The Youngest Prince Copies Skills with Skeleton Soldiers

Chapter 08 - Skeleton Soldier Fashion Show

Pantheon.

The main stronghold of the Millesdusk family, rulers of the East.

This place, which could be called both the capital and the heart, was where all the family’s neutral institutions and the Family Head’s residence were gathered.

Here, where absolute information power, political power, financial power, and military power were more concentrated than anywhere else in the East, also served the role of a nest.

A nest for the still young birds, who lacked the strength to go out and spread their wings.

That was why in Millesdusk, where the weak were despised, they called the blood members who remained in the Pantheon for a long time cowards.

But there were certainly scraps to be had from the nest.

“To think I’d come here in the body of the Youngest Son.”

I chuckled and stepped inside.

[Welcome to the Pantheon Mock Combat Hall.]

There was no one to welcome me, but the system offered a familiar greeting.

I took off my overcoat and warmed up moderately.

The body stiffens if left alone for a long time.

The same went for combat sense and control.

“It will take at least ten days for my letter to be delivered to Jubel and for him to come here. I can’t waste that time.”

So I came here.

The Mock Combat Hall.

As the name suggests, it was a space for mock combat, allowing for gradual growth through virtual enemies and differentiated stages.

There was no immediate danger of dying, and skill testing was often done here.

Today would be the same.

[Player: Dante Black Millesdusk]

[Please select a mock combat theme.]

“Small-scale combat. Include both close-range and long-range.”

[Selection complete.]

[Please select the difficulty of the combat.]

[Stage 1 ~ Stage 10]

“From Stage 1 to Stage 10. As soon as one is successfully completed, move on to the next stage.”

[Confirmed.]

[Would you like to measure your record?]

[If measured, it will be recorded in the hall and can be compared with other measurement records.]

“Of course, measure it.”

[Measuring the clear time from Stage 1 to Stage 10.]

[Beginning mock combat.]

With the alarm signaling the start, the spatial artifact ring also began to glow.

A crosshair was drawn in the air, then it opened its maw and poured out the undead private army.

It was everyone except the Undead Ogre.

The hall also created enemies.

Ten skeleton soldiers held bone swords and nocked bone arrows on their bone bows.

Even then, the head wearing sunglasses was pondering something deeply.

“I’ve been wondering all this time on my way here.”

These piping hot corpses here were just skeleton soldiers with hearts put in them.

Even if flesh had formed and filled the empty spaces, the foundation did not change.

“Then that means I can use all the bone sorcery for skeleton soldiers.”

Moreover, since they were exclusively for skeleton soldiers.

It was a basic skill that was usually used for a short time at the beginning and then discarded.

Its name was 「Skeleton Armor」.

As the name suggests, it transforms a skeleton soldier into armor to be worn.

“It's a very simple thought, but it's strange to think too much about a basic skill.”

And these corpses were extremely unlike the basics.

BLAM─!!

With a deafening gunshot.

The skull of a soldier aiming an arrow from afar shattered into pieces.

It was destroyed by a corpse soldier wearing a fedora, no. By a sorcerer wearing a corpse soldier.

[You have equipped the Skeleton Soldier 「Billy the Twin Guns」 as armor.]

[You can now directly use the unique skills of 「Billy the Twin Guns」.]

[Unique Passive: Twin Guns Technician]

[Unique Skill: Wild Fire]

“Crazy.”

A curse naturally came out from inside the bone helmet.

It was an exclamation of pure admiration.

Was a gun such an easy thing to shoot?

If I just held it, aimed roughly by eye, and pulled the trigger.

Thud─

An enemy had fallen.

“And my body is light. Does the corpse soldier's muscle also count as mine?”

I could feel that my physical abilities had increased greatly, along with those of a vampire half-blood.

I could tell by the way my body moved as I thought.

I moved, aimed the twin pistols, and fired without hesitation.

Within a distance where I was confident I could hit, I could roll once and still blow a head off.

“I seem to need to replenish the ammunition, but I can’t not try it.”

From under the brim of the hat, a smile was drawn on the mouth inside the skeleton helmet.

It was a red flag for the enemies.

[Activating unique skill.]

[Wild Fire]

It wasn't my body, but I reloaded quickly according to the memory engraved in the corpse soldier's body.

My eyes, moving like a flash of light, quickly grasped where and how many enemies there were.

Even in the midst of that, the tips of my toes continuously kicked the ground, dodging attacks and moving my body.

The three elements fell into place in a three-beat rhythm, and they brought out the best combination.

One. Two. Three. Four. Five.

The enemies fell like counting seconds, and the muzzles spewed fire without rest.

‘It’s completely like my own body.’

In the process of becoming a skeleton soldier and then skeleton armor.

I wore someone else’s clothes, someone else’s muscles, someone else’s flesh and bones, but there was no sense of incongruity at all.

Just as my blood resided in the red skeleton soldier, the soldier and armor based on it fit my body as if they were originally mine.

[Stage 4 clear complete]

[Moving on to the next stage.]

“…Phew. Stage 4.”

While I was admiring the sense of unity, as if my body had assimilated with the armor, I had already reached Stage 4.

It was cooler and faster than any character I had ever played.

Various armors. Each with its own characteristics.

The ability to choose armor meant that the strategy was not rigid and was extremely flexible.

“I have to try on the other soldiers too.”

When I took off Billy the Twin Guns, another soldier quickly followed according to my will.

Besides that, soldiers with various appearances and various weapons rampaged through the battlefield.

Standing in the center, I felt like a hero in a movie.

Iron… Hmm.

Yes. That one.

***

The first day of work at the Youngest Son’s mansion.

First, I went to see my senior and supervisor, the Head Maid, who had arrived early at this crappy mansion.

“Good day, Head Maid. The General Manager told me to receive my role from you.”

“……”

The supervisor looked at her junior with complicated eyes.

A silent gaze met for a while.

As the one receiving such a gaze, I couldn't help but have various imaginations.

‘What is it? Is it an incredibly important mission? Right now, the 1st-class agent Mirea can't be separated from the Youngest Son, so am I taking on an important mission in her place?’

I feigned calmness on the outside while nodding my head inwardly.

‘Yes. Honestly, there's no talent like me. I tailed the Fifth Son through all the chaos he was causing without being caught by anyone.’

Forgetting that his identity was revealed before he even started tailing, the reasons why this had to be an important mission grew.

Lubosch steeled his resolve.

“I don't mind any kind of work. As members of the family, isn't it our job to always deliver the best results, regardless of the danger?”

The supervisor agreed.

“Lubosch is right. Rather, seeing you like this makes me feel foolish for hesitating.”

His eyebrow twitched.

A 1st-class agent, a rank that only three people in the intelligence department maintained, and even among them, the youngest, Mirea Rara, coveted this mission?

Feigning humility, I bowed my head to barely hide the corners of my mouth that were trying to ascend to heaven.

“You will have plenty of opportunities for important missions in the future, Head Maid. I was just lucky to get one.”

“An important mission…. Hmm. Is that so?”

Mirea handed over the prepared box.

Thick boots. Garden trimming shears. An industrial hammer. A straw hat. A huge sack and a backpack. And so on.

Inside was full of things that foretold hard work and the future.

“What… is this?”

It was too miscellaneous to be related to an important mission.

Besides, this backpack was the size of a person.

“This looks like something a porter would use….”

“……”

An intelligence agent indeed.

He came close to the correct answer on his first look.

But it was not an easy task to shatter the fantasy of a growing sprout.

“Lubosch. This is your first dispatch, isn’t it?”

“It is.”

My confidence, which had shrunk for a moment, puffed up like the inflated backpack.

“Such a high-difficulty mission on your very first dispatch. The Intelligence General Manager must have great faith in you, Lubosch.”

“Ohh…!”

Mirea personally lifted the backpack and put it on his shoulders.

“Starting today, Lubosch will be assigned as the Fifth Son's dedicated intelligence agent, that is, a pure-blood dedicated agent. You are disguised as a porter to hide that.”

“Pure-blood dedicated…!”

The weight of those words was immense.

Even more so inside the mansion of a blood member within the Pantheon.

It was a great pity that it was the Fifth Son, but if I was a pure-blood dedicated agent on my first dispatch, the future was a smooth road.

“It was originally my mission, but Lubosch seems more suitable. I will yield.”

“I-I did not wish for such a concession.”

A lie.

I wanted it so damn much.

Fortunately, Mirea replied warmly without changing her words.

“You remind me of my younger brother. Don’t feel burdened and wear the backpack humbly.”

Lubosch's eyes became moist.

“Thank you…. I will never betray this expectation, so please don’t worry, senior.”

“Good. Lastly, this.”

The Head Maid handed over a note.

“This is what the Young Master instructed to be relayed when the porter arrived.”

I opened the note.

A pure-blood dedicated agent was a person who could watch the important and trivial affairs of the said blood member from the closest distance.

What would be the Youngest Son's next move?

-Clean my room.

“The Young Master has sensitive senses, so you will have to clean every nook and cranny.”

“U-um.”

“Even a large number like a hundred starts from a small thing like one. The same goes for important missions.”

“No, this is really just a─”

“Well then.”

The 1st-class agent disappeared as if melting into the darkness.

In her place, only a broom and a mop remained.

***

In the Mock Combat Hall, a barrage of jagged noises rained down today.

As it was a space for the young blood members.

There was no one left to use this place except for the Fifth Son.

Because all the other pure-bloods had flown far away from the Pantheon, out of the nest.

Then the source of this noise must be the Fifth Son.

Someone approached the front of the hall.

A black robe, a stiff and long beard hanging down from under a hood.

He was the model of a sorcerer as imagined by ordinary people.

The difference was that a black ring was engraved on the back of the robe and on his forearm.

The ring exuded a dark presence even in the pitch-black background.

The old man clicked his tongue.

“Hmph. That Kulsian fellow. If he’s curious, he should go himself, why tell me to come. Is he going to take all those subordinates with him to his coffin, what.”

Muttering, he stopped in front of the hall.

The noises coming from inside were still loud.

“The Fifth Son. I have no interest in such a chaff. Tsk.”

Nevertheless, he couldn't just leave.

This was the command of the Family Head.

Even for a being whom the old monsters called elders of Millesdusk collectively called an old monster, insubordination was impossible.

The old man brought his hand inside his hood.

“He’s probably just shitting in there. I should just take a quick look and go.”

He pulled his hand out from beyond the gloom that was maintained even under the sun.

With the clear sound of a clogged hole being pierced, an eyeball was caught in his hand.

The eye with a dark pupil floated lightly like a dandelion seed and flowed into the hall.

As could be told from the sound, a battle was in full swing inside.

“Around Stage 3?”

Thanks to the memories of his youth, it was not difficult to guess the stage.

Furthermore, it was not difficult to figure out what the Fifth Son's method of passing the test was.

“Skeleton Armor…?”

The Fifth Son frolicking in the hall was the Fifth Son, yet he was not.

He was wearing something.

It was a thick clothing made of bone and flesh and cloth, but his movements were unhindered.

The old monster, who had been in the sorcerer family for over a century, saw through its identity with a single glance.

“It's clear that the power of beast sorcery is mixed in. But it's also clear that it's skeleton armor. That means he succeeded in weaving beast sorcery into the framework of skeleton armor.”

Mixing different sorcery systems required a great risk.

Just as distinguished herbs acted as herbs, but when mixed, they were likely to become poisonous herbs.

Thus, in the family, there were combination formulas between sorceries accumulated by the ancestors.

Even now, talented blood members were creating combination formulas.

But there was no way the Fifth Son, who had only recently passed the test of achievement, would have seen that combination formula, and that was a combination formula that never existed in the first place.

“You could easily become a simpleton, and if you're lucky, you might live with a disability for the rest of your life. The young punk has guts.”

He continued to observe, his lips twitching.

The words about taking a quick look and leaving had long since disappeared, mixed in with his continuous muttering.

Beyond Stage 3, to Stage 4, Stage 5, and finally to Stage 10.

There were some redundancies, but the result of moving on to the next stage continued without change.

The old man could not leave his spot and could not suppress his smile.

The skeleton armor, infused with beast sorcery, exhibited various powers depending on what the corpse was.

But what was surprising was elsewhere.

“Hah. There’s no delay in moving other corpses while manifesting the skeleton armor. Did he take out his eye like me?”

His view of the battlefield was very wide.

Not to mention his ability to judge the situation by following that view.

I could feel that he was trying to utilize even small things, as the sorceries he knew were few.

“That Kulsian fellow…. I see why he sent me. Is he telling me to take a disciple at this age?”

Or was it that his talent was too precious to be killed by other blood members, so he should be indoctrinated?

But the old man knew that was not the Family Head's intention.

“Well, the young punk doesn't want to die, so he's mixing sorceries at risk. You're acting like a father too. Seeing as you even called me.”

The old man retrieved his eye and put it back in its place.

He was lost in thought for a moment, then the hand that had taken out the eyeball pulled out a book from his bosom.

“But in my opinion, Kulsian.”

This book was a scripture that could be found anywhere in the East.

It was no exaggeration to say it was the most common book in the East.

But it was a book that no one in the East fully understood, along with the speculation that it might be a grimoire.

Despite being born as the youngest.

Kulsian Black Millesdusk, who became the Family Head by slaughtering his genius and talented brothers with his talent.

Even the current Family Head did not fully understand this book.

Now it remained as just a riddle or a conundrum, but the believers of Millesdusk believed.

That someone in a later generation would interpret this book left by the first Family Head and reproduce his power.

“If your youngest son is to beat all his grown siblings and ascend to the position of Family Head…. this book is the only answer.”

He placed the book in front of the hall.

[Scripture of the Dark Wheel]

The old man clasped his hands behind his back and disappeared like a ghost.