Nathan didn’t know how powerful the unique ability holder he was quickly approaching was. So just to be sure of defeating him Nathan opened his status screen to add the eight attribute points he got from leveling his mage class to level four.

“Status”

| Name: Nathan Bandon |

| Class: Spirit seeker | Level 10 |

| Class: Mage | Level 4 |

| Status: Shared soul |

| Strength: 23 (11) |

| Vitality: 25 (13) |

| Agility: 23 (11) |

| Sense: 37 (29) |

| Magic power: 36 (21) |

| Mana: 25 (23) |

| Attribute points: 8 |

There was a sense of satisfaction as Nathan looked at his stats and how much he has grown in such a short time all things considered. Nathan added one point into his sense stat raising it to thirty while investing the last seven into mana raising its base value to thirty as well.

“Azrael, is it possible to use another type of magic on the skeletons to increase their battle powers?” Nathan had felt like he could use bone or plant magic to create a piece of headgear that ensured the skulls of the skeletons wouldn’t be so easily destroyed. This would increase their battle power tremendously and who would be better to ask that then the lich who had worked with the undead for years.

| It is. As long as you use the magic in a way it won’t hinder the movement of the skeletons or damage it. | Getting the conformation Nathan needed for his idea, he began to act on it. Approaching one of the skeletons Nathan began to manipulate the plants around him as they crept up to its body before settling on its head creating a crude-looking helmet. He didn’t stop just there as a vine that connected to its headgear began to travel down its bones before reaching its arm creating a sword made from wood while another vine traveled down its other arm creating a crude wooden shield.

The first time Nathan added the plant equipment to the skeleton it had cost him around two mana yet as he kept doing the same to others skeletons the cost slowly decreased as his proficiency increased. After a bit more than ten skeletons had received Nathan's plant armor the cost had fallen to one mana. This was the threshold for the system to recognize it as a skill as well.

| Plant equipment. | Level 1 |

| Using the mastery over plant magic to create equipment out of plant-based material. The strength of the armor and weapons created is based on plant magic level and magic power. |

| Cost: 1 mana |

| Duration: 10 minutes. |

| +10% of caster’s magic power as strength, agility, and vitality. (3) |

Now that it was recognized as a skill the casting process of it had become a lot easier as Nathan didn’t have to manually manipulate the mana to cover the skeletons how he wanted. The 10% of his magic power increased the strength, agility, and vitality of the skeleton by 3 points as well. This was quite a big boost to the skeletons’ battle powers. The sword and shield looked a lot more refined now as well.

| Master, your talent for somebody without magical heritage is quite impressive. |

Nathan himself hadn’t interacted too much with other people who used magic as well so he had nothing to compare with it, but as he continued to constantly use magic it had become easier to use overall as well. He had just thought it was due to his magic skills leveling up. Yet as he recalled when he noticed this small but gradual difference in his utilization of magic it all started back when he gained the unique ability perfected adaptation. Nathan himself had yet to truly discover it but perfected adaptation had the hidden ability to improve the talent of the individual as they used abilities related to the talent in question. It was a small increase, but with time, it all added up, creating quite a big difference overall.

By now Nathan could already see the building that was marked as his quest destination. As long he got rid of all the pests in there he would be officially done with the quest the treant king had given him.

“Send the skeletons to attack!” Before the apocalypse, it was a car repair shop that acted as a front business for the gang. The building was covered in black soot. It was the same for all the surroundings near the car repair shop as well. The gang was actively fighting back against the nature that had overtaken the city as they assaulted it with fire magic and any other flammable object that could help them burn down the plants. Covering the ground and buildings in soot even now the gang members were still burning down the plants that were actively growing. Seeing the army of skeletons quickly rushing towards them they surprisingly reacted in a composed manner as one of the guys who had run out of mana rushed back to their base to inform the rest of the gang. The five other people who were burning the plants before prepared their tools for attacking.

A thug looking guy wearing shorts and wife-beater took the lead as his body morphed and transformed into a strange beast never seen in the world before the apocalypse. His skin took on a blue tint to it as his size rapidly grew to three meters. His neck bulged as gills appeared on the side of it. He had transformed into an odd type of aquatic beast with webbed fingers and feet.

The gang had thought it was just another monster raid that they had faced so often these days. Just with skeletons covered in plants instead of the regular plant made creatures. The skeletons didn’t even look all that powerful as the aquatic brute rushed in first. Striking the head of the rushing skeletons with his meaty hands.

Yet these weren’t your simple everyday puppet skeleton they were led by lich with rich experience in leading an undead army. The skeletons upfront raised their shields creating a wall with them to intercept the brute’s attack. He had fully expected to blow the skeletons away with his smash like he had done so many times before. Yet the wall of shields that the skeletons had created stood strong while swords began to pop from every gap in the shields piercing his arm.

The skeletons used their comrade’s bodies as support as they began to use them as platforms to jump over the wall of shields onto the small giant piercing him with their swords while another group of skeletons began to surround the brute from all sides while assaulting it with their blades.

“What the fuck are you doing! Help me!” The brute yelled out for help as he was quickly overwhelmed by all the skeletons. In his rampage, he managed to tear and throw away just enough skeletons from his face to turn his head around to see his fellow gang members running for their lives as a wave of skeletons pursued them.

“Bastards, how could you leave me here to die!” He roared with rage as he fell to his knees his tendons severed making his legs give out. His fate had been sealed the moment he rushed in the army of skeletons thinking they were only a bit stronger than those he had heard of in the tutorial.

Gunshots rang throughout the city as the gang had started to open fire on the skeletons. They had even managed to raid one of the police stations before increasing their arsenal even more. Yet to take down one skeleton it had to be shot in the skull multiple times which proved to be an almost impossible endeavor with them moving constantly in a swarm-like manner as they broke into the soot-covered building killing everyone on sight.

A strong explosion made it seem like the world itself was shaking as a propane tank exploded among the skeleton army one after another reducing their numbers greatly yet it still couldn’t stop them rushing in.

Nathan wasn’t idle as he felt the presence of the unique ability holder in the basement of the building. While the skeletons were admins killing all the gang members in the building he entered the untouched basement.

You could instantly notice the difference in the atmosphere here compared to the outside. It was much colder and richer in spirit mana. This increase to the spirit mana in the surroundings was caused by all the deaths that had taken place in this basement. The unpleasant stench of meat and filth in the basement forced Nathan to cover his nose as he moved deeper into the basement before seeing James sitting at the table. He was 1 meter 80 centimeters tall with extremely white skin that looked unhealthy. His brownish-black hair looked unkempt and unwashed as it swayed as he turned his head to look at Nathan.

“Care to join me for a meal?” The room was dark but there was enough light for Nathan to see the bloody piece of meat that James was eating with a fork and a knife as it was a pristine steak.

“Sure, what are you serving?” There was a sense of curiosity in Nathan when it came to individuals like James. What had caused him to be the way he was? Even with all that was going upstairs he had been calmly sitting here enjoying his meal. Not caring about the screams of help from his gang members.

“Meat.” As Nathan sat down at the table in front of a plate James began to use magic as a big cluster of mana cover the plate in front of him before turning into a piece of uncooked meat.

“Ah, where are my manners, I have yet to introduce myself to you. I’m Gregory James. What would be the name of the gentleman joining me for a meal?” Gregory James had always been a weird guy. But after acquiring a unique ability called flesh forging that lets him use mana to recreate flesh of living creatures made it only so much worse. His class being cannibal didn’t help much in that as well.

Yet those two things together created an insanely strong combination that let James become powerful fast. It was one of the reasons he didn’t feel threatened at all by Nathan's presence and his attack on the gang, it just meant he would have more research subjects for his unique ability.

“Nathan, It’s quite impressive how many people you have already killed.” For those that had killed a lot of people, there was always a weird aura around them that those with high enough sense stat could feel.

“Oh, I feel the same way. It’s surprising to meet somebody who had killed more humans than me in these few days.” Looking at pure base stats James was quite superior to Nathan but he lacked in the number of skills and their mastery. Both of them knew that only one of them would be leaving the basement at the end of their conversation.

“Since I’m not really hungry shall we start?” With those words, Nathan quickly stood up as he swung his sword of uprise launching a soul slash straight at the siting James.

Using his superior agility James easily dodged the soul slash before throwing the knife in his hand straight at Nathan's head only for it to be brushed aside by the materialized claws of Nicole.

“And here I thought you would fight me honorably in a one versus one battle.” He was feeling excited as he drew his special knife before rushing straight at Nathan with incredible speed covering the distance between them in less than a second as he plunged the knife straight at Nathan's heart. He could already taste the delicious increase in his power after he killed Nathan.

The bone magic reinforced foot of Nathans was first to connect with the chin of James as he was sent flying into the cement wall with a nasty crack sound coming from his broken neck and chin that had shattered from the force of Nathan's kick. Yet unexpectedly after taking such a devastating blow from Nathan he still got up and adjusted his neck to its right place with another crack.

The moment Nathan's foot had connected with James' chin he had managed to adjust the direction of his knife leaving a deep slash on Nathan's leg as well.

James laughed with joy knowing he had won the battle already! His knife held a very potent poison that could even kill him if he was slashed with it. There was no way Nathan could survive after receiving such a large wound from his knife. Nathan almost instantly began to feel the effect of the poison as his body felt sluggish and his head muddled, not able to react in time as James thrusted his knife straight at Nathan's heart once again.

Only for James' hands to be pierced by the claws of Nicole as she grabbed his hand while intensifying the soothing effect of her skill. Clearing Nathan’s mind of the effects of the poison as his body went on an overdrive to fight back against it. It gave him just enough time to catch the other fist of James. Before counter-attacking him with a headbutt as a horn grew out of his skull piercing the head of James.

Even after taking such a strike, he was barely clinging to life before Nathns fire covered fist evaporated Jame’s brains. And so the Cannibal that has a seemingly infinite supply of meat to raise his stats with had fallen in battle as Nathan gained the unique ability flesh forging.