Chapter 13: Asura (1/2)
Night fell, moonlight causing the Frozen Path to glisten, as if it was covered in a layer of frost.
Pachak!
The sound of blade cutting through flesh resounded through the forest. The battle was still underway.
I downed my first health pot and kept a close eye on both my health bar and the Ironback Bear’s. A small smile creeped onto my face. It looked as sinister as ever, but it definitely came from the bottom of my heart.
A series of attacks later, the Ironback Bear’s death was all but certain. With my current level of speed and movement, killing this Ironback Bear was practically easy.
Puchi!
The Forest Green Blade penetrated the Ironback Bear’s skull and dealt huge damage—284!
The fatal hit caused the blood-drenched Ironback Bear to let out a dying scream before collapsing.
A huge magic stone and a pair of green legguards dropped from its dead body, exciting me to no end. Another equipment drop! My luck is off the charts today!
I rushed toward it and picked up both items. The Big Magic Stone had a quality of 57 and could be sold for 11 silver! The legguards were leather armor.
Bearskin Legguard (Iron-grade)
Defense: 7
Agility: +2
Level Requirement: 15
Tsk tsk, leather armor sure is inferior to metal armor in terms of defense. That being said, it was still 7 points of Defense, and this +2 Agility bonus gave me around 0.1% attack speed and 0.2% evasion rate. I had no leg equipment anyway, so there was no reason not to wear it.
Swoosh!
A swirl of light later, the Bearskin Legguard was covering my thighs. Nice, my beautiful leg bones finally escaped exposure.
“Eh?”
Suddenly, I felt something strange around my ribs and leg area. It was as if something was wriggling inside of them. What the hell is this, a giant maggot?
I hurriedly took off my chest armor and inspected my ribs carefully. Thankfully, it was no maggot. In fact, it looked like a strip of flesh was growing in between my ribs. What is going on here?
Puzzled but without an answer, I cut off the Ironback Bear’s head as a trophy. I could think about this after I had turned in my quest!
“Aha, you are truly courageous beyond measure, little skeleton. You are the rising star of us Night Creatures!”
The sentinel leader praised me generously before rewarding me with a huge amount of experience. Thanks to this, I leveled up to 16, entered the Top 100 of Floating Ice City again and settled at 97th. During the early stages of the game, level rankings changed very quickly and rapidly. I wondered if the leader of the day before, Wind Fantasy, would cry if he saw that he had fallen out of Top 100 when he woke up.
“Don’t be hasty, little skeleton!” Suren said patiently and earnestly. “You aren’t strong enough yet. What if the Undead Lord kills you and absorbs your soul spark? Frost Mound doesn’t wish to lose another courageous swordsman…”
“Fuck!” I swore in my head before asking, “Trainer, what is the use of the Soul Spark of the Undead? I had absorbed a lot of them.”
“Oh, this…” Suren put his hands on his waist and laughed. “The Undead are the core branch of the Night Creatures. We, the Undead, are a martial race, so we don’t only grow stronger as our level increases. Once you have absorbed enough soul sparks, you can evolve into a higher rank warrior.”
“Higher rank?”
“That’s right!” Suren nodded and explained, “Right now, you’re just a small skeletal warrior. When new flesh starts appearing on your body, it means that you’ve taken your first step toward evolving into a Bone Creature.”
“Are Bone Creatures high-level Night Creatures?”
“On the contrary, they are one of the lowest ranking races there is. Bone Lords and Bone Generals are both stronger than Bone Creatures, even though they are still beings who only fight with their physical bodies. However, if an undead manages to grow past that level, then… hehe, their flesh will regrow completely, and they will look no different from a human. This stage of evolution is called Asura!”
My mouth fell open as desire filled me. “I can look like a normal person? Haha! Does that mean I’ll be able to enter Floating Ice City and date girls whenever I want to?”
The undead swordsman shot me a disdainful look. “Grow up, kid. Do you seriously think women would flock to you like birds if you evolved into an Asura? Let me tell you, an Asura is far stronger than you can imagine. Powerful Asuras are like kings who can fight entire nations alone, not to mention that they can evolve further into Asura Kings or even Asura Gods… Heh, that is a level neither you nor I will ever reach in our lifetime!”
His words only deepened my desires. “A king-like existence? Damn... does that mean I can legally create a harem of three thousand in my own kingdom? Hahaha!”
Suren clearly didn’t want to waste any time on me anymore. “Train hard, you little brat. Don’t let other Night Creatures absorb your spark. Maybe, just maybe, you have a chance of entering the realm of Asuras. As for myself, that possibility is long gone.”
……