To the undead, a graveyard’s blood pool was an extreme extravagance, like a luxurious feast.

Standing close to the edges of the pool, I waved my hand. After Summon Undead glowed, a short skinny skeleton crawled out. It shakily stood behind me in a minion-like way.

Demonic Servant (Basic)

Level: 5

Attack: 15~50

Defense: 20

HP: 150

Properties: Disappears when its master goes offline.

The little skeleton bent at its waist and bowed at me but I clearly saw the word “trash” across its forehead. Defense 20, Attack 50, with only 150 HP? Could it even survive?

I helplessly shook my head. At this time, Undead Lord Cyan Rain had discovered his enemy. He pounced over with a heavy sword in hand, yelling, “Lowly undead, go die in hell!”

With a mad howl, Suren charged over with his sword!

Clang!

In the midst of the clash of metal between two strong NPC bosses, one sword was visibly shaken. Clearly, Great Swordmaster Suren held the advantage. Cyan Rain had been knocked away in a single strike!

The Undead Lord roared in anger as he thrust his sword into the ground, drawing a fissure more than ten meters. Just when he was about to launch himself back, a streak of green appeared behind him!

Pssh!

217!

Slayer Slash heavily fell and jolted Cyan Rain. A chunk of his HP immediately dropped. This was a boss! I was not about to miss the chance to get some valuable experience and drop!

“Die!"

Cyan Rain’s sword swiveled, followed by biting wind!

Crack!

The sword tore through my defense. Blood splattered everywhere and a huge damage number floated above my head—321!

This bastard, he almost one-shot me!

My little skeleton servant attacked at this time. It showed me the worth of its life as it was broken into seven or eight pieces with a swing of the boss’s sword.

Suren charged again, while I was chugging down potions as fast as I could. The two bosses were locked in a deadly struggle, but it was still Suren who had the upper hand, hacking Cyan Rain into a half-dead state. As for me, who had finally recovered to full health, I took the initiative once more!

The tip of my sword floated with threads of bloody mist, a sign of undead energy concentrating on my weapon. Unfortunately for me, it was only effective on living creatures and wouldn’t do anything to an undead lord like Cyan Rain.

Crack!

I struck again, slicing off almost 200 of the boss’s HP. I was smarter this time and slid away to let Trainer Suren block the hit. After the boss missed, I struck again. My sword rose and fell, Slayer Slash leaving its mark on Cyan Rain’s face this time.

“Arghhhh…”

Cyan Rain let out his last throes before dying!

I dashed over faster than Suren. My eyes browsed while my hands immediately looted spoils of war into my bag.

Three Big Magic Stones with 97, 98, and 94 Quality. These numbers were considerably high, so they definitely could sell for a good sum.

The Undead Lord had also dropped two pieces of equipment. A longsword brimming with bloody light and a dark cyan–colored cloak-type cape. This made me wild with joy. The great thing about cloaks was the fact that they could cover the face. As long as I willed it, I could completely hide my face from other players. Then, they wouldn’t see that I was actually a skeleton.

My hands trembled in excitement as I checked out the stats of the equipment. First was the blood-red longsword. When its stats appeared before my eyes, I nearly went mad!

Weeping Fire Blade (Bronze-grade)

Attack: 25~40

Strength: +8

Level Requirement: 25

Bronze, it is a Bronze-grade weapon! Hahaha, I’ve struck gold!

It had a powerful attack power of 40 and a bonus of 8 Strength. This was absolutely a killer weapon at this stage of the game. My Forest Green Blade only had 18 attack points and was simply a vegetable knife compared to the Weeping Fire Blade. Since the Forest Green Blade could already cause envy, wouldn’t there be an uproar if the public found out about this Weeping Fire Blade?

Ecstatic as hell, I put the Weeping Fire Blade into my bag. It required Level 25, but I had only leveled to 22 after killing the boss; I still needed 3 levels. I should be able to equip it after two days of grinding. And then, my DPS will more than double!

Still feeling happy, I checked out the stats of the bloody cloak. I instantly froze yet again—

Cyanfire Cloak (Bronze-grade)

Defense: 22

Stamina: +7

Passive: Increases the user’s evasion rate by 0.5%

Level Requirement: 25

Damn! Another Bronze-grade item. I really struck gold this time. Its Defense was a scary 22 and it gave 7 additional Stamina. There was even a special attribute that increased evasion rate by 0.5%. Though not very high, a bonus was still a bonus. These two pieces of equipment would seriously make anyone rave with joy.

I did my best to restrain my happiness, and also placed it in my bag. Then I chatted with Suren and completed the quest!

Ding~!

System Notice: Congratulations, you have completed the quest [Undead Lord Cyan Rain]. You have gained 4000 EXP and 100 Reputation!

Swoosh!

I glowed with golden light and leveled again. I was now Level 23, two levels away from wearing the two pieces of Bronze-grade equipment. This was also the first time I’d entered Floating Ice City’s Heavenly Ranking—

NameLevelClassWind Fantasy26Light WandererDominating Mage God24MageDominating Knight God24Magic KnightDominating Archer God24ArcherDominating Warrior God24WarriorHot Sun23WarriorGui Guzi23Undead KnightBroken Halberd Sinks Into Sand23Undead SwordsmanRoaming Dragon21Magic KnightClear Perfume21Archer

Cool! The Heavenly Ranking is like a public bus to me, I can get on whenever I want! Haha!

Undead Swordmaster Suren patted my shoulder, admiration in his eyes. “You’re strong, kid. Way stronger than all the other newborn undead trash!”

I nodded in agreement. Gui Guzi should be sneezing right now, right?

Suren then lifted his sword and started walking back to Frost Mound Camp. I followed him and checked out if the sentinels there had any quests to give. Just grinding monsters alone wasn’t as fast as grinding while doing a quest.

After returning to Frost Mound, I sold all my magic stones, my funds soaring again. All in all, I had a total of 1 gold and 41 silver!

A fierce sense of accomplishment immediately washed over me. At the undead warehouse manager NPC, I used 5 silver to open a personal storage and placed the Weeping Fire Blade and Cyanfire Cloak inside. If I accidentally died and dropped it, I would cry myself to death.

A round of equipment repairs and potion buying later, I was ready. It was time to tackle Level 25!

I left the camp brimming with excitement. A figure suddenly ran out from the blood pool area clutching a spear, looking rather battered and worse for the wear as he rolled to a stop in front of me. It was Gui Guzi. He had not even a third of his health left.

Did someone attack him?

Stunned, I quickly drew my sword and ran over while shouting, “What happened?”

Gui Guzi gritted his teeth and got back up. He drank a health potion before yelling in response, “There’s a group of humans coming from Floating Ice City, claiming that they’re going to purge all the Night Creature players in Frost Mound. Fuck, they’re here…”

Whoosh!

The leaves in the forest separated and a spear user rushed out. A row of text floated above his head—Roaming Dragon!

Mad Dragon guild!

My eyes turned chilly in a second. Nice timing. Mad Dragon’s been way too arrogant as of late. How can trash like them qualify to purge Frost Mound?

Even though Gui Guzi wasn’t exactly a friend, Mad Dragon was my enemy so I had to help him!

“You!”

Roaming Dragon roared in rage when he saw me coming before turning around to look at his subordinates. Two warriors shot out from behind him and charged over, each with a Common-grade iron sword in hand. A glossy sheen appeared on their longswords. It was the Level 10 Warrior skill, Heavy Slash!

My expression sunk and I stomped, sending grass flying everywhere. My figure turned into an afterimage as I executed a perfect Z dodge no more than three meters away. The two warriors completely whiffed their attacks. They looked at each other in shock. “H-how’s that possible, what the hell were those mechanics?”

Crack!

The green blade heavily struck a stunned warrior’s neck. The blade glowed with green light as Slayer Slash nested itself in the other warrior’s head with a mountainous force.

274!

311!

The warrior on the left collapsed with a scream. The one on the right wanted to flee due to his critically-low HP, but also died after I shot forward to finish him off.

Gui Guzi’s voice came from behind. “Broken Halberd Sinks Into Sand, watch out for their Assassin’s sneak attack! Their Assassin’s really strong!”

My heart froze. It’s coming!

Swoosh!

A sharp gleam came over; it was the proud Level 10 skill of Assassin—Cold Blade!

My body was like a falling feather as I fluttered half a step to the right in an instant. Cold Blade’s power hit empty air with a huge “MISS” as I dodged the blow.

“Fuck, how’s this possible?!”

Mad Dragon’s ace assassin, Unyielding Mad Dragon, hollered in shock but he still retreated at top speed. He had to be experienced to know that an Assassin should fall back and look for another opportunity after failing a sneak attack on a Warrior. However, in the early stages of the game, a low-level Assassin couldn’t turn invisible, nor did he have skills like Eviscerate or Shadow Strike. A failed surprise attack meant that his entire strategy had collapsed. Not retreating would mean death.

Just as I was about to give chase, I felt an intense surge of pain in my shoulder. I was shot!

Two archers appeared at the edges of the forest, Level 17 and Level 18. Even though they held Common-grade bows, I couldn’t ignore their damage. Full Agility Archers had high attack speed, so another four arrows had already been loosed from their bows!

45!

41!

27!

31!

Damage numbers popped into view. Although my defense was high, I couldn’t take such a beating. My HP was limited and I wouldn’t last more than half a minute if this were to continue.

I quickly turned around and dashed toward Frost Mound Camp like an arrow in flight. The only way for me to survive was to ask NPC for help. Who knew how many people Mad Dragon had dispatched for their plan? Being able to handle three people was probably my current limit.

“He’s running away, after him!” Roaming Dragon swung his spear and began to raise his team’s morale.

The two archers immediately chased after me with longbows in hand. Agility-based players were relatively fast and they caught up to me in no time. More than ten meters in front of me, Gui Guzi ran as he kept on looking back. He angrily yelled, “What do we do? Are we going to let these bastards destroy our camp?”

“Hmph!”

I chugged down a health potion, instantly restoring more than half of my health points. Then, I swiftly turned around and sprinted toward the frontmost archer. I easily attacked with Slayer Slash and and followed it up with a basic attack!

Crack! Crack!

The sound of my sword ripping apart the leather armor sounded especially soothing to my ears. The archer froze. He had no time to defend himself as consecutive damage numbers bounced above his head before he quickly tumbled to the ground.

I charged toward the second archer without making a sound. After skillfully sliding a semicircle around him, I smashed a two-hit combo of basic attacks into his chest!

210!

224!

Another insta-kill!

“Nice!”

Although Gui Guzi was shocked, he couldn’t help but burst into laughter.

Before he could finish laughing, a dagger tore through the air. The assassin!

Crack!

247!

Cold Blade’s damage was high. Gui Guzi lost much HP but he unhesitantly stabbed horizontally—Flame Thrust!

274!

His attack power wasn’t bad, especially against a leather armor class.

It only took one attack to kill that sneaky assassin, but Gui Guzi’s HP was really low. Instead of following up, he ran toward the sentinel NPCs.

I followed right behind him. Roaming Dragon brought along 7 Archers, 5 Mages, 3 Priests, 1 Bard, 1 Tactician, and 2 Wanderers, all members of Mad Dragon. That bastard, he could rule a corner of the world with a lineup like that. At least for now, it isn’t something Gui Guzi and I can handle.

“Charge!”

Roaming Dragon gestured with his hand, his minions obediently rushing over.