Chapter 26: Fight, to Suprass the Enemy

"Tch, Again...!?" Seeing the Draugr closing up to me I cursed out loudly.

"I got to create distance..."

Without any hint of hesitation, I turned around and started sprinting.

Rather, I started to run away!

No, run away isn´t the right word.

More like a tactical retreat!

Even though I was technically running, I was still keeping the distance between us two in check.

What I needed was time! Time to read this status!

"Let´s see how this mist works..."

[Dark Mist Robe Lv.3]: Through the use of dark magic, allow yourself to shroud yourself with a robe made of dark mist which conceals your presence. The higher the level of this skill is, the more mist you can move farther from your body and the more mist you can generate.

"Dark magic is it...?" The first part of the description doesn´t sound too strong. If you can see your opponent then what use does counseling your presence have?

But this isn´t the strong point of this spell...

"The mist isn´t limited only to this body..." Indeed that was the case.

When I first attacked him I thought that the mist is permanently stuck to this whole body.

"Damm I am stupid..." He probably just pushed the dark mist to the front to make me believe that he was there when he wasn´t!

"To fall for such a petty trick..." Judging between our distances I didn´t have much time left.

`Dammit, he doesn´t even let me enough time to read!

Priorities first!

[Heavy Strike Lv.3] I know, and seeing it at level 3 already gives me the chills.

[Low-Undead Creation Lv.1] huh... I can already imagine what this thing is doing so pass on that.

The stuff that´s left to read is the skill [Battle Sense Lv.1] and the talent [Uniqe Concioness].

[Battle Sense Lv.1]: Through the experience of hundreds of battles you gained the ability to perceive your surroundings in better detail.

`A passive skill this time...doesn´t sound too strong at least. And now at last...

[Uniqe Consciousness ]: Every Undead that has been born at least at tier 2 has this inherited. The sign of an Undead having a unique Consciousness lies in these ethereal eyes and intelligence. Based on the color of the eyes, the following undead gaines different bonuses. The owner of this skill gains +5 bits of Intelligence, 5% proficiency, and cost reduction on dark magic-based skills. The higher the tier, the more bonuses are gained by this talent.

"So that´s where this robe skill comes from!" At first, I found it weird for a [Undead Warrior] to be capable to cast magic that reached level 3. Maybe the talent [Uniqe Concioness] plays a role in unlocking this [Dark Mist Robe Lv.3] and [Low-Undead Creation Lv.1].

"This will be hard..." While running, in my sight I caught a massive hole that was made in the ground.

Seeing the massive hole I felt bitter inside of me.

"I didn´t want to come here in such a situation..."

But I got no choice...

Seeing that there was nowhere to run away anymore, I decided to face this draugr...

"To think...you would run away...!" This rage within him, together with this cold voice made this hate even more obvious.

I got in my stance, and whispered: "Status..."

The moment the Draugr was 5 meters away, a deep cold voice came out of him.

"This who don´t obey...shall be made to serve!" As he said that, the mist that was shrouding him suddenly burst out of this body and headed towards me.

With this, I will take him down before he even notices where I am. That is what he thought.

But then...

"[Wind Blade]..." The moment the lowly skeleton swung this sword in the air, it felt a sensation that he almost forgot.

Danger.

Seeing an almost invisible blade cutting through this mist like a hot knife, he hastily swung this glowing longsword towards the invisible blade.

"[Heavy Strike]..." The moment the longsword with the skill [Heavy Strike] met with the wind blade it...The wind blade disappeared, similar to how glass was thrown into a stone wall. The wind blade got instantly destroyed.

"Hmpf, weak...did you really think tha-...where?" Seeing no traces of the skeleton left he got slightly confused. But the next moment he felt the same similar feeling of danger coming to this right side.

"...!" With Incredible speed he turned around while swinging this sword at the mist that was behind him.

And if he hasn´t done that he might be dead...

What came out of the mist was the same lowly skeleton swinging this sword at him. At first, he thought that this was a joke or an attack.

But the dark aura that was engulfing him, together with this dark green ethereal eyes made it think otherwise.

And as blades met a loud sound of metal hit the whole cave.

*Thuad!

Loud echoes of metal clashing with each other engulfed the whole cave.

"I-Impossible!" Surprisingly, the draugr was losing the fight of strength.

"How!? How is a mindless one capable of being stronger than me!?" A normal skeleton to be stronger than me!?

While being shocked at the current come of events, he heard a similar yet different cod voice of this own.

"A mindless...you say?" Seeing a skeleton that has to glow ethereal eyes and capable of talking he slightly flinched.

"You...! You aren´t a skeleton!" He pushed the sword away and created some distances but doing that he let this front open for a single moment.

And yet a single moment was all that I needed.

The mana that flowed through my body went to both my legs and both of my hands. Doing that bought my whole body to burn from inside my bones.

The reason was though activation of multiple skills all at once!

Similar to how the helmet goblin that inflicted a wound through my chest used [Sprint] three times in a row. Currently, I was trying to do the same!

Even though I didn´t feel any pain or exhaustion for abusing my muscles (cause I don´t have any in the first place). The pain came from the abuse of mana!

While I was training I learned that I was capable to use multiple skills at the same time, but the downside of doing that was the boiling pain that I was feeling. Not only that but controlling those skills was almost impossible.

That was the case of using the skills in long to mid-distance.

But what if those skills were used in the point-blank range?

The Draugr feeling immediate danger tried to quickly get to this stance, but it was too late!

"Sprint..." With the faint light in my legs, my speed increased to the highest. Like a flying rocket going hitting this target.

I crashed with my shield on the draugrs body and I activated my second skill.

"Shield Bash...!" With the kinetic energy that was stored in my shield. The draugr was slightly pushed back, while some cracking sounds were coming out of this chest.

*crack

"You..." Before he could even finish. I beat him to that

"Wind blade!" With my last remaining mana in my body, I swung the wind blade towards the Draugr containing my last remaining mana.

Seeing the clearly stronger wind blade from before the Draugr flinched in panic.

"S-Summon Undead!" Dead mana separated from this body and created 3 normal skeletons in front of him with the same [Rusted Swords] in their hands.

But it was useless.

The moment the wind blade met the skeletons. They cleanly got cleave though. They were so weak that they didn´t even affect the wind blade itself.

"Dammit!" The draugr swung this sword using [Heavy Strike] in hopes to block the flying blade.

*Fsheeenn!

The longsword met with the almost invisible blade. Although he succeeds in cutting the blade in two... He expects that the remaining parts of the blade to still fly towards him.

The split blades hit this pelvis and this shoulder. Almost cutting through the whole arm bone. Making it fall.

"Kghhh!" The draugr screeched in rage.

Not out of pain, but of the feeling of weakness!

And I didn´t miss this chance.

"It can´t be...." Seeing the skeleton swing this sword towards this neck it knew.

With this skull flying to the air and finally crashing to the ground.

It was over.

[You Received 4500 Experience Points]

"Finally..." Even though the battle was over...The burning feeling of abusing the mana was still there.

After the feeling got bearable enough, I finally opened my status.

Name: ---

Race: Skeleton (Undead)

Level: 8

Class: [Undead Warrior Lv.7]

Sub-Class: ----

Health: 435/1100

Mana: 86/130

Attribute Points: 0

Attributes: Strength: 29 Agility: 22 Intelligence: 13 Endurance: 21

[Talents] [Undead] [Sin of Wrath]

[Skills] [Lower Weapon Mastery Lv.1] [Miasma Corruption Lv.1] [Sprint Lv.1]

[Shield Bash lv.1] [Piercing Lv.1] [Wind Blade Lv.1]

[Remark: A Skeleton with a unique consciousness that awakened this death aura. Although current you are pathetically weak, your potential just started to sprout.]

[XP: 5200]

In the battle versus the draugr, I took a slight risk of spending my XP while in a fight.

Out of the 2600 XP that I had, I used 1900 XP to increase my Class level from Lv. 5 to Lv. 7!

Using the 2 attribute points that I gained to increase my Agility. I managed to even so sligtly suprass the draugr.

Even though I had a stronger body than him, though the strength difference was ever so slight, I decided to use the 3 skill strategy.

After all, he was stronger overall...

With a better sword and a skill like [Heavy Strike], it was a matter of time to when either my shield or sword would break.

And with this [Battle Sense] together with [Lower Weapon Mastery Lv. 3], he was obviously more skilled than me.

My only chance was to take him by surprise and finish him off while I had the momentum.

"He even gave me a ton of XP for me to use. Now I can finally reach my goal of becoming level 10."

Without any more hesitation, I opened my status and increased my level.

[Level has increased from Lv.8 to Lv.9]

[Level has increased from Lv.9 to Lv.10]

[Strenght increased by 2, Agility increased by 2 and Endurance Increased by 2]

[You reached the maximum level of the skeleton race!]

[Evolution option has been unlocked!]

"W-what?" Before I could even make a sense out of this window in front of me. The dead mana inside of the body started to act on this own and getting outside.

And before I could react I was engulfed by the dead mana. I felt my whole body shaking through all this pressure. The dead mana was moving similar to how the thousand of snakes were eating their food.

It wasn´t only the dead mana that came from my body that engulfs me. The now-destroyed skeletons that I destroyed a moment ago together with the Draugr started to leak dead man out of their body.

And like a whirlpool with me in the middle, the dead mana started gathering!

[Please choose the race that you want to evolve into.]

[Wraith]

[Skeleton Mage]

[Draugr]

[Please make haste to your decision!]

"W-What..? Evolution!?" Although the pressure of the dead mana was getting stronger by the time. I somehow got excited by the current situation. Choosing one out of three options will allow me to become a tier 2 undead!

"Got to pick fast...who knows how long I can last through this whole pressure..." I quickly skimmed through all the evolution options.

[Wraith]: By abanding your physical body, you manage to become an ethereal entity made out of sole mand and your very own soul. Wraith is known for its almost complete physical resistance and weakness against magic. Well-versed in every kind of combat, they also capable to possess a dead body to serve as their portal to the physical world.

[Skeleton Mage]: A skeleton that awakened this unique consciousness. Being enlightened in the ways of magic, they can manipulate the elements and create various spells. But physically they are not better than the normal Skeletons.

[Draugr]: A skeleton forged through the endless battle against their immortality. Through decades of their existence, they managed to awaken their unique consciousness. The transformation grants them a tougher and stronger body than any normal skeletons and with their newfound intelligence their also capable to use magic, although to a small degree.

"There is only one viable option there isn´t..." Reading through the option that I had I quickly managed to make a process of elimination.

`Choosing the Wraith I would become an existence similar to a ghost, although it says that I can possess my body. It doesn´t say if the possed body also gets the same strength as my soul body. It has some appeal but I would rather walk than flout around.

As for the Skeleton Mage, I...already passed the line of no return. Since my class became of a warrior than of a mage it wouldn´t be wise to choose to become a mage now...thus only one option remained!

[You choose to become a Draugr! Evolution will procced!]

An undead who is capable of little magic and has a reinforced body!

That was my choice!

[Choose 1 out of 3 talents to permanently gain]

[Undead Domination]

[Reinforced Body]

[Reinforced Soul]

"So [Undead Domination] is a basic talent to choose among the draugr? anyways skipping on that for now...let´s take a better look at the other two..."

[Reinforced Body]: A rare trait is seen upon the draugr race. Through this talent, their body´s become tougher and are capable to absorb 10% more blunt damage.

[Reincforced Soul]: A rare trait seen upon the draugr race. Through this talent, their soul is being strengthed which makes them more resistant to abnormal effects. It also gives +5 to all stats.

"If I were to choose [Reinforced Body] it will basically cover of my weakness against attack from clubs or similar weapons which doesn´t sound too bad. But I would rather pick [Reincforced Soul]... not only does it increase my stats but it also increase my resistance to...abnormal effects."

[You Acquired Reinforced Soul]

I mostly picked [Reincforced Soul] cause of the experience that I got versus the draugr. Maybe if I were a little weaker than him he might even succeed in turning me to this slave with this [Undead Domination].

"This time I will be..."Before I could even finish, the dead mana that was surrounding me was instantly sucked in in my body.

And then my body started to change!

The cloth in my ribs got ripped off! The moment the dead mana came inside my body all my bones started to grew denser and bigger!

By the end of the transformation, other than the fact that I grew 2 inches taller and bulgier nothing else chance.

[You have been granted the Talent Unique Concioness]

[Though some anomaly you [Uniqe Consciousness] turned into [Superior Unique Consciousness ]!]

"What?" I was slightly stunned. After I got the last message, all the pressure that I felt before has gone.

"Sigh... whatever I will just read through everything once I am back at the cave" I bent down and instead of picking my own sword I picked the one that the now-dead Draugr was using.

And as I stood up with the sword in my hands I heard a noise coming out of the right.

I turned my head to look at what the sounds were. But what I saw made me froze in place.

The reason that I froze was cause currently in front of me there was a group of 6...

"Human..."

The dead mana that gone inside of me was once again realized, but a lot fiercer than before!