The skeletons were gone and would only come back when the sun went down, so I had to prepare for them.

I couldn’t cross the bridge and enter the tunnel because it would be too packed for a fight against them since there were so many of them.

Fighting in a tight space where I couldn’t move as I wished was not the smartest move at all.

So I had to make a fortress of my own on this side of the bridge.

I was planning to stay here for two days, and in those two days I had to either slay all of them or break through.

So I had about 6 hours.

"System." I muttered, and the story system popped up in my head.

╔═════ ∘◦ ❈ ◦∘ ══════╗

✧ Name: Yves Noctis Laurent

✧ Age: 15

✧ Titles: [Unwanted Child]

✧ Rank: Ascendant

✧ Subrank: Low

✧ Soul Fragments: 65/200

✧ Story Fragments: 3/150, 0/1000

✧ Main Story: [He Who Yearned for Death], [■■■]

✧ Story Authorities: [Esoteric Darkness Manipulation], [■■■]

✧ Story Gifts: [Emotion Manipulator],[Calm Mind], [Eyes of The King]

✧ Story Relics: —

╚═════ ∘◦ ❈ ◦∘ ══════╝

I had gained 27 fragments in total ever since I left the bamboo forest.

Starting from the Lesser rank, a beast could give an Awakened 1 fragment, and from then on the fragments multiplied by two after each rank.

But when a monster was strong enough to have a class, the amount you earned was multiplied by the rank of the monster times the class position.

For example, if I killed a Low Greater Monster, I would only earn two soul fragments (2x1).

But in the case of the undead skeleton, I had earned 4 fragments — two soul fragments and two story fragments. That means killing a monster compatible with your story gives you both soul fragments and story fragments.

That was fine, but there was a new thing that happened — I had finally absorbed a story fragment for my first Main Story — [He Who Yearned For Death].

That story fragment came from killing the undead skeleton earlier. Since it was a creature related to death, naturally it would give me story fragments for my main story.

This was the other reason why I decided to travel through the mountain — it was to farm as many story fragments as I could, to get closer to ranking up my story.

Since there was nothing else to check in the system, I closed it and walked to Ezio who was sitting on a chair created by his shadow powers.

I did the same, a chair made out of darkness formed a few centimeters from Ezio.

I sat down.

"So what’s the plan?" Ezio took out some roasted meat from his spatial ring and started eating.

I tried to snatch some from Ezio, but he pulled it away before I could grab it. He gave me a look that could kill and continued eating.

I shook my head and crossed my leg over the other.

"The skeletons are coming back when night arrives, so I have to prepare and stop them from crossing over the bridge. Keeping them away is the plan. And hopefully I’m able to slay all of them in two days." I said.

"That’s a good idea and a little ambitious." Ezio chewed and added, "Let me guess, you plan to create walls around us to keep them away?"

I nodded.

"That’s right, but walls won’t keep them away from us since I’m the same rank as them, and there may be monsters stronger than the others." I said.

"Plus I’m not going to be able to keep the walls up all night, not before my mana is consumed to nothing."

Since we would be fighting for hours, I couldn’t just waste mana on the walls.

Which was why I would be running away if they broke through.

"My plan is to diminish their numbers bit by bit until the last one. Obviously, I wouldn’t be able to keep them away for long, since at night they become stronger just like me."

Skeleton monsters were creatures of the night, that was why they couldn’t walk in daytime.

It was in the night that their strength was boosted up, just like the way my senses were boosted up at night.

So it would be hard to kill a small army of skeletons who were on massive steroids during the night.

"That’s a good plan, so what if they overwhelm you?" Ezio spoke as he chewed.

This bastard really was speaking with food in his mouth.

"I’ll just run back to the tunnels," I replied.

"And if they chase you?"

"They won’t, they can’t enter the other side of the mountain."

Ezio swallowed the last piece and raised an eyebrow.

"How do you know that?"

I shrugged.

"I heard from a legend that these skeletons were bound to the other side of the mountain because that’s where they had died when they were alive, so they can’t go too far."

I wasn’t making things up; it was the truth.

The skeletons were the remains of the dead Awakeners that died in the mountain.

They had become monsters because of a Duke Fragmented Story that had formed from their negative emotions before they died.

A battlefield could create monsters because of the massacre that happened in that land.

That was how monsters were created.

"Ah, so a fragmented story had formed on that other side and created these skeletons. Moreover, because their bodies had died on the other side, binding them and stopping them from getting too far away from it." Ezio said, understanding what happened.

If the skeletons were not bound and could move freely, they would’ve clashed with the bats a long time ago, and hell, the bats would’ve lost even though they had larger numbers; that was how resilient the skeletons were.

They had the skills of the Awakeners when they were alive, so they were not just like any other monsters.

"I wonder where you heard that legend..." Ezio squinted his eyes suspiciously.

I just acted like I didn’t hear his question and took food out of my spatial ring.

I had to eat as much as I could now so I could have energy to fight the skeletons — a warrior can’t fight with an empty stomach.

After eating my food, which I struggled to finish because Ezio would try to snatch it from here and there, I started training with my sword.

Doing a hundred of each type of slash, whether horizontal, diagonal, or vertical.

A wise old man said: a man who practices the same technique a thousand times is better than someone who learned a thousand techniques.

So I repeated each set two times.

My figure blurred back and forth as I shadow fought, swinging and cutting an invisible opponent.

After another hour, I sparred with Ezio. Our blades clashed over and over again, the metallic sound of blades clashing against each other rang in the cave.

Bit by bit I could feel my swordsmanship skill increasing more and more. It wasn’t really fast growth, but it was better than nothing.

And God, I loved sparring.

I never knew I had such a side of me before — it wasn’t like I was addicted to fighting or something.

It was just that there was no better way of communicating than with our blades.

There was one thing that I had noticed whenever I improved my swordsmanship — it was that Ezio had insane talent with the katana.

I was fighting with him recently, and he closed his eyes.

Yet, he could still block my attacks without a problem.

I had even tried to look clearly by squinting my eyes to see if he was actually bluffing, but he indeed had his eyes closed.

It was so shocking that I couldn’t even see the difference between the Ezio with his eyes open and the Ezio with his eyes closed. They were literally the same.

And I knew what that was.

When one reached a level of swordsmanship so high, they gained something similar to a sixth sense, whereby even if their vision was obstructed somehow, they could still fight without a problem.

It was a level that could be obtained only after training relentlessly and after fighting many stronger opponents. Those who reached that level were no joke at all.

So that told me that Ezio wasn’t just a normal Shadow Guardian — this guy was freaking strong.

By that fact alone, I could already guess what rank he was.

He was either Peak Sovereign or above it.

It had to be.

I was leaning more towards Peak Sovereign than Transcendent, after all he hadn’t shown anything related to a Sovereign Awakener.

So damn, Ezio was freaking strong despite being an extra character.

I had a hell of a guardian.

So when I tried to ask him what his rank actually was, the ugly bastard refused to tell me, but it was no problem because I would find out eventually.

After sparring with Ezio, I started practicing [Darkness Shaping] for a few minutes before starting with the real deal.

A huge wall made of darkness rose from the ground. It stretched up until it was ten meters high and extended to the left and right for at least thirty meters, closing in and touching the wall behind me.

Then right in front of the bridge, a gap tall as a door opened up — that was where I would be passing through.