Kaius promptly learned the Beginner Mana Cooking Techniques skill and turned his attention to the Stonetusk Boar.

“One down, one more to go.”

Oink! Oink!

Seeing its partner die, the Stonetusk Boar squealed in rage. It immediately activated its innate ability, turning its eyes red. Disregarding the attacks from Dio and Cenos completely, the Stonetusk Boar turned to face Kaius and charged out at lightning speed.

“The same trick won’t work on me twice,” Kaius snorted coldly. “Cenos!”

Sudden Burst!

Cenos activated her skill as well as her own innate ability, raising her speed to the max. With her superior speed, she managed to reach Kaius first and moved him out of the way.

Bam!

The Stonetusk Boar missed its target and rammed headfirst into the ground, creating a meter-wide crater.

Seeing the Stonetusk Boar become dizzy due to hitting its head against the ground, Kaius quickly gave a command.

Dio, who had been running after the Stonetusk Boar, finally caught up and leaped towards it.

Paralyzing Bite!

Dio’s sharp pincers bite down hard at the scrotum that was hanging between the Stonetusk Boar’s hind legs and injected massive amounts of paralysis venom.

Oink!

The Stonetusk Boar shot out like a rocket while squealing loudly. It had never experienced such excruciating pain in its entire life. It sprinted for over two hundred meters with its butt tucked in, before it started to wobble in its steps.

Kaius was waiting for the Stonetusk Boar to become completely paralyzed, but it was still able to move about. Albeit its speed had slowed down significantly and its eyes were no longer red.

“Seems like its high Vitality stat prevented Dio’s venom from paralyzing it completely,” Kaius frowned. “It’s a pity I didn’t get a chance to decrease its vitality with Vital Break beforehand.”

Not giving the Stonetusk Boar a chance to recover, Kaius and Cenos charged at it from two different directions, while Dio was given a different command.

Around the perimeter of the plaza, Lieutenant Bennet was barely able to hold back the over two hundred Stonetusk Piglets with the help of the undead army. Throughout the course of the battle, almost a hundred Stonetusk Piglets had died, while less than half of the undead army remained.

Lieutenant Bennet saw Dio approach and thought he was coming to reinforce this side; however, Dio simply sprayed out strands of spider silk and wrapped them around the corpses in the surrounding area and left.

Dio ran around the entire perimeter of the plaza, wrapping his spider silk around the corpses that he came across and taking them with him. After a short while, Dio finally finished making his round trip around the plaza and went back to join the battle against the Stonetusk Boar.

By the time Dio rejoined the battle, the Stonetusk Boar already had maximum Vital Break stacks on it, as well as the Enfeeblement status effect. A few bloody wounds could also be seen on its body.

Taking advantage of the Stonetusk Boar’s impaired mobility, Dio executed the final part of the command from Kaius.

Dio hurled almost 150 corpses made up of Stonetusk Piglets and undead creatures directly at the Stonetusk Boar.

Seeing Dio throw the corpses over, the Stonetusk Boar felt something was off and turned its back on Kaius and Cenos, wanting to retreat.

Seizing this opportune moment, Cenos burst forth with her maximum speed and slashed her razor-sharp claws at the Stonetusk Boar’s behind.

Thud!

The twin family jewels got sliced off cleanly and fell to the ground.

OINK!!!

The Stonetusk Boar experienced such indescribable pain that it was literally in tears.

Cenos felt no remorse at ending the Stonetusk Boar’s family line and grabbed hold of Kaius to retreat far away.

As a fellow male, Kaius couldn’t help but grimace as he looked at the Stonetusk Boar’s miserable state.

Once Kaius retreated far enough, he cast his spell.

Corpse Explosion!

A massive explosion completely engulfed the Stonetusk Boar, drowning it in a raging pillar of flame.

OINK!

The Stonetusk Boar squealed out in pain and lamented at its misfortune. First, it had witnessed its companion getting killed, then, it got accidentally castrated, and now it was getting roasted alive.

Thud!

The Stonetusk Boar’s huge body fell over. Huge chunks of flesh had been blown off from multiple areas of its body. It was on its last breaths, but it didn’t struggle any further and seemed eager to embrace death.

“Let me put you out of your misery.”

Even Kaius felt a bit sorry for it at this point.

Puchi!

Kaius stabbed Bloodthirst through its head and pierced its brain.

[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 Stonetusk Boar’s body.

Kaius activated Bloodthirst’s ability and drained all the blood from the Stonetusk Boar, gaining 2 Blood Essences. Then, he distributed all attribute points into dexterity and collected the two dropped items. One of the white orbs gave 584 System Coins, while the other one gave a class skill book.

Kaius examined the class skill book.

Name

Corrosive Nether Domain

Category

Skill Book

Class Use Restriction

Nether Lord

Description

Upon use, allows the Player to learn the active skill: Corrosive Nether Domain.

Corrosive Nether Domain (150MP): unleashes a fog of corrosive nether energy, decreasing all attributes of all living creatures (except for the caster) within a (1 + Intelligence/100) km radius by (10% + level/10%). Living creatures suffer minor continuous damage while inside the domain. All undead creatures within the domain gain the Corrosive Armor and Vital Break skills as passive skills. Costs 10MP per minute to maintain the domain.

“What a great skill!” Kaius exclaimed inwardly. “The battle strength of my undead army will go through the roof with this domain skill.”

Turning to look at the Stonetusk Boar’s corpse, Kaius though to himself, “Now that I’m level 31, I can bestow another Nether Lord’s Blessing. I guess you’ll do for now.”

Lesser Reanimation!

Dark strands of mana flowed out of Kaius and coiled themselves around the corpse of the Stonetusk Boar. Gradually, all the dark mana seeped into its body. The fur color of the Stonetusk Boar changed from its previous dark brown color to pitch black.

After being reanimated, the corpse of the Stonetusk Boar slowly stood up and observed its surroundings as though it couldn’t believe that it was still alive. It noticed the twin family jewels on the ground and looked at Kaius with an aggrieved expression.

“Ack… well...” Kaius quickly avoided eye contact with the boar and coughed awkwardly. “It’s not like you’ll need it since you’re an undead now.”

Nether Lord’s Blessing!

Kaius quickly cast his spell to bestow a Nether Core inside the Stonetusk Boar’s heart.

[Special undead obtained. Would you like to rename it?]

“Let’s call you Calydon,” Kaius casually gave the Stonetusk Boar a new name.

Fay’s Ring flashed and the corpses of two Bruisers and one Flicker appeared in front Calydon.

“Here, have some food,” Kaius tried to bribe the boar with some corpses of evolved zombies.

Calydon sniffed the corpses for a bit before finally giving in and chomping down on them with great vigor.

After the hearty meal, Calydon fell asleep. Countless strands of his pitch-black fur stretched out and wrapped around his body. Very soon, he entered a cocoon-like state.

“Recover quickly and please forget about having descendants,” Kaius gently patted the cocoon and dismissed it back to the Netherworld.

Surveying the battlefield, Kaius saw that most of his undead army had perished. However, the number of Stonetusk Piglets had also been reduced to under 50.

A tired Lieutenant Bennet was using the last bits of his stamina to fight against them.

“Great work lieutenant. Let me handle things from here,” Kaius shouted.

Seeing that Kaius had managed to take down the two evolved pigs, Lieutenant Bennet gladly retreated to catch his breath.

Lesser Reanimation!

Around 50 corpses of the Stonetusk Piglets came back to life and started to attack their living brethren. Dio and Cenos also joined the fight.

Pained squeals rang out across the plaza. The remaining Stonetusk Piglets were quickly massacred under the merciless onslaught of Dio and Cenos.

The plaza finally became quiet after the fall of the final Stonetusk Piglet.

Lesser Reanimation!

Kaius reanimated the Stonetusk Piglets right after their death and made them part of his undead army.

“Seems like that was the last of them,” Lieutenant Bennet walked up to Kaius.

“Yeah,” Kaius nodded. “I’ll have my undead army sweep the east section of the town to get rid of any stragglers. We can rest here for the night.”

“Good idea. We can check out the central and west sections over the next few days,” Lieutenant Bennet suggested.

Georgetown was divided into three sections by a river. Kaius and Lieutenant Bennet had just fought in the east section. The central section was surrounded by the river. Multiple main roads spanned across the river into the east and west sections.

For the remainder of the day, the undead army went around the east section of the town to clean up any stray Stonetusk Piglets, while Kaius and Lieutenant Bennet stocked up on supplies and planned their next steps.

Early next morning, Kaius and Lieutenant Bennet made their way northwest on Mountainview Road and crossed over the river to enter the central section of the town.

Kaius summoned a new Starpho and let it scout out the area from the sky.

Using the Shared Vision skill, Kaius was able to get a rough estimate of the number of cursed beasts.

“How is it?” Lieutenant Bennet asked.

“It’s unbelievable how many cursed beasts there are in this small town,” Kaius replied. “I saw four evolved ones and over 500 regular ones.”

“That many?” Lieutenant Bennet gasped in shock. “What’s our plan?”

“What plan? We charge in headfirst of course!” Kaius said as a matter of fact.

“How is that a plan?” Lieutenant Bennet felt like facepalming. “Even counting your undead army, our side number just over 100.”

“That’s more than enough to test out my new spell,” Kaius summoned his entire undead army and walked forward confidently.

“You…” Lieutenant Bennet looked dumbfounded for a moment. Shaking his head, he let out a sigh and followed after Kaius.

The entire undead army entering the central section attracted the attention of over 200 Stonetusk Piglets immediately. These Stonetusk Piglets charged at their undead brethren with great hostility.

Nether Lord’s Aura!

Corrosive Nether Domain!

Corrosive fog appeared in front of Kaius and expanded outwards rapidly until it reached a radius of 3km. All the Stonetusk Piglets received a 13% attribute penalty while inside the fog, while the undead army received a 6% attribute boost from Nether Lord’s Aura. The undead army also gained the Vital Break and Corrosive Armor skills as passive skills, which further increased their lethality and defense.

The Stonetusk Piglets started to suffer from continuous minor corrosive damage as the fog swept over them, causing them to become even more frenzied.

In a matter of seconds, the living and undead Stonetusk Piglets rammed into each other.

The undead Stonetusk Piglets were overwhelmed at first due to their lesser numbers, but they managed to hold their ground due to their attribute boosts and newly gained passive abilities.

Three Stonetusk Piglets swarmed a single undead Stonetusk Piglet. The undead Stonetusk Piglet suffered numerous stab wounds from the three pairs of sharp tusks. However, the undead Stonetusk Piglet was unable to feel pain and countered by goring one of the Stonetusk Piglets. With the attribute difference, the undead Stonetusk Piglet’s counterattack left the Stonetusk Piglet severely wounded.

The Stonetusk Piglet that was gored writhed in pain on the ground. Blood flowed out of the two deep wounds on its body. Because it came into contact with the corrosive armor, it was also suffering from extra corrosive damage on top of the existing corrosive damage from the fog. Its vitality also got decreased due to the Vital Break stack, further increasing the damage it took. After a few minutes of squirming in agony, its miserable life finally ended.

The other two Stonetusk Piglets took revenge for its fallen brethren and ripped apart the undead Stonetusk Piglet. However, in the process, one of the Stonetusk Piglets was also gored and died shortly after.

Corpse Explosion!

The corpse of the reanimated Stonetusk Piglet exploded right in the face of the remaining Stonetusk Piglet. Half of its face got blasted off by the explosion. Brain matter oozed out of the hole in its skull.

Lesser Reanimation!

The three Stonetusk Piglets that just died came back to life once again.

Anytime one of Kaius’ undead Stonetusk Piglet died, he would explode its corpse and then reanimate any new Stonetusk Piglets that got killed.

The massive swarm of Stonetusk Piglets seemed to have hit an impenetrable wall once they collided against the undead Stonetusk Piglets, unable to advance further.

Kaius observed the performance of his undead army under his two buff skills and nodded in satisfaction.

“Stay out of the fog lieutenant. I’m counting on you to take care of any stray piglets that manage to make it past my undead army.”

“Sure…”

Lieutenant Bennet stared in awe at the impressive strength displayed by Kaius’ undead army, unable to believe how strong they had become.

With every passing minute, the number of Stonetusk Piglets decreased, while Kaius’ undead army size increased.

The large-scale battle eventually attracted the attention of all four evolved cursed beasts.

Thump! Thump! Thump!

The four cursed beasts charged over from the distance, stopping a few hundred meters away from the battle to observe the situation. The four stared at Kaius, Dio, and Cenos with a wary expression in their eyes.

“Two boars and two sows,” Kaius looked at the four cursed beasts. “Too bad they didn’t charge right into the middle of the battle. Looks like they’re not completely stupid.”

Had the four evolved cursed beasts charged into the midst of the fight, Kaius would have used Corpse Explosion. With hundreds of corpses detonating at the same time, the four cursed beasts would have suffered some serious injuries.

“What’s the plan for dealing with those four?” Lieutenant Bennet asked.

“Same as last time. I’ll take care of them with my evolved zombies. You help me keep the piglets at bay,” Kaius replied.

“But there are four of them this time. You’re outnumbered,” Lieutenant Bennet had a worried expression.

“You’re right… Let me even the odds,” said Kaius with a slight smile. “Come, Calydon!”

A three-meter-tall Stonetusk Boar came out of the Netherworld. A greyish hue streaked across various parts of its pitch-black fur.

Name

Calydon

Class

Rank 1 Evolved Cursed Beast

Level

32

Health

Normal

Mana

70/70

Strength

83

Vitality

87

Dexterity

72

Intelligence

26

Skills (active)

Stone Armor (20MP): encases caster in a full set of stone armor. Increases physical damage resistance by 20%. Increases vitality by 15. Duration: 30 minutes.

Stone Spikes (15MP): summons (2 + Strength/10) stone spikes that protrude out from the ground.

Skills (passive)

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

Calydon looked around at his surroundings. The two Stonetusk Sows caught his attention. He immediately held his head up and puffed his chest out, as though trying to look manly and attract their attention.

Seeing Calydon’s silly actions, Kaius couldn’t help but let out some stifled laughter.

He gave Calydon a good kick to the leg and chided, “You stupid boar. You’ve already lost your balls. Why are you still trying to attract mates? Pay attention to the enemies!”

As though understanding Kaius’ words, the enemy Stonetusk Boars looked at Calydon with ridicule, while the Stonetusk Sows looked at him with disgust.

Whee…

Calydon let out a sad whimper and turned his attention to the enemy. Seeing the look of ridicule on the Stonetusk Boars’ faces, Calydon stomped his foot in anger.

Whee!

Calydon charged out towards one of the Stonetusk Boars.

“This idiot…” Kaius felt like facepalming at Calydon’s reckless charge. “Let’s go!”

Kaius, Dio, and Cenos followed behind and each chose a target.

Calydon and Cenos each took on a Stonetusk Boar, while Kaius and Dio each took on a Stonetusk Sow.

Bam!

Calydon and one of the Stonetusk Boars rammed into each other in a frontal assault. Their sharp stone tusks were interlocked in a contest of strength.

Since Calydon had his attributes buffed by Nether Lord’s Aura while the Stonetusk Boar’s attributes were weakened by Corrosive Nether Domain, Calydon started to force back the Stonetusk Boar with his superior strength.

Whee!

Stone Spikes!

Calydon squealed loudly and stomped on the ground, causing 10 stone spikes to shoot out from the ground underneath the Stonetusk Boar.

Caught off guard by the unexpected attack, the Stonetusk Boar got its underbelly shredded by the stone spikes.

OINK!

The Stonetusk Boar retreated while squealing in pain. Blood flowed out of several deep punctures in its underbelly.

Whee!

Calydon let out a smug squeal and chased after the wounded Stonetusk Boar.

Over to the side, Cenos faced off against the other Stonetusk Boar. She dashed around with her superior speed, landing several attacks. Thanks to the effects of Nether Lord’s Aura and Corrosive Nether Domain, her attacks managed to pierce the thick hide of the Stonetusk Boar, leaving behind several slash wounds.

In another part of the battlefield, Dio had lured one of the Stonetusk Sows away. Even though Dio had inferior stats, he utilized the terrain to his advantage.

Dio jumped around from one building to another, spraying spider silk at the Stonetusk Sow whenever he could. The Stonetusk Sow’s faster speed was rendered useless; it could only helplessly chase after the slippery spider.

Kaius battled with the remaining Stonetusk Sow. Ever since he gained control of Dio, Kaius hasn’t had a chance to take on an evolved cursed beast on his own. Hence, he was excited to test out just how strong he had become.

Corrosive Armor!

Vital Break!

Wrapped in a layer of dark, corrosive energy, Kaius rushed out at the Stonetusk Sow.

Oink!

The Stonetusk Sow pointed its sharp tusks at Kaius and charged forward.

With only half a meter of distance between the two, Kaius evaded to the side successfully thanks to his higher dexterity and countered with a slash.

Focused Strike!

With his strength boosted to an astonishing 114 points, Kaius easily sliced open the Stonetusk Sow’s thick hide and left behind a deep long gash.

The Stonetusk Sow’s vitality had been weakened from 70 to 61 due to the Corrosive Nether Domain. Hence, even without any Vital Break stacks or the Enfeeblement status effect, Kaius’ attack managed to deal a significant amount of damage.

OINK!

The Stonetusk Sow squealed in great pain. Its eyes quickly turned bloodshot as it prepared to activate its innate ability.

Bam!

The Stonetusk Sow stomped hard on the ground and charged at Kaius with incredible speed. However, even with the buff from the innate ability, the increase in dexterity only managed to offset the debuff from the Corrosive Nether Domain, returning it back to the original value of 65. Its overall speed was still slower than Kaius with his 83 points in dexterity.

Boom!

Kaius dodged out of the way at the last minute and caused the Stonetusk Sow to ram into a nearby building. With its butt sticking out of the building’s collapsed wall, Kaius easily hit the Stonetusk Sow with Grasp of Enfeeblement.

Kaius arrived in front of the Stonetusk Sow before it could get itself unstuck from the collapsed wall.

Slash! Slash! Slash!

Kaius hacked at the Stonetusk Sow’s hind legs repeatedly, causing deep wounds to appear and racking up Vital Break stacks.

Oink!

The Stonetusk Sow squealed in pain as it was struck repeatedly by Kaius.

Bam!

Bricks and cement flew out everywhere as the Stonetusk Sow final managed to free itself. It was just about to turn around to face Kaius when it felt a sharp pain course through its body.

OINK!

The Stonetusk Sow let out a blood-curdling squeal as it fell to its side. It tilted its head back and saw to its horror that its hind legs had been chopped off!

After racking up a significant amount of Vital Break stacks, Kaius gripped Bloodthirst with both of his hands and slash horizontally using all his strength, dealing massive physical and True Damage. With his strength raised to the max, he forcefully sliced off both of Stonetusk Sow’s hind legs.

Blood flowed out incessantly as the Stonetusk Sow squirmed in pain.

“Your blood is precious, let’s not waste it.”

Kaius unceremoniously stabbed Bloodthirst into the Stonetusk Sow’s butt and activated the Blood Absorption ability.

OINK!

The Stonetusk Sow squealed in more pain and tried to squirm free but was met with multiple Shadow Bolts to the face. Each Shadow Bolt dealt a good amount of damage thanks to the Vital Break stacks and the Enfeeblement status effect. Soon, the Stonetusk Sow’s face became a bloody mess under the endless barrage of Shadow Bolts.

Kaius continuously bombarded the Stonetusk Sow with Shadow Bolts while Bloodthirst drained its blood.

The struggles of the Stonetusk Sow became weaker and weaker, until it had no strength left and could only lie helplessly on the ground.

Bloodthirst finally finished absorbing all the blood and acquired two Blood Essences. At the same time, a series of notifications from the System also rang out.

[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 Stonetusk Sow’s body.

Kaius distributed all attribute points into strength and collected the two items dropped. One of the white orbs gave 530 System Coins, while the other one gave a token-like item.

Kaius stored Stonetusk Sow’s corpse inside Fay’s Ring and examined the token.

Name

Nether Pact Token

Category

Consumable Item

Use Restriction

Class: Nether Lord

Minimum stats requirements: Intelligence: 50; Vitality: 50

Description

Sacrifice caster’s health to summon a Netherfiend. Strength of the Netherfiend summoned depends on the amount of health sacrificed. Summon duration: 120 minutes.

0/20 Health Sacrificed

“I wonder…” Kaius looked at the token with many thoughts running through his mind.