My Necromancer Class - Chapter 301: Unsaved Innocent

He had gained [2645 Exp] from his fight inside the head, which they had since abandoned.

Jay, Blue, and Sweeper made it to the portal.

This was the last defensible location, and there was still an entire army of knights to slay, all of who were marching on them with fury.

Jay could only rely on the height of the root to keep them from being swarmed by a wave of steel soldiers. He could not release any bones, either. They would only help the knights to climb up.

Jay pushed his hand against the portal once more, but it only rebounded from him, and strangely, shrunk slightly.

“Dammit. Every time I touch it, it shrinks.”

Knights ran along the root, clashing against Blue and Sweeper, who held their ground.

Instead of killing the knights, they pushed them back down – otherwise, they would overrun them.

Yet Jay could already tell it was a losing battle. The skeletons were being pushed back and damaged, and he was barely keeping them from climbing up at the sides or giving the skeletons some backup.

At first, he was a few steps away from the portal, but now he was almost pushed up against it.

“Fuck. Red and the others better be doing something important.”

Meanwhile, some intelligent knights found their way to the front line. Instead of using their weapons to fight, they were reaching up from below, trying to pull Jay and his skeletons down by their ankles.

One of their hands soon found Jay’s foot, but he responded instantly.

“Not today, fucker!” He smashed the bottom of his shield against it.

It crunched down onto it, yet it held on and pulled, protected under its armor.

Before It could pull him down, Jay released an unstable tooth.

*Boom! ~*

It burst against the knight’s chest. The shockwave sent its head reeling back. It released its grip as it fell backwards.

[Your skeleton has been slain]

“Fuck.” Jay turned back.

Sweeper had been taken. A circle of knights had formed in the crowd, each of them stabbing their weapons into a pile of bone dust.

Without Sweeper, the knights pushed Blue back. Jay immediately re-summoned Sweeper, yet by the time it constructed, Jay’s back was against the portal, which shrunk even further as he touched it.

Distracted with summoning, another knight grasped his ankle.

Sweeper pounced and clawed at the knight grabbing Jay, but to little effect.

“Fuck. Blue, help!” Jay called.

Blue immediately turned. Seeing its master in peril, it jumped right onto the knight in the crowd of them below.

Other knights raised their weapons to strike Blue down; it would perish in moments.

With its one last attack, it slipped its sword right through the knight’s armor and killed it.

Blue saved Jay, but lost its own life.

“Fuck, nothing about this shitty dungeon makes sense. Everyone is tainted. As for innocent?”

*Cling~*

Jay parried a sword strike; the knights marched along the root with only Sweeper to stop them.

*Boom!*

Jay launched another exploding tooth, sending them reeling.

Dropping all precautions and defense, he ran forward, slashing and stabbing any exposed flesh he could.

He dropped them to their knees and severed as many spines as he could. Swords rained down on him, but his helminth took the brunt of the attacks, and his skeletal T-visor helmet and vambraces blocked others.

A stray sword carved into his leg, forcing him to his knee.

“All for the fucking innocent, but where are they? Don’t they fight their own battles?” he grit his teeth and fought through the searing pain in his leg as he stood up.

Another knight lay its hand on his ankle. Jay dropped his sword.

“Who is innocent? Fucking no one! No one is innocent!” he yelled.

Just as he was about to get pulled into the crowd and skewered to death, his hands filled with teeth.

Many of them even fell through his fingers.

“If I’m going out, I’m taking all you fuckers with me! Hahaha!” he laughed maniacally as his eyes widened.

“I’ll bring this whole fucking crucible down!”

Swords dug into his flesh as he grinned like a maniac.

He fell into the swarm of knights; a sea of swords. With handfuls of teeth, he pumped them full of all the mana he had.

Suddenly, the root stopped pumping. The portal closed.

Everything, apart from Jay, suddenly froze. Time stopped.

Jay panted, lying on his back with handfuls of teeth. The sharpened tips of swords were right before his eyes.

“Wh- what the fuck? What did Red do?”

Immediately, he pulled the mana back out of the unstable teeth spells, trying to stop himself from blowing up catastrophically.

While stashing them back into his inventory, a string of messages floated in front of his eyes.

[Innocent unsaveable. Innocent saved.]

[Dungeon Complete]

[Unlocking in process. Time dilation normalizing. Distributing first clear rewards.]

[First clear bonus – 10,000 Exp]

[Innocent found – 0 Exp]

[Hidden path out of crucible found – 0 Exp]

[Crucible resealed – 0 Exp]

[Experiment ceased – 10,000 Exp]

[Research stolen back from (Unknown) – 0 Exp]

[Trinket quest discovered: Trinket saved – 0 Exp]

“What the fuck is this going on about,” Jay thought, reading in disbelief.

“Are these all quests I failed?”

He wasn’t even sure if the dungeon was completed because he yelled out a philosophical answer, or because Red did something. There was a chance it accepted his answer, or perhaps it was just a coincidence.

The messages continued.

[Distributing rewards]

[Save the innocent: Quest Complete – Level Up]

[First clear rewards: Passive Skill]

[Alternative completion: Item Reward]

[You have leveled up]

[You have gained a passive skill]

[You have gained a new item]

“Are you fucking joking!?” Jay yelled, his voice echoing in the silent chamber.

He was still lying on the ground with swords pointed at him. He wanted to laugh and scream at the same time; instead, with little willpower, he whispered.

“So I’m not even meant to be down here… I was supposed to investigate and explore more of the dungeon like a normal person… instead, I went right to slaying monsters.” He shook his head, checking the notifications again.

“And there’s some hidden path out of the crucible, too? I’m not even meant to be in this damn castle… And someone is innocent here? Shit.” He shook his head.

“And what, or who, is Trinket? A person? A town?” Jay sighed.

He closed his eyes and lay his head back onto the cold stone floor, resting it for a moment in the black fluid which had since covered it.

Jay took in a deep breath and a long sigh.

“Get me the fuck out of here.” He said.

Suddenly, roots sprang from the ground and caved around him.

“Ah yes, why not? One more fucking insult from this dungeon.” he kept his eyes closed.

The roots coiled around his body, forming a cocoon of darkness, and the next moment, Jay found himself back in the cave.

Night time. He was in the real world again, in a mountainous forest. He heard the distant screech of an animal amid creaking trees.

Jay sensed Red, Handy, and Lamp circled around him.

He slowly cracked his eyes open as he glanced up at them.

“We did it.” He slightly smiled. “We fucking did it, boys.”