I think I’ve got it.

  Han had been sitting still for a while, an unusual endeavor for him. Though, it resulted in an epiphany. Originally, there was a chance that the Lich boss fight wouldn't have triggered but with her, it should be out of the equation. He would gain EXP, and she would finish whatever quest she was doing.

  A win-win.

  That still didn't guarantee an exit for him, though. Still, it was far too risky to detach from Zom, and trying to tch onto a pyer was simply insanity. There was a way, one he couldn't come up with despite having so much time.

  Fucking hell… too many variables. I can’t think.

  The thinking backfired in the end. Han's fists could only curl up as retaliation against his own mind. Pragmatism at its finest. The ck of a solution just brought stress. It was better to roam around mindlessly, coming up with words to try once she came back.

  As he did that, he couldn't believe himself. He was waiting for someone, relying on someone. He had never done something like this before. It led to a certain train of thought.

  Am I not relying on Zom?

  Before it could fester, his brain tracker inched him in a direction, one that was above him. The faint feeling became a tad stronger as he walked towards it. Once the person was behind the next corner, he already knew it was the healer.

  She was sitting on some rubble, blending in without the light right at the start of the 4th floor. Han inwardly smirked, since she somehow guessed that he would come for her

  “You’re here. Look what I got you.” She jolted up; he couldn't help but notice her wariness when he first stealthily appeared. Her eyes started darting around mid-air near her stomach height. Eventually, out of thin air, something dark and evidently majestic manifested.

  “I wasn’t sure if you needed it. I just thought you needed to stand out.” She said, her gaze avoiding Zom's horrid face.

  Han's hand hovered over the pitch-bck material, then lifted it off her hands; it was impossibly lightweight. The fabric, despite being nigh weightless, was quite thick, but not enough to stop a ssh or stab. It was safe to assume it would at least attempt to do so.

  But it was clear what the main purpose of the drape was. He propped it over his shoulders, his whole body hidden under the thick fabric, with a hood that had a face piece protruding from the colr.

  He really wanted to throw a thumbs-up, but that would show too much awareness. He still felt he had to show at least some appreciation. It came with a slight bow, one that quite fit the game's medieval setting.

  "No worries. You're already… fast; with this you'll blend in more. Uh… Less. Risk. I still don't know if you understand…" The healer kept rambling to him, or rather, in her perspective, to herself.

  She wanted to add on about the passive effect. Even if Zom's vocabury weren't so rough, those specifics would pass through one ear and out the other. Though, while Zom couldn't follow, Han did.

  [? Cloak of Night - LVL 13 ?]

  This cloak’s kinda expensive, no?

  Since there was no way to check it, he assumed so. Anyway, he finally could do what he pnned for earlier. Han cleared his throat, though Zom let out a gurgle. Despite it, he continued.

  “Come, move, hurt, hunt, name, help, fight, boss, lich, zombie, healer.”Han speedran every word he thought would be useful if she understood. There was a chance none of them would work, since he had never heard a zombie speak in this crypt specifically.

  Even though he rapid-fired all of them, the healer took a while to respond. Her expression was simple to describe, amazement, or even enthrallment. While she slowly blinked, Han rushed to think of other things to name. But it didn't come to that.

  “Rhapari. My name is Rhapari. It sounded like you were listing words, right?” Her dark cheeks creased as she smiled. Though, her eyes didn't follow the memo.

  Oh… c’mon it’s not that bad. Han scoffed inwardly as the girl before him clearly thought of him as pitiable.

  “The other I understood was hunt. Do you mean the skeletons? I… I don’t really want to fight them too much. There’s this boss. Uh, strong skeleton. Maybe you could help. I’d use the, well, whatever that buff or debuff was.”

  That put a nonexistent smile on Han's face. However, the temptation had to be resisted. While the EXP gains were horrid to a point, it would take killing thousands of level 8 skeletons for Zom to gain half a level. That was just how the system prevented power-farming. There was nothing he could do about it.

  But there’s something I haven’t tested.

  And that was the actual boss fight. The Lich was level 15, and since he was hailed as a crypt boss, the EXP yields should be higher. Though he didn't pn to bend the knee yet. He pnned to kill every single skeleton through every floor until the boss. The problem came from expining it to Rhapari.

  “Hunt.” Zom’s voice gurgled hoarsely. It was exactly as Han had said, the exact word. No method came to mind on how to expin further, so he didn't mull over it.

  “Mm.” Since it was one of the words she could understand, she nodded and got ready—which simply meant waiting for Han to move further into the crypt. Soon enough, he did. Hoping that she wouldn't point out the needless skeleton killing ter on. As they went on, deeper into the crypt.

  “I’m guessing you don’t want that buff. It seemed to take a lot out of you. We should—“

  “Kill.” Han cut her off, solely relying on her catching what he was trying to say. She followed after him. He checked up on her by peeking over his shoulder. She seemed to be really thinking about it, even catching her feet on the uneven stone ground.

  “…Kill to use it? Hunt is simply fighting them?” Eventually she spoke up, and Zom responded via a hoarse rumble.

  “Alright. I’ll probably only use it once we fight the Lic—the strong skeleton.” He snickered at her attempts to tone down the vocabury. It was quite a weird feeling, not pity, but a gap between them.

  Their path was basically uninterrupted since the skeletons posed no issue to Han. Though, he did wonder if she was getting EXP by being near the kills. It was quite hard to tell by the EXP numbers he gained, as they kept going down. They weren't in a party, and he was technically not a pyer. Since she didn't even touch them, it should have been going solely to him. The Lich would sadly be different.

  The whole crypt's boss was ahead. While Han's obliviousness to the lore didn't hinder his skill and mechanical understanding, Rhapari was the literal antithesis of his way of pying. Han really understood it during their walk to the boss.

  The Bckwood Crypt, the barren wastend that was a regur dark elf outpost. Surrounded by barren woods—that description still stood—though it was lifeless. The dead forest kept living, as absurd as that statement was. The source of all that deadness was the crypt boss.

  “So, the crypt boss; Feraun, the Long Before. He’s a… strong skeleton, but he’s important to defeat. Hopefully, I get the item.” Despite Han not reacting to her lore rambling, she continued anyway. Though, it was nice not being in his own head all the time.

  The near-endless, ancient stone floors with mossy debris everywhere had finally led to a door. Though, that would be an understatement. Despite the fungus, it still retained the word: grand. The smooth engravings stood the test of time. It was around 5 meters tall, and its thickness would soon be learned.

  “That’s… quite an entrance. I’m right behind you.” She muttered at a volume that Zom's clogged ears could hear.

  Guess she wants me to go first.

  It wasn't that he was afraid. After all, the boss fight would be a walk in the park. Even accounting for the basic party setups, he was on the front line. Sadly.

  What if the boss fight bugs?

  Anyway, he didn't let it bug him that much. Putting his cold hands on the even colder doors was surprising, since Han's feeling was already quite muted. The various vines that held the door shut spryly split at the door's crevice. Luckily the thick stone blocks that were called doors weren't as heavy as they looked.

  “Sheesh.” Rhapari seemed to have made that noise subconsciously. She began shivering, reaching for a warm cloak from her inventory. If she hadn't reacted, he wouldn't have even known.

  It seemed they had found the reason it was cold. The doors had been holding back whatever was releasing the icy gusts. Whatever throne room used to be here, it was covered with literal snow. The four pilrs that held the space together weren't even stone at this point; the ice had somehow chilled through, repcing the foundation that had been there before.

  However, it wasn't the first time Han had been here. Since the cold barely bothered him, the experience was even worse than the hundred runs through here. Though Rhapari seemed interested in it, if the lore rambles he'd had to sit through were any sign, her expression cemented it entirely.

  She was behind him, ignoring the distance she had kept between them. Her hands tucked into the pure white winter coat that made her face stand out. Her dark cheeks were already, and quite obviously, tinted red. He couldn't think of a memory that had him as enthralled as the throne room had her.

  As with most things, the moment passed quickly. They stepped inside the throne room fully. Han readied his daggers and crouched down.

  The boss fight’s simple; I just have to be aw—

  —Thunk!

  The door behind them had shut closed—since it was a boss fight, it was kill or be killed. Yet, she was fidgeting. He guessed that she was around level 20; at that point she should have gone through at least a couple boss fights, though it didn't seem so.

  Is she really that ne—

  “Another adventurer? What a pain…” A voice had interrupted his train of thought. Despite having been interrupted twice, Zom's nonexistent smile creaked ear to ear. The reason was simple: the Lich was a skeleton. Due to it, he was a boss with no voice lines.

  “Sorry, bud. I’ll need to kill ya!” Han yelled on purpose, while Zom could only barely keep up with the words. As the loud gurgles escaped Zom's mouth, a short silence washed through all of them. The Lich finally stood up from his chair, a thing Han hadn't seen happen. Ever.

  “Huh? Whadya say ya punk!?”

  What?

  He didn't expect that kind of response. He wanted to farm him for EXP, but now he felt weird. It quite honestly changed everything for Han.

  I’d be killing the sole person I can talk to. Shit…

  He gnced at the fully combat-ready Rhapari, while she couldn't understand a zip of their conversation. There was a thought, a thought he whisked away quickly. Nonetheless, it was either a truce or the Lich's head.

  Han's guard wasn't down at all; however, he had slowly lowered his daggers. With meticulous steps he inched forward to the throne. The Lich didn't put Han in any danger, Zom was far superior, but the girl behind him wasn't.

  “Alright, let’s talk ay?! I’m coming closer so we wouldn’t need to shout!” Han called out to him, withholding the truth that if he sensed any malice, he would be taking his head

  “Huuh!? Can’t hear ya! Let me come closer!” Once more, the Lich uncharacteristically spoke. Him standing up was weird enough, but now he was walking closer to them.

  “A-Aren’t we going to fight him? Are you two somehow talking?” Rhapari had to question Han's intent, after all, she was seeing Zom simply scream his dead lungs out and the crypt boss becoming more and more agitated, to a point where he was coming towards them.

  Han was standing tall, the daggers still in hand but stashed behind him. Not entirely hidden, simply showing the Lich that if a fight broke out, he would have the first move. Despite Han pnning the encounter meticulously, he couldn't have foreseen it going this way.

  “Holy… you’re ugly. The Lich spoke without his jaw moving. His white bones blended into the snow to a point where he could camoufge at a distance. Despite being a skeleton no different from any other Han had defeated, the clothing set him apart. It was of expensive make, fine cloth, and didn't seem worn out or even harmed by the throne room's harsh state. Without a pause he continued, this time leaning a tad to the right, checking behind Zom.

  “Who’s the ss behin’ ya and where’s Feraun? Oh! And did we—“

  “Shut the fuck up! Let me talk for a sec. Wait… aren’t you him? Fe… Feraun?” Han fought the urge to rub his nose bridge. He could take Rhapari's level of talking, had he not already been forced to sit through it the whole way here.

  Still, there was some lore he didn't know about and probably didn't care for. Setting aside the fact that the skeleton standing before him apparently wasn't Feraun, despite the crypt boss being clearly named as such, he didn't care for any of it. Luckily, the Lich skipped to the point.

  “Fuck? Nice word. No, I ain’t him. Uh, fuck that guy for all I care. He’s the reason I’m stuck here. Got your answer—good, my turn; Whatdya want from me?”

  “She needs a quest item. I’m not sure what it is exactly.”

  “Then simply ask her, you’re the one she can… she can’t, right? Holy… though, I do have an artefact with me, but I don’t think I will give it to you.” The Lich brushed his bony hands through his scalp, making a grindy noise that he didn't seem to mind. Though, it irked Han the wrong way.

  “Since you’ve been… talkative, I’ll let it slide once. Understand this; I’m far stronger.” He stated, the daggers were still ready and sharp.

  “Who cares? The door ain’t opening till either of us is dead. I’ll be stuck here fightin’ losers for all eternity anyhow.” He finally turned around; whether it was to give Han an easy kill or to go die in his chair, it didn't matter as he paused mid-pace.

  “What if… what if I took a load off your shoulders? In turn, you’d give the item to her.” These words made the Lich's nonexistent ears perk up quite noticeably.

  “…And how do you propose you do that, tough guy? Besides, why do you care about her shitty mission? Aren’t we from the same cloth?” He turned back, throwing his hands to the opposing sides.

  “We are not. Did I not tell you that I can kill you effortlessly? I’ll kill you until I get it.”

  The drop table, even if rare, guaranteed Han an item. He couldn't get tired, didn't need to sleep, eat. No matter how rare, he would get that item and farm EXP at the same time. As—

  “Here’s the problem in this radical pn of yours. You won’t get it. She a dark elf, right? The item can only go to the ones given permission. Guess who gives out that permission? Rather, how about you expin the other, tad more appealing to the ears, one?”