Repairing the Undead took nearly an hour, but Alaster left it all to the Mage. The damage, while mostly not severe, was numerous. Instead of personally repairing the Undead, Alaster focused on crafting two more Undead to replace the Night Children, who had both been destroyed in the last battle.
The Night Children was a wonderful design of Undead. They were great ambushers and were easily able to attack from above. But they were fragile, and in a prolonged battle, weak. The Children had been of little use since leaving Sicon. Alaster would remember their design, for later use, but he wouldn’t be using them now. Not in this Dungeon.
Instead, using the ample amount of bone from the Goblins, Alaster set to work in creating two more Minotaurs. They had proven themselves in a prolonged battle. And while they were slow to move, they were very fast once they got moving, and with their weight, they were difficult for most to stop. They were even harder to move when they didn’t want to. Their thick armor was nearly impervious to the Goblin weapons.
The entire portion of tunnel was covered in blood, but the tunnel around the Minotaurs had blood dripping from the ceiling. Their glaives, while they couldn't swing them wide due to space restraints, still had enough power to cut through two Goblins and bash into another two. Each swing cleared the area in front of them.
Each Minotaur took almost an hour to create. The Mage finished healing just after the third Minotaur was made, so Alaster ordered it to start turning the rest of the bones into cubes. The Undead had already gathered all the bones, so it sat down in the pool of blood and began to work.
‘Does bone stain?’
Shaking his head to clear the unnecessary thought, he set to work on the fourth Minotaur. When he was finished, he sat back down in the chair, cautious of the hole in his abdomen, and finally looked through the notifications the System was giving him.
[Level Up]
[Mana Manipulation Level Ten Evolution
1. Extend Mana further from the body
2. Condense Mana further
3. Have a stronger hold over Mana]
[Necrotic Heal Level Five Evolution
1. Can heal from three meters away
2. Heal two Undead at once for half again cost
3. Strengthen Undead under the spell’s influence]
This was all amazing to Alaster, but he focused on [Mana Manipulation]. It was the foundation of all spells, after all. Some Mages didn’t pay much attention to the ability, choosing only to use spells using the System. But such people never became Experts. The Ability simply provided too much flexibility.
Each option had its own use, and as usual, Alaster wanted all of them. But he could only choose one. He thought about it for a few minutes, but in the end, went with what he knew would be immediately useful. While the first option would allow him further range on many of his spells, he did not have an issue with range. The third option slightly confused Alaster. It sounded beneficial for everything, but unless something was affecting his own Mana, it wasn’t as great as the second option.
If he could condense his Mana even more, he could strengthen the equipment of his Undead. The limits he could make his bone crafts were slightly weaker than iron. With his evolution, Alaster was sure his bone creations would be as strong, if not slightly stronger, than iron. This was crucial, as stronger Monsters were harder to harm, requiring stronger weapons. And stronger armor was always a good thing.
Moving onto [Necrotic Heal] It was a much tougher decision. Currently, Alaster was forced to touch the Undead in order to heal them. Not much of an issue outside of combat. But if he had to heal them in the middle of a fight, like he had just been forced to do, it was very difficult to keep a hand on them while they are fighting.
‘Plus, when I eventually get some Undead with flesh still on them, I really don't want to touch them.’
Being able to heal two at once, for fifteen mana per second, instead of one for ten mana per second. That was extremely valuable. It would have made the last fight a lot less stressful. It was simple, nothing complicated about this evolution, but it was valuable nonetheless.
The third option was interesting, as it seemed to turn [Necrotic Heal] into a copy of [Dead Aura]. But if it stacked, it would make his Undead much stronger. Currently, Alaster estimated that [Dead Aura] strengthened his Undead by five percent, and hindered the living by the same amount. It was a minor increase, but it was still a low level. In fact, [Dead Aura] had leveled up significantly during the battle.
[Dead Aura
Level 1<4: 5%<59%
Generate an aura that strengthens and heals any Undead within, while hindering the strength and healing of the Living
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Range: 2 Meters< 4 meters
Mana Cost: 5/sec]
It seemed the range increased by one meter every two levels. However, while it leveled, Alaster hadn’t been able to identify an increase in its effects, only its range. But if the third option improved the Undead by another five percent. They would be ten percent stronger, a small, but invaluable improvement.
However, it required the Undead to be under the spell’s influence. Which, in the spell’s current state, meant touching them, and only one at a time. So until Alaster could get both the range and multiuse evolutions, this buff evolution was not worth it.
Alaster quickly made his selection and pulled up his Status. He had also leveled up.
[Class: Death Knight
Level: 20<24
EXP: 12%<74%
Health: 375/460<375/500
Health Regeneration: 12/min
Mana: 465/465<505/505
Mana Regeneration: 11/min
Abilities: Necrotic Bolt, Raise Undead, Bone Crafting, Mana Manipulation, Death Touch, Skeleton Creation, Meditation, Necrotic Heal, Dead Aura, Flesh Crafting, Raise Mage
Bonuses: Horde, Death Pact, Split Mind, Blood Price, Imbuement, Fine Control
Strength: 66<74
Dexterity: 58<64
Constitution*: 70<78
Wisdom*: 110<118
Intelligence*: 77<85
Free Points: 0<20]
‘Wow, I wonder if I’m the fastest to level.’
Probably not, while rare, there were plenty of people who could have Minions, people with a lot more resources than Alaster did. He just never thought he would be an Adept in just over a year. Alaster doubted anyone did. He was only able to accomplish it by throwing himself into impossible fights time after time all alone. Fights only full groups would tackle, but he only had his Minions. All the EXP went to him.
He had twenty free points to distribute. And he only needed fifteen to get his Intelligence to one hundred. Alaster excitedly put fifteen points into INT and five into CON.
[Intelligence 100 Bonus Unlocked]
[Intelligence 100 Bonus: Swap
Level 1: 0%
Swap places with one Minion
Range: 10 meters
Cooldown: 10 minutes
Cooldown Use: 500 Mana]
Alaster rubbed his eyes, thinking that he was seeing it wrong, even though the System didn’t use the eyes. When nothing changed, Alaster was stunned. Teleportation Abilities were exceedingly rare. This one was a short-ranged teleport, which was much more common, but still rare. Not only that, but once every ten minutes he could use it for free, no Mana Cost. If he used it while it was under Cooldown, it would cost him five hundred mana, which was practically all of it.
[Swap] was a life-saving Ability. If he saw an attack coming, he could use [Swap] and let one of his Minions take the blow. Or he could use it to get to places he otherwise wouldn’t be able to. Now, the Night Children were much more useful. Not in the Dungeon, but in a Settlement, when he wanted to sneak around, he could have the Night Children sneak into a place, and then he just appears there.
Alaster pulled up his updated status.
[Class: Death Knight
Level: 24
EXP: 74%
Health: 399/500<399/525
Health Regeneration: 13/min
Mana: 505/505<580/580
Mana Regeneration: 11/min
Abilities: Necrotic Bolt, Raise Undead, Bone Crafting, Mana Manipulation, Death Touch, Skeleton Creation, Meditation, Necrotic Heal, Dead Aura, Flesh Crafting, Raise Mage
Bonuses: Horde, Death Pact, Split Mind, Swap, Blood Price, Imbuement, Fine Control
Strength: 74
Dexterity: 64
Constitution*: 78<83
Wisdom*: 118
Intelligence*: 85<100
Free Points: 20<0]
There it was, under Bonuses, Swap was listed. Alaster attempted to pump his fist in joy, but stopped as his wound made itself known. Unfortunately, Leveling, or improving CON didn’t suddenly heal you.
Grinning like a fool, Alaster looked up at one of the Minotaurs, activating [Swap]. Immediately, Alaster’s senses turned off, but just as quickly, returned. Except he wasn’t in the same place. He was where the Minotaur had been, even facing in the same direction. Alaster noted a few things.
First, despite losing his senses, Alaster was still fully aware of the area, from the Minotaur’s perspective. Taking advantage of that, He could teleport and be ready for whatever was on the other side. Like attacking while the opponent was surprised.
Second, the spell took a moment to work, during which, the first note applied. When he used [Swap] he would have to time it. If he waited till the last moment, it would be too late.
Third, both Alaster and the Minotaur swapped in the same stance they were in previously. So Alaster fell on his rear as he had been sitting, sending a roaring fire of pain through his abdomen. And the Minotaur was suddenly standing on the chair.
Fourth, Alaster’s chair was not strong enough to support the weight of a Minotaur. It shattered beneath it, and besides slightly bending its knees, the Minotaur was completely unfazed, and splashing blood over the Undead nearest to it. Alaster was glad he didn’t [Swap] with one of those.
‘I liked that chair.’
Alaster had just managed to fine tune the chair to be perfect for him, at least while he was sitting up. Now he had to start all over. The Mage began to collect the pieces and convert them into cubes, so Alaster looked up at his dozen Undead. His Minotaurs had always been intimidating, but now that there were four of them? Alaster shivered.
The young man looked over at the pyramid, hip height, sitting in the pools of blood and was about to begin consolidating them in much denser cubes. But he halted his movements as a roar echoed through the tunnels.
It sounded distant, but Alaster did not want to encounter it. Knowing his luck, it was the Boss, and his only way out.