Volume 10 Chapter 1

Volume 10, Chapter 1: "Skeleton Soldier Weed"

Skeleton Soldier Weed
Volume:	10
Chapter:	1
Chapter Chronology
← Previous	Volume 9 Chapter 11
Next →	Volume 10 Chapter 2

Short Summary

On the Hall of Fame website for Royal Road, Oberon had set-up a live stream for viewers to watch his Cold Roses Guild expedition take on the Valley of Death. Viewers remain hoping that the expedition will lead to some way to end the heat-wave curse that has plagued the Versailles Continent, and are finally given hope when a celebrity player named Chase tells them of a rumor he heard. The rumor being that within an unknown valley is a Beads relic left behind by a Siberian Witch that has the power to cool down the weather if they bring it to the Eldereun Village's Altar of God. The revelation excites the viewers since it's a strong possibility that the Siberian Witch's Beads is within the ice valley that the Cold Roses are currently fighting in.

The KMC Media and CTS Media stations catch wind of the major event going on in the Northern Continent, and cancel their current broadcasts to show off the Cold Roses expedition for everyone to see. Viewers watch as the expedition has encountered Bone Dragon Kurenbereu, as well as the evil forces of the Embinyu Church, within the deepest part of the Valley of Death. Oberon is seen attempting to rally his forces after the dragon's Roar ability causes everyone to panic, but have so far only managed to deal enough damage to take away a quarter of the Bone Dragon's health. 

Meanwhile near the battle, Skeleton Weed takes in his current situation after being revived as an undead thanks to his Power to Reject Death skill. He notices that Alveron and Seoyoon are still alive as well, which he orders Geumini atop Wy-1 to take Alveron away from the battle to a safer location. Skeleton Weed then checks over the stats of his undead form, and sees that he can't wear his normal items, such as Talrock's Armor, until he becomes human again. He unequips everything, and takes out items that are better suited for his undead form, such as the Fallen Saint's Staff and Bar Khan's Necromancer Tome that he looted off Lich Shire. 

Skeleton Weed uses Item Identification on both the items, and comes to realize that he can properly use them since his undead form can substitute as the Necromancer class requirement. In addition, he can now utilize black magic spells while the identified Saint Taranhan's Staff is equipped, and can manufacture different types of undead minions to fight for him with the tome equipped. Before heading off to join the battle, Skeleton Weed spends some time quickly reading through Bar Khan's Necromancer Tome to know of what black magic and undead summon skills he can use.

Characters

• Royal Road
  • Weed (Power to Reject Death form: Skeleton Weed)
  • Seoyoon
  • Alveron
  • Weed's Living Sculptures
    • Wy-1
    • Geumini
  • Chase
  • Cold Roses Expedition
    • Oberon
    • Drum
  • Bone Dragon Kurenbereu
  • Siberian Witch (mentioned)
  • Lich Shire (mentioned)
  • Saint Taranhan (mentioned)
  • Bar Khan Demoph (mentioned)

Quests

• A-Rank Quest: "Truth and Glory" (Weed's group and the Cold Roses Guild's expedition take on the Bone Dragon, and the evil forces of the Embinyu Church, within the deepest part of the Valley of Death.)

Items

• Siberian Witch's Beads (mentioned)
• Swords (Cold Roses Expedition weapons)
• Talrock's Armor (Skeleton Weed unequips)
• Fallen Saint's Staff (Skeleton Weed identifies as Saint Taranhan's Staff, and equips)
• Bar Khan's Necromancer Tome (Skeleton Weed identifies and equips)
• Dawn Ring (mentioned)

Stats and Skills

• Weed
  • Power to Reject Death Skill
  • Item Identification Skill
• Alveron
  • Healing Hands
• Oberon
  • Wing Smash
• Drum
  • View Life Force
• Expedition Members
  • Fireball Wave
  • Mana Burn
  • Straight Cut
  • Smite
  • Holy Attack
  • Healing Hands
• Bone Dragon
  • Roar of the Bone Dragon
  • Fireball
• Others
  • Curse of King Belsos

Trivia

1. Oberon is a registered Royal Road user of their Hall of Fame website.
2. Oberon had uploaded a live stream of his Cold Roses Expedition taking on the Valley of Death for all viewers to watch. The amount of viewers continues to grow as the expedition gets closer to the deepest part of the valley. Many are hoping that the expedition completes their objective since they're sick of dealing with Belsos' heat-wave curse on the Versailles Continent.
3. Before arriving at the Valley of Death, the expedition's journery of wandering around the Northern Continent lasted for 2 months, which caused many members to desert.
4. Due to the heat-wave curse, hunting in Versailles dungeons and mountains skyrocketed, stamina was harder to preserve, guilds fought wars to expand their area, players overwhelmed tailors for bikini orders, muscular men removed their armor, and crowds gathered around river towns and seaside castles where they go about swimming in rivers or hitting the beach.
5. Viewers theorize that if the Cold Roses Expedition succeeds in the Valley of Death, they will gain tremendous amounts of fame, wealth, as well as power because many players will be flocking towards them wanting to join their guild. As a result, they would become a top-5 guild.
6. A high-level top-100 celebrity player named Chase appears amongst the viewers, and leaves a comment that he heard a story a month ago from a pub owner. 
7. Chase tells his story that in order to make the weather cool again, one must acquire what was left behind by the Siberian Ice Witch, and present it to the Altar of God in Ederne. Chase had investigated into the history of the Versailles Continent, and discovered that within an unknown valley is the broken Siberian Witch's Beads, which chase believes to be in the valley that the Cold Roses Expedition is currently going through. The revelation causes the viewers to go crazy having realized that they finally found a way to end the Curse of King Belsos.
8. The Siberian Witch's Beads is said to be an accessory with a special power that can manipulate the surrounding climate, but because it's a cursed item that will freeze a person's body and eat away at their life, only a master wizard specializing in ice can safely touch it.
9. After discovering how important the Cold Roses Expedition into the Valley of Death is, the KMC Media and CTS Media broadcast stations interrupt their regular viewings to show off Oberon's live stream.
10. Viewers watch at the Cold Roses Expedition faces off against the Bone Dragon. However, the expedition has fallen apart due to the dragon's roar ability, Roar of the Bone Dragon.
11. Roar of the Bone Dragon applies psychological pressure to all creatures inferior to it, even if thousands of animals have gathered to try to fight it.
12. Wizards fail to use their abilities on the Bone Dragon after being hit by the roar. The members of the expedition are said to be in the late 300s while the Bone Dragon is as high as the late 400s.
13. The Bone Dragon is able to properly speak, and its empty eyes show off a dark blue glow.
14. Charging forward, Oberon and the other top expedition members see this as an opportunity since the Bone Dragon has never been hunted or seen before due to being such a rare encounter.
15. The Bone Dragon has a fire spell that's strong enough to cause a large explosion.
16. As Oberon's group charges forward, his expedition Wizards spam Mana Burn to try to weaken the Bone Dragon. Once Oberon's group makes it to the dragon, they spam their attacks upon it while also fighting off the evil minions, such as the Embinyu Priests. In addition, Priests are seen trying to heal those that are fighting.
17. Drum uses his View Life Force ability to check how much damage they've done to the Bone Dragon. While it's mana has dropped to just 12%, it still has 74% of its health after the attacks from Oberon and company.
18. The Bone Dragon is revealed to be named Kurenbereu, a sinister spirit of a former savage Red Dragon. It's known to have the power of hatred, and became even more berserk after reviving into an undead.
19. After being revived thanks to the Power to Reject Death skill, Weed checks himself, and sees that he's become a skeleton that's 100% nothing but bones. He also checks his surroundings, and sees that Alveron and Seoyoon are still alive having not died to the Bone Dragon's Acid Breath.
20. Alveron is said to be someone who's able to increase the Church of Freya's public value as long as his skills continue to increase. Along with other Priests, he helps heal up the members of the Cold Roses expedition.
21. Weed has reduced familiarty with Alveron and the Order of Freya while in undead form. As a result, he sends flattery in Alveron's direction to compensate the disadvantage. He orders Alveron to regroup with him instead of helping the expedition with support activities.
22. Weed orders Geumini, who's still flying atop Wy-1, for them to take Alveron to a safe location. In addition to wanting to keep Alveron safe, the Priest's buffs no longer help him anyway since he's become an undead.
23. Before anything else, Weed checks on his level 319 stat screen. Weed's status has changed from human to undead, and his profession is now Origin of the Skeleton. 
24. Weed sees that while in undead form, some of his stats have abnormally increased such as having 35,080 health, 28,210 mana, 1,050 Strength, and 969 Agility. On the downside, Weed doesn't have his Art, Leadership, Luck, and Faith stats while in undead form. 
25. Since he can't wear Talrock's Armor while in undead form due to being an item that's Holy natured, Weed decides to remove all his currently equipped items in order to use items with good properties suitable for his undead form. 
26. Weed pulls out the Fallen Saint's Staff that he looted off Lich Shire, and equips it. The property of the staff is said to have changed due to Weed's undead form, which allows for its true powers to be revealed, such as Weed being able to use Black Magic. 
27. Weed uses Item Idenfitication on the Fallen Saint's Staff, which turns it into Saint Taranhan's Staff. The staff is said to have been once owned by Taranhan, a great saint that was once revered by humans. However, Taranhan ended up turning evil after receiving a Dawn Ring where he could hear the voices of demons within it. From then on, Taranhan enjoyed the sight of blood, carnage, and corruption such as bribery.
28. Saint Taranhan's Staff has 90 durability, and deals 79-98 melee damage. It's restricted to being equipped by dark profession users, and it's power varies depending on if a Paladin or Priest wields it. Stat changes upon equipping includes -600 Faith, -200 Charm, +100 Stamina, +80 Intellect, +100 Wisdom, 35% increased spell damage, and reduced stamina consumption on rugged terrain. In addition, notoriety rises by 30 for each human killed by the weapon, living sacrifices can be made to restore health and mana, Black Magic usage is available, and evil forces can further ascend if the user is considered wicked.
29. Weed next pulls out Bar Khan's Necromancer Tome, and equips it. He uses Item Identification on it, which tome is explained as Bar Khan's second written tome dealing with the difficult discipline of Black Magic and creating undead. All undead recipes from basic to advanced are listed within the tome's contents, but the creation of certain undead creatures requires a large many supply cost.
30. Bar Khan's Necromancer Tome has 30 durability. It's restricted to Wizards above level 300 who've become the Necromancer class, and also require at least 500 Wisdom and 8000 mana. Stat changes upon equipping includes +25 Black Magic resistance, the ability to create 2 undead creatures such as an undead boss that has intelligence, vitality of undead will improve, and immunity to divine powr will be built up.
31. Thanks to his Origin of the Skeleton profession being able to act as the Necromancer class, this allows for Weed to equip and read the contents of Bar Khan's Necromancer Tome as long as he remains in undead form.
32. Weed begins to zealously read through Bar Khan's Tome in order to learn of all its Necromancer undead manufacturing and magic attack spells.
33. Amongst the undead that Weed reads about in the tome is the ultimate undead that all wizards want to see or create, the Bone Dragon. Requirements to make the undead dragon include needing a dragon corpse, many magical reagents, and 100 days of work to turn the corpse into an undead. Its magic defense and intellect will be significantly lowered compared to a normal dragon, but in return, health will be increased.