Getting stronger (part 4)

"Vernlily! VERNLILY! MEND! MEND! MEND! MEND!"

Zorey grabbed the undead girl's body and called out to her while shaking her remains before activating his healing Skill repeatedly.

*CRUNCH* x4

With the nauseating sound, the Cannibal zombie's corpse was restored to its default state, but the flames didn't reappear in the skull's eye sockets.

"Check Status!"

[Name: Vernlily

Race: Undead (Canibal Zombie)

Class: Bound guardian knight (Bound to none)

Rank: E

Level: 18

HP: 0* MP: 0*

ATK: 0* MAT: 0*

DEF: 0* MDF: 0*

SPD: 0* LUC: 0*

*(Debuff – incapacitated – time remaining 00:04:41)

Skills: (Low-level Appraisal skill necessary for viewing)]

"Oh, thank the System! It's just the debuff!"

Zorey breathed out, overwhelmed by relief, and hugged Vernlily's corpse, pressing his forehead to her jaw.

"..."

The black-haired boy carefully put the undead girl under the tree he usually slept in and sat down on his feet a couple of feet in front of her.

"MA'AM! COULD YOU PLEASE TELL ME WHAT IS GOING ON WITH ME, MA'AM?"

He took a deep breath and shouted into the night.

{What are you referring to, maggot?}

The message that showed up without a moment of delay inquired.

"MA'AM! I DIDN'T INTEND TO USE ANY SKILL, BUT DURING A SPARING WITH AN ALLY, MY BODY ENDED UP REPLICATING THE MOVEMENT I ASSOCIATE WITH A PNEUMATIC PUNCH, MA'AM!"

Zorey shouted respectfully, with his back as straight trying to be sound as polite as possible.

{That's normal. The movement you are referring to is a normal movement for any soldier with Biomechanical enhancement. You were completely out of sync before the start of the training and maintenance protocol, and we are slowly getting you back to the starting point.}

The next lengthy message seemed almost dismissive as if everything stated in there was something laughably obvious.

"...does that mean that I will not be able to go back to how I fought before...?"

Zorey whispered pitifully, looking at incapacitated Vernlily.

{Don't ask stupid questions, maggot.}

In response, the System showed him a cold message.

Shortly after Vernlily's debuff timer ran out, her eyesockets lit up with the burgundy fire.

"KHAAH?! (WHAT IS THE SYSTEM'S NAME WAS THAT?!)"

She let out an infuriated hiss.

"I'm sorry... I..."

"KHAAH! (NO! DO NOT BE SORRY!) KHAAH! (I AM ANGRY BECAUSE MY LIVING FORTRESS SKILL WASN'T WORKING AT ALL!)"

Zorey lowered his head and apologized, but Verlily's anger wasn't aimed at him at all.

"...it wasn't...?"

"KHAA! (IT WAS NOT!)"

The boy asked, taken aback, and the undead girl confirmed angrily.

"Huh... maybe it's because it's a living fortress Skill, and you are no longer alive...?"

Zorey thought out loud without much conviction behind his own words.

"...kha...? (...eh...?) Khaah... (That... makes sense...) Khaah...! (It must be why it is grayed out on my Status Window...!)"

But surprisingly enough, Vernlily ended up gasping in realization and nodding her head while offhandedly revealing a rather important detail.

"...Vernlily... The rank-up and evolutions are your decisions, so how about we sit down and discuss the best way you could complete the requirements? Tell me all the details – including other grayed-out skills and so on."

Zorey took a deep breath and leaned back, changing his sitting position to a much more comfortable one, and asked, reaching out his hand towards the undead girl...

------

"Vernlily, they are reconstructing the village – but they are changing its name."

Zorey reached out to Vernlily's shoulder and stopped her from walking out of their camp.

The undead girl looked a bit different – she still had her old damaged equipment, now even more worn-out, but her body had grown taller by at least a foot, although it didn't bulk up in any other way.

One of the three most significant changes was that all visible fragments of her skin were sickly white. It wasn't the color of snow or milk but rather a white mold – on the one hand, it looked less disgusting than before, but in turn, it made her appear that much more uncanny and threatening.

The second one was that she seemed to have grown a shield out of her forearm... although a more accurate statement would be that her left arm transformed into a shield with the same sickly-white color as her skin.

...and still had a functioning hand – palm with four fingers and thumb – sticking out from one side.

The last one was that now her face was covered with a smooth bone-like mask shaped similar to a kite shield.

That very mask seemed like the only quality piece of equipment but was, in fact, a part of Vernlily's body.

"Someone hired a lot of adventurers to patrol the area, so you shouldn't wander around there anymore."

"...khaah... (...okay...)"

Zoewy advised, caressing Vernlily's arm, and she let out a defeated hiss of agreement.

"Even so, since we didn't properly explore that whole area, there is a chance that the wolfman shaman could be hiding there. That's why I believe since today we should start splitting up while searching for it."

"..."

The black-haired boy declared with a serious expression as the masked undead girl appeared to be carefully studying his face in silence.

"Khah. (Okay.)" *pu-kuaah*

"Vernlily...?"

Finally, the undead girl nodded in agreement, but then, unexpectedly, she grabbed her mask and pulled it off with a rather peculiar sound, making Zorey raise his brows in surprise.

Underneath the mask of the undead girl, there was no face – at least not in the human sense – instead, the entire area was covered with crackling burgundy flames that, prior to the girl's rank up, were burning in her eye sockets.

As the mask was removed, the freed burgundy fire brightened almost as if it had its own will and was expecting something to happen.

"...khaah, khaa, khaaah... (Take it just in case. The faceplate of a Masked Fiend (Defender) boosts DEF and MDF and has a bonus quality of making the wearer appear as a monster to others.) Khaah. (Use it if you get in trouble.)"

Vernlily hissed, and the flames on her face sizzled to the rhythm as she offered the mask to Zorey.

"..."

The black-haired boy took the maks and turned it around, gazing at the inner side.

"... I'm still worried that you actually chose to evolve into one of the rarest types of undead that actually drop insane loot..."

He ended up being out with a worried expression before hiding the mask in his clothes and raising his head to smile at the undead girl.

"Khaah. (I know.) Khaah, khaa. (That's why I don't try to argue about splitting up for the search.) Khaah, khaah?" (I'm quite the catch, aren't I?)"

Vernlily hissed playfully, turning around and walking the other way than she originally was.

Zorey watched her go while holding his hand to the mask hidden within his clothes and walked off only when the undead girl left.

It didn't take him long to reach his destination – a tall tree on the edge of a clearance where a few buildings were being constructed inside a crude palisade.

...but that place wasn't the former New Herbal village...

"..."

Zorey leaned down, glaring at the settlement with a disgusted face.

"...Check Status..."

He scoffed while focusing on the settler walk

[Race: Humanized wolf (Wolfman tribesman)

Rank: C

Level: 31

Stats: (High-level Appraisal skill necessary)

Skills: (High-level Appraisal skill necessary)]

The monster's Status Window appeared in his vision, making the black-haired boy grimace even more.

...and the settlers weren't humans, but canine-type monsters that were struggling to walk on their two hind legs, to begin with...

"...so I wasn't just seeing things, and there really is another one... They just don't give up, do they...?"

Zorey scoffed to himself, watching the newest creature that ranked up into a Wolfman tribesman.

"Hmph. At least this time, they will be useful."

{Daily objective:

Push-ups: 400 (400/400)

Sit-ups: 400 (400/400)

Squats: 400 (400/400)

Pull-ups: 400 (400/400)

Running: 40km (40/40km)

Eliminate magic beasts: 20 (19/20)}

Zorey said to himself while glancing toward the upper right corner of his vision.

His words could be mistakenly assumed to mean that there weren't enough monsters for him to hunt to complete the daily objective, but the truth was he made a choice to target the wolfman tribesmen.

The new objective was added only a previous day, too, and the black-haired boy could not be happier about it.

"Gemstone creation." *krk*

Zorey raised his hand and used a Skill that made a small red crystal grow out of his palm.

*whooosh* *crack* *whooo*

Without thinking too much about it, the young priest of death threw the gem toward the village, and the projectile pierced the air even faster than an arrow, breaking against one of the houses and setting the framework aflame.

"!!!"

"D-dirrrt! Thhrrrrrrow dirrrrt at it!"

The monsters began to yelp in panic, trying to stop the fire from spreading around.

"Evrrrrryone hhhhide! It's thhhhe one whhho crrrrrushes!"

The commotion ended the moment when the largest wolfman growled, picking up a crude spear and a shield made out of sticks and bones tied together with straw rope, and rushed outside the palisade.