Darius quickly blinked upwards again, sending himself airborne by 100 meters. When he looked down, he saw Gunner's skill had fragmented the already cratered ground further, completely ruining it.
The remaining few undead were ground locked, so they couldn't avoid the powerful stun that came with Earthen Stomp. Mikey and Joneson shared a look before opting to slow down their participation in the battle as their MP had been severely drained.
As for Gunner, he followed up his attack by smashing down on a Dark Horse nearby, ground-pounding it to smithereens. With his ferocity, he was soon done with his unfortunate victim before he proceeded to repeat it with his next victim, this time a Dark Salamander.
Meanwhile, Darius channeled his downwards momentum towards his currently outstretched spear. The tip was aligned with his falling body, making his form appear connected to his weapon.
With all the momentum gathered, the tip of Darius' spear connected with his target, the scalp of a paralyzed Dark Salamander.
It instantly pierced through it, turning its brain into mush and causing the monster to squeal in agony and thrash about.
Darius pulled his weapon out and admired the corpse below his feet.
He had to admit, it was a great idea to give some attention to physical fighting, for he had discovered that it was possible to increase damage beyond what the traditional numbers dictated by making use of external factors.
Gunner had demonstrated this beautifully with his first Earthen Stomp, and then with his punch that met the enemy halfway. Darius was looking forward to finding out how much the modifier was for such damage, but needed to finish the battle first.
With that in mind, he blinked to another fallen foe and cast Sparks once before slaying it with his steel spear. He refrained from using the Demonic one for now as he simply didn't feel pressured to do so.
In the Adept band, that would certainly change. In a matter of a few minutes, Gunner and Darius together had made short work of the rest of the undead.
He turned to see that Mikey and Joneson were watching them with speechless expressions, as if they were looking at ghosts.
Since they had been spectating, they had been privy to the brutality of Gunner and the cruelty of Darius. Darius frowned at them though.
"Why did you stop fighting?"
The duo shared a look and Mikey decided to respond. "Well, we both lost about 40% of our troops so we decided to keep 'em back. Not to mention our offensive power is quite dull in battles like this unno."
Joneson chipped in. "Also, we be Journeymen now!"
Darius was stunned and checked their character sheets.
[Name: Joneson
Race: Undead
Class: Lich
Sub-class: Growth
HP: 800/800
MP: 1700/1700
Level: 28
Strength: ?
Agility: ?
Endurance: ?
Intellect: ?
Charisma: ?
Luck: ?
Abilities: Raise Dead, Heal Undead, Sacrifice, Promote.
Traits: Ice Immunity, Ice Ward, Absorb, Dominate.
Weapons: Cloth Armor.]
[Name: Mikey
Race: Undead
Class: Lich
Sub-class: Growth
HP: 800/800
MP: 1700/1700
Level: 28
Strength: ?
Agility: ?
Endurance: ?
Intellect: ?
Charisma: ?
Luck: ?
Abilities: Raise Dead, Heal Undead, Sacrifice, Promote.
Traits: Ice Immunity, Ice Ward, Absorb, Dominate.
Weapons: Cloth Armor.]
Darius frowned due to the fact that their stats continued to be obscure, but he noticed that the duo had changed significantly. Now that they were level 28 Journeymen, their HP had literally doubled, while their MP had increased by 400 points from level 18.
Interestingly, their skills were now separated into abilities and traits. Curious, Darius checked each and every one of them out to better understand the difference.
[Raise Dead - Intermediate Ability
Cost: 5 mana
Description: Call out to the corpses of recently slain to rise up and become your eternally loyal soldiers in battle. All undead raised through this method will have the same level as the caster and possess a 20% chance to develop basic intelligence. ]
[Heal Undead - Intermediate Ability
Cost: 5-50 mana
Description: Heal an undead by any amount of their health, with varying cost to the caster's mana. This ability can only be used on undead created or owned by the caster.]
[Sacrifice - Intermediate Ability
Cost: None
Description: Convert any undead minion created or owned by you into nourishment, restoring Health, Mana, and Stamina based on the chosen targets' own values. Its level will be turned into experience for you.]
[Promote - Intermediate Ability
Cost: 1,000 mana
Description: Raise the rank of a chosen undead by one. The new rank cannot surpass your own.]
[Ice Immunity - Trait
Description: As a being born from the coldest frost of the Netherworld, you are strongly resistant to all forms of ice damage or effects. ]
[Ice Ward - Trait
Description: With the blessing of the Netherworld on your side, you automatically spawn an ice barrier with various resistances and HP equal to your own at the beginning of any conflict.]
[Absorb - Trait
Description: As a rare growth type undead, you passively absorb the death energy from any slain foes in order to strengthen yourself.]
[Dominate - Trait
Description: As a Lich, you belong to the commanding species of the undead. You are able to dominate any undead within 100 meters with a lower level and rank, turning them into your subordinates in the absence of another master.]
Darius took a deep breath when he checked out the various abilities and traits of the undead duo for the first time.
The fact that their abilities seemed to be able to automatically upgrade with every stage they climbed was already amazing, but more importantly, Darius had an epiphany why Mikey and Joneson were supposed to be crucial to his success.
Caesar had been vague about it, so Darius had spent a lot of his SP on the Spawn spell, allowing them to level up alongside himself and Gunner, even letting them claim as many minions as they had wanted.
And now, it had finally born fruit. Darius' formerly bleak chances had increased greatly and he felt himself almost spiritually stepping away from a doomed pathway and setting a foot on one of the 56 paths of success.
