The Ruined Death Knight

Leaving the Anabast to read through the book and learn magic and the Draugrs to patrol the outside of the village, Danzel had a lot of stuff to think about and to do.

His to-do list has only been increasing lately and considering the paper shortage that he was facing, he focused on getting things done with little to no distraction.

To achieve that though, he decided to spend the rest of his XP.

Currently, he had close to 7 000 000 XP.

In the early part of his, that would have been a huge number, but now he knew that this large amount of XP wasn't that much.

Cursing internally, Danzel saw what to upgrade.

They were quite a few options for sure.

Mainly his class and skills.

'Sadly I don't have enough to bring [Black Guard] to level 100.'

He shook his head.

He was thinking if getting the talents was a bad call or not.

But after he considered what those talents brought to the table for him, he put his regret to his aside and stared at his skills.

They were also numerous new skills that he could buy thanks to his [Intermittent Class Death Magic] talent.

Which were quite interesting.

A few to mention were [Spread Graveyard], [Undead's Bone Armor], and [Curse of Everlasting].

The first, [Spread Graveyard], reminded him very much of [Miasma Corruption] and [Undeath Corruption]. Mainly the corruption effect.

It was a spell where he could proactively infest the surroundings with dead mana, which alone would make it much more comfortable for the undead. But the main effect was that it increased the attribute of all undead by 5%.

The only downside was that it mentions that it takes up to 2 weeks to fully infest an area.

[Undead's Bone Armor] was also a spell that allowed him to create bone armor. Though that didn't mean unlimited bones. As the armor has to be bounded to the undead, otherwise it disappears in a matter of minutes.

In a way, the spell was quite weak, but that was to be expected for the 1st-tier. It managed to take his notice only because of his bounding ability.

[Curse of Everlasting] in turn was noticed because curses were quite hard to get unlocked. Though that now was no longer the case with his [Cursed Hands] talent.

But that particular curse came from [Intermittent Class Death Magic].

Despite the spell's name though, [Curse of Everlasting] would increase the duration of all his curses by 10%.

In short, it was a debuff that buffed his other curses.

It wasn't good, but Danzel saw potential in the spell in the modification stage.

Those 3 were the only ones that he decided to buy as they were on the cheaper side except for [Spread Graveyard].

He then went ahead to upgrade [Wall of Bones] and [Heavy Strike].

The latter was always useful, but because he neglected in improving it, it wasn't worth using. It essentially was a stronger hit.

In the case of the former, he wanted to upgrade it to replace [Stone Wall].

He didn't want to raise the ground and cause another mountain of snow to fall on him, though the first wasn't his fault but Shiro's.

But that's beside the point.

His various talents and skill would also buff to spell and the fact that it create the wall out of nothing was also another bonus.

So he pushed those 1st-tier spells/skills towards the modification stage.

For [Wall of Bones], he merely chose [Dead Mana Affinity] and [Toughness].

Which made the spell turn as [Wall of Death Warden].

Despite overall improvement, the special effect that it got was that the first attack, be it of magic or physical will have its power cut by 80% for the next 1 second. Additionally, if the caster was undead and is 15 meters away from the wall.

The moment the wall gets destroyed, 50% mana spent on the wall will return to the caster.

Overall he was beyond satisfied.

The second effect was a nice bonus while the first would fulfill the purpose that he aimed to achieve.

As for [Heavy Strike], he chose [Dead Mana Affinity] and [Soul Affinity] in hopes to get something like [Soul Ender].

The result of that modification was the birth of [Kindred Judgement].

Once he learned the skill, it brought forth quite a large headache.

Though considering what it did, it was understandable.

The skill held knowledge of how to use his soul.

Or more accurately, how to use his soul essence to affect his physical body.

The skill was similar to one of the many weapons skills, which use the mana to forcefully guide one's body to do a certain action in order to hasten the action. In its case, the action was rising up the sword and swinging it down.

Not only would the action be hastened, but the swing itself will hold much more power and be heavier.

The awesome part of this skill was that his action will be followed by the use of soul essence like a mirror image similar to Agare's swordsmanship.

The result of that, in turn, will be like [Undying Guard] if the attack happens to be blocked, if not blocked, it will directly cut a part of soul essence out of his opponent's soul.

Except for the fact of being forced into a programmed action, the skill resulted in a win-win situation regardless of the outcome.

The rest of his XP, he spend towards his class even though he couldn't reach level 100.

Considering his budget, were only 15 levels.

[Black Guard level has increased from Lv.79 to Lv.80]

[Black Guard level has increased from Lv.80 to Lv.81]

...

[Black Guard level has increased from Lv.93 to Lv.94]

[Strength Increased by 60, Agility Increased by 45, Intelligence by 60, Endurance Increased by 60]

[You gained 45 attribute points]

With his attribute points, he went ahead to raise his strength while adding a few points to his other stats

[Status]

Name: Rue Danzel

Level: 100

Race: Death Knight

Class: [Black Guard Lv. 94]

Sub-Class: [Runesmith of Undeath Lv.80]

Health: 101 325/101 325

Mana: 20 250/ 20 250

Attribute points: 0

Attributes: Strength: 1440 Agility: 1504 Intelligence: 1350 Endurance: 1350

....

After he finished, a status window came out.

[A New Talent has been unlocked through your feats!]

Looking at what it was, he was quite disappointed.

It was a talent called [Endurance of Higher Being], which increased his health by 5% and that was it.

If it was endurance itself, it would have been much better as it would toughen his body, but health wasn't as important.

Apparently, he got the option to unlock the talent because he passed over the 100 000 Health mark.

Now officially broke, Danzel put his focus on finishing perfecting Shiro's staff rune.

From there, he went to a house and went to practice with the spears that he had.

He also visited Shiro daily to give her food as he had spatial storage rings.

And on Shiro's side, her body still hurt, and was in no condition to move. Though the book that Danzel gave out temporarily kept her entertained for the period of her recovery.

And after full 4 days later, when Danzel walked inside the room where Shiro was, she found her up on her two feet, stretching her body.

"You recovered?" Danzel said.

"Mhm, I believe so." Shapiro nodded her head.

Walking to "her" bed, she picked the book of Danzel and pushed it towards Danzel while holding it with both hands.

"Thanks for letting me borrow your book, Rue."

Glancing at her and then at the book, Danzel picked up the book and put it inside his storage ring.

"I told you that before, but I expect something for providing such information." Danzel said in his cold voice.

Albeit Shiro has grown taller, she was still a midget in front of Danzel.

Having somewhat grown used to his cold voice, she nodded her head.

"Well, I can teach you magic and give you some tips, right? Other than that, I-I don't know what to offer." Shiro said, somewhat nervous in the end.

"Don't worry, I am fine in trading knowledge and learning magic with you. But you won't be teaching only me. Now come." Danzel said as he turned around.

Shiro could only follow and tilt her head in confusion at Danzel's last words.

Just as they left the room, Koji and Niyuki, the two living armors followed behind her outside.

That's when ideas came to her mind.

"Ehm, do you want me to teach Koji and Niyuki magic?"

For a moment, Danzel halted his steps before launching at the two living armors.

'Actually, that might now be a bad idea

.' he thought internally.

'Though they lack the potential and affinities, they should be able to learn.' But they lack the potential...'

"Close, but not exactly. If you wish to teach them, I won't stop you. As I gave them to you. The ones who you have to teach though are somewhere else."

'The ones?'

Shiro tried asking for any clues of who was to be though. Albeit to no avail.

She felt somewhat annoyed by the fact he didn't just tell her.

The answer that she was seeking though was soon answered as they moved to the center of the village.

And what she saw brought chills up in their spine and cold sweat came from her back.

As she started at 5 huge living shadows floated through the air with a frightening aura.

"Huh?" She mumbled subconsciously.

Though the moment she did, the heads of all 5 shadows turned around and stared at her, with a face filled with darkness.

Once they did, their alright terrifying aura exploded and made them look like giant shadows ready to swallow Shiro in.

Shiro's body froze upon the gaze of all 5.

'I-I am supposed to teach...them?'

As she was effect by [Scare the Young].