Chapter 87: The Skeleton Mage

As soon as the falconer left, I drew the Snow-Hiding Bow and sprinted toward the skeleton mage in the distance.

Before I had even come close, that "enlightened" appearance of its sent a chill through me...

Beneath the loose, ragged mage’s robe protruded a pair of withered feet stripped of flesh, gray-black and skeletal to the core, the bones wrapped in a layer of black, wrinkled hide; every joint stood out plainly, no different from a true skeleton at all.

The hand gripping the staff set with a skull was ghastly and clawlike, without the slightest trace of flesh. Most shocking of all was the shriveled face hidden in the shadows of the hood, so dried and hollow it might have been a skeleton’s, with black pits where the eyes should have been. It looked no different from a mummified corpse displayed in a museum.

Damn...

No wonder there were so few people here. With an appearance like that, it was probably enough to frighten off most women. The falconer had actually recommended such a gloomy, terrifying place to me.

What a dark soul.

...

While I was still marvelling, the nearest skeleton mage had already noticed this uninvited guest. The empty sockets that had seemed so lifeless a moment ago suddenly flared with red light, and it let out a burst of strange cries unlike anything before, as if it had been pumped full of stimulants.

My heart jolted.

This thing was too abnormal. I wasn’t even within long-range attack distance yet... and it had already spotted me?

Damn it.

It had the initiative now.

But I did not give up. I immediately increased my sprinting speed, and before the skeleton mage could summon two skeleton soldiers, I drew and loosed an arrow. The falconer had said that the skeleton mage belonged to a summoning line and had poor physical defense. If it weren’t for its skeleton soldiers and bone beasts, even two warriors could probably kill it.

However, after the arrow flew, a frustrating thing happened...

Two skeleton soldiers, wearing tattered armor and metal helmets, materialized out of thin air in front of the skeleton mage, and with infuriating precision they blocked my shot.

The arrow struck the metal helmet of one skeleton soldier. After a crisp clang, the newly summoned skeleton staggered slightly.

"Hit confirmed. Skeleton soldier takes 28 points of damage!"

Apparently enraged by the arrow, the skeleton soldier snapped its jaws open and shut with a clacking rattle, then charged at me with a rusted broken blade in hand!

The other skeleton soldier also rushed after me on the skeleton mage’s command.

Seeing their speed, I felt a little relieved.

At this rate, they still weren’t a threat to me.

I nocked another arrow at once and fired again. With no skeleton soldier to obstruct it, the shaft flew straight into the skeleton mage’s head, hidden beneath the cloak’s shadow. The mage, just having summoned its soldiers, trembled all over.

"Hit confirmed. Skeleton mage takes 32 points of damage."

I frowned slightly. Just as the falconer had said, undead creatures had no vital weaknesses aside from the eyes. To kill it, I would have to attack from a distance while avoiding the skeleton soldiers.

No wonder, when we left the city, the falconer told me to keep only a few potions on me, store everything else in the bank, and then buy as many bundles of arrows as possible—five quivers’ worth each, filling every last one.

Frowning, I suddenly accelerated, slipping past the skeleton soldiers, keeping out of the skeleton mage’s attack range while dashing several meters away. Only after the mage’s spell ended did I rush back in and fire again.

"Hit confirmed. Skeleton mage takes 31 points of damage."

At a distance of twenty meters, trying to strike an undead creature in the eyes while also avoiding attacks from both the skeleton soldiers and the skeleton mage was indeed extremely difficult.

After several attempts, I finally chose to give up... or rather, to give up trying to aim for the skeleton mage’s eyes. It was too exhausting.

I might as well rely on the archer-warrior’s mobility and attack speed and fight normally. My attack was decent enough, and the skeleton mage only had 360 HP. At this rate, it would take only eleven or twelve arrows to finish the battle.

The half-quiver of arrows I used cost about one silver coin. An eighteenth-level monster could easily drop several silver coins at a time, so there was still a fair profit to be made. More importantly, the skeleton mages here were relatively sparse, and there were few people around, so no one would steal my monsters. I could finish one and immediately start the next round...

The leveling speed was much faster than in the Black Wind Forest.

After making up my mind, my attacks immediately fell into a rhythm.

At the edge of the skeleton mage’s range, I attacked, dashed out of range to dodge the phosphor-fire spell, widened the gap from the skeleton soldiers, then attacked again...

At last, the skeleton mage realized that the skeleton soldiers simply could not threaten this dangerous human. After a series of strange, harsh cries, a huge bone beast, composed entirely of pale white bones, suddenly appeared before the mage out of nowhere. This time I had learned my lesson and no longer wasted my arrows.

Only when the bone beast lunged at me did I quickly let fly another shot.

Hit confirmed.

The bone beast was clearly faster than the skeleton soldiers, almost matching my own speed...

With no other choice, I finally activated Swift Step!

I shook off the bone beast and the skeleton soldiers in a flash, the Snow-Hiding Bow quivering in my hand...

At last, before Swift Step ended, the skeleton mage let out an ugly cry and collapsed into a heap.

With the mage’s defeat, the skeleton soldiers and bone beast, no longer supported by its mental power, instantly crumbled like blocks with their core removed, falling apart all over the ground.

"Skeleton mage killed. You gained 189 experience points!"

At the system’s pleasant notification, I walked over to the mage’s remains in high spirits. Bending down, I picked eleven silver coins from the pile of bones, and excitement surged through me.

The falconer truly was a veteran archer-warrior. The place he recommended was excellent...

One skeleton mage could drop more than a dozen silver coins. Even if only one in three or four dropped anything, I would still end up making a tidy profit!

Most importantly, leveling here was extremely safe, and at this pace, with me already close to level sixteen, reaching level twenty before sunset was by no means impossible...