Investigating the paintings in each room lasted several minutes. However, the stories depicted therein added to Liam's curiosity. Fewer graves occupied these rooms in comparison to the previous level. In contrast, a few rooms contained pedestals with strange characters carved into them in front of the graves, likely serving the purpose of a tombstone. Everything pointed to the graves on this level containing the remains of soldiers who held small leadership roles, perhaps similar to a squad leader.

Each floor from that point on contained fewer graves but proportionately larger rooms and more extravagant paintings. On the fourth level, Liam even found a few trinkets. Most had rusted away save for a single golden ring. As a precaution, he tossed it into his inventory and to his surprise, it registered as an enchanted ring. If not for the fear in the back of his mind that it could be cursed, he would have worn it.

Killing seven mummies on each floor began to grate on his nerves by the time he reached the second to last floor. Only the loot soothed his irritation. Unfortunately, slaying creatures would probably end up as his staple source of income for a while once he escaped from underground, so he would need to get used to it.

To his surprise, he found only four graves on the second to last floor. Based on the paintings within the four spacious rooms, these four likely lived as generals or at least some equivalent position. The chandeliers exuded extravagance. Intricate carvings above and below the paintings emphasized the importance of the people in the graves. A pedestal stood in front of each grave with a rusted claymore pierced into each one.

Now that he thought about, all the rooms up to this point commemorated warriors. Was there some reason for that? Perhaps the place served as a memorial, or maybe their culture revolved around war. Either way, they were dead now. It no longer mattered. As interesting as the place was, it only told a story.

All that remained was to explore the bottom floor. Curious about what he might find, he exited the hall of generals, as he dubbed it, and ambled toward the final staircase. Right when he stepped onto the first stair, he noticed something in his peripheral vision. He froze upon turning his gaze toward it.

A soldier stood at the center of the bottom floor. However, it was no mere soldier. Beady red orbs floating within sunken eye sockets stared back at Liam as though waiting for him to approach. If the Restless Walkers were any indication, then this soldier was likely an undead as well. The deformed, rotting skin only served to verify such a conclusion. Unlike the mummies from the upper floors, though, this undead stood at least two heads taller than Liam, fully equipped with plate armor, a longsword, and a kite shield. To top it all off, an ominous black mist floated around the creature, giving Liam the chills. The eerie, flickering shadows generated by the wall torches created an even creepier atmosphere then it otherwise would have.

“Am I supposed to fight this thing? It wasn't there before, was it?” Liam asked nobody in particular. “Those eyes, though... Yeah, those are eyes, right? It's like it's asking for a fight. Not like I have any other way out of these caves, either... Damn, this sucks.”

Frustrated, he sat on the stairs to think. Not only did he have an injured arm, but he also had deficient equipment for fighting such a creature. Lacking understanding of how the level system might apply to other beings did not help either. His only chance to grasp victory would be some sort of underhanded trick like how he used fire against the giant ant. Perhaps fire would increase his chances again. Other than that, he could only try to prepare himself mentally.

I guess I could use those stat point things now, too... he thought. The issue would be choosing which stats to add points to. A sigh escaped from his lips as he opened his status screen.

“Strength might help, but I have a feeling I still wouldn't match up to that thing... so, that leaves either dexterity or agility since the others wouldn't help me at all.” While mumbling to himself, he periodically glanced at the undead soldier just in case it grew tired of waiting. However, it did not budge.

“Would be nice if I knew exactly what the stats affected.” He muttered. “Maybe they have some sort of description like the skills did? Speaking of which, didn't I get a few of those on the way here?”

Thinking such, he looked at the status screen and imagined a description screen popping up for both agility and dexterity. Immediately, two screens popped up.

Agility

Affects how fast a person can move.

Warning: If agility is above a certain

threshold compared to strength, there

is a risk of muscle damage.

Dexterity

Dexterity allows a person to properly

use agility to its fullest potential.

Also increases ability to perform

delicate tasks.

“Kind of what I expected, but that's interesting. Guess I need to allocate points to both. How about my skills then.”

Skills

(SP: 1372)

Class/Species Skills

General Skills

Stealth (Passive)

12

Deceit (Passive)

10 (MAX)

Dagger Mastery (Passive)

24

Crafting (Passive)

14

Throwing Weapons (Passive)

7

“Nothing I can use besides Dagger Mastery, I guess. What is this SP thing, though? Where did I even get it?” He said, still talking to himself.

Now that he was starting to comprehend how to navigate the system, he imagined a screen popping up for the strange SP units. However, a different screen appeared than he anticipated.

Learnable Skills

SP Cost

Mana Mastery (Passive)

3000

Ignition

250

“Learnable skills? Are SP the skill points the Masked Meister mentioned when I first got here? Either way, I can only afford the second skill. Mana Mastery seems like it would be pretty useful, though...”

Wondering what ignition could be, he opened a description screen for it.

Ignition

The user's fingertips mutate, generating sparks with a snap of the fingers.

“Mutated fingers? Weird, but I might be able to use it somehow.”

As soon as he said that, another screen appeared asking if he wanted to spend SP on the ignition skill. Of course, he picked yes. However, he immediately regretted his decision. Pain shot through his fingers. A pained yelp escaped his lips. Eyes wide, he stared at his hands which felt like they were on fire. Small cracking sounds emanated from them and he watched helplessly as the skin of his fingertips hardened right before his eyes.

A minute later, while drenched with sweat from the experience, he stared dumbfounded at his hands like they were foreign objects. They basically were at this point. Worried he lost his sense of touch in his fingers, he rubbed them together. It felt like he caressed sandpaper.

“This is kind of disgusting, but may as well give it a try.”

He snapped with both hands, generating two surprisingly large sparks.

“Damn. It's like flint and steel on steroids. Doesn't hurt, either. Wonder if that guy's skin is flammable,” he said, focusing his gaze on the undead soldier. “Alright, guess I'll add points in agility and dexterity and then see if I can't light this guy up.”