Some time earlier.

Most of the beast tide had just been lured away by the live human baits. Only a few hundred Ash Spiders and a dozen Ash Spider Lords still charged towards Milton’s east entrance.

Since much of the beast tide had been lured away when they were still very far from the city, the civilians defending the east entrance only saw this relatively small group of cursed beasts and thought they were the entire beast tide.

Making full use of this misinformation, Antonio stood at the forefront of the east entrance’s defense line and addressed the 60 soldiers and 3000 civilians that had been gathered to defend this location.

“We have confirmed that this beast tide is only made up of 400 Ash Spiders and 12 Ash Spider Lords,” Antonio spoke confidently. “Elroy and I will take care of the rank 1s. The rest of you only need to eliminate the 400 Ash Spiders. We outnumber them almost 10 to 1, so our victory is all but guaranteed. Once this battle is over, you’ll all be greatly rewarded. Not only that, but we will also hold a public ceremony to honour all of you as the heroes that defended our city! Now, let’s slay these damn spiders and protect our home!”

“Yeah!!!”

“Squash these spiders!”

“Protect our home!”

All the civilians pumped their fists in the air and shouted out loud battle cries. Hearing how favourable they were to win the battle, everyone felt a great sense of confidence and was determined to fight off this beast tide.

“Soldiers, ready your weapons!” Antonio commanded.

The Ash Spiders finally reached within 500 meters from the defense line.

“Fire!”

Heavy gunfire rained down on the beast tide. Multiple Ash Spiders were being gunned down every second.

Skree!

The Ash Spider Lords let out angry screeches and hastened their speed.

“Time for us to make our move,” Antonio turned to Elroy, who was standing beside him.

“As you command, sir,” Elroy bowed respectfully.

Elroy checked his own status one last time, before jumping over the metal fence to engage the enemies.

Name

Elroy Dubois

Class

Assassin

Level

32

Health

Normal

Mana

260/260

Strength

50 (+3)

Vitality

29 (+3)

Dexterity

84 (+5)

Intelligence

13

Skills (active)

General

Intermediate Strength Enhance (25MP): temporarily increases Strength by 9. Duration: 30 minutes.

Intermediate Vitality Enhance (25MP): temporarily increases Vitality by 9. Duration: 30 minutes.

Intermediate Dexterity Enhance (25MP): temporarily increases Dexterity by 9. Duration: 30 minutes.

Assassin

Quick Strike (15MP): increase Strength and Dexterity by 3 for the next attack. If skill is cast again within the next second, increase Dexterity by an additional 3 for each time the skill has been cast successively.

Flash Step (15MP): increase caster's Dexterity by (12 + level/2) for the next 3 seconds.

Steel Cutter (20MP): next attack ignores (10% + Dexterity/10%) of targets Vitality and Physical Resistance, up to a maximum of 100%.

Backstab (35MP): if the next attack is initiated from behind the target, double the caster's Strength and ignore 20% of the target’s Vitality and physical resistance.

Skills (passive)

Lesser Mana Affinity: increases base MP by 100.

Antonio jumped over the metal fence as well and went to engage a different Ash Spider Lord.

Skree!

The nearest Ash Spider Lord saw Elroy running towards it from a few hundred meters away and let out a loud screech to alert the other Ash Spider Lords. It crawled towards Elroy with rapid speed and shot out spider silk to entangle him.

Intermediate Strength Enhance!

Intermediate Vitality Enhance!

Intermediate Dexterity Enhance!

Flash Step!

A multitude of auras surged out from Elroy. With a light step, his figure disappeared from his original spot, leaving a blurry afterimage.

With his Dexterity enhanced to an impressive 121, Elroy easily dodged all the spider silk and managed to reach the Ash Spider Lord within a few seconds.

Skree!

The Ash Spider Lord let out an alarmed screech after seeing Elroy’s astonishing speed. It raised its front legs in a panic to slash at him.

Elroy sidestepped to the left and easily dodged the attacks since the Ash Spider Lord only had a Dexterity of 55.

Flash Step!

Quick Strike!

Steel Cutter!

Elroy activated multiple skills in succession and materialized his main weapon, a kusarigama. He aimed at the Ash Spider Lords’ abdomen from the side and hacked down using the sickle with all his strength.

Puchi!

The enhanced attack ignored 18% of the Ash Spider Lord’s Vitality and physical resistance and penetrated deep inside its abdomen.

Skree!

The Ash Spider Lord let out a pained screech. It tried to retreat backwards by leaping away, but Elroy held on to the chain portion of the kusarigama tightly. He pulled on the chain and swung himself to the back of the Ash Spider Lord, then quickly took out a dagger from his inventory.

Backstab!

Elroy easily stabbed through the back of the Ash Spider Lord’s abdomen with his doubled Strength. His high damage attack continued even deeper and pierced through layers of internal organs, before finally reaching the heart.

Skree…

The Ash Spider Lord let out a weak screech before slumping lifelessly onto the ground.

Elroy took his arm out from inside the Ash Spider Lord’s body and shook off all the disgusting green blood and guts. He looked at his own stats and frowned slightly.

“Seems like I got too excited and used up too much mana at once.”

Although Elroy managed to kill the Ash Spider Lord so quickly, he also expanded a lot of mana. He only had 85/260 mana left. In addition, he made an unexpected observation.

“My experience bar increased by a decent amount, but how come this rank 1 didn’t drop any items?”

Skree!

Three other Ash Spider Lords interrupted Elroy’s thoughts with their furious screeches. They crawled towards him in a frenzy and shot their spider silk at him.

Left with no time to ponder the item drop anomaly, Elroy refocused his attention on the incoming Ash Spider Lords.

In another area of the battlefield, Antonio charged head on at an Ash Spider Lord. An enormous broadsword had materialized in his right hand; it was 150cm long and 30cm wide, with a single-edged large blade attached to the handle.

The Ash Spider Lord sprayed out numerous strands of spider silk, with several strands sticking onto the broadsword. Seeing that it managed to hit the human’s weapon, the Ash Spider Lord’s mouth curved into a devious smile. It tugged at the spider silk with great force, wanting to disarm the tiny little human. However, contrary to expectations, the weapon wouldn’t budge.

“Hmph, seeking death!” Antonio looked at the confused Ash Spider Lord and sneered.

Clad in a multitude of powerful auras, Antonio yanked hard on the strands of spider silk that were stuck on his weapon. With his overwhelming strength, he pulled the Ash Spider Lord towards himself instead.

Skree!

The Ash Spider Lord screeched in fright was it being pulled towards Antonio. In a last-ditch effort, it raised its two front legs to stab at Antonio.

Thump!

Antonio stomped hard on the ground and launched himself into the air. He arrived in front of the Ash Spider Lord in the blink of an eye, causing its leg attacks to miss. Instead of slashing with his broadsword, Antonio twisted it slightly and bashed the Ash Spider Lord’s head with the flat side of his broadsword to assert dominance.

Splat!

The Ash Spider Lord’s head got popped like a watermelon. Blood and brain matter flew all over the place.

Skree! Skree!

Seven Ash Spider Lords, along with dozens of Ash Spiders, let out enraged screeches and began to swarm Antonio.

“Annoying insects.”

A violent aura began to gather within Antonio’s broadsword, causing it to tremble and glow dark red. Gripping the broadsword with both hands, Antonio swung it horizontally towards the incoming spiders with all his strength.

Boom!

A devastating shockwave shot out from the broadsword. The destructive force engulfed all the incoming spiders.

The Ash Spiders didn’t even have a chance to scream before getting annihilated.

Skree! Skree!

The Ash Spider Lords screeched in excruciating pain as they were blown away by the shockwave. Five of them had lost their front two legs and landed on their back, while the other two got their faces blown off and died outright.

The five surviving Ash Spider Lords endured the agonizing pain of losing their legs and flipped themselves around with great effort. They turned around and fled, not wanting to fight the scary human any longer.

Just as they were crawling away, another devastating shockwave swept over them.

Skree!

The five Ash Spider Lords let out an unwilling screech one last time before their bodies got turned into hollowed husks by the shockwave.

Normally, killing rank 1s meant getting great item drops; however, Antonio frowned at the fact that none of the Ash Spider Lords dropped any items. The only consolation was that he managed to gain a level.

Antonio surveyed his surroundings and saw a huge swarm of Ash Spiders coming towards him. Since he was confident in Elroy’s ability to finish off the remaining three Ash Spider Lords on the other side of the battlefield, he decided to go wipe out the Ash Spiders around him.

Boom! Boom! Boom!

One shockwave after another was launched at the swarm of Ash Spiders. Dozens of Ash Spiders got annihilated by each shockwave.

Seeing that victory is almost at hand, the soldiers and the civilians near the defense line received a boost of morale and fought even harder.

With Antonio leading the charge, all the Ash Spiders were taken care of after half an hour.

Over on Elroy’s side, he had also finished off the remaining three Ash Spider Lords.

“Phew!” Elroy breathed out a sigh of relief. “Managed to kill the final one with the last bit of my mana.”

A white orb of light floated out of one of the three Ash Spider Lords.

“Lucky! One of them finally dropped an item.”

Elroy had a cheerful expression as he reached down to grab the item.

Puchi!

A razor-sharp claw suddenly penetrated through his stomach from the back.

“Eh?”

Elroy’s eyes widened in horror as he stared down at the bloodied claw that had pierced his body.

Without giving Elroy a chance to react, the owner of the claw flung him with great strength towards a forested area in the north direction.

Multiple strands of spider silk shot out from the forested area and stuck onto Elroy’s body. After the spider silk ensnared Elroy, it pulled on him with an even greater force. Within seconds, Elroy got dragged deep inside the forested area and disappeared.

AAAAHHHHHHH!!!

Elroy’s agonizing scream sounded from within the forested area for a short moment before everything went quiet again.

Crunch. Crunch.

The sound of footsteps crushing dried leaves could be heard coming from within the forested area. The outlines of a human, a large spider, and two skeletons soon appeared. The four figures walked up to the owner of the claw that had pierced Elroy and stood together. It was Kaius, Dio, Cenos, Bone Lord McDonald, and the newly created Bone Lord from Elroy’s body.

“It’s you! Don’t even think about escaping this time,” Antonio narrowed his eyes. He recalled the scene of Kaius escaping with Lieutenant Bennet a few days ago.

Kaius completely ignored Antonio. Instead, he looked down and picked up the item that the Ash Spider Lord dropped earlier.

Name

Random Skill Upgrade Scroll

Category

Consumable Item

Use Restriction

None

Description

Strengthens a random skill.

“Nice! Another one of these skill upgrade scrolls.”

Kaius was pleasantly surprised and immediately used it. A series of System notifications sounded inside his head.

[Skill: Eye of Mana had been upgraded.]

[Skill: Eye of Mana had changed to Skill: Eye of Truth]

Kaius examined his newly upgraded skill.

Skill (active)

Eye of Truth (2MP): allows the caster to view more information on all targets. Allows the caster to view complete information on certain targets.

“That’s it? This was the worst possible skill to get upgraded!” Kaius lamented at his own bad luck. “Let’s test it out on Antonio.”

Eye of Truth!

Name

Antonio Valentino

Class

Warrior

Level

40

Health

Normal

Mana

195/400

Strength

148 (+47)

Vitality

86 (+17)

Dexterity

84 (+29)

Intelligence

24 (+12)

Skills (active)

General

Advanced Strength Enhance (35MP): temporarily increases Strength by 12. Duration: 30 minutes.

Intermediate Vitality Enhance (25MP): temporarily increases Vitality by 9. Duration: 30 minutes.

Intermediate Dexterity Enhance (25MP): temporarily increases Dexterity by 9. Duration: 30 minutes.

Intermediate Intelligence Enhance (25MP): temporarily increases Intelligence by 9. Duration: 30 minutes.

Warrior

Charged Blow (10MP): increases Strength by 6 for the next (2 + Vitality/10) attacks.

Chain Strike (20MP): attacks (Dexterity/10) times in quick succession.

Battle Stance (35M): increases Strength, Vitality, and Dexterity by 5. Duration: (15 + level/2) minutes.

Fighting Aura (50PM): imbues the caster and caster's melee weapon with Fighting Aura. Increases caster's Strength and Dexterity by 9. Caster's melee weapon becomes capable of unleashing ranged shockwave attacks. Duration: (10 + Strength/10) minutes.

Skills (passive)

Inner Fortitude: increases Strength and Vitality by 0.5 per level.

Mana Circuit: mana pool increases by an additional 5 points per level.

“I can see his full status! Maybe this new skill is not so bad after all,” Kaius rubbed his chin. He examined Antonio’s weapon next.

Name

Replica Buster Sword

Category

Weapon (Sword)

Use Restriction

Minimum stats requirements: Strength: 50; Vitality: 40

Strength

+12

Description

Cheap replica of the sword once wielded by a guy with spiky blonde hair to fight against a one-winged angel.

Skills (active)

Uni Slash (20MP): increases caster’s Strength by 12 and slash in a single direction. Weapon will disintegrate if caster tries to slash from omni directions.

“Why does this weapon seem so familiar?” Kaius felt the name and description sounded familiar based on the memory he inherited from the original host of this body but can’t quite put his finger on it.

“How dare you ignore me!” Antonio’s veins bulged from being ignored by Kaius this entire time. “Do you have any idea who I am?”

“Yes, yes, you’re Antonio from the great Valorant family,” Kaius waved his hand dismissively.

“It’s Valentino!”

“Tomato, potato, same thing,” Kaius replied lazily.

“You!” Antonio’s face was flushed with anger. He had never been so disrespected in his entire life. “Seeking death!”

Antonio took a heavy step forward and rushed at Kaius with lighting speed.

Charged Blow!

Chain Strike!

Kaius stood where he was without showing any intentions of defending.

Just when Antonio got into striking range, he instinctively felt danger and backed off at the last second.

Clank!

The sound of a sharp object scratching against metal rang out in Antonio’s ears. Looking to his side, he saw the owner of the surprise attack. It was Cenos.

“This rank 1 is dangerous,” Antonio thought to himself inwardly.

Looking at Kaius’ side of rank 1 zombies, Antonio tried to goad him into a 1 on 1 fight.

“Have you no shame fighting me 5v1? Fight me solo if you dare.”

“So what if I have no shame?” Kaius admitted frankly. “In fact, let me summon one more. Come, Calydon.”

Whee!

A three-meter tall Stonetusk Boar came out of the Netherworld.

“Two can play at that game,” Antonio sneered. He then spoke into his military radio, “Shoot them.”

Right as the soldiers took aim at Kaius’ group, Calydon stomped on the ground. A thick wall of earth rose up from the ground and shielded Kaius’ group.

Bam! Bam! Bam!

Dozens of bullets hit the earth wall, causing dirt and debris to fly everywhere. However, none of the bullets were able to penetrate it.

“I was going to leave those small-fry for later, but you just gave them an earlier death sentence,” Kaius narrowed his eyes. Then, he cast a glance at Cenos, “Go kill.”

Shadow Meld!

Cenos disappeared into the shadow created by the wall of earth. Every few seconds, her figure would reappear at another shadow closer to the east entrance and then disappear again.

Bam! Bam! Bam!

The soldiers tried to shoot her during each reappearance, but they were always half a second too late.

Ahhhhh!

A scream eventually rang out from behind the defense line.

One of the soldiers looked down in shock at the fist-sized hole in his chest. Standing behind him was Cenos holding his bloody heart in her claw.

“It’s behind us!”

“Shoot it!”

The soldiers let out panicked shouts at the sudden appearance of Cenos, causing the defense line to become very chaotic.

Bam! Bam! Bam!

All the soldiers aimed their automatic rifles at Cenos and shot without mercy.

Shield Wall!

A translucent barrier suddenly appeared in front of Cenos, shielding her from all the incoming bullets.

“What…?!”

The soldiers became alarmed at the unexpected Shield Wall.

Sometime earlier, when Kaius was observing the situation around Milton through Starpho, he saw Antonio gather all his forces on the west and east sides, leaving the north and south sides wide open. Hence, Kaius told Lieutenant Bennet to sneak into the city through the north side.

Right behind the east city entrance was a large residential area. Within one of the empty houses, Lieutenant Bennet had hidden inside one of the bedrooms and cast his skill.

Under the constant protection of multiple Shield Walls, Cenos was able to go all out on the soldiers. She weaved around the battlefield, harvesting lives with every swipe of her claw like a ruthless grim reaper.

Ahhhhh!

Pitiful screams sounded from all over the battlefield. In less than a minute, over a dozen soldiers had already fallen.

A group of five soldiers looked at each other with a determined gaze and charged at Cenos without regard for their own lives. They formed a tight formation with one in the front, two in the middle, and two in the back.

Cenos did not choose to face the group of five soldiers head on. Her lithe figure flashed around and appeared behind them with lightning speed. Before any of them even had a chance to react, she had already swiped out with her claws. The heads of the two soldiers at the back were instantly decapitated and flew through the air.

The two soldiers in the middle just started to react, but it was already too late. Cenos brought her claws back and stabbed right through their heads. She quickly retracted her claws, causing the two soldiers to slump lifeless onto the ground.

The final soldier at the front just had enough time to turn around and face Cenos.

Puchi!

Cenos attacked with her claw and pierced his heart from the front. She managed to kill all five soldiers in the blink of an eye.

Facing Cenos, the final soldier muttered his last words with his dying breath, “Die, you zombie freak.”

The soldier’s hands unclenched. Eight grenade pins fell to the ground.

Boom!

All eight grenades hidden inside the soldier’s pockets detonated at the same time. A huge explosion engulfed Cenos.

When all the dust and debris finally settled, the soldiers were relieved to see that only the lower half of Cenos’ body remained; her entire upper body had been blown away!

“Yes!”

“Take that, you zombie scum!”

Just as the soldiers started to celebrate, a scream suddenly rang out.

Ahhhhhh!

All the soldiers became alarmed once more and aimed their automatic rifles towards the direction of the scream.

A claw had pierced the stomach of a soldier. Behind the soldier stood a perfectly healthy Cenos.

“How?”

“Didn’t it just die?”

The soldiers were confused at how Cenos was still alive. Looking back at the location of the explosion, they saw the lower body of the other Cenos transform into a puff of dark smoke and disappear.

Ahhhhhh!

Right at this moment, another scream sounded out from a different part of the defense line.

Some of the soldiers turned around and saw a soldier got his body pierced by another Cenos.

“The… there’s another one!”

“Shoot them both!”

The soldiers went into full panic mode and fired their automatic rifles without stop.

Shield Wall!

Shield Wall!

Translucent barriers appeared in front of both Cenoses, shielding them from the bullets once more.

The remaining soldiers were forced to divide their attention across two Cenoses, causing the pressure on each Cenos to decrease significantly.

Thump! Thump!

Both Cenoses contracted their muscles and activated their innate abilities, causing their speed to skyrocket. One of them activated a skill, causing her speed to increase even further.

The soldiers could only see two dark shadows flash by before getting their heads decapitated. Blood sprayed out from their necks and dyed the ground red.

Within a matter of minutes, the remaining soldiers were all massacred by the two Cenoses. The battlefield finally became quiet.

Outside the defense line, Antonio watched the killing of his soldiers with traces of anger and wariness.

“Its speed is going to be difficult to deal with,” Antonio thought inwardly. Although he was angry at losing so many soldiers, he had to focus his attention on the threats in front of him.

Advanced Scan!

Name

Dio

Class

Rank 1 Evolved Undead (Ash Spider Lord)

Level

31

Health

Normal

Mana

135/135

Strength

79

Vitality

73

Dexterity

72

Intelligence

22

Skills (active)

???

Skills (passive)

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

Name

Cenos

Class

Rank 1 Evolved Zombie

Level

34

Health

Normal

Mana

180/180

Strength

83

Vitality

44

Dexterity

129

Intelligence

27

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.

Shadow Clone (25MP): create (1 + level/20) shadow clones that look exactly like the caster. Shadow clones have 90% of the caster’s attribute, can use the caster’s innate ability, but can’t use any of the caster’s skills. Duration: 10 minutes.

Skills (passive)

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

Name

Calydon

Class

Rank 1 Evolved Cursed Beast

Level

36

Health

Normal

Mana

210/210

Strength

91

Vitality

96

Dexterity

79

Intelligence

26

Skills (active)

???

Earthen Wall (25MP): create a wall of earth that is six meters tall, ten meters wide, and half a meter thick. Durability of the wall increases proportional to the caster’s Vitality.

Skills (passive)

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

“All of them are troublesome to deal with,” Antonio frowned deeply. “I might even have to use ‘that’.”

On the other side, Kaius looked at Cenos’ performance with satisfaction. After consuming many rank 1 corpses, Dio, Cenos, and Calydon all became stronger and gained new skills.

“Now that all the cannon fodders got eliminated, time to take care of their boss,” Kaius turned his attention to Antonio.

“Kid, you’re overestimating yourself if you think you can take me on with the help of these pathetic zombies,” Antonio spoke confidently.

“If these guys are not enough, then how about I summon some more?” Kaius smirked. “Come forth.”

A large undead army came out of the Netherworld and stood behind Kaius. There were 180 zombies, 180 skeleton warriors, 360 reanimated Stonetusk Piglets, and 32 Skeleton Soldiers. Dio, Calydon, two Bone Lords, and Cenos, who had just made her way back to Kaius’ side, stood at the forefront of this army.

Nether Lord’s Aura!

Corrosive Nether Domain!

The entire undead army received a 6% attribute boost and gained the Corrosive Armor and Vital Break passive skills. On the other hand, Antonio’s attributes got decreased by 13%.

“You damn necromancer!” Antonio cursed. “You only know how to rely on numbers.”

“First of all, that’s Mr. Nether Lord to you,” Kaius corrected in a lofty tone. “Secondly, you’re right, I like to bully people with numbers. What are you going to do about it?”

“You…!” Antonio’s face turned red with anger. “You’re going to regret this.”

Kaius ignored Antonio and gave a command to his undead army.

“Kill him.”