me 23 Chapter 5
Chapter 5: Canyon of the Death Knight
Sponsored by Ser4, TLC by Enlightened End
Weed hunted over 45 Barit monsters.
Running down the slopes of the canyon on his ghost horse, every slashed dealt a precise killing blow on these Barits!
“Who is that Death Knight?”
“I don’t know. Choosing to be a combatant rather than an Undead summoner and still coming this far. Does anyone know that guy?”
“I think I’ve seen him in Kapua. There was a ghost knight that made monsters shiver just by looking at him. Could it be him?”
“Oh! That ghost knight.”
The Necromancers stared down at Weed’s action from the end of the canyon, admiring his movements.
Sword rotated freely in his hand as he slashed every Barits in his way.
On a horse, the knight’s charge was one of the most useful skill available.
The skill increased the attack multiple times thanks to the additional speed and weight.
However, attacking with a sword or skill while riding on horseback at full speed was extremely hard.
And this was not a flat plain, but a canyon with uneven surface.
One needed a perfect balance between the riding the reckless horse and measuring the attack distance to the enemy.
This was difficult even for players who chose to be knights and spend thousands of hours practicing horseback riding.
“How can he fight so well?”
“It’s like he has eyes at the back of his head. That’s absurd.”
“His combinations of skills and dynamics, word can't describe it. I am really curious about who that person is.”
Horses weren’t always helpful.
Even if your charge attack was successful, it created a backlash.
If the backlash couldn’t be withstood, there is a chance of falling off from the horse.
If heavy armour were worn when thrown off the horse, the impact caused confusion or paralysis status so it could become highly dangerous.
To fighting like that on a horse… The Necromancers were amazed.
It looked as if they were watching a beast.
Barit was a tough monster.
They were big as a bear, these aggressive monsters lived in a herd and their level even exceeded 350.
With their excellent instinct their sense of combat was outstanding making them difficult to hunt.
Most hunting parties avoided facing groups of Barits exactly for this reason.
But Weed, he charged the Barits with no fear or hesistation.
In the battlefield littered with Undeads and Barits, he fought with most optimal movement.
Of course these Barits were dangerous and often inflicted serious damages but Balkan was someplace close from here.
Due to this the effect of Death Aura was more powerful allowing him to fight continuously as it constantly regenerated his health.
After defending the canyon for the third time, Necromancers were finally able to catch a break with the coming of the dawn as the number of monsters appearing dropped.
As Weed was coming up the canyon riding on his horse, Otem spoke to him.
“Hey, excuse me.”
“Yes?”
Weed answered with his face still covered by his helmet, this was out of courtesy since his face was just a skull.
It was not only him, most Necromancer players concealed their body with robes. It made for a pretty weird scenery.
“Not many people chose combat related class… you are very nimble. Do you like fighting in such manner?”
“……..”
Weed was not used to complements.
‘Is he saying that I fought well? I shouldn’t have stood out so much, it’s going to affect how much items I can pick up.’
In his conscience, he only picked up items from monsters he defeated himself.
But to be honest, he did kill plenty of near dead monsters.
Under the canyon it was a cluster of mess and craziness that attacking Barit one-by-one with full health was an impossibility.
So fighting the Barits that were distracted by the other Undead, the curses and Corpse Explosion spells flying about helped immensely.
He didn’t know exactly which Necromancers decided to help him but calculating the mana use, there were about two.
While he was charging in between the Barits, they frequently summoned Bone Shields or Bone Walls to block the incoming attacks.
Truthfully many of the Barits he defeated were already near death.
In return there were many other Barits that were left stuned in his wake that he couldn’t finish off.
Regardless he was on the constant look out for the boss Barits to kill.
Since he was fighting down the canyon, it was different from Kapua village where it was impossible not to stand out.
“I observed the whole thing.”
“……….”
“You seem pretty strong. Wouldn’t it be convenient to join forces in this canyon?”
Otem suggests to team up and fight together.
One of few female player Harien also chimed in.
“That’s right. You should join us there won’t be any harm in it. We could use some help and it looks like you need some summons there too.”
It seemed that as Weed was a combat class rather than a summoner they did not think he was part of the competition, with their expression lacking any jealousy or anger.
In this canyon co-operating with others was key to successfully completing the quest, also the Necromancers need to be on the constant look out for corpses to raise up a first rate Undead.
Usually Necromancers tried their best to recruit any level of mercenaries, even low-level ones at a high price. Even so as Necromancers had bad reputations in general it was hard to recruit mercenaries.
They did this as if someone could fight for them in the front line it was a tremendous help to them.
It was same for Weed, with monsters swarming all over the canyon it was hard to block everywhere.
Though it was called a canyon, in terms of size it was only wide enough to allow seven chariots to pass at one time. And if he was to fight alone even after 24 hours of non-stop fighting, it would not be enough.
With the monsters also flinging arrows and stone at him, it was too much to handle alone.
“In the best interest of defending this canyon, I think it would be best to help each other. You never know what is going to happen next, so why not team up?”
Even Jeanne was saying her piece, so Weed could not refuse the offer.
“Alright.”
Deploying the Undead equally it was agree that Weed would fight freely just as before.
Necromancers weren’t fit for a party in the first place and this method allowed the best tactic considering the geographic features of the canyon.
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“Uuhihihihih.”
Zabrin arrived at Kapua village equipped with items from the Hermes Guild.
“They sure have a lot of items.”
In Hermes Guild’s safe there were piles of rare and cursed items.
Zabrin was in a state where cursed items were useful so he picked the most effective ones.
A ring that reduces luck by 140 but protects the user against specters, armor that spreads rotten mephitis in a body, necklace that creates mana and strength by sacrificing health and a denture for skeletons!
It was too bad that he couldn’t take everything he wanted but these items for Undeads were truly excellent.
Zabrin managed to double his weak magic power.
Even the rod he was holding was an item specifically for Necromancers!
It made the summoned Undeads rough and fast while shortening their lifespan but in here where corpses were plentiful, it wan’t a problem.
‘Now it will be a bit easier.’
Joining the Hermes Guild was truly an excellent choice.
Siding with a guild of terrifying strength, power and authority came naturally.
Even after he was promoted to a ghost, Zabrin did not stop participating in quest using Undeads.
There were so many items he could get if he could just be qualified for it.
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“Arrg!
Geomchi287 fell down on the ground.
“I lost again.”
The match that started with Geomchi505 continued on with higher ranking trainees participating but they continued to lose.
Sword Master Ash’s Sword-cloning skill!
Once it was activated, the player’s body multiplied up to 40 times.
It was hard to distinguish the real from the fake bodies, as the clones had mana and about 15% of the original’s strength.
It was a fantastic skill proving the reason for player’s eagerness to get a hold of the Sword Master’s skill.
Every time Ash won, he spoke.
“To master my skills, you need supreme swordsmanship. You have met the qualification. I shall teach you my Sword-cloning skill.”
It was an unbelievable offer.
Though they could not defeat Ash, they lasted a long time against him. With their combat response, instinct and weapon skill they met the qualification to learn the Sword-cloning skill.
Geomchis also respected the strong.
“If you will teach me I will learn it.”
No reason to refuse someone who was willing to teach a strong skill!
- You learned the Sword-cloning skill.
They didn’t have to fight seriously but the Geomchis wanted a fair fight.
Fighting with all their strength and skill a lot of time had passed.
Geomchi5 fought Ash evenly.
After a while of attacking the clones who had low life, he struck a direct hit on Ash.
Though he succeed slashing Ash with his sword, Ash’s unbelievable defense and life made barely a scratch.
However, Geomchi5 wasn’t an idiot that only touted his strength.
Before he became an instructor he spent all his teenage year fighting.
When he reached his twenties the fight became life or death battle so he knew how to fight well.
‘Damage the real one to weaken the clones.’
CLAAAAANG!
Geomchi5’s sword clashed with Ash’s blade and continued to slide down.
The moment the swords clashed and joined, he twisted his wrist in a split second and crushed Ash’s blade.
Not even a legendary sword’s durability would survive when a thick sword pressed passed it.
In reality, it would be fine as long as it was not completely broken but this was Royal Road.
- You reduced Ash’s sword durability by -4%
Ash’s attack is reduced by -11%
And then he pressed the attack!
- You have inflicted a crit