Rhapari, still perplexed about the whole situation, at least didn't have to stay that cold. After Zom had screamed at the crypt boss, they seemed to have come to an agreement. Her face was already chilly by then, though.

  The throne room had a hidden room that the Lich opened up for them. She couldn't believe just how realistic the game was. In a week she had managed to find two anomalous mobs and now a secret room behind the boss. Seeing how easily these unique events happened made her wonder if her guild members' experiences were simir.

  She leaned back in the weird chair. Its backrest was absurdly high. The back room, while not covered in snow and frost, still retained that royal aesthetic. It was compact, with a long table and multiple chairs. It didn't seem to be a dining room, the map on the table made that clear.

  “Hgry thu trienshg?” Zom said. Their talk had been going on for a while. It could have been argued that Zom was simply screaming at the Lich before. This, however, was indisputable proof of sentience in both of them.

  They can’t be using simple words… did he ignore me on purpose? No… probably can’t understand me that well.

  Their talk, despite being decently lengthy, was about random things. It turned out that he was Feraun's brother, Ferul. Han didn't bother catching everything; the gist of the conversation he actually forced himself to remember was that Feraun was still alive and that he was a bad guy. Ferul did mention how he ended up here, something about betrayal and dark elven magic.

  “Anyway, how’dya end up a zombie of all things on this unholy world?” He reclined, his skull knocking against the wooden headrest with a loud thunk. Han managed to catch him rubbing the back of his head as if it hurt.

  “Won’t talk. I’m more interested in your way of talking.” Since the world Nira created was the epitome of medieval fantasy among other genre additions, Ferul speaking like a modern thug was notable. It was very unlikely for a century-old skeleton, with centuries of living beforehand, to talk in that manner.

  “Ya like it? I dunno, just kinda adapted to what I heard from the adventurers. They’re always yelling and stuff. So I started yellin’ back y’know?” The eyeless sockets darted around, seemingly avoiding Zom.

  “Even if they couldn’t hear you?” After a moment, Han added.

  “It paid off in the end; I’m talking to you, aren’t I?” It was as if he could hear Ferul's lips curl into a smile.

  Han didn't feel the need to push this topic any further. Even if he understood it—the loneliness. The focus shifted to the dark elf sitting comfortably in the back. Watching both of them with vague interest.

  "Can… can you leave this pce? At least you could with her, right?" If he had any features, Han could tell they would be drooping right now. Soon enough, the sockets darted back to him.

  Ferul, while giving a decent point, didn't have the full picture. Han hadn't tried leaving the crypt, but the game was having trouble cssifying him as a pyer or a mob.

  “It’s unlikely. Besides, I’m technically a monster now.” Han remarked, ignoring the insinuation Ferul made.

  "We're in the same boat then." He slowly stood up. The moment he did, his limbs started fading out. Bone by bone, moment by moment, he was only a spine with a head.

  "What's happening to you?" Han touched the floating, nearly gone, Ferul. His hand passed right through him. As it was happening, Ferul seemed to have forgotten to mention it. The floating skull tilted as if embarrassed. Han could practically see his left arm coming to his cheek.

  “Oh? it happens when an adventurer is comin’, stay hidden. I’ll come back after I die.” Without any fear, he added before fully disappearing. Han's hands shook with malice. There was a chance he could've ended up as him, dying repeatedly for all eternity.

  I… have to leave this pce—

  Moments ter a loud explosion from the throne room disrupted him. He gnced at the only person there besides Ferul, who was quite remarkably calm for such an unusual scene. While she did stand up at the noise, Han swiftly stepped towards her.

  “Hunt.” Zom's barely coherent gurgle was the single word she had understood in the past half hour. Since Han was slow and steady, she had copied him. If this behemoth of a zombie was calm, there was nothing for her to worry about.

  After gently touching her shoulder, a sign to sit down, Han walked to the only door in the room. The hidden door to the throne room. It was safe to assume Ferul was fighting some party. That would expin the explosion. As he peeked through, however, he couldn't help but smile.

  I’ll leave this pce…. After a hefty meal!

  ?

  Large balls of fire kept bashing the crypt boss, each the size of a boulder. The icy throne room had puddles from the heat of their relentless assault. Their loudness, however, obscured the perpetrator's ecstatic shouts.

  “Explosion! Explosion!” The young man kept calling out the spell's name; the short pauses in between were to drink a mana potion. One might notice that the timings were very lucky, or already known by the mage. Whenever crypt boss Feraun had an unclear gap of downtime, he instantly chugged a potion.

  With the guide, it’s so easy!

  After being killed by Feraun, the shitty, ice-spamming attack boss, he couldn't help but research him. Until he found some cringy website filled with hundreds of guides. The forum poster, Shadow Guide, seemed to be a popur poster on the forums in general.

  Following a step-by-step was simple; sadly it hurt his magnificent intelligence stat. Nothing that defeating the boss couldn't fix. After using a rare item to re-spec his magic elemental attribute to fire, everything was ready

  “Explosion! Explosioooonnn!” He kept screaming, barely avoiding anything, focusing on stunning the boss with the assault. While his gaze was on the boss, something fshed before his eyes.

  I simply blinked. He thought. The next moment, he died. Everything became gray, and he returned to the reorientation zone, where he was forcibly logged out of the game for the next 24 hours.

  “W-What?” He couldn't understand, his pain threshold was turned all the way on. That meant he could have at least had a hint of what killed him. There was no icy warmth that Feraun's attacks caused. There was this one unusual thing.

  The bck blur…

  ?

  [2126 EXP GRANTED]

  [LVL 10 ACHIEVED - NEW USER ABILITY]

  The battle ended quicker than anyone could have anticipated. Han had finally leveled up, while Zom outpaced him by a mile, exactly 12 levels. There was nothing he expected, really. He would love to be just himself.

  Before he could check it, he gnced around. The muddy puddles, the melted pilr, everything was regressing to how it was. The snow sprouted out like grass; the cold had returned. Nothing changed. However, a light hand rested on his shoulder, a bony one specifically. Maybe it had.

  “Hey pal… you crazy or what? One of his attacks could’ve blown you to pieces.” Ferul noticed Han spacing out and spoke first.

  “It’s fine my agility is—“ He disputed it without turning around.

  “And damn, you’re fast. My eyes… well, my sockets barely kept up with you. You totally predicted him trying to finish me off instead of drinking that mana potion.”

  “I didn’t predict it. That’s… never mind.”

  “At least,” Ferul's head drifted down before jolting back to him. “…At least I won’t have to worry about you dyin’ out there.”

  “Mm.” Han nodded without mulling over what Ferul said.

  They went back to the hidden room, where Rhapari, upon seeing them, lit up once more. Han and Ferul spent some time in silence; it was only a moment, but it was enough to solidify their thoughts.

  “Guess it’s time.” Ferul's voice turned rather somber. He hiked his shirt up, revealing his various bones, the spine, the bottom few ribs, and the pelvis. At the same time his hand went inside the ribcage, it seemed to fidget near where his heart would have been. With a light grunt, his hand returned with something tiny, bck, and unusual.

  “There it is, pal. Hey… I’m dead and all, I don’t need it.” He extended his skeletal hand, palm up, to Han. The tiny bck thing was a shriveled-up heart. Unbeating, undead, akin to a coal pebble.

  Han took it gdly. At this point, any feeling of self-betrayal would only anger him. Han went up to Rhapari. Her eyes began glistening once he handed it to her. She jolted up and lightly bowed to them both.

  “No need to thank me, ss!” He ughed loudly and put both hands on the pelvic bones. The shirt was still stuck on the ribcage, leading to quite the bizarre scene.

  “Pft!” Rhapari immediately grabbed her mouth. “Ah—sorry, I’m sorry, it just came out.”

  Ferul simply stared at her, an emotionless skull, yet Han somehow felt a smile faintly appear on his absent face.

  “Alright! Out! Out! All this bbber is giving me a headache… hehe.” He shouted, trying to hide his ughter, then immediately started pushing Han out of the hidden room.

  “…See ya pal.” He gave a final whisper to Han, which Han repeated back to him. The door closed. Leaving them out in the cold throne room. Which had an evident problem.

  How do we leave?

  Anyway, Han, pretending to know, walked to the door. Sooner rather than ter, the giant door opened up on its own. They escaped. As the door was closing, Han managed to gnce back at the throne. Ferul was respawning, bone by bone. Han's fist curled—the mixture of emotions was painful to hold back. There was no need to question his own part of the deal; he would hold his word, whether Ferul would even see the difference or not.

  As they walked together, Rhapari was constantly staring at the bck artefact. Her joyful eyes couldn't understand what she was holding. Han's gait grew uneven. He couldn't walk straight anymore. This feeling, this feeling wasn't new.

  Shut everything out… breathe. Breathe! BREATHE!

  “W-where are you going! Wait…” Rhapari barely heard the wind swoosh behind her; Han was already gone. "I wanted to thank you… I had a great time, and…" Her words were heard by no one but the stone walls. "I-I won't be back…"

  ?

  “Argghhh!” Zom's and Han's voices blended together into an unharmonious scream that echoed down the crypt for corridors upon corridors. Han's speed reached a blur—every level he had put into speed, everything he had worked for.

  Time to use it!

  In mere moments he returned to the grand doors, the anger, malice, and feeling going mute once more. His focus was back to "pying." He quickly examined the space, choosing the darkest corner, the one with the most advantage to him

  It was a corner that gave any approaching pyer a minor blind spot where Han would sit and wait, and that he did. Time became minute. Akin to an out-of-body experience, his mind was tuning in, first and foremost, to the brain tracker. It helped him tell when pyers seemed to be approaching the boss fight, like now. He was unsure how many people had passed him without even gncing at the doors. Nonetheless, the time came.

  “It should be around here.” A man's voice came from behind the corner, right behind the one Han was behind. While Han's hearing didn't seem to be the worst, the armor cnking and ruffling as they moved gave him a tad more information, 2 armored, 1 in leather.

  “Dude, I told you to buy the map. You literally needed to remember the whole way from the guid—“ The staff-holding mage stuttered on his words, or rather, a dagger through his neck stopped him

  “Hm?” The second-in-line gnced back at the gurgle, only to be met with a dark fsh as the dagger went right into his ribcage. It perfectly slid in sideways between the ribs, sshing his heart. This one didn't even have time to react. Sadly, the st one's armor was far more cumbersome to deal with.

  Han decided to end it with a counterstrike. He stood firm, hiding the daggers under the cloak. His bck cloak seemed to absorb light. The dark environment ailed the st standing man's crity. What didn't help was that the st sliver of light, the torch, was on the ground clinging onto life as the puddle smothered it.

  “Ah? AH! AHHH!” He didn't even take out his sword and took off running; that, however, was a big mistake. The moment he turned away, Han leaped onto him. Zom's dead weight made the armored pyer colpse. Then, with a precise strike that pierced the backpte, he died.

  [1179 EXP GRANTED x3]

  It was worth it. The EXP yield was quite honestly horrid. But the twinkle in his eyes didn't come from that. A new red text appeared soon after.

  [CHOOSE CLASS FOR THE HOST - Zom]

  [BARBARIAN]

  [ROGUE]

  [MAGE]

  Surprising, to say the least, Zom had already reached level 25. Though everything about it was weird. It was 24 levels too te, and the csses had nothing to do with Zom or him at all. Basically the whole system had a meltdown trying to come up with something to give to his host.

  The csses wouldn't increase his power that much; the basic skills would be far too weak to do anything that he couldn't just imitate. The other problem was that Zom wasn't likely to st long enough to see the upgraded skills.

  Anyway, the other two didn't really give him anything too useful for his agility stat. Except the most basic, aligned with speed, css. His finger hovered over the rogue css. Upon pressing it, which was simply touching air, another notification appeared. He smiled and chuckled.

  [CHOOSE CLASS FOR THE HOST - ???]

  [???]

  [???]

  [???]

  T-There’s not much to choose from, ay?

  It got even weirder, somehow. Han guessed that it was for himself, or rather the Han within the mana tick. Since he got a race passive earlier, it clearly said "user." It would've been great if he could actually choose something useful. It was better to receive something instead of nothing. With that in mind, he pressed the third question mark button.

  Before he could explore his stats, he gnced at the bodies. They were fading out; most of the loot was pretty much useless to him. And more importantly, everything would slow him down drastically. Falling back into pce, his corner, like a mob that had deaggro'd, he went to check his stats.

  Firstly, he wanted to see his level 10 ability that he had gained back at the throne room and had been too stubborn to check earlier.

  Explode? That seems stro—

  ? Explosion ?, an ability that literally explodes the symbiont or the host at will and at a distance. Zom's stiff and dead face protected Han from expressing the disappointment he was feeling. The ability wasn't an ability at all. However, one thing came from it, an imperceptible smile.

  Shit… good thing I didn’t get it earlier. I would’ve exploded a while ago.

  Maybe, just maybe, things had changed. Han lived to see another day. Ferul was just behind these two thick doors; even if Han couldn't see him. Even if Ferul would simply respawn, the thought of his own selfishness craving one more interaction irked his nonexistent stomach.

  A slight déjà vu-esque feeling brushed against his skull—the brain tracker. Han slouched even more, abusing the cover given to him. Ready to kill those that came here now, then, and ever.