Necromancer

"What the hell... Pus? This thing can even drop such disgusting loot?" Irving was speechless.

This was the first time he had felt disgust towards a dropped item.

[Item Information: Sticky Pus (Applying it can mask your scent...)]

Irving shook his head, hesitated for a moment, then picked it up anyway. His attention then switched to the pair of broken swift boots.

[Item Information: Broken Swift Boots]

[Quality: Common★★★]

[Description: These boots are quite old and are in terrible condition. However, wearing them increases movement speed by 10%.]

"Holy shit?"

Irving was somewhat surprised. Even though the item was damaged, the quality was still up to three stars. If it were in perfect condition, it might have been a common five-star item, or even a high-level item...

"Increasing movement speed by 10% is barely passable." Irving clicked his tongue, seemingly somewhat dissatisfied.

If any other player heard these words, they might have coughed up blood out of frustration.

The odds of killing monsters and beasts and having them drop equipment were quite low. Some people might not even get a single drop even after grinding pigmen all day.

Moreover, a 10% increase in movement speed was not trivial.

Many battles could be decided in an instant. An increase in speed of even a fraction of a second could be the difference between life and death!

"Let's see what's in those two boxes." After picking up the broken swift boots, Irving muttered to himself and moved towards the corner.

Both dusty boxes were locked. Irving raised his iron sword and struck the chain. Sparks flew from the metal collision.

After four or five strikes, there was not even a mark left on the chain.

"Can't break it open? This sucks!" Irving just felt numbness in his wrist. If he continued like this, he might break the iron sword before the chain was broken.

However, the more difficult it was, the more he felt that the contents of the boxes were not simple.

Just then.

An idea suddenly flashed in Irving's mind. He put away his iron sword, turned around to get the torch, flipped the boxes, and started to burn them!

If the owner of these boxes saw this, they might be so angry they would fuming with anger. This was too cunning.

A chain lock sometimes only prevents the honest man, not the cunning one. If the chain couldn't be broken, that didn't mean the wooden box couldn't be burnt!

After a lot of trouble, the bottoms of both boxes were charred. Irving kicked them hard, making large holes in both.

For safety's sake, he didn't directly reach in, but instead used the light of the torch to peer inside.

"It seems... like a scroll?"

Confused, Irving reached in to retrieve the item from the first box.

[Item Information: Invisibility Scroll (After use, you can become invisible, but only for two minutes)]

"Invisibility? This is interesting! It could save my life!" This time, Irving finally seemed satisfied, nodding appreciatively.

Then, he looked at the other box.

But when he took out the item from inside, he froze for a long time, unable to speak.

[Item Info: Necromancer Class Transfer Rune!]

[Activating this rune allows one to change their class to: "Necromancer," granting the basic skill: Undead Resurrection (When killing a monster, there is a certain chance to control its undead to continue fighting for the player!)]

Irving was initially stunned.

After reading the detailed description, he felt like he had won a multi-million-dollar lottery, unable to contain the excitement in his heart.

The mainstream class directions for ordinary players were: Warrior, Mage, Knight, etc., with some hidden professions like: Necromancer, Angel of Light, Alchemist, and so on...

However, these hidden professions required the corresponding class-changing runes.

The drop rate for such items was extremely low, and there was another issue—a player could not possess two professions at the same time.

For instance, if a powerful warrior wanted to change to a mage, they would have to forget all their warrior skills and start over from scratch, a hefty price to pay!

Therefore, the earlier a player acquired such a rare class-changing rune, the more advantageous it was.

"Man, that's awesome!" Irving, unable to contain his excitement, pumped his fists in the air.

He even imagined leading an undead army to conquer this the Otherworld game one day!

Without any hesitation, he immediately used the class-changing rune...

In an instant, the rune dissipated at a speed visible to the naked eye, and then transformed into a stream of light that burrowed into Irving's forehead.

A system prompt appeared on the virtual interface before Irving's eyes.

[You have gained the profession: Necromancer]

[You have gained the innate skill: Soul Plunder!]

[Would you like to use Soul Plunder on "The Butcher" immediately?]

Irving decisively chose: Yes!

[Soul Plunder in progress…]

[Plunder successful!]

As the prompt appeared, the butcher's corpse, which had been lying on the ground, suddenly convulsed a few times, then stiffly rose to its feet.

Its vicious eyes became somewhat duller as it slowly approached Irving.

At first, Irving had his guard up until he saw the vicious, bloodthirsty butcher in front of him acting like a puppet, his heart finally at ease.

"Why does this feel a little off..." Irving murmured to himself, looking at the butcher in front of him.

Upon further research, he finally found the problem.

Creatures controlled using Soul Plunder, whether they were monsters or beasts, had their attack power significantly reduced. This was directly related to the power of the Necromancer.

With Irving's current power, the butcher he controlled could only exert 30% of its original attack power.

"Better than nothing... I suppose."

Irving knew he was too weak for now and reluctantly accepted the reality.

He didn't expect to obtain such a rare item right upon entering the underground hall of the altar. Irving excitedly picked up the torch, his gaze directed towards the tunnel leading to the depths.

The tunnel was long.

Irving hesitated for a moment, but ultimately decided to continue exploring the depths.

He controlled the butcher to walk ahead - if there was any danger, it would be the first to take the hit!

After an unknown distance, the light of the torch was much weaker than before, the fat oil on it was almost burnt out.

"Where does this lead to..." Irving wondered.

Watching the flickering flame, his heart could not help but flutter with unease.

Crack!

A sudden strange noise brought Irving back to his senses, an indescribable sense of danger emerged in his heart.

At that moment, he keenly noticed something seemingly hurtling towards him at high speed from the front!

Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!

"A trap!" Irving was startled and instinctively flung himself to the ground. As he raised his head again, he saw the butcher, who was leading the way, riddled with arrows from head to toe.

Furthermore, all the arrows that pierced the butcher were drenched in a black liquid.

Deadly poison!

With a muffled thud, the butcher's massive form fell to the ground, motionless as a small mountain.

If it wasn't for the butcher's large body blocking all the poison arrows, Irving, even on the ground, would have had a hard time escaping death!

"I can't move forward anymore," Irving muttered under his breath.

On one hand, the torch was about to go out, and on the other hand, no one knew what other traps or even more terrifying things lay ahead.

The butcher he had been controlling was now dead, and he could be next...

In the end, Irving decided to turn back. Although he was full of curiosity about the end of the passage, he had to wait until he was fully prepared to continue his exploration.

It would be unwise to court death needlessly.

By the time he returned to the entrance of the altar along the same path, it was nearly dark.

The time in the game corresponded to reality.

"You can't see anything at night. There's no point in continuing to explore. I need to quickly find some lighting tools!" Irving thought and planned to exit the game.

However, before he exited the game, he slaughtered a few nearby pigmen and then performed a soul plunder.

Through several experiments, he found that the success rate of soul plunder was highest immediately after the pigmen died. Furthermore, when he controlled three pigmen at the same time, his mental power consumption would grow geometrically.

"So tired..."

Looking at the pigmen he controlled in front of him, Irving shook his head, gave up persisting, and then directly exited the game.

...

Inside the room.

Irving slowly opened his eyes, his forehead was covered in a thin layer of sweat, and his face was a bit pale.

This was the side effect of excessive mental power consumption.

Out of helplessness, he could only lie down and rest for an hour.

When Irving woke up again, his complexion had improved quite a lot. Then he logged into the "Strange World" forum on his computer.

Ding-dong! Ding-dong! Ding-dong!

Just after logging in, Irving found that the backstage messages seemed to have exploded, with the small horn blinking non-stop!