Chapter 55: BoneCollector

Zion remained near the dungeon entrance until Gareth’s party disappeared between the trees.

Mara was walking on her own now, though June still stayed close beside her. Elias followed several steps behind while Gareth remained at the back, occasionally glancing toward Mara as they made their way along the path.

Eventually, the trees swallowed them from view.

Zion lingered for another moment before pulling his awareness back inside the dungeon. Several instances were still active.

He checked Floor 2 first, expecting to find another party approaching the basilisk chamber, but only one group had made it past the first few slime encounters. They were moving slowly through the sulfur caves and had already stopped twice to argue about which corridor they had come from.

Another party had entered Floor 2 only a few minutes earlier.

Everyone else was still on Floor 1.

Zion shifted between instances.

Sheep. More sheep. A party near the creek had accidentally pulled two groups together and was currently being chased across the pasture.

Another had stopped near the pond to eat something.

The group of thieves he had noticed earlier was fighting the Horned Ram, though after watching for another minute, Zion could already tell they were going to win.

He moved to another instance.

Again, more sheep.

Zion leaned back against the throne. The increase in adventurers was good. Very good, actually.

Every party entering the dungeon gave him essence, and the bracelet rumor had kept new groups arriving throughout the day. He could already see the difference in his balance.

Unfortunately, watching dozens of people fight sheep was becoming less exciting than it used to be.

Zion rested one bony elbow against the throne’s armrest. "I need people to hurry up."

He wanted to see how the Tidepool Basilisk performed against more groups.

Lilith’s party had beaten it one way. Gareth’s party had beaten it another. Zion wanted to know what would happen when a group entered without strong ranged attacks, or without someone capable of tracking the basilisk through the pools.

More than anything, though, he wanted someone to reach Floor 3. Mara had barely stepped inside before getting crushed.

That was kind of funny. Useful too. But she had not even reached the first real section of the floor.

The Shadow Panther had never appeared. None of the smaller traps had been tested, and no one had come close to finding the Glittering Treasure Chest.

Zion looked toward the active instances again and let out a sigh. There was nothing he could do about it. Making the dungeon easier just so adventurers could reach the new floor faster would defeat the entire point.

Instead, he opened his inventory. Rows of stored objects and contracts appeared in front of him. Mara’s dagger caught his attention briefly.

He had not decided what to do with it yet. He could probably return it through another chest eventually, though that felt strangely similar to what he had done with Finn’s sword. The thought made him smile slightly before he continued scrolling.

Then he stopped.

[Ossuary Knight Contract]

Zion stared at it. He had almost forgotten about the thing.

The contract had been sitting in his inventory since his first day inside the dungeon, looking impressive and being completely useless.

He opened it again. The familiar armored figure appeared beside the throne.

Black plate covered the knight from neck to foot, with pale bone worked into the armor in thick ridges. Blue light burned behind the narrow opening of its helmet, while both hands rested around the hilt of an enormous sword.

Even now, it looked incredible.

Zion selected the contract. "Come on."

He tried placing it inside Floor 3 but nothing happened.

A notification appeared.

[Placement unavailable.]

[Hidden floor requirements have not been fulfilled.]

He wanted to roll his eyes. "Yes. I know."

He tried placing it on the other two floors but the result was the same.

"What do you want from me?" The Ossuary Knight stood silently beside him. "Graves? Bones? A crypt?"

No response.

He had asked the same questions before. The system had never given him anything useful.

He was about to dismiss the contract when another thought occurred to him. He had spent a ridiculous amount of time scrolling through the Dungeon Network since unlocking it. There were threads about monsters, terrain, traps, loot tables, floor themes, paladins, poison, ice, fire, and practically everything else Dungeon Lords seemed capable of arguing about.

Someone had to know something about this, right?

Zion immediately opened the Network. New posts filled the main page faster than he could read them.

[WHY DO ADVENTURERS KEEP STEALING MY CHAIRS?]

[Rank D Poison Units — Worth It?]

[Are Swamp Trolls Better Than Mountain Trolls?]

[Looking For Underwater Terrain Advice]

Zion ignored them and opened the option to create a new post. He hesitated over the title for a moment. Then typed:

[Hidden Requirements For Ossuary Knight?]

The message beneath it was simple.

[I have an Ossuary Knight contract, but placement is locked behind hidden floor requirements. Does anyone know what conditions unlock it?]

Zion read it once, decided that was enough, and posted it. Then he waited.

A few seconds passed.

Nothing.

He didn’t expect an immediate reply, but from the corner of his eye he could see the other posts below his getting replies.

Zion checked another instance while keeping the Network open beside him. A party on Floor 1 had just angered a large group of sheep. He watched one of the adventurers get knocked into a fence.

Still no replies.

Another minute passed. Zion returned to the Network. His post had already moved several places down the page.

A new argument about whether undead monsters needed armor had appeared above it. Another Dungeon Lord had posted pictures of what appeared to be a giant spider.

Zion refreshed his thread. No replies.

"Seriously?"

He watched his post slide farther down as new discussions appeared. Apparently, nobody cared.

He was about to close the Network when a notification appeared.

[Private message received.]

He paused. The username beside it was unfamiliar, not that he was particularly familiar with anyone.

[BoneCollector]

Zion opened the message. Three lines appeared almost immediately.

[Where the hell did you get that contract?!]

[How much would you be willing to sell it for?]

[C’mon, please reply.]

That was not the answer he had expected.

Before replying, he opened BoneCollector’s profile. Most of the information was hidden. No dungeon level. No kill count. No ranking. Nothing that told Zion how powerful the other Dungeon Lord actually was.

There was, however, a small silver emblem beside BoneCollector’s username.

Zion tried tapping on it but nothing happened.

He had no idea what it meant. Maybe it was some kind of achievement. He decided he didn’t care enough to investigate and returned to the private message.

[I got it from a Lucky Draw.]

The reply appeared almost immediately.

[Dude.]

A second message followed.

[You’re the luckiest Dungeon Lord ever.]

Zion lifted one hand and scratched the side of his skull with a bony finger.

Lucky?

He thought back to his three draws.

Sheep. A knight he could not summon. And a resurrection token he could not use on himself.

He supposed the sheep had turned out better than expected. They were cute too. Still, calling him the luckiest Dungeon Lord ever seemed excessive.

Zion typed another message.

[Do you know anything about the knight contract?]

This time, BoneCollector took slightly longer to answer.

[Not the hidden requirements, no.]

Zion’s shoulders lowered. Then another message appeared.

[But I know about the contract.]

Zion waited.

[Ossuary Knights are ultra-rare skeletal knight contracts.]

[Not rare.]

[Ultra rare.]

[I’ve never met anyone who actually owns one until now.]

Zion looked toward the contract still floating beside his inventory. The armored knight remained perfectly still, enormous sword planted against the ground.

He had spent days thinking of it as the useless thing sitting beside his resurrection token. Now he looked at it slightly differently.

"Ultra rare?"

BoneCollector sent another message.

[Seriously. Don’t sell it.]

A moment later:

[Actually, sell it to me.]

Zion stared at the messages for a second before looking back at the knight. Maybe it was not as bad as he thought. Rare things were usually good. Ultra-rare things had to be even better.

He leaned forward slightly on the throne.

He suddenly felt that the hidden requirements were less annoying and a little more interesting. If the Ossuary Knight was really that difficult to obtain, then whatever it needed to unlock might be worth figuring out.

Zion turned back toward the Network.

BoneCollector was already typing again.