24 Chapter 24

Three made his rounds among the corpse piles, finding another somewhat intact skeleton and two zombies, who were surprisingly whole, so he conscripted them. He decided to hold off on naming them, he suspected that conscripts would not be as strong and at the level they were at would not survive for extended periods of time.

Vila had taken to following him around, naming his pets regardless of what he told her. The other skeleton was named Bony Bones, the two zombies were named Shuffles and Armless. Armless had both arms, Shuffles did not. He looked at Vila and rolled his eyes. Her naming sense was terrible, he would make sure that his next companion was named with her far, far, far, very far, very very far away.

Nearly all the fighters that had fought during the night were heading to their houses to rest. The few that had no need for sleep like him helped with the clean-up, he let Sir Kelly Ton finish off any remaining undead that were alive. Pushing the skeleton to level seven. He noticed that instead of its stats increasing its skill levels increased in level. It had gone up a mere two levels but its skill Tough bones had doubled in level.

It made him wonder if monsters gained their strength between levels through gains in skill levels, while their stats only increased upon evolution, he was curious about what this meant about the main difference between man and monster. It made him wonder about the core inside his own body, over the course of time he had begun to think about it being a core from a monster of sorts that the hags had somehow integrated into his physique.

Yet his skill levels did not increase with his increase of level, he had the stats per level same as any other race did. Although he had noticed that his increase of strength per stat point was larger than those of others, he also didn't seem to be as reliant on stat-points for skill-level increase. He had done some asking around and some skills would level faster for people focusing on a certain stat, his stomp skill, for instance, would level with strength. Yet although he had appointed a great amount to strength the skill did not increase in leveling potential as far as he had observed.

Skills that were reliant on other stats did not slow down either, his challenging cry skill had leveled despite him putting no points in charisma, the stat the skill was tied to. He wondered if this was the effect of his core. If it was the effect of his core it could mean many things, first of all he could focus his stats on his physical stats without it being detrimental to his skill gain. He could have possibly become a physically strong mage, he remembered trying to learn some of the spells from Sumi, end result was him burning off his eyebrows. Magic went out of control when it was near him, making him a no-go for a mage.

Then there was the energy he could send into his muscles, increasing their size, toughness and efficiency. He had not heard of anyone doing anything similar and he had taken the time to ask around. He suspected it to be tied to his strength stat, so he poured his points into strength. It did not increase the power of the energy to any noticeable degree. He no longer needed the points in vitality and endurance yet it was a waste to not use his battered body perk to its optimal potential. It would increase the effects of his vitality by double, so he felt obligated to put a decent amount of points in the stat.

His defenses had become strong enough that it was a waste to invest points into anything defense related besides the few points in vitality he focused on strength, he thought about using agility but all the battles he had been in, he choose to face his opponent, taking their blows head-on and throwing his own in turn. He sighed, the stats and their implications had bothered him for several days, he would have to ask Jer and the others to investigate by themselves so they could decide on a proper use of stats.

He looked down at the corpse he was carrying over to the burnsite, around him he saw many of the women and children help drag the corpses around. They had won the battle, when the scouts had returned an hour ago they reported they had still not found the origin of the undead, meaning they could not yet put an end to the seemingly endless and evergrowing waves.

He personally did not mind withstanding some more of the undead attacks, it was a great way for him to gain some levels. It would also increase the strength of his newly gained companion and pets rapidly, providing they managed to survive the night. He was not worried about Sir Kelly Ton surviving the night, he had the feeling that his lesser regeneration made the skeleton the next best thing to invincible since the monster had no core, brain or heart. No vital spot that could be severed meant it could regenerate from any amount of damage given enough time.

It severely lacked in offensive strength however, something he hoped would increase with future evolutions, he thought he would be able to reach level twenty tonight, meaning he could get his second companion and another group of conscripts. He was also pondering his rank-up skill choice at level twenty five and what his class increase would be at the same level. He was curious and couldn't help thinking about it despite knowing that it would only jumble his thoughts.

He worked at cleaning the battlefield with all these thoughts floating his mind. Crimson was playing with Vila, who never got enough of the large Jurgor. The rest of his conscripts were helping him with moving the body, although they weren't at all effective. The day passed as he worked. Together with the noncombatants he cleared the battle-field, restored any of the broken defenses while reinforcing what they could for the upcoming battle. Time swiftly passes as he helped around the village, soon the sun was setting again and the warriors came outside. They checked weapons and armour, helping others ready their equipment. Archers, slingers and crossbowmen gathered the ammunition they could from the fletchers and blacksmiths that had prepared them. Slingers making do with any round enough pebbles the children had found.

The fighters took their places in the trenches, preparing for the battle ahead. Three stood infront of them, waiting for the fog to appear, his conscripts and companions next to him. He was ready for battle, wanted it, hungered for it. He grinned, tonight he would get to let loose some more.

The fog started creeping through the trees once more, the eerie shuffle of undead feet heard. Branches broke underneath their feet, the crackle of rotten bodies stomping on leaves making the lines of fighters nervous. Three stood at the front of them all, his heart speeding up from his excitement. Crimson smelling the undead, growled at the forest. She shifted her massive shoulders, the fur rippling as her muscles tensed. The undead to his left, those under his control stood stoicly, waiting for commands. Soon enough the shapes started becoming visible through the fog, rotten grey zombies shuffling forward, their broken cracked flesh oozing, covered in dried blood.

Some of the undead had changed, some of the zombies were larger, standing at seven feet. Taller than even Three, some zombies movements were more supple, smooth. Not the jerking movements of their brethren. Some skeletons he was sure had thicker bones, in a slightly darker shade. Some of them had spiked skeletal growths, jutting from elbows, knees, shoulders. He read the tags, level ten undead, those that had undergone their first evolution. Fast zombies, Large zombies, Tough skeletons and Strong skeletons. He grinned, perhaps tonight something might actually be able to damage him.

He was tired of waiting, the undead could shuffle at their slow pace but he would not wait, with a roar he charged their shambeling ranks, Crimson following him, charging right beside him, to his suprirse even though they had not been commanded to do so the undead were doing their best to make a charge of their own. He smiled, thinking his own battle tendencies were seeping into those he bonded with. The smile grew when he smashed into the enemy line, his fists crushed the skeleton that reached for him, its fragile skull exploding into thousands of fragments.

He tore an arm of a zombie attempting to harm him, using the improvised weapon to smash nearby skeletons. Crimson tore through the ranks like they were parchment, ripping her opponents to pieces with a imple swipe. To his left he saw his undead smack into the line, he saw Sir Kelly Ton duking it out with a zombie, its regeneration making up for the difference as the skeleton started pounding it's opponent to the ground. Shuffles and Armless were tearing apart a skeleton together, both pulling on an arm till they snapped the skeleton, its bones collapsing to the floor.

Three stomped, smashed, punched and threw anything that came within range. Behind him the villagers were fighting the undead, in the same manner as they had before, the undead no longer circled Three, they swarmed forward, only those in his vicinity attacked him, if they were further than ten meters out they ignored him and his bondlings and charged the villagers. Not that he noticed, he was too lost in the flow of battle to consider such perculiarities, he simply smashed his foes to bits, the new and improved undead not managing to even scratch his skin.

He continued fighting, the roar of battle dieng down as the undead fell, less and less of them remained untill Three stomped on the skull of the last remaining zombie, its brains splattering between his toes. The feeling, while unpleasent, went unnoticed. He was still pumped for battle even though there were no more enemies to fight. He looked around, Sir Kelly was regenerating an arm he had lost, to his suprise Shuffles had also managed to survive the fight the other two conscripts were nowhere to be seen, he walked back towards the villagers, one of them handing him a flask of water.

"Everytime I see you fight I'm amazed." The villager stated as he looked at Three.

Three turned his head, cocking it slightly. "Howso?"

"Well beyond the fact that you smash apart hundreds of undead as if it is the easiest thing in the world and the fact that the creatures can't even harm you, what suprises me the most is that it does not tire you in the least. You have no sheen of sweat on your skin, you do not breathe heavily. There is nothing to show for your exerction, it is quite impressive."

Three blinked at the compliment. "Thank you."

The older man smiled, "You are welcome, I am just happy you came here when you did youngster. You have probably saved a good many of my fellow villagers lives by now."

"It would have been wrong not to come and help." Three stated.

The older man smiled, "That may be so, but very few would have rushed into the unknown to save total strangers, you are a rare breed youngling and I do not speak of your race."

Three's eyes followed the elder as he walked away, he found nothing strange about going to save people that needed it. It was the normal thing to do, was it not? He sat there thinking about his deciscion to help people he did not know. After a few moments lost in thought he concluded that it did not matter what the reason was, he was positive that he was doing the right thing and he would continue to do so.

He looked over at Shuffles and Sir Kelly Ton as they wandered over, Crimson was somewhat further away, one of the villagers was feeding her meat. Good thing they did because he had completely forgotten that the Jurgor needed sustenance, although he supposed she was perfectly capable of finding dinner herself, she had been on her own before he met her after all. He looked back towards his two remaining undead, seeing a small plus next to their name. Sir Kelly had reached level fifteen, and Shuffles level eleven.

He clicked on the plus greeted by a notification.

{Sir Kelly Ton has passed level 10}

{Choose your Companions evolution

{Strong Skeleton, Tough Skeleton}

Three tapped his chin as he read the notification, the skeleton was tough enough due to the regeneration skill, which upon inspection was increasing along with the skeletons levels, the skill had reached level twenty-seven, opposing to the nine it had when he had granted it the skill. He selected the strong skeleton option. Sir Kelly Ton started changing, spikes grew out of its shoulders, fists, elbows and knees, its spine grew into a whole row of spikes. It looked alot more dangerous than it had before, he was also pretty sure that the skeleton had more spikes and was bigger than the other evolved skeletons he had fought today.

Then he turned his gaze to Shuffles, he was still suprised to see the zombie had survived, although survived might be too big a word, one arm was missing, half of one leg. The way it hopped around and tripped over anything and everything was quite comical. Its chest was torn open, ribs snapped and Three was pretty sure the zombie was missing some intestines. He clicked on the plus next to the zombies name only to be suprised.

{Shuffles has passed level 10}

{ Rare evolution possible, Rare evolution intigrated into the next evolution. Choose Evolution}

{ Large Zombie® , Fast Zombie®}

He gave the evolution some thought but decided he would go for Fast Zombie, first thing first he made Shuffles a companion changing its bond. Its regeneration started setting in as its leg started growing back. Its arm also showed signs of healing. He pressed the evolution and watched the zombie change. To his suprise the zombie instantly healed from all its wounds. Its leg grew back in a near instant, same for its arm. Its flesh closed and any wounds it had healed instantly, it gained muscle beneath its previously decaying skin. The skin also did not look as dead as it did before, the skin was deathly gray sure, but the zombie no longer looked actually DEAD.

It looked like a perfectly normal human being, it had no hair anywhere, and its skin was grey. But nothing was rotting, its eyes upon closer inspection were still the same milky white. He looked into the zombies new status as Three scratched his chin in interest.

{Shuffles, Smart Zombie, Level 11}

{Evolution Smart Zombie ® , Fast Zombie}

Three blinked, the zombie had become smart, he wondered what had triggered the evolution. He payed some more attention to the bond and found that the Zombie was capable of thought, not at the same level as human, not yet atleast. But its intelligence riveled Crimson's, He smiled at the deciscion, now that it was clever and could learn fighting tactics its speed increase would become much more evident in battle.

The zombie jumped up and down, it started stretching its limbs testing its new found agility, its movements looked creepily human, although Three supposed the zombie really was human before.

Three shrugged as he let the zombie do his thing, he went around looking for more left-over undead to conscript, his mind had been present enough that he had only crippled some of the evolved zombies and skeletons, so he could conscript them into his service. He went looking for those and conscripted them, filling the six slots he could now use as he looked at his level. He was at level twenty barely enough for his second bonding and another set of conscripts.

He thought about his new class and how he was interested in the kind of class upgrades he could choose when he reached the level twenty five mark, he also had to decide what skill he would rank up. He thought he would go for the tough-body skill. The pain tolerance evolved version did not interest him as much, Jer had told him what it did and it simply did not seem like the right skill for him. He shrugged off his thoughts as he helped the villagers reinforce their defences once more.

The next night was much the same, the wave of undead had slightly increased, and the number of elvolved undead had nearly doubled. The villagers were having slightly more trouble pushing the undead back but the sheer number of kills they got showed across an average increase in level between the lot of them. Anyone who had previously been stuck at level twenty-four had passed over, their strength increasing greatly. Three had leveled twice himself. Sir Kelly Tonn and Shuffles performed exemplary in their new evolved forms, Three had deduced correctly that those under his bonding, even his conscriptions increased in power from their counterparts.

He and Crimson tore through the ranks with ease, just as they had done before. Shuffles and Sir Kelly Tonn could take on multiple opponents at the same time, Shuffles had taken to commanding the conscripts, he had formed his own little squad and was efficiently taking out his opponents, even Sir Kelly Ton followed the zombies commands, the group of them tearing through their uncoördinated former brethren. After about a half hour of intense combat the situation died down. To his surprise Shuffles had only lost one of the conscripts under his command, he complimented the zombie on his efforts and he could swear that the monster puffed out its chest in pride. Three found another evolved creature and conscripted it, handing it over to Shuffles.

He had gained only one level from the battle, the experience increase visibly slowing down. Sir Kelly Ton had reached level eighteen, Shuffles suprisingly had caught up and was also level Eighteen. The conscripts, excluding the new one were between level fourteen and sixteen. Once again Three helped repair any damage done over the day, and once again the day passed quickly and a new night fell. Fog appearing as the new army marched upon them.