Power Leveling
After I finished up my tasks in town, I headed straight back toward the forest and met back up with my minions. It was time to abuse Necromancer's greatest strength, the strength of numbers. Unlike a full party, all the experience and loot would be mine, or at least that is what I knew from video games. I could only hope that it held true in this world as well. 𝘔𝘮𝘮𝘮 𝘮𝘢𝘺𝘣𝘦 𝘐 𝘴𝘩𝘰𝘶𝘭𝘥 𝘮𝘢𝘬𝘦 𝘮𝘺 𝘈𝘥𝘷𝘦𝘯𝘵𝘶𝘳𝘦𝘳 𝘯𝘢𝘮𝘦 𝘣𝘦 𝘈𝘭𝘭 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘖𝘯𝘦? 𝘞𝘰𝘶𝘭𝘥𝘯'𝘵 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘮𝘢𝘬𝘦 𝘮𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘣𝘢𝘥 𝘨𝘶𝘺 𝘵𝘩𝘰𝘶𝘨𝘩?
"Yosh! Time to power level! Fan out, stay within 200 meters, kill any monsters you find. Return to me in 1 hour."
After my earlier experiments, I now knew that the minions were able to use my understanding of measurements. How they were able to measure that and know how far something was or how much time had gone by.... no idea. I guess that is one I'll chalk up to magic.
"Status."
<Name: Deminas
Job: Necromancer Level: 3, Nomad Level: 3
Active Skill(s): Reanimate Level: 2, Drain Life Level: 1, Blood Needles Level: 1
Passive Skill(s): Undead Commander Level: 1, Increased Endurance Level: 1
OP Skill(s): 2nd Job (5), Small Str Increase (2), Small Vit Increase (2), x2 XP (1)
OP Points: 0>
"Now I guess I just stand here and play the waiting game."
I had considered keeping one of them with me, just in case I was attacked, but time was of the essence. I needed as many levels as possible or else I'd die later anyways. Luckily nothing had turned up to attack me.
To stave off boredom I used my time to practice my skills, [𝐃𝐫𝐚𝐢𝐧 𝐋𝐢𝐟𝐞] and [𝐁𝐥𝐨𝐨𝐝 𝐍𝐞𝐞𝐝𝐥𝐞𝐬]. I used a tree and pretended it was Snarf. I dodged and rolled while trying to cast the spells as fast and as accurately as I could. 𝘎𝘰𝘰��� 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘯𝘰 𝘰𝘯𝘦 𝘪𝘴 𝘢𝘳𝘰𝘶𝘯𝘥, 𝘐 𝘮𝘶𝘴𝘵 𝘭𝘰𝘰𝘬 𝘭𝘪𝘬𝘦 𝘢𝘯 𝘪𝘥𝘪𝘰𝘵 𝘧𝘪𝘨𝘩𝘵𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘢 𝘵𝘳𝘦𝘦.
Time went by fast, before I knew it I saw one of the rabbits returning to me, covered in blood. After that another rabbit and Tarman returned. I kept waiting, but the final rabbit never returned.
"Did it run into trouble?"
I reached out and tried to sense the final rabbit. I could sense the three minions in front me, but the last one.... was quite far away still. Furthermore, my connection to it seemed to be getting weaker.
"Cmon, follow me."
I ran toward the direction of my missing rabbit.
**********
As I got closer I heard a roar. I squinted into the growing darkness and saw it, a Forest Tiger. It looked similar to the Bengal Tiger of my world, except that it had sharp pointed ears and was jet black. It had two large fangs popping out of its mouth, similar to a sabertooth tiger, and a spiked barb on the end of its tail. 𝘈 𝘋𝘳𝘢𝘨𝘰𝘯 𝘙𝘢𝘵 𝘸𝘢𝘴 𝘢𝘣𝘭𝘦 𝘵𝘰 𝘴𝘶𝘱𝘱𝘳𝘦𝘴𝘴 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘳𝘢𝘱𝘦 𝘪𝘵?!? 𝘞𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘬𝘪𝘯𝘥 𝘰𝘧 𝘧𝘶𝘤𝘬𝘦𝘯 𝘏𝘦𝘯𝘵𝘢𝘪 𝘴𝘵𝘳𝘦𝘯𝘨𝘵𝘩 𝘥𝘰𝘦𝘴 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘩𝘢𝘷𝘦 𝘵𝘰 𝘥𝘰 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘴? I could only hopeI would never meet a Dragon Rat.
Watching the scene in front me, the Demonic Rabbit was trying its best, climbing on the Forest Tiger and tearing into it, but it kept getting bucked off and then swatted. On the last swat, the rabbit was blown into a tree, and crumbled. It hit the tree with such force that its insides exploded out of its orifices, and inky black blood and innards splattered onto the tree.
"You mother fucker! Let's see how you do against all of us! Kill that asshole!"
It was..... a surprisingly easy fight. I had thought it would of been a tough fight like Snarf, but it felt incredibly weak to me. Against my three minions with me firing spells off in the background it went down in no time. 𝘞𝘢𝘴 𝘚𝘯𝘢𝘳𝘧 𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘭𝘭𝘺 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘱𝘰𝘸𝘦𝘳𝘧𝘶𝘭 𝘰𝘳 𝘪𝘴 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘫𝘶𝘴𝘵 𝘢 𝘸𝘦𝘢𝘬 𝘰𝘯𝘦? 𝘔𝘢𝘺𝘣𝘦 𝘩𝘢𝘷𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘰𝘷𝘦𝘳𝘸𝘩𝘦𝘭𝘮𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘯𝘶𝘮𝘣𝘦𝘳𝘴 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘩𝘪𝘨𝘩 𝘋𝘗𝘚 𝘴𝘶𝘱𝘦𝘳𝘤𝘦𝘥𝘦𝘴 𝘢𝘯𝘺 𝘱𝘩𝘺𝘴𝘪𝘤𝘢𝘭 𝘢𝘥𝘷𝘢𝘯𝘵𝘢𝘨𝘦𝘴 𝘪𝘵 𝘩𝘢𝘥?
My minions leapt on it like ravenous animals as I casted [𝐁𝐥𝐨𝐨𝐝 𝐍𝐞𝐞𝐝𝐥𝐞𝐬]. Eventually it collapsed and I finished it off by spamming [𝐃𝐫𝐚𝐢𝐧 𝐋𝐢𝐟𝐞]. It was surprisingly cut and dry, I didn't even enter my heightened awareness state.
"Hehehe, well since you killed my rabbit, how about you take its place? Better than waiting and getting raped by a Dragon Rat right? Arise and serve me."
With that I now had a Forest Tiger zombie. While my zombies were much dumber than their living counterparts, they were always seemed much stronger, I couldn't wait to see how fast this thing cleared out the mobs in the forest.
"Well let's get to it shall we?"
**********
I looked up at the sky, the moon was nearly gone, and it seemed like my meeting time with Taleena was drawing near. I had farmed straight through the night. It seems either my jobs or passives buffed my body. I wasn't really tired, physically or mentally, I just felt a little uncomfortable. 𝘐 𝘸𝘰𝘯𝘥𝘦𝘳 𝘩𝘰𝘸 𝘭𝘰𝘯𝘨 𝘐 𝘤𝘢𝘯 𝘨𝘰 𝘸𝘪𝘵𝘩𝘰𝘶𝘵 𝘯𝘦𝘦𝘥𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘳𝘦𝘴𝘵? 𝘐 𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘭𝘭𝘺 𝘤𝘰𝘶𝘭𝘥 𝘰𝘧 𝘶𝘴𝘦𝘥 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘸𝘩𝘦𝘯 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘺 𝘭𝘢𝘶𝘯𝘤𝘩𝘦𝘥 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘞𝘰𝘞 𝘦𝘹𝘱𝘢𝘯𝘴𝘪𝘰𝘯 𝘢𝘵 𝘮𝘪𝘥𝘯𝘪𝘨𝘩𝘵....𝘐 𝘱𝘳𝘰𝘣𝘢𝘣𝘭𝘺 𝘸𝘰𝘶𝘭𝘥𝘯'𝘵 𝘰𝘧 𝘨𝘰𝘵𝘵𝘦𝘯 𝘴𝘰 𝘴𝘪𝘤𝘬.
Early on in the night I had started to feel sleepy and physically drained, but I pushed through and it eventually went away after a few hours of farming mobs. This was most likely due to my level ups. The Forest Tiger zombie was indeed much more powerful, and with it I was able to more efficiently kill more Forest Tigers. This further augmented my group of minions.
With my level ups I found out that I could also now summon more minions. Right now I had twelve minions around me. 3 Forest Tigers, 1 Tarman, 6 Demonic Rabbits, and 2 boar.... things. I'd have to ask Brianna later what they were, but they looked like a mix between a porcupine and a boar with fangs. It had spike all across its back.
"Status."
<Name: Deminas
Job: Necromancer Level: 6, Nomad Level: 9
Active Skill(s): Reanimate Level: 4, Drain Life Level: 3, Blood Needles Level: 3, Reaping Scythe Level: 3
Passive Skill(s): Undead Commander Level: 2, Wanton Slaughter Level: 1, Increased Endurance Level: 2, Survivalist Level: 1
OP Skill(s): 2nd Job (5), Small Str Increase (2), Small Vit Increase (2), x2 XP (1)
OP Points: 2>
"Well.... let's hope this is enough."