Ch068-When The Lion’s Hungry…

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Ch068-When The Lion’s Hungry…

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“So, what exactly did Igri do? The memories you gave me aren’t clear on that,” Spring asked, as the shades ahead got into position and readied their sledgehammers.

“He was the first necromancer. Not philosophically, but in the practical sense. Priest of a long-forgotten deity, he specialized in some sort of extremely specific healing magic. Necromancy existed before him, some warlocks and sorcerers could raise a dead man back to life to an extent, but Igri turned what was a candle into a blazing and blinding bonfire. He was the first to ever cast a sixth-tier necromancy spell. Necromancy is the only magic that came from a mortal man, every other comes from an elemental, a fae, a demon, or a god. Pyromancers pay their respects to their ‘Red Phoenix,’ Hydromancers have their ‘Sea Serpent,’ and Necromancy has Igri. He might not have ‘created’ necromancy if you want to be technical about it, but he’s the person most necromancers tend to pray to for good luck or inspiration,” Sylver explained as he continued to walk down the dark tunnel.

The shades hit the walls’ in perfect sync, and hit the proto zombies hiding inside directly on the forehead before they could even react.

[??? (???) Defeated!]

[??? (???) Defeated!]

[??? (???) Defeated!]
[Due to defeating an enemy 10 levels above you, additional experience will be awarded!]

[Necromancer] has reached level 55!
+5AP

[??? (???) Defeated!]

…

“At some point, he was found out by his temple and had to run away. He changed his name and studied under swamp witches, changed his name again, studied under a demon summoner, changed his name about 11 more times, maybe more, and finally returned as Igri the immortal. He allegedly beat the head priest of his temple into submission with his bare hands, before leaving to settle down far away in the northern tundra,” Sylver explained, as the shades gently picked up the fallen over proto zombies and placed them back into their holes, as best as they could.

“And he stayed there, for an estimated 300 years. Just wandering around the frozen wasteland, learning, tinkering, experimenting, trading, fighting, and one by one building what was later called “Igri’s Lost Legion”. According to legend he found a city made entirely out of gold there and had all the corpses he could want to experiment on,” Sylver continued, as the corridor split into two, and Sylver turned left, as the demon had drawn on the map.

“Now here’s where things get vague. He had students. No one knows how many exactly but the number is estimated to be in the 20s. And they traveled to every corner of the world, according to legend, building crypts such as these, for the rich and powerful, and in return getting live subjects to experiment and refine their craft on. Out of all those students, Faust the Flesh Fiend and Berna the Bone Baroness were the most prominent,” Sylver said, stepping over the tripwire and turning into smoke for a few seconds to avoid the pressure plates scattered all over the floor.

“You lot really love alliteration, don’t you?” Spring asked, as Sylver materialized and continued to walk.

“It’s more of a mage thing, than a necromancer thing. You need to have a certain way of thinking to use magic, or at least you did in my time. And while it is varied among the various magics out there, pattern recognition is an incredibly important and valuable skill no matter what kind of framework you’re working with. And mages, or at least all the ones I knew, love when things have a flow to them. Fen the Fencer, Reg the Rogue, Spring the shade. What was I saying?” Sylver asked, looking around as the corridor started to slowly expand and become taller and wider.

“Faust and Berna were the most prominent of Igri’s students,” Spring answered, sending shades ahead to find the next trap.

“…”

“You forgot what you were going to say.”

“Completely. But it’s for the better, it’s pointless trying to describe Igri and everything he and his students had done without literal books of context. Not to mention the only fact about him that isn’t heavily debated is that he existed. Everything else is legend and myth. And you’re still not even halfway done processing all the information I’ve given you when I made you. Scraps of memories aren’t going to do you any good. To cut a long story short, Igri’s research went beyond anything anyone could ever imagine. He split it up amongst his students, but took a large portion with him when the anti Igri alliance finally killed him,” Sylver said, as he stopped walking and stared at the empty corridor in front of him.

“They called themselves the ‘anti-Igri alliance’?” Spring asked.

“It’s just what they ended up being called. Igri took every single one of them with him. Not a single member of whichever temples went against him survived. And when his students found out, they took it several steps further, and ended up killing an estimated 600 thousand people as revenge,” Sylver mumbled as he reached out with his hand and felt the air.

“600 thousand? Why?” Spring asked, disappearing into Sylver’s shadow and spreading the other shades out to get ready.

“Husbands, wives, children, relatives, towns, cities, clans, they made sure Igri’s death was something no one ever forgot. Allegedly one of his students hated the thought of something like this ever happening again, and joined together with several other gifted individuals and formed what later became known as the Ibis. So that no single brilliant individual ever had to worry about getting killed for trying to advance magic, and so that the world didn’t have another massacre like that,” Sylver explained, as he took a very small step forward and kept squeezing the air with his hand.

“You could say that if it weren’t for Igri, the Ibis wouldn’t exist. Although it was all so long ago, I wouldn’t be surprised if one of the archmages just added that in at some point, to appease the arch necromancer at the time or something. But it does make sense timing-wise, even if I’ve never found any other evidence for it,” Sylver continued, barely hearing his voice as he focused on his hand and the yellow sparks falling from the tips of his fingers.

What is this?

Sylver took another step forward and pressed his ear against the invisible divide. The air started to smell like ozone, and there was a faint ticking noise coming from the inside.

Even after ten minutes of trying, Sylver couldn’t for the life of him figure out what this was.

It just felt odd.

And fuzzy.

But neither dangerous nor malicious.

Sylver flicked his hand and a dagger appeared in it. He tossed the dagger ahead and waited.

When nothing happened, he summoned a swordsman shade and had it walk through the barrier that wasn’t a barrier.

The swordsman hit the ground with his sword, he jumped around, did a backflip, and walked to the other side and back. Sylver even had four more appear with him and move around as much as possible in case there were any weight-specific pressure plates.

He consulted the map the demon had drawn him, but it just said to go in a straight line through here.

Stepping blindly into magic he couldn’t understand wasn’t something Sylver generally did. He would go as far as to say it was something he avoided and suggested everyone avoid. It was a stupid thing to do. But Sylver wasn’t in a position to sit around and wait, he had elves behind him, and a woman in white to meet.

Sylver’s robe expanded and stretched until it covered his body completely. He didn’t even check which mask Spring handed him and filled it with breathable air before locking it on. Sylver stood as a faintly moving mass of darkness, only his dark red mask giving any indication that he wasn’t just a trick of the eyes.

Sylver reached forward with his hand and now felt the division on his elbow. He waved his hand around and very slowly eased his whole body through the division. He had his left leg sticking out of it for a moment, before pulling it through as well.

Nothing happened.

Sylver stood perfectly still for several moments, waiting for something to happen.

But nothing happened.

He picked up the dagger off the ground and made it float in his hands for a few seconds to check if maybe it was impeding his magic in some way.

It wasn’t.

In his other hand, Sylver made a small ball of blue fire and found no issues there either.

“This could be some sort of analysis spell I haven’t seen before, but I can’t even tell where it's coming from. It’s doing something but I have no idea what-” Sylver said before his head snapped up to look at the sudden source of the sound of something clinking.

It wasn’t there before, but there was now a creature wearing a full plate of armor standing in the middle of the corridor. Shaking.

[Restricted]

As soon as Sylver tried to use appraisal on the thing, it started to move towards him. It grew in size as its limbs extended and made several popping sounds, knees, elbows, fingers, spine, and all the rest dislocating. The plate of armor that initially covered its entire body was now evenly spread out, the gauntlets appearing as disconnected rings on its long-curled fingers, the plate armor on its arms and legs covering only the knees and elbows, and its torso flattened and spread to the point that the breastplate was floating vaguely at its center.

Black blood leaked out of every exposed limb and expanded as if it were foam, solidifying into more plates of armor, covering its entire body in barely three seconds. It now looked like a giant man covered in pure black armor.

Sylver took a single step backward and hit the back of his head on the wall. He glanced behind himself to see a solid black wall, as smooth as glass and as dark as Sylver’s eyes.

Sylver’s attention returned to the creature in front of him and watched as a ridiculously long and thin sword appeared in its hand. It didn’t have a guard, and the metal appeared to bend from its own weight before the creature flicked its wrist and caused it to disappear.

Sylver’s mind reacted even when his eyes betrayed him, and he lunged to the side. He felt the wall vibrate against his back, as the edge of the blade scratched against it, showering Sylver in sparks of orange.

The blade in the creature’s hand reappeared again, this time laying completely limp and flat on the floor. It flicked its hand once again, and Sylver could see as the blade flowed like a whip and disappeared before his eyes, too fast for his human eyes to follow. Sylver’s robe kicked his feet from underneath him, and he fell to the floor. Once again, the tip of the sword scratched against the wall and sent another shower of orange spark all over Sylver.

The robe pushed Sylver back on his feet, as two more Sylver’s appeared on either side of him. All three raised their hands towards the creature and were completely ignored as the creature looked up and locked eyes with the wide-eyed Sylver crouching on the ceiling.

Sylver dodged out of the blade’s way again but felt it run across his back regardless of the fact. It split the skin and bounced off the back of the ribs, scoring the bones.

Health: 507/600
Stamina: 288/300
MP: 2447/2250

He sealed the torn open flesh shut and let the robe soak up the blood that had exploded out of it. Sylver dodged left again, and the dagger in his hand just barely managed to redirect the whip-like blade from hitting him in the back. Sylver’s hand went numb as the blade somehow twisted and sliced along the side of his wrist.

Sylver’s mind raced as the creature was somehow able to predict where his shades were and hit them before they could finish materializing. There was the faintest of delays between the shades being cut, and the blade looping around to get to Sylver.

Spring gave the signal and Sylver set off an explosion on his back and was sent flying towards the creature. It flicked its hand again, before it flicked it in a slightly different direction, and just barely managed to block the arrows shooting at its back.

Sylver landed directly on top of it and felt it tense up as its left long-fingered hand curled to grab him, and very nearly succeeded. A sheath fell out from Sylver’s cloak, as he drove the blessed silver dagger directly through the creature’s head. It exploded into a blinding cloud of black smoke, and Sylver fell to the ground on top of it.

[??? (???) Defeated!]
[Due to defeating an enemy ??? levels above you, additional experience will be awarded!]
[Due to defeating a ???, additional experience has been awarded!]
[Due to defeating a ??? solo, additional experience has been awarded!]

The plate armor clanked as it dispersed all over the floor and only a pile of flesh and bones remained. Blood vessels and strings of white nerves connected the disjointed limbs as if were a poorly made puppet. Sylver sheathed the headache-causing dagger and stood up from the pile of gore.

“Good work back there. You saw the pattern and sent out decoys to distract it, so the archers could materialize and give me an opening,” Sylver said, as he reached down towards the creature’s torso and pulled up a blood-covered silver guild tag.

“I was wondering where all the bodies were. Marshal, C rank adventurer, Bladesman class,” Sylver read out loud, as he pocketed the tag.

As Spring attempted to pick up the whip-like sword, he instead watched as it turned into rust and was destroyed before he could even lift it off the ground.

“This was made recently. Very recently, it’s not even a week old,” Sylver said as he brought the skull up to his nose and smelled it. There was a very faint smell of fried meat. And citrus.

Sylver sent a pulse of mana through the skull, and could only watch as it crumbled into nothing in his hands.

“There’s something weird going on. Not just the question marks and my appraisal being blocked, this magic doesn’t feel right,” Sylver said, as he brushed the sand like dust from his hands and looked down at the body that had dissolved in thin air and was now barely an outline on the floor.

Sylver turned around to go back but found that the pitch-black wall remained where it was.

Sylver turned into smoke and tried to go into the bricks and travel underneath the thing, but found that it was below the bricks too. It was above them, and on either side, it wasn’t a wall, it was a giant box, with Sylver trapped inside.

Sylver placed both hands on the wall and concentrated on it. His hands glowed bright yellow as he tried to force his way through it, but instead found himself out of breath as his body collided with the floor. He got up just in time to see his handprints being blurred away.

The wall had very gently warned Sylver not to do that, by sending him flying so hard only his robe’s natural reaction prevented him from getting his skull broken from the impact.

“Hypothetically if I had enough time, I could figure out a way to bypass this. I would only need a tiny hole to get out, but I don’t know how long it would take me. Having said that, I am fairly certain my next attempt would result in my death,” Sylver explained, as he turned away from the wall and looked down the dark corridor.

“So now we’re being forced to do what you initially wanted to do?” Spring asked, moving the shades around for Sylver to heal.

“More or less. We could stay here and wait for backup, which should arrive anywhere from a week to a month from now. But with those four elves standing guard, I think it’s fair to assume they’re also waiting for reinforcements. Plus, considering Igri’s students built this, there’s a way out at the end of the crypt. And quite honestly, I’m more excited than scared to see what else is in here,” Sylver said, as he stepped through the pile of ashes and continued to walk.

“I’m a little confused, why would they make a crypt with an exit on the other side? Why have a path to the end, and not just completely bury it or something?” Spring asked as he walked along with Sylver.

“It’s an ego thing. The people buried here wanted to prove to the living that they were stronger or richer than them, even after they’re long dead and forgotten. And from a magical structural point of view, having a labyrinth full of deadly traps is a lot better than just a deeply buried room with no entrance or exit. These are all based on the same principle as dungeon cores, and go hand in hand fairly well together. The rich bastard lying dead at the end of this gets to die feeling happy that he’s going to prove how ‘strong’ they were, even after death, and the people making these make digging through the walls impossible. The only downside is that there is, as you said, a path directly to the end,” Sylver explained, coming to an intersection and turning left, where there wasn’t a giant wall of blackness blocking his way.

“I see. Is it possible to find the exit and enter the crypt through that?”

“Most of the time, no. Aether did it once, but even he had to spend 6 months chipping away at the crypt. But since the crypt is here, I think it’s more likely there’s just a teleportation gate at the very bottom, instead of a normal exit,” Sylver said.

Spring nodded slightly and went back to scouting ahead.

*

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[??? (???) Defeated!]
[Due to defeating an enemy 10 levels above you, additional experience will be awarded!]

[??? (???) Defeated!]
[Due to defeating an enemy 10 levels above you, additional experience will be awarded!]

[??? (???) Defeated!]
[Due to defeating an enemy 20 levels above you, additional experience will be awarded!]

[??? (???) Defeated!]
[Due to defeating an enemy 20 levels above you, additional experience will be awarded!]

[Necromancer] has reached level 56!
+5AP

[??? (???) Defeated!]
[Due to defeating an enemy 20 levels above you, additional experience will be awarded!]

“Why aren’t they attacking?” Spring asked as Sylver continued to walk through the corridor. The shades around him worked in pairs, one killing the proto zombie hiding inside the walls, and the other catching it and pushing it back into the hole once it died. There was almost a beat because of how synchronized they all were.

“They’re undead, they neither see nor hear, all they have to go on is a rudimentary soul sense. As far as they’re concerned, I’m not here. And as you can see the half a second between the sledgehammer breaking open their wall, and the same sledgehammer smashing their skull open, isn’t enough time for them to react properly,” Sylver explained with a smile, as the shades moved onto the next batch and made the sound of hammers hitting stone jump around the long corridor in echoes.

…

[??? (???) Defeated!]
[Due to defeating an enemy 20 levels above you, additional experience will be awarded!]

[Necromancer] has reached level 57!
+5AP

…

“We could just leave them alone. But I did just get 3 levels without doing anything,” Sylver said, as he turned into smoke to avoid the pressure plates and reformed on the other side.

The map the demon had drawn said there would be a way down soon.

It irked Sylver that the demon appeared to know about the walls blocking his way, given that the demon’s map, and the only route Sylver could follow, were identical. The question ‘what if the demon knew about the walls, and there would be one right on top of the secret door?’ floated around Sylver’s head, before getting squashed by a lifetime worth of practice.

Don’t think about things you can’t control.

If you can’t do something, leave it, and focus on what you can. If there was a wall there, Sylver would deal with it then and there, there was nothing to be gained thinking about it right now.

…

[??? (???) Defeated!]
[Due to defeating an enemy 20 levels above you, additional experience will be awarded!]

[Necromancer] has reached level 58!
+5AP

[??? (???) Defeated!]
[Due to defeating an enemy 20 levels above you, additional experience will be awarded!]

…

I wonder what the level 60 perk for necromancer will be? Sylver thought, instantly ordering Spring to stop the shades from killing the next zombies.

I got a special effect for [Raise Zombie] because I killed the rat king. What if I’ll get better perks if I kill something similar in the crypt? Like that blade whip thing? Sylver thought, as he collected all the shades back into his shadow, but continued to walk ahead.

On the other hand, this is essentially free experience. But what if the system is penalizing me for not giving them any room to respond or fight? But then assassins would be worthless as a class, and yet I’ve met several already that were much higher leveled than me.

Wait… If I don’t choose a perk, I can still increase my level. Does the perk list lock-in when it says 1 perk is available, or is it more likely like skills and will accept any new achievements and unlock more perks? Since the level doesn’t stop increasing, probably not…

But on the other hand, 10 more attribute points now, are better than the potential of a good perk at 60. This might be a great place to test this. I’ll continue killing zombies, but hold off on choosing a new perk until I kill the next thing.

Sylver had walked a fair distance while he was lost in thought, and had to wait for a few minutes for the shades to go back and continue killing proto zombies.

…

[??? (???) Defeated!]
[Due to defeating an enemy 20 levels above you, additional experience will be awarded!]

[Necromancer] has reached level 59!
+5AP

[??? (???) Defeated!]
[Due to defeating an enemy 10 levels above you, additional experience will be awarded!]

[??? (???) Defeated!]
[Due to defeating an enemy 10 levels above you, additional experience will be awarded!]

…

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Sylver placed his hand against the strange barrier again and tried to send a pulse of mana through it. Just as before, it somehow both existed and he could feel it with his mana sense, but as far as any analytical spells he knew were concerned, there was nothing there. Just plain unenchanted empty air.

Sylver consulted his map again. After this, there was something going down to the next level of the crypt.

But first, he needed to enter into an area that would lock him inside and force him to fight against something.

Sylver swung his arms around and felt the half-healed wound on his back whine, but chose to ignore it and focused on stretching the rest of his body instead. It was, truth be told, merely a flesh wound, even if it didn’t hurt like one.

Sylver took a deep breath and checked that his robe was fine. He pre-emptively grabbed the blessed silver dagger but kept it sheathed. Even with all the lead surrounding the thing, it worried Sylver more than the 5 explosives he had received from Lola.

As Sylver checked that all the shades were healed and ready, he suddenly remembered something.

[Trait: Undead Domination]
-Enemy undead can be converted into allies.
*Difficulty increases exponentially as the level difference between caster and target increases.
*Undead the same level as the caster, or lower, have a very high chance of a conversion.
*Cost of dominating undead is ([Target Level] * 15) MP
*Undead below 10% of the caster's level, will convert automatically.

It only now occurs to me this is the first time I’m fighting an undead… When was the last time I converted anything? After I reached fifth tier, I already had enough shades with me that there was never any point.

A toothy, but slightly uncertain, smile spread across Sylver’s face as he cracked his knuckles and flexed his fingers.

Health: 567/600
Stamina: 300/300
MP: 2111/2250

“I’m going to try something. I haven’t done this in a very long while, so have these ready in case I’m wrong,” Sylver said, as he handed Spring two of his grenades.

Sylver removed his mask and pulled his robe back from his hands to have them out in the open and uncovered.

The last time I did this was from a distance, and to nearly 500 zombies at the same time. So hopefully I’m able to handle one with direct contact. Sylver thought as he closed his hands into fists.

Tendrils of bright yellow crept up through them and spread out, crisscrossing around the fingers and joints. Sylver bounced on the tips of his toes and sped his heart rate up to an eye-bulging 200 beats per minute.

Sylver walked backward for a few steps, and sprinted forward, through the strange barrier that wasn’t a barrier, and saw a man wearing light leather armor standing directly in front of him. The man’s white eyes locked in on Sylver, as his arms opened up as if to hug him, but instead started to pull away and rip his flesh apart, spraying him with blood, even as his torso also began to elongate.

Sylver channeled his mana directly into his hand, and set off several explosions under his feet and back, and rocketed upwards slightly.

The very same foamy black blood started to leak and expand out of the man, covering his arms, legs and torso, and closing up over his head like a hood.

Sylver reached the creature, and shoved his hand through the crust like darkness, grabbing hold of the creature’s skull. Sylver forced his mana out of his hand into the creature’s head and simultaneously used his robe to keep its hands away from him.

The creature’s head was covered in a pitch-black helmet, but from the way it was angled Sylver could tell it was staring directly at him.

Sylver felt something on the other side fighting back against him or at least attempting to understand what was happening, as Sylver’s mana pierced the skull and moved down the creature’s body.

Sylver had never attempted to do this on a creature so close to him in terms of strength and could feel it push back against him.

Just a bit more! Sylver thought with excitement, sending Spring the mental order and pressing harder into the creature’s skull. All around him several shades materialized from the shadows and promptly turned their heads very sharply and exploded into a puff of darkness.

Sylver pooled the extra mana in his other hand, made it flat, and shoved it through the helmet as if it were a dagger. His fingers melted the darkness around them as Sylver grabbed hold of the creature’s skull with his other hand, and he could feel whatever was on the other side struggling to match his magic’s speed and intensity.

The helmet pulled back to reveal a torn-up face, with a single eye glowing a bright yellow, and the other glowing a dull grey. Sylver smiled and saw the faintest trace of a smile form on the man’s face, as the grey eye exploded in a puff of black and the newly created hole began to glow bright yellow.

[??? (???) Converted!]

[??? (???) Defeated!]
[Due to defeating an enemy ??? levels above you, additional experience will be awarded!]
[Due to defeating a ???, additional experience has been awarded!]
[Due to defeating a ??? solo, additional experience has been awarded!]

[Necromancer] has reached level 60!
+5AP

[1 perk available for [Necromancer]]

[Necromancer] has reached level 61!
+5AP

[1 perk available for [Necromancer]]

[Necromancer] has reached level 62!
+5AP

[1 perk available for [Necromancer]]

Sylver removed his hands and dropped down to the floor. His fingers looked like the skin had been ripped off, with only charred black bone remaining. It was only bone up to the second knuckle, only trace amounts of dried-up ligaments remained and kept the scorched and smoking tips from falling off.

Sylver waved them around as the smoke receded, and finally covered them in darkness, tightening it around them to stop the pain and stop them from falling off.

Sylver looked up at the creature, who was still covered from head to toe in a coating of darkness-produced armor, but now had giant tendrils of yellow leaking from its head, down to its torso, arms, and legs.

In either hand, the creature held a long thin saber, curved to the point of absurdity, and slowly turning a gentle yellow. As expected, the same as with the one before, the dark wall that formed behind Sylver remained where it was, blocking any attempt to return.

“What do those do?” Sylver asked, gesturing with his finger towards one of the blades.

The creature wordlessly took a strange stance and threw the saber. It spun in the air, and to Sylver’s surprise curved and started to fly back. The creature didn’t so much as flinch as the saber harmlessly was caught by its hand, too fast for Sylver’s eyes to perceive it.

Sylver wanted to make the creature lay down so he could open it up and see where exactly the darkness-based armor came from but understood from the low warning whirr behind his head that this was a bad idea. Why the system suddenly gave a shit about how zombies and undead functioned was a mystery to Sylver, but he couldn’t do anything about it, so he let it go.

For now…

*

*

*

[??? (???) Defeated!]
[Due to defeating an enemy 10 levels above you, additional experience will be awarded!]

[Necromancer] has reached level 63!
+5AP

[1 perk available for [Necromancer]]

[??? (???) Defeated!]

…

The creature, that Sylver had informally named Sabo, continued to chop its way through the slow-moving proto zombies.

Relatively slow, because they could outrun Sylver at this point, and were now quick enough that Sylver wasn’t sure if he could dodge them point-blank range anymore. But to Sabo’s spectacular spinning sabers, they might as well have been standing still.

Sylver felt great about his decision to attempt a conversion, as Sabo would have been incredibly difficult to fight. Not only could he throw those things with so much speed that Sylver couldn’t even see them, but he also made them bounce off the walls, and off each other, making them not only invisible but nearly impossible to predict the trajectory they would take.

The fact that Sylver’s eyes plain and simple couldn’t keep up anymore, was what lead him to reconsider his old plan of getting his constitution to 100. He had 50 points at the moment and was considering putting 40 into dexterity, just so he could at the very least see things coming. Strength was a matter of pumping more mana in his muscles, but he was already far too close to his body’s limit.

Thankfully his robe was faster than he was and could move his around like a doll being puppeteered, so that was a lower priority.

But at the same time putting all 50 in intelligence was so enticing. 3000MP, 375 per minute, 6.25 per second.

But all completely pointless if he’s in an environment with no cover, like the entirety of this crypt seems to be. Even the bricks making up the floor, walls, and ceiling were no longer loose enough for Sylver’s smoke form to hide between them. So, his option was either to let a shade shield him, which they’re too weak for more than one hit, or try to predict what an enemy will do and move pre-emptively.

Which worked for now, but only because the gap in speed and perception hasn’t been too wide yet. Sylver couldn’t see the whip sword, but he could guess how it would move from experience. But with Sabo, he would have died if he threw those sabers and it didn’t instantly click in Sylver’s head how exactly they would fly through the air.

…

[Necromancer] has reached level 64!
+5AP

[1 perk available for [Necromancer]]

…

[Necromancer] has reached level 65!

[1 perk available for [Necromancer]]

…

By the time Sylver came to a final decision, he already had 60 points to distribute. It was nothing but endless proto zombies, that were somehow already out of their boxes and waiting for him. Sylver guessed that either whatever was on the other side of his fight with Sabo was aware of his trick and decided that trying to surprise him by keeping them inside the walls wasn’t worth it, or Sylver had simply triggered some sort of automated response.

But ready or not Sabo and the shades handled all of them quickly and efficiently, while Sylver hung back and healed up the odd shade or two.

He put all 60 into dexterity, on the logic that as long as he was fast enough to dodge all the attacks, it didn’t matter how low his HP was. Even if it went all the way up to 1200HP he was still one hit to the head away from death. Stamina was one thing he could hypothetically improve upon, but Sylver’s fights lasted seconds, not minutes or hours. He moved around using explosions, or by jumping or using his robe, there wasn’t all that much running involved.

As Sylver stared at his status and mentally moved the points into dexterity, he felt the world around him slow down. Not literally, everything was moving the same as before, but Sylver could now see Sabo’s sabers flying through the air. And it didn’t feel like his body was faster, but it did feel like some sort of invisible resistance had disappeared.

It was as if Sylver was always wading his way through the water, and just now stepped onto dry land. More than that, it wasn’t just not jarring in the slightest, it felt right. And most importantly, it felt like his body was finally obeying him completely. It no longer had that hundredth of a millisecond lag between him deciding to move his arm and his body following his decision.

Sylver had assumed it was just the result of his body still not being fully attuned to its new host, but apparently not. His mind was just faster than his body, but not anymore. If anything, it felt like Sylver was able to think faster than before.

Sylver experimentally gestured with his hand and produced a bright blue ball of fire between his fingers. Was he faster? Did his casting time somehow decrease from this? It was hard to tell, but Sylver made a mental note to experiment with this the next time he had 10 or more points to put into dexterity. If he could increase the speed at which he cast with his soul, he could… do a great deal of things he hadn’t even considered before.

And while it was just as subtle, Sylver felt like his joints had relaxed. He swung his arms around and was all but certain that he could move them further back than before. Even his fingers felt like they could bend a little more freely than before.

Another thing to experiment with at a later date.

Although at the pace Sylver was currently going, he could be leaving this crypt with 100 levels in necromancer.

Sylver smiled to himself and readied his still skinless fingers, as the strange barrier that wasn’t a barrier appeared in front of him once again. He had decided that he would pick his level 60 necromancer perk when he got to level 69, so he could compare if killing one of these boss-like creatures added anything new.

Or converting in this case. If he had Sabo and the shades weaken the next one and hold it down, Sylver could grind into submission, no matter how powerful it was.

*

*

*

Total Level: 69
[Koschei-4]
[Necromancer-65]

CON: 60
DEX: 70
STR: 1
INT: 150
WIS: 100
AP: 0

Health: 588/600
Stamina: 291/300
MP: 2220/2250

Health Regen: 7.00/M
Stamina Regen: 4.5/M
MP Regen: 281.25/M