The cold blade that rested below Skullius’ chin, touching his neck, did not do him any favours in giving him the confidence to answer this man.

Skullius took in the appearance of the man who stood in front of him as well the one with the bulky appearance and wondered how he would get out of this one.

Even though he felt his mind being less active and sharp than it was when he was in his Boneman form, he wasn’t stupid.

There was no way this was a coincidence.

These were definitely the enemies he had been warned about by Eobald.

“Can you understand me?” the man who had spoken asked.

“Uhm…yes,” replied Skullius to which the man nodded to his companion whose sword was on Skullius’ neck.

The young man withdrew his sword and stepped back while the woman who had been at the side, with a bow on her back, stood by Skullius’ other side with her arms folded.

“Hey, you’re only in the Foundation Stage, right? How did someone like you even enter this forest and survive? And what’s with that face?” the woman bombarded Skullius with questions that he would have to fabricate the answers to.

“I must admit, that’s quite suspicious. Is he hiding his level or something, Reon?” the burly man said while squinting his eyes, directing his question at the man who had slain the Darewolf with his sword._.

“Not likely. I’ve already appraised him. He’s just an ordinary Foundation Stage adventurer. I’d assum at least. Albeit a very weak one. He cleared some of these Darewolves which is surprising unless he has some hidden skill or something that even I can’t see,” the young man who had been holding up his blade at Skullius said.

“Yeah, right! He’s probably just ridiculously lucky, ” said the red haired woman.

Skullius wore a bitter smile with an imaginary tear running down the side of his face as he heard the woman’s inference.

She then moved up and gripped Skullius by the throat, a surge of mana building up in her body. Her hands squeezed at Skullius, making him feel slightly uncomfortable as he didn’t have much sensation in his Discount Human form but being treated like this did spark a flame of annoyance.

“Where is that bastard? He gave you the Key didn’t he?” the woman asked threateningly.

“Ease up, Denille. You’ll kill him,” the burly man said with a frown.

“Shut up, Irlen! That bastard cost us a lot of time by having us cross all that distance to find this shitface substitute,” the woman whose name was Denille said before she turned to Skullius again. “Now tell me. Where is he?”

Skullius deliberated on what exactly to tell them.

According to Eobald, they needed the Key but they couldn’t kill him as that would destroy the Key.

So perhaps there really was nothing he could hide.

“He’s dead,” Skullius replied to which Denille ground her teeth while the others wore sullen looks.

“How did he die? Suicide? A higher tiered beast? You should know since you found him, right?” Denille asked, her expression turning softer.

Skullius saw the emotion in the woman’s eyes. She clearly cared for Eobald in some way and so did the others. There was something more to all this even though it seemed like they hated him as well.

However, being the socket hole that Skullius was, he decided to gracefully spite these powerful beings, especially the woman before him who acted like his existence meant nothing.

They couldn’t kill them if they wanted to Key right?

“I killed him,” Skullius said with a half sorry, half I-don’t-give-a-flying-flesh expression.

BOOM!

Skullius’ figure was smashed into the ground by Denille, the ground caving in under as a wave of mana blazed from Denille’s figure!

Skullius felt his body smash hard against the ground but there was no pain. He only lamented the health that he lost which was quite a lot.

Denille’s wore an unsightly expression as she pounded Skullius into the ground. She was trembling with rage.

“You…!”

“That’s enough,” the man with brown hair said with a sigh.

Denille backed off with a grumble while the man walked over to Skullius in the pit and crouched down.

“Did Eobald grant you ownership of the Key? Given how you are wearing his armour I could be lead to think that you merely robbed his corpse. If you have the Key, show me. If it’s destroyed, you’ll die here,” the man said nonchalantly.

The look in the man’s eyes caused Skullius body and core to shudder. This wasn’t a man he’d like to play games with.

He reached into his robe and pulled out the Key which was still intact.

The man with brown hair handled the Key and inspected it. He sighed once more and stored it on his person.

“It seems you get to live. We’ll need you for getting to a labyrinth where something important is being kept. You’ll be following us from here on out. If you try to do anything… adverse to our goals, we’ll make you wish you were dead. It’s better if you cooperate with us.”

‘I’m already dead, bro. Well, kind of, but no trouble from me,’ Skullius thought while nodding in response outwardly.

“Good. Reon, look for Eobald’s body and bring it here. It should be easy for you now, right?”

Reon nodded before his eyes ignited with the light of mana for a few seconds and in the next instance, he headed to where Skullius had been coming from.

Seeing that no one was willing to drag him out of the pit that he had been dug into, Skullius crawled out on his own.

He met gazes with Denille who looked at him with disdain while puffing her chest.

At first Skullius was intimidated but then, his eyes wandered around the body of the woman which was quite appealing under the slender brown and red armour that was a mash of steel and tough leather.

The quiver behind Denille’s back made her look like a certain princess with a passion for archery while her athletic figure covered by sandy toned, spotless skin was quite riveting.

Skullius felt nothing of the appeal however, as he didn’t have the genitals to back it up.

What caught his attention was a distinctive feature on this woman that drew on a memory than had already begun to surface in his mind since yesterday.

Two mounds sat upon the woman’s chest. There was something profound and sacred about them that was trying to leak from his mind and preach to the rest of his body about the grand revelation that was contained within them but it failed to come through.

‘Is this a female…?’ Skullius questioned.

The man in brown hair tore him out of his thoughts as he questioned.

“Did Eobald tell you anything about his plans? What did he tell you to do with the Key?”

“Uh… he just told me to run away with it,” Skullius responded.

“I see,” the man with brown hair said as he stroked his chin. “That bastard was probably hoping you’d be found by the other Green Neolists. I can’t believe he would side with the undead like this.”

Skullius turned to the man with a perturbed gaze.

“What? With undead?” Skullius asked.

“Did you think you stumbled upon a hero of righteousness who was trying to protect an important relic from thieves? That man you met is one of the fiends that want to aid the undead in taking over this world,” the man replied.

…!