Drops of Tears

The healing rate of the Vine was slightly faster than the damaging rate of Mizar's attack. Thus, it was slowly starting to heal, and the Life Force of Mizar was getting sucked at a faster rate than before. Mizar could do nothing but continue to attack and hope some miracle would occur.

The Vine was slowly returning to its full health. But Mizar didn't lose hope, he kept drinking potions and attacking the Vine. Just after he finished an attack and was preparing for another one, a system notification came.

[Level Up!]

The Undead had done their job. After killing many Vines, they had collected enough exp for Mizar to level up.

The level up increased some of his lifespans, and tried to heal his body. The spot where the Vine had drilled a hole also tried to heal. Although the level up couldn't fully heal the spot due to Vine's interference, it managed to squeeze the Vine in the process.

The squeezed Vine couldn't draw out more amount of Life Force, so the rate of decrement of Mizar's Life Force became slower. That gave Mizar some time to think and invest his stat points. He was in a little bit of a dilemma. He couldn't decide the right stat to invest the points.

While Strength increased his Physical Power, Intelligence increased the Mana regeneration as well as MP and MB. There were only eight stat points. If he invested equally on both stats, it could go either way.

He wouldn't want to be left stranded between them. But after thinking for a second, he came to a conclusion. He decided to go with the Strength stat. The Stat increased raw strength, but the Intelligence stat only help in Mana regeneration and increasing MP and MB, which he could already do with the potions. So he went ahead and invested the points on Strength.

Unlike before, when he hit the 10 point mark on his stats, nothing significant happened on the 20 point mark. His body emanated a feeling of raw power, but that was it. Mizar didn't experience any kind of extraordinary thing.

After that, he again continued to attack. Many notifications came from the system, good and bad alike. Bad notifications, informing that his Life Force was decreasing, and Good ones informing that his skills have been upgraded from the constant grinding. Moonlight Blade, Moonlight Aura, Dagger skills, and Endurance were upgraded.

Moonlight Blade, Moonlight Aura, and Dagger Skills were within his expectations, but he didn't expect endurance to level up. He didn't even know how it levelled up, maybe due to all the Vines tying him down and all the enduring he was doing. He didn't know and didn't care for now.

It looked like nothing new was coming, so he started focusing on the Vine again. He started attacking it again and again. The upgraded skills made it easier to damage him.

Some minor skills levelled up as he kept on using them. The Vines that were attacking Mizar retreated suddenly. The Vines then leapt onto the Vine that was sucking Life Force. The Vine then absorbed all other Vines and became thicker and healed all it's wound.

The hole above his heart also became bigger, and more Life Force got sucked out of his body. Mizar never felt such desperation before. Even when his step-father in his previous life oppressed him, he still had some hope to turn around the situation.

The system told him that when he exceeded his Life span, he would become a Lich. But that was when he exceeded the Life Span in a normal way. The process of turning into a Lich was gradual, not an abrupt one.

If all of his Life Force were sucked out in an instant like this, he would die, he won't be able to turn into a Lich. When he gets older, he will start to attract Death Energy towards his body, filling the Undead Factor. After a sufficient amount of Death Energy was absorbed by his body and he exceeded his Life Span, would he be able to turn into a Lich gaining him an ability to extend his Life Span. Of Course, due to some things, the Undead Factor could fill up before he got old, turning him into a Lich, but no matter the way he turns into a Lich, the process would be gradual, unlike now.

After Formation of Death Body, Mizar understood these things, which was why he was in despair. It looked like his life would end today. It looked like people from Dark Legion wouldn't come to save him. Even if they came now, it would be too late.

The rate of absorption of his Life Force was getting higher. The rate at which the System notifications came was getting faster and faster.

Now that the Vines were no longer there, the surrounding looked empty. The Zombies, Skeletons and Boars had nothing to do. Sensing the state of their master, they started attacking the Vine. To others looking from outside, it seemed like Mizar gave them the order to attack the Vine, but only Mizar himself knew that they were attacking without having to give any order.

He didn't know why the Undead were attacking the Vine on their own. Maybe they felt some emotions, or perhaps they simply protected their master due to the effect of the spell. Looking at the Zombies, Skeletons and Boars, he felt hope. The disgusting Undead Creatures appeared beautiful in his eyes as he thought to himself.

'When my Summons haven't still given up on my life, why am I hopeless. I must fight for my Life.'

At this moment, he felt truly connected to his Summons. He felt like they were giving him energy and a message not to lose hope and fight on. He felt like he understood the inner thoughts of the Undead.

He picked his dagger up and launched an attack using all his spells at the Vine. It looked like there was some more energy in the dagger this time. The dagger was glowing Dark with some occasional flashing of Silver lights on it.

The attack landed on the same spot he used to attack before, but unlike before the spot was completely healed up and there wasn't any sign of the wound on it.

Mizar was utterly focused on the attack like he was in some kind of trance state that he didn't notice something.

Along the way of the attack, the Undead started vaporizing and assimilating into the dagger one by one. When the attack landed, the area was empty; there were no Undeads. Every Undead had sacrificed themselves for the attack, to save their master.

The attack landed without any interference, and unlike before, some grey steam came from the attack, entering into Mizar's Body. After the grey steam entered his body, his body started getting hot, and a System Notification rang.

[Lich Life Activated]

[15% of Life Force absorbed.]

[Life Span increased by 75 years.]

On the opposite side, the Vine had disconnected itself from Mizar and was slithering in the air like a wounded snake. After a few seconds, both Mizar and the Vine recovered, but Mizar was slightly faster as he managed to escape the Vine by a narrow margin.

Mizar began to run away from there, and the Vine followed after him. The Vine disconnected itself from the tree and attached itself to another tree. The tree started to grow old and decayed. The Vine detached from the decayed tree and attached itself to another tree. This time, the tree didn't decay, but something else happened.

Vines started sprouting from the tree, and before long, they became long and started borrowing through the ground. It was Mizar's first time seeing such type of creature; he didn't know what to do. But during this time, he realized one thing, he needed to have more knowledge about this world. Otherwise, he would constantly find himself in this type of situations.

Even if Mizar were native to this world, he wouldn't have been able to identify this creature. This was ShadeRoot vine, a parasitic creature that will mostly live underground and only come on the surface to restore it's Life Force. They were very conservative creatures in terms of Life Force. If their Life Force were decreased by 10-20 years, they would get out to search for a victim to absorb lifespan.

It was one of the Vines that the Dark Legion had bred, but it managed to escape. No one currently present in the Dark Legion were able to capture it successfully. They thought that the Vine had gone somewhere, but never would they had thought that it was there.

The Vine tended to avoid the surface when they had filled themselves with sufficient Life Force. They thought that the Vine was Underground somewhere else, and after someone capable enough came around, they would leave it be. The Vines would only come out when ten or more years of its Life span was decreased, and it was plenty of time for someone capable to come and capture it.

Due to fear of the Vine, no one came to rescue Mizar. Sulong tried to go and rescue Mizar, but higher ups blocked him. He was one of the important persons here, they couldn't lose him. The Old Man himself was in a dilemma whether to save Mizar or not.

If he went to save Mizar, there was a high possibility that he would die in the process, and if he didn't, then he would get punished and possibly kicked out of the Dark Legion for not saving someone with such a high potential, possessing a Death Body, one of a type in the whole world.

The Live footage of Mizar was broadcasted to the whole Dark Legion. Everyone was watching this, some were praying for him, while some didn't care at all. Some had future of Dark Legion in their head while some were sympathetic.

When Mizar was finally able to get out and run, all of them cheered. The one who cheered the most loudly was the Old Man. He was kept in charge of here, if he let Mizar die, it would entirely be his fault. Now it looked like, he would be safe. He

was never this happy about someone else's life. Other people in the hall were surprised at his behaviour, but before long they also started cheering for him.

Mizar didn't hear the cheering, but he opened his wings in order to escape from the Vine. He hadn't ventured much deeper into the hallway, so he was able to get out easily. He got out and flew very high into the sky. The Vine couldn't reach the sky, so it retreated into the hallway and began to absorb the Life Span of various animals and trees inside.

High in the air, Mizar thought about the Undeads as he remembered his near death moment. He wondered where the Undeads were and tried to contact them through his mark. The mark didn't connect to anything. Mizar felt sad as he thought about how the Undeads gave him hope. He tried to contact them many time but he couldn't until he felt something on his hand.

The Dagger on his hand slowly started to turn black, getting out of his hand floating in the air. A System Panel showing the information of the Dagger popped up above it.

[Lunar Dagger of Sacrifice]

[A dagger evolved after Summons Sacrificed themselves in order to give their master a last hope to save himself.]

[Undead Attack +100%]

[Dagger is able to be Marked and will always be equipped.]

[Dagger can be stored in Underworld, and can be summoned with only a thought.]

[Dagger is able to level up and Evolve.]

[+100% attack during Full Moon.]

[Mana Storage +50]

[Attack Speed +105%]

[Attack +75]

Reading the description of the Dagger, drops of tears fell out of his eyes on the empty colosseum. In his whole life, this was the second time tears came down his eyes. And in this world, it was his first and last.