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Worse yet, Zarian left Straight Darkness +1 in his beta skill section, weakening it considerably instead of swapping it into the alpha skill section. This was not a smart gamble, but he wanted to try anyway.

Knowing this, Zarian didn’t let up on the wizardry fire support. The moment Naomi entered the stone knight’s magic sword range, Zarian’s cloak opened wide down the middle.

For anyone looking at him straight on, they would see nothing of his body beneath the Parasite Cloak, only complete darkness. From the darkness, dense bolts, javelins, and beams flew forth like a barrage of mini artillery support.

Zarian kept shooting at a consistent volume, breaking up the rhythm with different versions of his Straight Darkness +1. The bolts chipped away at the stone knight’s arms. The beams pushed against its sword. The javelins were an in-between, landing with enough weight and frequency to keep the knight distracted.

The magic webbing the spectral spiders had laid tore apart around the upper body, but that was okay. The spiders put all of their focus on wrapping up the legs and making the knight struggle to take a step.

Even under all of that assault, the knight still swung a strong magic blow for Naomi’s head.

She leaned back and slid under the sweeping blue magic cut. Then, with the high Strength and Agility of her profile, she pushed back up and kicked her foot hard and straight at the side of the knight’s knee.

The stone knight barely budged. The creature was already whirling its blade around to take a swing down at Gilbert.

Zarian growled and intensified the bombardment. The bolts, javelins, and beams landed with even more weight.

Stone chips and fragments flew free from the knight’s front in raining sprays. The stone knight’s large sword remained unbroken, slashing down at Gilbert, cutting straight through him – or through the image of him.

Instead of crashing through a solid shield and breaking the man behind it, the stone knight slashed through an illusion of Gilbert conjured from one of Bianca’s new skills – Close Refraction.

The real Gilbert charged past the danger poised by the sword and rammed his shield into the same knee Naomi hit. Again, the knight barely budged. Gilbert bounced off and followed in Naomi’s wake, circling around to outflank.

Bianca didn’t enter sword swinging range. She used her Searing Flash Array skill from afar. She shot focused cones of burning light at the stone knight’s face.

Despite not having real eyes, the creature seemed somewhat affected. Its pale blue eyes glared at Bianca. Then its entire body glowed blue, indicating its next attack. The stone knight charged directly at her with an explosive lunge.

Everyone behind the stone statue hunkered down behind Gilbert and his shield to keep from flying away.

The stone knight moved faster than Bianca could on her feet. With the distance closed, the stone knight crashed down with a ground-rumbling stomp and thrust its sword at Bianca’s torso.

The ditzy and youthful girl smiled, facing death head on before using another one of her new skills at the last second – Light Step.

Bianca became a figure of light particles and zipped to the side. For that moment, not much could harm Bianca. She couldn’t do much while in that form either. It was still a useful skill when she was in a pinch, avoiding total damage and creating some space again.

Better yet, her well-timed dodge surprised the enemy. The stone knight landed so heavily from the missed thrust, it was slow to recover its balance.

“Time for you to go down,” Zarian said, walking straight up to its front.

The Parasite Cloak extended its ends as bone-tipped tendrils and strips of wavering flesh. The darkness deepened inside the hood and down the middle of the cloak.

From those darkened depths, an even bigger assault of dense projectiles came out. The up-tempo attack battered the stone knight’s front so badly Zarian deformed it.

The knight lost its former, intimidating glory, as if a toddler had sketched it.

“Please don’t wreck it too badly,” Hannah requested. “I want to study it.”

“Sure, sure,” Zarian grunted, pushing himself.

It wasn’t easy to deliver so many hard hits with the beta version of a skill. He was up against his maxed limit, and he still wasn’t sure if that was enough against the stone knight.

Thankfully, he had reliable comrades on his side.

Naomi, Gilbert, and his skeletons ran in from behind. The remaining spectral spiders on the stone knight kept wrapping its legs up with more spider web.

Zarian kept pouring out hard dark volleys on the stone knight’s front until the inevitable happened. The charging group smashed into the back of the knight’s legs, tackling below the knees.

“Roll out of the way!” Gilbert warned.

Everyone scrambled from under the heavy knight. They barely made it out in time as it crashed down, tripped backward by a combination of one group chopping low while Zarian struck high.

From there, things became easier. Zarian summoned more spectral spiders. The little guys worked fast to bind the stone knight to the ground.

“I’m going in,” Hannah said, rushing forward.

A dark beam flew over her shoulder, throwing her off her feet from the sheer force.

Zarian landed his beam on the knight’s sword, deflecting it away from Hannah. The spiders worked doubly fast to bind the sword arm to the ground.

Hannah tumbled and rolled next to the knight’s shoulder.

She lunged at its face, uncaring of the way the creature glared at her with cold blue eyes. Her hands glowed with pale light, geometric shapes, and hieroglyphic text.

The knight struggled against its web bindings, ripping some of it away. Zarian’s nerves grew taut while Hannah stayed in a dangerous position.

“Hannah, watch out!” Gilbert warned as the knight started to rise.

“Got it!” she said, finishing her work.

The knight froze. Its pale blue eyes faded away, leaving a lifeless and deformed visage. It was stuck in a position where it sat up with the push of its sword arm, the other arm closing around Hannah.

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Its hand was an inch away from crushing the back of her skull. Zarian couldn’t believe he held himself back instead of pulling Hannah out of there.

“What the fuck?” Gilbert cussed. “That was way too close. Hannah, you could’ve died!”

“Check the notification,” Hannah said.

Zarian checked everyone’s levels. The gains were considerable. Hannah, Gilbert, and Bianca went up by three levels. Naomi and the skeletons all went up by two. Zarian went up by two as well.

The spectral spiders didn’t gain levels through experience. They would grow more capable once Zarian loaded up points in Mysticism.

The defeat of the Lost knight was a hell of haul for Zarian’s party, especially when it was only one enemy.

If I wasn’t here, that one enemy could’ve killed the entire party. Without Zarian’s overwhelming power, the knight’s high toughness and magic would’ve been too much for the party. It was definitely a different breed of monster, or maybe it had a higher quality class.

Gilbert lost some of his righteous anger, enjoying the sweet gains of well-earned levels and stats instead of scolding Hannah for nearly killing herself. Besides, nobody truly came out worse for wear other than the skeletons.

Good thing they have Reinforcement +1 Enchantment, Zarian thought, letting out a tense sigh.

Hell, he was shaking a little underneath Para’s cloak. Nobody could see it because of the darkness and Para’s wavering movements, making him seem completely unaffected and stoic.

In truth, Zarian feared the worse could’ve happened for gambling with the lives of his party.

“That was nice. Other than it being very tough, it didn’t seem that hard.” Bianca hopped on the webbed-up chest of the golem.

“I think its toughness, Strength, and magic blade was the reason it was out of reach of my Identify,” Zarian explained. “Anyway, you wanted it mostly preserve, right, Hannah? Why’s that?”

“What do you see using Identify?” Hannah asked.

Zarian checked:

“Other than it being a weaker variant than other golems, its description matches its name. It’s been wandering while lost and away from home. Apparently, its ability to fight, and the runes used to make it function, are astonishing for this era. Maybe it’s made of lost magic from a begotten era or whatever.”

“Yes, that’s what I’m getting from studying its runes,” Hannah explained. “I saw more when it was upright and active, but even while down, I can see a few still lingering under my scan. And some of those runes … describe a map.”

Zarian and the others became more interested in hearing that.

“I’ll need some time to get what I can down to memory,” Hannah admitted.

“The spectral spiders can help. Tell them what you learn, and they’ll spin you a web, writing it all down. Short words, please.” Zarian nodded as two dozen spiders appeared on the knight’s chest, around Bianca and Hannah.

“I really don’t like it when they do that,” Bianca admitted.

“Thank you for loaning them to me,” Hannah said. “Can you do me one more favor? Can I borrow the dungeon core? I want to check a few things.”

Zarian had no problem with that. From the darkness under his cloak, Para’s tendrils pulled out the White Spider Dungeon Core from her dimensional storage and extended the head-size pearl to Hannah, its surface shining under the twin suns.

Once Zarian had taken the dungeon core weeks ago, the entire dungeon faded into the pearly sphere. The White Spider Dungeon was no longer in the caverns on the way to Grimock. It was with Zarian’s party.

Hannah thanked Zarian and Para before she was consumed with her work, studying the golem and the core together. Bianca lowered into a cross-legged seat on the knight’s chest, keeping Hannah company while looking around at the alien landscape and blue sky of block-shaped clouds.

The spectral spiders skittered around playfully as they waited on Hannah. A few went off to scout the nearby area, turning translucent and stealthy.

Zarian turned to Gilbert, Naomi, and the skeletons. “So, ready to dig some graves and burn some bodies?”

“Graves, yes, but why are we burning?” Gilbert asked.

“To prevent the chance of them rising from the grave. The grimoire told me unintentional risings can happen with undisciplined necromancy, especially if the corpses are still fleshy. We’ll get Hannah to use her fire runes once the graves and bodies are set.”

“Oh, okay, I guess that makes sense. Thanks.” Gilbert sounded less like his usual self.

Zarian handed him a shovel he’d picked up from the sub-floors under Castle Grimrock. The man didn’t notice Zarian and Naomi standing back, leaving him and the skeletons to dig into the soft earth. It was clear that Gilbert was committed to doing the work.

Because of their levels and stats, it didn’t take long for Gilbert and the skeletons to dig up multiple graves. He’d ended up breaking the shovel along the way, so he used a dark shovel provided by Zarian for the finishing touches.

Even without the Reinforcement +1 Enchantment, the dark shovel held up under the strain.

Hannah stopped her studying to join them for the burial service, Bianca following along. One by one, Para lay their dead.

Kenneth went first. Then Mark and Lincoln. Finally, they lay Wally.

Seeing them all placed into their graves, still warm and bloody from being petrified in Para’s storage dimension, Zarian found it curious that he didn’t feel as sad as he’d expected.

He still felt somewhat guilty. But he wasn’t depressed or sullen or dispirited.

Maybe that was screwed up.

Or maybe he was moving on, naturally or unnaturally. The evil +1 alignment could be at fault.

Whatever was the reason, Zarian felt a little sorry for Gilbert who looked haunted at the sight of his buddies in their graves.

“Why?” Gilbert asked hoarsely.

“I wanted out of the old world,” Zarian answered. “You were all yanked along by accident.”

There was no anger from Gilbert. No disapproval. There was plenty of silence as the suns lowered toward the horizon. Then Gilbert let out a heavy sigh.

“Maybe things could’ve been different if we didn’t jump the gun. Well, what’s done is done.” Gilbert nodded.

“Sorry, Wally,” Naomi said, directing her attention toward the dead retail worker who’d wanted to be an isekai hero.

“Rest well, everyone, and root for us when you can,” Bianca said.

Hannah had nothing to say and waited for her cue. Receiving a nod from Zarian, she went into each grave and lit the bodies directly.

The goblin skeletons had piled in burnable fuel from the surrounding vegetation. Whatever magic the bodies, wood, and leaves contained would act as kindling before the flames roared to life on their own naturally.

Four fire pits crackled and burned, smoke rising into the sky. The survivors of Zarian’s portal incident watched the flaming ceremony for some time.

Then Hannah went back to studying the golem and the dungeon core, with Bianca keeping her company.

Naomi went off to exercise – other than the novelty of seeing the surface, Naomi would usually spend hours of the day training her body plus more.

Zarian and Gilbert remained side by side as the flames kept cackling. The smell of burning flesh wasn’t much fun.

“Sorry,” Gilbert said.

“Same,” Zarian replied.

“Thanks, too. For the burial.”

“It’s the least I can do. Let Loner and the skeletons know when to pile dirt on them,” Zarian told Gilbert.

“Got it, chief.”

Zarian wandered off to find a spot to study his grimoire. He was getting closer to fully learning the special fire spell. He also had a few notifications he wanted to check out.

Straight Darkness +1 had leveled up twice, now Level 12. It looked like placing skills in the beta section didn’t limit their experience gains. In fact, it might help grow them from the extra exertion to use them.

Second, his Grimoire of Black Magic 101 had leveled up.

Zarian smiled under the deep darkness of his hood. These two distinct changes to his grimoire skill had large implications for him going forward.

He could evoke learned spells without summoning the grimoire, making it harder for enemies to recognize he was a wizard.

His learning speed was faster. Acquiring the next spell and the spell after that would be easier.

Zarian dove into his grimoire to test that last change. It was amazing. The difference felt like night and day.

Give it another week or less and he would have the special fire spell down pat. Then he could tackle the intimidating and destructive gravity spell.