Wandering Dungeon

"How long until we get to a village?" Garrett groaned. "I'm sick of seeing just trees."

"I thought you would have been grateful to see anything but a cave." Blixie replied as she flew around the surrounding tree branches.

"Before I got my memories back I would have been thrilled to see this forest but in my past life my family would go camping in the woods every year. It just feels like I'm back there and not in another world."

"I guess that makes sense. Well, since you don't need to sleep and you should be able to see well enough by moonlight, I would say we should run into a town in the next couple of days if we don't stop."

"I hope the town is more exciting than this hike through the woods." Garrett sighed.

"Maybe we will run into bandits. That would be exciting!" Blixie chuckled. She looked over at the skeleton that Garrett was puppeting through the forest. "By the way, what happened to your foot?"

"Hm?" Garrett looked at Blixie confused. He had been practicing moving the skeleton using the mana threads from his Unseen Force skill for long enough that just walking the skeleton around was an unconscious effort. He looked down at the skeleton and realized that its right foot was missing. He stared at the mana thread that was suppose to be connected to it as it fluttered behind him. "Again!? Really!?"

Blixie couldn't hold back her burst of laughter. "What does that make it, the fourth time you've lost a foot?"

"Fifth." Garrett grumbled as they backtracked to find his missing foot. "Once Unseen Force levels up again I'm going to tie these feet on so hard that not even a giant could remove them."

"The giants wouldn't care. They would probably thank you for saving them the trouble of taking two bites to eat your leg." Blixie laughed so hard she had to lean on a tree branch for support.

They found the foot bones grouped around a tree root, the mana thread no longer holding them together after going outside of Garrett's influence. Garrett grabbed each bone and placed them back where they should go and used a mana thread to secure them all together. It took a little longer than he would have liked but he managed to only use a couple of threads. "Ugh. Having to use so many threads to keep the bones together is exhausting. Maybe I could get a suit of armor and just control that instead. Nobody needs to know that it's hollow right?" Garrett said exasperated.

They started trekking back through the forest hoping that they were headed in the direction of a town. "That's true and would be a good plan but we would need to get a lot more money first. Full suits of armor are expensive and you don't have nearly enough on you. Although, if we ran into some bandits that you could defeat they might have some treasure on them that we could sell."

"What's with you and wanting us to run into bandits?"

"Pixies are fighters Garrett, and I'm your dungeon guide as well. It's only natural that I would want to see you fight so I can guide you to be a better dungeon. It's just that you are actually doing the fighting instead of having any monsters fight for you. I've never heard of a dungeon that could do that so I'm excited to see how well it goes." Blixie was practically vibrating with excitement.

A soft growl caught their attention. "Be ready Garrett." Blixie warned as she prepared to dodge whatever was near them. Another growl soon followed from behind them. Garrett looked around nervously before remembering he could float anywhere within a few feet of his core that was currently residing inside a pouch nestled inside the ribcage of the skeleton. He floated over to the bush behind them which was only a couple feet away.

"It's a wolf." He said quietly, his voice emanating from his core. "Looks pretty thin. I can see its ribs."

"If you see one wolf there are at least two you can't." Blixie responded quietly. "Wolves always hunt in packs if they can."

Garrett had the skeleton draw the rusty sword from its scabbard, motes of red dust drifted to the ground. Garrett positioned himself back to his spot slightly above and behind the skeleton. The wolf behind them lunged with a vicious growl, hoping to take them by surprise.

Garrett wasn't too worried about making the skeleton move like a normal human. He rotated the upper half of the skeleton around to face the wolf, it's blade already pointed at the wolf's throat. The blade didn't pierce so much as tear through its skin thanks to the weight of the wolf slamming into the swords point. The wolf landed heavily onto the skeleton and pinned the sword.

Another growl caught their attention as a second wolf lunged low and bit down on the left leg of the skeleton. With a quick yank the wolf pulled at the leg hoping to trip the skeleton. The leg was torn away, the mana threads holding it to the rest of the skeleton provided little resistance. The wolf stood there confused for a moment the leg, foot and all, dangling from its mouth.

Garrett took that moment to pull the sword out of the dead wolf but it was stuck tight. Thinking quickly he tried to absorb the wolf's body but nothing happened. He remembered reading stories in his old world about reincarnated dungeons and how their abilities were severely limited if non-dungeon creatures were in their influence. He quickly moved away from the still living wolf. Once we was a few feet away he absorbed the body without a problem.

The wolf recovered from its momentary lapse, tossed the leg aside, and dashed after the skeleton. It leapt at the skeleton's chest. Garrett dodged the skeleton to the side narrowly avoiding the wolf's razor sharp fangs and claws. He once again made use of the skeletons flexibility and lack of flesh and spun the skeleton's torso like a deadly top which added extra power to his sword swing. Thanks to pure luck the sword hit the wolf right behind the skull and shattered its neck killing it.

"Well that was exciting!" Blixie shouted. "We certainly have to work on your swordsmanship and get you a better sword. That one looks like it is going to fall apart soon."

"Can't really get a new sword until we get to a town." Garrett replied.

"Or run into bandits." Blixie said with a little excitement in her voice.

"Again with the bandits?"

"What, bandits usually have some weapons. Even if they are crappy weapons it would be an upgrade for you. Talking about loot, can you pull that first wolf out of your, what did you call it? Inventory?"

Garrett looked through what was in the extra dimensional storage space he called his inventory but didn't see the wolf. "I don't see it. I guess I absorbed it."

"Why did you do that!?" Blixie shouted.

"I couldn't get the sword out of it. Absorbing it was the only thing I could think of. Why is it a bad thing?"

"It's bad because, so far, you haven't been able to summon even a rat. How hard do you think a wolf would be? Also we can't harvest the fur or meat from it. So there goes that income." Blixie sighed.

"We still have the other one." Garrett stated as he lifted the body up.

"That's true." Blixie said. "How much do you know about skinning, cleaning, and butchering animals?" Garrett shrugged the skeletons shoulders. "Ugh. We might as well just put it in your inventory until we get into town then. It will sell for a little less as a whole wolf but it will be more than if you mess up the hide and meat."

Garrett looked down at the wolf. "I think I have a better idea." Blixie swore she could hear a smirk in his voice.

"I have a bad feeling about this." Blixie sighed.