The next morning, I awoke feeling tired. The cave had been a cold environment to sleep in, even with the sleeping bag providing a lot of insulation. Thankfully, nothing had bothered Revan throughout the night, while he was standing guards at the mouth of the cave. He hadn’t been able to join me at my camp, he had simply grown to be too large to fit in the average-sized cave.

After packing up, I jumped back on top of Revan’s back, who took me deeper into the petrified forest.

The dungeon I was heading toward was supposed to be about a day’s travel from the border. Logic dictated, then, that I would reach it by dinner time at our current pace, sooner if I ordered Revan to sprint.

The environment was too foreign and dangerous to move around that carelessly, though, so we were stuck at our current pace. Revan didn’t seem to mind, since he was sniffing the air curiously as we traveled. A sign that he was absorbing mana, I guessed. Revan’s distinct lack of a functional nose had been the first sign that he wasn’t actually ‘smelling’ so much as he was ‘breathing’. If any other undead pseudo-drakes existed in the wild, I had no doubt this would be their natural environment.

The dark mana density continued to rise as we traveled, until it finally plateaued. I almost felt like I would be able to see the carpet of dark mana cover the valley, even without my [Dark flow sight] skill, that was how dense the stuff had become. The perfect environment for the deranged lunatics that I knew necromancers to be. And for me as well, I supposed.

Just when I was considering this, I heard a cry in the distance. Then, a dust cloud appeared on the left side, in the middle of the forest. Soon enough, the cry turned into the loud thumping of hooves. Many sets of hooves. Through the tree line, I could see many of the petrified trees start to topple and be crushed underfoot by... cows?

My first instinct was to hide and assess the threat before moving in but... we were on an open road. There was nowhere to hide!

Seeing no other option, Revan and I braced ourselves. My tier 4 sword left its scabbard with the sound of metal rushing past metal, until I held it out in front of me. Meanwhile, I had used [Relentless orbs] and formed 5 of the explosive marbles behind my back. They continued to float behind me in the shape of a pentagram, primed to be launched at the herd of enemies approaching us.

Now that the beasts were a little closer, I could start to make some more of their features. Cerion the human monster manual wasn’t with me this time, but the monsters’ appearances were enough for me to deduce that these were all dark-aligned creatures, somewhere around tier 2.

The cows all had a set of extra bones that covered their bodies like armor, including an extra horned skull. Surprisingly, all of the bones were stark white, as if unmarred by the dusty environment. The cow’s fur was completely black, which contrasted the bones rather nicely, aesthetically speaking. Their horns were large and pointed right at me as they charged, while their strange reptilian eyes stared at me as if I was prey. The herd was about 50 strong, from what I could tell, and the largest bulls ran in front.

Finally, the herd reached Revan and me, crashing through the last of the petrified trees as they did so. Their incessant mooing blended together as they slammed into Revan, whose size and weight kept his claws firmly planted on the ground. For a moment, both of us waited, unmoving, for any sudden developments. However, no necromancer or traps appeared, so we shifted our focus and commenced the battle.

Needless to say, it was a slaughter. The cows were massacred each time Revan swung his bladed tail around and each time I threw my overloaded orbs into the middle of a pack of monsters. Credit to the monsters, none of them ran, even the last few left. As a result, it didn’t take long to cull the last ones, for which I received a level.

Ding! Combat finished. Congratulations on reaching [Hollow essence Knight] level 2!

I felt relief when I realised that the difficulty of the first few levels of each tier were thankfully a lot lower than that of the final few. Back in tier 2, Cerion and I struggled to get even a single level while killing tier 3 creatures, yet now I could gain a level from tier 2 ones! Hopefully, the experience requirements didn’t increase too quickly this time...

Like this, Revan and I continued on for a few more hours. Every half hour, we would be attacked by a pack of monsters, which ranged from the cows and strange lizards that blended in with the scenery, all the way to the trees themselves coming to life and trying to kill us with their roots. Thankfully, all these creatures remained at tier 2 and, so far, all of them had traveled in groups. Cerion would tell me that this was a sign of danger, since monsters would only group up in the face of a bigger threat, but Revan and I hadn’t encountered anything of the sort yet. After all those fights, I had gained a few more levels as well.

Ding! Combat finished. Congratulations on reaching [Hollow essence Knight] level 6!

My stats were growing quickly thanks to the new stat distribution my class provided, which meant that I noticeably felt my power increase with each level. Each instance came with a rush, as if I was breathing a little easier each time I got a notification. My sword became lighter, and my skills a little easier to use. It helped that my mental stats were advancing as well.

The scenery hadn’t changed as we traveled, though the elevation was starting to vary wildly. Hills and valleys covered the horizon with the grey tapestry that the petrified forest seemed to look like from a distance. The ashen trees were short and stout, blending into one another like finely woven cloth. Thankfully, there was still a path for us to follow, that had somehow remained untouched by the forest. Had these plants all died? I had thought they were alive, though...

The cause of the well-maintained path was either that, or... these paths were used more frequently than I had dared to imagine...

My questions didn’t remain unanswered for long. Late into the afternoon, about an hour from my destination, I saw smoke on the horizon. Another person...

Revan and I cautiously approached, and saw some more stacks of smoke leisurely float into the sky. An encampment?

The source of the smoke was located at the bottom of a valley near the hill we were currently climbing, so I unsummoned Revan and started to skulk between the petrified trees. To escape notice, I took off my black armor in favor of some grey clothes that blended into the environment.

Eventually, I reached a good spot, from where I could inspect the camp down below. I quickly realised, however, that it wasn’t a camp at all! It was a full-blown village!

How a settlement that large had formed in this dangerous landscape remained a mystery to me, but apart from the strangely shaped buildings, I couldn’t differentiate it from any other ordinary village...

I saw a few figures standing outside of the wooden fence that had been erected around the village. They seemed to be standing guard. Inside of the village, I saw people going about their business as usual, though I couldn’t make out their features.

Unfortunately, I couldn’t make out anything else from this distance. That meant that I was left with a choice. Either I minded my own business and headed straight to the dungeon, or I entered the village and tried to act like I was a visitor. Blending in with the villagers would be impossible; in small villages like these, everybody knew everybody.

The advantage that came with entering the village would be that I would be able to get an idea of the general situation of the between lands. For all I knew, a tier 6 was squatting atop the dungeon that I needed to enter... Furthermore, the village was sure to have an inn, which meant a comfortable bed as well. If things came down to it, I could probably escape anyway.

Soon enough, I had made my choice. I would enter the village and discreetly ask about the situation in the between lands. It wouldn’t be strange for a dark-aligned to be cast out of their country, so my presence wouldn’t even be questioned... There was just one issue... my fame.

I couldn’t be sure that none of these villagers knew me, after the tournament. The chance was small, but it existed. Thankfully, nobody knew about Revan. If I just wore different armor and mounted Revan, they wouldn’t know who I was. Oh, and I probably had to store my sword as well, since usually, only undead could have melee-dark-aligned classes. Every other dark classer was a spell-caster of some kind. By using my onyx chains and overloaded orbs, I would still be able to defend myself, thankfully.

A few minutes later, I had carried out my preparations. I had kept my armor in storage and worn a long, formal black robe. It was hardly detailed, but it would do the job. I decided to keep my bracers equipped. The tier 5 piece of equipment was just too valuable to leave by the wayside.

I summoned Revan and jumped onto his back, before telling him to walk toward the village gates at a steady pace.

Soon enough, a man atop a large bone drake moved into the view of the guards outside of the village.

As we approached, the guards remained unperturbed, which I took as a good sign. They started to eyeball me as I got closer, but only stopped me right in front of the gates. I couldn’t feel any mana from them, so they were probably tier 4 or below. Both of them were covered from head to toe in armor, so I couldn’t see their faces. They remained strangely still until I walked up. Wait a minute... why were they carrying weapons? Were these two undead?

“Name?” one of the two stoic guards asked with a gravelly voice.

“Komter.” I replied. This was the name I had come up with. It wasn’t much, but it would do, I hoped.

“Reason for entrance?” the other guard asked with an identical voice.

“I’m a traveler. I hoped to stay at the inn for a night.”

Without further ado, the guards got out of the way and took up their previous stance.

Surprised by their sudden disinterest, Revan and I hesitantly entered the village.