The zombie crew sighed with relief to find out that the one who killed the transforming boar is actually their master. If another strong magic beast or people are the ones who killed it, they maybe will be the next target to be killed.
They tried their best to tell Faust using their limited ability in communicating about what happened last night and focusing when the group of boars started to bother them and obstructing them in their hunt. Initially, Faust finds it hard to fully understand the situation by only receiving the zombies feeling, but there's one zombie who could transfer parts of what it was seeing and now Faust can combine the pieces together and make sense of what happened.
Faust then was baffled knowing that what The Zombie Crew did was power leveling! 'Good gods they actually doing the hyper carry strategy just like in the video games!'
"Who thought about the leveling up strategy? That's amazing!"
The zombies looked at each other in confusion except for one who looked a little flushed as if being embarrassed because their parents have just complimented them for doing something good.
'Ah it's him' Faust looked at the embarrassed zombie and gave it a pat on its shoulder.
"Good Job uhmm... Robin! I will expect more awesome things from you!"
The zombie replied by bowing its head 90 degrees down. The other zombies looked a little bit down after seeing that only Robin is praised, but luckily Faust noticed the sudden sad feelings flowing through him and realized it's coming from the other zombies.
"You guys also did great fighting that weird magic beast! And thank you for grinding and giving me experience." Faust then proceeds to pat everyone's shoulder.
After making sure that everyone is happy, Faust then asked Angra
'So do you want to eat that weird magic boar's soul?'
'I don't know, I'm actually quite interested, but aren't you more curious about making an undead with that boar's soal?'
'AH! That's right if the zombie crew retain their characteristics when they are still alive what would happen to that boar? Will it be stronger too?'
'Okay Gra, I'm really interested now. Can I really have the soul then?'
'Of course. First, you and your undead army was the one who killed it. Second, I'm also curious.'
'Thank you, Gra!'
Faust then called for the transformed magic boar soul and ready to put it back to its former body.
But before he put it back, he realized that the body is nearly destroyed with wounds all over and the head got destroyed and some parts are charred because of the gun-javelin.
Not wanting his undead to have a dreadful look, Faust finally decided on making it a skeleton. He cleared the meat part of the body using a dagger he borrowed from the zombie crew then burning it a little to cleanse it from any meat part left attached to the bones. The body part of the skeleton is fine, but the head part that was blasted open is still quite badly damaged. So Faust searched for the sizable chunk of the destroyed cranium and pieced them back together using earth magic to temporarily hold them together before infusing death mana to make it an undead.
After the vessel is ready, Faust finally infused it with the boar's soul then pouring death mana to the now filled vessel.
The Create Undead skill helped the process and further enhanced the skeleton. Before long, the skeleton rose from the ground slowly with clacking sound from the bones rubbing and hitting against each other before finally, the skeleton boar stood up like a normal boar would.
Faust then nodded happily at his creation then connected to it and said 'status'
-unknown-
Race: Boar Skeleton
Rank:1
Level:0
Skills:
-Enhanced Bones 1-
-Unordinary Strength 1-
Faust looked at his newly created undead status. It doesn't have any special skills like he hoped it would have, but at least it has 2 skills unlike the zombie crew when they first created. Maybe because this one is made with the help of the skill create undead it receives more starting bonus.
'Hmm, it seems that if it doesn't have a name when it was alive then it will also have no name. Can I change its name though?'
-Change undead name available, what do you want to call it?'
'Oh wow, nice job system.'
'Let's see, what should I call it? It is from a magic boar should I call it piggy?'
'Damn it Faust, don't even try to imitate the bad naming sense of the mc in the novels you've read.'
'Yes sorry, I'm just joking. I also hated those mc for naming a cool phoenix little birdie.'
'Since people said that a name is a prayer that your parents gave you, I wont half-ass it. I want my undead to be strong so let's name it appropriately.'
"Okay since you're a pig, I will name you after one of the coolest pig I've ever known. Your name is now, Pat Kai!"
'.....'
'Really Faust? You took that from an old movie about a monkey and his group of friends traveling to the west...'
'I DON'T KNOW GRA! IT'S A PIG. WHAT COOL NAME CAN A PIG HAVE?'
'ah whatever Faust.'
-Are you sure?-
'yes'
-The boar skeleton is now officially named Pat Kai-
"Alright Pat Kai, go and join your friends there and try to get along with them. Guys, be nice to your new friend and try to teach him the ropes."
The boar skeleton then walked slowly joining the zombie crew, which the zombie crew surprisingly accepted it despite being enemies moments earlier.
"Alright since we've already here, let's hunt some magic beast and continue Robin's power leveling strategy. And we may be able to find out more about why there's a group of magic boars running around protecting rank 2 magic beasts."
Hearing their master's command, The Zombie Crew then started marching back onto the forest, hunting for their next prey, but this time they don't fear anyone or anything because their strong and unbeatable master is now going in together with them.
They hunted until the sun hung directly above their heads signaling that it's already way past morning time. Unfortunately, they couldn't find any more group of magic beasts that have those weird behaviors.
Faust wondered if the transforming magic boar from earlier is a very rare occasion that happens naturally or is there something going on in the forest and he wasn't aware of it. This uncertainty convinced him more to ask his dad when they are home since his dad knows more about the forest than him.
But their hunt until noon proven not to be a waste. Ben who was stuck at level 9 finally reached level 10, and the other members of The Zombie Crew had also gained a level up. And to prove Faust's theory about the undead still carrying their characteristics when they were still alive is that Ben evolved to rank 3 Zombie Warrior. It makes sense that his race is different from Husk's since their combat style is different and this makes Faust wonder if the other 3 dagger user of the zombie crew will end up in the same path as Husk.
Because Faust and Angra have been gone from home since early morning, they felt bad for their mother because they left hurriedly and without any further explanation, so they decided to go back home first to see if there's anything they can help their mother with and maybe ask about the anomaly in the forest if their father is home.
So after The Zombie Crew's short yet felt like a long journey in The Forest of Beast without their master finally comes to an end.
Back at home, Faust and Angra told Lily about what happened with The Zombie Crew and asked if she has any idea what happened.
"I have seen magic beasts grouping together, but I've never seen any of them walking around protecting other magic beasts." (Lily)
"I don't know for certain what happened but if I would give it a guess, it must be some sort of mutation on the magic beast." (Lily)
"What is that mom?" (Isaac)
"You remember that magic beasts can get stronger by ranking up and changing their race right?" (Lily)
Faust nodded at Lily's question
"In some rare cases, those magic beast ranked up to be more special than the other magic beast. That mutated boar that you killed maybe is a rank 2 mutated magic beasts that got a skill that resembles bloodlust, enhancing its strength, but in the magic boar's case, it enhanced its magic capability making it as strong as 4 magic boars. And to explain its action of protecting the magic beast, maybe it gained intelligence from its evolution and decided that it didn't like your undead army killing rank 2 magic beasts." (Lily)
"Will there be more mutated magic beasts mom? I mean if we ever encountered a stronger mutated magic beast without us realizing it, will we be able to defeat it? Are the abilities of the rank 2 mutated magic boar is as strong as a rank 3 magic beasts?" (Isaac)
"Don't worry because mutated magic beasts are quite rare and there a lot of variants and most of them have different characteristics to their non-mutated counterparts. The mutated magic boar earlier is not common even amongst mutated ones." (Lily)
"Oh and where is father? I think we should tell him about this and investigate The Forest of Beast together just in case anything happened to the forest." (Isaac)
"He should be back not too long, he just went out to town to buy some things." (Lily)
Later on, they told Mark the whole story about the mutated boar and the potential dangers in the forest.
"Well that is certainly something you don't see often in the forest." (Mark)
"I mean a mutated beast is a rare occurrence, but it is still normal that it happens naturally." (Mark)
"Just in case maybe we should properly investigate it. Alright boys, let's head out tomorrow."
---
-Husk-
Race: Zombie Thief
Rank:3
Level:1
Skills:
-Unordinary Strength 5-
-Weapon Mastery 3 (Dagger)-
-Silent Steps-
-Create Trap 2-
-Robin-
Race: Advanced Zombie
Rank:2
Level:7
Skills:
-Unordinary Strength 3-
-Weapon Mastery (Dagger) 2-
-Zayn-
Race: Advanced Zombie
Rank:2
Level:8
Skills:
-Unordinary Strength 4-
-Weapon Mastery (Dagger) 2-
-Mark-
Race: Advanced Zombie
Rank:2
Level:8
Skills:
-Unordinary Strength 4-
-Weapon Mastery (Dagger) 2-
-Ben-
Race: Zombie Warrior
Rank:3
Level:0
Skills:
-Unordinary Strength 5-
-Weapon Mastery (Halberd) 2-
-Charged Strike 1-
-Edgar-
Race: Advanced Zombie
Rank:2
Level:7
Skills:
-Unordinary Strength 2-
-Mana Sense 2-