Lucas immediately spoke into his military radio, “Lieutenant, something just killed Carlos!”

“It was Devourer! It’s able to shoot acid from the mouth in the middle of its body! Its range is at least two kilometers!” Lieutenant Saunders’ furious voice sounded from the radio as he saw the whole thing happen from another building’s rooftop. “All units, be careful of Devourer’s long range acid attack.”

Kaius, who stood beside the lieutenant, was alarmed by Devourer’s acid attack.

Eye of Mana!

Once again, Kaius used Eye of Mana on Devourer, however its status window remained the same as before, with no new skills showing.

“That acid attack must be similar to an innate ability,” Kaius surmised. “It’s like how humans are able to spit, but the System wouldn’t display Spit as a skill. So Devourer’s acid ability should be judged similarly by the System.”

“Die you zombie freaks!” Over on the Canadian Tire’s rooftop, Lucas cursed and fired like a madman.

Splash! Splash! Splash!

Periodically, Devourer would launch acid projectiles from the back of the zombie horde.

After the death of Carlos, all the soldiers became much more alert and were able to dodge the acid attacks in time. However, since they had to spend time dodging, their firing rate slowed, which resulted in the zombie horde being able to march forward at a faster pace.

“Shit! We’ll get overrun at this rate,” Lieutenant Saunders cursed. “Burns! Use two grenades to push back the zombies. We can’t afford to save them for the evolved zombies anymore.”

“Roger,” Burns replied over the radio.

Boom! Boom!

Two grenades exploded in the middle of the densely packed zombie horde, briefly creating two empty areas. Limbs, guts, and blood scattered all over the place.

The two grenades brought the soldiers some momentary relief. However, within seconds more zombies filled up the empty areas and marched forward again.

At this moment, Kaius turned to Lieutenant Saunders and spoke up, “I have an plan. If you guys can keep the attention of the regular zombies and Bruiser and Flicker, I’ll try to take care of Devourer.”

A hint of surprise flashed across Lieutenant Saunders’ face. “How confident are you?”

“Only 30 percent,” Kaius replied.

“That’s too low. I can’t send a civilian to his death with such a risky plan,” Lieutenant Saunders rejected.

“If we keep defending here, the chances of us winning are 0 percent,” Kaius rebutted. “Don’t worry, I’m not planning on sending myself to my death anytime soon.”

Lieutenant Saunders looked into Kaius’ eyes and hesitated for a moment before he reluctantly agreed. “Fine, but let us cover you.”

“Hmm,” Kaius nodded.

“Smith, Williams, Johnson, throw out your grenades,” Lieutenant Saunders ordered. “Kaius has a plan to deal with Devourer, so we need to keep the rest of the zombies’ attention on us.”

“Roger.”

“Roger.”

“Copy that.”

Boom! Boom! Boom!

Boom! Boom! Boom!

Multiple explosions occurred amidst the zombie horde. Numerous zombies were wiped out by the grenades.

As if on cue, Kaius wasted no time and headed west. At the same time, a furious roar sounded from within the zombie horde.

Bruiser and Flicker, who were still 1km away from the soldiers, broke out into a sprint towards the defensive line.

After running west for a few hundred meters, Kaius hopped over the fence and looked back for a moment.

“I hope they can hold on until I get back,” Kaius muttered worriedly. He switched directions and headed up north, running parallel to Highway 6.

In a few minutes, Kaius had reached a position that was a few hundred meters west of the back of the zombie horde. Devourer was still at the back, continuing to shoot out acid attacks.

Kaius is currently standing beside a small stream that flowed through two forested areas. The small stream made the surrounding soil softer than other areas.

Since time was limited, Kaius summoned out all his zombies, skeleton warriors, and five Skeleton Soldiers. He only kept his two most powerful Skeleton Soldiers in reserve. He gave his undead creatures some instructions and sprinted west towards Devourer.

Kaius ran a slight detour and approached the back of the zombie horde from behind.

Without hesitation, Kaius took aim at Devourer and cast multiple spells.

Shadow Bolt!

Shadow Bolt!

Shadow Bolt!

“Wheeeeeeeeeeze!”

All the spells found their mark, causing Devourer to squeal in pain. Turning around, Devourer aimed at Kaius and shot out an acid attack.

Already expecting this, Kaius easily dodged to the side.

Utilizing his agility, Kaius dodged around while shooting out Shadow Bolts, not giving Devourer any chance to aim its acid attack properly.

The regular zombies around Devourer got alerted by Kaius’ presence and charged at him as well.

Slash! Slash!

Summoning the Basic Sword, Kaius made quick work of all the regular zombies that got near him.

“Weeeeeaaaaah!”

Enraged, Devourer shrunk its short limbs back inside its obese body. Its tiny little head also sunk into its body. The gaping maw in the middle of its body closed shut as well. The image of an evolved zombie is nowhere to be found, instead, Devourer looked more like a large, round meatball.

Tumble!

Devourer rolled towards Kaius like a cannonball.

An unfortunate zombie was in its path, but Devourer paid no regard and ran it over, squashing it into meat paste.

“Crap, why is it so fast now,” Kaius cursed in disbelief.

Devourer’s rolling speed now rivaled Kaius’ running speed.

Kaius ran up north on Highway 6 and lured Devourer away from the zombie horde. His plan wasn’t ready yet, so he had to run around to buy some time.

Along the way, Kaius dodged many straddler zombies, while Devourer just ran them over.

After running around for a few minutes, Kaius was finally able to put the second part of his plan into motion.

Making a sharp turn, Kaius ran towards the direction of the small stream that he passed by earlier.

Devourer did not let up and chased closely behind.

In a matter of minutes, Kaius had reached the small stream. However, the small stream looked different than before. A section of it had been covered up with tree branches and leaves.

Kaius leaped over the tree branches and leaves and continued running.

Crash!

A few seconds later, a loud noise sounded from behind Kaius. Turning around to look, Kaius saw that Devourer had fallen into the ditch that his undead creatures had dug.

When Kaius first came across this small stream, he had summoned his undead creatures and told them to dig a ditch that was three meters in length, width, and height and cover it up. With over 100 undead creatures, plus 5 Skeleton Soldiers with high strength stats, it only took them a few minutes to accomplish this task.

Since it didn’t seem like Devourer could climb out of it with its short limbs, Kaius had hoped that if he was able to lure Devourer over and make it fall into the ditch, he and his undead creatures would be able to attack it like shooting fish in a barrel.

Kaius cautiously walked back to the ditch and peered down. He saw Devourer was still in its meatball state, trying to roll out of the ditch. But it was like a car tire stuck in a mud pit, unable to get out no matter how fast it spun.

Not knowing if Devourer had any other innate abilities, Kaius decided to command only a small portion of his undead creatures to jump down and attack it. One of the level 8 Skeleton Soldiers jumped down as well while holding a Basic Short Sword given by Kaius.

The attacks from the zombies and skeleton warriors had virtually no effect on Devourer due to its high vitality. However, the attacks from the level 8 Skeleton Soldier and the bombardment from Kaius’ Shadow Bolts caused it to squeal out in pain.

Devourer gradually stopped rolling in place. It positioned its body such that the mouth in the middle of its body is facing up towards the sky. Opening its giant mouth, it spewed out a large quantity of green acid and closed the mouth shut shortly after.

The green acid shot up high in the sky before falling back down. When it landed back on Devourer, it simply slid off harmlessly. However, when it landed on Kaius’ undead creatures, they all began to melt. In just a few seconds, all the undead creatures, including the level 8 Skeleton Soldier, had been melted through by the green acid. Even the Basic Short Sword had been melted into useless junk.

Not only that, the four walls of the ditch also melted a bit such that they were no longer entirely straight up but became slightly slanted.

Kaius frowned deeply as he quickly improvised his original plan.

As a necromancer, Kaius decided to do what necromancers do best against a lone target: gang up on it!

This time, Kaius sent even more zombies and skeleton warriors down into the ditch. He gave a Basic Short Sword to the level 1, 8, and 9 Skeleton Soldiers and sent them down as well. Up on the edge of the ditch, he resumed bombarding Devourer with Shadow Bolts.

Facing a new round of even fiercer onslaught, Devourer let out more painful squeals.

A few minutes later, Devourer once again opened its giant mouth and spewed out a large quantity of green acid. The unstoppable green acid melted through numerous undead creatures and continued to shoot up into the sky.

However, this was exactly the moment that Kaius was waiting for.

The three Skeleton Soldiers acted out their new orders and stabbed their Basic Short Swords into Devourer’s mouth to prevent it from closing. They immobilized the mouth further by tightly wrapping their bony fingers around the two rows of razor-sharp teeth inside the mouth.

Over a hundred zombies and skeleton warriors selflessly jumped into the ditch to absorb the falling green acid. Layers and layers of zombies and skeleton warriors quickly got melted through until there’s no more green acid left.

The level 2 Skeleton Soldier that was previously Chad bravely dove into Devourer’s mouth while holding two round objects with both of its hands. The Skeleton Soldier held the two round objects carefully within its embrace to protect them from any remaining drops of acid.

Seeing the level 2 Skeleton Soldier successfully jump into Devourer’s mouth, Kaius activated Corrosive Armor to boost his vitality and tried to leap away from the ditch.

Boom!

A loud explosion erupted from the ditch.

Kaius got knocked onto the ground by the strong shockwave. A sharp, ringing sound filled his ears as he tried to lift his head up. His vision turned blurry from the explosion and the falling debris. He curled his fingers but only felt a numbing sensation.

Kaius struggled to get up for a few seconds before his high vitality stat finally kicked in. Slowly, the sharp, ringing sound disappeared, his vision cleared, and his sense of touch returned.

Kaius dragged his aching body over to look down into the ditch that had been enlarged by the explosion.

Bones and body parts from his undead creatures littered all around the ditch. Deep inside, a severely wounded Devourer could be seen. It was no longer in its meatball form. Its small head and short limbs had emerged from its obese body. It writhed about while letting out weak cries.

“This thing is still alive even after two grenades exploded inside its body?” Kaius observed incredulously.

Before Kaius bade farewell to Lieutenant Saunders, the lieutenant handed him two grenades, hoping that it would increase the chances of his plan succeeding. Kaius found out that he couldn’t store non-System items inside his inventory, so he kept the grenades inside his pocket the entire time.

Earlier, he had pulled the pins out from the grenades at the right moment and gave it to the level 2 Skeleton Soldier so that it could shove the grenades inside Devourer’s mouth.

Without giving Devourer any chances to recover, Kaius summoned his last two Skeleton Soldiers and gave them his two remaining Basic Short Swords.

The level 10 and level 12 Skeleton Soldiers leaped into the ditch and aimed their attacks at Devourer’s small head.

Squee! Squee!

Devourer continuously let out muffled squeals. The two Skeleton Soldiers ruthlessly hacked at its small neck repeatedly. Each attack caused a deeper cut into Devourer’s neck.

When the Skeleton Soldiers managed to cut through two thirds of Devourer’s neck, Kaius materialized the Basic Sword and jumped down.

Die!

Kaius sliced through the final third portion of the neck and chopped off Devourer’s small head.

[Level up!]

[3 attribute points acquired.]

[1 additional attribute point acquired due to Nether Physique.]

[Intelligence increased by 5 due to Nether Physique.]

[2 additional attribute points acquired due to Favor of the Nether God.]

[Level up!]

[3 attribute points acquired.]

[1 additional attribute point acquired due to Nether Physique.]

[Intelligence increased by 5 due to Nether Physique.]

[2 additional attribute points acquired due to Favor of the Nether God.]

[Player has reached level 20. Please choose a Class from the following options.]

[Warrior]

[Guardian]

[Ranger]

[Assassin]

[Mage]

[Cleric… Anomaly detected! Player #304597872 already possesses a Class.]

[The Administrator has been alerted.]

[…]

[The Administrator has reviewed Player #304597872’s profile.]

[The Administrator has used its privilege to command the System to overlook the anomaly.]

[Anomaly ignored.]

[Player has reached level 20. Please choose a Class from the following options.]

[Nether Lord]

“!!!” Kaius went on high alert as he wasn’t sure if it was a good or bad thing that he got noticed by the Administrator.

After waiting for a few seconds and seeing nothing happen, Kaius let out a sigh of relief and looked back at his Class options.

“Not really giving me a choice, are you?” Kaius smiled wryly and selected his only choice.

[Player’s Class successfully changed to Nether Lord.]

[Two random Class skills have been unlocked.]

[Two additional skills have been unlocked.]

[All base attributes increased by 5.]

[Intelligence increased by 10.]

Kaius pulled up his status window after the series of System notifications finally came to an end.

Thinking about how strong these evolved zombies are, Kaius decided to put all 12 attribute points into strength.

“These new skills are not bad,” Kaius had a satisfied expression as he read his new skills.

Name

Kaius

Class

Nether Lord

Level

20

Health

Normal

Mana

2005/2005

Strength

60

Vitality

48

Dexterity

47

Intelligence

238

Skills (active)

General

Eye of Mana (2MP): allows the caster to view more information on the target.

Dark Magic

Shadow Bolt (10MP): shoot out a bolt made up of nether energy in a straight line.

Corrosive Armor (30MP): wraps the caster in armor made up of corrosive nether energy, increasing Vitality by level *2, plus an additional (50% + level%) of base Vitality stat. When anyone except for the caster comes into contact with Corrosive Armor, deal initial nether damage plus additional damage over time. Consumes 10 mana per minute.

Vital Break (50MP): imbues any System weapon with dark, corrosive energy. Each successful attack will decrease target’s vitality stat by 1. Can stack up to (20 + level / 2) times. Enchantment duration: 30 minutes. Stack duration: 3 minutes.

Necromancy

Summon Skeleton (20MP): summon a skeleton warrior from a nearby corpse. Max limit: 100.

Control Undead (35MP): takes control over any undead creature. If the undead creature is more powerful than the caster, spell may fail and caster will suffer backlash, entering into the Weakened State for 4 hours. Weakened State reduces all attributes by 70%. Max limit: 100.

Corpse Explosion (7MP): causes a nearby corpse to explode. Explosion strength increases proportional to the corpse’s vitality stat.

Netherworld

Bone Confiscation (50MP): forcefully rips out the skeletons from a living being and transforms the skeleton into a skeleton soldier. Attributes of the skeleton soldier is dependent on the attributes of the living being used. If the living being has higher intelligence attribute than the caster, spell may fail and caster will suffer backlash, entering into the Weakened State for 4 hours. Weakened State reduces all attributes by 70%. Max limit: 40.

Nether Lord’s Aura (100MP): decreases the base attributes of all non-controlled undead creatures within a (100 + level*5) meter radius by (5% + level/20%). Increases the base attributes of all controlled undead creatures within a (100 + level*5) meter radius by (5% + level/10%). Duration: 20minutes.

Nether Lord’s Blessing (200MP): able to embed a Nether Core inside a controlled undead creature, allowing them to grow stronger by consuming other living or undead creatures. Limit: level/10.

Skills (passive)

Mastery of Necromancy: as a being that has formerly reached the peak of necromancy, reduce the mana cost of all necromancy spells by 50%.

Mana Mastery: as a being that has formerly reached the peak of at least one type of magic, reduce the mana cost of all spells by 20%.

Nether Physique: as a result of successfully casting Nether Rebirth, Nether Physique has been acquired. Enhances the effects of all dark magic spells by 100%. Enhances the effects of all Necromancy spells by 200%. Possessor of the Nether Physique is immune to zombie virus. Increases resistance against dark magic by 20%. Increases mana pool by level * 100. Increases mana regeneration by 500%. Gain 5 additional Intelligence stat points and 1 additional attribute point per level up.

Favor of the Nether God: gained the favor of the God of the Netherworld due to possession of the Nether Physique. Increase experience gained by 100%. Gain 2 additional attribute points per level up.

Nether Link: a connection has been made to the Netherworld. Caster can dismiss undead creatures under their control to the Netherworld and resummon it anytime at half the mana cost. Increases effects of Netherworld spells by 100%. Increases resistance to all magic damage by 5%.

Resistance

Zombie Virus: 100%; Dark magic: 20%; All magic: 5%

Finally turning his attention to Devourer’s corpse, Kaius saw three orbs of light floating above it.

The first orb of light gave Kaius 500 System Coins.

The other two orbs of light were both items.

Name

Enchanted Chainmail

Category

Body Armor

Class Use Restriction

None

Vitality

+3

Description

A light iron chainmail enchanted with magic.

Skills (passive)

Heightened Metabolism: increase resistance to physical damage by 1%. Increase base health regeneration by 10%.

Name

Random Item Box (Gold)

Category

Consumable Item

Class Use Restriction

None

Description

Obtain a random item upon use.

“This Devourer dropped some good stuff,” Kaius had a smile on his face.

Kaius put on the Enchanted Chainmail and could immediately feel a noticeable increase in the rate at which his body is recovering from the grenade explosion.

Looking at the Random Item Box (Gold), Kaius decided to use it.

[Fay’s Ring acquired.]

An exquisite silver ring floated in front of Kaius. Examining the ring, Kaius grew ecstatic at its ability.

Name

Fay’s Ring

Category

Ring

Use Restriction

Minimum stats requirements: Intelligence: 20; Mana: 90

Intelligence

+3

Description

Ring of a famous Void Sorceress. Contains a 10 cubic meter subspace that can store any item.

Skills (active)

Store (1MP): store any item into the ring.

Retrieve (1MP): retrieve any item from the ring.

Kaius put the ring on his right middle finger and tested out its ability on Devourer’s corpse.

Store!

Devourer’s corpse suddenly disappeared from the ditch. Examining the ring, Kaius could “see” the Devourer’s corpse taking up a sizable area of the subspace inside the ring.

Retrieve!

In an instant, Devourer’s corpse came out of the ring and appeared in front of Kaius. After gaining an understanding of the ring’s ability, he stored Devourer’s corpse back inside the ring.

Kaius gazed towards the direction of the city with a worried look on his face.

“Please hold on a little longer,” Kaius muttered under his breath as he broke out into a sprint.