This time, I won't be the devil.

With Petrarch's financial resources, it would not be difficult to build a ritual site in the labyrinth, but given his current physical condition, he would not be able to wait until the day when enough gold was mined.

So he built a ceremonial site in the form of a cemetery, and then found Grandet of the Hayek Group.

He signed a contract with the consortium using the ownership of his gold mine as a bargaining chip, allowing the consortium to keep his inheritance and maps, and requiring the other party to transport 30 tons of gold to the cemetery in the maze after 50 years.

After making all these preparations, in 940 of the Aiden calendar, the dying Petrarch went to his own tomb escorted by a group of adventurers.

Before entering the cemetery to sleep forever, he encountered the skeleton troll that was killed as soon as it was born.

……

In the eyes of the Skeleton Troll, the reason why Petrarch was assimilated by it was probably because he had been seriously injured and on the verge of death, and his life span had long been exhausted. He was only relying on the ability of the [Golden Rule] to stay alive.

After devouring Petrarch, the fragments of the law in his body were also transferred to the skeleton troll.

After obtaining his memories, the Skeleton Troll's intelligence was further improved, and he also mastered the password to the gate.

But despite this, having lost the magic stone that served as its power source, the Skeleton Troll still had no ability to move. It could only lie in place, relying on the Golden Rule to maintain its life.

This dark time lasted for 30 years.

It wasn't until 30 years ago that a mountain of gold appeared out of nowhere in this underground space.

After the appearance of gold was detected, the spell originally engraved in the underground space was triggered and began to continuously absorb magic power from the maze.

After the ceremony, the gold disappeared and the Skeleton Troll's abilities changed.

[Golden Rule Lv2]: After absorbing a large amount of gold, the Golden Rule is strengthened, increasing the holder's soul strength and significantly extending their lifespan.

At the same time, as the strength of its soul increased, the Skeleton Troll evolved.

[Rank 3 → Rank 4]

The Skeleton Troll evolved into the Skeleton King.

After reaching Rank 4, the Skeleton King gained a new skill [Monster Domination].

It can issue orders to monsters of lower rank than itself within a certain range, and can command up to five monsters at the same time.

And just in the cemetery above this underground space, there is a group of two-spined monkeys.

So the Skeleton King gave an order, asking the two apes to enter the password to open the door, come to him and commit suicide, and become his food.

After assimilating dozens of two-thorned monkeys, the Skeleton King finally re-condensed the magic stone in his body and regained his ability to move.

The Skeleton King stood up again and quickly realized that if he returned to the maze like this, he would still be defeated by humans.

In comparison, this underground space is simply the best place to accumulate strength.

It began to skillfully use its [Monster Domination] skill, first letting the two-thorn ape lure other monsters to the cemetery, and after the monsters entered the skill range, it turned and issued orders to them, letting them go to the underground space.

Through this series of operations, the Skeleton King assimilated various monsters without leaving his house and became stronger and stronger.

Later, in order to deal with adventurers who happened to discover the cemetery and prevent them from revealing the information here to humans, the Skeleton King found four one-eyed stone men to act as guards.

As for the group of two-spined apes that took refuge in the cemetery, the Skeleton King no longer exploited them and only required them to offer sacrifices regularly.

It recruited the strongest white ape as its subordinate and let it command the other apes. With these two-thorn apes acting as its eyes and ears, the Skeleton King could grasp the intelligence in the maze at any time.

Considering that the bard has the ability to talk to animals, in order to prevent his information from being exposed, the other two-spined apes except the white ape are currently unaware of the existence of the Skeleton King.

Every step the Skeleton King took was extremely cautious, even to the point of competing wits and courage with the air.

Just like that, 30 years later, the Skeleton King's strength has increased to an extremely terrifying level, and he is only one step away from evolving again.

Once it evolves to level 5, its [Monster Domination] will no longer be limited to commanding only five monsters.

By then, it will lead its army of monsters to escape to the 50th floor where humans cannot set foot, and continue to develop in a disgusting way.

One day, it will replace the sealed evil dragon and become the new master of the maze.

Not every monster can be as cautious as it is. Even if other monsters have higher intelligence, they often cannot suppress the desire to kill in their bodies.

But because it initially assimilated the human being Petrarch and also acquired his memories, the Skeleton King possesses extremely high rationality.

With its current strength, those humans below level 30 in the second tier have absolutely no chance of defeating it.

But it still has one last concern, which is the remaining consciousness of the human named Petrarch in its body.

As more and more monsters were assimilated, Petrarch's influence on the Skeleton King had become very weak, but it had not completely disappeared. This was also the last hidden danger in it.

That was why the Skeleton King had specifically asked the white ape whether there were any golden-haired elves among the invaders.

As cautious as the Skeleton King was, he ordered the white ape to be on high alert after the black-haired man left.

It just so happened that the black-haired man was regarded as a guardian by the two apes, so the vigilance work went smoothly.

"Report to my king, the man is heading towards the cemetery and is now resting near the Sparkling Lake."

A week later, the white ape came underground to report.

"There are three people this time. I didn't see the blond elf, but there's one more guy wearing a mask and a hood than last time..."

After listening to the white ape's report, the Skeleton King gave instructions.

(You should immediately take the other two spiny monkeys out of the graveyard.)

"My king, why is this?"

(If the enemy notices something is wrong, they might threaten you with your tribe to reveal the password.)

"Thank you, my king, for the reminder."

After the white ape left, the Skeleton King began to think.

Since the enemy can easily defeat four one-eyed stone men, even if you control four more soldiers to join the battle, the effect will be very limited.

Moreover, when controlling other monsters, it will greatly distract its attention, which is not worth the loss.

Although it did not think that the three humans could crack the password of the door, it did not become careless.

A day later, when the sound of the elevator rang out, the Skeleton King was ready for battle.

The moment the elevator landed at the bottom, the Skeleton King swung the giant sword in his hand and slashed at the armored figure with all his strength.

The Skeleton King understood that the best tactic was to strike the enemy with one strike before they even noticed.

The giant sword fell, making a loud noise like the earthquake, and raising a cloud of dust.

The armor was shattered by the giant sword, announcing the victory of the Skeleton King.

(Sneak attacks are not exclusive to you humans.)

However, when the smoke and dust cleared, the Skeleton King realized that something was wrong.

What it smashed was a dummy wearing armor.

And at this moment, a bright red light appeared above its head.

The Skeleton King quickly looked up, and then he saw that a rock platform had been created in the space above the elevator.

The black-haired man above looked down at him and smiled with a look of success.

At the same time, huge flames, accompanied by roaring thunder, were falling from the sky with the help of strong winds.

"You can't sit directly at the bottom of an elevator. This is common sense in Souls games."

The best tactic is to strike the enemy with one strike before they even notice. I believe the Skeleton King must have predicted this, so he was guarding the elevator.

And Frey anticipated the monster's prediction.

Chapter 45 My Plan is Above You

Flames and lightning accompanied the huge impact of the fall. Under the combined effects of heat energy, electrical energy, and gravity, a powerful Flame Volt Slash came towards the Skeleton King's head.

Faced with this unexpected attack, the Skeleton King had no choice but to shift his body to the left at the last moment.

The slash finally hit the Skeleton King's right arm. The flames charred the bones and the lightning split them apart. The 3-meter-long thick bone arm was severed alive, and countless charred bone fragments poured down from the joints like a rainstorm.

After his arm was broken, the Skeleton King quickly retreated to create distance. His 9-meter-tall body made the ground tremble with every move.

And at this moment, Didoris's chanting reached its finale. A wind field appeared on the ground, allowing Noel, who fell from the sky, to land safely.

The Skeleton King, who had taken the initiative, did not dare to act rashly for a moment, while Frey and Didoris seized this opportunity to jump down from the rock platform above and stood firm.

The rock platform then collapsed, turning into dozens of rock bombs that shot towards the Skeleton King. Faced with this unknown attack, the Skeleton King hurriedly used his remaining left arm to raise his sword to block it.

Some of the rock bullets hit the Skeleton King's body, but did not cause any effective damage to its dense bones.

The Skeleton King quickly got into position again, raised the huge bone sword with his one arm, and slashed at Frey in front of him.

It was extremely fast, and even though Frey had captured its movements in advance through shadow perception, he could only barely dodge it.

Just as Frey dodged, the Skeleton King immediately spun around and slashed at Noel behind him.

Noelle's reaction speed was not as fast as Frey's, but at this moment, Didoris finished chanting the magic again and released two huge wind blades.

Fourth-level magic [Wind Blade, Double Release].

Under the impact of the wind blade, the Skeleton King's movements shifted, and Noelle stabbed out the Thunderfire Sword in his hand and slashed at the Skeleton King's left arm.

Faced with this attack, the Skeleton King had no choice but to exert force on his feet and jump backwards to avoid it.

Frey was fighting the monsters in the front, Noelle was looking for opportunities to attack with the Thunderfire Sword in the middle, and Tidoris was chanting magic in the back row. This was their tactic.

Through this fight, Frey became confident in the Skeleton King's combat effectiveness.

Although it is a fourth-level monster, its attack power, speed, and defense have all reached the fifth-level level.

According to the information Frey had investigated, a team of adventurers had once conquered a Skeleton Troll that was over 10 meters tall. Logically, the evolved Skeleton King should be even larger. The reason why it maintained its body at 9 meters was probably to increase the density of its bones and its own flexibility.

On the other side, the Skeleton King also made the judgment that the man in the front was not to be feared. The one who could cause effective damage to him was the woman in the middle holding the flaming sword, but her speed was not fast, and under normal circumstances, she could not hit him at all.

The real trouble is the guy behind who can use wind magic. Her magic is completely different from what a human below level 30 can cast.

The Skeleton King decided to kill the Wind Mage in the back row first.

After deducing the Skeleton King's intentions from the changes in his eyes, Frey gestured to Tidoris.

She then took off her hood, revealing her blonde hair and long ears.

The moment he saw these two characteristics, the Skeleton King stopped moving, and Frey also verified his guess.

Since this is the deepest part of the cemetery, Petrarch's coffin and body are obviously located here.

Although it is not known how the Skeleton King entered the cemetery, it is very likely that it has assimilated Petrarch's remains.