Some time earlier, Kaius had left the defense line and circled around the north side of the city to engage the Devourers.

Although there were two Devourers, Kaius had grown a lot stronger since the last time he faced off against one, hence he was confident in dealing with two of them.

Soon, Kaius reached the zombie horde from the north side. The two Devourers continued to shoot out acid attacks from their gapping maws.

“Did you think you would be safe by hiding in the middle of the zombie horde? Since you’re all technically corpses, I have just the spell for you,” Kaius grinned.

Corpse Explosion!

Contrary to expectations, nothing happened.

“What?!”

Control Undead!

Kaius tried another spell.

“!!!”

When Kaius’ mana went inside the zombies to control them, he felt a repulsive force that tried to reject his mana. It was a familiar feeling that he had experienced back in his previous world.

“Someone is controlling these undead!”

Kaius concentrated his mana on the zombies. After a few seconds, he was able to forcefully sever their original connections and gain control of them.

“Good, this means I’m stronger than whoever was controlling them,” Kaius breathed out a sigh of relief. Before he had time to think further, the two Devourers had noticed Kaius and shot globs of acid at him. Kaius reacted quickly thanks to his high dexterity and dodged in time.

The surrounding zombies also noticed Kaius and marched towards him.

“Cannon fodders should fight cannon fodders,” Kaius commanded his zombies to deal with the enemy zombies. Turning his attention back to the Devourers, Kaius narrowed his eyes.

“Let’s test out my new undead on these meatballs. Come forth, Dio!”

A two-meter-tall spider crawled out of the Netherworld. It was the Ash Spider Lord that Kaius had raised from the dead. After receiving Nether Lord’s Blessing, it had undergone a massive transformation over the past few hours. Four pairs of foggy grey eyes could be seen on its head. Its eight long legs became thinner and nimbler. Rows of bone spurs lined across its abdomen and two pairs of sharp pincers protruded out from its mouth. Its entire body had been coated with an extra layer of grey-colored exoskeleton.

Name

Dio

Class

Rank 1 Evolved Undead (Ash Spider Lord)

Level

20

Health

Normal

Mana

40/40

Strength

63

Vitality

54

Dexterity

49

Intelligence

19

Skills (active)

Paralyzing Bite (10MP): Bites at target with pincers coated with a paralysis venom.

Skills (passive)

Nether Core Evolution: able to grow stronger by consuming bone essence from biological organisms.

Seeing a new foe appear, the two Devourers tucked in their limbs and heads inside their bodies and began rolling towards Kaius and Dio.

Kaius and Dio started running north, trying to lure the two Devourers away from the zombie horde. After running for two kilometres, the two Devourers unexpectedly turned around and started to roll back towards the zombie horde.

“These meatballs were not this intelligent before,” Kaius was bewildered by the sight of the retreating Devourers. “Could it be that whoever was controlling the zombies had even managed to control these evolved zombies and gave them commands?”

“I spent so much effort luring you out. Don’t even think of going back so easily!”

Nether Lord’s Aura!

The attributes of the Devourers fell by 6%, while Dio’s attributes increased by 6%.

Kaius materialized Bloodthirst in his right hand and activated the skill from his Leather Vambrace.

Focused Strike!

Vital Break!

Corrosive Armor!

With his strength double enhanced by the sword and the skill, Kaius leapt at the closest Devourer and struck out with his strongest attack.

This Devourer couldn’t roll fast enough and was hit dead on by Kaius’ strike.

Squee!

Devourer wailed painfully like a pig about to get slaughtered. A long, shallow gash appeared on Devourer’s plumb body. Although the wound wasn’t deep, a strand of dark mana still lingered on the wound due to the effects of Vital Break, decreasing its vitality by 1.

Over to the side, Dio continuously sprayed out massive amounts of spider silk at the other Devourer. The other Devourer managed to break free from the first few strands of spider silk at first, but as more and more spider silk latched onto its plump body, its rolling speeded began to decrease more and more, until it could no longer move. Its pitifully low strength wasn’t enough to break free from the spider silk.

Kii!

Dio screeched triumphantly at the sight of the immobilized Devourer. He wasted no time and dragged the Devourer further away from the zombie horde.

After crawling swiftly for another two kilometres, Dio jumped up to the top of a building and dragged the Devourer up.

Squee! Squee!

The pitiful Devourer squealed hopelessly as it was dangled upside-down from the building.

“Ki ki ki…”

Dio approached the helpless prey with a menacing smile. He prodded and poked various places on the Devourer’s body, taking his sweet time playing with his prey.

Squee! Squee!

Devourer started to panic even more at the sight of the scary spider toying with its plumb and juicy body.

Having played enough, Dio bit down hard at Devourer’s body.

Paralyzing Bite!

Potent paralysis venom coated the twin pincers that protruded out of Dio’s mouth. The sharp pincers pierced Devourer’s skin and injected all the paralysis venom inside.

Squee! Squee!

Devourer squealed and protested in a last-ditch effort. However, after a minute, it could no longer move. Its limbs and head that were previously sunk into its body also slid back out.

Puchi!

Dio did not stand on ceremony and took a huge bite out of Devourer’s vulnerable tiny head. Blood and brain matter dripped down onto the ground. Devourer couldn’t even make a sound while its head was ripped apart piece by piece.

Two orbs of white light flowed out of Devourer’s body and dropped onto the ground below.

Back at Kaius’ side, he suddenly received various notifications.

[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.]

“Nice job Dio,” Kaius grinned as he distributed all attribute points into strength. “It’s about time I finished up on my side as well.”

Focused Strike!

Kaius dashed to the side of Devourer and slashed through its thick skin, leaving behind a deep, long gash on its body.

Over the past few minutes, Kaius had struck Devourer numerous times, allowing Vital Break stacks to reach its maximum, thus decreasing Devourer’s vitality by 32. With his strength triple enhanced by the weapon, Focused Strike, and the newly allocated attribute points, Kaius was finally able to inflict serious wounds on Devourer’s body.

Squee!

Devourer squealed out in pain. It didn’t try to confront Kaius head-on anymore and rolled away in the opposite direction instead.

“Where do you think you’re going?” Kaius sprint after Devourer.

Right when Kaius was two meters away from Devourer, it suddenly exited its rolling form, turned around, and opened its gigantic mouth in the middle of its body.

Blagggghhh!

Devourer vomited out a large amount of green acid towards Kaius.

Surprised by the unexpected attack, Kaius stomped hard on the ground and sidestepped to the left at the last second.

The green acid shot through the air and landed on the ground. Sizzling sounds could be heard as the green acid melted through the ground and created a large hole.

Taking the opportunity of Devourer standing still, Kaius leapt forward and landed behind Devourer.

“Die!”

Focused Strike!

Enhancing his strength to the maximum once more, Kaius drove Bloodthrist deep inside Devourer’s plump body. Gripping the sword with both his hands, Kaius slashed through Devourer’s body like a hot knife through butter.

Squee!!!

Devourer let out a blood-curdling scream as its body was nearly sliced half. The front side of its body was held together by only a few inches of flesh. Blood and guts spilled out onto the ground. Its short limbs and tiny head popped back out from within its body.

Puchi!

Kaius stabbed his sword straight through Devourer’s tiny head, ending its miserable life.

Two white orbs of light floated out from Devourer’s body.

[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.]

Kaius once again distributed all attribute points into strength. Taking a look at his current stats, Kaius felt quite pleased at his current combat capabilities.

Name

Kaius

Class

Nether Lord

Level

26

Health

Normal

Mana

2605/2605

Strength

81 (+3)

Vitality

52 (+4)

Dexterity

71

Intelligence

261 (+3)

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: 130.

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: 130.

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

Lesser Reanimation (50MP): transforms the corpse of a biological organism into an undead. Spell may fail if the biological organism’s vitality and intelligence stats are too high relative to the caster. Max limit: 260.

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: 52.

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/60%). 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%; Physical: 1%

Shifting his attention, Kaius examined the two orbs of white light. One of them gave 430 System Coins, while the other one turned into a Random Item Box (Silver). While he was examining the items, Dio returned from his fight; the headless body of a Devourer was dragged along the ground behind him, all covered in spider silk.

Dio arrived in front of Kaius and presented Devourer’s corpse and two orbs of white light as offerings to his master.

“Well done,” Kaius smiled and patted Dio on the leg.

“Kiii!” Being praised by his master, Dio let out a happy cry.

Examining the two orbs of white light from Dio, one gave 426 System Coins, while the other gave another Random Item Box (Silver). Kaius stored the items inside his inventory and activated Fay’s Ring to store both Devourers’ bodies.

Kaius hurried back the way he came from. Since it was almost certain that somebody was controlling all these undead, he wanted to rush back to the defense line and help the soldiers fight the Bruisers.

Some time later, Kaius and Dio arrived at the north side of the city. The master and servant duo quickly headed southwest, towards the direction of the west city entrance. They were on full alert, expecting to jump into an intense fight at any minute.

When the duo finally made their way back to the defense line, a horrific sight greeted them.

Kaius had expected to see the soldiers desperately holding their ground against the two Bruisers, while keeping the regular zombies at bay. Instead, countless zombies filled his vision. Dead soldiers could be seen everywhere. The zombies pushed and shoved each other, trying to grab a bite of the soldiers’ corpses. Not a single living being could be seen in the vicinity. The defense line had been completely overrun.

“How could this have happened…!” Kaius muttered in disbelief.

Kaius surveyed the battlefield and saw the corpses of the two Bruisers.

“They managed to kill both Bruisers, so how could they have fallen…?”

Control Undead!

Kaius managed to forcefully overtake control of the surrounding zombies. Then, he quickly made his way to each Bruiser to store the orbs of white light and corpses.

Suddenly, Kaius instinctively felt a sense of danger. He held out his sword in front and activated his spell to defend himself.

Corrosive Armor!

Bang!

Kaius got rammed by two dark shadows and shot out like a cannon ball, crashing into a nearby building.

Alarmed by the sudden attack, Dio quickly ran to Kaius’ side to protect him.

*Cough* *Cough*

Kaius coughed up a mouthful of blood.

Seeing that Kaius was still alive, Dio let out a sigh of relief. He carefully removed a few pieces of rubble and pulled Kaius out.

Kaius quickly checked his own condition. Even with the increase in vitality from the Corrosive Armor, he was still injured. He looked at his left forearm and saw that it had a deep, long gash! It was so deep that even the bones were visible. This was the most severe injury Kaius had received ever since he came to this world!

Hiss! Hiss!

Kaius gripped his left arm in pain and looked towards the direction of the hissing sounds from outside the building. To his shock, two Flickers were slowly making their way towards him.

“Why are there Flickers here?!”

“Wahaha!”

A high-pitched laughter came from behind the two Flickers.

Kaius shifted his gaze and saw a zombie with a small body and a big head. It was staring at him with a smug look on its face.

Kaius endured the pain from his injuries and activated Eye of Mana.

Name

Bob

Class

Rank 1 Evolved Zombie

Level

30

Health

Normal

Mana

60/60

Strength

10

Vitality

20

Dexterity

50

Intelligence

120

Skills (active)

???

Skills (passive)

???

“This evolved zombie has skills!” Kaius became alarmed at this discovery. All the other evolved zombies he encountered so far only had innate abilities at the most. This was the first evolved zombie that had skills from the System.

Seeing the approaching Flickers, Kaius gripped Bloodthirst tightly and activated its ability.

Blood Revitalization!

Kaius used up two units of Blood Essence. A surge of vitality flowed from the sword into his body. All the pain in his body slowly vanished. Strands of flesh and blood wiggled and stretched out from the gash on his left forearm, healing it and making it look like it had never been injured in the first place.

Facing against the two Flickers, Kaius was not confident at all on being able to win against them. Neither he nor Dio was fast enough to contend against the Flickers once they used their innate abilities. The only reason Kaius was able to deal with the Flicker he encountered back in Guelph was because it was already severely injured.

Right at this moment, Kaius felt the formation of a strong connection between him and something from within the Netherworld.

Sensing the being at the other end of this new connection, Kaius couldn’t help but curl up his lips in a smile.

“It’s about time you woke up.”

Kaius gave a command, then walked out of the building with Dio to face the two Flickers head on.

Seeing their prey appear, the two Flickers charged directly at Kaius at full speed, ignoring Dio completely. When they were only a few meters away from each other, the two Flickers leapt into the air, pointing their razor-sharp claws at Kaius’ vital spots.

Bob looked on with a haughty expression, wanting to see Kaius get impaled by the Flickers. Earlier, when Kaius forcefully overtook control of some regular zombies, Bob became infuriated over losing control of his zombies to someone else. Hence, Bob was eager to eliminate this nuisance.

The Flickers’ extreme speed made it impossible for Kaius to dodge their attacks. Bob had a smug look on his face as Kaius was about to get shredded by the Flickers. However, his expression suddenly froze in the next moment.

Boom!

Both Flickers were sent back flying through the air and crashed into the ground.

“Wah?”

Bob stared in disbelief at the unexpected sight. Turning his attention back to Kaius, he noticed the appearance of a lithe figure standing in front of Kaius. This figure looked very similar to the Flickers under his own control, with the main difference being its entire body was covered in a thin layer of pitch-black exoskeleton. In addition, instead of having a bald head, this figure had a full set of black hair that reached all the way down to its waist. There were also two round protrusions in its chest area.

Kaius looked at the status of this lithe figure with a pleased expression.

Name

Cenos

Class

Rank 1 Evolved Zombie

Level

30

Health

Normal

Mana

60/60

Strength

72

Vitality

34

Dexterity

129

Intelligence

26

Skills (active)

Sudden Burst (10PM): increase speed by 30% for 3 seconds.

Shadow Meld (5MP): disappear into a nearby shadow and reappear from another shadow within a 200m radius.

Skills (passive)

Nether Core Evolution: able to grow stronger by consuming the flesh of biological organisms.

“So strong! Also, it seems like Cenos is female?”

The Flickers that Kaius had encountered so far all had disfigured faces and slender bodies, so it was impossible to determine if they were male or female. However, Cenos had obvious feminine facial features on her pale, white skin. Her lithe figure with well-defined curves as outlined by her exoskeleton also made her body seem feminine.

Kaius turned his attention to Bob, his eyes filled with thick killing intent.

“Wah!”

Sensing impending danger, Bob let out a panicked yell. Countless zombies in a large radius heeded his command and began to converge towards his location.

Eye of Mana!

Kaius activated his spell once more to see if he could obtain more info on Bob’s skills.

Name

Bob

Class

Rank 1 Evolved Zombie

Level

30

Health

Normal

Mana

60/60

Strength

10

Vitality

20

Dexterity

50

Intelligence

120

Skills (active)

Commanding Shout (10MP): releases a piercing shout that places all undead within a 10km radius under the caster’s control.

Skills (passive)

???

“My guess was right. Looks like I found the controller of all these zombies,” Kaius confirmed his suspicions from earlier. “Luckily, his skill is not strong enough to override my controls on my own undead creatures. I need to kill him now before he can cause more trouble.”

“Cenos, go kill that little zombie,” Kaius pointed to Bob.

Cenos nodded and turned to face Bob.

Sudden Burst!

Cenos surged forward with extreme speed and aimed her razor-sharp claw at Bob’s head. Right when her claw was an inch away from Bob’s forehead, it was held in place by something, unable to move across that final inch.

Bob stared at the sharp claw with a horrified expression. He fell backwards on his butt, seeing his zombie life flash before his eyes.

At the last moment, the two Flickers activated their innate abilities and barely made it in time to block Cenos’ attack together with their own claws.

Not bothering to attack head on any further, Cenos jumped back to create some distance from the two Flickers.

Shadow Meld!

Cenos’ lithe figure turned into smoke and disappeared into the nearest shadow. A second later, she reappeared from a shadow a few dozen meters behind Bob. This time, she went all out and activated her own Flicker’s innate ability as well as her skill, pushing her speed to the maximum.

Sudden Burst!

Cenos shot out from the shadow at lightning speed, aiming her two claws at Bob’s vital points.

Puchi!

Both of Cenos’ claws penetrated flesh. Looking up from her claws, Cenos saw that she had penetrated the body of one of the Flickers.

Even though Cenos’ speed became a lot faster, both Flickers were right beside Bob, so they barely managed to react in time after activating their innate abilities. One of them used its own body to block the attack, while the other grabbed onto Bob and retreated.

Hiss!!!

The Flicker whose body got penetrated by Cenos hissed loudly in defiance.

Hiss!

Cenos hissed back and slashed outwards with her claws, ripping the poor Flicker’s body in half.

[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.]

Two white orbs of light floated out from Flicker’s body.

Kaius distributed all attribute points into dexterity and collected the two items dropped by Flicker. One of the white orbs gave 447 System Coins, while the other one gave a random skill box. Then, he stored Flicker’s corpse inside Fay’s Ring.

Staying vigilant of his surroundings, Kaius stood on guard against any sneak attacks by the remaining Flicker. However, Bob and the remaining Flicker were nowhere to be seen. Instead, countless zombies rushed madly at Kaius from everywhere.

“Trying to wear me down? Wishful thinking.”

Control Undead!

Hundreds of strands of dark mana slithered across the battlefield, making their way into the incoming zombies. After a few seconds, the strands of dark mana forcefully severed the control from Bob and placed over 200 zombies under Kaius’ control.

Cenos returned to Kaius’ side as a loyal guard, while Dio went out to slay the rest of the zombies under Bob’s control.

The defense line became a meatgrinder in a matter of minutes. Hundreds of zombies from either side flailed around and tore into each other. One of Bob’s zombie bit into the neck of one of Kaius’ zombie; however, two more zombies from Kaius’ side came over and grabbed the head of Bob’s zombie, ripping it off from its body.

Slash!

Dio swung his sharp long legs and decapitated the heads of multiple zombies in one fell swoop.

Multiple zombies under Bob’s control swarmed one of Kaius’ zombies and ripped it apart.

Control Undead!

Kaius cast his spell once more and overtook the control of these zombies.

The fight turned in Kaius’ favor more and more over the next few hours.

Slash!

Dio bisected the final zombie under Bob’s control in the city.

Throughout the fight, Bob and the remaining Flicker did not show up even once.

“Seems like they ran away,” Kaius furrowed his brow. He really wanted to kill off Bob right here to prevent future problems, but unfortunately the little zombie ran away too quickly with the help of Flicker.

Having eliminated all the zombies, Kaius finally had time to check out the random boxes he obtained earlier.

The first random item box gave a consumable item.

Name

Unstable Teleportation Scroll

Category

Consumable Magic Scroll

Use Restriction

Minimum stats requirements: Intelligence: 30; Vitality: 20

Description

Upon use, instantly teleports the user to a random location within a 100km radius.

The second random item box gave a vial of green liquid. Upon examining it, Kaius’ eyes widened in shock.

“Something like this exists?!”

Name

G3972 Antiviral

Category

Consumable Item

Use Restriction

None

Description

Upon use, eradicates the T3972 zombie virus from a living biological organism. Only effective if the living biological organism has not been completely infected by the T3972 zombie virus.