Chapter 6: Harvesting the Undead
The three Skeleton Sentinels surged forward, their rusted iron sabers cutting through the damp green mist. They moved with unnatural, jerky speed, their hollow eye sockets burning with dark necromantic energy.
Any standard recruit party would have set up a defensive wall: tanks at the front to take the heavy sword strikes, mages at the back casting fire bolts to weaken the skeletal joints.
Kael did neither.
He lunged directly at the lead sentinel.
The beast swung its heavy, corroded blade in a wide horizontal arc aimed straight for Kael’s neck. Kael ducked under the blade, the rusty edge whistling inches above his hair. He closed the gap instantly, slamming the tip of his Hybrid Kinetic Cannon-Spear right into the center of the skeleton’s breastplate—the exact point where the chest armor was weakest due to centuries of oxidation.
"Fire," Kael commanded.
BOOM!
The built-in kinetic chamber in the spear detonated at point-blank range. A wave of compressed air blasted through the rusted armor, shattering the skeleton’s ribcage and sending bone fragments flying in every direction.
The sentinel collapsed into a heap of loose, silent bones.
[Target Defeated: Tier-1 Rusty Skeleton Sentinel]
[Experience Gained: 80]
Before the remaining two skeletons could react to their comrade’s destruction, Kael didn’t reset his stance. He immediately activated his backpack rig.
"Field Dismantle!"
A shimmering, grey mana wave erupted from the Portable Scrap Processor on his back, sweeping over the pile of shattered bone and rusted armor at his feet. The discarded plate mail, the broken iron saber, and even the metallic traces inside the monster’s core were dissolved in seconds.
The machine hummed softly, drawing the raw material directly into its processing chamber.
Ding!
[Dismantling Complete!]
[Materials Obtained:]
Purified Iron Ingot (Low Grade) x 2 Corroded Steel Shard x 4 Low-Grade Undead Core Fragment x 1
The remaining two sentinels hissed, raising their swords to strike Kael while his back was turned.
Without looking, Kael swept the shaft of his spear backward, catching the second skeleton across its kneecaps. The kinetic force shattered the dry joint, dropping the monster to one knee. Kael spun around, thrusting the spear tip directly through the third skeleton’s skull.
BANG!
Another explosion of kinetic force dissolved the third skeleton’s head into fine grey powder. The second headless skeleton tried to crawl toward Kael, its rusted blade feebly scraping against the stone floor, but Kael simply stepped on its spine and triggered his dismantling wave once more.
Within less than two minutes, three elite dungeon monsters were dead, processed, and packed away neatly into Kael’s inventory as high-purity raw materials.
[Target Defeated: Tier-1 Rusty Skeleton Sentinel x 2]
[Experience Gained: 160]
[Current XP: 390/400]
Kael stood in the dim corridor, wiping a speck of bone dust from his coat. His breath was steady, his mana pool barely touched.
"Effortless," Kael muttered, checking his system interface.
Where other recruits saw terrifying undead monsters with tough physical armor, Kael saw walking ore veins. Their armor was so heavily oxidized that his dismantling rig could rip the structural integrity apart with less than half the mana it normally required.
He looked down the long, winding stone corridor of the Green Mist Catacombs. Deep in the darkness, the echo of footsteps, screeching metal, and glowing green eyes filled the mist.
There were dozens of them.
A slow, dangerous smile crossed Kael’s face. "Let’s get to work."
For the next three hours, while other recruit parties struggled through harrowing battles—using up expensive health potions, dulling their swords, and suffering from poisonous spider bites—Kael turned Sector 2 of the dungeon into an assembly line.
Thump! BANG!
Field Dismantle!
Thump! BANG!
Field Dismantle!
He hunted alone, moving through the narrow side tunnels where large parties couldn’t maneuver. Every skeleton sentinel he met was broken, dismantled, and compressed into raw material blocks.
Ding!
[Level Up! You have reached Level 4.]
[Level Up! You have reached Level 5.]
[Stat Points Available: 10]
[Class Skill Unlocked: Rapid Assemble (Level 1)]
Kael immediately assigned 6 points to Intelligence and 4 to Agility, feeling his reaction speed sharpen and his mana pool expand to 120 points.
He paused near a underground water spring, sitting on a broken stone pillar to rest. He opened his processor’s storage container. Inside sat over forty purified iron ingots, dozens of corroded steel shards, and twenty-eight Undead Core Fragments.
"Now... let’s see what I can build with a real supply of metal," Kael said softly.
He brought out his schematic scroll. His target wasn’t just passing the trial—it was proving that a Scrap Artisan could create gear that rivaled top-tier guild smiths.
Using Rapid Assemble, he focused his expanded mana. The purified iron ingots dissolved into liquid grey light, flowing together with the corroded steel shards and undead core fragments. Instead of making crude tools, Kael guided the mana to construct complex interlocking joints, kinetic energy channels, and shock-absorbing plates.
Ding!
[Item Created: Sentinel-Breaker Heavy Vambraces (Rare)]
Type: Armor / Support Durability: 100/100 Defense: +25 Physical Defense Special Effect [Kinetic Impact Guard]: Absorb up to 50 points of incoming physical impact and store it. Can be released as a retaliatory shockwave.
Kael strapped the heavy, gleaming grey vambraces onto his forearms. They clicked into place perfectly, humming with a dark, steady kinetic aura.
Rare grade, Kael thought, his eyes shining. An F-Rank crafter making Rare-grade gear at Level 5.
Suddenly, the ground beneath his feet shuddered violent.
A high-pitched, desperate scream echoed from the main cavern further down the tunnel, followed by the deafening sound of shattering stone and wild magic explosions.
"Help! Somebody help us!"
Kael recognized that voice instantly—it was one of the recruits from Marcus’s party.
Kael stood up, gripping his weapon. He moved quietly down the corridor, keeping to the shadows until he reached the edge of the central cavern.
What he saw made his blood run cold.
The main cavern was completely covered in thick, sticky black webbing. Marcus’s party was trapped against the back wall. Two of their shield-bearers were pinned to the stone, unconscious and covered in venomous purple welts. The C-Rank Elementalist was on her knees, her mana completely drained.
Marcus stood alone in front of them, his pristine armor scorched and battered, his sword trembling in his hand.
Towering over them was a monster that shouldn’t have been in a Tier-1 dungeon trial.
It was the Venomfang Broodmother—a Tier-2 Boss monster, sixteen feet tall, covered in thick black chitin armor with eight glowing crimson eyes and dripping, venomous fangs.
The dungeon barrier behind them had been sealed shut by thick web gates. They were trapped.
Marcus backed up, horror written across his pale face as the giant spider raised its massive front legs, preparing to impale him.
"No... stay back!" Marcus screamed, swinging his sword wildly into the air, missing completely. "Julian... someone save me!"
The Broodmother shrieked, driving its razor-sharp leg straight down toward Marcus’s chest.
To Be Continued...
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