Simon rushed back down to join the fight again, deying only long enough to take down the same gear he’d brought the previous time. His sed fight went almost as well as the first and he succeeded at knog a few of the knight’s teeth loose before his head was struck from his shoulders. So he went down a sed, and a third, and a fourth time. This wasn’t about finishing the level, or even about beating the skeleton at this point. This was about improvement. Simon could feel the movements being more natural and his reflexes speeding up with every bout he had with the unholy warrior.

  After a time Simon lost t of the number of time’s he’d fought and died to the grim skeletal warrior and he was only able to restruct it afterwards wheook a break and reviewed his character sheet after a fight where he had e within an inch of finally shattering that nightmare warrior’s vertebrae.

  Name: Simon Jackoby

  Level: 4

  Deaths: 23

  Experience Points: -8265

  Skills: Archery [Poor], Armor (light) [Below Average], Athletics [Poor], Cook [Very Poor], Craft [Very Poor], Deception [Very Poor], Escape [Very Poor], Iigate [Very Poor], Maces [Poor], Ride [Very Poor], Search [Very Poor], Sneak [Poor], Spears [Very Poor], Spell Casting [None], Steal [Very Poor], Swimming [Very Poor], and Swords [Average].

  He’d died eight times. He retty sure. Eight more deaths, but his experience points had only dropped another four thousand. “That means I’m gaining more than a thousand experience points with each death than I’m losing, doesn't it?” he asked himself before taking another mouthful of cheese. In the end it didn’t really matter. He couldn’t actually spend the experien anything. It was just a gauge ress. It was also likely one more way that Hedes thought of to twist the knife, he thought grimly. It didn’t matter. Oher this attempt or the one, Simon was sure he’d defeat the knight and be oep closer to shoving the whole thing in her fabsp;

  Simon stood up and stretched before he started gearing up again. He had a good feeling that this time was going to be it. He was going to take that asshole’s head and show him how it felt to die for onbsp;

  It took him several mio realize what a stupid thing he’d said, but by the time he’d opehe trapdoor, he was shaking his head with disgust at his own thoughtlessness and looking forward to a little murder as a pallete ser. “Why would skeleton’s o know what it felt like to die, dumb ass,” he muttered as he went dowairs to stomp some rats. “They already died at least oo bee skeletons.”

  This time his trip to the skeleton ractically a speed run. Simon’s improvement on his character sheet was definitely mirr the results he was seeing in the real world. This time he didn’t suffer a single scratch, and on top of that he mao decapitate two goblins with a single ssh. He wished he could save a sshot of that. It ient.

  It had only taken him perhaps ten mio go from the to the skeleton’s tomb, and it took less than half that time to crush the skulls of all the lesser skeletons into a fine powder. Then he was finally aloh his nemesis. Simon tossed away the mad pulled out his shield. Normally in video games he never went with a sword and board. As far as he was ed, it was just weakening your character, when you could choose two swords iant badass sword instead. Right now Simon didn’t have a giant two handed on, and he’d learned in previous fights he wasn’t really coordinated enough to use two swords at once effective yet, so it was more like using one sword and theher for him. The shield was easy though. It had saved his life a dozen times so far.

  Simon wao keep his victory streak alive, so as soon as he was ready he barreled into the knight. This was something he’d learned i fight. The skeleton warrior was slow, and didn’t do as well when you were really aggressive with it. So that’s just what he did: he pyed rough. Even with the steel armor, the skeleton weighed less than Simon, so he shield checked it when it raised its sword to strike hard. It worked almost as well as a good feint for keeping its sword anywhere but where it should be. The fourth time Simon did this he almost mao impale the bastard through the skull, but at the st moment the skeleton jerked it’s head, which succeeded in avoiding what might have been a fatal blow at the cost of losing its helmet.

  After that it was all over. Simon rained down overhead blows against the skeleton’s now uncovered ot until the tenth or twelfth strike scored a gng blow. It only resulted in a glowing crack that went from the left orbital through the temporal pte, but leaked more of that evil blue light. After that strike the knight just got slower and weaker, and thirty seds ter Simon succeeded in striking the thing’s cursed head from its shoulders. It was a good thing too, because he definitely wasn’t in the shape he o be to keep this up much longer.

  “That’s right!” Simon yelled, his chest heaving. “That’s the st time you get to kill Simon Jackoby, bitch!”

  With his oppo dead, Simon did a little victory dand kicked the skull away from him, noting that it still had a small glimmer of that evil light left in its eyes, and he wanted nothing to do with it. God only knew what kind of crazy respawn meics a monster like that might have. He did reach down to pick up the sword. Anything that looked that good after being down here for decades or turies had to be magical.

  “Fuck!” Simon cried out, dropping the hilt as soon as he picked it up. The thing was still so cold that it burned him. He tried warming it with the torch, but it didn’t seem to do much good, which was a shame, because he desperately wao wield a magical sword. He supposed he could alick it up ime. By this point he had to admit to himself there was almost certainly going to be a ime, but that didn’t bother Simon. If he could beat an undead skeleton knight, he could beat just about anything. At this poiake getting through a floor or two on the first try, he decided as he bent down to pick up the key to the level. That would be a real victory.

  The key turned in the lock easily enough, and as the wrought iron gate creaked open, it forced Simon to make a quick look around. The sound was straight out of a horror movie, so it wouldn’t have surprised him in the least if all the skeletons he had just killed rose up as one for the sed phase of the fight. They didn’t though. For ohe game, no, not the game he corrected himself. For ohe pit hadn’t tried to screw him over. He smiled as he started walking down the hallway. Things were looking up.

  Even though he knew he should take things slow on his first trip through a new floor like this, he just couldn't slow down the frantic pace he’d set for himself on this run so far. It was w great. As long as he stayed on the offensive, he felt like nothing could take him down. At least that was the pn, but as the hallway slowly morphed into a cavern, he suddenly found himself walking into a cave that was so beautiful that it stopped him in his tracks while he bathed in its beauty.

  The cave was the product of a sinkhole somewhere just below the surface, and through the rge hole in the ter of the roof almost 40 feet above him sunlight streamed through the opening in such a way that the cavern walls danced with small rainbows as the sunbeams cut through the spray. It was a magical site that retty much the opposite of the horrors he’d faced o level, which was strange enough for him to make Simon suspicious. Straill though was that there didn’t seem to be anything to fight. This was just a cave cut down the middle by a stream, and on the opposite side of the cave was a door. So, it was obvious where he o go, but other than a small crystal clear stream that he wouldn’t even have to jump over to get across, what wasn’t clear was what was going to be trying to stop him.

  “e out, e out, wherever you are!” Simon yelled, banging the pommel of his swainst the wall several times to try to attract whatever monster was bound to be waiting for him.

  Nothing came rushing from some dark crevasse to kill him though, and when the echo of his challenge died it was silent again, save for the pleasant noise of the waterfall and stream. Could whatever was supposed to be here to fight him have wandered off, he wondered? Was it invisible and lying in wait, or was it crouched on the cliff above just waiting to jump dooun him? Simon couldn’t say, but he was extremely wary as he walked halfway into the cavern for a look around.

  At least he was for another minute. After that he just felt stupid. Why was he worried so much? Even if there was a monster waiting to pounce he’d e right back to life, and with the surprise gohe thing wouldn’t stand a ce. Even with his immortality inspired bravado he still didn’t move forward though. Maybe this room wasn’t about monsters at all - maybe it was an enviroal hazard of some sort. That was what the trap room was, right?

  So if this room was a trap, then what was going to kill him? Was the thing going to cave in? Was the stream poisonous or made of acid? Simon slowly walked up to it, sniffing the air for any sign of gas, but all he could smell was nature. Goblin’s had definitely never lived in this cavern before. Tentatively he prodded the stream with his sword, looking for any sign of bubbling that might indicate it really was made of acid. Nothing happehough.

  He shrugged and pulled the sword out, and then he leaned down to take a closer look. That was whehing lying in wait shed out at him. Suddenly a clear pseudopod of slime shot from the water and ed around Simon’s face. He pulled back immediately, but the thing followed him, extending even as more and more of the slime’s bulk emerged from where it was hiding iream.

  Simon tried to scream, but he couldn’t. He stabbed the thiedly, even trying to slice it in half before he dropped his sword and tried to cw the good from his face to free his airway. He couldn’t though. It was too awful. It was like the time he drowned, but somehow this was worse, because he could feel the thing crawling down his throat even as his skin started to burn and his vision began to fade. The thing was dev him whole like a formless and nearly invisible anada, and every time he fought it, it just found another bit of flesh to around.

  When he finally bcked out from ck of oxygen, Simon was more than grateful.