An hour later, Alaster had six Ape Skeletons running around by themselves, ripping apart any of their living brethren they found. Alaster was casually walking around, taking in the sights. The Night Blades had joined the Apes, but the Black Guards followed Alaster. Occasionally, He would be attacked by the Apes, but they were always quickly dispatched by the four Black Guards.

Alaster did have to repair one of the Bone Spears after the point had ripped off when the Black Guard twisted it in the wound. Which prompted him to also check the Bills. It had been a while and it was evident. The blades of the Bills were dull and chipped. The spear points were in good condition, as the Black Guards rarely used them. The Bills were designed to be a swung weapon. They really only had the point to combat larger monsters or even cavalry.

Grumbling to himself, Alaster sat down on a rock with a Bill across his lap. He pulled out a whetstone from his Ring. He had bought all the required maintenance tools with the Bills, and they were small, easily forgotten. Which Alaster was regretting. He set to work, working on sharpening the blade of the bill and getting the chips out.

The Dungeon was a fairly small one. It was flat, snow covered, with spaced trees covering the entire area. The edges of the Dungeon were marked by a tall, icy cliff face. Neither the Night Children nor Alaster had been able to climb it. Alaster guessed that the Dungeon was roughly four miles from where Alaster appeared from, to the far end, in a rough oval. At the far end of the Dungeon, there was a large cave, where Alaster assumed the Boss waited.

But Alaster had no desire to fight it just yet. He was quite enjoying walking around and enjoying the sights. The frozen pine trees reflected the light in fascinating ways, and it was slightly warmer in the Dungeon than outside, so Alaster was relishing it. Besides, it wasn’t like he was lazing about. His Horde Skeletons were busy ripping apart every Ape they found, providing a fairly consistent flow EXP to Alaster.

It actually amused him in a way. Most Novices fought tooth and nail to achieve even a single Level. And here he was, exploring the sights and already achieved two Levels. He had yet to actually distribute the Free Points. He wanted to see how much EXP there was to be had in the Dungeon. Normally, when exploring a Dungeon, it was a very tense and serious time. And any battle fought would have the EXP distributed among those who fought.

Dungeons were still a very efficient way to Level up as the Monsters were very consistent, but to safely hunt, a sizeable party was required, which severely slowed the Leveling process. Alaster didn’t distribute the EXP, so the EXP of an entire Dungeon was being fed to him. He was certainly excited. He was Level fifteen, only five levels away from becoming an Adept. And he wasn’t even sixteen.

Alaster finished the Bills and handed them back to the Black Guard. He stretched his hands and arms and brought up his Status.

[Class: Death Mage

Level: 13<15

EXP: 54%<42%

Health: 365/365<385/385

Health Regeneration: 10/min

Mana: 340/340<360/360

Mana Regeneration: 5/min<6/min

Spells: Necrotic Bolt, Raise Undead, Bone Crafting, Mana Manipulation, Death Touch, Skeleton Creation, Meditation, Necrotic Heal

Strength: 50<54

Dexterity: 42<46

Constitution*: 51<55

Wisdom*: 56<60

Intelligence*: 53<57

Free Points: 0<10]

As Alaster walked around, his second mind pondering his status, they occasionally came across the corpses of the Apes. Already killed by the Horde Skeletons. He had already gathered over a dozen furs from them, but that didn’t stop him from harvesting more, indirectly. The Black Guards had learned from watching him do it several times, and he supplied them with bone knives to do it.

It was much slower than if Alaster did it himself, but they were able to harvest four at a time. All while Alaster sat down and pondered his status. He was leaning more towards putting all ten Free Points into WIS, bringing his Regen up to seven and allowing a seventh Horde Skeleton. But he decided to take a look through his Abilities first. But only a few caught Alaster’s attention.

[Wisdom 50 Bonus: Horde

Level 1<6: 0%<43%

Capable of raising Undead past the limit, at the cost of Mana Regeneration.

One past max per point of Mana Regeneration]

[Intelligence 50 Bonus: Split Mind

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Level 1<3: 0%<62%

Splits the mind into two.]

He hadn’t received a notice about an Evolution available when Horde reached Level five. So it was unlikely that any of the other bonuses would either. However, two more Abilities also caught his attention, and not for their levels. [Blood Price] was something to be used occasionally, and Alaster promised himself to use it more often.

He hadn’t taken much damage before, and his Health regenerated fairly quickly. So he could level it fairly consistently. Just sacrifice ten Health for fifty Mana, as he is using Mana, for example, [Bone Crafting], and in a minute that Health is regenerated. He was excited to see what any of the Bonuses would Evolve once he reached the required levels.

However, [Imbuement] was quite possibly game changing. If he could adapt to it. One of the Siphas Family Guards had [Imbuement] and when Alaster had asked about it, the man pointed out that it had taken several months for him to become accustomed to using it. The Ability augmented the body, but not the mind. And the mind took time to adapt to the increased abilities of the body.

Alaster shook his head. He had allowed himself to grow lazy. Now that he could raise a dozen Undead, he had simply stepped back and allowed them to do everything. This in itself was fine. That was the purpose of a Necromancer. To be the brains of their Undead Minions and let them be the muscle. But Alaster didn’t have that luxury. He couldn’t allow himself to ease into power, not while he didn’t know the state of his Sister.

She could be dead for all he knew. He doubted it, as there wouldn’t have been a need to kidnap her if they were just going to kill her. But he didn’t know that. And that lack of knowledge scared him. Alaster stood up, growling to himself. Necromancers were a powerful foe to any organization, as they could create their own numbers. But they had their faults, and most powerful people knew them and how to abuse them.

Alaster knew that the people who had taken his Sister were part of a powerful group. If a Necromancer suddenly attacked them, they would know how to counter them and their Undead. But Necromancer wasn’t the only Class a Death Mage could Evolve into, just the most infamous. Nor did he have to Evolve into a Class that branched off of Death Mage. A Novice still kept all of their Abilities when they Evolved into an Adept Class, whether the Abilities matched with the Class or not. This could create wonderful or horrific synergies.

The young man twisted and bent as he stretched. He was done being a bystander of his own battles. His second mind created a Bone Heater shield, and he grabbed it as it finished, drawing his sword. He ordered his Black Guard to watch the area, but only interfere in a battle if there were more than three.

They continued to walk through the Dungeon, and it wasn’t long before another pair of Apes attacked. As ordered, the Black Guards stepped back and allowed their Master to fight. They did however ready themselves to prevent the Apes from escaping. If they did flee, eventually the Horde Apes would find them and finish the job, but Alaster wanted not just their EXP, but the experience of fighting them.

Alaster raised his shield, resting the blade of his sword on its rim. He activated [Imbuement]. He could feel his Mana drain at a large rate. Not too bad, but he would have to monitor its use during prolonged fights. As his mana filled his body, he felt his skin and muscles tighten. Alaster charged at the Apes, and they, him.

The difference with [Imbuement] was immediately apparent. Each step propelled him several feet. His mind struggled to comprehend the speed, and his vision blurred. As he neared the Apes, he raised his sword. He didn’t stop, and instead charged past them. His sword cut deep into the muscle of the Ape’s side.

It roared in pain, and the second Ape spun around and jumped at him. Alaster was stunned, both by how deeply he had cut, and how fast he was. His mind was lagging behind, and only his muscle memory from his sparring sessions with the Siphas Guards saved him.

He raised his shield and braced himself. The Ape crashed onto him, slamming its fists down, cracking the strong bone of the shield. Alaster’s second mind immediately set to repairing the shield, the crack sealing itself within moments. But Alaster wasn’t paying attention to that. The Ape fell to the ground, and Alaster thrust forward.

The Ape stepped to the side, dodging the thrust. Without missing a beat, Alaster punched forward with his shield, slamming into the Ape’s chest and knocking it back. At the same time, he turned his thrust into a backhand swing towards the second Ape. The wounded Ape was slow to jump back, earning a shallow cut across its chest.

But Alaster didn’t look to the second Ape. Instead, he chased after the first and unwounded one. Stunned from his shield bash, the Ape was unable to react to the augmented Alaster, who embedded his sword deep into its heart. Alaster ripped his sword free as the Ape fell to the ground and turned around. He barely had time to raise his shield before the second Ape’s fist slammed into him.

Alaster was sent flying and slammed into a tree, shattering the ice clinging to the pines, but only slightly cracking the ice stuck to the trunk. His vision, already blurry from his use of [Imbuement] began to darken. He fought through it and stood up, only to raise his shield. Even had he had flown away, the Ape chased after him. He had only moments to recover before the Ape was upon him once more. Its fist slammed into him.

Alaster flew into the snow, rolling several times, but he was able to adjust himself to land on his knees. His second mind already at work repairing the large fractures. The Ape was upon him once more, roaring in rage and pain. It launched another mighty punch, the air whistling around its fist. Alaster turned to the side, holding his shield across his chest and his sword against the shield.

The Ape didn’t expect to meet no resistance, and it flew past. Its body slamming into and across the shield. It roared as blood flooded out and it stumbled. Alaster used the impact to spin around and thrust his sword into the back of the Ape. It gave a weak scream and collapsed.

Alaster stopped [Imbuement] and called up his status.

[Health: 273/365

Mana: 198/340]

‘Imbuement is costly.’

The fight had lasted just over a minute, yet it had drained nearly half his mana, and he hadn’t cast any other Spell.

[Strength 50 Bonus: Imbuement

Level 1: 0%<29%

Infuse the body with Mana to strengthen it

Mana Cost: 100/min]

‘Damn. Its also so slow to level.’

Not that it actually surprised him. Bonus Skills were notorious for being difficult to level. After all, they were immensely impactful. Each Evolution of a Bonus Skill was just as impactful as the Bonus skill itself. It would be a lot of work to level any of them. It was actually amazing that [Horde] was level six already. It seemed to level similar to [Raise Undead], where it also leveled up as its summons killed.

Alaster stood up straight. He turned to see the Black Guards stand up as well, putting the butt of their polearms into the snow. He looked the other way, and saw a small group of four Apes wandering around a few hundred meters away, little more than blobs of movement at that distance.

Alaster rolled his shoulders and walked forward, grinning as he went.