5/35]
"Good job! Again!"
The Bone Archer raised its bow. Boran covered himself. The arrow broke against the shield. Boney drew another arrow, released, and missed so badly it flew through a side crack and disappeared.
Boran stared for half a second. "How did you even send it there?"
The Bone Walker stepped in again, so Boran had to focus. He moved around a broken pillar, keeping the Walker between himself and the archer as much as he could. The sword came from the right. Boran stepped back. The blade cut empty air. He jabbed with the Rusted Bone Walker Sword.
[Bone Walker HP: 55/60]
"Finish the archer!"
Boney drew. The bow trembled. The arrow released.
It hit.
[Bone Archer HP: 0/35]
[BONE ARCHER DEFEATED]
[+35 XP]
"Yes! Ha-Ha!" Boran said.
Boney's eye fire brightened.
The Bone Walker lunged with a thrust aimed at Boran's stomach. Boran twisted away. The blade missed his side by almost nothing, close enough that he felt the air move through his shirt.
"Boney, sword skeleton now."
Boney turned toward the Bone Walker and fired.
Miss.
The arrow hit the pillar beside Boran.
Boran flinched. "Not me!"
Boney froze.
"No, no, you got this Boney."
The next shot hit the Bone Walker's shoulder.
[Bone Walker HP: 25/60]
The skeleton staggered from the impact. Boran used the opening, stepped closer, shoved the shield into the sword arm to ruin the angle, then struck with the sword again.
[Bone Walker HP: 20/60]
The Bone Walker recovered and slashed. Boran backed off. His heel slipped on wet stone, and for one second he almost fell. Boney raised the bow again. Boran wanted to shout wait, but the word came too late.
The arrow flew past Boran's helmet close enough that he heard it.
It struck the Bone Walker in the skull.
[Bone Walker HP: 0/60]
[BONE WALKER DEFEATED]
[+60 XP]
Boran stood very still. Then he slowly turned to Boney.
Boney lowered the bow.
"Good hit," Boran said. "Very good hit. But if that arrow had hit my head… for now, stick to safe shot angles, okay?"
Boney nodded.
Loot appeared from the broken skeletons. Boran picked up the Bone Fragments and one cracked arm bone that the System marked as usable material.
[Bone Fragment x4 obtained]
[Usable Long Bone x1 obtained]
He checked Boney's quiver because something about the last fight bothered him.
"Show your arrows."
Boney turned slightly and pulled the quiver forward. There were not many arrows inside.
"Seven?"
Boney nodded.
"You only have seven arrows left?"
Nod.
Boran stared at the quiver. "I thought they were... you know. Summoned. Unlimited."
Boney shook his head.
"Of course not."
Boran sat on a stone and covered his face with one hand. "Of course the skeleton archer has limited arrows. Why would the one good damage thing be easy?"
Boney stood quietly.
Boran lowered his hand and looked at the broken skeletons on the floor. Bone Archer arrows disappeared after breaking, but the bodies remained. Arms, ribs, fingers, long pieces from legs. Bone was bone. Boney's arrows were bone too.
"Can we make arrows?"
Boney tilted his skull.
"You don't know?"
Boney shook his head.
"Okay. Then we try."
Boran dragged the remains into the center of the chamber. He did not know proper arrow making. But he knew the basic idea. An arrow needed to be straight enough to fly, light enough to move, strong enough not to snap immediately, and sharp enough to hurt.
Bones were not wood. That was the problem. Wood could bend a little. Bone could split, crack, and break if shaped badly. Still, dungeon skeletons used bone arrows. Boney used bone arrows. There had to be a way.
He picked up the Usable Long Bone. It was part of a Bone Walker's forearm, maybe. Too thick for an arrow. Too curved. He found a flatter piece from a rib and used his knife to scrape dirt and old dust away. The smell was dry and unpleasant.
"This is disgusting."
Boney watched.
"Don't look at me like that. You came out of bones."
Boney tilted his skull.
"Yeah… I have bones in me too."
Boran set the bone on a flat stone and struck it carefully with another rock. The first hit did nothing. The second made a crack run down the side. The third split off a long shard. The shard was not straight. It was sharp on one side, which was good, and too wide on the other, which was bad.
He held it up. "Good enough?"
Boney stared at it, then slowly shook his head.
Boran tried again. This time he used a thinner leg bone and did not smash it. He found a crack near the end and used the knife tip to wedge it open. Slowly, carefully, he pried until a narrow strip split free. It was closer. Still rough, but long enough.
He placed the strip against the stone floor and began rubbing it back and forth. The first minute did almost nothing except make his hands hurt. The second minute made pale powder collect under the bone. The third minute started smoothing one side.
Boran stopped and flexed his fingers. "This is going to take forever."
Boney nodded.
Boran sighed and kept working. He rubbed the bone strip against the rough stone, turning it every few passes. He scraped the thicker end with the knife. The small knife was not made for crafting arrows, and its edge slipped twice. Once it nearly cut his thumb. He slowed down after that. No more blood sacrifices for equipment today.
The shaft became thinner little by little. It would never be perfectly round, but it became less like a random bone shard and more like something that might fly. For the tip, Boran did not attach a separate point. He carved the front end into a narrow triangular spike, then ground it against the stone until it was sharp enough to scratch his fingernail. Not razor sharp, enough.x
The back end was trickier. It needed a notch for the bowstring. Boran cut a shallow V with his knife, then widened it carefully. The bone threatened to split. He stopped, wrapped a thin strip of old cloth from the Bone Archers’ clothes around the end, and pulled it tight until the crack held.
"No feathers," he muttered.
An arrow without fletching would fly badly. He knew that much. Boney's original arrows had small fins made of thin bone plates near the back. Boran looked through the skeleton remains and found finger bones, thin flat splinters, and pieces from a Bone Archer's rib that could be shaved into little vanes. It took more time. Too much time. He cut two small flat bone pieces, rubbed them thinner on the stone, then tied them near the back with thread pulled from his torn sleeve. It looked ugly. One vane leaned left. The other was shorter. But they stayed attached when he shook the arrow.
A faint notification appeared.
[Improvised Bone Arrow created]
[Quality: Poor]
[Flight Stability: Poor]
[Damage compatible with Bound Skeleton Companion: 15]
Boney held out one hand.
Boran gave him the arrow. Boney placed it against the string, drew, and aimed at the cracked skull from earlier. Boran stepped back. Then he stepped farther back because he remembered Boney's aim.
"Okay. Shoot."
Boney released. The arrow flew crooked. It curved a little to the right, hit the wall near the skull, bounced off, and broke in half.
Boran stared.
Boney stared.
"Ugh..."
Boney looked at him.
"Don’t worry, Boney, it was just a test arrow."
Boran decided to take his time while his health and mana rose. He sat beside the pile of bones and made arrows.
The next arrow came out too heavy. Boney drew it, released, and it dropped before reaching the target. The third split when Boran cut the notch.
Boran learned from each mistake. He used the straightest bone strips only. He made the front thinner, not just sharper. He kept the back slightly heavier than before because the first ones wobbled too much.
His hands became white with bone dust. Powder filled the lines of his palms. His cut from the blood requirement opened once and spotted the floor red, so he wrapped it again and worked with slower fingers.
Boney helped in his own strange way. He could not talk, but he understood. When Boran made a shaft too curved, Boney shook his head. When the notch was too deep, Boney tapped the back and made a breaking motion with his fingers. When the vanes were uneven, Boney held one hand flat, then tilted it dramatically.
"Yes, I see it," Boran said after the third dramatic tilt. "You don't have to insult my craftsmanship."
Boney tapped the crooked arrow.
"I said I see it."
Boney tapped it again.
"Do you want to make it yourself?"
Boney held up his bony hands, then looked at Boran's knife.
“You’ll handle it from now on.”
They worked until Boran made six arrows.
[Improvised Bone Arrow x6 created]
[Quality: Crude]
[Flight Stability: Crude]
[Damage compatible with Bound Skeleton Companion: 20]
"Twenty damage," Boran said. "Less than your real arrows, but not terrible."
Boney nodded.
Boran checked the quiver again. Seven original arrows. Six crude arrows. Thirteen total.
"Use the bad arrows for practice or weak things. Save the good arrows when I say. Understand?"
Boney nodded.
"Show me good arrow."
Boney pulled one of the original bone arrows.
"Bad arrow."
Boney pulled one of Boran's crude arrows.
"Good. If I say good arrow, use original. If I say crude arrow, use this.”
Boney nodded again.
A blue window opened in front of him before he could stand.
[Repeated crafting action detected]
[Survival, Gathering, and improvised material handling have met minimum requirements]
[New Skill Acquired: Fletching I]
[Skill Type: Crafting / Ammunition]
[Effect: Allows the user to create basic arrows from usable material.]
[Skill Bonus: Improves arrow balance, notch stability, and fletching alignment during crafting.]
[Fletching I Bonus: +1 minimum quality step when crafting arrows with enough time and usable materials.]
[Current Known Recipes: Crude Bone Arrow]
[Damage compatible with Bound Skeleton Companion: 22]
[Limit: Quality depends on material condition, available tools, and time spent shaping.]
Boran stared at the window.
"You gave me a skill for this?"
The System did not answer.
Boran looked down at his hands. White bone dust filled the lines of his palms, and the cut under the cloth still throbbed. His fingers hurt from scraping, tying, rubbing, and trying not to slice himself open. If the System wanted to call that a skill, it could. He had earned at least something from sitting on a dungeon floor and making ugly arrows out of dead skeletons.
Boney leaned closer and looked at the blue window.
"Fletching," Boran said. "It means I can make your bad arrows better."
Boney's eye fire brightened.
"Don't look too happy. It still says crude. But twenty-two is better than twenty."
Boney nodded once like that was acceptable.
Boran opened the skill panel with a thought. The new skill sat under a smaller crafting category, below Survival and Gathering.
"Okay," Boran said. "New rule: whenever we have bones and time, we make arrows. Just enough so you don't run out. If I'm free, I'll help you. Otherwise, you're responsible for making your own arrows."
Boney nodded.
A blue window flickered open.
[New beta content available: Companion Link]
[Crafting and Support skill channels synchronized: Boran ↔ Boney Stark]
[Shared Skills Enabled: Crafting / Survival / Gathering]
[Companion may perform shared-skill actions when provided with tools]
[Shared Skill Progress: Actions performed by Boney Stark contribute to skill XP and level growth]
Boran stared at it. "...So my crafting skills are shared with you?"
Boney tapped his own chest once, then the quiver, then held up a hand like he was ready to work.
“Good deal!”
They tested the new arrangement properly after that. Boran took the front. Boney stayed behind and to the right. It was awkward at first. Boney kept standing too close, and once Boran almost stepped back into him. Another time Boney tried to move left when Boran moved left, and they both ended up blocking each other like two idiots trying to pass through the same narrow doorway from opposite sides.
They learned small signs too. If Boney tapped the quiver twice, he was low on arrows. If he pointed two fingers at his own eye socket and then at a tunnel, he saw movement. If he raised one hand with the palm flat, he wanted Boran to stop.
The violet route mark waited where the skeletal passages ended. Boran stood in front of it for a while. The mark glowed faintly on the wall, pointing down into a corridor where the blue crystal light almost disappeared. The air coming from below felt colder. Not wet-cold like the crawler rooms. This was a thinner cold. It touched his face and made the skin around his eyes tighten.
Gloomy Hunters were next.
He checked his status.
[HP: 52/85]
[Mana: 10/20]
Boran looked at Boney. "What do you think Gloomy Hunters look like?"
Boney stared back.
"Right. Stupid question. You can’t talk."
They went down. The corridor changed slowly. Fewer bones lay on the floor. Fewer claw marks crossed the walls. The stone became smoother, darker, and damp in a different way, like water had soaked into it years ago and never left. Pale fungi grew in thin lines along the ceiling, but their light was weak and gray instead of blue. The lantern's orange glow looked smaller here.
Boney walked behind him with the bow ready. His steps clicked against the stone, quieter than before but still not silent. Boran found himself listening to those steps. Click. Click. Click. It should have been creepy. It was a little creepy. But it also told him someone was still there.
Then Boney stopped.
Boran stopped too.
"What?"
Boney raised one hand and pointed forward.
Boran narrowed his eyes. At first he saw nothing. Just corridor. Damp stone. Gray fungus. A bend ahead.
Then the darkness moved. It was not a body coming out of shadow. It was more like the shadow itself had stand up. A black mist gathered near the bend, thin at first, then thicker. It had no legs. No real head. No face. It stretched upward, then flattened, then curled along the floor. The shape changed every second.
A label appeared.
[Gloomy Hunter - Level 5]
[HP: 80/80]
Boran swallowed.
"Gloomy Hunter," he whispered.
The mist stopped moving. Then it glided toward them. Slow. Too slow, almost. That made it worse.
"Boney. Good arrow. Shot."
Boney drew one of the remaining original arrows. The bow creaked. The arrow flew. It passed through the Gloomy Hunter. No impact. No damage. The arrow struck the wall behind the mist and shattered.
Boran's chest tightened. "What?"
Boney drew a crude arrow and fired before Boran could stop him. That one passed through too.
[Physical attack ineffective]
The Gloomy Hunter kept coming.
Boran stepped back. "Stop shooting. Physical doesn't work."
Boney lowered the bow immediately.
The mist spread wider. Thin black strands crawled across the floor, reaching for Boran's boots. Cold came before contact. Not normal cold. It went straight through the clothes and armor, through skin, into the bones. Boran backed away faster. The corridor behind them was narrow. Good for skeletons. Bad for mist. The thing did not care about walls the same way. Its edges brushed stone and simply folded around it.
"We can't fight this normally."
Boney tapped the quiver once, as if offering another arrow.
"No. Save them. It won't work."
The Gloomy Hunter rose higher. Part of it stretched toward the ceiling, then bent down like smoke falling in reverse. Boran's hands tightened on the shield. He needed to know one thing. Could Shield Slam hurt it? Shield Slam was physical, but it was a System skill. Maybe skill force counted differently. Maybe not. If it did nothing, he would waste mana. If he did not test it, he would not know.
"One test," Boran said.
Boney looked at him.
"Stay back."
The Gloomy Hunter glided closer. The cold touched Boran's ankles. His skin prickled. He stepped forward before fear could lock his legs, lifted the Bone Shield Form III, and activated the skill.
"Shield Slam!"
[Shield Slam activated]
[Mana: 8/20]
The shield struck the mist. For a second it felt like hitting wet smoke. No real resistance. Then the skull on the Bone Shield flashed red-white, and the System force behind the skill bit into something inside the fog.
The Gloomy Hunter twisted.
[Gloomy Hunter HP: 68/80]
Boran stumbled back.
"It worked!"
Boney's eye fire brightened.
The mist recoiled for one second, then spread again. Faster now. The temperature dropped hard enough that frost formed along the edge of Boran's shield. His fingers hurt around the grip.
Could he kill it with Shield Slam? Eighty HP. Twelve damage each. He needed seven hits. Not enough.
"No," Boran said. "No, no. We are not doing this."
The Gloomy Hunter slid forward.
Boran backed away. "Fall back."
They retreated up the corridor. The Gloomy Hunter followed, slow but steady. Its mist stretched along the floor after them
They reached the warmer skeleton passage and kept going until the gray fungus disappeared from the ceiling. Only then did the mist stop. It hovered at the edge of the darker corridor for several seconds, shapeless and silent, then slowly pulled back into the gloom.
"I can't even kill one."
That was the part that hurt. The mission had let him think he was catching up. Then one mist monster walked toward them and reminded him that some problems did not care about progress.
An idea came to his mind.
Boran leaned back against the wall and opened his friends list. William Bennet's name sat there. He hated asking. He hated needing help. He hated that every time he thought he had figured something out, the world put another wall in front of him.
But being stubborn was not the same as being smart. Twenty Gloomy Hunters ahead. A boss after that.
"Yeah," Boran muttered. "I need magic."
Boney tilted his skull.
Boran selected William's name and opened a message window.
[Chat opened: William Bennet]
He thought for a second, then typed.
[Boran: Hello William. Are you busy?]
The answer did not come immediately. Boran waited with his back against the wall.
A reply appeared.
[William: Hello Boran. I am finishing something at the moment. Did something happen?]
Boran looked toward the dark passage. Then he typed.
[Boran: I'm in Twilight Pit. The mission changed into beta route and I can't exit.]
[Boran: I need to kill 20 Gloomy Hunters, but physical attacks don't work on them.]
[Boran: My Shield Slam can damage them, but I don't have enough mana to do this safely.]
[Boran: Can you help me? I can pay if you want.]
He stared at the message after sending it. It looked bad. Needy. Maybe desperate. It was desperate.
Boney tapped his shoulder softly this time.
Boran glanced at him. "Thanks."
The reply came.
[William: Gloomy Hunters? Yes, those were difficult.]
[William: Don't fight them alone. They are slow, but their cold effect stacks if you stay near them too long.]
[William: Give me a minute first.]
[Boran: Sure, take your time.]
The answer came eight minutes later.
[William: Send me a party invite and your location marker. I can come, but it may take around half an hour.]
Boran exhaled so hard his shoulders dropped.
[Boran: Thank you.]
He sent the party invitation.
[Party Invitation Sent: William Bennet]
A few seconds later, the System answered.
[William Bennet joined the party]
Boran stared at the green line. The dungeon was still cold. The mission was still dangerous. Mur-Azar still waited somewhere deeper. But help was coming.
Boney clicked once beside him.
Boran looked at him and nodded. "Half an hour. We wait."
Boney nodded.