The Scary part about the Undead ruins was that the deeper one moved into city, the more complicated the routes leading towards the castle became. Some weren't even route at all and were straight up dead ends which lead players to be trapped between a rock representing the dead end and a hard pace which was the approaching danger from behind.
Not only were there traps, the place was so dangerous that one wrong move and you wouldn't even know how you died before it happened. Out of the hundreds of paths that one took when entering the city, only three paths read directly to the dark castle while majority of the rest,if followed to the ending without changing directions would lead to either a pit full of zombies or an army of undead.
Even though Ethan didn't have much information about the Ruins, his life experience as a pro gamer could tell him this much. However, he didn't hesitate to run down the first street path he saw.
He couldn't afford to act cautiously or be slow about it as he was currently being chased by Undead hounds leaving him no choice but to throw caution to the wind. Despite his expert skills as well as current strength, he didn't dare to face more than a dozen of these undead on as even he would have no other ending apart from being ripped to shreds and dying again.
This made him even more reckless dashing through the streets and making all sorts of twists and turns. He used anything he could find as obstacles to obstruct the hounds path while he himself ran like crazy.
Not only were undead much harder to deal with because of their high regeneration and HP, but the penalty for death at their hands was awful. If they were at the same level as the player or were only three levels above, then it was manageable, but anything above 4 levels would mean severe consequences.
Expert gamers would have no other choice than to be left far behind even by the regular players by the time they suffered the penalty.
In his last life, Ethan had heard of a famous player who died at the hands of a 4th Seal undead while only being a 3rd Seal expert. The results were terrifying, as not only was that player barred from the game for 3 months, but his level had decreased all the way to 1st seal and more than half his attributes had been wiped clean.
This was why even top tier experts wouldn't readily mess with an undead at the same level of strength as themselves much less one that was higher in rank, but to his misfortune, Ethan had more than a dozen of those said undead on his tail at the moment.
If he was caught, then forget about making back the money he spent on the gaming helmet, his whole career as a player would be destroyed before h could rise up the ranks.
In his past life, those who could make it to the undead tower weren't exactly the best of the best among all qualified candidates. In fact, some with better strengths and skills had died under the unrelenting zombie hordes before they could make it to the tower.
The reason why? Nothing more than dumb luck.
However, despite the fact that he was currently being chased in such a predicament, he didn't panic or felt stressed out. Instead, his mind was in an extreme state of self consciousness as his eyes darted from one place to the other trying to make the best decisions with minimal time and effort.
Since he was unlucky enough to be in the areas where speedy type undeads were resurrected during the start of the quest, then he would use it to his advantage.
Despite the fact that he was running as fast as he could, the hounds were slowly catching up even when they knew that the meat on his bones wouldn't be able to satisfy them one bit.
"Looks like I have to use this so soon". Ethan murmured to himself as he opened his palm while in the midst of running. A bright, blue ball of flames flickered on his hands and gradually GRE brighter and brighter.
At the same time.
<< -100, -100, -100, -129, -112-, >>
Huge amounts of Mana were being drawn out of Ethan's Mana pool, however, his Mana reserves hadn't shaken in the slightest despite being continuously drawn out.
"How lucky I am!" He exclaimed as he threw another glance at the pursuing hound
<< Undead Hounds (Under weakening effect of the heavenly Suppression Chains and have had their true strength and levels reduced ) >>
<< Status: Guard monsters of Necromancer king Solovon/ Level: 7 >>
<< Elites >>
<< HP: 1200 >>
"Fucking hounds! If not for the fact that there are too many of you, would your daddy have to flee in such a state?" Ethan cursed as he narrowly escaped a bite and turned into an alley
With his current stats, fighting against only one or two wouldn't be a problem, but against multiple, he would be quickly surrounded.
Ethan might be poor in money and equipment at the moment, but his riches in battle experience was more than enough to make up for it. The alley that he had chosen was rather small and continued to shrink the further downwards he ran.
As such, the undead hounds that had been chasing him with a number of 4 in an equal line was now reduced to one due to the tight space. Seeing this, Ethan smirked as he saw the end of the alley up ahead.
Without their advantage in ganging up at once, he could quickly execute his second move. Upon reaching the end of the alley, Ethans smirk widened as he raised his hand to showcase a dark blue fireball emitting a terrifying aura.
This was the skill that he had gotten from the Silver grade mystery box, however, Ethan had improvised on it and currently the improved version was in his hands.
At that moment.
<< Congratulations to Player Neo for being the worlds first player to create a brand new skill of his own >>
<< You have improved the Elemental unranked skill, 'Blue Flaming Ball' to 2nd Seal Elemental skill 'Blue Inferno' >>
<< Skill type: AOE Skill/ Potential: ???? >>
<< Descriptions: A skill relying heavily on mana. The more Mana you condense into the flame ball, the higher its destructive capability >>
<< Range: can be as large as the Mana you input into it >>
<< Cooldown: 15 minutes >>
This was a skill heavily dependent on Mana. In fact, without high Mana reserves which was basically impossible for players at the early stages of the game, it was almost impossible to wield a skill of this intensity, however, it was possible for Ethan who had infinite Mana reserves.
The rapidly approaching undead threw themselves at Ethan with reckless abandon, after all, their brain cells had been destroyed so their ability to instinctively notice danger had been removed permanently.
"Let the fireworks begin!" Ethan yelled inwardly as his gaze turned cold, completely contrast to the flaming fireball in his hands. Without another moments delay, he threw the fireball into the narrow alley and dashed away as soon as he did.
Only he knew the amount of Mana he had poured into the thing. With this Goldy skill, Ethan feared crowd tactics the least.
BOOM! A loud explosion occurred as the damage that came with the Blue inferno was showcased. The undead hounds all let out shrill cries as they were covered by the power of the explosion. The alley was directly shattered into pieces as the large particles from the buildings were sent flying in all directions.
However, the fire blast didn't have a wide range as Ethan had compressed its energy so it would have a smaller range, but higher damage power and clearly, he had succeeded.
How high was an attack power filled with 1500 Mana points, the result was.
- 1000, -500, -896-, -1230...
High powered damages appeared over the heads of the undead. Despite having over 1200 HP points, the amplified damage was already enough to bring their HP close to the Zero number mark.
Ethan himself had hurriedly his his body against a small building that looked a not more stable than the rest, however, the shockwaves had almost brought the full building crashing down.
However, he wasn't in the mood to care about that, because.
<< You have killed a Level 7 Undead hound >>
<< You have reached Level 2. You have received +2 stat points >>
<< You have killed a Level 7 Undead goblin >>
<< You have killed ... >>
Over five consecutive messages played in his head especially the one telling him that he had levelled up. Ethan delightedly got up and moved towards the point of impact. There were more than a dozen Undead hounds chasing him, and while he was sure that the ones in front wouldn't survive, the ones later back were a completely different story.
And sure enough.
The dust settled to show some severely injured creatures limping as they walked. Ethan didn't need to be asked what to do as his eyes shone with a fierce light. He took out the dagger in his hands and dashed forward quickly arriving before the first limping shadow in the blink of an eye.
His hands slashed down with ferocity, instantly causing a deep gasp on the neck of the undead.
<< You have killed a level 7 Undead hound >>
Ethan didn't stop as he dashed forward madly striking the injured undead with his pitiful dagger, however, it was more than enough to tear through the flesh of already open wounds.
The sounds of kill notifications kept on coming as Ethan decisively kept striking one after the other.
Meanwhile, in a dark a gloomy room, a figure sat on a large chair that resembled a throne. Its eyes were a dark green color and the pupils were narrowed to become snake slits giving him the appearance of a human snake.
In front of him was a crystal orb which he used to watch over all of the Undead ruins as his subordinates brought chaos to the whole area.
Not only was he sitting on some kind of throne, but about 2 undead beings whose faces were shrouded in darkness were kneeling at the foot of the stairs leading up to the throne.
"The Order council have finally decided to act huh?" The figure said in a hoarse and gloomy tone as its hands were trembling with rage.
"Good! Good! Haha!" The figure laughed out loud with a chilling voice that caused the undead subordinates at its feet to tremble. Behind that laugh, was a deep resentment and malice, as well as hard boiled anger.
The figure abruptly stopped laughing as its whole body erupted with a heavy, foul stench of death itself. Its snake like eyes had change from green to blood red as it thundered in a loud voice.
"It just so happens that I need some blood sacrifices to increase my strength. Without them, I will never be able to rid myself of these damnable suppression chains". The figure raised its arm up and tried to get up from its throne, however, a jangling sound resounded as a golden light shone.
The light wasn't enough to illuminate the whole room, but it was more than enough to show that the chains were wrapped tightly around the body of the figure on the throne, preventing him from even moving an inch forward.
A small beam of light manage to shine on its face. However, the light only showed a malicious grin on a face that didn't even have an ounce of fresh on it. Instead, that area looked like a deformed skeleton.
"All these years, the Order council has kept me chained to this place and sealed off my undead land due to their inability to come to the world of lesser beings and kill me off themselves. So instead, they sent a group of pitiful mortals".
If one heard the figures tone, they wouldn't know if it were angry because it was sealed or because it was being gravely underestimated by the council who thinks it could be defeated by a bunch of mortals.
"With enough blood, I can finally get these damnable chains off". The figure growled as it returned its gaze back to the orb and at Ethan who had just killed another undead hound.
"I sense angelic power coming from this one. You will be my first meal!" It said as its eyes burned with desire and greed.
However, as it watched the crystal ball, the figure that was openly expressing its desires suddenly became quiet as it stared at the crystal ball with a dumbstruck expression.
What it saw was definitely impossible. Its eyes glowed as the image in the crystal ball distorted a bit almost pike it was hitting a refresh button. However, its eyes widened more as the image gradually became clearer to see the human figure it had been watching the whole time staring directly at it through the crystal ball.
On his face was a grin so wide that it almost made him look like a crazy person or a child that had just found a new toy.