After running for just a few hundred meters, Ayaan stopped and turned to look towards the vicious undead creatures.
"Why the hell am I running away from this low-class undead mob? No one below heaven-rank mage could hurt me. The system must have given me some kind of powerful shield or something, hehe." As Ayaan remembered about the protection which was given by the system for one month, his lips curled upward proudly.
Now, he didn't need to feel fear from this undead mob. He can stand at the same place, and these creatures won't be able to hurt him, hehe' that's what he thought. However, sometimes things would not go as we had planned.
"Swish!"
"Puchi!"
While he was rooted in thinking, a sharp claw arrived in front of him, and before he could react, it went directly inside his chest like a sword in tofu.
Subsequently, his expression froze when he felt the heartwrenching pain from his chest. Moreover, he felt the taste of blood inside his mouth — no voice was able to come from his mouth due to the excessive pain.
"Snap~."
The white-skeleton snatched its hand out from Ayaan's chest, but there was something more present in his hand — a heart.
At this moment, blood was gushing out from the hole on Ayaan's chest, and his body started to lose strength. Slowly, his eyes were losing their brightness. However, before closing his eyes, he looked at the skeleton that had attacked him and found its eyes glittering with the red light.
Afterwards, the skeleton turned his glowing eye towards the heart, dripping with Ayaan's blood. He threw it away like garbage and turned around to leave without betting an eye to Ayaan's body.
"Low-class human," the skeleton spat out a few words disdainfully before disappearing from the site in the blink.
Nonetheless, Ayaan, who was lying flat on the ground, saw and heard everything and knew that he fell into the hands of a formidable enemy, but was that enemy a heaven-rank?... How could a heaven-rank undead exist in this low-level plane?... How else would it hurt me with the protection of the system?... Is my luck really this shitty?
Soon, his eyes lost their colour and became grey. At this moment, the skeletons who were on their knees to pay respect to the higher being of this region also stood up and started to scatter.
The skeletons were the undead creatures, who don't eat the flesh of a living person and only devour other undead to increase their strength. Therefore, no undead paid any attention to his body and place again fell into deep silence. At this moment, only a single skeleton left standing not far away from Ayaan's body.
Without its owner, it can't even walk an inch. That was the strength of the heaven grade 'Undead Control.' Only after Ayaan's death, this skeleton will be able to free itself from him.
However, was he really dead?
Eventually, the hole on the Ayaan's chest slowly started to patch on its own.
At first, the heart started to form inside the hole, which was present at Ayaan's chest. After it became complete — heart began to beat, which warmed the blood inside his body, which had already frozen.
Secondly, the wound on his chest started to patch, and in just a matter of seconds, it had disappeared. Lastly, what remained at the place of the hole was only soft white skin on his bare chest.
"Gasping!"
"Huff~ Huff~."
Instantly, Ayaan's eyes, which were close all this time, snapped open. Afterwards, he started to take long, gasping breaths. And his whole body became wet from sweat.
When his breathing became somewhat regular, Ayaan tried to stood-up but failed.
"Fuck you, system! If I had known this would be the meaning of your protection, I would have long disappeared from those disgusting creatures!"
Lying flat on the ground, Ayaan cursed for some time. However, he didn't dare to raise his voice. Nevertheless, even he wanted to raise his voice, he didn't have the strength to do so.
Afterwards, Ayaan tried to run magic power inside his body and slowly gained his strength. Later, when he stood-up, Ayaan turned to look at the skeleton with a grim expression and tried to compare it with the previous skeleton which had attacked him.
Too weak~
At this moment, it was the only thought that came to his mind when he looked at his skeleton and compared both.
Was that a lich? Ayaan wondered.
After gaining knowledge from the system, Ayaan had a vast amount of information about necromancy and other magic schools. He knew there are many levels in skeletons. When any skeleton starts to develop consciousness, it becomes the higher life form among the skeletons, akin to the nobility between ordinary folks in the mortal world.
That higher life form is called lich in the world of necromancy. Moreover, lich's had been divided into many different levels — there were even kings among these liches that ruled the territory, and their intelligence wasn't any less than humans. Furthermore, they can use death magic on their will after developing their consciousness.
Nevertheless, Ayaan didn't dwell on it much longer and decided to find a safe place and wait for these hellish twenty-four hours to over and go back to Aemmugar from this shitty place. However, it's only been a few hours since he arrived. Therefore, he can't go back anytime soon.
Afterwards, Ayaan instructed his skeleton to carry him because his body didn't have much energy left and couldn't walk much longer without support. However, he continued to channel magic power to recover faster. Although his body was recovering rather quickly, it will still take a few hours to heal completely.
Soon, Ayaan was on the skeleton's shoulder, sitting comfortably. After searching for more than two hours, he realised a bitter truth — in this world, there was no safe place, and every corner was filled with undead.
Wherever he went, undead skeletons greeted him. After four hours of running and struggling, Ayaan realised there weren't any creatures in this place other than undead skeletons.
"Did I arrived in some kind of skeleton kingdom or something?" He thought out loud.
However, there wasn't any point in thinking about it. Therefore, Ayaan didn't dwell on it and walked away with his three skeletons who were following him tightly from behind.
After four hours, he had almost recovered completely, and this insane speed of recovery was a pleasant surprise to Ayaan, 'this must be one of the benefits brought by the upgrade of the system.' He thought.
Anyways, after four hours, his wounds had already recovered from inside-out, and there was nothing wrong with his body any longer. Moreover, after struggling for four hours, Ayaan was able to control two more skeletons — equally as powerful as his previous one.
Furthermore, Ayaan realised that he could gain experience points by killing these undead skeletons, and after every kills, the power of death element inside his body would increase. Moreover, every kill done by the skeleton would be count as his kill as well.
Thrilled by knowing the truth, Ayaan started to counter-attack and increased his magic power from level-one junior mage to level-two junior mage.
However, Ayaan wasn't stupid enough to fight with those powerful undead skeletons. On the other hand, he would only fight with the undead, where he was confident of his victory. If Ayaan encountered a powerful skeleton — he would run away with his three skeletons without wasting his time fighting with them.
Ayaan had already stared into the eyes of death one time, and the feeling wasn't pleasant. Therefore, he would not let that happen again.
He wasn't a coward; on the other hand, he was brave and courageous. However, he just didn't want to make the same mistake he made previously, just because he was trying to show off, even though there wasn't any girl present at the site.
At this moment, Ayaan was standing inside the dark cave, which was already acquired by few undead skeletons. Surrounding Ayaan were his three skeletons whom he was giving orders to attack the skeletons in the cave.
Ayaan had already checked the strength of this group of undead and knew they were no match for his three warriors' undead legion. Therefore, he started to give attacking commands to his skeletons.
"Attack!"
At the single command, his undead of three started to attack other skeletons frantically in the cave. However, Ayaan never let them run away more than five meters from him to avoid any mishap from happening again.
"Dodge the attack!"
"Attack from behind!"
"Yes, crush its head!"
Simultaneously, he issued many commands to his undead. After fighting with these undead skeletons, Ayaan knew they would only die when their skull would be crushed, or they would just revive, again and again, even after separating their bodies into numerous parts.
Eventually, as he gave the command to his undead brigade, an undead skeleton entered the circle of three skeletons and arrived in front of Ayaan. However, when Ayaan saw this, there was no fear on his face; on the other hand, his lips curled into a mocking smile and spat out only two words...
"Undead Control!"
Creation is hard, cheer me up! vote for me!
[Note: Magic Art→ Magic Formula]
As Ayaan fought with undead creatures one by one, time also flew like the water of a river, without stopping for anyone. Therefore, the time of twenty-four hours passed.
At first, Ayaan wanted to rest at some safe and place; however, he didn't find any safe place in this land of the undead. Therefore, he had no choice but to retaliate — in these twenty-four hours, Ayaan was able to control five more skeletons, including his previous one. Now, he had eight undead creatures.
Moreover, two undead creatures were already at the peak of the junior mage, while his other undead were at level five or more.
Furthermore, Ayaan himself was able to advance by leaps and bounds. At the moment, he had reached the sixth level of junior mage, and that was the reason, he could control peak-level junior mage undead, which was equivalent to the ninth rank junior mage.
However, he didn't receive any quest from the system. Therefore, he wasn't able to earn more credits. Still, he didn't worry about that; he already had enough credits at the moment. Anyways, Ayaan knew when the time comes; he will receive a new quest from the system.
"Swish!"
As he was lost in thinking, a portal started to form on his head. Then, it sucked Ayaan inside itself. Although he saw what's happened, he didn't show any anxiety or fear as he did previously.
At the same time, a portal appeared at the same place from where Ayaan had gone to the undead plane.
"Swish!"
"Thud~."
Afterwards, the portal formed, it threw Ayaan's body out of it, and Ayaan landed on the ground flatly.
"Shit!"
As he fell on the ground, he made a painful groan and slowly stood up. Instantly, he looked around but didn't find anyone. He took a long breath to feel the pure air and felt refreshed.
Nonetheless, he didn't waste his time standing there and went directly towards the inn.
Although it had only been half an hour since he went, however, for him, it felt like a whole century had passed.
In just two minutes, he arrived at the inn. Without wasting any time, he knocked at the door of his room.
"Knock~ Knock~."
After knocking a few times, no response came from inside, neither Rebecca opened the gate.
Ayaan frowned when he didn't receive any response. And a foreboding feeling appeared inside his heart — he just came from the undead plane which was filled with negative energy. So whatever possibilities came inside his head were only worse than the other, which made him even more anxious.
At this moment, a servant passed by him. Ayaan instantly asked him about Rebecca.
"Sir, I saw madam was going towards the dining hall."
The moment he got his answer, he didn't bother servant anymore and dashed towards the dining hall. After arriving in the dining hall, he looked around — the hall was little empty, only a few people were sitting at this time.
Immediately, Ayaan remembered, today was the opening ceremony of the temple, most of the people must have gone to the ceremony.
Although, he spent the whole twenty-four hours inside the undead plane, here only half an hour passed and most of the people went to welcome the people of the temple and then in its opening ceremony.
Afterwards, Ayaan's eyes fell on the lady and saw her beautiful face, a sigh of relief left from his mouth. He didn't know the reason behind his anxiousness.
Why did I feel uncomfortable when I didn't find her in the room? We don't have any relation; we will go our separate ways when she has the power to protect herself. Ayaan thought and went towards Rebecca, who was talking to the counter lady.
Eventually, Rebecca as well saw him coming and smile appeared on her face. Afterwards, she said farewell to the counter lady and went towards Ayaan.
"Where have you been? I was feeling really anxious," Rebecca asked with a worried face, and everyone looked towards him before smiling meaningfully. Ayaan saw it and felt awkward. Nonetheless, he didn't feel shy — why would he?
Then, Ayaan grabbed Rebecca's soft-smooth wrist and walked away, after exchanging some pleasantries with the people present in the hall.
After coming to the room, Ayaan looked at her and asked: "Why did you go there? I thought something bad happened to you."
"Were you worrying about me?" Rebecca asked with a teasing smile.
Ayaan heard her and felt a little awkward, then replied, "Next time tell me before anywhere you want to go."
Although Rebecca wanted to tease him more, she stopped herself when she saw Ayaan's expression turned serious.
Eventually, Ayaan took out a scroll from his space ring and passed it towards Rebecca.
A confused expression appeared on Rebecca's face before she asked, "What is this?"
Nonetheless, she still took it in her hand and checked the content inside the scroll. However, when she started to read, her eyes became wide from shock.
"It's the 'Magic Formula' which could give three elements to its practitioner!" a shocked shout left from her mouth, but it wasn't loud enough to go out from the room, so Ayaan didn't worry about it or who knows, how many people will start to hunt them down for the formula.
However, he only gave her magic formula, not rune. Therefore, if she wanted to practice, all the elements in the formula, she had to find the runes herself. Though, there wasn't any chance of her finding them.
Although Rebecca herself knew this, she still felt grateful towards him, and she wasn't shameless enough to ask him for a rune as well.
While Ayaan knew this world was power, he was fully aware of the scarceness of the spells, magic formulas or runes. Moreover, this was just a low-level kingdom where people would kill just for the mortal level spells, much less heaven rank magic formula, which he had given to Rebecca.
Furthermore, the value of the magic formulas would always surpass the cost of the spells of the same level.
Nonetheless, Rebecca was still staring at the parchment, eyes wide open. At the moment, she was in shock because she herself wasn't sure about the value of this magic formula.
Previously, Rebecca was practising earth rank magic formula. Although she was the phoenix, still she didn't have the magic formula of the fire element. Therefore, she had to practice water element magic formula, and because of that, her speed decreased tremendously.
Yet now, she received a formula which could give her three elements. How precious must be this formula to have three-element?
Moreover, in those three elements, one element was 'Space' — a supreme element.
How shocking was this? If this information were to leaked by someone, rivers of blood would flow. Moreover, Ayaan gave her this formula like it was nothing to him.
Afterwards, Rebecca looked at him and dashed into his arms directly and hugged him tightly before speaking weakly, "Thank you."
Although Ayaan was a little surprised, he still was able to react and patted her head gently and replied, " No need to thank me. You can consider it as me repaying you."
The moment she heard his answer, a sad expression appeared on her face. He was doing everything because he wanted to repay her, she thought.
Afterwards, she released him and looked in his eyes deeply before turning away her wet eyes. Moreover, when Ayaan saw the sad look in her eyes, he knew just said something stupid to make her this sad.
Just when he wanted to say something, a loud shout came from outside. Ayaan frowned when he heard it and went out to check the situation.
Rebecca, who was standing at the side, also followed him and when they exited the room, they heard the pleadings of the counter lady. Nonetheless, both of them walked towards the dining hall from where all the commotion was coming.
When they walked into the dining hall, both of them saw the three youngsters were standing there proudly while the counter lady was on her knees, begging. Ayaan immediately recognised these three youngsters.
They were the three boys who came with the people of the temple, or it will be correct to say that these three were the people of the temple.
After coming to the hall, Ayaan didn't do anything. All the matter here wasn't his concern, and he wasn't in a condition to make a giant like "Life Temple," his enemy. Therefore, he just stood by the side and watched the whole show.
Eventually, one of the men took out a scroll and opened it before saying disdainfully to the lady, "The temple has issued an order that from now on you need to pay a protection fee to the temple if you failed to pay the protection fee, you will be severely punished."
"What protection fee!? You are just leeches trying to suck the blood of poor!" the counter lady shouted at the man which came as a surprised for Ayaan.
After seeing her courage, he started to admire this lady. However, admiring was another thing, but in his head, he knew that was the most stupid thing the lady had done.
Instantly, an enraged expression appeared on the boy's face when he heard the insult about the temple.
The boy murmured a few words, and his whole hand turned into a wooden sword, then he swang his hand towards the lady, then the left hand of the lady fell on the ground with a thud sound.
"Arghh!" a mournful shriek left from her mouth, which made people shiver in fright.
Consequently, the blood started to pump out from the left side of the lady like a fountain and painted all the floor, red. All the people present gasped in terror, some even shrieked due to fear.
Rebecca, who was standing along with Ayaan, had red eyes. Although it's been only two days since they were staying in the Inn. She still had a good impression of the lady, and the lady also treated her like a little sister, but when she needed her, she didn't have the strength to help her.
Ayaan, who was standing next to her, saw this and sighed while thinking, 'Women are really sentimental creatures.'
"Shut up!" another boy shouted and immediately, all the commotion inside the hall died.
"Do you still have any problem with the protection fee?" The one who cut the hand of the lady spoke towards the crowd, but when his eyes passed by Rebecca, he became stunned.
'What a beauty.' he thought.
Afterwards, he gave his companions a meaningful smile before walking towards Rebecca at a slow pace.