Chapter 8: Undead Energy

Translator: alyschu

Like a tiger leaping for food, or a dog leaping for shit, I fell to the grass and tightly hugged this longsword. Tears streamed down my face. "Baby, I’ve finally found you!"

I held the longsword in my hand. The hilt was covered in green vines and the blade was sharp and flashed with intimidating green light. A cold aura passed into my palm. I looked at its stats. As expected, a good treasure—

Forest Green Blade (Iron-grade)

Attack: 10~18

Strength: +4

Level Requirement: 8

......

Wonderful, 18 Attack. It far surpassed the starting sword. This green blade was too strong. With the present situation of the starting village, I could dominate the area.

At this time, a bell sounded in the air—

Ding~!

System Announcement (Player Roaming Dragon Shout): Friends, I am the leader of the Mad Dragon guild. I found a Night Creature in the south of Sunshine Forest, a terrifying skeleton warrior. Supposedly a new boss of the starting village. Friends who are strong enough can team up and kill him.

......

I stilled slightly. Roaming Dragon was very rich. A system shout would require 5000 RMB from his account. The guy would bear to spend that?

Also, he was extremely devious. He described me as a boss. He clearly wanted someone to do his dirty work.

I was a player of the Dark faction. Even my name was red for them. Never mind, I won’t stay around long. There is some bad blood between Mad Dragon and me, but there is no need to make more enemies. That wouldn’t be wise.

I looked at my experience bar. Level 9, 57%. I'll wait until I reach Level 10 for class promotion and learn a few combat techniques. If Roaming Dragon wants me wanted, I’ll let him do whatever he wants, but I won’t be keeping him company.

With my new green blade, my strength would increase greatly. I would kill my way out of Sunshine Forest, accumulate experience along the way. When I returned to the Corpse Heap Graveyard, I would basically be Level 10.

A Level 10 Green Praying Mantis leapt at my face.

I swung the green blade without even thinking. With a crack, damage points rose above the mantis's head.

124!

So strong. My attack power of 38~64 didn’t disappoint me!

Level 10 monsters usually had around 500 HP, so I could defeat them in roughly four strokes. The refreshing feeling of upgrading my equipment was great!

I fought my way out of Sunshine Forest and headed straight toward the starting village.

At this time, a system bell rang—

Ding~!

System Announcement: Player "Wind Fantasy" is the first player qualified for class promotion. Rewards obtained: Level +1, Reputation +50 and 1 gold!

......

I was slightly shocked. What kind of fierce person would reach Level 10 faster than me? As expected, this was an era of experts!

I walked into the starting village and found the Corpse Heap Graveyard Guard to turn in my mission. As expected, I successfully reached Level 10. The system did not give me face and announce it to the world, but I didn’t mind. My present identity was not suitable to be known to the world. Otherwise, a group of Light faction grunts that hated the Dark would charge into the Corpse Heap Graveyard. They might even nail me to a cross or drown me in a pig cage. I didn’t dare to imagine the miserable circumstances.

I came to the merchant and took out the Big Magic Stone. The skeleton beauty immediately gaped and sighed emotionally. "Young skeleton, you must be really strong to harvest a magic stone so abundant in magic power. Come, I am willing to buy it for 1980 copper!"

I nodded, and sold the four Small Magic Stones as well. As a result, 24 silver was added to my balance. Learning skills should not be a problem now.

I once again came to the undead mage. This one was the village chief. Before I left the village, I had to give notice.

"Young skeleton, you have grown so quickly. This really fills me with joy!"

The village chief tapped my head with his staff and laughed. "Go, there is a wider world waiting for you outside. Your next stop is Floating Ice City. There is a Frost Mound ten miles outside Floating Ice City. Hm, that place will become your shelter. At Frost Mound, you can find the Undead Swordsman Suren. If you take my introduction letter, Suren will accept you as an apprentice!"

Pop.

The introduction letter fell into my bag. As expected, this was proof of my class promotion. Starting today, I was an undead swordsman aiming for glory and courage as well as riches and bitches!

With my breast full of spirit, I stepped onto the path to Floating Ice City, the place where dreams were realized.

Floating Ice City, one of the nine tier 2 cities in the China server. Above them were the three major cities. But the names of the three major cities had not been announced yet and on the map, the three major cities were blank.

Basically, the players from the Jiangsu and Zhejiang regions had been allocated to Floating Ice City. This was a geographic distribution method.

Opening the world map, the coordinates of Floating Ice City had already appeared. It was about an hour of travel from Corpse Heap Graveyard. There were many starting villages around Floating Ice City, at least ten or so. Also, the elite players of these ten starting villages would all gather inside Floating Ice City. At that time, it would be a prosperous place, overflowing with heroes.

I smiled slightly, and stepped onto the road, me and my green blade. Floating Ice City would be the stage where "Falling Dust" would rise again!

I traveled along the small gray path, and did not encounter any dangers. If I had seen any human sentinels, I would have hidden far away. These soldiers would not allow anything to escape them, let alone a powerful skeleton soldier like me.

Beep!

The system gave me a notice: Hello, player Broken Halberd Sinks Into Sand. Because you belong to an abandoned race, you can freely enter the safezones of the Light and Dark factions and not be attacked. However, in combat areas, your affiliation will be that of a devil!

Oh, so it was like this. I could still enter cities!

But when I thought about it, it didn’t matter. The NPCs in cities wouldn’t give missions to an undead swordsman. It would be better if I just stayed at Frost Mound. There, I could obtain some missions and learn powerful skills!

When I thought of skills, I grew teary-eyed. I battled through the night without any skills! I finally reached the point where I could learn them!

I immediately started to run. After leaving the region of Floating Ice City, I sprinted into the vast forest. Not long later, a heavy undead presence washed over me, cold wind blew. My goal, the Frost Mound, was right in front of me. This was a sentinel mound for the Dark faction. Stationed there was a relatively weak sentinel group of Night Creatures.

Gulp, gulp...

There were two blood ponds on either side of the Frost Mound, their contents filled with torn-off limbs, boiling and bubbling. Was this the cafeteria for Night Creatures?

At the mere thought, I almost threw up. Even if you kill me, I won’t eat corpses!

When I entered Frost Mound, I saw a group of NPCs trading on the outskirts. The undead blacksmiths had exposed white bones as they swung their hammers at hot metal. The undead skeleton of the pharmacy held a potion bottle and gave a snarling smile. When I met his gaze, I felt terrified like I was naked.

I carefully walked about the mound and finally found the person I was searching for!

An undead warrior completely shrouded in armor appeared, holding a sword flashing with bloody light. He looked around coldly, with a line of words above his head—

Undead Swordsman Suren LV-???

Oh, I found my trainer!

I walked forward, and handed my introduction letter from the village chief.

Suren looked at the paper and said coldly, "Boy, you are about to become my apprentice, and a courageous undead swordsman. You must remember that all of our killing is for the sake of survival. To this end, we can abandon anything, but not pride of the undead!"

I nodded. "I know, Master."

Suren laughed, walked forward, and put a hand on my bare skull. His voice was solemn. "Awaken, oh sleeping dead, and have your undead energy illuminate the world and upend all laws!"

Buzz!

Chaos occurred in my mind followed by the echo of a bell—

Ding~!

System Notice: You have successfully comprehended a talent—Undead Energy!

I quickly opened the skill menu. As expected, there was a passive skill—

Undead Energy I (Passive): Awakens the undead power sleeping inside the user. Deals additional 5% damage to all living targets. Skill effect increases with level.

I was overjoyed. This skill did not look like much, but was in reality extremely powerful. Undead Energy I dealt 5% additional damage. If I reached Level 100, and my talent was Rank 10, then wouldn't I be able to deal 50% extra damage, or even more?

Ecstasy!

At this time, Undead Swordsman Suren looked at me with a heated gaze. He laughed and said, "Boy, your potential is very good. Now, I give you the qualifications to become an undead swordsman!"

With a "ding", I finished my class promotion and finally became a true undead swordsman!

After that, the trainer remained motionless, staring at me. This guy was clearly waiting for me to pay to learn skills.

I walked forward and opened the interaction interface. The option to learn new skills was in the middle. I pressed it, three lines of text appearing in front of me—

Basic Swordsmanship: Increase hit rate and damage of sword-type weapons. Basic class skill.

Death Plunder: When looting a dead body, you have a chance of obtaining additional items.

Slayer Slash: Deals 110% damage but lowers attack’s hit rate by 35%.

Very good. I finally had an active attack skill. This Slayer Slash looked to be quite powerful. At Level 1, the skill could deal 110% damage. However, the hit rate would decrease slightly. But that was not important. If my attacks were fast and accurate, this bit of hit rate could be made up by control.

The fee for learning each skill was 5 silver, I had 24. I was able to learn them all. Two active skills immediately appeared in my skill menu. One was the attack Slayer Slash, the other, Death Plunder. Both were useful.

I waved the green blade and silently murmured “Slayer Slash”. Immediately, my blade was enveloped with green light that flowed from the handle all the way to the tip!

"Puchi!"

A small gully was cut in the ground. Ha, the skill effect was pretty good.

After leaving Undead Trainer Suren, I strolled around Frost Mound. Even though I was excited about them, I still didn’t go try them out yet. When I came to the outskirts of Frost Mound, I found a sentinel team of five people setting up camp. The undead warrior dressed in white armor was the leader. He was looking into the distance at Floating Ice City, and sighed listlessly.

Mn, a quest!

I walked forward confidently and said, "Sir, is there something I can help you with?"

"Oh, little skeleton!"

The sentinel leader looked at me and said, "You see, this graveyard is our home, but recently, a group of evil spirits have invaded our land. I suspect that we are dealing with an Undead Lord. We need to retaliate! Young skeleton! Go around the necropolis and kill fifty weak soldiers. Bring me ten of their fingers. You will be generously awarded!"

Ding~!

System Notice: You’ve received a quest [Skeleton Finger]! (Quest Rank : F+)

Description: Go to the graveyard, kill 50 Skeleton Soldiers, and gather 10 Skeleton Fingers for the Sentinel Leader Fark.

......

"Dammit, someone dares to invade our territory?! They are courting death!"

With confident strides and sword in hand, I left Frost Mound, subconsciously already thinking of it as my territory.