Dozens of figures in black robes with an army of the undead on their toes were marching through the wide main street. Every undead was wearing cheap iron chainmail together with a simple sword and wooden shield. Some of them were only bones, but others were covered in rotting flesh. Their eyes were lit in dim purple light. People around them were in a panic, running to hide. Most of the city guards dropped their weapons and ran away, but the braver ones formed small groups and attacked the procession of death. Red, black and purple magical attacks flew from the robed figures and devasted the guards. Some were burned, some got torn apart, and some turned into a red paste. "Bong! Bong!" Sounds of the bells on the cathedral echoed through the city, signalling an emergency.

The procession continued up the road towards a castle of a city lord and a cathedral. I watched it all from the rooftop of tree stories tall buildings. Drops of rain suddenly started to fall, almost as if the world wanted to set up a better mood. Soon I began to move towards the city centre too as I sprinted and jumped between roofs. No one even looked at me as everyone was occupied by the chaos down on the streets and me being translucent due to the effects of [Camuflage] spell.

It didn't take me long to reach a roof overseeing a small square with guards preparing for a battle. Dozens of the soldiers n chainmail covered by an overcoat with a symbol of an eagle over the tower were moving over the square. With my enhanced senses, I could see that they probably never saw a real battle as most of them were nervous and showed a visible fear on their faces.

'Should I slay them or ignore them? They are not fanatics from the church. In the future, after I capture the city, they could serve me... But, they can also kill one or more of the darks before that. If I slay them, my city will hate me as they have their families... But they would give me lots of XP.' I kept thinking for a few seconds about it until I got to the conclusion, 'They look like they are scared, one slight push should cause them to retreat, and that would be better as I don't want to face hate of my citizens. Yes, I will get plenty of XP from church soldiers, so it will not be worth destroying my reputation.'

I dispelled [Camuflage] and cast [Death-Infused Plasma Bomb] towards a few soldiers standing aside. One of them had bronze pauldrons. A small sphere of plasma flew from me and hit a group of four soldiers directly before exploding into a wave of immense heat and death miasma.

Ding!

System Announcement

You killed LV 14 [Human Soldier]

You killed LV 11 [Human Soldier] X2

You killed LV 12 [Human Soldier]

You obtained 655 XP

You obtained 1223 CE

You are now level 24

You learned passive skill [Increased Elemental Damage I] as a reward from class

Purple flash attracted the attention of all soldiers. They looked in the daze at a melted circle on the ground. They were frozen not knowing what happened.

That changed when one of them shouted, "Isn't that a place where Tim and Sergeant were standing?"

Another added, "And where is Sergey?"

They started to look around in a panic, until a soldier with silver pauldrons and feathers on his helmet shouted: "It was a magical attack, prepare for the battle".

'What the hell is with this amateurism? Weren't they supposed to be soldiers? They are acting like a bunch of amateurs... None of them even looked at the roofs.'

"Hello there. This was only a warning, go home, back to your families and live. Or you will die here," I said with a sweet voice, and to increase my point, I cast a [Flame Cloak] on me to make me scarier.

Everyone looked at me before pointing their weapons at me. Some of them were evidently scared as their weapons trembled. Still, they looked like they still wanted to fight. So I cast [Destruction Beam], purple beam came out of my hands as I moved it in a direction of the empty street, leaving a trail of destruction behind it. Stones on the ground melted together with walls of surrounding buildings.

"This is my last warning! As a future ruler of this city, I want to be merciful, but be careful my patience has its limits, and I am in a hurry." I shouted at them in a fierce tone.

"Fuck this. I have a wife and children. They are not paying me enough to fight against demonic mages." Few of them broke and turned to run away.

But they stopped after they heard their officer, "Don't be stupid, I know those evil wizards. They will sacrifice everyone in this city to the demon god."

"Are you stupid or deaf? I said I am the future ruler of this city, which means I do not want to rule over rubles. If I really wanted to slaughter everyone, then why would I even bother with this whole dialogue?"

"Do not listen to her. Anyone who will run away will be executed." Officer in silver pauldrons shouted, spitting saliva all over his overcoat.

"Enough!" Now angered by their stubbornness, I fired purple lighting towards an officer. As his smoking corpse dropped to the ground, most of the soldiers started to run away.

Ding!

System Announcement

You killed LV 16 [Human Soldier]

You obtained 223 XP

You obtained 510 CE

Still, a sizable group of soldiers remained. Some of them even fired a bolt from a crossbow on me. But they harmlessly dropped to the ground after hitting my barrier.

"I offered you mercy, but you refused, so now die."

Three floating spheres of purple flames appeared in front of me. Then they flew towards a group of soldiers. Three small explosions shook the surroundings. "Ahhhhh", cries of pain came from the soldier on the ground. Some of them were missing a limb or were covered in ugly burns and rotting flesh. More bolts flew on me. They passed by mi side as I moved to the side to save my barrier for more challenging fights. Soldiers with melee weapons panicked as they had no chance to reach a roof in the time. Some of them even threw their weapons in my direction. Another three spheres of flames formed in front of me and flew towards the soldiers. Three explosions echoed again, tearing and burning some soldiers. This time fever of them died as they mostly dispersed, but it was enough as a will of remaining soldiers broke before running away.

Ding!

System Announcement

You killed LV 13 [Human Soldier] X3

You killed LV 12 [Human Soldier] X4

You killed LV 11 [Human Soldier] X5

You killed LV 10 [Human Soldier] X4

You obtained 2474 XP

You obtained 4442 CE

Proficiency of [Death-Flame Firebomb] increased to 7

I ignored running soldiers as I recast [Camuflage] before continuing my journey towards a city centre. With each second, my target got closer and closer.

After a while, I noticed that I had gotten too far ahead from the rest of my forces. 'Let's take a break. It will take some time for the rest to reach this square anyway. That reminds me that I still didn't choose a reward for level 23 so let's check it now.

System Quarry

Rewards (Choose one):

1.

+20 stat points

2.

All elemental magical schools will level up (No rewards from these levels)

3.

3 random elemental magical schools will level up

'Wow, this is a hard choice. All of these are good in some way. Maybe except for the first one, as it's only a little bit of stat points. The second one would be cool as I would be able to skip to higher levels of rewards, and I would also obtain bonuses to mana cost and spell damage from higher levels of magical schools. The third one is also good, but it kind of feels underwhelming as I would just obtain mostly weak spells as rewards anyway. Yeah, a second one is definitely the best reward, but my [Pyromancy] is currently on a level 9, so I would miss a massive reward for level 10. So let's leave it unselected until I level up a [Pyromancy], and after that, I will take a second option. '

After a while, I noticed that the procession of masked figures and undead closed the distance, so I moved to jump between roofs, with the help of [Sky Foothold] and [Wind Dash].