"Gehhhh..." - Garami

I slumped across the table in the house that my Guild had occupied when the Nequitas army had started to settle down in the Horror Hills District. "What's the point of traveling to the Village District when they're going to fight in just a few days?" was the answer I got from Regina (the drunkard) when I caught her after I returned to the house area of the district, Alf sleeping in his coffin all the while.

*Sigh*, I couldn't be more grateful for Mira having fixed things for us while I was gone. She even made a deal with Blot after getting us "off" the job of acting as Filyn's "bodyguards".

To summarize, the contract with Filyn is now "complete", so we're not forced to participate in the castle assault, but Blot has agreed that we can join in exchange for some of the loot there. I wonder what's the catch here? Maybe because he takes pity on us who have had to endure the presence of the future Demon Queen?

......That does sound plausible. Either that, or there are some deals done under the table here, but whatever. If it doesn't harm me, I don't care. Blot has already left the island, so I can't ask him even if I want to. He only needed to make a "teleport point" on the island before zapping away.

Still...*sigh*. Despite the favorable conditions Mira provided us, I'm still behind regarding my "war power"...

I once again looked at the System Messages that had arrived after I exited the Zombie Trial during my "drunk period" one more time and couldn't do anything but sigh out of exasperation.

SYSTEM MESSAGE:

You have cleared the Trial: [Catacomb of Corpses]!!!

Pick your prize:

Ex-rarity item: Material: [Zombie King's Crown].

Ex-rarity item: Equipment: [Zombie King's Sword].

Bonus objective: [Complete Map] cleared!!

Acquired 3rd tier Skill: [Auto-Mapping Lv.1].

Bonus objective: [Eco-Friendly Necromancer] cleared!!

Acquired 3rd tier Skill: [Dangerous Necromancy].

Skill: [Dangerous Necromancy] has been integrated into skill: [Dangerous Necromancy].

I chose the crown, and getting to know that you can obtain certain bonus rewards through similar Trials is a good thing. I wanna use the various undead materials and abilities gathered in this place to enhance either the blindfold or my outfit to the next level.

As for [Auto-Mapping], it's something I obtained because Bloom did a damn good job with the skeleton forces while I was asleep and went through the whole catacombs, mapping the whole place in the Kigal-Note. In short, skill is a mental version of the Kigal-Note's mapping effect. Not sure if it's needed, but it could be handy in some situations. The skill levels tell how many maps one can "save" and how detailed they are, by the way.

However...this is just the tip of the iceberg that my drunk rampage has created...

SYSTEM MESSAGE:

Your level has increased. You have gone from Lv.26 to Lv.30.

You have earned a total of 1.2 Aether Points.

Due to the Blessing: "Champion of Alvatria", an additional 1.2 Aether Points were earned.

Main Class: [Arachnid Assailant] has reached Lv.50.

Sub Class: [Weaver] has reached Lv.41.

Sub Class: [Demonic Rogue] has reached Lv.50.

Sub Class: [Spectermancer] has reached Lv.31

Sub Class: [Alchemist] has reached Lv.20.

You have earned a total of 1.2 Aether Points.

Due to "Champion of Alvatria", an additional 1.2 Aether Points were earned.

By reaching Lv.50 in the [Arachnid Assailant] class, you have acquired the skill: [Web Creation Lv.1].

By reaching Lv.40 in the [Weaver] class, you have acquired the skill: [Fast Creation: Cloth Lv.1].

By reaching Lv.40 in the [Demonic Rogue] class, you have acquired the skill: [Rogue's Assault Lv.1].

By reaching Lv.50 in the [Demonic Rogue] class, you have acquired the skill: [Killer's Composure Lv.1].

By reaching Lv.30 in the [Spectermancer] class, you have acquired the skill: [Create Undead: Ghost Lv.1].

By reaching Lv.20 in the [Alchemist] class, you have acquired the skill: [Mana Circle Lv.1].

It is now possible to evolve the [Arachnid Assailant] class.

It is now possible to evolve the [Demonic Rogue] class.

Your title: [Undead Slayer] has advanced into the title: [Undead Slaughterer].

Acquired skill: [Massive Mana Lv.1].

Skill: [Massive Mana Lv.1] has been integrated into skill: [Massive Mana Lv.18].

Your title: [Undead Slaughterer] has advanced into the title: [Undead Genocider].

Acquired skill: [Ghost Chaser Lv.1].

Acquired title: [Skeleton Slayer]

Acquired skill: [Speed Lv.1].

Skill: [Speed Lv.1] has been integrated into skill: [Swift Speed Lv.3].

Your title: [Skeleton Slayer] has advanced into the title: [Skeleton Slaughterer].

Acquired skill: [Swift Speed Lv.1].

Skill: [Swift Speed Lv.1] has been integrated into skill: [Swift Speed Lv.3].

Your title: [Skeleton Slaughterer] has advanced into the title: [Skeleton Genocider].

Acquired skill: [Death Touch Lv.1].

Your title: [Zombie Slayer] has advanced into the title: [Zombie Slaughterer].

Acquired skill: [Tougher Vitality Lv.1].

Skill: [Tougher Vitality Lv.1] has been integrated into skill: [Tougher Vitality Lv.6].

Your title: [Zombie Slaughterer] has advanced into the title: [Zombie Genocider].

Acquired skill: [Will of the Dead Lv.1].

Acquired title: [Mountain of Corpses].

Acquired title: [Inorganic Slayer]

Acquired skill: [Stamina Lv.1].

Skill: [Stamina Lv.1] has been integrated into skill: [Increased Stamina Lv.12].

Conditions cleared. You have cleared the quest: [Grand Genocide].

Quest rewards can be retrieved from the World System at any time.

Why I haven't reached Waning yet (an ailment that you get for obtaining too many skills in a short time that your soul starts to hurt) is a big mystery. Hahahaha...

Enough reality-escaping. I gotta sort through all this new info before the big fight in a few days. And I promised Revi to help her develop her abilities..., but for now, I got to focus on myself.

Just how in the world can one batch of booze cause such an explosive boost in skills, class levels, and titles?! To be fair, I had Bloom "pause" the System Messages from appearing during the fight against the copycat dolls, so it's all my fault for getting overwhelmed by this amount.

[Inorganic Slayer] comes from the mentioned dolls, and I already had [Zombie Slayer] and [Undead Slayer] thanks to the Graveyard District. [Skeleton Slayer] is new. I didn't do much fighting in the Halloween District.

As for my classes, I did repair lots of the stuff in the theater's storage while waiting for Revi, but I think some of the new levels for Weaver and Alchemist come from the booze brawls. Arachnid Assailant could give some slight proficiency to the former, while the latter must have gotten some thanks to Spectermancer. The origin of Necromancy is Alchemy after all. As for why I got this much for both classes can only be answered by the sheer amount of combat I did while drunk.

As for why my combat classes reached their level cap? Dude, do I even need to answer that?

As for the skills I've obtained, the ones I'm unfamiliar with are [Spectral Avatar], [Dangerous Necromancy], [Auto-Mapping], [Ghost Chaser], [Death Touch], and [Will of the Dead]. I've already studied the skills I got from my classes' level-up parade, so those are fine for now.

But what genuinely catches my interest is this [Grand Genocider] quest. I cleared it by obtaining the [Mountain of Corpses] title by having obtained 4 different "Genocider"-titles. In addition to the three newcomers, I already had the [Dread Spirit Genocider] title from before. Geez, what kind of saint am I to have defeated so many vile creatures? Not that I think any church would allow me to enter their doorsteps.

Back to the quest, it seems to award you with a "Genocide Drive" skill. Revi had one as well, thanks to her many years of surviving the wild undead before she managed to hole up in the theater. These skills seem to sacrifice your HP, MP, and SP passively while active, but in exchange, they vastly enhance one specific status value to an absurd degree.

It took me a while, but I decided to settle with SPD. Boosting my defense with RES or VIT isn't my thing, and using it with DEX would just stress me by feeling my HP decreasing, which could potentially ruin the creation of my traps. Enhancing my attack strength through STR could be something, but I'm more for hitting weak spots rather than relying on brute force, so SPD is a better choice among those two. As for MAG, my "spells" are more for Necromancy, so I don't need MAG that much. Good, onward to the next skills.

[Spectral Avatar] is...tricky. It allows me to leave my body in the form of a spirit, but it has some drawbacks. For the first, I'm leaving my body behind, unguarded. Second, I cannot interact with the "realm of the living", if I have to call it something. No one can see me, they can't touch me, but I can't do anything to them. It's just my speculation, but stuff like ghost-warding items may prevent me from entering those places as well. Finally, I can't use any skills while in ghost form either.

In short, it's a difficult-to-use ability. I might just end up feeding it to a Nightmare Item ability.

[Dangerous Necromancy] is a skill restricted to Necromancy users, something to be expected seeing as it came from a bonus objective you can only complete by being a commander of the dead.

Anyway, the skill allows one to spend extra MP to "overcharge" the created undead. They turn more powerful, but they're guaranteed to go boom after a while. Seeing as how Necro Counters are limited, I can't say I wanna run this skill. That doesn't prevent it from being a possible ingredient to a necromancy-enhancing Nightmare Item ability, especially with all the other stuff I've gotten during this trip. Hopefully, the ka-boom part could be "thinned out" enough if I add enough necro-only elements.

[Auto-Mapping] just gives me access to mental maps that are updated in real time. The Kigal-Note can do the same, so I'm not sure how good it is. Well, I could combine the effect with [Gamemaster] to further improve its mapping abilities...I think. Let's just think of it as another free source for AP.

[Ghost Chaser] is a passive that allows one to ignore certain resistances that the undead creatures possess. With it, I should be able to hit even ghosts with physical attacks. It's easily said useful, especially in this city. I might wanna keep it.

[Death Touch] allows me to inflict Death-type damage to a target simply by touching someone, with a slight chance to inflict Death-based [Insta-Death] status ailments. Said ailment isn't exactly "instant death" as its name suggests, but it inflicts a percentage of the target's original HP value as damage when it "triggers", so the skill is essentially a Death-version of my [Aura of Darkness]. You could mitigate the damage with resistance skills for the attribute of the ailment, Death in this case, but it's still a powerful ailment.

Still, it is a Death skill in the end, and I have to directly touch someone with my own hands for it to work. I may not have use for it myself, but as with lots of other stuff I've gotten from this undead city, it may be handy for a Nightmare Item ability.

Last but not least is the [Will of the Dead] skill. If your HP ever reaches 0, this skill allows you to stay alive for a little while and even escape death if you manage to recover your HP during that short amount of time. Unfortunately, passive HP-recovery skills are disabled during this grace period, so you need some active form for healing if you wanna survive. Oh, and one's resistances against ailments that the undead usually are safe against are boosted as well.

I might not be the best when it comes to defense, but even I can't say no to such a great deal. How can this be of the same skill tier (2nd tier) as the more impractical [Death Touch]? Are the gods secretly hating Zombies yet okay with Skeletons?

Also, my AP has surpassed the 50-point line (self-made term). Luckily, many of my skills, along with my two rogue-ish classes, have reached Lv.50, making them ready for an upgrade. Huh, 50 points that can be used for evolving Lv.50 skills and classes. Funny coincidence.

"Garami, are you-, there you are." - Noire

Right as I had finished "purchasing" my new class, [Arachnid Assassin] (there was also an [Arachnid Reaper], but it had too much focus on instant death and too little on traps), Noire entered our temporary HQ and saw me.

"Something's up?" - Garami

"What is this talk about us having to enter the castle along with Lady Filyn's forces!?" - Noire

"Not along with them. After them. We're going to pick up the stragglers, be it either undead or treasures." - Garami

"After? Damn that Mira. Is she trying to trick the rest of us to try and compete with Lady Filyn's rampage in her quest for treasures?" - Noire

That is...not too farfetched. Noire, were you always this sharp? Or should I think of Mira as too predictable? In any case, with my rampage, the large number of skills I need to handle now, as well as teaching Revi, I doubt I'll have any time to keep everyone, mostly Mira, in line regarding the castle invasion...

"Right, where's Alf?" - Garami

"Him? I saw him sleeping in a nasty bed. Is he going to be alright? At this rate, I fear he might end up as an undead one of these days." - Noire

Stop joking about that! I'm fearing the same thing..., but there are some good undead out there. Visiting this place has made that clear as day, so maybe being a little dead isn't that bad?

"Wake him up and tell him he's gonna be responsible for the preparations for the castle raid. I'm too busy." - Garami

Secret move: push away your responsibilities! A true Ex Skill that all Guild Masters need to possess to qualify for their title!

"I approve. Recruiting the ghost may have been a good move, but when it comes to Filyn's antics, we need someone with a touch of common sense for this." - Noire

...Why did she glance towards me when she mentioned "common sense"? Okay, so I'm not exactly overflowing with that stuff, but I'm not as bad as Filyn! ...Hmm? Just following her makes me crazier than Alf who rejected her offer back when he left his hometown, you say? You just shut it!!