Three headed towards the village, close on Firius's heels. He was explaining how they had been expanding their defenses, preparing for the nightly fights. They had put out scouts, tracking the undead from where they came from but the undead left little to no tracks, puzzling the trackers. Undead should shamble through everything in their path, leaving obvious and easily traceable tracks. Every night however, a mist and snowstorm covered their coming, the trackers managed to get slightly closer to where the undead came from each night yet they still had not reached the point of origin.
The trackers were kept in the field, every day or two they would send a group to switch out, so they could further track the undead and receive reports on wherever it was they came from. Firius and the rest of the council were getting frustrated, they had become sure that it was a coördinated attack but they had no idea as of the purpose. Why throw increasingly large waves at the village instead of combining all the undead they could and wiping the village out in one fell swoop.
Why go through such an extent to cover where the undead came from, why attack the village in the first place? Too many questions and no answers, the villagers outside of the council seemed to take things rather well, too well in fact. Firius told Three about them not seeing the severity of the situation, the villagers saw it as merely another nightly problem and a good way to train their skills.
Firius had asked if Three was skilled in magic, anything that could be used to shore up the defenses. Three told him he had no magic abilities at all. He had tried once upon a time to learn one of the fire arrow spells Sumi used, for some reason the spell kept falling apart when he tried to use it. He had plenty of physical strength to go around however so Firius asked him to aid the loggers, the men were chopping trees down around the village, creating a cleared area to give them a line of sight. The chopped down trees were used to create pitfall traps, strengthen the walls, spiked trenches, anything they could think of that would slow down the undead.
One particularly large logger walked over to Three, gave him an axe, and pointed his chin at a tree. Telling him what to do without so much as a word, Three nodded taking a few practice swings with the axe as he set his sights on the tree. He pulled back fed some energy into his muscles and slammed his axe into the tree, it bit in rather far. With a few more energy fueled chops the tree started falling, yelling the appropriate timber to warn other loggers of the falling he tree he watched the wooden giant crash into the snow.
A group of woodcutters ran up, picked up the tree in its entirety showing off their raw strength, and took it to their workshop, were they turned the tree into planks or spikes. Whichever project had taken priority, Three soon lost himself in the rhythm of tree chopping, soon enough night was falling and his hands were covered in saw dust, the saw dust clinging to his sweat covered torso, dense enough to make it seem like he had bark of his own. One of the loggers came over with a bucket of water, the man raised an eyebrow as he lifted the bucket. Three nodded and the woodcutter dumped the contents of the ice-cold bucket over him, clearing away the dust, sweat and grime.
Together with the woodcutter he made his way over to the improvised wall, Firius was giving out commands. Anyone proficient with any kind of ranged weapon was manning the wall, arrows would do little against a skeleton but an arrow to the brain of a zombie would take it out, the other men, most of them with axes, were put in the trenches.
"What kind of weapon do you use?" Firius asked him, checking him for sheaths.
Three raised his hands, "Mostly these." He answered waving his hands.
Firius raised his eyebrows, "I could use you in one of the trenches, if you think you can fight the undead bare handed?"
"Actually if you do not mind, I will be charging right into their center as soon as i see them. Nothing a level five skeleton or undead can throw at me, will harm me. So it would be most effective for me to thin their ranks."
"Are you sure, numbers could kill even a high rank adventurer like yourself." Firius said, doubt evident in his voice.
"I'm afraid i wasn't clear, they quite literally cannot harm me. They simply do not have the strength to get through my defensive skills." Three showed Firius the status plate, he had taken to wearing it around his neck on a chain. None could see what it had inscribed unless he gave it to them to look.
Like many others before him, the tribal chieftains eyes widened as he saw the skills on his status plate. The mans eyes widened even further when he looked at the level, his gaze switched between the level and Crimson, who had been playing with his daughter nearly all day. He muttered to himself, but nodded his consent to Three's battle plan.
The sun dipped below the mountains, covering the land in shadow. The temperature noticeably dropped, he felt the men around him tense, as he waited with them in the trench closest to the forest. The man next to him gripped his axe, knuckles white, as a fog started rolling through the forest. Three blinked, having expected it to take a few hours before they arrived. The fog clung around the entrance to the clearing, swirling around the trees. For some reason, it held its place between the trees.
Crunching leaves replaced the eariy quiet, shuffling steps heard beyond the mist, not yet visible. Branches snapped, moaning, teeth grinding, footsteps, some stomping, some dragging, filled the night air. At long last the first of the undead appeared in the fog, its dark form a stark contrast against the gray. More forms appeared beside it, stretching from the far left to the far right. Ranks upon ranks of skeletons and zombies spilled out of the forest, their uncaring gaze locked onto their would be prey ahead.
Three concluded with near surety that the undead quickened their pace as soon as they laid their gaze upon the living. He stood up, leaving the trench, the men beside him gazing at him with wide eyes. Crimson got to her feet behind him, stepping over the trench. Three marched towards the encroaching army, rolling his shoulders, stretching his fingers in anticipation of the battle. The undead were slow, mind-numbingly so, he was tired of waiting, he could feel the thrum of his blood , the beating of his heart.
His heart soared as he started picking up the pace, his own battle-lust increased two fold from the sensations Crimson was feeding him. His eyes relaxed, releasing its focus as he raced towards the undead rank, muscles rippling, energy flowing throughout his body, increasing his mass, his size, he roared a wordless challenge as he crashed into the ranks. Smashing through the fragile skeletons, zombies were knocked over, crashed to the ground as they helplessly clawed at his skin trying to rip it from his bones.
The weaponless skeletons started bashing him with their fists, their attempts futile in every way as they did nothing to harm him, zombies clawed, bit, their attempts meaningless against his defensive skills. He crushed the skulls of zombies beneath the heel of his feet, ripped skeletons apart with his bare hands, tearing through the ranks of the undead with no regard for his own safety, unfettered because nothing was a danger to him.
Crimson tore through the ranks behind him, her sheer size proving destructive as she mowed through their ranks, the undead managing to inflict minor wounds and scratches upon her scales and hide. None of them anywhere near deep enough to stop the regeneration from closing her wounds before they could exploit the injuries.
The men behind them watched in awe as they saw their new allies tear through ranks with veritable ease. Firius kept his calm and ordered those with ranged weaponry to make ready. Bows were pulled back, crossbows took aim, slings started whirling.
"LOOSE!" The tribal chieftain roared.
Various projectiles whistled through the air, smashing into the ranks of the undead, killing few, but injuring many. Skeletons lost limbs to the pebbles, zombies went down with arrows to their legs, the undead behind them unminding of those in front tripping over the front ranks. The men in the trenches rushed out, crushing the fallen undead, smashing skulls left and right, taking those that were disabled out of the fight permanently. A roar from the tribal chieftain and they dashed back towards the trenches, as a new wave of projectiles smashed into the ranks. The men charged forward again, repeating the process.
There were over two thousand of the undead rank and file, they were easily smashed apart under the assualt from those higher in rank, intelligence, and fighting skill. Three could still be seen tearing through the ranks in the distance, the occasional flying skull, or torn of limb signaling the others as to his location. Crimson made a fearsome sight, tearing through the ranks, her tail smashing apart skeletons, half a dozen at a time. She bit a zombie in half, throwing the torso into another group of skeletons, smashing their bones apart.
The villagers watched in awe as the pair tore apart the undead, the creatures instead focusing on those in their midst, their attack on the village forgotten as they tried to surround and bring down the pair with sheer numbers. The villagers did nothing but stare at the sight, bones, limbs, guts flying around. Monsters torn in half from the sheer ferocity the two newcomers displayed. They stood upon numerous corpses, the pile growing as the undead clambered to the top trying to get at the man that was tearing their brethren apart.
Soon enough an eerie silence returned to the clearing as the last of the undead fell, Three rolled his shoulders, stretching his muscles. He stepped down the hill of dead he had created and walked back towards the village. Aware of the gazes upon him, he made quite the sight, covered in gore as he was. Skeletons made for clean killing, Zombies, however, did not, they were easy to tear apart and their organs, dried blood, splattered as he crushed their skulls, or ripped of their limbs.
Firius walked towards him. "That was quite the show you put on, seeing as your level was not yet very high, you might have unlocked a class. We don't have an adventurers guild or anything similar, but we do have a spring, pregnant with world energy, you could use the bath, and it will give you the chance to level up while you're at it.
Three nodded, following the chieftain to the spring, behind the village, slightly up the mountain. The other villagers let him through near worship coloring their faces. He walked through the entrance, the village had constructed a wooden building as an entrance to the spring. Giving those taking a bath some small measure of privacy.
He sank into the bath, completely forgetting to take off his clothes. He relaxed into the warm embrace of water as he stared at the notification he received.
{Calculating rewards, Three classes available, you may choose one of the following classes.}
{Warrior, Offensive
{Warrior, Defensive
{Monster Tamer.}
Three let his gaze wander over the choices, as he pondered his decision.
Three looked at the choices, finger hovering over each of them. The smart choice would be to wait until he had more information over each of the classes yet honestly he did not want to wait, he decided to go with his gut. His finger hovered over the monster tamer option and he pressed, he felt a hum as the information on his status plate changed. He took a look, deciding it would also be a good time to invest his status points.
Name : Three
Age : ???
Lvl : 17
Occupation : N/a
Class : Monster Tamer
{Skill: Heat Vision : Skill level 12}
{Skill : Lesser-regeneration, : Skill level 88}
{Skill : Pain-tolerance, : Skill level 63}
{Skill : Tough-body, : Skill level 75}
{Skill : White-Adamantium Skin : Skill level 43}
{Skill : Aura of Dread Skill level 2}
{Skill : Enhanced senses Skill level 3 (toggled : Off)}
{Skill : Bind Creature Skill Level 7}
{Skill : Conscription Skill Level 7}
{Skill : Challenging Cry Skill Level 4}
{Skill : Stomp Skill level 8}
{Perk : Mana-sustenance}
{Perk : Battered Body }
{Inheritant-Core - ?????}
{Stats} {Available : 35}
{Strength : 48}
{Agility : 18}
{Dexterity : 18}
{Vitality : 52}
{Endurance : 34}
{Wisdom : 12}
{Intelligence : 13}
{Charisma : 9 }
Three looked through his new skill, suprised he had four new skills instead of the two he had expected. He thought about it a while before he realised that one of the skills was one he had gotten from Crimson, Enhanced Senses was the most likely candidate. He was suprised it was toggled off, he had never noticed it before. He turned it on.
He blinked as everything was suddenly clearer, the colours more pronounced, he could smell the spring water, the earth and the trees around it, he smelled the faint odor of death and decay as it was washed off him. He heard the trickle of water, the chirp of birds, he heard so much more than he had before. He understood now why the skill had a toggle, people that were unused to the experience would have a sensatory overload, imagine getting the skill mid combat, it would be distracting enough to get you killed. Three decided to leave the skill on so he could grow accustomed to it.
He then took a look at the other skills.
{Skill Bind-Creature, Skill level 7}
{Bind a creature to your soul, Bound creatures will become a companion, one creature can be bound for every ten levels an individual possesses. Bound creatures receive ten percent of the users highest skill, the amount of percent the creature receives is increased by five percent per ten levels.}
He nodded, the skill made sense, he could bind a creature like he had Crimson for every ten levels he had, he checked but apparently Crimson had not counted towards the limit, presumably because they were blood-bound. He looked at the next skill.
{Skill : Conscription Skill Level 7}
{Conscript a creature into your service, conscripted creatures do not receive a bonus from their tamer, a monster tamer can conscript three creatures per ten levels the individual possesses. Conscripted creatures can still gain levels, and evolve at their level intervals, if their level surpasses the tamer's they will lose control over the creature.}
That made sense, if all the creatures received his lesser regeneration he would have a powerful army at his command. He would have to look into this evolving however, he had to admit he was interested in the prospects it promised. He took a look at the last skill, it sounded ominous and he could not remember when or how he had received the skill.
{Skill : Aura of Dread Skill level 2}
{Inspire fear in those you deem your enemy, current range, two-hundred meters. Creatures that do not have the capability of feeling fear are unaffected. This skill is the evolved version of the skill Aura of Fear, level bonuses still apply.]
{Level 25 – Double the effective range of the aura}
{Level 50 – Creatures below the users level have a chance to panic, attacking allies.}
{Level 75 – Creatures less than half the users level will be paralyzed in fear.]
{level 100 – Creatures at 10% or below of the user's level will die outright due to heart failure, creatures without a heart are immune}
Three's eyes widened as he read about the skill, not only was it an evolved version, but he kill could creatures outright if he deemed them his enemies and they were within four-hundred meters of him. It might not be dangerous now but he would have to be careful if he ever entered cities when he was a higher level. He hoped there was a way to control the aura.
Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
He shrugged, he would have to ask those more knowledgeable about the skill. It had no effect on the undead, and so far he had not considered any human his enemy. He had considered the chieftain a threat for a brief moment, but not an enemy. He would have to start being careful about the distinction.
He knew what he wanted to do with his stats, he had agreed first with Emmi and her explanation about putting the stats in vitality and endurance. Now that he had been through various battles however, he noted that he was more than sturdy enough, his defensive skill and his battered body perk making him insanely hard to harm. He was basically invulnerable to those around his own level. Instead on impulse, he dumped all his stat points in strength, raising it to a staggering eighty-three.
He shot up suddenly, the water splashing as he rushed out of the pool, he put on a fresh pair of pants the villagers had laid out for him as he rushed back to the village, he headed to the battle field. He wanted a live skeleton, he wanted to turn it into a companion, he also wanted to max out his conscript limits. The villagers watched as he rushed past them , towards the battlefield he felt the new strength stats influence his body, as his feet pushed the ground, propelling him forward at before unattainable speeds. When he tried to turn a corner however that became much more difficult, he almost smashed right through a building as he tried to turn at full speed.
Slowing down some he pondered how his straight speed had been greatly enhanced but he still had trouble maneuvering around corners, presumably this was because of his lack in the agility stat. He was probably not going to invest in the stat, he rarely even attempted to dodge an attack, instead trusting in his body to hold out as he fought his enemies face to face. He let his mind wander during his sprint, his regeneration keeping him from feeling even the slightest amount of exhaustion.
He reached the villagers as they were disposing of the corpses, he ran up to them. "Are there still any of the undead left alive?"
The men gazed at each other, then one of em turned around. "GUYS, if ya find a live one don't kill it yet! The new one wants something with it."
Another voice answered, "Ye called just in time, I was about to stomp this skeletons head in! Head on over."
Three headed towards the voice, surprised to see the large, formerly silent woodcutter standing over a skeleton, who was struggling as it was buried beneath a small pile of zombies, it was trying to claw at the woodcutter's ankles, the man didn't even bother to dodge. Its bony fingers clawing at the man's skin, to no visible effect.
"So what do you have planned with one of the rotters?" The man asked as he eyed Three.
"Just got the class Monster Tamer, I want to bind one, and conscript some others if I can." He told the man.
The woodcutter nodded as if it was a natural thing. "Do ya know how the binding works?"
Three blinked, to be honest he had no clue, he assumed not all bindings went the way they did with Crimson. He thought for a moment then shook his head, explaining to the man how he had bonded with Crimson, speaking of the devil she just appeared behind. Slow lumbering steps taking her closer as she peered over his shoulder curiously.
"I do not actually." Three admitted.
"Well its not truly that difficult, we have two monster tamers in the village, just touch the creature in question and put your will into it, you will feel some pressure, if you overcome the pressure you win. Just imagine a bond when you do, otherwise it will be a conscription." The woodcutter told him.
"I see, thank you for the explanation." Three put his hand on the skeleton and imagined the bond forming, he willed it to form, he pushed his energy into the skeleton. As the woodcutter had told him he came across a pressure, it was barely there however, like a bush trying to stop a tidal wave, he washed over it and exerted his pressure into the skeleton.
The connection formed and he felt the bond, the skeleton had no emotions of its own that passed through the bond, it simply existed. It no longer saw anyone around it as enemies either, nor did it have an undead's known hunkering for killing the living. All in all the entire bonding process was rather anti-climatic.
He helped the skeleton from under the small pile of corpses, he put it on its feet and examined it.
{Skeleton Level : 5}
{Skill Lesser regeneration skill level : 9}
{Skill Tough Bones skill level 12}
Its status page was laughably empty, Three wondered how much it would improve if he leveled it up, or the changes when it evolved, he asked the woodcutter about it.
"Most monsters don't have stats like us, they have skills but the stats are the same for each monster of the same species, the only stat gain they have is when they evolve. Monsters like the Skeleton evolve every ten levels, although their evolutions are minor. Monsters like your Jurgor evolve at the same levels as we rank up. The first evolutions for monsters like her," He said pointing a thumb at Crimson. "Are from Newborn to young, and then from young to adult, although it does not point out a creature is an adult in its tag. Their more interesting evolutions happen at level fifty and after, the changes make them a great deal stronger once that happens."
Three nodded his thanks as he was deciding what to name the skeleton. Vila came running over, "Wassat?" She asked pointing at the skeleton.
"A skeleton I tamed." Three answered.
"You give it name yet?" The girl asked cocking her head.
"No i have not."
"Name it Sir Kelly Tonn!" She yelled.
The woodcutter chuckled, Three frowned, "I am not naming it that."
The girl pouted and pointed, "Sir Kelly Tonn is a great name, name it that!"
Three pointed his thumb at the skeleton.
"Naming that Sir Kelly Tonn is!" He started saying before an announcement interrupted him.
{Skeleton level 5 has been renamed to Sir Kelly Tonn level 5}
Three cursed as he read the announcement, Vila cheered as she read the tag, with the name she had wanted above it.
Three sighed, this girl definitely brought him bad luck. He looked at his brand new skeleton, noticing the woodcutter laughing his head off. He sighed again, well nothing to be done about it. He walked over to the other piles, looking for undead to conscript.
Three made his rounds among the corpse piles, finding another somewhat intact skeleton and two zombies, who were surprisingly whole, so he conscripted them. He decided to hold off on naming them, he suspected that conscripts would not be as strong and at the level they were at would not survive for extended periods of time.
Vila had taken to following him around, naming his pets regardless of what he told her. The other skeleton was named Bony Bones, the two zombies were named Shuffles and Armless. Armless had both arms, Shuffles did not. He looked at Vila and rolled his eyes. Her naming sense was terrible, he would make sure that his next companion was named with her far, far, far, very far, very very far away.
Nearly all the fighters that had fought during the night were heading to their houses to rest. The few that had no need for sleep like him helped with the clean-up, he let Sir Kelly Ton finish off any remaining undead that were alive. Pushing the skeleton to level seven. He noticed that instead of its stats increasing its skill levels increased in level. It had gone up a mere two levels but its skill Tough bones had doubled in level.
It made him wonder if monsters gained their strength between levels through gains in skill levels, while their stats only increased upon evolution, he was curious about what this meant about the main difference between man and monster. It made him wonder about the core inside his own body, over the course of time he had begun to think about it being a core from a monster of sorts that the hags had somehow integrated into his physique.
Yet his skill levels did not increase with his increase of level, he had the stats per level same as any other race did. Although he had noticed that his increase of strength per stat point was larger than those of others, he also didn't seem to be as reliant on stat-points for skill-level increase. He had done some asking around and some skills would level faster for people focusing on a certain stat, his stomp skill, for instance, would level with strength. Yet although he had appointed a great amount to strength the skill did not increase in leveling potential as far as he had observed.
Skills that were reliant on other stats did not slow down either, his challenging cry skill had leveled despite him putting no points in charisma, the stat the skill was tied to. He wondered if this was the effect of his core. If it was the effect of his core it could mean many things, first of all he could focus his stats on his physical stats without it being detrimental to his skill gain. He could have possibly become a physically strong mage, he remembered trying to learn some of the spells from Sumi, end result was him burning off his eyebrows. Magic went out of control when it was near him, making him a no-go for a mage.
Then there was the energy he could send into his muscles, increasing their size, toughness and efficiency. He had not heard of anyone doing anything similar and he had taken the time to ask around. He suspected it to be tied to his strength stat, so he poured his points into strength. It did not increase the power of the energy to any noticeable degree. He no longer needed the points in vitality and endurance yet it was a waste to not use his battered body perk to its optimal potential. It would increase the effects of his vitality by double, so he felt obligated to put a decent amount of points in the stat.
His defenses had become strong enough that it was a waste to invest points into anything defense related besides the few points in vitality he focused on strength, he thought about using agility but all the battles he had been in, he choose to face his opponent, taking their blows head-on and throwing his own in turn. He sighed, the stats and their implications had bothered him for several days, he would have to ask Jer and the others to investigate by themselves so they could decide on a proper use of stats.
He looked down at the corpse he was carrying over to the burnsite, around him he saw many of the women and children help drag the corpses around. They had won the battle, when the scouts had returned an hour ago they reported they had still not found the origin of the undead, meaning they could not yet put an end to the seemingly endless and evergrowing waves.
He personally did not mind withstanding some more of the undead attacks, it was a great way for him to gain some levels. It would also increase the strength of his newly gained companion and pets rapidly, providing they managed to survive the night. He was not worried about Sir Kelly Ton surviving the night, he had the feeling that his lesser regeneration made the skeleton the next best thing to invincible since the monster had no core, brain or heart. No vital spot that could be severed meant it could regenerate from any amount of damage given enough time.
It severely lacked in offensive strength however, something he hoped would increase with future evolutions, he thought he would be able to reach level twenty tonight, meaning he could get his second companion and another group of conscripts. He was also pondering his rank-up skill choice at level twenty five and what his class increase would be at the same level. He was curious and couldn't help thinking about it despite knowing that it would only jumble his thoughts.
He worked at cleaning the battlefield with all these thoughts floating his mind. Crimson was playing with Vila, who never got enough of the large Jurgor. The rest of his conscripts were helping him with moving the body, although they weren't at all effective. The day passed as he worked. Together with the noncombatants he cleared the battle-field, restored any of the broken defenses while reinforcing what they could for the upcoming battle. Time swiftly passes as he helped around the village, soon the sun was setting again and the warriors came outside. They checked weapons and armour, helping others ready their equipment. Archers, slingers and crossbowmen gathered the ammunition they could from the fletchers and blacksmiths that had prepared them. Slingers making do with any round enough pebbles the children had found.
The fighters took their places in the trenches, preparing for the battle ahead. Three stood infront of them, waiting for the fog to appear, his conscripts and companions next to him. He was ready for battle, wanted it, hungered for it. He grinned, tonight he would get to let loose some more.
The fog started creeping through the trees once more, the eerie shuffle of undead feet heard. Branches broke underneath their feet, the crackle of rotten bodies stomping on leaves making the lines of fighters nervous. Three stood at the front of them all, his heart speeding up from his excitement. Crimson smelling the undead, growled at the forest. She shifted her massive shoulders, the fur rippling as her muscles tensed. The undead to his left, those under his control stood stoicly, waiting for commands. Soon enough the shapes started becoming visible through the fog, rotten grey zombies shuffling forward, their broken cracked flesh oozing, covered in dried blood.
Some of the undead had changed, some of the zombies were larger, standing at seven feet. Taller than even Three, some zombies movements were more supple, smooth. Not the jerking movements of their brethren. Some skeletons he was sure had thicker bones, in a slightly darker shade. Some of them had spiked skeletal growths, jutting from elbows, knees, shoulders. He read the tags, level ten undead, those that had undergone their first evolution. Fast zombies, Large zombies, Tough skeletons and Strong skeletons. He grinned, perhaps tonight something might actually be able to damage him.
He was tired of waiting, the undead could shuffle at their slow pace but he would not wait, with a roar he charged their shambeling ranks, Crimson following him, charging right beside him, to his suprirse even though they had not been commanded to do so the undead were doing their best to make a charge of their own. He smiled, thinking his own battle tendencies were seeping into those he bonded with. The smile grew when he smashed into the enemy line, his fists crushed the skeleton that reached for him, its fragile skull exploding into thousands of fragments.
He tore an arm of a zombie attempting to harm him, using the improvised weapon to smash nearby skeletons. Crimson tore through the ranks like they were parchment, ripping her opponents to pieces with a imple swipe. To his left he saw his undead smack into the line, he saw Sir Kelly Ton duking it out with a zombie, its regeneration making up for the difference as the skeleton started pounding it's opponent to the ground. Shuffles and Armless were tearing apart a skeleton together, both pulling on an arm till they snapped the skeleton, its bones collapsing to the floor.
Three stomped, smashed, punched and threw anything that came within range. Behind him the villagers were fighting the undead, in the same manner as they had before, the undead no longer circled Three, they swarmed forward, only those in his vicinity attacked him, if they were further than ten meters out they ignored him and his bondlings and charged the villagers. Not that he noticed, he was too lost in the flow of battle to consider such perculiarities, he simply smashed his foes to bits, the new and improved undead not managing to even scratch his skin.
He continued fighting, the roar of battle dieng down as the undead fell, less and less of them remained untill Three stomped on the skull of the last remaining zombie, its brains splattering between his toes. The feeling, while unpleasent, went unnoticed. He was still pumped for battle even though there were no more enemies to fight. He looked around, Sir Kelly was regenerating an arm he had lost, to his suprise Shuffles had also managed to survive the fight the other two conscripts were nowhere to be seen, he walked back towards the villagers, one of them handing him a flask of water.
"Everytime I see you fight I'm amazed." The villager stated as he looked at Three.
Three turned his head, cocking it slightly. "Howso?"
"Well beyond the fact that you smash apart hundreds of undead as if it is the easiest thing in the world and the fact that the creatures can't even harm you, what suprises me the most is that it does not tire you in the least. You have no sheen of sweat on your skin, you do not breathe heavily. There is nothing to show for your exerction, it is quite impressive."
Three blinked at the compliment. "Thank you."
The older man smiled, "You are welcome, I am just happy you came here when you did youngster. You have probably saved a good many of my fellow villagers lives by now."
"It would have been wrong not to come and help." Three stated.
The older man smiled, "That may be so, but very few would have rushed into the unknown to save total strangers, you are a rare breed youngling and I do not speak of your race."
Three's eyes followed the elder as he walked away, he found nothing strange about going to save people that needed it. It was the normal thing to do, was it not? He sat there thinking about his deciscion to help people he did not know. After a few moments lost in thought he concluded that it did not matter what the reason was, he was positive that he was doing the right thing and he would continue to do so.
He looked over at Shuffles and Sir Kelly Ton as they wandered over, Crimson was somewhat further away, one of the villagers was feeding her meat. Good thing they did because he had completely forgotten that the Jurgor needed sustenance, although he supposed she was perfectly capable of finding dinner herself, she had been on her own before he met her after all. He looked back towards his two remaining undead, seeing a small plus next to their name. Sir Kelly had reached level fifteen, and Shuffles level eleven.
He clicked on the plus greeted by a notification.
{Sir Kelly Ton has passed level 10}
{Choose your Companions evolution
{Strong Skeleton, Tough Skeleton}
Three tapped his chin as he read the notification, the skeleton was tough enough due to the regeneration skill, which upon inspection was increasing along with the skeletons levels, the skill had reached level twenty-seven, opposing to the nine it had when he had granted it the skill. He selected the strong skeleton option. Sir Kelly Ton started changing, spikes grew out of its shoulders, fists, elbows and knees, its spine grew into a whole row of spikes. It looked alot more dangerous than it had before, he was also pretty sure that the skeleton had more spikes and was bigger than the other evolved skeletons he had fought today.
Then he turned his gaze to Shuffles, he was still suprised to see the zombie had survived, although survived might be too big a word, one arm was missing, half of one leg. The way it hopped around and tripped over anything and everything was quite comical. Its chest was torn open, ribs snapped and Three was pretty sure the zombie was missing some intestines. He clicked on the plus next to the zombies name only to be suprised.
{Shuffles has passed level 10}
{ Rare evolution possible, Rare evolution intigrated into the next evolution. Choose Evolution}
{ Large Zombie® , Fast Zombie®}
He gave the evolution some thought but decided he would go for Fast Zombie, first thing first he made Shuffles a companion changing its bond. Its regeneration started setting in as its leg started growing back. Its arm also showed signs of healing. He pressed the evolution and watched the zombie change. To his suprise the zombie instantly healed from all its wounds. Its leg grew back in a near instant, same for its arm. Its flesh closed and any wounds it had healed instantly, it gained muscle beneath its previously decaying skin. The skin also did not look as dead as it did before, the skin was deathly gray sure, but the zombie no longer looked actually DEAD.
It looked like a perfectly normal human being, it had no hair anywhere, and its skin was grey. But nothing was rotting, its eyes upon closer inspection were still the same milky white. He looked into the zombies new status as Three scratched his chin in interest.
{Shuffles, Smart Zombie, Level 11}
{Evolution Smart Zombie ® , Fast Zombie}
Three blinked, the zombie had become smart, he wondered what had triggered the evolution. He payed some more attention to the bond and found that the Zombie was capable of thought, not at the same level as human, not yet atleast. But its intelligence riveled Crimson's, He smiled at the deciscion, now that it was clever and could learn fighting tactics its speed increase would become much more evident in battle.
The zombie jumped up and down, it started stretching its limbs testing its new found agility, its movements looked creepily human, although Three supposed the zombie really was human before.
Three shrugged as he let the zombie do his thing, he went around looking for more left-over undead to conscript, his mind had been present enough that he had only crippled some of the evolved zombies and skeletons, so he could conscript them into his service. He went looking for those and conscripted them, filling the six slots he could now use as he looked at his level. He was at level twenty barely enough for his second bonding and another set of conscripts.
He thought about his new class and how he was interested in the kind of class upgrades he could choose when he reached the level twenty five mark, he also had to decide what skill he would rank up. He thought he would go for the tough-body skill. The pain tolerance evolved version did not interest him as much, Jer had told him what it did and it simply did not seem like the right skill for him. He shrugged off his thoughts as he helped the villagers reinforce their defences once more.
The next night was much the same, the wave of undead had slightly increased, and the number of elvolved undead had nearly doubled. The villagers were having slightly more trouble pushing the undead back but the sheer number of kills they got showed across an average increase in level between the lot of them. Anyone who had previously been stuck at level twenty-four had passed over, their strength increasing greatly. Three had leveled twice himself. Sir Kelly Tonn and Shuffles performed exemplary in their new evolved forms, Three had deduced correctly that those under his bonding, even his conscriptions increased in power from their counterparts.
He and Crimson tore through the ranks with ease, just as they had done before. Shuffles and Sir Kelly Tonn could take on multiple opponents at the same time, Shuffles had taken to commanding the conscripts, he had formed his own little squad and was efficiently taking out his opponents, even Sir Kelly Ton followed the zombies commands, the group of them tearing through their uncoördinated former brethren. After about a half hour of intense combat the situation died down. To his surprise Shuffles had only lost one of the conscripts under his command, he complimented the zombie on his efforts and he could swear that the monster puffed out its chest in pride. Three found another evolved creature and conscripted it, handing it over to Shuffles.
He had gained only one level from the battle, the experience increase visibly slowing down. Sir Kelly Ton had reached level eighteen, Shuffles suprisingly had caught up and was also level Eighteen. The conscripts, excluding the new one were between level fourteen and sixteen. Once again Three helped repair any damage done over the day, and once again the day passed quickly and a new night fell. Fog appearing as the new army marched upon them.