Fight!

you look around gathering a few decently sized rocks before looking out once more, not bothering to hide this time, as you throw the rock at the head of the nearest skeleton

1 damage

The skeleton's skull recoils slightly as the rock bounces off. Your actions seemed to have alerted the group, as they started to look around seemingly in search of you, their assailant. Taking advantage of this moment of confusion you attack once more, throwing another rock

1 damage

The skeleton's body bursts into a glittery cloud of smoke, which starts to dissipate, causing you to panic, believing it to be an evasion skill of some kind, like how stereotypical vampires turn into bats or blood to attack their prey.

+10 Exp

The notification makes you relax slightly as experience points usually implies the enemy is completely dead and not just going through some sort of phase two - second form crap.

"Well, that's one way to kick the bucket, could've at least left your equipment behind...." you mutter, eyeing the twinkling remains. You notice a small blue orb floating a few centimeters off the floor at the skeleton's original location, which seems to be some sort of loot drop but you ignore it for now. The remaining three skeletons seem to have finally located your position as they start to advance towards you, their rusty broken weapons held high in a threatening manner. Their movements are thankfully very slow, probably due to their short stature and lack of proper locomotive anatomy you muse to yourself.

"No need to keep hiding at this point" you mumble, finally fully stepping into the hall a lot less wary now that you know they're a lot slower than you, and seem to be the Melee type. You continue to pelt them from a distance. Cowardly? Yes! You're not gonna take any risk here without knowing what happens when you die in this strange pseudo-game world.

1 damage

1 damage

1 damage

+10 Exp

1 damage

+10 Exp

NEW ABILITY : Projectile Lv. 1 (Passive)

Objects launched by you will have a minor comprehensive boost in all aspects

Two more skeletons explode into twinkling blue clouds, each leaving a blue orb like the first one. "I guess all those years of dodgeball finally paid off," you mutter, the new skill is unexpected but gives you some ideas about the system that you can delve into later. The remaining skeleton has stopped its advance, possibly wary after witnessing the fate of its companions you theorize. You and the skeleton sorta just awkwardly stare at each other, at least, that's how it feels to you, though the skeleton doesn't really have eyes so you're really not sure. As the adrenaline of your first battle calms down, Your brain starts to race once more.

None of the skeletons left anything besides the orbs, which you're not sure of their use yet, but all of their bodies and items turned into that blue stuff, when they died. You originally planned to "borrow" the bones and items of the skeletons after you defeated them but this new discovery seems to put a wrench in your plans. Since this last skeleton doesn't seem to be completely mindless, being able to show some level of caution, you consider trying to communicate or recruit it. If that doesn't work you also want to see if you can nab their items if you leave them alive, but restrained somewhe---

The skeleton throws a rusty axe-shaped curve ball your way, cutting off your thoughts as you quickly raise the torch in a hurried attempt to parry.

"Hey, watch it! I'm not into axe-idents!" You shout reflexively, as The torch splinters, slightly off setting the axe's trajectory. It bounces off the wall Behind you clattering to the floor along with the rocks you dropped in your hurried attempt at defense.

-2 Hp

Your hands ache a little and Your heart races as you realize what just happened, this is the first time you almost got severely injured like this, being from a mostly civil and peaceful world. "Fuck, that could have messed me up..." You curse, "axe-idents... that's actually kinda funny..." You chuckle nervously to calm your nerves as you prepare for further offensives from the skeleton, but nothing comes. You and the skeleton just stare at each other once more. It seemed to have realized a melee was impossible with your speed difference, hence throwing the axe, but after that failed, you realized it was now basically helpless. Your mind starts to spin once more remembering the plans you were considering before. It would be much easier to subdue now that it wasn't armed, and its Bony physique didn't seem to be able to put up much of a fight, if you decided to get physical.

Coming to a conclusion, you throw yourself at the poor creature, its small figure posing little to no resistance as you lift it by its bony equivalent of armpits playing your own version of 'Lion King', lifting it up like Simba. "Don't make me call Mufasa on you!" you threaten, trying to sound tough, but at the same time realizing that the skeleton nor any one else in this world would get that reference and you might just be trapped in this world forever never seeing your friends and family again, along with everything else you've grown familiar with in your past 19 years of life, plus your cat Milo who'll probably have no one to take care of it with you gone and the food in the house wouldn't even last- You cut those thoughts off before you have a panic attack focusing back to the matter at hand. You take extra care not to exert too much **** considering it's measly 2 HP. It flails helplessly in your hold, honestly you'd find it kinda cute, if you ignore that it's basically a dead body. You consider your options, accounting for the fact that you only have one captured subject, trying to directly disconnect its arm bones are too risky in case it could lead to fatal damage.

After a brief staring contest and out of options, you place your bony buddy back down, causing another brief moment of awkward staring between you two. Its squat size sorta reminds you of a child, though with the horizontal length and the likely fantasy setting of this new world, it could just have been a dwarf. You look down at it as it looks up at you.

"I'll keep my eyes on you pal..." You try to say as threatening as possible, narrowing your eyes, feeling oddly like a skeleton babysitter.

You two seem to come to an unspoken agreement as you slowly back away before turning around as you squat down examining one of the orbs. You consider using your Inspect skill, but not wanting to use your remaining 3 points of MP for this, You steel yourself, tentatively poking one of the orbs.

As soon as your finger makes contact, you hear what sounds like coins and items being tossed into a chest, as the orb turns into a small puff of blue, glittery smoke that quickly fades away. You're surprised but mostly certain it is safe. You turn your attention to the remaining two orbs. Picking up one of the rocks you dropped earlier, you tried tossing it at one of the orbs putting your new Projectile skill to use, glad it didn't use any of your already limited MP as a passive skill. The rock simply bounces off the orb not seeming to leave any mark or effect on it. You consider this result but our interrupted by another notification and a slight ache.

-1 Hp

The skeleton you set aside earlier has come back and taken a nibble at your ankle. You hold back your urge to kick it away, "Ow, what the heck, buddy? That's not how you make friends!" you reprimand, wrestling with the persistent pest, gripping its lower jaw and skull prying it off of you. You still wonder how it's able to move without any tendons or muscles but at the very least it seems to be quite weak without them since its bite hurts a lot less than if a flesh person tried to take a bite out of your leg. You hold its skull against the ground with one hand, effectively restraining further actions as you contemplate this development.

"Okay, lesson learned: skeletons bite, but they don't have much bite," you muse to yourself. Its lack of strength is definitely assuring and would definitely make trying to tame the creature safer, though you do wonder how it was able to throw that axe with such **** considering its lack of power. In fact, you question how it was even able to lift the weapon in the first place.

"Speaking of that axe, this little fella is still alive so its weapon shouldn't have turned into smoke yet..."

indeed you quickly spot its axe on the ground a few meters away as you let go of its skull walking over to pick up the weapon. It's quite hefty and despite the rust it's probably a better weapon than the damaged torch you have currently.

You put said torch into your inventory along with the axe, glad It went in and smoothly since the item belonged to the skeleton. This does raise the question of what would happen to the item if you killed the skeleton. Considering its weapon is in your inventory and the temporal shenanigans going on inside, it's unlikely to turn into the same blue powder the items belonging to the three other skeletons did. At least as long as you keep it inside, which kind of defeats the purpose of a weapon in the first place. You shake your head putting that thought aside considering it's just hypothetical for now since you plan on keeping your bony friend around. Some company would definitely help keep you sane even if it's just a skeleton.