Draven kept his voice low.
"Actually, named dungeons are rare in the world," he said. "They also have ranks like normal dungeons. But the main boss inside is something terrifying. Its level would be at least ten times higher than a normal boss monster."
He looked back at Silas, his face serious.
"In this case, for a lower-level C-rank dungeon, it will be at least a level 50 monster."
When Draven was focused on the surroundings, suddenly ten or twenty skeleton soldiers attacked them from both sides.
They came out of the shadows along the castle walls. Their bones were black with old death qi. Their empty eyes glowed faint green. They moved fast and raised rusted swords.
Draven was ready. He drew his sword and attacked them using his Blade of Destruction. His slash was clean and powerful. It hit the first skeleton square in the chest.
But none of the soldiers were hurt at all.
The blade bounced off the bones with a sharp clang. The skeleton did not even crack.
Draven felt confused.
Silas took out his sword. He used the same technique as Draven. Now that they were alone, he could use his sword techniques easily.
But he also could not cut through the bones. They were too dense with death qi. His Blade of Destruction slid off like he was hitting stone.
Suddenly a thought appeared in his head.
He shouted toward Draven, "Draven! Imitate me! Use the technique I use!"
He moved. He did the complete opposite of what he did before. It was the technique he had practiced that night when Draven thought Silas had created a new technique just to fight his own blade moves.
But that was not the reason at all.
This time Silas did not slash with force. He turned his wrist, breathed in, and pierced. His sword flowed like water. He pierced one of the skeletons through the ribs and cut its body in half. The black bones split cleanly.
And in just seconds he started moving with precise motion, cutting one soldier after another.
Draven followed Silas's steps. He remembered those moves clearly. He copied the breathing, the soft turn, the reverse cut. He cut those skeletons over and over.
Where the Blade of Destruction had failed, this new flow worked. The skeletons fell apart like dry wood.
Silas stopped for a moment, his sword dripping with black dust.
"I didn't tell you before," he said, "but that day when you practiced your swordsmanship, I saw a vision. A vision of an old man, who taught me these moves. He said these moves are the ones he created in his last days. They are called 'Blade of Life'."
Draven thought in his head, so that was it. He always thought that his swordsmanship was incomplete. Something was missing. So these were the moves that were missing.
'Blade of Life.' Only life could cut through death. That was why his Blade of Destruction did not even get past their bones, while these counter sword moves cut through their bones like mud.
Draven knew about Silas's skills, so it was easy to guess why Silas got that vision.
Silas taught Draven one move after another. After learning all nine moves, Draven killed one skeleton and then another, while Silas followed the same route killing skeleton soldiers.
After killing all these monsters, they stopped.
A notification rang in Silas's head.
[Ding!]
[Congratulations host, for killing 9 level 30 to 32 skeleton soldiers!]
[You've gained 36,432 experience points.]
[Ding!]
[Congratulations host, you've gained enough experience to get a level up.]
[Do you want to initiate the process? Yes / No]
Silas looked at Draven and said, "I'm going to go through my transformation. Take care of me."
Draven nodded with a firm heart. He would do his best to eliminate any threats around Silas.
Silas chose the option yes, and in just seconds his surroundings changed. An unknown power invaded his body and soul through the void and started changing his constitution, his blood, even the cells inside his body.
His eyes turned golden while his body started floating above the ground. Draven looked at him in confusion. Although everyone gets a different phenomenon during a class change, this was too exaggerated.
In his heart he felt a little worried about Silas too.
On the other side, Silas came back to the ground. With blinding golden light around him, the pen he got at the dungeon before , floated out of his space pouch on its own and landed in his hand.
And a notification came to his mind,
[Ding!]
[Congratulations, host, for reaching Level 21.]
[You have obtained your first class change: "Scribe"]
[As in ancient times, scribes wrote down what happened. We in the future only know those events because of them. But we do not know whether what they wrote was truth or lie. Even lies became truth, and truth became lies...]
[You have gained your first Class Special Skill: "Ephemeral Edict".]
Silas immediately checked his status window.
[ Silas Valerius (Human)
Class: Scribe (Unique Hidden Class) (Branch of the class 'Author')
Level: 21
Strength: 210
Stamina: 160
Agility: 230
Mana: 500
Intelligence: 200
Skills:
1. Analysis - Can see through anything in the world by concentrating for a fraction of a second from an author's perspective.
2. Divination - Can see through everything in the universe. Past, present, future, truth, and lies. Can see through anyone or anything.
3. Ephemeral Edict - Using the Pen of Fate, as a scribe you can write anything you want. Even if you write a lie, it will become reality for 20 seconds. After 20 seconds, everything returns to normal, but 5% of the edict's effects will permanently remain.
Restriction: Costs 100 mana per use.]
Silas looked at his skill. His eyes opened wide.
With this skill, he would be invincible even among the powerful.
He looked at the beautiful pen in his hand. The moment he thought about using the new skill, the pen changed. The smooth metal shifted and turned into an ancient feather pen, the kind scribes used in ancient times. The feather glowed faintly gold.
Draven came up beside him, grabbed his waist, and pecked the top of Silas's head.
"Babe?" he asked softly. "Did you awaken your new class?"
Silas told him everything. He told him about the Scribe class, about Analysis and Divination, and about Ephemeral Edict.
The more Draven heard, the more a chill ran down his spine.
Draven also knew the meaning of that particular skill. A skill that could turn a lie into truth for twenty seconds was not just strong. In the hands of someone like Silas, who could already see through truth and lies and sometimes glimpse the past, it was terrifying.
He tightened his hold on Silas's waist, not out of jealousy, but out of instinct.
"Silas," he said quietly, "do you understand what you just got?"
Draven grabbed Silas's face in both of his sturdy hands and looked into his eyes with his dark amber gaze. Silas felt his heart start beating hard.
Draven said, "Babe! Your class is getting more and more unpredictable. Don't ever reveal anything about it to anyone." He looked at Silas with worry.
Silas looked at Draven's serious face, then chuckled and nodded. "Don't worry, Drav! I won't reveal anything about my class to anyone."
Draven kissed Silas's lips in response, and Silas kissed him back. After a few minutes, both of them separated, ready to go toward the next hall in the dungeon.
They moved together using precise footsteps. After learning those nine blade moves from Silas, Draven had gained control over his own swordsmanship, and he learned a new footwork called "Footsteps of Life and Death."
Using that technique, he moved and cut down one skeleton soldier after another. They even met some powerful level 35 skeleton captains too.
The skeleton captains were nothing like the soldiers. They stood nearly eight feet tall, their bones blackened from old battlefield fire. Each one wore a cracked iron breastplate etched with the crest of the Gashadokuro, and a tattered general's cloak still clung to its shoulders.
Their helmets had tall, broken crests, and green soul-fire burned much brighter in their eye sockets. Instead of rusted swords, they carried heavy halberds wrapped in death qi, and every step they took made the stone floor crack under their weight.
They killed them too, using their sword moves, and moved on to the next hall.
Silas had now reached level 21. He could kill any enemy up to level 41 easily, using his own technique and divine elements.
He also moved with precise action. Even when facing level 40 skeleton captains, he didn't budge for a second before cutting them in half.
The air changed as soon as they stepped past the last archway.
This was the core of the dungeon, right before the castle's main hall. The green torches were gone. Here the light came from black braziers that burned with cold white flame, and the stone was smooth, not cracked. It felt like a throne room that had been waiting.
Twelve figures stood in two perfect lines. Not soldiers. Not captains. Generals.
They were all skeletons, but these ones wore long black war robes stitched over lacquered bone armor. The cloth didn't rot, it hung heavy like wet silk, embroidered with the Gashadokuro's jaw in dull silver thread. Each wore a high-collared mantle, a general's war hat with a broken plume, and their finger bones were wrapped in prayer beads made of smaller skulls.
Their weapons weren't halberds. They carried black steel katanas and odachis, the blades humming with condensed death qi. The soul-fire in their eyes wasn't green anymore. It was deep violet, steady and intelligent. The system tags floated above them: Lv.41 to Lv.45.
Silas took one look and tapped Draven's wrist. "I'll take the left six. The lower ones."
Draven just grinned, his amber eyes flashing. "You mean the easy ones ! 41 to 43. I'll take the right then ."
They didn't argue. They just moved according to the plan.
Draven went first and he didn't hold back. He took out two swords from his space pouch thi time.He drew both swords at once, the Sword of Destruction in his right hand, the Sword of Life in his left.
With Footsteps of Life and Death he blurred. One step left a pulse of life, the next erased his presence. He wove through the six higher-level generals and cut them everywhere at once. A slash to a knee joint, a reverse cut across a spine, a stab through a ribcage to snuff the violet flame.
Black cloth tore, armor shattered, and the generals couldn't track him because he was using destruction to break and life to keep moving...