Alaster watched from a tall hill as he looked down at the valley before him. The Devils had begun to travel in patrols no smaller than eighty, making it very difficult for Alaster and his Undead to defeat them. The last battle had nearly killed him and required him to spend an entire day repairing and rebuilding his Custom Undead.

Alaster was worried. Not that he wouldn’t be able to succeed, he could simply go back to the edges of the Dungeon and continue hunting the Bears and Wolves. No, he was worried because the Devils had learned.

Their patrols had been found dead, so they had done what most would have done. They increased the patrols, as well as their numbers. Now, each Patrol intersected with another Patrol at least every hour, typically more often.

Instanced Dungeons didn’t learn. Nor did Public Dungeons. The only Dungeons that learned were Raids, that’s why they were so much more dangerous than other Dungeons of the same Rank.

‘Was this a Raid?’ Alaster briefly pondered.

No. He would have noticed that before entering. The System had identified the Dungeon as an Instance.

It had only been another week since Alaster got the Sergeant. During that time, he had gotten [Undead Warrior] to level ten.

[Summon Undead Warrior

Level 8<10: 46%<31%

Summon the Dead to fight for you.

Max Minions: 3/4

Mana Cost: 50]

[Summon Undead Warrior Evolutions]

[Level Ten Evolutions Available

1. Summon Undead Skirmisher.

Soldier will move quicker.

2. Summon Undead Berserker.

Soldier will be stronger.

3. Summon Undead Beast Master.

Soldier will be more durable.]

Each one was intriguing. Skirmisher was typically the title for someone deployed in front of the main formation with javelins, slings, or even short bows. They were meant to soften and injure the enemy formations. Since it was a Warrior Evolution, Alaster suspected it would be the javelins, though it could just be randomized for each summon.

Berserker was an actual Class people could acquire. Such people were typically given a wide berth. They were violent and regularly got caught up in their own Abilities, ignoring everything else, even rarely attacking their own allies. However, one thing no one could deny was their pure might. They were powerful.

Beast Master was interesting. The name implied that the Minion could control Monsters. But Alaster did not know if that meant they had to tame them, or if they would be Summoned with their own Undead version of a pet, or if they could summon or raise their own.

In the end, however, Alaster chose Berserker. He needed power. And his Summoned Undead were beginning to show an effect against the Monsters of the Dungeon more than just distractions or pinpoint attacks against weak spots such as joints.

They were still far from managing to combat the Devils individually, but so were the Blackguards. Even the Minotaurs struggled to withstand the Devils’ attacks, nor were they able to defeat them.

Summoning the [Undead Berserker], Alaster would have raised an eyebrow if he wasn’t currently under the effects of [Death Embrace]. The Berserker was slightly taller than the Sergeant, making it nearly a full head taller than the Soldiers. It held two large axes, each one slightly larger than an axe used to chop wood. The heads of the axes were eight inches long and hooked at the bottom.

At its waist, it wore a skirt of tattered leathers. Though Alaster doubted it would provide any actual protection. Its bones were thick, and Alaster got a feeling of power when he looked at it.

‘It’ll be interesting to see you in action.’ Alaster thought, but he soon turned to his next advancement.

[Horde] and [Death Pact] had finally reached level twenty.

[Horde] had allowed him three choices, as usual. One allowed the additional raising of more Undead, at the cost of Mana from his Mana Pool per minute. Alaster expected that is would cost fifty mana per minute per Undead past the standard limit, just like his standard raising.

The second simply made his Horde Undead stronger, faster, and more durable. Very simple but considering Alaster could now raise one hundred and sixty Horde Undead, even a five percent increase would be drastic.

The third option would have allowed Alaster to store Mana, allowing it to automatically raise more Horde Undead as they were destroyed for as long as there was Mana to fuel it. Such an option would allow Alaster to use it and then focus on other things.

But Horde Undead were stupid. Even when ordered to pick up and use weapons, they were slow and awkward to use them and used them more as clubs. Alaster used them more as shock units. Meant to be sacrificed to soften or even overwhelm the enemy until his main force reached them. In such a use, the first and third options were not ideal.

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Each option was useful, but Alaster simply saw more use in the second option. Making them stronger, faster, and more durable, would make them quite powerful. He made his choice, and make a mental note to himself to pay attention to the changes the next time he used them.

The changes to [Death Pact] was much more simple, but no less interesting. He hadn’t been offered any choices. Instead, the Bonus Description had changed to allow the creation of weapons. A bit of experimentation found that he could make daggers, swords, and spears. It struggled but was capable of constructing a Halberd. However, anything else was too complicated for it.

Each weapon was created with the same metal as the armor. Meant that while Alaster’s weapon was now much heavier, it was much sharper, more durable, and capable of more power.

After finishing with his new changes. Alaster sat upon his Skeletal Stallion and observed the actions and movements of the Devils. After nearly two hours, Alaster noticed something.

The Devils’ patrol patterns were such to see everything, even in and around the ruins. Within two hours, at least one patrol had been within fifty meters of everything in the valley. Everything but a small cave tucked against a cliff face at the far right of the valley.

The valley itself was large, stretching at least five miles in diameter. Despite that, every Devil Patrol refused to get within a hundred meters of the cave mouth.

Whatever was there, the Devils did not like it. And if they didn’t like it, Alaster wanted it.

Smirking to himself, Alaster drained his Mana and Health, causing a migraine to form. But behind him, one hundred Devils, still clad in their damaged armor, stood once more. Within a minute another sixty had joined. Their eerie silence permeated the air, as did their blood thirst.

“Go.” Alaster said emotionlessly.

The Undead Devils charged through the ranks of his Standard Undead. Descending the loose black earth hill, and into the flank of an eighty strong Devil Patrol.

Despite the surprise flank attack by a force twice their number, and by what appeared to be their own allies, they were not overwhelmed.

Alasters Archers and Longbowmen loosed small volleys of arrows. Occasionally hitting the Horde Undead, but the Dead didn’t pay any attention to it. Most bounced off the Devil armor, but occasionally, an arrow would pierce a weak spot.

The young man then ordered his Summoned Undead forward. While the ranged undead remained atop the hill, the rest charged down. The Soldiers and Warriors charged, but remained in line, the Sergeant right behind them. But the Berserker barreled down recklessly, even tripping over a piece of rubble hidden under the loose earth, but it quickly returned to its feet and continued its mad charge, at least after rolling head over foot a few times.

Alaster sighed but refrained from rolling his eyes.

He watched the Berserker silently charge forward, but he could imagine that if it had lungs, it would be screaming.

Two Devils noticed the Berserker and turned to impale it with their swords. Alaster prepared to resummon the destroyed Berserker, but he was surprised to see the Undead Berserker jump high in the air, sailing completely over the two Devils and landing on top of a completely unaware Devil, driving both axes in the weak neck armor.

Both crashed to the ground, and before the Berserker could stand back up, the two Devils turned around and easily destroyed it. The Devil on the ground didn’t get back up.

‘First time one of my Undead have managed to solo kill one of the Dungeon Monsters.’

Granted, the Berserker had attacked a completely unaware enemy in a critical spot that couldn’t be too armored. And it had immediately been destroyed right after. However, Alaster still took note of the accomplishment.

The Warriors and Soldiers crashed into the Devils with their shields, and while they were unable to knock them aside. The Devils were still forced to take a step back. Alaster had noticed even in previous battles, but this proved it in his mind. The Sergeant could not only command Undead, but also buffed them.

Three of the Soldiers were still quickly destroyed, but at the cost of two Devils. Alaster resummoned the fallen Undead and sent them down again. A moment later, the archers had run out of ammo, so he ordered them into combat, where they almost immediately were destroyed, and resummoned them, with their arrows refilled.

The Horde Undead were vicious and tore into the Devils. Alaster noticed after one of the Horde Undead took a hit, removing the helmet, that the Devil underneath wasn’t quite skeletal. It still retained some of its flesh, if only a small amount.

‘The Evolution changed it. If it reaches a high enough level, will they completely retain their flesh?’

Regardless of his thoughts, Alaster continued to resummon the Undead as they fell. He would have been worried about how much Mana he was using raising so many Horde Undead and continuing to raise more as well as the Summoned Undead, but he wasn’t.

[Blood Price] Allowed him to exchange Health for Mana. And when his Health dropped to ten percent, both [Regeneration] and [Last Stand] took effect, practically completely filling both Health and Mana within moments. And both lasted for ten minutes.

[Regeneration] caused him to regenerate his Health Regeneration every second, instead of every minute, granting him twenty-eight health every second, or fifty-six health per second due to [Last Stand] that doubled it. Meaning, that every second Alaster generated enough Health to convert into two hundred and eighty Mana.

Both those Abilities lasted for ten minutes and could be used triggered again so long as his Health had regenerated to full at least once. And it only took twenty-four seconds for both Abilities to regenerate his Health completely.

Essentially, unless a sneak attack managed to shave off an entire ten percent of his health in one attack at the perfect time, Alaster was nearly unkillable, and during that time, he could not realistically run out of Mana using his Abilities.

However, Alaster was not so ignorant to think that he was immortal. Meeting Ebris, God of the Dead, had broadened his far-reaching vision. But meeting Richter and Aila had broadened his closer vision. He knew for a fact that even a careless strike from either could kill him even at full health. He was almost certain that something capable of such a feat was in the Dungeon.

He did not allow himself to grow arrogant, not when he was still so weak. He was still and Adept in a Dungeon meant for skilled Elites. Alaster knew he was extremely powerful for his Tier, but one could not underestimate the power of a Class Change, especially a Class Change across Tiers.

In just seven minutes, all eighty Devils were killed. Alaster slowly descended the hill, his Blackguards and Minotaurs behind him. His Stallion carried him through the carnage and Alaster glanced at one of the Devils, whose helmet had been lost.

He had already examined the Devils after killing his first. They were pale, almost snow white. They had no hair and gaunt faces. Their ears were pointed like an Elf’s but unlike Elven ears, the Devils’ ears pointed straight up, not back. Their teeth were sharpened, where naturally, or not, Alaster did not know. Besides that, they were similar to a human male. Alaster had not spotted any females among them.

Alaster looked among the spilled blood and corpses, feeling the blood strengthen him. The group of Monsters that he imagined would require a group of prepared Experts to defeat, and he had not even needed to send in his Blackguards and Minotaurs.

Alaster adjusted himself in the Stallion’s saddle and looked towards where he saw the cave. He could no longer see it now that he was in the valley, but he knew the direction.

‘Time to see what the Devils avoid.’