Chapter Five: Leveling Up.

Outside the underground cathedral, five [Mages] and three [Dark Mages] laze around, sitting on old wood, stone, and marble. Having been ordered by their master to protect the entrance, they sit as closely to the destroyed door as possible. Most of the members are relatively young while a few are in their thirties.

One such member by the name of Amos is at the center of the congregate. He alone stands waiting for his master. With a hop from left to right, the seventeen-year-old constantly looks around his surroundings, unable to sit still. ”What is taking Master so long? Shouldn't the summoning be done already? I want to see the hero.”

Another mage, older by thirty years, shakes his head, ”Amos, for someone who has gotten the [Dark Mage] class at the astounding age of sixteen, it sometimes amazes me how much you are ignorant of the laws of magic.”

The other [Mages] chuckle at the lighthearted taunt, only to chuckle harder as Amos crosses his arms and harrumphs, a faint blush can be seen on the young man's cheeks. ”You guys are old. I still have a lot to learn.” he yells out with a frown.

The older [Mage] chuckles softer and smiles at Amos, ”Not that old kid, I still have quite a bit of Vitality left to burn through. Regardless, It is fully understandable that you wouldn’t understand.” The man moves his arm across the crowd, ”Most of us had to level up our [Mage] class quite a bit before we were recognized by the world to rank up into a [Dark Mage]. We had to learn many dark [Spells] as well as increase our general magic knowledge. But you, Amos, gained the class immediately at the class shrine with no formal training whatsoever.”

A frown forms on Amos' face, remembering the day he had gained the class… the same day the villagers had wanted to kill him. His father, a [Trader], had abandoned him to the growing village mob, who would have killed him on the spot if his mother, a decent level [Guardswoman] had not fought them back and allowed him to flee.

A few days travel, lost in the woods, suffering from hunger and dehydration, Amos had almost succumbed to his exhaustion if not for Mordus… his master and savior. Mordus had spoken of his god Loki, who had guided him into the woods and allowed him to find Amos.

His Master, having found out about Amos’ class and age, was extremely ecstatic. So happy was he that he had requested Amos to become his direct pupil.

After a couple months of training and several levels, His master had taken Amos to the village which had abandoned him and killed his mother.

With a veritable army of undead controlled by his master, the village of fifty was slaughtered. His father, who had been at the village at the time, and who had already found a new wife, was taken captive by Mordus, tied up, and presented to his son.

Under his master’s guidance, Amos had slowly taken his revenge against his father. Revenge for abandoning him. Revenge for allowing his mother to die. Revenge for disgracing his mother with another wife.

That day, Amos had leveled several times in his [Dark Mage] class to the delight of his Master and teacher Mordus. The praise and congratulations he had gained from his master and peers was far more than the entire village had given him all his life.

Amos smiles back towards his elder peer and fellow [Dark Mage], acknowledging the man's honest praise, ”Master says that I probably have some kind of bloodline… he hasn't taken me to a city shrine to find out.”

“And ye never will,” a large man yells out, his muscles can be clearly seen as the robe tightens tightly around his massive girth, ”dem city shrines be no place for our kind. They gonna check yer class first before they let ye even see da shrine.”

Amos turns around and looks at the muscular [Dark Mage] and [Pirate]. It’s a rarity to find [Mages] who have a high level physical and magic class. If they are lucky, they may obtain a class that combines the two, allowing for increased leveling speed.

“Corazon, don't fill the boy’s head with your ignorance. There are many ways to get access to a city shrine.” A tall [Mage] interrupts with a smile, ”All you need is a couple of danari and the [Guards] won't ask questions. Just slip some into their palms during the night shift and you’re gonna be set.” he exclaims while waving his hand.

“Bullock's, they don't use regular [Guards], dey use dem fucking [Inquisitors]. Dey got dat skill [Analyze], so dey can see ya class.” Corazon interrupts with a glare towards the tall gangly [Mage], his hand slowly inching towards a two handed axe.

The gangly [Mage] replies by firmly tightening his hold on a wand hidden in his robe.

The other [Mages] tense up, unsure what they should do about the situation unbrudeling.

“Corazan, Daran, put an end with your idiotic rivalry.” The oldest person in the group as well as the highest level [Dark Mage] speaks up. ”Our master could walk up those stairs any moment, and I highly doubt he would be pleased to find out a fight had happened during such a memorable moment.

Both the muscular Corazon and the tall Daran quickly settle down, realizing that the master would be extremely displeased, but more so that his son is adept at torture.

Nodding towards the two, the older [Mage] looks to Amos who had been standing the entire time, unsure if he should interrupt the two bickering mages... ”Amos, you should sit, I don't believe our master will be coming up anytime soon. As I was going to explain to you, high level spells require a vast amount of Mana, so much so that [Mages] become very exhausted afterwards. Our master would need to rest considerably.”

“But… elder Ning, wouldn't that mean that he would need our help? What if he's injured?”

Chuckling softly, Ning nods approvingly at the boy. ”Duran is lucky to have such a caring student like yourself,” Ning’s eyes turn towards the entrance, ”Unfortunately, summoning magic requires you to have the [Mana Control] passive so that you don't leak any Mana and disrupt the ritual.”

“But the slave-.”

“Is an exception precisely for her ability to heal.” Ning quickly interrupts. ”Amos, let your master do his ritual, trust in his judgement.”

Amos bites his lip, takes a look at the opening. *Sigh*, ”I guess you're right.”

Amos turns around and looks around for a seat,

*Tap* *Tap*

but is interrupted by the sound of heavy feet striking marble.

Turning back around, Amos peers into the entrance.

*Tap* *Tap* *Tap*

The sound gradually increases in intensity.

*Tap* *Tap* *Tap*

A smile blooms on Amos' face as he waits for his master, hearing the telltale signs of the master’s undead as their heavy footsteps strike the old, dusty stone steps.

*Tap* *Tap* *Tap*

Clearer now, he finally sees the undead as they slowly make their way up.

The two massive beings of bone step forward, exiting the entrance.

Amos heedes them only a quick glance as his sight goes back towards the staircase, expecting his master to walk up any second.

“Amos! Something's wrong, get away from them.” Elder Ning yells out, his eyes staring at the glowing purple skull.

Unfortunately, his warning was much too late.

One of the undead moves it's oversized hand and wraps it's bony fingers around Amos' head.

“Hmmmmmgmmgmm!” with a muffled scream, Amos quickly moves his hands towards his face, fruitlessly attempting to pry the undead off.

But like most [Mages], the strength stat has a tendency to be very low.

The undead, ordered by its owner, lifts the young man into the air by the head. Amos flails erratically in reply, his legs kicking the undead frantically.

Amos’ flailing body is three feet off the ground when the two undead walk forward towards the central clearing, away from the entrance.

They stop after several feet and the first skeleton lifts Amos up slightly higher, the other [Mages] watching with heated breaths, unsure what to do about the situation.

With an unknown signal, the undead holding Amos starts to tighten its hand, causing the young man to flail even harder.

*Crack*

Amos’ skull caves in, his arms and legs stop moving, pointing downward. Brain matter can be seen oozing out of the undead’s bony fingers.

The pride and joy of Duran, a young man with a bright future, dead in a manner of seconds.

Gasps resound throughout the clearing as [Mages] quickly grab for their staffs and weapons.

The massive undead drops the corpse and both unsheathe their massive iron greatswords.

With unexpected speed, they rush forwards, ending a [Mage] in the middle of casting a spell and dismembering another as he attempts to run.

“[Fire Ball], [Acid Spray], [Restricting Shadow].”

Spells are yelled and casted upon the two undead, resulting in the black garb coverings to be dissolved and burned away, revealing a horrendous exterior.

The bodies of the undead are literally piles of bones melded together with dark magic. Slightly singed and burned pieces of skulls, femurs, arms, legs, and various other bones stick out from all parts of their bodies.

Shadowed chains can be seen wrapping around their bodies, attempting to restrict the movements of the undead.

Unfortunately, Daran’s intelligence stat is vastly overwhelmed by the strength of the undead.

With but a bit of movement, the undead shatter the chains keeping them in place. One of them immediately charges Daran, impaling him with a massive bony shoulder and then slamming into a tree.

A crackling sound can be heard as the tree, old and decayed from the environment, falls down. The undead turns and rips of the dead crushed body on its shoulder and turns to its new prey, a burly [Mage] with a battle-axe.

_____

Elder Ning, having noticed the purple glow of the undead, had immediately run into the foliage and taken a higher view of the battlefield to assess the situation.

The oldest [Mage], and probably the most well versed in the dark arts other than Duran, has a great many spells at his disposal.

Taking a deep breath, Ning feels into his Mana pool, taking hold and spreading his arm forward. Mana quickly generates into his arms, forming a circular ball between his hands, his aim focused on one of the two undead which is impaling one of the trainee [Mages].

A smile spreads on the man's face.

“[Dark Inferno].”

*****************************

“[Dark Inferno].”

With movements practised from my many lives, my left hand blazes out and covers the [Mage]’s mouth, while my other daggered hand stabs through the underside of his back, going under the ribs, past the organs, and slicing the nerves which connect the spine and heart.

With the nerves severed, the heart no longer gets the signal from the brain to beat.

Using my body, I embrace the wide-eyed [Mage] and slow his body’s descent down onto the forest floor.

His eyes look to me, asking so many questions.

Why do they always give me that questioning look right before they die?

“I have to admit, out of your entire group, you were probably the most dangerous. You clearly ran into the foliage, hid, and attempted to cast a spell from the shadows. You had great positioning, great timing, and great decision making.” I say, watching the man's eyes slowly close.

“And maybe that would have been enough to defeat my undead,” his eyes are halfway shut.

“But you completely missed my body as I snuck out from the entrance. You all were so enthralled with that [Mage]’s death…”

He died with his eyes half shut...

Shaking my head, I lay his head down on the ground and get back up to my feet, pulling my dagger out of the perfectly sliced body, easily cleaning it on his robe.

I have to admit, non-clotting daggers are simple to clean… I wonder if clothing can also have this enchant.

Looking back at the clearing, a frown forms on my face as I see one of my undead get beheaded by a muscular man with a dark, smoking battleaxe. My undead falls on the ground with a smack, its head missing from its body.

Luckily my other undead just finished decapitating the second to last [Mage].

The muscular [Mage] turns his axe towards my final undead, his stance, though good, leaves quite a few openings.

I guess I should interfere now.

Getting up and walking out of the foliage, I wave my hand in the air, ”Hello muscular axe guy, I have come to end your life,” I exclaim confidently with a smile.

His head whips towards me. He raises an eyebrow. ”Who da fuk are yu?”

Oh no… they have a butchered version of this language… crap

Walking forward with a smile, I walk between my undead and the [Mage]. ”Yoh, name’s Quasi Eludo, [Hero] extraordinaire.”

The man eyes me threateningly, his axe lowering slightly in a defensive stance.

Huh… good instincts.

“So yu be dat [Hero] Duran summoned,” he shakes his head, eyes trained on me still, ”was a mistake ta summon yu.”

His grip on his axe tightens as he looks above my head and sees the towering undead with the purple glow.

“I dunt suppose I can jus wak away? Neva like dem anyway,” he says as he slightly points his axe towards the various decapitated corpses littering the ground.

With a confident smile, I unsheathe my dagger from under my robe and hold it in my hand. With expert movements. I spin the razorsharp blade around my hand and fingers, ”Unfortunately, I have various reasons to end your life.”

I start to walk slowly towards the [Mage], ”The first reason is that I need to level up my class,” I crack my neck.

The [Mage] takes a step back, eyeing the blade in my hand warily.

“The second reason is that I need to test out this body’s capability,” My hand takes a reverse grip on the knife.

I lower my center of gravity, legs bending, arms relaxed, ”The last and most important reason,” my eyes focus, reading the environment and my enemy perfectly, ”Is that you were a part of a group that slaughtered children.”

With an inhuman burst of speed, I rush forward, easily dodging to the side as the man attempts to strike me head on.

As I dodge, my knife scrapes along his flesh, just nicking very close to the location of a main vein in his leg.

He spins and slices, yelling and roaring, his axe always centimeters from hitting my body, while I weave expertly around him, my dagger flicking out and slicing skin.

Several minutes go by as I finally move away from the enraged man.

His axe points at me, the light of it barely even aglow now. ”Wats *breathes hard* wrung?” he asks, blood oozing from several places from his body, ragged breathing coming from his mouth as he attempts to catch his breath.

“Wrong? Nothing's wrong. I just got bored of killing you twenty seven times,” I exclaim, looking at my bloody dagger, watching the blood flow off like water.

Finally regaining some stamina, a cocky smile comes on the mans face, ”Ha, you think ye won? Yur little cuts cont take me down, now ye be jus stallin.”

Resisting the urge to throw my dagger and implant it in his face, I roll my eyes at the man's ignorance.

”Four cuts on your left leg, three cuts on your right, seven on your wrists, three on each arm and seven cuts on your neck. Each of those cuts were capable killing blows by me as they are located next to main arteries which would have bled you out and killed you.”

His eyes quickly roam towards the locations of his body, widening in realization at the blood and cuts located exactly in those locations.

His hands start to shake as he grips his axe even harder, eyes quickly roaming the clearing.

*Sigh* ”Don’t bother looking for a way out, you've clearly seen my speed and stamina. The only thing you can do now is to defeat me.”

“P-pleas… I didn't kill anyone… I jus be tryin to learn magic.”

“And now the begging and lying starts… like really… I don’t actually care who you killed. Heck, I have the [Advanced Analyse] skill, so I know that you’re a level 78 [Pirate] and a level 54 [Dark Mage]. So, don't lie to me about not killing anyone Corazon, especially when your high level class of [Pirate] more than likely requires you to.”

“I’ll...I’ll be your [Servant]… [Slave]… anything… I’m strong!” he quickly exclaims in a panic, the will to fight quickly leaving his eyes.

Twirling my knife, I look towards my undead.

Maybe…

“Alright, Alright,” I tap my fingers, the undead walks forward at my call. ”Here's the deal, you’re going to fight my undead here.” I point at the behemoth walking towards the man, ”And if you win, I will let you walk away,”… and then stab you in the back.

Hope returns to his eyes as the undead trudges towards him. Corazon loosens the grip on his axe as he wipes sweat off his face.

Good good, now to experiment. I can give the undead under my control orders and they will attempt to do them to the best of their ability, but what if I control their movement mentally? Should be much better since they seem to refuse to use their skills… I wonder if that’s because of my extremely low level as a [Necromancer]?

“[Decaying Blade]!” The man's axe quickly gets engulfed in a dark reddish black light as energy twirls around the axehead.

Interesting, I was sure he was out of Mana.

With a deep breath, the man rushes forward, aiming for the undead’s head, a rather annoying weak point.

With my guidance, the undead sidesteps the axe and brings down the greatsword towards Corazon's head.

“[Reactive Parry].” With an amazing burst of speed, his axe flicks back and slams into the downward swing, smacking the greatsword back.

So physical skills don't require Mana, good to know.

Having failed to kill the undead, Corazon starts to swing his axe expertly, attempting to create a opening.

A smile crosses my lips as I direct my undead to block, parry, and dodge perfectly.

His fighting style is so… mechanical. It's like he fights with instinct but doesn't understand the moves he is doing. It’s just so predictable.

The fight continues, my undead easily keeping up, but Corazon is slowing down, both from blood loss and a loss of stamina.

He hasn't used that [Reactive Parry] skill again, it seems quite powerful considering the sheer speed… Unless!

“Cooldown, ” I whisper, realizing a pretty fatal weakness in physical skills.

Well then, I guess I'll finish it soon.

With a mental command, my undead quickly increases his tempo, forcing Corazon back and utilizing its larger strength and size, forcing the [Pirate] to backtrack.

Checkmate.

My undead attempts a overhead strike, which Corazon properly counters with his axe. As soon as the greatsword makes contact, I order my undead to let go of the handle.

The undead quickly complies and flicks its hand out, grabbing Corazon’s head with its longer reach.

With a small hop, the undead jumps towards the [Pirate] and allows its far heavier body to force the man onto the ground.

Due to the composition of the undead, many of the sharper bones comprising its body penetrate the [Pirate]’s skin.

Panic quickly overwhelms the [Pirate] as he lets go of his unusable axe and quickly starts punching the undead.

Blood pools form around his knuckles while the undead is seemingly undamaged by the assault.

Ordering the undead to not move, I slowly walk towards their location.

“Corazon, good fight there, but you seem to be seriously lacking in skill.”

Corazon’s punches stop. He looks at me between the bony fingers of my undead which are keeping him down.

“I offered you a way out, to save your pathetic life… but you seem to have failed.”

“*Mumble* *Mumble*”

“Yes, I'm sure you would be more than happy to serve me and all… but I don't need weak servants.”

With a mental command, I order my undead to squeeze.

Feeling the increasing pressure, Corazon starts to punch harder and more practically, causing actual cracks to form on my undead’s skull.

*Crack*

The [Pirate]’s skull implodes, his movements completely cease.

“This… was actually pretty easy… I wonder how many levels I gained.”

With a mental command, I allow the system notifications to enter my vision.

Level up x 8

Class [Hero] is now level 29

No rewards awarded.

Well that sucks. I was hoping for some cool new ability.

Level up x 14

Class [Necromancer] is now level 14

Level 5 reached. Passive skill obtained: [Enhanced Undead]

Skilled Undead: Undead under your control will be able to utilize skills.

Level 10 reached. Active skill obtained: [Bone Renewal]

Bone Renewal: Activate to use bones from corpses to heal injured skeletal undead.

So that's why my undead weren't using skills… I didn't have a skill for their usage.

Shaking my head, I turn to my undead and the crack on its face.

[Bone Renewal]

Without needing to say or do anything, Mana erupts from my body, slams into the dead body of Corazon, degrades the flesh, causing the bones to levitate off the corpse, turn into bone dust, and fly towards my undeads wound, fixing the bone as though it was brand new.

“Finally, something I can work with.”