DIE TRYING [A Roguelite Extraction LitRPG]

Wade had a double take as he saw the last nameplate and health bar floating in his view.
Worse, it was higher level than all the other skeletons he'd run into prior by a mile. Was this some kind of boss monster? He stopped moving and breathing from his little corner. The health bar hovered over something the wall here hid him from. So if he couldn't see the skeleton, it couldn't see him either.

Everything remained quiet.

The skeleton's health bar didn't move.

Wade heard skittering again and could see the cause of all this: The rat's health bar moving around in the distance, getting closer to the boss skeleton's health bar.

The little terrorist continued until he could see it from the dark shadows of the table stools in the dim light. Whiskers twitching as it investigated something. Likely unaware of how close to death it was. Wade could see it clearly now, pitch black fur, and some kind of dust was trailing behind it. Like a small swarm of flies catching back up to their host. Made his skin crawl a little watching it.

And once more it was gone from his line of sight, going deeper into the chamber beyond, only the red health bar above it visible from his sight.

Given how close the rat had come to the skeleton's health bar, either it was too tiny for the boss monster to wake up, or they woke up due to sound.

Hah. Optimism. Wade knew better than to trust that was going to happen. There was only one law he subscribed to, and that was Murphy's.

In the full silence, he could still hear noises: Wood being stepped on, a long distance away. Creaking. Chances were the skeletons who had chased him here were sniffing around. Likely having sprinted through the cavern above and failed to find him. Perhaps not literally sniffing for him, but certainly searching for where the juicy human had limped off to.

Nothing he could do about that. Right now, he had a high level skeleton to consider.

He did have a few bits of data he could work with: The skeletons above the trapdoor hadn't found him earlier when he was closer, so these enemies didn't have some kind of bullshit Wade-detection wall hack. Assuming this all followed rules of physics, maybe the skeletons would only react to loud enough noises? Or a line of sight. It wasn't waking up to attack the rat at least.

He could potentially sneak past this boss skeleton. Worth a try.

Wade crept forward, one slow step at a time into the chamber. Eye peeled in the direction of the boss skeleton's health. As he turned into the chamber slowly, he could see where it was. The row of linen cots. Only one was occupied.

It was on its side, curled up slightly. Skull looking away from him. Motionless, as if asleep.

Just like a horror movie, he thought. The moment I turn my back, it's going to attack for maximum drama.

But with this angle, he could potentially sneak all the way past it if it worked on line of sight. Around the chamber, he got a better sight of things. Three other exits from this chamber outwards. One looked to have stairs roughly cut into the stone leading up somewhere, maybe a different section of the room or a path out? The other two tunnels like the one he'd skulked in from were more naturally formed and looked less civilized. Though there were mats on the ground leading to the further one ahead, with the side walls looking more rounded though that could just be his imagination. The last tunnel looked wild and untouched.

Of course, his eyes focused on the only actual sign of civilization: The rough cut staircase upwards.

'Supplies' the wood above said. Which meant possible weapons there.

Nothing ventured, nothing gained and so forth… He thought, and continued to sneak into the room, aiming for the staircase. Hoping his Identify would pick up something of use and he could make a better choice on if he should scurry away backwards and look for another way out, or if he should press on.

The path took him quite close to the skeleton, to the point he could see details. Fabric was ripped up with age, a small dagger on the side of a leather belt of some kind. Loincloth maybe. For a boss skeleton this one was a lot less equipped than the miners behind him had been. No hardhat, no rotting tunics filled with belts, loops and tools, nothing. Just the belt with the knife and dried up fabric where a shirt and pants might have been worn. No boots either. Wade's eyes narrowed down at the dagger.

He couldn't say the word out loud, so he prayed that whatever this game system was, it could be triggered non-verbally. Identify.

Hand-made Steel Dagger (Poor Quality)

So Play couldn't read his mind, but the system could. Another point to both being different entities. As for the dagger… a weapon was a weapon, he didn't care if it was just slightly sharper than a rock. Better than his hands.

He could continue to sneak away through the tunnel and see what was on the other side. Or he could try to sneak the dagger out without waking up the dead.

No way. Too risky.

He turned to continue his slow trek through the room. Better be safe.

… But what if being safe was taking the first easy hit in?

He had the advantage right now, was he going to skip out on it over the slim chance of successfully sneaking? With his luck?

He stopped midway past the skeleton, and focused his identify on the supply room ahead.

Empty shelf (Poor Quality)

A bunch of those populated ahead. Which painted a grim picture of nothing ahead. But he couldn't be completely certain until he passed by. His eyes roved around for the other tunnels in this chamber.

And saw another signpost.

'City sewers/slave housing'

Unauthorized tale usage: if you spot this story on Amazon, report the violation.

Sewers led outside, right? This might be it.

New Regional Quest: Investigate the sewer exit gate. Rewards: Knowledge on exit locations. Potential allies.

Wade recognized the assist when he saw it: The System was throwing him a bone here. And there might even be survivors on the other end of that. He needed to go that direction.

He looked back at the undead skeleton boss still sleeping. Or powered off.

Could he sneak past?

He could, but it would be a bad idea. Having a skeleton behind him like this at all times was just asking for shit to go wrong. He could slip up ahead, fall somewhere and cry out in pain - game over. Or something else could wake the skeleton up and then he'd have a boss level skeleton stalking around behind him.

Better disarm the skeleton now and start the inevitable fight on his terms.

Wade fixed his resolve, then started to creep out to the skeleton before he paused midway with an even better idea: If he was already certain this thing would wake up and attack him then instead of disarming it, wouldn't it be better to just outright cripple it somehow?

His hands changed trajectory, very slowly reaching out to the stools nearby.

The skeleton remained dead on the cot.

Wade's fingers wrapped around the metal legs.

No motion from the dead guy.

The metal stool was silently lifted up. He moved with precision and care.

Level 37 Undead Nathir Slave - 100%

The red health bar remained exactly where it had been the whole time, no movements. No breathing. If the System hadn't put a health bar and nameplate over this skeleton, Wade would have thought it truly dead.

He got closer, stool high above him, like a caveman about to brain his sleeping companion.

Would he be able to kill it? The last one was insanely tough. Even knocking its skull off hadn't done enough damage, and then smashing the entire thing after also hadn't re-killed the thing. Not to mention only on a critical hit triggered by some kind of luck did the skull feel like a regular skull. And what if the stool slam in the tunnel made enough sound the skeletons behind would track him down with?

Too many possible issues with this plan. But did he have much of a choice?

Wade hedged his bets, angled his stool for maximum damage, and then prayed. The stool swung down as hard as he could.

Luck triggered: Critical hit!

Level 37 Undead Nathir Slave - 87%

It hadn't died. The skeleton's perfectly untouched head snapped toward him with a crack, fully awake. Empty eye sockets stared at him, and a half second passed as both of them stared at each other. Wade broke the silence first, giving a small unhinged giggle. "Yeah, that's about what I thought."

The undead monster lunged forward with two skeletal hands… only to find the spine, hips, and legs missing in the equation.

Wade hadn't swung for the skull at all. Last time he had, the undead bastard just continued with its merry life as if a skull was a luxury bone. This time he had swung for the skeleton's lower spine, right below the rib-cage.

A skeleton crawling after him was a lot less of a danger than one running.

And given that the legs remained motionless while the rest of the skeleton started trying to go after him, Wade's plan had paid off.

The skeleton's hands clawed and snatched through the air far too low for anything. It tried again, this time using its elbows to jump off the ground before trying to grab his throat again. Wade narrowly dodged that attempt by sheer reflex, feeling the tips of the fingers brush up against his neck. With another jolt of pure reflex, he pushed the stool forward like a plow, slamming the enemy into the wall. The stool's legs became Wade's handle, while he kept the flailing monster ahead of him pinned against the wall.

"I cut off your legs you goddamn hack." Wade hissed out, amazed that his attack had barely tickled the undead's health bar. Was this the higher level difference? Fuck he needed levels and more stats or something.

His head split into two different trains of thought. On one hand, being able to do thirteen percent of health damage as a level 1 against a level 37 meant the level differences weren't super insane and could be worked around. On the other hand, it seemed he'd need to do a lot to kill any of these skeletons. Lethal fucking difficulty. And apparently Play thought it wasn't even the skeletons in this zone that made this area really dangerous. Fuck.

The skeleton's jaw unhinged and tried to bite him. It couldn't get anywhere near him of course, not for lack of trying. Wade tried to crush the skeleton up against the wall, but that was equally failing. Whatever the skeleton was made of, he couldn't break the bones like this. And if he brought the stool away so he could slam it down for another attack, he was sure that thing would kill him somehow in that split second of freedom. Even without legs it nearly got his neck. It was thrashing already, wildly. He could feel it even move him slightly off when both those bony hands started to grip the side of the stool and push against him.

Wade could push his full weight against the struts holding the four stool legs together at the bottom. And the skeleton pinned against the wall couldn't do jack shit for better leverage other than try to bite and claw at him. It was strong, but for a level 37, Wade felt like it wasn't that much stronger than the other skeletons? Or rather just as strong as any of the other skeletons maybe?

Higher level might not translate to more strength then, could be this was a caster skeleton or something different.

Wait, it had a knife, an assassin skeleton? With all the danger coming from agility points? Or did non-players even have stat points at all?

The skeleton was clearly homicidal and continued its best attempts to scramble out of the stool pin, but so long as Wade didn't do something stupid, he'd keep the skeleton in place by pure leverage and good positioning.

Unfortunately, if he didn't do something stupid soon, he'd eventually get too tired to keep the skeleton in place.

Fortunately, he had just the stupid idea he needed.

If everything here is a game with consistent rules, Wade could break it. And he had something the skeleton under him didn't have:

Guaranteed damage over time.