Bro, I'm not an Undead!

The Bookworms.

A race of humanoid worms with incredible natural aptitude for magic that rivalled even those titled as the most talented mages.

The only thing that limited them was how they were not born with an innate understanding of magecraft. Their race allowed them to automatically access powers that they had no right of choice over.

As a result, most of them didn’t have a class as their abilities were centered around the same thing, though extraordinarily unique per each individual.

When Bookworms matured to a certain age, a belt would appear around their waists. With it, a Bookworm could conjure an unlimited number of mana saturated books.

These books were called Innate Holders, though by this point, they were not imbued with any specific magical properties except the ability to discharge the mana they held all at once.

With further growth, a Bookworm could finally gain a signature magical property exclusive only to them. They would have to select an Innate Holder of their choice to imbue this property, focusing on the blank pages of the Holder for varying periods of time for something wondrous to be effect.

Sooner or later, depending on talent, the pages of the Innate Holder would be imprinted with arrays, one per each page, with every single one being a spell that can be used.

All the spells generated would be governed by the magical property awakened though and they did not all appear at once.

All this said however, the Bookworms could have been a powerful race, if someone had not opened their still developing race and Cluster to monsters that far outclassed them in strength and skill.

Sila and Bek stood in the thick of the chunky mud, their feet being submerged within it. Both could agree that the biggest obstacle to them right now was this sticky sludge instead of the raining attacks coming from the Bookworms!

Hundreds of white paged books with thick covers of different colours were being flung from all directions by Bookworms who yelled out expletives!

Most them were yet to mature enough to develop a magic property and thus, they could only fling their holders!

The books struck Sila and Bek, the mana within them igniting for bright explosions that released vibrant bursts of noise!

Bek was unaffected by these attacks with his Genuine Incarnation nullifying the attacks entirely as they were mana-based. Sila on the other hand was slicing the books into pieces with incredible speed, stopping them from exploding in his face.

As said before, the never-ending storm of books wasn’t the problem for these two. The problem was the thick mud that they were standing in.

It wasn’t merely ordinary mud. It was thick, reinforced by mana tremendously to such an extent that when both Sila and Bek had entered the Cluster, their legs had eventually become stuck, movement with their legs becoming an impossibility without any form of intervention.

The Bookworms however could move freely, their lower halves rushing over the mud quickly as some of them raced towards the two enemies!

‘Weaklings!’ Sila thought while looking at the swarm of Bookworms.

He held Demion’s Dance firmly and swung viciously, a trail of light following the tip of the sword!

SHIIIIIIING!

Bloody bodies littered the ground with the one slash, the mud gaining a dark hue, different from its natural brown colour!

The storm of unending attacks had prevented Sila from doing this sooner.

At the same time, with the staff he was now once again biting onto, Sila channelled the mana into his body, an encirclement of light blue energy covering his body!

A red flame gushed out with great ferocity over the light of [Null Life Aura], the heat it produced burning the muddy sludge around Sila’s legs!

The mud hardened quickly, allowing for Sila to break free.

He then dashed ahead with the ring of flames following after him, burning the mud and turning it hard enough for him to run over!

‘I can’t find that woman anywhere even though I entered this Cluster not much later than she did,’ Sila thought, his eye darting to Bek who was a bit of a distance away. ‘I’ll find an opportune moment to cut him down after scouting for that woman.”

Bek on the other hand looked agitated.

His focus wasn’t on the Bookworms but on Sila who had freed himself of the muddy binds.

“Sera…” Sila said, the Spirit inhabiting his hand and rapier streaming out and appearing above him whole. Sera wrapped her arms around Bek and started pulling him out.

Bek focused the Aura around his feet to push away the mud, making Sera’s job all the more easier.

Soon, Bek was free and he grunted in displeasure as he saw the Bookworms bolting towards him.

With just a single rapier, the former Knight swished rapidly, arcs of golden light making an effort to trace the movements of his sword. The result was the complete decimation of any of the Bookworms that came within five meters of the man, their bodies being ripped apart without the rapier even touching them.

Bek refocused on Sila who was cutting down enemy after enemy

‘If I can attack while he is distracted, I could pile on damage,’ he thought but…

…!

His senses suddenly picked up on a familiar presence, forcing him to turn his head.

Nearly a mile away on the enormous muddy platform, a large carriage with two extended bars on both sides appeared in his sight.

A dark-skinned woman wearing a cloak with a hood was pulling it along, her feet and the wheels of carriage not sinking within the mud like him and Sila!

What?

As Bek eyed this woman, noting the familiar visuals he could see from her – a layer of abstruse protection shielding her soul from his eyes – he narrowed his eyes upon coming to a realisation.

‘She’s…’ he thought, his mind hopping off the ‘Kill Sila train’.

The woman also turned her head, a strange, unsettling smile etching itself on her face before she turned back to where she was going.

Beyond the muddy platform and towards the expansive mash of colour at the end of it!

‘You won’t escape from me again!’ Bek thought.

Unlike Sila who was a recently emerged threat, Bek decided that capturing a member of this mysterious group was vastly more worthwhile.

Besides, he hadn’t been searching for them for no better reason other than to appease his honour as a former Knight.

If what he had heard was true then…

…

Skullius’ vision which was set on the two enemies that he was supposed to fight, temporarily got drawn away by a red flame that roared from the distance.

‘He’s using [Revenant Flames of Ecstasy] again? How? It has a long cooldown!’ he thought.

With Sila’s rampage there was also a constant stream of notifications that kept blinking in Skullius’ sight.

He didn’t have the time to entertain more of these distractions however, as the first of these stronger looking [Bookworms] reached him.

The Bookworm had dark hair and golden eyes, its masculine look being quite fierce.

This was the one that had been called Hafuman by the Bookworm that was flinging commands everywhere.

It held a somewhat thick Innate Holder the size of a smaller tome, an old orange cover over it.

Hafuman opened the Holder and tore a page from it which he held between his fingers as he eyed Skullius who floated in mid-air.

‘These two are Tier 5. I better not waste my time on them. They probably can’t harm me anyway,’ Skullius thought before raising his hands to direct his orbs for an attack.

Hafuman beat him to the punch though, as he flung the page he had torn towards Skullius.

“Random Magic…..whatever happens next!”

The page glowed bright before dispersing into glitter that flooded in all directions, with a beautiful array of colour!

The visuals were incredible…. and that was it.

“That’s it?” Skullius said with confusion.

Hafuman who was stuck in his throwing stand had droplets of sweat trickling from his brow.

Yes.

That was it.

This spell… was just the simple conjuration of glitter…