"Jie jie…"

Not far in front of me, there was a group of skeletal warriors hissing. It was an uncomfortable sound that was distinctively shrilly. A layer of darkness covered my bloody pupils, their levels and stats revealed themselves to my Dark Pupils. They were Level 155 shadow-rank mobs, and their stats were average, meaning that they were unqualified to satisfy my needs. I was Level 143 already, so I needed to kill mobs that were at least 20 levels above me to earn a good amount of experience. I needed to find something else to grind.

For now, though. Summon Sky Obsidian Greedy Wolf!

"Roar roar!"

The little wolf appeared with a growl. When it saw the skeletal warriors, disdain overcame its expression for a moment. Clearly, even my pet was looking down on these low-level skeletons.

Moreover, this was just the perimeter of the Roland Empire. It would be best if I didn’t waste too much time here.

I checked my map for a bit before running forward. The Sky Obsidian Greedy Wolf and I escaped after breaking through the group, leaving behind a dozen or so skeletal remains in our wake.

The area after the walls was a wasteland. We had to walk very far before we finally saw a couple of buildings. It was a town that bordered a forest.

The Cyan Netherworld Sword looked dazzling in the night. The draconic soul coiling around its blade looked dignified and intimidating.

I met no resistance as I strode through the open entrance, but I quickly discovered that my destination was a deserted ruin. No matter how hard I looked, I couldn’t spot a single sign of life anywhere.

Well, except for the bit of light coming from a large building about a hundred meters away from me. As I drew near, I could see that it was this ghost town’s adventurer’s inn.

The iron door that was the entrance to the inn was rotten, rusted and crawling with vines and spider’s webs that clearly had been there for a very long time. In fact, the vines had entangled the handle completely. Heaven knows how long it had been since someone set foot in this place. What was strange though, was that I could hear the sounds of clinking cups and loud conversations coming from inside the building. The speakers all had raspy voices, for some reason.

I gave the iron door a hard push. A loud creak later, it collapsed to the ground with a loud boom!

Shock overcame me when I saw what was really inside the building. A group of rotten undead adventurers were sitting around a table and drinking merrily from their empty cups. Their armors were rusted, the leather on them was rotten, and the broadswords on the table were snapped in half.

"Jie jie…"

A beastman wielding a rusted battle axe rose to his feet, the sudden movement causing several pieces of his rusty armor to fall off. I didn’t even want to imagine how long he had been wearing it for almost every part to lose to the corrosion of time.

The beastman berserker shouted, "Damn, an adventurer who dares to enter the little town of Maya? Let’s kill him and cook his heart for dinner, brothers! It’s been a long time since we all tasted blood, haven’t we? For the glory of the Roland Empire!"

Chuckling, I pulled out my own weapon and said, "The Roland Empire fell a long time ago, you damned monsters. If you’re in such a hurry to die, I don’t mind sending you to Hell. You should have gone there a long time ago anyway!"

While saying this, I used Dark Pupils to check the adventurers’ stats. They were all ancient mobs with levels between 160 and 165, which made sense, since they had died at least tens of thousands of years ago. They weren’t bosses, so they were of no threat to me.

"Yayaya, kill him!"

The beastman berserker was the first enemy to charge at me. I immediately fired Burning Blade Slash into the group of adventurers and followed up with War Crush. An exhilarating sensation flooded my body as a chain of shocking damage numbers rose above their heads. Almost every hit dealt over 15k damage.

Clang!

At the same time, the beastman berserker’s axe landed on my shoulder and dealt 3786 damage. It hurt a little, but it was well within my ability to endure. The 10% lifesteal from Blood Rage alone was enough to keep me rejuvenated for this battle.

Swhoosh!

I penetrated his body with Universe Break, followed up with yet another Burning Blade Slash. A critical hit and a couple of swipes from the Sky Obsidian Greedy Wolf later, the unfortunate beastman berserker was almost dead. His eyes widened in shock as he shouted, "Dammit, to think that I would die to a short-haired animal like this, dammiiiiiit…"

I cut off his head and ended his misery. Then, I used War Crush again and elicited painful screams from the dozen or so undead adventurers surrounding me. After chugging down a Rank 8 Saint Spirit Potion and recovering a big chunk of HP, I dove right back into the battle!

About 5 minutes later, all the undead adventurers were killed. Although the Level 165 ancient mobs dealt quite a lot of damage to me, I was able to keep myself afloat between 50% to 80% HP. Though I was aware my Defense wasn’t high enough to guarantee absolute safety. The fight could definitely get precarious if I allowed myself to be surrounded by them.

The mobs dropped 5 pieces of equipment in total. I picked them up and wasn’t disappointed by what I saw. Tsk tsk, the beastman berserker’s axe is not bad—

Zealous Battle Axe (Purple Gold–grade, Outstanding★★★): 770~900 Attack, Strength +130, Stamina +120, increases user's attack power by 19%. Outstanding Property: Zealotry, increases user's attack speed by 15%. Level Requirement: 140.

……

I wasn’t expecting a non-boss to drop such a nice Purple Gold–grade item. 38 Luck was really amazing. The battle axe wasn’t good enough to garner immediate attention from the top rankers, and right now, there were only a handful of players in all the servers who were Level 140 or above. However, that would change in 10 days or so, and when that day comes this battle axe would surely sell for a good price. After all, not everyone could afford Earth or even Spirit–grade equipment. Plenty of players spent every day grinding common mobs instead of partying with others to kill bosses, so their equipment was absolute trash despite reaching a high level.

I threw the Zealous Battle Axe into my bag and looked up. There were still plenty of undead inside the adventurer’s inn, but unlike the ones who had attacked me, they were simply shivering in a corner. Clearly, not every undead was fond of killing.

I glanced at the corner of a table with the number 2 on it. There was a big undead dog covered in scabies sitting there and cocking its head at an undead thief. Drinking his ale and staring at the dog with blood-red eyes, the thief growled out a warning, "Get lost, or I’ll tear your intestines apart!"

The dog barked twice as if in pain. Its murky eyes were full of sorrow.

It was at this moment the inn owner—a rather brawny fellow for a skeleton—ran out and hit the dog with his broom. At the same time, he shouted, "Get out of my inn, you ugly thing! There is nothing for you here!"

The dog whined and escaped through the entrance. However, it stopped not far away and stared at the building with hopeful eyes for some reason. It wasn’t until a long time later before it finally left.

I curled my lips and put down my cloak, revealing the bloody pupils of an Asura King. Then, I asked the inn owner, "What’s with that dog, boss?"

The inn owner visibly relaxed when it saw that I was an undead as well. Then, he replied in a disdainful tone, "That cheap dog is called ‘Dada’. It was the guard captain’s beloved pet until the man was killed in battle. A lot of people tried to give it a new home, but every single day, without fail, it would escape and come to the table. It’s because it’s where the guard captain usually drinks, you see. That cheap dog probably still doesn’t know that the guard captain’s head was chopped off. Hehe, what a sorrowful thing…"

My heart shuddered. I couldn’t help but look at the ugly dog outside with sad eyes.

"Do you want a drink, swordsman?" the inn owner asked me.

"No, thank you."

I shook my head and walked out. However, I couldn’t find the dog anywhere.

Oh well, time to get back to the grind. This was just a town beyond the castle. I was still some way away from the center of the ruins.

I continued on my journey until a ruined castle appeared at the horizon. The structure had mostly collapsed, but I could still catch glimpses of its former glory. Run down it might be, the palace was at least as big as the palace of Sky City.

At a training field outside the castle, I could see countless soldiers carrying spears wandering around the area. They were all elite undead creatures clad in metal armor. Their eyes were bloody, and they growled gutturally like animals. Suddenly, I heard a loud rebuke from inside the camp. "Get lost, you animal!"

It was immediately followed by a couple of painful yelps as a black thing was kicked out of the camp. It was none other than Dada, the dog I saw at the inn. There were rows of wooden houses inside the camp, and I had no doubt that its owner’s house was one of them. How many times had it tried to get in only to be kicked out by the guards? I couldn’t even imagine.

A couple of sword-wielding undead warriors rushed out of the camp at this moment. They were followed by a dozen or so undead knights. Suddenly, the knights tossed their spears at the dog!

Thud thud thud!

The intimidating spears hit the ground not far away from the dog. They were clearly using it as their plaything.

"Arf arf arf…"

The big dog yelped in fear as it escaped to a nearby bush. However, it couldn’t stop looking back at the houses with yearning and reluctance.

I glanced at the soldiers. They were Level 165 ancient mobs, and their stats were incredibly powerful. I might be able to kill a large number of them in a short time, but there was no way I could fight a protracted battle without a priest, or enough supplies.

Without warning, my Sky Obsidian Greedy Wolf suddenly puffed up its hair and bared its fangs menacingly at the undead soldiers who were chasing Dada. Then, it let loose a mournful howl, charged toward an undead knight like a cyan shadow and pulled it off its horse all without my orders.

"Fuck, that stupid wolf!"

That's what I said, but my own head was boiling as I ran toward the undead soldiers. I launched Thousand Ice Slash at them and shouted angrily, "Fucking die, you inhuman animals!"