9 Undead Adventurers have been Cleansed!
+900 Essence Crystals
+27 Points
An Undead Captain has been Cleansed!
+500 Essence Crystals
+10 Points
Alex stood in front of the entrance to the Guild Hall, its signboard tilted unevenly to one side.
His chest heaved as blood welled up to wet his tattered work slacks and sleeves, red soaking where their fabrics split. His leather armor was chipped in places and blood welled there too, dripping from frayed bits and ends. Blood – the undead kind – dissipated from his shamshir blade, and the sword herself vibrated with a low-hum thrum at this night’s offerings.
Soul Link has been damaged.
HP cannot be restored above 68%.
Nicks and scratches lay all across her length. And concerningly, at one point they spread deeper than just her surface. And yet, in spite of the damage she had taken during the last few minutes, she still seemed unsatisfied.
Strangely, Alex felt the same way.
He ran his fingers gingerly along the face of his blade as he took in the field of carnage to have visited the town’s plaza this night. At his feet, all around him, lay piles of bones and ash, marked by faint splotches of his own blood. And lying directly at his feet was the body of a man Alex vaguely recognized.
Ishaan - Awakened, Level 6
Status: Deceased
Alex had already put the man’s gun in his inventory, all its bullets accounted for. Clearly he had already known they weren’t effective against Undead as he hadn’t bothered wasting any rounds. For all the good it had done him. He hadn’t made it thirty paces from the Guild Halls doors before those guards had caught up and rounded on him. He’d long been dead by the time Alex had arrived.
It wasn’t the gun that held his focus now, but what else he carried.
It had taken Alex only one look at the skill stone to recognize where it had come from. Only one second for him to understand why things had gone so differently this time. And only one heartbeat for him to act on it.
4,300 Essence Crystals have been consumed!
You have leveled up!
You have leveled up!
+6 Skill Slots
You have entered a Charged State.
Alex felt surprised by his own actions.
He wasn’t the type to take unneeded risks, neither was he the type to rush blindly into battle. Even now, his mind ran precise calculations on his odds of victory, playing catch up with his decisions and justifying them post-haste. He wasn’t a man to stick his neck out unnecessarily. And more than anything else, he was not a man who let emotion cloud his judgment while heading into battle.
Yet, when he kicked down the Guild Hall doors he did so with fury.
It wasn’t an outward bubbling fury, but more of a desperate fire—burning under the winter storm that was pragmatism and fighting its snowfall for oxygen.
That corpse out there, he’d recognized him, if just barely.
He remembered escaping via the underground paths with him and some others. But the corpse he’d found had come from the Guild Hall instead this time, and now that he knew why, that revelation burned. In his first life, this Scenario had four survivors. But they had chosen wrong this time.
There’d been a saying for it by the time the 4th Scenario had rolled around and it went like this: Nightmare is where good men go to die.
But there were no longer any good men left here, and the reminder of that was what had burned the most. The tutorial had a type afterall, and it seemed no one had fit the bill this time around.
And now he was the only one left.
“Just what do you think you’re doing?” Alex demanded.
His foot shattered a glass of water underfoot. His voice seethed.
“Watching,” the undead said.
Across the room, the Guildmaster just sat there, crouched over the slumped figure that was Jun, unmoving, bleeding out onto the floorboards. He hardly even took note of Alex, offering no other context until he took another heavy step.
“Seriously, I’m not in the mood. Go away.”
“No. Answer the question.”
The undead sighed, scratching his head in confusion, “He tried so hard to live…I just wanted to see if I cared.”
“And?”
The undead lifted his sword for a decapitation. “It’s… amusing–”
[Pierce]
Alex didn’t bother putting a hard cap on his sword’s greed for mana and his blade surged forward with a raw vigor.
The undead dodged away from Jun’s body.
He collided messily against one of the tables and his skull snapped Alex’s way for the first time, locking onto his weapon. For a second his gaze seemed lost like that of a child’s, then that semblance vanished. His stare gained a hard edge and Alex could feel him putting the pieces together in his head as his voice took on a low hum growl.
[Named Quest has been triggered! - LIONHEART’S MADNESS]
Guild Master Lionheart has slept the living, imbuing them with the Sacrificial Mark! Only he can complete the ritual and it falls on you to foil his evil machinations!
Clear Conditions: Disrupt the Sacrificial Ritual
Rewards: 5,000 essence crystals
Time to Ritual - [12:37]
[You have aggroed the Scenario Boss. Quest has been accepted]
A hidden quest…
Alex’s attention slipped back to Jun’s corpse. He had no clue how the man had triggered a named quest, but it was just… unfortunate. People died. That was just the way it was, especially in Nightmare. It’s why Alex tried not to put too much expectation on them, and perhaps he would’ve accepted any other death for the man. It would’ve just proved him right to do so, but this…
“There’s a saying you know,” Alex said, “That Nightmare is where good men go to die. And it’s often meant literally but…”
He sighed. The Guildmaster wasn’t listening.
…But not always… Just rare that you find someone so fucking stubborn about it is all.
He shifted away from the open clearing and circled towards the strewn out tables, eying his enemy, the first boss he’d face in a real fight this life.
The undead known as Lionheart hulked nearly eight feet tall with ivory bones that were almost luminescent in the tavern’s dim lighting. Fury was written into his features and his empty eyes flared crimson with hatred as he sent food and drink flying from a nearby table, “...Lugrin, the Mayor… all those men and women—you killed them! That sword!”
“It’s a mercy,” Alex said.
Something about the way the Guildmaster’s frame heaved in rage told him he didn’t see it the same way. The boss ground his jaw so hard that flakes of bone tapered off and he seemingly peered into his eyes, “You… You know what you’ve just done, don’t you! You—[SYSTEM REDACTED]”
Alex could tell what he was probably saying even with the redaction. The System broke everyone in different ways, but few fates were more pitiful than the one playing out before him.
Regardless…
“The struggle of the living cannot be mocked by those who gave it up. You’ll regret not wearing your shiny armor, bastard.”
He spat a bloody tooth out onto the floor. His health was already below the threshold he’d set for himself, but that fire was still burning. With desire, with anger, with anything and everything that could keep it alight these long hours. Even justice.
Christ. Jordan would laugh if he saw me like this.
Alex wasn’t a good man. Jun had been a good man, and in Nightmare good men died. Alex wasn’t good, no, and he couldn’t be good. But even so, even though he knew all that, if he could cross avenging one off the bucket list then today could still be a good day.
And that would be enough.
He locked eyes with the boss and found that their feud had turned strangely personal. He’d had a feeling it would, ever since he’d seen the skill stone on that man’s corpse, and he’d made extra sure to slaughter all the adventurers standing guard before he entered. Nobody would be intruding on this fight.
And no one would be leaving prematurely either.
Ah, that’s right. That’s how it’d been, hadn’t it?
He found himself unexpectedly chuckling. It was funny, you live a few years without gambling and you start to forget your habits…but I tended to bet all in, didn’t I?
As soon as he had the thought, the Boss charged straight for him.
***
The 2,132th Boss Battle has Begun.
The 2,133th Boss Battle has Begun.
The 2,134th Boss Battle has Begun.
Request for Spectatorship of The 2,134th Boss Battle has been processed.
Request Granted.
Battle 2,134
Scenario Model: Undead Starter-Town
Progress:
68 Undead Villagers have been killed
39 Undead Adventurers have been killed
5 Undead Captains have been killed
11 minutes, 43 seconds until the Scenario Quest ends.
BATTLE
Alex Smith vs Guild Master Lionheart
…
Request for Additional Status purview has been processed
Request Granted
Awakened: Alex Smith
Race: Human
Bloodline: [Classified]
Class: N/A
Level: 14
Titles: [The First Spark]
Attributes: [Half-Dead Persistence]
HP: 68%
Mana: 100%
Stamina: 89%
Skills:
[Stealth] Lvl 17 (novice)
[Metalwork] Lvl 9 (novice)
[Meld] Lvl 6 (novice)
[Examine] Lvl 3 (novice)
Free Skill Slots: 9
Stats:
Vitality - 3
Strength - 12
Dexterity - 8Fortitude - 7
Perception - 6
Arcane - 5
WARNING: THIS IS A SYSTEM-HOSTED BATTLE. UNSANCTIONED BETS AND INTERFERENCE WILL NOT BE TOLERATED.
Please Enjoy.
***
As soon as the fight began a familiar notification appeared in Alex’s interface.
The Constellations have taken interest in your fight.
He swept it out of vision as Lionheart charged at him, barrelling through chairs and tables. Splinters flew from his path like a wooden blizzard, but he still had time to charge his blade.
[Pier—
Alex canceled the Skill at the last second. He’d shown this one already and the undead was caught off foot by the timed switch up. He’d already been dodging left, but then made a sudden shift in direction—smacking into the wall with his right shoulder.
Alex swung up at his left side.
Clang!
The boss’s bulky steel longsword was five feet and unmaneuverable in the corridor between the wall and the next table over. But he’d switched it to his left hand, wielding it as if it were a dagger as he intercepted Alex’s shimshar. Even Alex’s newfound strength paled next to the once-hero boss’s.
But he was well used to being the weaker one in such an exchange.
As the boss pressed down with more strength he slid his Oslumnen blade up along the Boss’s towards the handle. Sparks flew along his blade’s path and he felt tempted to learn [Glancing Blow] if only he could spare the skill slots. He arced the point of his shamshir blade towards the shadowy center of the boss’s chest—towards its Core.
An elbow whiffed past where Alex’s head had been and he retreated.
He quickly yanked his blade free, the bottom three rungs of the boss’s rib cage falling away from its right side as he did so. Lionheart used Alex’s retreat to recover, shifting his sword back to a proper two-handed grip as he trailed after in pursuit.
[Feather Foot]
Alex had relearned the skill when he’d faced the adventurers guarding the boss doors. Facing off so many foes without any type of movement skill was plain suicide afterall, and that went double for facing a boss.
The skill activated and suddenly Alex’s feet felt as if they could walk across air for how light they were. He ducked effortlessly to the right as the greatsword whipped past his shoulder.
Devastation followed the blow. Chairs shattered, gashes were carved into floor planks. And even with all that force behind that attack, the boss left no openings for counter attack after the first surprise Alex had given him. That fact spoke not just of its sheer power… but of its technique. And that technique spoke of experience.
Shit.
Alex backed away from his next blow, caution in his spacing.
He hadn’t expected this fight to be easy or anything, but you couldn’t always tell how difficult a fight would be just from knowing an enemy’s level. These were living things after all, or… most of them.
If this guy’s as tough as I think–
Two more vehement lashes assaulted his ears as they soared inches away. They showered him with splinters where wood exploded and Alex danced away, weaving behind tables as he dodged. He found himself on the defense for a long stretch of time as the Guild Master wrecked his own pub in his madness. He concentrated on every minor movement the boss made and reacted immediately to preserve his life. He hardly had much opportunity to strike back.
And by the time he’d found his back against the far his breath had started to come uneven.
Essence has been integrated with the Dexterity Stat!
+2 Dexterity
Essence has been integrated with the Perception Stat!
+2 Perception
Splinters were embedded in Alex’s skin, and his health ticked down a point as he continued bleeding from his cuts and gashes. Although he’d wrapped them with bed-sheets, the damage to his sword had seen him unable to heal himself completely and blood still seeped out in small amounts as he moved. He didn’ let slip any sign of relief as he felt the labor of his struggles bear fruit.
He scanned his surroundings and readied an escape plan just in case things went sour. Not that he intended on escaping.
Across the pub, the undead straightened. Instead of continuing his pursuit, he started laughing madly to himself and as he turned towards Alex the look in his hollow eyes chilled him. There wasn’t anger there anymore. Replacing it was a look he recognized, one he’d greeted himself with every day these past many years.
Tiredness.
“Ha! Haha… hah…” the undead covered those eye holes with bony fingers as he barked, “Ahh… that’s relieving. So relieving! Lugrin, my Captain, you see he’d always said he wanted to die in battle against a worthy foe! Well—die as in…”
“I know,” Alex said. As in before.
“And well, I really do apologize. I saw that weapon of yours and thought you were one of those. Really put me into a rage, that did.”
Alex nodded. He knew the type all too well.
A Constellation’s plaything.
The System didn’t allow for any patronage or sponsorships this early, but they always had their ways. Little gifts hidden here or there. Whispers of knowledge or sponsorships that were established before the integration even began.
“But it seems my friend Lugrin got his wish afterall! Good for him, eh?”
Lionheart laughed but it no longer sounded so jovial.
“Yeah, good for him.”
And how pitiful for you.
The creature before him probably couldn’t even put a name to the feeling it felt. Sadness. Loneliness, maybe.
But that was neither here nor there. If the boss was going to give Alex time for a breather, then…
“Don’t even think about it.” Lionheart said.
He pointed his blade towards Alex, who had only just summoned another mana potion from his inventory. Alex finished his calculations at the same time as Lionheart said and arrived at the same answer he had. The boss could close the distance faster than it’d take him to both drink the potion and react.
Dammit. This is why I hate humanoid mobs.
“Ah, it’s always like this,” Lionheart complained, “Sometimes you just want to talk to a person before you kill them. Get to know them before you bleed their life from them, yaknow? Why can’t the living ever interact in good faith, dammit.”
Alex felt a genuine puzzlement in the Boss’s words and he had to suppress a pang of pity for the terrifying thing. A sorrow that wasn’t completely his welled up in his chest and though Alex’s heart still hammered, he found his anger slowly fading.
“I suppose I must apologize,” Alex said.
This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.
“Finally! Someone who gets it! I’m here, you’re here, what’s the need for those blue things anyways? Let’s do this fair and honorable, yeah?”
Alex wasn’t apologizing for that, but he didn’t bother to correct the man’s misconception.
He’d forgotten, in the years since he’d last faced them. Undead were many things; creepy, deadly, tediously hard to kill, massive irredeemable assholes—but they also couldn’t be faulted for their nature. They’d had things taken from them, things that they couldn’t even know were missing. Things no proper human would give away.
And perhaps another person might just wave that all away, but Alex understood. Afterall, he too had once been broken. He knew what it felt like to feel less than whole, to feel like something at the core of his being had been taken from him. And to not know exactly what it was—a torturous existence to say the least.
“It seems I’ve been hypocritical,” Alex finally said. He gave a long sigh. “I don’t have a grudge against you now, but I’ll be avenging that young man over there if you don’t mind kindly dying for me.”
The boss had been practice-swinging with his sword arm, peering curiously at his missing ribs. He stopped at that. And whatever trace amount of vulnerability Alex thought he’d seen left his expression vanished as he laughed some more. It was a deep thing, infectious and booming. The kind of laugh that made following a man into hell just a little easier.
That of a natural-born leader.
“Ha!” Lionheart barked, “I’d have it no other way! Guess this one will be for my fallen comrades then. But… not like this. No, this won’t do at all. These things have a proper decorum don’t they? Let's see… how did it go…”
He scratched his skull, then stopped—seemingly remembering something. The atmosphere of the room shifted. Lights flickered slightly overhead and the undead boss straightened with unreal posture.
His left foot snapped to attention next to his right, the flat of his sword was held straight in front of him. What hair he had left began to flow and levitate from his cracked skull. And though the strands were dry and dull, Alex imagined there what must have once been a luscious mane of red.
“My name is Lucius,” the boss announced, “Second son and heir to the Lionheart Barony. Once, I was an Adventurer of Valstani, known as its Righteous Blade. In retirement I became the Guild Master of the Misting Valleys, known then as Banisher of Darkness and the Valley’s Protector. I am still the Guild Master here, but as you can see we’re in need of a renovation”
He gestured about the room with an offbeat sense of humor as the town’s rampant fire finally touched the building’s front entrance.
There was an energy to the Boss that began to thicken now. A scent of death and tarnished honor. And more than that, an eagerness– to fight, to kill, to spill blood across the land with the moon and stars as a witness– that energy filled the hall as the fire began to spread.
“I tell you this,” Lionheart continued, “Not so you remember me. But so you know your death will be honored by my blade. This is your end, human.”
His stance shifted as he turned the sword’s sharp end towards Alex, and there stood a shadow of greatness. Of the General he’d described.
And in that moment, Alex couldn’t buy that this was a mere level 17 Boss. Perhaps now, but he couldn’t always have been.
It was curious, now that Alex thought of it. He’d always assumed that the enemies in Nightmare had been tailored to match them, but now that he knew the basics of how Necromancy functioned that was seeming dubious.
These weren’t some characters in a game but organic material. No, living things in a twisted sense. The System was known to recycle assets, but it wasn’t as if it had a limited supply of souls to choose from. So why did the boss before him feel so at odds with his level of power?
Alex had never had the time or insight to wonder about these things in his last life, but now the question bugged him.
You still don’t, he reminded himself.
All this talk about Constellations had reminded Alex that they were watching, and even if they couldn’t hear what he was saying, it would be wise to move things along.
He could feel the warmth of the fire approaching him. His hairs bristled his skin from the pressure the boss gave off and he lost yet another Health Point from blood loss. His dueling skills were still rusty given how long he’d marketed himself in a supportive role. But despite it all, he felt his lips crack in a small unwitting smile.
“Good,” he said, “Your life will make for an excellent reforging.”
He held his shamshir at the ready and felt her shiver. There was a tension to her, a desire in line with his own. A scent of mourning yes, but beyond that she yearned for finality, and felt a small pleasure in the partaking of it.
Alex tried to cloak stealth over himself.
Warning: You cannot cast stealth in the presence of enemies—
Liar.
Alex felt for his stats; ten Dexterity, eight Perception
I meet the requirements, that’s the important part. The rest… it’s close enough.
Alex didn’t have a generational talent like Jun did. His senses couldn’t discern or navigate the pathways of Skill patterns the way prodigies could, working backwards to discover more skills. But what he did have was experience.
Stealth was his very first skill in his last life as well, and he’d used it relentlessly, wearing it for hours on end, like a snug blanket during nights where dangers prowled. He may not know those patterns for what they were but he knew what the Skill felt like.
He felt for that freshly bound Essence now, and rather than twist it into a new pattern he found the one that already existed within him and added it there. The pattern of [Stealth] vibrated. And for a second, it seemed as if it would expand to explore deeper pathways. But like a rubber band that had been stretched too far, it suddenly contracted on itself and stopped.
Alex couldn’t have that.
He strained against the instinct to let the Pattern to settle, to let his Essence simply reinforce its shape.
[Stealth]’s fabric may not be strong enough, but he knew its pathways like the back of his hand. And in lack of a strong enough material, he instead gave the pattern a stronger, more efficient weave. He stretched the skills pattern to its utmost limit, soldering new pathways into his being, ensuring that he never went so far as to snap that rubber band and break it.
And by the time he stopped, the skill’s pattern had settled into something entirely new.
Stealth has leveled up!
Stealth has leveled up!
Stealth has leveled up!
Stealth is now level 20!
[Stealth] has been upgraded to Apprentice Rank.
6 Skill Slots have been filled.
[Stealth - Level 20 (Apprentice)]
The skill can now be cast and maintained under the attention of enemies.
A dark, hazy, and formless shroud covered Alex now and the difference was immediately noticeable. If before he’d been entering a shroud of imperceivable darkness, it was now as if he were wearing it like a cloak. It didn’t hide him in entirety of course, not under Lionheart’s direct scrutiny, but now he blurred and blended in with the shadows that lied in plain sight, making it harder to discern his form
“Thank you for waiting,” Alex said.
He was fortunate that the boss did, though he hadn't counted on it.
Lionheart expressed his thanks by charging towards him. He barreled through the remaining tables with ease now and Alex leveled his sword for [Pierce], intending to break out of the corner he’d found himself in with one swift motion.
He’d lost count of how many times he’d used the skill now and found himself cringing at the amount of mana his sword took. He couldn’t deny that this usage would need the extra umph, but he couldn’t rely on it as a crutch anymore after this.
[Mana: 41%]
He lunged forward, his sword singing as he followed the strike’s momentum through, carving a small chunk from Lionheart’s pelvis.
He was in the open now, but he turned back only to find a large hulking blade soared towards him, a venomous roar behind it.
Shit!
[Feather foot]
Alex increased the flow of his mana through the skill, nearly stumbling over himself as he dodged.
Lionheart’s blade whiffed his head, severing a lock of his hair.
No, that’s not all!
The hairs the Boss’s blade had touched slowly started turning gray and the color began to spread on his head. Recognizing the symptoms, he quickly leaped behind an upturned table and cut the remnant of that lock of hair from his head.
A split second later the blade carved through it and rolled out and under the blow, scrambling for more cover. He rolled behind another table, then against his better judgment he attempted an ambush from out of view. His mana welled up in his blade as he felt the approach of danger.
[Pierce]
Wood from the table splintered from the path of his sword and Lionheart reeled for a second. Then he raised his blade to take the skill on its flat.
His giant blade cracked a little at its base but held form. But his Undeath’s Bane didn’t escape the conflict unscathed either.
Alex cursed. That was an arming sword strike, not a shamshir strike!
He followed up with a swift, agile twist, closing in on the man. He swung his sword upward, aiming to sever the Boss’s left arm, but Lionheart sidestepped his attack and swung his greatsword downward from Alex’s left.
Alex was prepared, however, and took the strike on the blunt sword's spine, dangerously close to its guard. The Shamshir’s strong curve allowed for him to guide the blade’s path downard where it wedged into the floorboards with minimal damage. That was why he’d forged her in the shape he had, and he cursed himself for hardly utilizing that fact. This whole night he’d been treating her as if she were his old arming sword and he was only now starting to adjust the way he fought.
The instant the sword crashed, Alex had half a mind to slice a few more ribs from the undead’s other side, but quickly decided against it. The advantage wouldn’t be noteworthy and the boss had already shown himself to be adept and hand to hand combat.
So sure enough, by the time the fist had been swung Alex had already evacuated and was back to scrambling for cover and planning his next ambush.
He was literally scrambling, curse his sorry fate. He nearly tripped over himself again as he dodged another strike.
Shit! I should’ve gotten more used to this body before attempting this combination!
The reason the upgraded Stealth ability required a skill weave into the Perception stat was simple. When your form became harder to discern, it also made it harder to discern where your own damn feet were! Add into that some scuffed footwork with feather foot and it was like he was trying to track a shadow in a field of shifting lights!
Not to mention, he had to watch Lionheart for—
SMASH!
Body-cues on where–
KABOOM!
His next damn attacks wer–
WARNING
You have been inflicted with the Sepsis debuff. So long as you have open wounds, HP will drain 5% every thirty seconds for 2 minute—
WARNING
Your Lifeforce is wounded. Sepsis cannot be combated with Vitality. So long as you have open wounds, HP will drain 10% every thirty seconds until death.
Alex touched his cheek, cursing, but it came out mumbly.
A small thin line of blood trailed along his bone where the sword had barely grazed him and that side of his face was already starting to numb as his veins started turning gray underneath, spreading like cracks on a mirror. Soon his left eye would cease to function, and eventually, the whole left side of his body would too.
“What’s wrong,” Lionheart teased, “Cat got your tongue?”
“Tha wazen vewy nobvle ov you.”
“Yeeeah,” he cracked his neck, “I don’t know where I was going with that crap anyways.”
Alex said nothing to that.
He was out of time, and not because of sepsis, but because of his Mana. Between the constant drain of both [Feather Foot] and his upgraded [Stealth] skills an extended fight was quickly becoming unsustainable.
Not that Alex could write off Sepsis’s effects of course. He grimaced as its first tick began.
[HP: 54%]
His sword had been damaged further during this fight and Soul link had been even further damaged. It would only take two more ticks of Sepsis before his health went below 34%, his personal threshold for when he was no longer in fight shape.
From there he would be unable to stop the bleeding effects without a healer or health potion—the second of which he had, but it would be a damn shame to waste a High grade potion just to gain back a couple dozen health points.
Guess I better end this now then.
[Mana: 24%]
Lionheart made a sudden jerking motion and Alex instantly leapt into movement.
There was only one way he could see himself ending this fight quickly and it involved learning a new skill. But the skill in question would require 20% of his mana at the moment, hence why the mana drain concerned him.
Both Feather foot and Stealth were passive skills and it was too dangerous not to have both of them active during this fight. The combined drain totalled up to about 3% every twenty seconds, and running below 20% would destroy his chances in this fight, killing him either way.
He hadn’t been running away for nothing of course. Between the mental tax of using both the skills and the tax of reading the movements of a veteran swordsman, Alex’s mental capacity was overclocked. Or at least it had been.
Now, he was starting to get used to it.
Alex leapt behind the Info-desk counter.
Lionheart sent a horizontal slash through the info-desk creating an absolute blizzard of broken wood and appliances. It created the perfect stop of miniature shadows, and for once, Alex had the chance to activate stealth while fully out of sight of the monster.
He took full advantage of it, trailing the large chunk of debris that was the desk surface and it bought him a precious second as the Guildmaster’s head swerved to find him.
But he’d been steadily growing more capable of the Stealth-Feather Foot skill combo with each second that passed and by the time that gigantic sword trailed his path he was already where he needed to be.
The Guildmaster’s sword art was impeccable. On par or perhaps even greater than Alex's own. Yet, as Alex saw more of it he’d noticed a weakness to it.
Cutting off a few rungs of an undead’s ribs didn’t hinder it the way it would a human, but with such a large sword the body’s structural balance was still important. Alex had been expecting the boss to correct it after the first few swings, and he had. He’d overcorrected it. And then adjusted down from there. This told Alex two things:
One, that if he’d overcorrected it once, he’d be liable to do it again if he was under more pressure. And secondly… that this most definitely wasn’t a Level 17 boss he was dealing with, not truly. It’d only been a hunch before, but now he was certain.
He was facing an opponent more skilled than that. Much much more. And he was unused to fighting in a body so weak. It was… a bad match for his sword style.
I would’ve wished to fight you at your best, Alex thought.
He added an addendum to that.
And me at mine.
Sepsis ticked away another inch of his health and he brought his sword up to parry the undead’s giant swing, glancing it off at an angle. It had too much force behind it and his death blade started to crack, but he had faith in her structural integrity.
Osmium, for all it allowed, was still a soft metal and Lionheart’s own blade was properly crafted steel unlike all the other’s weapons. He’d avoided taking direct clashes with it most of the fight, but just this once.
Just this once, she’ll hold.
Those cracks deepened along her spine from stress. His left-side vision blinked out. His face slackened even as his well-placed footwork carried him out of the way from a knee blow and inside his the large man’s space. Wisps of shadow followed him and sparks flew where his blade followed the other down to the hilt, severing a loose thumb.
All these things happened at once as Lionheart’s momentum threw the blade slicing over where Alex now crouched. The fire from the town had spread around the pub and now it was starting to smoke.
He eyed the undead’s core as it started to swim from his blade’s path, away from any accessible gap between the ribs. It ducked behind the sternum.
Alex’s blade may be an undead’s kryptonite, but the thickness of bones would still slow him down too much. It would only be a fraction of a second, but—
[Mana: 21%]
He followed through with his swing regardless, pulling on a tide of mana. But not for Pierce. No, Alex instead called for a different skill. One he had learned in his past life.
His mana practically burned his body from the inside as all of it joined the storm, following those tethered pathways of essence—and he reached for a skill he knew—the only one he could count on, funneling all his mana into it.
[Sever]
He sliced the undead in two.
The only thing he hadn’t expected was the shrill scream from his blade as he did so.
Throughout his years, Alex always liked to think he was more in tune with his blades than the average swordsman. That he was as much a vessel for them as they were to him.
This was something different. Something he’d never experienced. And as the shrill, metallic scream reached a fever pitch—as it reverberated in his bones—he thought he could see it. The place this had once been.
Music chiming a joyous Celtic rhythm, barmaids scampering to and thro, everyone had genuine expressions on their faces as they gambled away that day’s earnings—it was the kind of place Alex himself might frequent. And in the middle of it all was Lionheart—younger than he must’ve been when he died—grinning ear to ear with a satisfied look in his eyes.
It wasn’t just your guild, it was your home…
Then just as quickly as it appeared it was gone. The pub was burning up in flames. Lionheart was nothing but ash and a small pile of bones next to the pile of items and gear he’d donned.
Guildmaster Lionheart [Lvl 17] has been slain!
+100 Points!
+5,000 Essence!
Quest: [Lionheart’s Madness] Complete!
Evil has been vanquished! Guild Master Lionheart’s maddened ritual of sacrifice has been ruined and those afflicted with his deathly mark have reawoken! The High Council awards your sense of Justice!
5,000 Essence Crystals have been awarded!
Alex hardly took note as the notifications blipped by or the essence settled into his soul. He just watched with his blank look on his face where the boss’s core was sliced in two—lifeless.
No…
He knew he wasn’t just imagining it now—that mischievous glint his blade had, but it no longer has that sharp edge to it, nor that underlying sense of sadness. She was… satisfied, oddly peaceful. As if she’d just had the most filling meal of her short life. And the Boss’s core that should’ve been there was dull and drained of all its aura.
She can do no wrong, she can do no wrong, she can do no wrong, she…
Alex repeated it like a mantra as he restrained himself from continuing what Lionheart had started and snapping her in two. It was only when he began to lose that battle that he realized his sepsis debuff was still ticking down.
He calmed himself.
He let loose a long exhale as a support beam crashed down beside him. Then he pulled the iron sword and all the other loot into his inventory as he got up. All things considered, he was in no shape to be crying over spilt cores.
Quickly, he pulled his knife from his inventory and heated it by the collapsing pub’s fires. He had no way of stopping the Sepsis affliction at this moment so he’d really been hoping it would go away with the boss’s death, but he did at least have a way to stop its bleed effect. He grimaced as he lifted the hot knife to his skin, then froze.
He suddenly spotted another prize in the boss’s ashes, one he could’ve sworn hadn’t been there before.
[Holy Gauze (Unique)]
Gauze enchanted by a Divine being to stop prevent blood loss from wounds and seal Death-aspected afflictions.
Alex’s grimace deepened into a scowl as the item instantly wrapped itself around his wounds, but he equipped it regardless. He’d have been stupid not to, cauterization would’ve worked well enough, but the scarring would’ve been permanent.
Still, he didn’t take it lightly. A Constellation had broken the system’s rules to give him this, and he wasn’t mistaken on what it really was. Being a one of their playthings was bad enough, but if this was a sign of support it would’ve come with an overpowered skill and an enchanted weapon. Alas, it was just life-support, and it was no more a gift than it was bait on the hook.
The only thing worse than being a constellation's plaything was being one of their pawns.
It still didn’t make sense how they’d found him so quick. Looking back they’d joined the fight too early for it to have been his trait, and they shouldn’t have access to his information this early outside of boss fights.
But there was only so much enlightenment to be gained from wondering so Alex simply let out a sigh and stood up.
[Sepsis] has been sealed. Bleed effect has been halted.
He’d never willingly cut a gamble so close as he had this one. Not one he’d simply walked away from, at least. And yet, he was alive.
So alive. In those final moments, when sepsis had been slow-crawling towards his heart, he’d felt the most alive than he had in ages. His heart still echoed that riveting beat even now.
He walked slowly through the torn up and still burning pub, careful not to put too much stress on his injuries. He held his blade gingerly in both hands and his gaze lingered there for an instant.
What had occurred in that moment was a known phenomena—‘Lilith’s bond’. It had a more scientific name but that was the one he’d known it by. It was when a blade’s trait synergized with a skill beyond what could logically be expected. He’d only witnessed it a few times in his life, but when Lys had shattered from his [Energy Pierce]… he was certain that was what had occurred. But it was extremely rare and he’d never heard of it occurring with an uncommon blade.
On the other hand, [Sever] wasn’t anything too special at all. It was an uncommon skill—which was always a privilege to luck into for someone who’d been at his level at the time—but it was essentially just [Cut] with the added bonus of being more effective on undead. He couldn’t say why. He hadn’t ever needed to, and he was realizing that was true about a lot of things now. He had a lifetime’s worth of trivia from the thing’s he’d experienced, but he never felt the need to ponder the question. And now that things weren’t adding up it was really starting to grate.
He looked at his blade. Examine.
[Undeaths Bane (Uncommon, F Grade)]
Status: Disrepair
He sighed as he made the wise decision to move his death blade to his inventory as well, lest she crumble in his hands. She’d started looking less like a blade and more like ice that was beginning to crack and split.
Soul Link has been damaged. HP cannot be restored.
Alex paused a second to look out the door of the tavern. One of the hinges was broken and he could see the roofs of the other buildings through the gap. There were still hundreds of undead villagers and a few Adventurers still out there, but with few capable leaders they weren’t a threat for the meantime.
They had all been human once. This was their world. Alex and all the others had been sent to eradicate them. These three facts had never been hidden from them, but fighting Lionheart Alex realized he’d had something backwards. He’d thought that when they’d been turned undead they’d been strengthened by the system. But no, they’d been weakened… to match them. And that was just confusing.
Most confounding of all, how the fuck had he returned to his younge—oh fuck it, who cares?
He. That’s who. But he couldn’t bother with that at the moment. The place was literally burning down around him, which would make for a pathetic end of things after such a lively battle. It was Socrates who’d phrased it best when it came down to it: The only true wisdom is knowing that you know nothing.
That could be his enlightenment for the day. Along with another classic, “Don’t look a gift horse in the mouth.”
“It’s done,” Alex said, “You’ve been avenged.”
He gave Jun the longest moment of silence he could risk to offer as he set the skill stone on the man’s corpse. It was a precious treasure, but Alex wouldn’t be hurting for those soon enough. And he’d meant it when he said it was an even split. This night was his rebirth, if there was ever a time to uphold senseless honor, now would spell for a good omen.
[Skill Stone]
Skill: Arise
But more than that, it was respect that drove his actions. Regardless of talent, the man had neither the instincts nor luck required to survive Nightmare, but he had something just as important. Something Lionheart lacked. Something Alex hadn’t even realized how sorely he was missing until recently. In all the world’s, there were harder, more magical, more potent ores than those you could find on earth, but there was nothing he found more reliable than steel. It didn’t bend. It didn’t break.
“If even this place couldn’t break you,” he said, “Then nothing can.”
Amen.
It was only when he’d turned his back that Alex felt the slightest pulse of essence.
He froze. Then he staggered back, stuck between maniacal laughter and a loathing, jealous sigh. He settled for a median of stunned silence as he uncorked his health potion and poured it between the man’s lips.
“Fucking talent…”
Never should it be taken as an indicator of survival… but never should it be taken for granted either.
Especially not something like this. The night may have taken that boss’s core from him, it seemed to have given him something better in return. And as it truly soaked in how much better, the maniacal laughter finally came.
Alex had been surprised when the man had survived that first night. But it was when he’d mastered cultivation of his essence into Vitality so quickly, that the doubt had come. Just the tiniest sliver of in Alex’s mind. But the odds were so astronomically low that he’d written it off.
Now he knew his hunch had been right.
Jun technically didn’t have any talent at all. What he had was one of the rarest, most priceless affinities known to man: an affinity with the Life Aspect. And though it was incredibly useful for healing, anyone who took that as a sign that they should just become a healer was a wasteful fool.
He sighed, the laughter dying down. The pub burned as hot as a furnace now, and he was well aware that each second he spent here was another gamble. But that was the thing about gambling, wasn’t it? You roll the dice once, you can be damned sure you’ll roll it again. And someday… someday that karma comes back with a vengeance so bitter that you walk away for good. You vow never again.
That day wouldn’t be today. That day would be never. But especially not today if the way Jun tossed and turned was any indicator.
The first thing this fool will want to do when he wakes is go save those ex-sacrifices.
That was fine. He wouldn’t stop him. He had reason to believe it wasn’t as futile an effort as it originally would’ve been, and if good steel didn’t survive the tempering stage then that was simply a fact of the process. Alex wouldn’t join him, a good gambler knew when to step away.
And if Jun survived this, if he returned, then that’s how he knew he was an ore worth shaping.
It would take some convincing of course. A lot actually. And even if Jun forgave him, he wouldn’t at all be happy to hear what Alex had in store for him. But at its core, the reason the Life Aspect was so priceless was so simple it had been one of the first things Alex had learned. Essence lies at the intersection of life and power—and just as there could be no life without Essence, there could be no power without life either. There was one class, above all others, Alex could think of that could make the most of the affinity.
A Necromancer.
…Yeah, Jun wasn’t going to like it one bit. But that was fine for now. No amount of pragmatism could smother the joy a craftsman felt when laying eyes on such priceless material. Nor could it quench the fire that bellowed in his heart. It had truly been a night of enlightenments for Alex, but if there was one it had brought above all others, it was this:
Humans, too, could be forged.
SCENARIO TWO HAS ENDED.
Please wait as rewards are given out.