Chapter: 863

While standing up, he smiled at the luminous jar sitting on the altar. It made Jay feel a little silly with how he had reacted, but glad, too. His paranoid self had over-reacted, but he would not have changed a thing. Jay left the jar there, not even laying a finger on it in case it was a test or a trap. It would be pretty obvious if it went missing, as it was the only light source in the room.

“Alright, let’s head deeper.” He nodded, glad that he had got some rest for his eyes and legs.

“Can’t be much further now… right?” he thought, and marched down the stairs.

As Jay made it to the passage connecting the upper and lower staircases, he had another snack as he walked through.

However, as he went to find some meat in his inventory, he found a serious problem.

“Ah… shit. Out of food.” He pursed his lips.

“Well, I can’t get more down here, and there’s not much up above either. I’ll just have to go hungry and finish this damn thing. I guess this dungeon has a time limit after all… finish it before the roots cover everything and the food runs out…”

“… Or, before the knights convert everyone to nutrients.” He shrugged.

Reaching the lower staircase, Jay listened quietly at the top. Hearing no marching echoes or clinking armor, he began the journey down, making sure not to step on the pulsating root he had been following.

The lower staircase was much shorter than the upper one, and Jay made his way down it in no time, though it peculiarly descended out of the ceiling and ended in the middle of a large room. A single luminous jar waited at the bottom of the stairs and was the only source of light.

Apart from the pulsating root and the staircase, Jay could see multiple large pillars around, which disappeared into the darkness in different directions. Red took a few steps off the staircase, causing an echo in the pitch-black, silent room, and it made it easy to tell that it’s more like an enormous cave than a room.

(Red, wait here a moment.)

Seeing the cavernous room, Jay thought to summon his spare skeletons.

“Dammit.” he thought as he walked up the stairs until it went into the ceiling again. This was to shield the glow of his necrotic mana from anything which may be watching within the darkness.

After dumping a few skeletons on the staircase, the bones floated and formed two skeletons - Lamp and Sweeper.

“So, it must just be Blue and Handy up there…” he looked up.

Jay expected Handy to be one of the fallen skeletons, though it was a level four skeleton now, so it held its own against the knights, as well as any of the others.

“Lamp, Sweeper. Welcome back.” Jay whispered, “craft yourselves some weapons.”

Both of the skeletons grabbed some bones and got to work. Normally, Jay would have crafted them some, but this time, he saved his mana for summoning.

It surprised Jay as he watched Lamp form an ossein sword for itself.

“I guess the gut knife and shepherd’s crook aren’t the right weapons for dealing with the knights.” Jay shrugged, glad to see its skeleton learning.

Lamp gave its new sword a few practice swings, however, it turned back to the bone pile and formed another weapon.

A long, slender pole with a curved end. It was crafting another shepherd’s crook.

“Ah… I guess some things never change.”

Sweeper crafted itself a sword too, but even though it wanted to, it restrained itself from crafting defensive spikes. It is the rear guard, after all.