Gan Shuo raised his shield and blocked the incoming horrifying claw.

Dang!

The claw was as hard as the steel from the noise. If not for the shield, Gan Shuo would never dream of blocking the Swiffer's claw even if it was just stage-2.

He pushed the claw and slashed his sword toward the hand. His sword was shorter than the Swiffer's hand. He could not reach the neck. He advanced slowly, cutting the arms first, and then the head.

The sword was clearly much better than the fireman ax. It easily sliced through the zombie's skin through the flesh.

"Hah… Hah…" Gan Shuo heaved out roughly. He had entered the battle for half an hour, and he had been killing a lot of zombies with all of them being stage-2 zombies.

It was either stage-2 normal zombie or stage-2 Swiffer. No stage-3 zombies or even stage-4 zombies could reach him even though he saw a few giants that were much bigger than the stage-3 Crusher.

Gan Shuo looked up and noticed something. Gu Yingjie, the reason only a few zombies could reach was his Squad Captain. With the spear in his hand, he easily exploded the zombie's head that came near him whether stage-2 or even stage-3. It was as if the zombie's heads were a balloon to Gu Yingjie.

Meanwhile, Gu Yingjie was aware that Gan Shuo was observing him from behind, 'Since you have an extra time to daze around, what about having one more zombie to fight?'

Gu Yingjie scooped the stage-2 normal zombie and pushed the zombie to the back, toward where Gan Shuo was. At the same time, he let one stage-2 Swiffer pass him.

Gan Shuo was snapped out of his thoughts when a shadow lunged toward him from above. He immediately readied his shield forward. Since he had a shield, he had developed a pattern to fight the zombie.

Defense and counter, that was the common tactic when someone decided to use a shield. Even though it sounded easy, it was actually not. It took him a while to apply that in the real battle.

Dang!

The shield was banged by the Swiffer who reached him first. He pushed the Swiffer, and just as he was about to launch the counter, he noticed that there was another zombie.

This time it was not just one, but two zombies at once. He wisely positioned himself in a defensive stance to receive the continuous attack.

Bang! Bang!

It was not as strong as the Swiffer, but the stage-2 zombie also had great strength that could not be underestimated. His left went numb after blocking many strikes from the zombie.

He wagged the shield away, reflecting the zombie's hand. Then Gan Shuo took one big step and slashed the sword right at the neck of the stage-2 normal zombie.

The sword smoothly went through the neck as the green liquid spluttered. Some of them got on his cheek. He did not care about the disgusting liquid but readied himself for the second round against the stage-2 Swiffer.

He repeated the same course of action, making his left hand get number from the attack. Gan Shuo held it and kept pushing the Swiffer. In the third counter, he killed the Swiffer.

[You have leveled up!]

[You gained two attribute points!]

The sweet sweet notification rang in his head. This was the sixth time he heard the same notification. Meaning, he had leveled up six times in half an hour. It took him months to reach level 35, but it took him half an hour to raise to level 41.

The warm sensation flooded over him, the numbness in his left hand was now gone as his body became energetic again. Without a second thought, he allocated his attribute to Vitality and Stamina.

During the briefing, he was told what attributes to focus on if he chose a shield and a sword. It was Vitality, Stamina, and Strength. The recommendation was to raise Vitality as the main focus and use the remaining free attribute point for Strength and Stamina.

Of course, that was just a recommendation, he could do whatever to his attributes. He was not obliged to follow the recommendation. However, Gan Shuo decided to follow the recommendation. There was no harm from following the advice from the experienced.

Gan Shuo wiped the green liquid on his face, 'I am ready for the next battle!' If there was one thing that weirded him, it was the zombie's corpses. After he killed them, their bodies disappeared.

It was a weird phenomenon, but the battle kept him occupied. He had no time to think about stuff like that while his life was at risk. It was something he noted after killing so many zombies.

Of course, the reason for the zombie's corpse's disappearance was Tang Shaoyang. From the sky, he was activating [Spirit Advancement], sacrificing the zombie's bodies for Zaneos' advancement.

In this half an hour, Zaneos's advancement reached 30%. It was a percent per minute.

—You should not bother with me, you should use the bodies for the summoning instead. I want you to resurrect me, not to make me stronger!

Zaneos tried to stop Tang Shaoyang from wasting the precious material for [Spirit Summoning]. He was true with his words. If he had to choose one, becoming stronger as a spirit or getting resurrected. He would choose the latter.

"That's fine, we have too many zombies here. If I use too much sacrifice, I am afraid the summoned spirit will be a lot stronger than me. That's the same as wasting the material," Tang Shaoyang shook his head.

Even though he had not encountered a worthy opponent for him to use his full power, he knew his limit. He was still far weaker than the God and the Dragon in the Arkania Continent.

If he used millions of mixing stage-2 zombies, stage-3 zombies, stage-4 zombies, and stage-5 zombies for the sacrifice, he might be able to summon a dragon since less than twenty thousand zombies could summon Grade B+ Spirit.

However, the sacrifice materials would be wasted if they really summoned a dragon. Tang Shaoyang still could not defeat a dragon as of now. Summoning a dragon would end in failing to contract the dragon spirit.

Not all spirits were amicable and easy to negotiate with. The Death Knight was a prime example of it.

—Then you can do multiple summoning for more spirits to be sacrificed or contracted. Either way, you should get stronger and use all the sacrifice materials for yourself! Don't you remember Rumru's wife's divination? You will be experiencing a rough path ahead of you!

Rumru did tell Tang Shaoyang that from hundreds of divinations. Rumru's wife only saw him once succeed in killing the Gods in the Arkania Continent.

That was the reason behind Rumru's decision to have Tang Shaoyang inherit the bloodline. Even to the point of giving his own life so Tang Shaoyang could avenge his daughter and his wife's death.

—Also, you should notice by now that killing those zombies barely helps you to level up even the zombies you killed at the same level. My thoughts, that's related to your second class. You may need to kill twice or thrice or even more zombies than you suppose to. [Spirit Sacrifice] is a great shortcut to achieve your goal! Don't waste it on me.

"Then I am doing the right thing. Helping you to get stronger also helps me to get stronger, Teacher. Unless you decide to not help me in my endeavor," Tang Shaoyang smiled in response.

Despite the Demon Swordsman's attempt to persuade him, Tang Shaoyang's determination to upgrade Zaneos's strength was set. Even though Zaneos did not show it, the Demon Swordsman was quite upset that Malki was graded as Grade B+ and Feera was A+.

Of course, this was not just to make the demon happy, but Zaneos's skill was quite strong compared to the others. The reason why Zaneos was valued lower might be because of his low attributes. That was why he chose to use [Spirit Advancement] for Zaneos.

Zaneos did not know how to respond to this. What Tang Shaoyang told him was the truth. If he got stronger that meant Tang Shaoyang also got stronger.

As long as he was a spirit, his strength would be bound to Tang Shaoyang. The stronger he was, the stronger Tang Shaoyang would become. It was that simple.

Hearing no further response from Zaneos, Tang Shaoyang continued his harvest while observing his army.