"Be quick, Aaron!"
"Yeah, the catacombs are about to close, so wrap it up and let's go back to the fortress."
"It won't hurt to have a few more bones!" Aaron said.
He nodded to his friends and headed toward Mason.
Being a swordsman had a few disadvantages against skeletons, but his sword had a solid blunt side that worked well on them. A few hard hits usually did the job and let his party collect plenty of intact bones.
Aaron rushed the skeleton, leaving a blatant opening to lure him in. Not taking your chance, huh? When the skeleton didn't bite, Aaron adjusted his grip and swung with the blunt side.
Mason slipped the blow with a sidestep and met Aaron's eyes.
Clueless, Aaron took it as a rookie's lucky dodge and unleashed a flurry of attacks. Only then did he realize this undead wasn't typical.
"Haha! Aaron! Stop playing around!"
"You're just bullying our porter. Her back is about to give out! Haha!"
Shut up. Something's off about this skeleton. At least he isn't attacking—
As the thought settled in, Mason closed the distance and drove his stone sword into Aaron's chest. The blade shattered against the steel vest, but Mason immediately let the handle drop, surged forward, and clamped one hand onto the adventurer's face.
His sharp fingers punctured Aaron's eyeballs, then hooked into the eye sockets.
Touch Of Decay.
Pale green light burst from Mason's bony hand, spreading across Aaron's face and deep into his eye sockets. Skin and flesh began to rot as Touch Of Decay threatened to melt his skull and brain. The pain was so extreme that Aaron could only scream, helpless against the spell.
"Aaaah!"
Aaron's teammates had never heard him scream like that. They stumbled back, then chose to leave him behind.
"What the—"
"This skeleton is no good! Run!"
"Get out of my way, porter bitch!"
They bolted, and one of them knocked the helpless porter girl to the ground. From the floor, she watched Aaron's hands go limp, then the rest of his body sag with them. He hung from the skeleton's grip, utterly defeated and dead.
It horrified her.
"P-Please… don't… kill me…" she stammered.
Mason didn't react.
[You have killed Lv. 10 Swordsman Adventurer.]
[You have looted 124 bronze coins and a mana potion.]
[You have leveled up.]
[You have leveled up.]
[You have leveled up.]
[You have unlocked a new evolution path - Ghoul Skeleton (Rare).]
[Would you like to commit to it?]
[Yes.]
With a single thought, Mason accepted the evolution.
As his bloodlust eased, something stirred inside him. Touch Of Decay activated on its own, spreading across Aaron's corpse. This time it didn't rot the flesh like before. Instead, it broke the body down, and loosened flesh began sliding over Mason's bones, settling into place like a glove.
Thirty minutes later, Mason stood wrapped in Aaron's flesh. His empty sockets flared with that distinctive, glaring red light, leaving the porter frozen in place.
"Aaa… aaaa… eeee…" Mason worked his vocal cords. "You—"
When he could speak properly, he turned to the porter girl on the floor. "You're not cut out to be a porter. You had half an hour to run. Are you stupid, or are you testing me?"
"I… I couldn't… move… at all…" the porter whispered.
"Then you're just stupid," Mason said, bending down to gather Aaron's clothes and equipment.
Now that he had flesh, he couldn't walk around naked like a skeleton. He'd absorbed every last bit of Aaron's body, but the new form wasn't without flaws. He was like an animated corpse, cold and insensitive to pain. Worse, he still didn't have eyes. Mason wrapped a cloth blindfold around his face.
"Would you believe it? That was my first human kill," Mason said.
"It's… unbelievable…" the girl replied.
"I realized he was no different from everyone else. This dungeon and the others were business to him. A way to make a living. He'd never do anything that might make the dungeons disappear," Mason said.
That wasn't why he'd killed Aaron.
As a hero, Mason had always known he could die in dungeons. He told others the same, hoping people would cooperate instead of scheming for loot, skills, and profit. But his words must always have fallen on deaf ears.
Aeryth and the others must have laughed at him for caring at all.
Everything's fair in dungeons.
He also suspected the Churches supported the dungeon businesses. That fit too well with their goal of keeping the dungeons open.
I should learn more once I completely destroy this dungeon. For now… what do I do with this girl?