Chapter 54 - Tests Of Rituals

The four of us looked towards the center of the room.

A skeleton was getting up to its feet.

The skeleton's height was about three meters, much larger than the skeletons we had encountered before.

The skeleton was covered in bulky iron armor that covered everything except the front of its skull.

In the skeleton's right hand was an iron shield that easily covered the entire skeleton. On the other hand, was an iron sword that was as long as the skeleton was high.

My hand scratched the back of my head.

"This skeleton... looks a bit bigger than the ones we dealt with earlier."

Mark laughed.

"It does indeed."

Osric narrowed his eyes.

"This one shouldn't be immune to thunder magic."

Osric flicked his wrist and a bright blue thunderbolt snaked out of his hand.

The thunderbolt collided against the skeleton's shield, forcing it back a few steps.

Tiny blue arcs jumped across the skeleton's body with a tiny buzz.

Mark looked at the skeleton's sword and shield that was now emitting faint crackles of lightning.

"It appears to be immune to thunder magic. You did not harm it in any way."

The skeleton swung its sword at Mark, sending a small thunderbolt his way.

Mark leaned to the side, dodging it.

"In fact, you aided it."

Osric frowned.

"My apologies."

Leon reached out his hand.

Earth encased the entire skeleton.

A crack formed and the skeleton broke out, but the electrical current on him was gone.

The skeleton charged after me.

My hand balled into a fist.

While the skeleton lifted up its sword, I pounced.

My fist hit the skeleton's iron shield with a dull thud.

The skeleton was sent stumbling back and hit the wall.

Small cracks had formed on the skeleton's shield, but it was otherwise unharmed.

Gales of wind suddenly tore into the skeleton, making its armor crack. The hand the skeleton used to hold the sword was blown around until the sword was flung out of his hand.

Mark clicked his tongue.

"The mana here is so thin..."

Before the skeleton could recover from the wind, I pounced on the skeleton. My fist hit the shield once again, making more cracks on the shield. The skeleton was against the wall, using the shield to turtle up.

Punching was simple enough to do, so my fists kept hitting the shield, making the cracks increase further.

Eventually, the shield shattered into pieces, leaving the skeleton with only its armor.

The skeleton dived for its sword, but Osric kicked the skeleton's skull before it could get near.

Another gust of wind blew by and the skeleton's head came off entirely.

The body of the skeleton started to tremble and retreat to the ground.

Osric picked up the skull so it could not go back under while my hand clutched the leg of the skeleton.

Osric furrowed his brows.

"Is there really no way to permanently destroy these?"

My eyes narrowed.

"Let me try something."

The crystal began pulsating and the skeleton stopped trembling.

Leon raised an eyebrow.

"That is convenient."

My hand scratched the back of my head.

"Uh, if you want to use mana stay a bit far from me. Also, it seems we will have to bring these parts with us to prevent them from coming back."

Osric nodded and carried the skeleton skull while remaining close to the crystal.

Past this room was another path, and Leon led the way.

Osric and I lugged along parts of the skeleton.

My hand was on one of the limbs of the skeleton's body and dragging it across the floor, making loud scraping sounds.

Leon stopped once again. There was no longer any light since my fire spell was canceled. Despite the lack of light, my mind could still sense the general shape of the room. Mark and Osric also did not have any difficulty in following us.

This room was much bigger than the last one. The room had countless stone tables like the previous ones.

Different from the last one, there were dried bloodstains covering the various tables. Leon walked towards a set of wooden tables lined up against the wall.

There were countless papers messily scattered about on top.

...Wonder if anything was written on them.

"Hey, does someone have a source of light?"

Osric shrugged his shoulders.

"I am able to do so. You will be in charge of holding the monster."

Osric tossed the skull over to me, which my hand caught.

After Osric took a few steps away from me, a big ball of electricity coalesced next to him.

The room became quite bright, making the words on the pieces of paper legible.

The papers were wrinkled and naturally slightly rolled up. There were small stains across the papers, and tears here and there.

There was writing on the papers, it was made using ink, and parts of the letters had faded away. Despite that, the writing was very neat, and almost all of it was readable, even if some parts were missing.

Mark's eyes narrowed as he read the contents.

My eyes followed his.

'Experiment Three, Second Try.

There were many flaws in my first attempt. In fact, that attempt could even be considered naive. Of course, valuable things never come easily.

Regardless, I am more or less on the right track.

Perhaps different people hold different values?

This may get a little complicated if the use of slaves constitutes different results, after all, acquiring slaves is much easier than even normal townsfolk.

This should be explored in further experiments.

For now, a general direction must be found.

Regardless, the report for the actual experiment is as follows.

The subject is a male, roughly twenty years old, has a height of one meter and ninety-five centimeters. For a slave, the subject has quite a healthy body, the only concern would be his deteriorating mental state.

The subject did not attempt to struggle.

So far, the rituals found in books in group A did not appear to have any desired effects, as expected.

There is, however, a certain ritual that appears promising.

The ritual from the book 'Above Foolish Mortals'.

It was quite difficult to kill the cult members, so it is only natural that they held something substantial.

There are certain flaws to be addressed, but certain kinks can be modified and retraced.

This attempt will replace the use of animal blood with human blood.

This is only one of the many issues to be addressed, but it's best to start off small.

Upon ritual completion, there appeared to be a twitch in the subject's hand. There is a possibility that it was a figment of my imagination, but this is a method to explore.

The next subject will be a female, of similar health and age. This is to see if a difference in gender constitutes anything.

As a reminder, grand things do not come simply. Start small to end large.

Do not forget this Noah.'

Osric frowned.

"What is this man trying to accomplish? These experiments seem to be quite gruesome."

Mark laughed.

"This person appears to be a fool."

Leon sighed.

"This person wished to pretend that he was not mad by writing these messages on paper."

Leon moved aside one of the papers to reveal another underneath.

"He truly is a fool, only attempting to deceive himself."

My hand scratched the back of my head.

"Uh... yeah."

Honestly, I had no idea what they were talking about. It was as if they saw something in these strange words.

Hopefully, they would be a little more clear if they ever talk about it again. Of course, there was an option to ask, but that would make me look dumb.

Not that I wasn't dumb but...

There was rumbling coming from the ceiling.

As dust and small stones fell from the ceiling, the four of us turned to look.

Two skeletons fell down, hitting the ground hard. They were both able to get up quickly, not concerned about any damage they caused to their bodies.

One of the skeletons had a small frame, reaching only a meter in height. A brown coat was draped over its body and there was a large knife in its hand.

The other was the stark opposite. It had made quite the commotion when it fell, cracking a stone table as it fell. Standing up to its full height, it reached five meters and held only a long blade in its hand.

The previous skeleton was rendered harmless after being deprived of mana. In consideration of that, there was little worry on my face when they charged at me.

Yet... the skeletons did not slow even when they were pretty close.

My hands were preoccupied with holding the parts of the skeleton in my hands.

A light frown appeared on my face.

"Could you guys deal with them?"

Leon stepped up to help.

However, my hands suddenly felt empty.

The skeleton was no longer being held in my hands.

Instead, the one-meter tall skeleton had it and was on the other side of the room.