The adventurers ran right past us, before stopping for a second, realizing their mistake. Too bad for them, though. Since they stopped, it was even easier for us to leap out and attack them.

There were indeed three of them, a woman and two men, all probably around the age of twenty, and oh so woefully inexperienced, to have made so many mistakes all at once. They had no formation, and we all swarmed around them, surrounding them completely, before they could begin to run. We couldn't all attack them however, as the hallway was too narrow to do so.

"Shit, what do we do!?" A fat one screamed, pointing a spear toward any of us that went within striking distance, while sweating profusely, probably due to all the running. His hair was cut extremely short, and the leather armor he wore only barely fit over his protruding stomach.

The woman just stuttered. She looked like her brain had short circuited, as she was wielding two knives in her hands. She had raven black hair down to her shoulders, a short cloak wrapped around her shoulders, with her own leather armor well fitted to her.

Dual wielding is so overrated.

The other man grit his teeth, holding a shortsword in a defensive stance. "Damn it! There's too many of 'em! We break through!" He stepped forward, bringing his sword up in an attempt to swing down. He seemed either the most experienced or the most confident of the lot, with a commanding voice, a handsome face, and a well made chain shirt.

Oh no you don't.

"Kill them!" I stepped toward the fat man with those words, and the others surged forward. Too bad for me, as I'd gotten too close already with that step forward, and the spear came my way. I tried to step to the side, and the spear slammed into one of my ribs, cracking it before it slid away, and past me. I felt angry at the fact that I hadn't been able to dodge, and I sent my club forward, toward his head, but a sword appeared in the way, and left a deep cut in the bone, as I'd put no small amount of force into the swing. The sword disappeared from my vision, going back to fight against the rest of us.

I pushed forward, my other hand holding onto my basket, as I sent it forward to be a slightly more effective punch. The ribs smacked against his face, and he pulled back, blood flowing from his nose and mouth. "Y-You dare!" His face contorted into a mask of rage, and he swung the butt of the spear around to slam into my ribs, breaking the spine of a skeleton to my right, losing a bit of force, but continuing on. I barely managed to get my arm in the way before I heard a loud crack, and the impact vibrated through my whole body.

Luckily I didn't have any nerves, otherwise I would've been incapacitated from the strike. However, he didn't get off easy, as the skeleton to my left got in close, attempting to stab him with the bone shiv. If there's anything to say about spears, it's that they don't do anything when your enemy is right in your face. He took at least four stab wounds before he shoved the skeleton back, while I backed off, looking for an opening with my club. I'd get maybe one or two good swings out of it before it snapped in half. I had to be careful, but I couldn't wait long.

The swordsman was hacking away at the skeletons attacking him, while the dagger wielding woman, from what I guess she was more or less a rogue, was barely holding her own. I saw the broken bodies of at least three of our number, and they weren't getting back up. The swordsman was moving too fast for my liking, and needed to go, soon. I couldn't do anything however with the spearman still alive. Two of us were fighting within striking distance at this point, attempting to get behind the meager defense he was putting up, swinging his spear as if it were a baseball bat. I decided I'd have to take a risk, if I really wanted to end this quickly. If I failed, I'd be the next to fall. If I succeeded, well, I might just live to fight another day.

I stepped forward as the spear cracked against the head of one of the newer skeletons, breaking it open, and sending them to their eternal sleep. The spear went back, driving the other one away, before it was swung at me once more. I raised the bone basket in the trajectory I was sure the spear was travelling in, just in time for it to crack upon impact.

Hell yeah, plot armor!

I dropped the basket, and before the spear could be brought back, I grabbed onto the shaft, and kicked right in between the adventurer's legs, as my other arm felt almost useless at this point, although it still held onto the club. The basket hit the ground, mostly broken at this point, as the spearman doubled over, his grip on the spear weakening just enough for me to wrench it out of his hand, before flipping it around, and stabbing it through his armor and into his chest with a wet thunking sound.

Who ever said I would fight fair?

There wasn't nearly as much blood as I expected, even after I ripped the spear back out, and he fell onto his stomach, unmoving. At least, there wasn't much blood until it started pooling around him. Either he was already dead, or in too much pain to move. Either way, he wasn't a problem anymore. My side surged forward, and the woman was quickly dispatched at that point, a bone club cracking against her head, sending her to the ground, either unconscious, or dead.

"Leave her! Deal with him!" I shouted before any of the others could do anything to her. We had more pressing matters, and I had questions that needed to be answered before I did anything else. If she was alive, all the better. If not, I'd get my answers some other way.

The swordsman noticed his companions falling, and this only seemed to enrage him, as he swung the sword with more force than before, shattering bones and breaking the bodies of the force we'd assembled to face them. He alone brought down another five of us, before we stepped away cautiously.

By this point, he was bloodied, and bruised. Breathing heavily, he pointed his sword directly at me. Probably because I was still holding the spear of his now dead friend. I took a step forward. I gripped the spear with my still good hand. Then I spoke, to three skeletons that stood to his back and his sides. "Finish it."

The four of us moved forward simultaneously, two of them wielding the daggers previously held by the woman, me with the spear, and another with a shiv. He tried to cut down at me, but his sword wasn't nearly long enough, only serving to deflect the attack while the other three pierced into his back, right side, and neck. He was dead before he hit the ground.

Angry psycho. No way am I going to fight you one on one.

"No time to celebrate. Grab their bodies. Leave the girl alive for now. I have some questions I want to ask her, if I'm capable of doing so." I stooped down, examining the woman. Putting my cracked hand on her chest, I could feel the faint thumping of her heartbeat.

Still alive. Good.

Before I could do anything else however, I felt the injuries I'd suffered during the battle fade, along with the crack in my eye socket, as what I could only describe as a feeling of warmth enveloped me, much like the feeling of a pleasantly warm summer day.

Level increased to 2! Hp, Mana, Stamina restored! Injuries fully recovered!

Enemies killed at Level 1:

2x Skeleton, Experience recieved; 0

Novice Adventurer, Experience recieved; 300

I looked at the notification with a sense of confusion, and a healthy amount of irritation.

Leveling up heals my injuries? That's way too slow for me. I'll die long before I get strong enough to survive on my own. Also, what's with the no experience from the two skeletons? Do I not get experience for risking my life against my fellow undead? That's just not fair. Especially the fact that there's no contribution experience or anything. I helped with that angry sword guy right? Where's the experience for that?

As I stewed over my own level up, I clenched and unclenched my right hand again, having discarded the now useless bone club. Regardless of how good it was, it wouldn't hold up anymore. Grabbing the woman, I hefted her onto my shoulder, before realizing just how heavy she was.

Are all adventurers such heavy sacks of meat? I'm not doing this again, if I can help it.

I moved slowly as we hauled our bounty back to the chamber. The she-skeleton I'd brought back a few hours ago had surprisingly survived the fight. None of us were very talkative however. It had costed us half of our people just to bring down three adventurers. It didn't matter if they were novices or not. We couldn't sustain those kinds of casualties every time we got into a fight, especially since we might not get to choose the next one.

The others carried back the broken bodies of our fallen comrades. It took some persuading to get them to agree to the idea of turning their deaths into our strength. At least we'd have enough bone clubs and shivs for everyone, now.

We spent the next hour looking through all of their possessions, and stripping them of any backup weapons they had, along with their armor. We would decide later on who would get the armor, but nobody had any argument when it came to me holding the spear. It was my weapon, and if anyone wanted it, I was certainly willing to break their skull before they took it from me. The sword and daggers were left to the others, who all began discussing who would get to have what.

In the meantime, I monitored our new captive. She'd had a rather pathetic looking excuse for a healing potion, but I figured it would be better than nothing. I forced the liquid down her throat, the spear tip pointed at her chest, but not close enough for her to wake up, startle herself, and impale herself on it.

Time to see if I can speak to anyone other than monsters. I have so many things I want to learn. Rise and shine, sweetheart.