The Second Son of the Marquis Wants to Laze Around-Chapter 85: Aberration Dungeon (2)

Looking down at the monster’s skull still twitching on the ground, Eren casually bent over and picked it up with one hand, holding it in front of his face for a closer inspection.

"Still moving, huh?" he muttered.

Up close, he noticed something odd. Unlike human skulls or the ones you usually see in anime, this one looked... different. Its shape was all wrong. The proportions were off. Honestly, it looked more like the kind of creepy skull you’d see on the cover of an alien horror movie.

–Clack clack!

The skull’s sharp jaw continued to chomp up and down wildly, as if it were trying to bite Eren’s fingers off. But he held it in a firm, unmoving grip, like someone holding a misbehaving puppy by the scruff of its neck.

"Useless. Is the magic gem inside its skull?" Eren asked, raising an eyebrow.

[Yes, Master. It seems to be embedded inside its cranial bone structure,] Useless responded in its usual flat, robotic tone.

During the battle, Eren had kept an eye out for the magic gem on its body that usually dropped from defeated monsters, but this time he couldn’t find it despite its body was just skeleton’s bones. So naturally, he figured it might be hiding inside the skull.

With a sigh, he pulled a dagger from his inventory. "Let’s get this over with."

He tried stabbing through one of the skull’s eye sockets. The tip of the blade went in... just a little... and then stopped. He frowned. Not deep enough. He tried again, this time using more force. Then tried the other eye sockets. But still no luck.

"This stupid thing has a stronger defense than I thought," he grumbled, his eyes dull and full of boredom. Eventually, he let out a sigh and dropped the skull to the ground with a clack.

"Alright then. You asked for it."

He pulled out a giant hammer from his inventory. Raising it above his head with both hands, he brought it down with a mighty swing.

–BANG!

–CRACK!

The impact shattered the skull completely into jagged bone pieces. As the dust settled, Eren looked down and saw that not only was the bone crushed, but the magic gem inside had also been destroyed—splintered into tiny useless fragments.

"...Troublesome," he muttered, voice heavy with boredom. Leaning on the hammer like it was a walking stick, he stared at the remains with a deadpan expression.

"Took way too much effort for something that couldn’t even talk."

He tossed the hammer back into his inventory.

"Useless."

[Yes, Master?]

"Raise my strength stat by 50 points."

’I’m not dealing with that nonsense again,’ he thought, resuming his stroll forward with a sluggish attitude, like a student being forced to walk to school on a Monday.

[Converting SP to Stat Points...]

[You received 50 Stat Points!]

[50 Stat Points have been added to Strength!]

=====

Status

Name: Eren Valmont

Job: –

Level: 1

Stats:

• STR: 10 → 60

• DEF: 12

• DEX: 8

• AGL: 24

• INT: 46 (???)

[State Points Remaining: 0 SP]

=====

As his stats updated, Eren didn’t even pause to check on his status. But it didn’t take long before another skeleton appeared in front of him—right on cue, like it was scheduled by fate or a lazy game dev.

This one was... odd. Unlike the previous one that was missing an arm, this skeleton had all its limbs. However, its proportions were messed up. The skull was absurdly large, like an overinflated balloon, and it had no ribcage or a back spine.

"Reminds me of a villain from a cartoon..." Eren muttered as he drew his sword.

This time, he didn’t wait for the monster to make the first move. Without a word, he dashed forward and swung his blade with practiced ease.

–Slice!

The monster didn’t even have time to react. Its legs were severed in one clean sweep, and it collapsed face-first onto the dungeon floor.

–Clack clack!

It began wriggling helplessly on the ground, trying to roll itself upright like a clumsy turtle.

"Stay down."

Eren stepped over and plunged his sword down, piercing through its spine.

–Stab!

–PUFF!

The skeleton burst into black dust particles, vanishing into thin air. All that remained was a single green magic gem, glittering faintly in the dark.

He picked it up and casually tossed it into his inventory without a second thought, then continued walking further into the dungeon like this was just another Tuesday.

......

Time passed. Maybe an hour. Maybe more. Eren couldn’t tell. But as he ventured deeper, the dungeon’s layout twisted further into darkness and strangeness.

The deeper he went, the weirder the skeletons became.

Some were freakishly tall, with limbs too long for their bodies. Others had gigantic rib cages that stretched from chest to waist, like bloated skeleton whales. Some had horns, tails, or even multiple skulls stacked on top of each other like a bony totem pole. One even had six arms, which Eren found more annoying than impressive.

They were grotesque and eerie—something straight out of a horror RPG or late-night monster design contest.

Not that Eren cared.

"Hah... these guys just look like rejected designs from a low-budget mobile game," he muttered as he slashed through another one.

Despite the increasingly bizarre encounters, he kept calm and pressed onward, collecting gems, and slicing enemies.

But what stood out the most wasn’t the skeletons.

It was the number of floors.

According to the game lore of Valoria Legends, the infamous Aberration Dungeon had around 30 floors in total. And Eren now just entered the sixth floor.

–Clack! Clack! Clack!

Five skeleton monsters advanced through the dim corridor, their bony limbs creaking with every step. Each one wielded grotesquely-shaped arms that had turned into deadly bone blades, glinting ominously under the dungeon’s eerie blue light.

Eren stood in their path, completely calm, his crimson eyes focused. He gripped his sword with one hand as the monsters lunged at him in unison.

–Clang! –Clang!

Metal clashed against bone as Eren twisted and spun between them, deflecting every attack with quick, calculated movements. Sparks flew each time his blade met theirs. The confined space of the dungeon corridor made it harder to dodge, and the increasing number of enemies with each floor cleared only made the battle more intense.

One of the skeletons suddenly lunged, thrusting its bladed arm directly at Eren’s face.

But he didn’t flinch.

With a flick of his wrist, Eren parried the attack at just the right angle, redirecting it toward another skeleton creeping up behind him. The bone blade pierced straight through the second skeleton’s skull—its own ally had unwittingly taken it out.

–Crack!

The impaled skeleton crumbled into a flurry of black dust particles.

Without wasting a breath, Eren spun on his heel and countered the one that had lunged at him. His blade arced upward and cleanly severed its skull, sending the bone head tumbling across the floor as its body collapsed beside it.

–Swoooosh!!

Eren’s hair fluttered as two sharp bone blades whizzed just past him from behind. He’d sensed the attack a second before it happened and ducked low to the ground, narrowly avoiding the fatal strike.

Using the momentum, he tightened his grip on his sword with both hands and unleashed a wide horizontal slash.

–Slash!!

The strike cut clean through the torsos of the two skeletons behind him, slicing through their spine-like cores. The top halves of their bodies slid off with a rattling clatter before collapsing on the ground.

Only one enemy remained.

The last skeleton stood silently, its eye sockets glowing eerily. Then, with a screeching hiss, it dashed forward, stabbing its blade arm straight toward Eren’s chest.

But Eren didn’t move.

The bone blade struck his chest—only to crack apart like it had hit solid rock.

–Crack!

The skeleton froze, confused. The Eren it had just stabbed began to flicker, then dissolved into mist.

An illusion.

Before it could recover, a sword pierced its skull cleanly from behind.

–Shhhk!

The real Eren had already circled around. As the monster exploded into black dust, a faint shimmer of light floated in the air—a magic core gem, the energy essence left behind by defeated monsters.

Eren looked at the gem calmly. But before he could move, the gem floated up on its own, gently drifting toward him like a feather and landing in the center of his palm.

–Clack Clack... Clack...

He turned around. The previously defeated skeletons, or what was left of them, were still twitching. The bisected ones tried to crawl toward him with their severed upper bodies, while the one missing its head writhed aimlessly on the ground.

Eren raised an eyebrow.

"...You guys are so persistent."

The scene, though eerie, had a strange comedic vibe to it. The crawling skeletons reminded him of broken toys refusing to give up.

Then, with a flick of his fingers, three daggers shot out from behind his back, hanging mid-air as if waiting for his command.

Eren’s eyes glowed faintly red.

–Fwip! –Fwip! –Fwip!

The daggers shot forward like bullets, each one piercing cleanly through the skull of its target. The skeletons froze, and then burst into dark mist, leaving behind their magic core gems.

Without moving his feet, Eren stretched his hand. The gems floated to him and landed gently on his palm like obedient pets. ƒreewebηoveℓ.com

He then casually tossed them into his inventory.

It turned out that Eren had recently unlocked a new Skill during his walk through the third floor of the dungeon. He had grown too lazy to bend down and collect each magic gem one by one. And so, he bought a skill from the system’s shop out of pure convenience.

---

[Skill Acquired – Invisible Hand]

Type: Active

Effect: Allows the user to move any object at will.

Mana Cost: Varies based on the target’s weight and distance.

---

Thanks to this new skill, dungeon diving became ridiculously easier for Eren—less running, less bending, and less effort overall.

Of course, Useless—his system slave—wasn’t amused in the slightest. It hovered nearby with its usual half dull stare, visibly unimpressed by its master for using such a practical skill purely for the sake of convenience.