To make matters even worse, Jeff’s predicament intensified as two more of the nearby corpses dotting the battlefield, previously motionless on the muddy ground, began to stir.
Lurching to their feet, clumsily at first then with increasing speed and alertness, they came to life.
The pair of reanimated corpses each grasped rust-encrusted scimitars in their skeletal hands.
The lead zombie halted abruptly, a sinister dark nimbus enveloping its head—a sign that a Skill was activating.
Suddenly it exhaled a dense, black fog, engulfing the whole area in a thick cloud of putrid, choking smoke.
Immersed in the cloud, Jeff struggled for breath, his eyes stinging and watering, his vision obscured. Coughing and wheezing, Jeff could just about make out another three Kobols approaching through the fog, unaffected by their fellow’s toxic plume.
Poisonous Debuff. -30% to Strength, Speed, Vitality
30 seconds remaining
Jeff coughed and sneezed, blinking furiously to clear the smoke from his eyes.
He realized it was time to switch tactics.
Concentrating intently, he funneled mana into his left hand for a moment, feeling the energy level build up.
Then, with a targeted aim, he unleashed his newly acquired Skill, [Mana Burst], directing a blast of the Skill’s generic brand of destructive energy towards the axe-wielding undead.
The bolt of fiery blue mana shot across the gap and hit the zombie in the chest, detonating on impact. The explosion tore through the creature, leaving a gaping crater in its midsection, completely exposing the hollow cavity within. It was a devastating wound which would have been undoubtedly fatal to any living creature.
Yet, in spite of the horrific injury inflicted by the Skill, the zombie seemed unaffected, continuing its inexorable advance.
By now, all three Kobols were converging on Jeff, and behind them in the murky background, he could see even more rising to their feet and heading his way.
Jeff found himself forced to continuously parry and block a barrage of blows from the creatures.
Two closed in—a high swing of an axe came from one, while a cross swing of a sword came from the other.
Their attacks kept on coming, ferocious and unrelenting, leaving him little room to counterattack.
He was being overrun, and no matter how quickly he parried and grappled, more of the undead kept on coming.
Activating [Cutting Edge], the enhanced sharpness that the Skill granted finally allowed Jeff some moderate success in whittling down the ranks of the zombies in front of him.
With a sideways slash he brought Leech sweeping around, slicing off a raised arm. Another chop carved off an entire shoulder.
Despite these injuries, the zombies remained standing, even though some of them were starting to resemble the leftovers of a Thanksgiving dinner.
The solution to his zombie problem was revealed when he got inside the guard of one of his attackers and managed to chop off its head.
The Kobol abruptly stopped moving, dropping into the mud like a marionette whose strings had been cut.
A dark, foul smelling mist rose from the corpse, hovering for a moment over the body before coagulating into a small black bead which fell to the floor.
A moment of clarity dawned on Jeff, the age-old rule when confronting the undead.
Why didn’t I think of that earlier? Always aim for the head of a zombie…
He was rewarded with a System notification.
Level up!
Congratulations. You have reached Level 3
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You have Used Your Cutting Edge Skill to Slay an Enemy
Reward: 1 Omega Energy Point
You have Successfully Killed a Kobol (Undead Husk), Grade I
Reward: 10 Omega Energy Points
Dungeon Drop Available
Too preoccupied with the relentless swarm of zombies to decipher the meaning of the latter part of the message, Jeff continued deftly parrying the attacks of the remaining undead horde.
He thanked his lucky stars that they were strategically unintelligent; rather than attacking en masse they tended to get in each other’s way, almost queueing up in a disorderly fashion to take turns fighting him.
Jeff seized the moment and feinted, prompting the shambling mob of undead husks to shift in unison to one side—although they were reasonably fast they were not agile and seemed to operate on a collective, almost hive-minded level.
Jeff took advantage of this flaw and quickly maneuvered around their flank.
Pouring every ounce of his power and focus into his [Cutting Edge] imbued blade, he managed to decapitate three more zombies in a fluid, sweeping arc.
Again he was rewarded with System notifications, and the bodies of the zombies hit the dirt, black mist again floating over the battlefield briefly before condensing into the same dark gemstones he had seen earlier.
Combo! You have killed 3 Kobol (Undead Husk), Grade I
Reward: 40 Omega Energy Points
Dungeon Drops Available
Congratulations. You have reached Level 6
Jeff had a brief moment of respite to examine the scene.
Glancing down at the ground, he noticed the ebony colored, oval beads scattered about in the mud at his feet—remnants of the defeated zombies.
Dungeon Drops? He mused, curious to examine the items in more depth.
First though, he turned his attention to wiping out the remaining Kobols, methodically grinding through the few left standing.
Dodge, feint, slash, the process got easier the more he practiced it. Pretty soon, he was done.
Congratulations. You have reached Level 11
Breathing heavily, Jeff, his mind flashing to old zombie movies where characters often turned undead after a bite or scratch, took a moment to quickly check himself for any wounds.
He surveyed the battlefield ahead, recalling that during the fight the husks remained dormant on the ground until he drew near, which had alleviated some of the pressure.
There were no injuries or bites on his body, but his brand new clothes were now filthy—smeared with mud and the revolting black juices of the zombies.
He swiftly de-equipped his armor, tunic, doublet and pants, standing momentarily exposed in just his undergarments, before immediately re-equipping them.
He had discovered that this simple but efficient method was the System’s equivalent of dry-cleaning—effortlessly removing all of the mud and gore from the clothing.
Clean again, he took a moment to survey the battlefield before proceeding.
Out of curiosity, he bent down to pick up one of the glossy black dungeon drops which had fallen when he took out the Undead Husks.
The object was a flat oval stone, its surface sleek and reflective like polished plastic, but it had a surprising weight to it. Lazily drifting within the black depths of the stone, Jeff could just make out faint, bluish sparks.
Casting [Identify] revealed more information.
Necrotic Energy Dungeon Drop, 5 Units
Necrotic energy? Jeff couldn’t recall any mention of it in any of the books he had read in the library.
Could this be a solid form of mana? He wondered.
He probed the drop with his newfound senses.
As he stared down at the mysterious black stone, he somehow activated it, the drop undergoing a state-change—the previously solid stone morphing into a gelatinous blob of shimmering black and blue liquid in an instant, glinting mysteriously in the palm of his hand.
Seizing the moment before the concentration of energy could revert still further into a gaseous form and dissipate into the air, Jeff focused intently on his internal pathways, attempting to absorb the potent liquid into his body.
But as the Necrotic energy flowed into him, a disturbing change occurred.
His hand and arm were overtaken by a ghastly, sickly hue, as if the life was being sapped from his flesh. Nausea washed over him and Jeff barely resisted the urge to throw up.
The debilitating sensation was at once both physical and metaphysical—a wave of malaise and corruption, spreading up from his arm to the rest of his body. As the noxious feeling of toxicity spread, it felt as if the vitality was being sucked out of his body and spirit.
Panic surged within Jeff as he realized the terrible mistake he had made.
He desperately struggled to reverse the process and expel the toxic Necrotic energy—pushing it back out in the same way he had drawn it in—to no avail. It seemed to have taken on a perverse ‘life’ of its own.
The marauding Necrons, acting as though they were some form of parasitic entity, relentlessly spread through his pathways, seeking out and attempting to subsume every cell in his body, like some cancerous invader.
Jeff desperately racked his brains to think of a way to expel the deathly energy.
Shifting focus, he harnessed his [Mana Burst] Skill, seeking to flush the poison through an outpouring of raw energy.
The Skill stuttered, faltering under the strain—a cloudy, unstable concoction of destructive neon blue energy, shot through with tendrils of insidious Necrotic energy sputtered from his fingertips. The orb of unstable mana formed briefly above his hand before fizzling out.
The feeling of nausea sweeping over him intensified and his stomach churned violently again. Jeff clutched his abdomen in agony.
Warning! You have been poisoned.
The grim System message was stating the obvious.
Belatedly, Jeff remembered a precautionary reference he had read in one of the reference books in the library—something about all the different types of composite mana and the advanced protocols a cultivator should have in place to safely store and process them in their Core Space.
The further the poisonous Necrotic energy spread around his pathways and through his entire body, he faster he could feel his Vitality ebbing away, his HP diminishing in a steady, inexorable decline. As the poison spread, the rate of decline accelerated still further.
Collapsing to the ground, his breathing labored, Jeff desperately looked inwards to his Core Space and was horrified by what he saw.
The once vibrant reservoir of raw mana was quickly becoming tainted as the Necrotic energy cycled through his pathways.
The liquid mana pool in his core was no longer its usual deep cerulean blue in color; the reservoir had begun to steadily darken to an unhealthy shade of grey—even the cavern walls surrounding the pool had begun to take on a dark, Necrotic tinge.
Externally too, Jeff was undergoing a terrifying metamorphosis.
As the Necrotic energy took hold, a sickly pallor had begun spreading up his right arm and was by now affecting his entire body.
His features had taken on a grayish, lifeless hue, frighteningly similar to that of the undead husks he had just defeated.
Another System message flashed as Jeff’s vision started to fade.
Warning! Your health is extremely low at 5%. Death/Undeath is imminent.