Saren finally reached the top steps of the second layer. The king of the layer was a giant skeleton with 3 faces fused onto one body. Saren checked the stats versus his own. He knew he could take care of it without any issue. The only problem was the massive amounts of lesser skeletons. There were at least 200 of them which only the king could control.

So he had to brainstorm on how to go about taking out the large quantities of lesser skeletons.

( So, from any videogame I've ever played all skeletons enemies are blunt damage only. My strength is high enough to kill about 25, but then I'd be exhausted from that. So I need to use some form of a weapon with blunt damage or make one.)

Saren still far from the giant jagged throne made of stone where the king sits, started to look around for a weapon. Since he's doing the layers backward from a regular adventurer, he saw between the throne and the steps he was on was a chest!

( Awesome another chest!! I've only received a high poison antidote from the twin queens chest on the 3rd layer and didn't receive anything on the 4th. I'll have to be quick before this king skreptor (sky scraper+skeletor) notices my presence.)

Saren walked to a wall close to the exit staircase. He placed his foot against it to have a push start for his momentum. He took a deep breath. Then he launched himself into a sprint to this chest. Only a few steps away nothing had changed with the king or lesser skeletons, but he didn't know how long he had to search this chest.

He quickly opened the chest with a bit of anxiety starting to form.

(Let's see, let's see. Umm... So there isn't much in this. Not surprising for a low-level layer. Some poor cloth to make clothes down the road, 3 medium health potions, and the last items a...Trident spear? 🔱 What am I supposed to do with this? The rarity is purple so it's a really good chest, but this doesn't help my current predicament.)

**{ The rarity of items in this world is as follows from lowest to highest.

[White = D, Blue = C, purple = B, Red = A, Orange = S]}**

( I could make the spear into a makeshift hammer with the cloth and a rock, but it wouldn't last very long.

I guess using the other end of it will have to do. It won't be an insta-kill but it's better than nothing.)

While he was looking inside the chest he let his guard down for just a second. He was shocked when something small bumped into him.

Pulling the spear from the chest's inventory. With a few drops of sweat running down his face, he quickly pointed the spear at whatever it was that bumped into him.

It was a lesser skeleton, but there was something wrong with it. Its left eye socket of its skull seemed to be cracked and walked much slower than the rest. It wasn't attacking Saren So he used his appraisal on it to see what it was.

Name: ??? (Lesser Skeleton)

Status: Healthy

Level: 10/20

Hp: 100

Mp: 10

Str: 19

Def: 23

Int: 1

Spd: 5

Points: 10

Skillset: Sight, Hearing, Sleepless, ???.

Title: Variant, Undead, Tameable.

Saren was very puzzled but also really surprised.

( Okay what just happened here. This guy's stats seem to be a hairs width different from his counterparts. He seems to be at full health and shorter than the rest. It's saying he's a tameable monster. Didn't think that it would possible in this kind of world. Am I able to even tame him tho?)

Saren looks into his skill set looking at his first skill on his list called enchant. Since he is a siren it comes with the title, but he never considered looking into it because he never had the time or any need to do so before. He used the appraisal to get the details from his skill.

Enchant (LVL 1) - by directing your hands towards the target, this skill takes control of there minds temporarily telling them to do certain tasks.

Using more magic using this can create a subordinate/slave pact.

Warning:

( The stronger there will, which is included in intelligence stat, the more magic you'll have to use. The stronger the tame the higher the level it will need.)

(So that's what the skill enchant does. Well, I guess it won't be so lonely if I catch this guy. He might also come in handy later down the road, if I'm outnumbered and overpowered.)

Saren starts his enchantment pointing both hands towards the skeleton. It slowly walks towards the way it came from. The skeleton started to have a light baby blue aura fog around its body.

( Since it doesn't give me an amount to spend to tame him, I'll use 60% of my mana to make sure he's tamed in one go. Leaving me enough mana for emergencies.)

Using all of his focus he used up 60% of his mana making the skeleton hover for just a moment with the light blue fog around him. After a few seconds, A notification popped up on his status screen.

{ [Congratulations!!

Skill Exp. Share has been learned

You have tamed a lesser skeleton.

Please create a name. _ _ _ _ _ _ _ ]}

( A name? I didn't think it would be this game-like. Let me think. 🤔 I'm terrible at this type of thing. He's a variant like me so I'm assuming he'll be able to evolve like me. He has white bones. Hmmm.. How about Shoku. *(Shiroi + kokkaku) - Japanese for white bones. Pronounced Show-coo

{[ The name Shoku was chosen.]}

A symbol of a blue trident 🔱 in a blue circle appeared on Shoku's forehead, and slowly faded away.

While all this happened some other skeletons started coming towards Saren and Shoku. When Saren realized this with his spacial sense, he grabbed shoku by his boney arm. Pulling him toward the small passage that shoku came from. Saren noticed it was there after naming shoku.

In this passage, they ran into two lesser skeletons. Saren quickly uses the small blunt end of his spear beating the two of them almost to death. Saren thought it would be a perfect time to train his newly found companion.

After a couple of weeks of training shoku to kill the lesser skeletons, he reached level 16. They finally took on the king skeleton after defeating his minions one by one. Shoku was given two of the medium health potions to keep him from dying. Dwindling down the kings' health to 1 with his spears blunt end, he let shoku make the final blow.

As the king of the 2nd layer disappeared a ring dropped with another core smaller than his mothers' core. The ring was called "The ring of defiance" Saren read its description stating - ability to defy an authority figure your enslaved or controlled by.

Saren with a concerned face placed the red rarity ring and his spear in his spacial bag.

Sarens level went up to 26 and Shokus was now 20. The help system notified Saren that he could evolve Shoku. He decided to wait till they reached the steps and knew for certain it was okay to evolve him.

They finally reached the stair to go up to the first layer. Saren was smiling and excited. Shokus face was never changing just a skeleton with his jaw slightly opened waiting for orders and following Saren around.

Saren brought up on his screen shokus status menu, sense shoku is his subordinate he can see all his stats on another tab next to his page. He brought up the evolve option for shoku.

{[ Would you like to evolve Shoku?]}

                       [Yes]    [No]

Saren didn't give it any thought at this point he knew how this part of the system worked. Now he just had to decide what evolution line to take. There were 3 options just like Saren.

Demon Knight Line - 5 evolutions, needs sword and shield meet requirements. Medium attack boost, small defense boost. Possible body transformation.

Layer King Line - 3 evolutions, Needs crown or Prior kings body materials to meet requirements. Small All Stat boosts. Cursed to never leave the layer. Possible body transformation.

Dark Magic Knight Line - 5 evolutions, needs staff and sword to meet requirements. Large mana increase, small increase in attack and defense. Possible body transformation.

The choice he makes now could come back to bite him later down the road.