As Kenny and Val traveled through the second half of the fourth area they started seeing some changes happening really quick. For example, the sky grew darker the further they went in. They weren’t sure if it was because the day was turning to night since it was already dark when they arrived in the first area and the sky hadn’t lightened at all like the last two areas. Or if there was something going on causing it to be like that.

Torches started popping up more around the area as dirt paths started forming almost as if it was leading them towards where they needed to go. The fog that had hazed the first half of the area had started to disappear the farther they went in allowing them to see more of the dark forest they were in. Less gravestones started appearing as thick trees replaced them.

Of course, the monsters that appeared didn’t give them an easy time like the environment was giving them. More Turned Zombies appeared from wandering around bringing with them a new clattering type of Undead, Skeletons.

[Wandering Skeleton. Level – 9. Stat Talent – Endurance.]

These Wandering Skeletons were nothing but slow, bony, nightmares. They didn’t have any armor or weapons. They didn’t have any special abilities or spells. They were just a bunch of walking, clattering bones that were hard when you struck them and surprisingly had high resistance to Val’s Hex and Debuff magic.

Even with how tough their bones were thanks to their Stat Talent in Endurance, and their high resistance to Val’s Hex and Debuff magic, both Kenny and Val were eventually able to defeat these creatures. Val tried out the theory of using her new necklace to help amplify her Hex, Debuff, and magical wand so she could try and bypass the high resistance the skeletons showed to her skill set. She discovered how effective it work, but at the same time she also learned how draining it was on her magic especially if she tried stacking her debuffs and Pain Hex.

Kenny’s problem on the other hand was how hard the bones were when he tried to punch and kick the Wandering Skeletons. Each strike felt like he was hitting a stone wall. This feeling reminded him of his fight against the Stone Guardian Hound back in the first area. He eventually had to use any broken bones he could get his hands on and use it as a Billy club until they broke.

These fights showed them the difference between the monsters they had been fighting before this area and the ones here were. It showed their normal methods were starting to become moot when fighting creatures with different capabilities. The only benefit they got besides learning their rapidly apparent shortcomings, was the levels they gained due to how many monsters they had to fight since the Wandering Skeletons slowed their progress.

Kenny reached level ten catching up to Val as she too reached level ten. Besides adding the Free Stats he normally placed them (Agility, Endurance, Vitality, and Willpower), he increased his strength a bit and placed an extra point in Vitality leaving him rather happy with the results.

[Name: Kenneth. Race: Human. Level: 10. Tier: .33. Class: N/A. Skill Tree: Defense: Tier: 1. Stat Talent: Endurance. Power: Tier: N/A. Stat Talent: N/A. Support: Tier: N/A. Stat Talent: N/A. Stats – Health: 530/530. Mana: 230/230. Stamina: 840/840. Strength – 49. Agility – 46. Endurance – 84. Vitality – 53. Intelligence – 19. Wisdom – 23. Perception – 20. Willpower – 48. Free Stat Points: 0. Free Skill Points: 70.]

While he was happy with how most of his stats were, he was starting to worry about if he should do something about his lower stats like Intelligence, Perception, and Wisdom. He didn’t know if he needed to focus on them since the only thing he thought he needed was more physical due to him being the front liner of this two-person group.

Albeit, since he didn’t have any knowledge on what his Power and Support Skill Tree’s Stat Talents were, he would continue on this road of increasing his Endurance as much as he could. After all, what good would he be if he couldn’t take the hits of these increasingly stronger monsters. Especially those damnable hard boned skeletons.

Even though they hurt his hands every time he punched or kicked them he didn’t receive much damage from them. It was more the feeling of his own bones reverberating with every strike. He really needed to figure out what he could do to get the painful feeling to stop even though he wasn’t getting as hurt as he normally would if his Endurance was a lot less than what it was.

Val on the other hand was seeing a big difference with her magic as she leveled up. As her Intelligence, Perception, and Wisdom grew she started feeling the success rates of her Hex Pain and Slow Debuff landing easier on the Turned Zombies. Even the high resistance the Wandering Skeletons started to get easier without her needing to charge her Runes of Absorption. Something she both was really grateful to have and worried that her strategy with the necklace would become more of a crutch than a boon due to the high mana consumption over time.

Either way, she was starting to feel that teaming up with Kenny was the best opportunity she could have ever be given. Their leveling up wasn’t normal nor would it be possible if they had a full team of people. Since it was the two of them they were able to gain more experience since it was split in half instead of more.

She now understood how Kenny was able to catch up so quickly and get through the first two Areas before meeting her. Since he was fighting by himself he had gained all that experience by himself. Normally a person fighting all those monsters, Mid-Area and Area Bosses especially, wouldn’t be able to handle them.

However, since he focused on increasing his Endurance so much he was able to do it. She thought it wasn’t a great idea for him to heavily invest in only physical stats since his last two Skill Trees hadn’t awakened yet and the possibility of any of them being mind-related Stat Talents were still there, but it wasn’t her place to say anything. Especially since she had heavily invested in her Mind stats that were related to magic uses. Her stats looked like this.

[Name: Valerie. Race: Human. Level: 10. Tier: 1. Class: N/A. Skill Tree: Defense: Tier: 1. Stat Talent: Perception. Power: Tier: 1. Stat Talent: Wisdom. Support: Tier: 1. Stat Talent: Intelligence. Stats – Health: 280/280. Mana: 610/610. Stamina: 200/200. Strength – 18. Agility – 21. Endurance – 20. Vitality – 28. Intelligence – 69. Wisdom – 61. Perception – 47. Willpower – 38. Free Stat Points: 0. Free Skill Points: 59.]

Of course, her stats were looking like this thanks to the couple of Titles she had received thanks to teaming up with Kenny too. Receiving Titles gave percentage bonuses to one’s stats and stacked. When she was with her old team she hadn’t received any Titles since most of them were first come first serve and had specific requirements to reach in order to get them while inside the Trial Grounds. The best ones that is. The ones after that were achievable, but some weren’t even worth it since they only gave a single percentage point.

The ones Kenny had gotten his hands on were enough to give him the advantage he needed to reach as far as he did by himself. Val couldn’t argue that, but after teaming with him for the amount of time she had, she had also noticed it wasn’t just the titles or the high Endurance he had. It was his mindset and the experience he brought from outside the Trial Grounds. Namely, that fighting style he was using.

Val wasn’t an expert when it came to martial arts, but she was able to tell when someone was trained in one and Kenny had the signs of a martial artist. However, she wasn’t able to tell what the style of martial arts he trained under.

It felt like it was meant to fight monsters, but at the same time he acted like he was trying to understand how it was. His defensive and survivable techniques were noticeable, but when it came to attacking, he looked like he was trying to understand how or what would be the best way. She was curious if there was a story there and wanted to know but stopped herself each time in case it was a sensitive story like the talk about siblings went.

Val lost her last chance to ask as they walked out of the dark forested area and appeared in front of a cliff with a drawbridge opened up connected to a massive castle. Two torches rested on the edge of the drawbridge giving them some light under the dark starless night sky. More torches could be seen on the other side were the opened gate was. With the light provided they could see a courtyard made of dirt and stone.

Kenny inspected the castle and noticed there weren’t any banners or signs. He frowned as he also noticed there weren’t any signs of monsters on the walls of the castle which meant only one thing. “I think the Area Boss is inside that castle,” Kenny suggested.

“I think so too,” Val agreed as she stared at the abandoned looking structure. She was quite impressed with the building. Even though there weren’t any monsters around the castle, at least on the outside from where they stood, looked intact, and not run down.

“Let’s check our resources and make sure we’re good to go before we enter there. We don’t know what we’ll be fighting,” Kenny stated as he looked concerned.

“What’s wrong?” Val asked.

Kenny shook his head before looking at her and replying, “Its nothing to be concerned about. I was just thinking that its weird.”

“What’s weird,” Val asked as she grew more curious.

“Well, this place seems out of place with how the first area was,” Kenny stated. “We arrived in a graveyard and zombie infested forest. This second half was less graveyard and more forest and it led us to this castle. I don’t know about you, but the theme feels…unmatching? No, that’s not the right word…”

“Inconsistent?” Val offered.

Kenny snapped his fingers as he pointed at her and smiled, “Yes. That’s the word. Inconsistent.”

Val nodded her head in agreement as she tried to think about it. When she could figure out a proper answer she shrugged and offered, “Maybe chop it up as Trial Ground Voodoo?”

Kenny let out a snort before repeating, “Trial Ground Voodoo? Yeah, I guess that’s one way to think of it as. The scenery might have changed, but the monster is probably still undead. Which type of undead we’ll have to face, it’s still unclear, but if I had to make a guess it’ll probably humanoid. Maybe skeleton in nature since we faced a lot of Wandering Ske…Ooooooh. Okay now I get it.”

Val raised a brow as she stared at him. “What? What did you get?”

Kenny shook his head as he let out a chuckle. “There really isn’t any change if you think about it.” He turned to point to the forest. “Graveyard and forest full of zombies and skeletons.” He then turned to the castle and finished, “Abandoned castle that was probably full of people at one point.”

Val took a moment before it dawned on her. “Ah, I see. At least now we know where the undead came from.”

Kenny nodded in agreement. Then with a cheeky grin muttered as he leaned closer to her, “We can still call it Trial Grounds Voodoo though. I like that answer better.”

Val gave a half frown half smile before she pushed Kenny slightly. “Oh, shut up.”

Kenny laughed as he played along with her playful shove and moved with it. He then gave her a half serious look before asking, “You ready to go? Mana pool full?”

“I’m good. How about you? Health and Stamina looking good?” Val asked.

“They are peachy,” Kenny stated before looking at the drawbridge. He then let out a sigh before taking a step forward muttering, “Let’s do this then.”

Val followed Kenny as he started to walk across the long drawbridge. Both of them didn’t look over the edge since they already knew it would be a long drop thanks to being able to see the cliff’s edge on the other side that the castle sat upon.

After walking through the gate they entered an empty courtyard that looked like it once held military personnel instead of citizens. The clues that gave that away were the empty weapon racks that covered one end, cannons on the other side, and empty stalls for animals.

The stony grounds looked worn down from constant walking or even maybe marching. A good portion of the stones on the ground were either intact, broken, or missing entirely reveal hard dry dirt. Torches lined the walls giving them plenty of light to see no one and no monsters around.

“I guess this is more of a fortress than a castle,” Val commented as she looked around.

“I guess so,” Kenny agreed. “If that’s the case then are we supposed to go inside the building to find the Area Boss or…”

The sound of rushing chains suddenly filled the air around them as heavy metal scrapped against stone. Within two seconds after the sounds of chain echoed the ground rumbled with a loud boom accompanying it.

Kenny and Val turned to see the open gate had slammed down and blocked their escape path. A cold wind suddenly blew around the courtyard as two new sound filled the air. the sound of metal scrapping against stone, lighter and not so ear piercing like the heavy gate shutting, was followed with the rhythmic sound of metal clanking together.

The more Kenny listened the more he was able to identify the pace as footsteps. Something he able to confirm when a being sudden kicked open a wooden door on the other side of the courtyard. As it stepped out of the doorframe Kenny was able to see a skeleton wearing a silver helmet, breastplate, gauntlets, and boots. Bones were visible between the opened unprotected areas and limbs. Dragging behind it in one of its gauntleted hands was a short sword.

[4^th Area, Graveyard, Area Boss. Skeletal Knight Commander. Level – 12. Stat Talent – Endurance.]

“Geez. Level twelve with an Endurance Stat Talent. And of fucking course it has a sword,” Kenny muttered to himself as he removed his pack from his back and tossed it behind him close enough for Val to reach it in case she needed to. Val did the same and readied herself as Kenny slowly started to move forward making sure the creature didn’t charge Val.

“Will the sword be a problem?” Val asked, concern slightly hinted in her voice.

“Don’t know. Haven’t been able to test my Endurance against one yet,” Kenny stated, concern hinted in his own voice. “Not like I ever had the urge to test it before since…you know. There might be a chance I could lose a limb if my skin isn’t tough enough. Really wished I had learned how to use mana so I was able to use this effect this shirt has, but oh well. If I dodge enough I should be fine.”

“If you say so,” Val stated. “Want me to start this off by using Slow on it before you reach it?”

“Yeah,” Kenny said as he got into a sprinting stance. “Try to hit it before I reach it though.”

Before Val could respond, Kenny took off as fast as he could. Cursing under her breath, Val channeled some mana before she threw her Slow Debuff towards the monster. Val frowned as she felt the results before the notification arrived.

[Debuff Failed! Skeletal Knight Commander has resisted the Debuff Slow due to both its high resistance against Debuffs, Hexes, and Curses and the Armor’s added bonus against Debuffs, Hexes, and Curses.]

“Shit, you’ve got to be kidding me right now,” Val cursed before yelling out, “Kenny! It’s…”

However, before she could finished warning him, Kenny had reached attacking distance of the creature. The creature had seen Kenny coming and timed swinging its sword in an upward forty five degree angle. Kenny, seeing the monster swinging, halted his progression and jumped backwards out of striking distance.

After the sword passed and was high above its head, Kenny jumped back in with a punch ready to be thrown. However, as he jumped back in he didn’t see the Skeletal Knight Commander follow the momentum of the sword bringing its whole body around and the kick that slammed against Kenny’s solar plex.

Kenny felt the impact of the kick connect with his body. The next second after the kick landed, Kenny flew backwards and skipped across the grounds like a stone for couple of feet. Val saw the whole thing happen in an instant and screamed out his name, “Kenny!”

The Skeletal Knight Commander turned back around. Its sword pointed down towards the ground as the tip dug into one of the stones. It then spread its skeletal legs while throwing its other hand out to its side in a menacing way and let out a scream that felt both ominous and frightening.