Chapter 154 - A Familiar Face
As he ventured deeper into the mountain range, Arthur crossed from the green fertile land to the ash-filled dead soil. The trees were darker, a type Arthur had never seen before. As he made his way through the forest and into the valleys of the dead, he was greeted with the same bony monsters.
"Let's test how much I have grown." Arthur took out his dagger before deciding he would use a different weapon. From the items he got from the prince, he took out a trident that was engraved in navy blue depictions.
There was a human-spider skeleton like the one he fought the other day a distance away. Arthur used his amplification runes and inscribed the fire rune on the trident before aiming it at the skeleton.
His mana pooled into his hand before heading toward the trident, enveloping it like a capsule. He was never able to use his mana this efficiently before he got his Art. The fire rune shone brightly as ancient flames were birthed on top of the three spearheads of the trident.
Contracting his muscles, Arthur used his 210 amounts of strength to throw the trident toward the skeleton. His base stat was 150, another 40 came from the armor he wore, and the last 20 came from his amplification rune.
He stomped on the ground so hard that it gave in and he twisted his body as he launched the trident. As it left his hand, Arthur heard the sound of the air tearing apart as a whistling sound was produced. He felt the weight leave his grasp as the flaming weapon tore through the valley and found its mark.
With how big the human-spider was, Arthur couldn't miss his mark. The trident, ablaze and destructive, found its mark in the monster's lower skeleton and broke through it.
With his control over the rune, Arthur poured mana into it and a giant explosion engulfed the spider. The bones turned charcoal before breaking apart and falling to pieces.
Without needing to take out the core personally, the monster's body fell apart and the core detached itself. The undead was dead. Arthur walked over and pulled his weapon from its corpse.
"This amount of mana…" Arthur mumbled in awe. Before he broke through, he could barely win against this monster. Now, with his boost in strength and mana, it became a piece of cake.
[You have leveled up.]
The message reminded Arthur of his unused points. Right now, he had 9 stats points and 16 legacy points. Even though his main source of stats was absorbing cores and essences, it was still a welcomed bonus.
Right now, his mana was the most abundant one of the five. He also had his cores to absorb, so he was hesitant about investing more stats points in mana. In the end, he decided to throw them into his Strength stat.
He felt a warm current change his body, radiating from his soul. After a short moment, his body felt stronger by a margin.
For his legacy points, he decided to look through the legacy inheritance later. He wanted to keep hunting for now to test his new limits.
The monster he just killed was a peak-mid-tier monster. Meaning it was as strong as adult Kira that had helped him during the trial. Kira was currently a middle-mid-tier monster after its last evolution, so it wouldn't be far before it was as strong as its future self.
'What would happen when it evolves to peak-mid-tier?' Arthur wondered as he studied the trident. It has broken apart because of his mana and fire destroying it. He was too strong to use normal weapons now. 'Would something happen to Kira at that time?' He wondered.
Arthur took out his dagger, the only weapon capable of hosting his mana and strength. His mana was stronger than normal mana because it was the physical form of the energy, no agents used to create it but the laws of existence. Luckily, the golden dagger Solomon has gifted him was sufficient.
[Your mana has increased by 1.]
[Your mana has increased by 1.]
He picked up the core, absorbed it, and moved on. He walked deeper into the valleys, avoiding dark forests and ominous caves. After a while, he found a platoon of undead just like before.
Arthur's hand trembled faintly. It wasn't because he was afraid, but because he was excited. As he saw the undead soldiers surrounding an undead knight like the one that he fought before, he couldn't hold himself back.
Arthur gripped his dagger tighter as he walked closer toward the platoon. The undead knight sensed his existence and looked at him from underneath its helm, two sinister red flames inside.
"Turn to ashes, undead." Arthur raised his left hand as flames surrounded it. "It's your misfortune that you'll die today." He waved his hand and it cut through the air with an arch of flames.
Like waves racing after a dam was opened, the flames rolled and burned the surrounding as the undead turned to ashes. His mana was draining but he could also see his experience rising, no matter how slowly.
Hell broke loose as the flames ate away every middle-mid-tier skeleton soldier and burned the bones to ashes. Arthur sensed the disturbance in mana and grinned as he saw the undead knight dash from within the flames.
Without cheesy lines, Arthur raised his dagger and blocked the undead knight's claymore. Sparks flew everywhere as the two metals met and Arthur looked at the undead in the eyes, or the flames that resembled them.
Arthur exerted some strength in his hand and pushed the undead knight away. With his fire rune, he sent whirling flames at the monster who dodged by jumping upward.
The knight descended with its claymore slicing through the air, sending ripples across space. It used its ability as dark flames surrounded the sword.
Arthur used his fire rune on his dagger and flames surrounded it. He raised it with his right hand as his left supported the back of the blade. The two weapons met as dark and red flames intertwined, colliding and trying to reign supreme.
'My flames are stronger.' Arthur refused to back down and poured more mana into his rune. The rune got bigger as more flames were birthed and overtook the dark flames, extinguishing them.
"Gghh!"
The knight groaned, catching Arthur by surprise. After all, the ability to vocalize was unheard by the undead. Unless this monster has retained some flesh, it couldn't issue a sound.
'This knight is fresh,' Arthur realized with a frown. 'Someone had died recently and was turned into an undead knight?' The flames burned at the knight's arms and it let out a shrill.
This matter was more serious than Arthur had anticipated. If something like this knight appeared, it meant the undead overlord was stronger than he had imagined. Some overlords could summon other ethereal creatures to create powerful undead.
This means that this undead knight was a living person not so long ago. The overlord had killed them and turned them into an undead knight, tormented until they are killed.
With this in mind, Arthur used more mana against the undead. They exchanged several blows as flames flew around. The claymore the undead held was starting to crack. As the weapon was broken, Arthur used the opening to pierce the undead knight's body and flames exploded within.
With a last shrill scream, the undead knight fell to the ground. Arthur looked at its eyes dimming before he removed the helmet that had blocked its face until now.
Unlike skeletons, the undead knights held into their fleshes. Even though the summoned ethereal parasite was the one to decide the strength of the undead, a stronger vessel allowed for stronger parasites.
That's why this person must have been strong to host a monster of this tier. From their battle, Arthur realized it must be at least middle-high-tier.
The face of the knight was rotten, with barely any features left of its original owner. However, as Arthur looked at the face, he recognized it. This was the person who had asked Yuran to ditch him in Avarice Dungeon.
Juan Keizer.
Arthur felt his world spin as he looked at the familiar face. This person was a Deme-rank, but has somehow ended up here? If Arthur remembers correctly, the members of his party were attacked by the giant serpent when they were unconscious.
Arthur had always assumed they were dead and treated Yuran's silence about the topic to be a confirmation. After all, the golem they were trying to hunt was obliterated by the monster. They couldn't possibly survive that attack.
However, whether he died there or lived didn't matter. How did Juan end up here? How did he end up being used as a host for undead summoning?
The matter of Juan being a Deme-rank and this undead knight being only middle-high-tier can be explained by the strength of the summoner. If the undead overlord was weak, it would explain why this undead knight was so weak compared to Juan.
With a flash of realization, Arthur realized that both Juan and he ended up in Mountain Range Rovero. Maybe this wasn't a coincidence as he has imagined it to be.