Versatile: Alternate World

Leona's appearance quickly turned the tables between us and the Stone Cutter Puppet. Before, the Stone Cutter Puppet is just menacing at us above the air, ready to strike us down in a few seconds. However, now that Leona prevents it from flying up high since Leona strikes it down the moment it rises up in the air. With the trees gone, Leona's mobility in the air is greatly increased allowing her to fly and dart around without any problem.

Now that it was struck down by Leona, we quickly rush towards the Stone Cutter Puppet and quickly deal continuous damage to its core. Lucia grinned and was the main lead on magic damage dealt with the boss. With her flame spells hitting second by second, the high Hp of the Stone Cutter Puppet quickly went down.

When it hit the 500,000 Hp threshold, the Stone Cutter Puppet undergoes a berserk and a limited time immunity to all attacks.

"Don't hit it right now! It is going berserk! Our attacks will not connect right now!"

It started to frantically attack us though it was always foiled with Leona holding it back from attacking, in the end, the temporary immunity expired and our attacks are once again dealing damage again.

"Nuke this guy up! Don't let it stand back up!"

400,000

300,000

250,000

200,000

100,000

The HP of the Stone Cutter Puppet is being reduced minute by minute and it didn't take long before its cuboid body is reduced to junk and its core is now fully exposed.

We are about to destroy the core when a notification appeared before me.

[The Core of the Guardian is pulsating a tremendous amount of energy. Perhaps if extracted, it will grant a brand new ability. Will you devour the Core of the Guardian?]

Yes/No

The core can be devoured? I didn't expect it to be devoured. But if my theory is correct, this core will activate again if I leave it be. Seeing it with still another phase after the second one, it will surely revive again if I didn't do anything to the core. After all, for every golem, the core is the main weakness. Once the core is removed, it is good as just a heavy pile of junk.

I want to proceed into the First Necromancer so instead of waiting for it to resurrect again into a new form, I clicked yes, and the black shadow-like dragon appeared again, salivating to the core. Also, I noticed that the black shadow-like dragon form of the Versatile Weapon seems to have grown more...physical? I can't figure it out since I clearly remember when I first tried out the [Devour] function of the Versatile Weapon, it is clearly just a shadow-like figure, more closely looking similar to a cloud of smoke.

Maybe this was gaining flesh due to all of the flesh it has eaten? It even ate Dr. Katakura before in the real world so maybe this was the reason it got some sort of flesh? It might be the case but I am not sure. The dragon opened its mouth widely and swallow the core whole. It glow a bit for a sign of its resurrection, but that golden light was immediately swallowed by the endless darkness that is the stomach of the creature of the Versatile Weapon.

Then, the status of the item that was eaten appeared before me.

[Core of the Guardian]

Digestion time: 48 hours

Possible amount of skills extracted: 5 skills

Stats that will increase after the digestion: All stats

This is new. Usually, whenever it swallows anything, it doesn't need to digest anything and will swallow anything in seconds. Now, it needs to digest a whole core? But I am not complaining about it. I am just surprised that this is happening now.

As for the junk the core left behind, it was turned to dust after losing the main component that made it alive. After the confirmation of its death, everyone was rewarded with experience points and the drops fell to the ground. I didn't bother with the drops and went to the ruins. There are no more signs of any puppets that may be guarding the whole place. Meaning, our way to the First Necromancer is now open. However, there is still that dark presence I am sensing. However, it is faint and I can't fully detect it.

"Bladeheart! Come on! Don't you want to see the loot?"

"Keep it, I don't need it. Come here everyone once you all have gathered what you wanted on the loot."

I keep trying to find the source of this dread in the air but I can't pinpoint it out. It was like concentrating around somewhere but there is also a bit of something that keeps it from spreading far and wide. It was like an intentional suppression.

Even after everyone finished gathering all the loot, I still couldn't figure out where the heck is the cause of what I am sensing.

"What are you doing Bladeheart?" Dolly asked.

"I don't know but can you feel the heavy dread in the air?"

Dolly then concentrated her senses and she slowly frowns. "What is this? This is very heavy..."

"So I am not the only one who can feel the dread."

Lucia approached us. "It's because you guys have not developed the dark eye ability. However, I am impressed that you guys managed to even detect it. Here, let me share my ability with everyone.

SNAP!

Lucia's snap suddenly changed what we are seeing. The whole ruins that were made of concrete before were changed into a pile of skeletons and the ruined cave was actually a mouth of a giant skull. The others were stunned when they saw the sudden changes.

"What the hell? Is this what you were seeing since earlier? Is this why the sudden appearance of the skeletons earlier too?"

"Yes. From the mass of skeletons that made the ground, that machine earlier can summon multiple of them at the same time without any problem."

I cursed under my breath for not seeing this. So this is might be the main ability of the first necromancer. And with this, his arsenal of the dead army is going to be a troublesome thing. If the outside of the ruins is already like this, then what about the inside of it? Isn't it going to be much worse than the outside?

Since I have the ability to raise the dead as a necromancer, maybe I can use this chance to summon a few myself?

I put my palm to the ground and mentally focused on the summoning of the dead. And it didn't take much time before I managed to find a suitable candidate to be summoned. I also look for a few more to summon but I only found 5 possible candidates to be summoned.

With all of them found, I conjured the spell and resurrected the skeletons out. In just a few seconds, the skeletons appeared before me, standing before me with their green eyes. It seems that is the only way I can differentiate which skeleton is the one I summoned and those that were summoned by the enemy.

"You have a necromancer skill, Bladeheart?" Dolly didn't expect to see me perform necromancy.

"Oh, this is the first time you see me use necromancy right? Yeah, I have them. It was an advanced skill that is only available for me. The necromancer class is not yet released so there is no one capable of summoning the dead among all of the players playing Alternate World right now."

"But this ability of his is the minor one. It is not the advanced Necromancy that I am used to seeing in the past. The stronger necromancers before can summon an undead or a skeleton without the need for corpses," Lucia explained.

"Wow, I wanted to also be a badass like Big brother that can summon skeletons to do your bidding!" Iron said.

"Nah, keep yourself as a Paladin, if you become a Necromancer, you might choose this chance to become similar to those edgy protagonists in the novels and mangas I have read. You are far too dumb to be capable of doing smart moves with it."

"Bruh, sister. Don't be so harsh, it shouldn't be wrong to at least dream, sheesh..." Iron scratches his head.

"Enough chit-chat guys, let's get inside. We won't be progressing with the quest if we don't do something with the necromancer," I said to everyone which they also agreed with.

Despite the dread I can feel entering the mouth of the skeleton, it isn't really much different from entering a cave. But similar to the outside, the inside is full of the skeletons that were built as pillars and walls. It will be really disgusting if these skeletons were freshly harvested from people but thankfully, it was not.

I also made sure to put the skeletons I summoned at the front of us while we are proceeding. But then, two of the five skeletons were hit by something and they were reduced to ashes immediately.. Deep inside the passage, we are walking, the rattling sound of bones can be heard, seemingly waiting for our arrival.