"Will it survive what we've seen on the surface?" A white haired succubus spoke, sitting two seats away from me.

"It's nothing but bones. It'll die like all the others that were raised on the first few floors." A minotaur responded, his gravelly voice rumbling throughout the room.

Around the table sat the succubus, the minotaur, the golem, the giant, and myself. A ghoul. The table was built for more of us to sit there, but we hadn't had any worthwhile newcomers in quite some time. It had also been a very long time since I'd seen, fought, or eaten any kind of dungeoneer, and at this point I would feel the hunger returning at times. Residing on the eighty fifth floor, it would be several more decades before they bothered to explore enough to find me, or the others. We'd all been watching the skeleton and its struggles. For the minotaur, that skeleton was a bit of an eyesore. For the giant, it was interesting that something so small and weak could survive for so long. For myself, it seemed a bit tragic that it had been forced into its current position, although it was somewhat at fault.

The knowledge that it had shown up had appeared two months ago, appeared when dungeoneers began speaking of it on my home floor. A ghoul that had feasted on their bones brought the information to me, and I made some inquiries with the succubus about finding the boney figure. It hadn't taken too long before we were watching it pull an axe out of the chest of an orc. It was unique, but only in the fact that it had the capacity to learn. That was simply the prerequisite to be deemed a unique monster.

The five of us were the few unique monsters that had been created specifically to be powerful in and out of combat. Most of the others made in the dungeon were just to keep things interesting enough for dungeoneers to come back for more of their precious coins. The skeleton was clearly just another one of those, but it had lasted much longer than the others, despite its own shortcomings.

It was distrustful, aggressive, reckless, paranoid, and short tempered. These qualities all served to make it the kind of being that wouldn't ever engender any sort of camraderie between the other floors. We had watched as it and its fellows butchered goblins and orcs alike, burning any alliance that might have been forged between them. Sadly, it hadn't been through their own mistakes. The goblins attacking first made it difficult to find peace, although it had been done before, between the ghouls of the thirty second floor and the golems of the thirty third.

There were some good qualities about it, however. It was quick, somewhat clever despite being a little more than a somewhat unique skeleton, and cautious enough in the long term that it hadn't immediately been snuffed out by the efforts of those from the surface.

"It might surprise us yet again. After all, it has survived this long." The golem crackled as it leaned forward slightly, getting a better look at the large crystal orb the succubus had set up to watch the skeleton and its fellows. It hadn't voiced its opinion to any of us, but I could tell it was still interested in seeing how things turned out, at least, unlike the Minotaur that had been talking about sending one of its fellows up to the fourth floor to smash the skeleton into dust.

"It shouldn't have lived this long, and it's going to make things harder for the rest of us if it keeps the weaklings from growing. Let me have it smashed." He said, staring intently at the skeleton in the orb, who was blissfully unaware of the monster threatening to have it destroyed.

"Let it live, you big oaf. There's no need to waste your time on something that much weaker than you. Besides, wouldn't it be more fun to watch as it struggles and squirms in its attempts to break free of its own fate? I for one, quite enjoy watching it fight so hard to grow stronger." She rested her head on her hands as she stared at the skeleton, unable to hide the sadistic grin on her face.

I couldn't help but shake my head at their arguing. I was interested in seeing the skeleton survive, but I wouldn't lose any sleep over it, as the surface dwellers would say. Whether it lived or died in the coming days, I would watch with the others, and that trial would help us decide whether or not if it would be worthy to join our little circle. Most monsters couldn't, because they either weren't strong enough, smart enough or wise enough to be able to provide anything of significant value. I had joined because I had gone above what most ghouls deemed necessary to survive. It was the same reason why I could resist the hunger that plagued my kind, and forge an alliance with the golems, a tough, strong, yet slow race.

If the skeleton wouldn't find a floor to make an alliance with, then it would need an uncountable number of its own kind in order to make any sort of progress into the dungeon, much less any attempts to break free of it. I still bore the scars of attempting to do so, having been viciously slashed across the chest, earning my first real scar. The memory was a fond one, but not one that I wanted to revisit all the time.

"What's it doing?" The giant asked, bringing my attention back to the crystal orb. It looked like the skeleton had been discovered by a few orcs, and was being pushed back slowly but steadily by the group of three. He was managing to get a few hits in, but not nearly enough as he needed in order to stay alive. Its movements looked like a vague attempt at something similar to dodging, but they were woefully inept to my eyes, and my own movements, which were honed by agility much higher than most could dare to ever dream of. Granted, those pathetic movements were keeping it from being killed immediately, which was more than most could say when facing off against multiple opponents at close range.

It seemed to have learned a few skills in the past two months, one of which looked like the skill known as [Haste]. It was a skill that quite simply, sped up the users movements and reflexes. With that, it seemed to be holding its own, although it did seem like it was holding back a few other skills.

Probably loud enough that he'd have more trouble than before. Why did he pick those if his strategy revolves around not being caught in the first place?

I contemplated what skills a skeleton might have chosen for combat, but hold back on using.

Bah. I'm old. I doubt I'll be able to comprehend the skill choices of a young monster, much less one that has the capability to learn. I'll just have to be content believing it's a fool.

As I watched, the skeleton seemed to be having more and more trouble trying to hold the orcs off, before one of them finally cracked its skull with a war club.

"Every damned time I get into a fight, you assholes break my fucking head! What the hell is it with this shitty joke!?" A shadow-like voice emanated from the skeleton as it suddenly let loose with a flurry of attacks, driving into the orcs as it activated a skill that looked like [Smash], which was used to obliterate the war club that the offending orc was carrying. It shattered loudly into several pieces as the skeleton struck, then proceeded to savage the orc even as it used a shield to batter the other two.

"Rather vulgar fellow, isn't he?" I mused, as I watched the orcs attempt to continue their earlier ferocity, to some small effect as their companion was violently disemboweled, before the now bloody bones turned to give them its full attention once more.

"If it does survive, do we even want someone with that kind of foul language joining us?" The succubus added, looking taken aback by its outburst.

"It'd make things more interesting than this tea party crap we have here, at least." The minotaur grumbled, as he picked up an apple from a bowl to its left, and tossed into his mouth.

"If it's vulgar all the time, then the discussions we have may drop a level. We don't want to lower ourselves to normal monster standards, because passion would blind us. We have to be smarter about what we do. However, if it can restrain itself from using a sentence like that during a tactical debate, we might just be able to allow it a seat at the table." I responded, tapping one of my claws on the stone table.

"If it doesn't get killed first." The giant spoke, pointing back at the orb.

The skeleton had been knocked onto its back, and was now doing its best to just not get its bones scattered across the ground. This went on for awhile as it rolled, slid, crawled, and leapt away from each attack, occasionally managing to block an attack only to be sent sprawling again.

The other two orcs were bloodied, but not to the point that they could no longer fight. In fact, both of them seemed to be a bit bloodthirsty, considering their companion had been violently killed.

Before they could actually finish it off, another skeleton entered the fray, wildly attacking with a thin bladed weapon. The orcs, unable to block or dodge the fast moving blade, were quickly cut down before they could even retaliate. The skeleton made sure they were dead, before helping the broken skulled one up. It seemed to be scolding him, although it wasn't speaking overtly, judging from the reaction that the unique monster was showing.

"It's possible that it has underlings. How adorable. It's actually letting its underling feel like it has some measure of control." The succubus cooed, her words sounding like velvet. I shook my head at her words.

That's not the conduct of manipulating an underling. That skeleton is a fool of a commander, if that's how he chooses to lead.

The skeleton with what I identified as a rapier then grabbed the broken skulled one, and started hauling it away from the scene of the battle, before anyone else could arrive.

"I still think it'll be dead soon." The minotaur grunted, eating another apple.