Charlotte sidestepped, narrowly avoiding a skeleton that brushed past him. He had nearly forgotten about the skeleton in the meditation chamber, but he was no longer the same as before. His hand rested on the hilt of his sword—
A flash of light gleamed from the sword, and a soft, white glow enveloped the blade of the Radiant Thorn. In an instant, half of the skeleton's body was sent flying into the air. Charlotte glanced at the crumbling bones, which gradually turned to ashes, and sighed inwardly. The Radiant Thorn, a sword born of light, had a purification effect of its own.
A bit of golden light merged into his chest—
Weapons with purification effects dealt double damage to undead creatures. No wonder he felt no resistance when his sword sliced through the skeleton, as if a hot knife through butter.
A divine weapon!
At that moment, Charlotte could only describe the sword with this term. Although it wasn't a true divine weapon, in this environment, it was close enough.
But he was more worried about Freya and Essen's safety. He quickly pushed aside the collapsing pile of bones and ran outside. The agility of his 2nd energy level exploded in full force at this moment. Even if he were to face a world-class athlete from his original world, he would probably be evenly matched—perhaps even surpass them in balanced explosiveness.
With the support of the Radiant Thorn and the Windrider's Ring, his strength, physique, and agility all broke through to the 2nd level. If Charlotte were to appear on Earth at this moment, ordinary people would only have one explanation for him—Superman, minus the ability to fly.
Charlotte retraced his steps, the twisted corridors in the darkness no longer posed any obstacle to him. He leaped over the collapsed wall of the shrine, and the strong vitality emanating from him immediately caught the attention of the wandering undead nearby. Two skeletons clattered toward him, wobbling as they moved. But what awaited them were two swift, silver sword strikes.
Charlotte pocketed the two points of experience and immediately looked towards the pasture. His pupils contracted slightly—firelight was surging from that direction, painting nearly half the night sky in a fiery glow.
In his line of sight, hundreds of skeletons were slowly encircling that area. He understood that these low-level undead wouldn't act on their own; this surely meant that the necromancer behind them had sensed something—
"Freya, Essen!" Charlotte's heart sank. But just as he was about to rush over, a sharp, sinister voice echoed from behind:
"There's a human there—kill him!"
Charlotte turned around to see a necromancer at the other end of the street, commanding six skeleton soldiers lined up in a row to advance slowly towards him.
The necromancer raised its bone staff—
But Charlotte was faster. The charge skill activated in an instant, and he became a blur of motion, rapidly advancing. "Stop him!" The necromancer shrieked in panic.
With a clang, a skeleton soldier raised its sword. But what it faced was the cold, determined face of the young man. A thought suddenly flashed through Charlotte's mind, clear and vivid, as if it encapsulated all the emotions of this body's original owner:
"Madara scum, now it's your turn to suffer—"
He disdained using any technique, merely slashing directly with the elven sword. With a piercing metallic ring that drilled into the ears, the steel sword in the skeleton soldier's hand bent under the immense force, and then shattered with a sharp clang.
Charlotte pressed forward relentlessly. Behind him, the skeleton soldier, along with its sword and body, was split into four pieces. Now, nothing stood between him and the necromancer.
The hideous undead creature gaped, its desiccated face frozen in astonishment.
"This strike is for Charlotte," he said, driving the sword into the necromancer's left side and out through the third rib on its back. The blade of the Radiant Thorn shimmered with an eerie glow as Charlotte locked eyes with the green flames burning in the necromancer's sockets and continued:
"This strike is for Freya."
He swung the sword forward—
The necromancer's soul fire flickered briefly before dimming to nothing. With a clatter, its arm, still clutching the bone staff, flew off into the distance, turning to ashes in the purifying flames.
Three golden points of light rose from the night sky and merged into the young man's chest.
He turned around just as two skeleton soldiers closed in on him from the left and right. Charlotte raised his sword, severing the arm of the first skeleton, and with a twist, decapitated it. He then shoved the now-immobile pile of bones towards its companion.
The remaining skeleton soldier attempted to block, but its raised sword was intercepted halfway, as a flash of sword light split it cleanly in two—its armor scattering like fallen petals.
Two points of golden light flickered and vanished.
Charlotte silently summoned his status panel, and a ghostly array of data immediately appeared before his eyes. He selected one item and thought, "Job and experience—"
A screen of eerie green data:
P: 11 (Commoner 1st Level: ——, Militiaman 2nd Level, 6/10, Mercenary 1st Level, 0/10)
Blocking an attack from a skeleton soldier with a reverse sword strike, he thought, "11 experience points, level up Mercenary."
The data changed immediately:
P: 0 (Commoner 1st Level: ——, Militiaman 2nd Level, 6/10, Mercenary 2nd Level, 11/30)
Charlotte raised his sword, pushing back the skeleton with sheer force. Then, he glanced at his attributes: Strength and physique had increased by 0.2 energy levels, while agility and perception had each increased by 0.1. The key factor, however, was the 25 points of skill experience, which alone rendered the Militiaman job obsolete.
He took a deep breath.
Now, with a strength of 2.3 energy levels, agility at 2.1, and physique at 2.2, his absolute power was 8.0. He had completely surpassed the starting attributes of a player and was beginning to approach the first-tier strength level.
At this moment, Charlotte felt a sudden sense of peace. He gazed at the three skeleton soldiers before him as if looking at mere air.
Yes, he was back, finally—
...
Ten minutes later, the smoke had cleared, and the sound of horse hooves echoed from the end of the street, growing louder as it approached. Two horses.
On the long street, two young riders emerged side by side. They stopped their horses, looking around in astonishment at the scattered remains of bones, momentarily speechless.
"Zeta, did you see this?"
"Only one person. Could it be the guard from Lindenburg?"
"There's a necromancer over there—by Martha! Zeta, could you take on four at once?"
"No, I couldn't. This was done by a veteran," the slender young man on horseback silently surveyed the area, an incredulous expression slowly spreading across his face. "Lyons, there are six skeleton soldiers here—"
The surroundings fell silent.
"Seven?"
"Seven."
"We must report this to the deputy captain. What do you think? A regular soldier? Or a traveling knight?" The young man named Lyons turned to his companion on horseback and asked.
"I can't guess, Lyons, but I agree with you."
...
When Charlotte arrived at the pasture, it had already become a sea of flames. The blazing buildings formed a bright backdrop, with the occasional sound of structures collapsing in the distance—but he didn't see the expected scene of Freya and Essen being pursued by an undead army.
Instead, he saw many newly-animated skeletons fleeing in panic amidst the flames. The bright fire was almost a natural enemy to these low-level undead, causing their feeble soul flames to tremble in the intense light, nearly being purified into ashes.
This wasn't blue fire; in the game, Madara's army would only use cold soul flames. Charlotte immediately realized that this fire wasn't started by the undead. Could it be Freya and Essen? He shook his head, doubting that those two would be so decisive.
He turned his keen gaze in one direction, just in time to see a squad of skeleton soldiers chasing after something. He squinted, noticing a faint dark glow on the skeletons—Dark Enchantment, was there a necromancer nearby?
Charlotte immediately drew his sword, and the blade of the Radiant Thorn glimmered faintly. As he advanced in that direction, several reckless low-level skeletons brushed past him—
Soon, he had gained 7 more experience points.
But before the young man could get any closer, there was a sudden explosion from around the corner—countless bone fragments and metal rings flew out from that direction, accompanied by two or three skeletons being flung high into the air, landing in the distant fire.
Charlotte was startled—
That was first-tier strength (30~200Z), he realized at once. Who was behind the flames? Humans? Lindenburg's regular army? But they weren't supposed to be here, according to history.
Instinctively, he assumed a defensive posture, raising his head just in time to see a squad of knights galloping out from behind the flames. They resembled a torrent, sweeping out from the fire in an instant. The leading rider immediately turned towards him, raising a long sword—the entire squad halted in unison, reining in their horses.
"Who are you?" The rider asked coldly, a young man by the sound