Seeing the pathetically small fireball challenging the night, Wilhelm and the others understood what it meant.
And secretly, everyone but Vanessa was quite shocked.
While they were waiting for the results of those Danzel and the rogue, it didn't take a long while when the rogue came back to bring the news that they failed infiltration.
They have been waiting for Danzel to return and plan their next move.
But the small fireball indicated that Danzel actually succeed!
At the very start, Wilhelm was against sending him to deal with the castle and instead wanted Vanessa to go.
As a 4th-tier expert was much more reliable than a 3rd-tier.
Alas, he didn't voice his opinion.
Why?
Because he knew that it wouldn't have mattered.
Compared to the Nature Dagger group that listen to him, Vanessa and Abdiel treated him as if he was a nuisance.
Especially Abdiel's gaze felt somewhat threatening.
While Vanessa moved alone on every battlefield they went to, the dark knight Abdiel, for the better or the worse was the main force of their group.
Wilhelm was more than once threatened to die by the hands of his enemies and he was forced to use whatever means he had to protect himself.
Only when his death was unavoidable would the dark knight come and save him.
He also didn't want to be unsatisfied with Abdiel as he was the reason for most of their success. And Abdiel's success was at the same time his own.
Earning him a large number of merits in the Dynasty.
'I hate it that the most unreliable people are the most reliable ones...'
After a few minutes of walking, they finally spotted signs of the castle walls.
The archers, druid, and rogue frowned at the inspecting gazes of tens of undead on top of the castle walls.
The night vision from the undead was easily able to spot the living under the night.
Even a few undead were patrolling the surroundings outside the walls in case of enemies appearing.
Walking towards the open gate of the wall, 2 undead taking the duty of guards gave the group of the living a quick glance filled with hatred before continuing their duty.
Going past the gate, the number of undead skyrocketed.
Some of them wore the armor of the Dynasty knights, but most of the undead were from the Berums side.
Signs of a fight were to be seen everywhere.
The spilled blood on the ground, and several undead corpses, slowly become dust.
"Did he turn everyone into undead...?" Wilhelm mumbled to himself.
For a nobleman who past few months knew nothing of a battlefield, the sight of skeletons with glowing eyes was difficult for him to get used to.
He got even more disturbed when he saw the huge undead wolf whom he learned was named Skull Claw, was currently carrying 3 corpses in his maw, spilling the very much warm blood to the ground.
And soon enough when they reached the castle gate, they found the one responsible for this whole massacre staring intently at a small ball of fire that was hovering over his right palm, while his other hand had a large book open.
"Hey, Abdiel! Are you still at the level of producing such a small fire?" Vanessa said with a teasing tone.
Being disturbed, Danzel quickly lost his focus on the fire, making the fire disperse and shortly after disappearing into nothingness.
Seeing that, Danzel felt extremely bitter at losing control over his "supreme" fireball.
"You..." Danzel looked at the dark elve in anger.
Wilhelm who was looking at this exchange had to force himself not to burst into laughter.
He fully understands how Abdiel/Danzel was feeling right now. As a magic caster himself, he also felt extremely annoyed when someone was disturbing him while practicing.
Losing control of one's spell wasn't to be taken lightly as it could prove to be lethal to the caster.
But looking at the spell that the dark knight was practicing, he almost burst into laughter.
Closing the book that he was holding, he looked toward Wilhelm, making him freeze in horror.
"Sir Wilhelm, my undead have cleared out the entirety of the castle. We should be able to use it now."
Nodding slightly delayed, Wilhelm walked into the castle before stopping suddenly and looking back at the dark knight.
"What about any hostages?"
"...Sadly, as they resisted, I and my undead were forced to take according to action." Danzel said with his ice-cold voice.
There was a moment of silence between them.
Turning his head to stare at the bloodied floor, he said.
"I see...that's too bad."
Alas, his words didn't match his original thoughts.
'Lies, he probably killed even those begging to live and turned them into his undead army. Damn Necromancer.'
The other three mercenaries also followed their client's suit.
While passing, Danzel's gaze was laser pointed at the rogue.
The rogue also felt his gaze, but the feeling he usually got when facing him was different.
Most of the time, those beside Danzel that had keen senses could feel bits of his hatred at them and killing intent.
But the feeling the right got was one of total apathy.
***
After the group made their own inspections of the castle, they went ahead and declared which room they would be using.
With the hundreds of undead tirelessly patrolling the surroundings and inside the castle itself, there was no need for anyone to be placed on guard duty.
Even though the senses of a 3rd-tier were much more reliable than of a Draugr, the latter had the advantage of numbers.
They only decided to put someone on guard from both mercenary groups in front of the bedroom of Wilhelm in case someone slipped through the undead.
Danzel and Vanessa were both unwilling to do this, alas for the sake of the mission, they were forced to cooperate.
After Wilhelm informed the higher-ups of the Dynasty of "his", success in taking over the castle and being informed to wait until their troops come to reclaim it.
And now in the middle of the night, the druid Borg and Danzel were standing in front of the door, behind them is the room where Wilhelm was sleeping at.
They have been guarding the door for several hours, but neither of those two took the initiative to strike up a conversation with each other.
The druid was on his knees, meditating while Danzel was aimlessly looking in front of him.
In truth though, Danzel was looking at his [Status] somewhat troubled.
[Status]
Name: Rue Danzel
Level: 100 [Max]
Race: Wight
Class: [Black Guard Lv. 79]
Sub-Class: [Runesmith of Undeath Lv.80]
Health: 50 325/ 50 325
Mana: 9 870/ 10 032
Attribute points: 0
Attributes: Strength: 964 Agility: 1084 Intelligence: 912 Endurance: 914
Great Rune: [Great Rune of Undeath Existence]
Talents: [Superior Undead] [Sin of Wrath] [Reinforced Soul] [Superior Unique Consciousness ] [Rune Vision] [Dead Rune Knowledge] [Undead Carver] [Dead Mana Affinity] [Dead Mana Resilience] [Undying][Lower Class Death Magic] [Mastery of Himself] [Affinity Carving Mastery]
Skills: [Death Guarding Swordsmanship Lv.7] [Stone Wall Lv.9] [High Jump Lv.6] [Mist Presence Lv.1][Soul of Death Essence Lv.1] [Swift Movements Lv.3] [Shield Charge Lv.9] [Soul Reaping Wind Lv.5] [Existential Sense Danger Lv.1] [Curse of Chaining Fatigue Lv.5] [Mortal Reminder Lv. 1] [Grasp of the Undying Lv.3] [Undying Guard Lv.4] [Armor of Vengeances Lv.8] [Siphoning Soul Blade Lv.9] [Soul of Death Lv.5] [Undying Preservation Lv.1] [Curse of Primordial Decay Lv.5] [Greater Raise Undead Lv.7] [Undead Reconstruction Lv.1] [Eyes of the Damned Lv.6] [Curse of Five Bindings Lv.2] [Necromatic Restoraction Lv.2] [Death Rune Removal Lv.9]
[Remark: A wight who is able to influence the soul of others. A terrifying existence that witnessed the realm of the dead and can no longer be considered of the 3rd-tier. A freak among freaks from other natural-born Wights! Also, a being capable of harming one's Soul! At every cost, avoid confrontation against the undead named Rue Danzel.]
[XP: 8 068 000]
If one compared his current status with his past self a few months ago, it wasn't even comparable.
Though killing thousands of people and having Agares and Azrael as his harvesters, the XP that he gained was quite enormous.
At first, he went ahead to increase the level of his [Siphoning Soul Blade] skill to level 9 to increase the efficiency of making a cursed sword.
Then he focused on increasing his [Black Guard] level to raise his attributes.
While doing so though and increasing it a total of 48 times, he encounter a problem he wished he didn't want to meet.
And that was his body being unable to hold so much agility as he had now.
Or rather, the limit would be reached if his effective agility crossed over the 1300 points.
With [Superior Undead] and [Sin of Wrath], that limit would be crossed.
When he first found out that he crossed his body limit, he felt that his bones were being pressured.
Although the limit was barely crossed, if he had another 15-50 other points in agility, his very own bones would break from just moving.
Making him regretted to upgrade his class first rather than his [Soul of Death Essence].
The skill directly discounted his skill and also increase all of his stats.
The latter not by much, but it was still a slight increase that would have raised his agility.
Essentially, through his pure management of stats distribution, he reached the limit of his body for good.
But that was only attribute wise.
First of all, as the cocky remark says, he can no longer be considered of the 3rd-tier.
He surpassed the strength of that tier for good.
But that also didn't mean that he could be considered of the 4th-tier.
Being unable to check most of the information of the 4th-tiers he knew, he also couldn't compare his own strength with that of a 4th-tier.
That also made Danzel realize the significance of Velkir's buffs that he once gave him.
As they essentially allowed him to pass his limit without having any after effects.
So with XP pilling up in his wallet, he went ahead and raised his skills by their importance.
He could have lowered his cost if her first went ahead and leveled the [Soul of Death Essence].
Alas, the milk was already spilled and all he could do was make sure that such a mistake doesn't acquire again.
The few skills he brought to the 3rd-tier were his following curses and the holy resistance skill that he never really used.
Alas, it didn't turn out as he wanted and the skill that came out was [Undying Preservation].
He tried bringing out a secondary effect in the form of a buff, but all it became was increasing his resistance against holy magic, light magic, and additionally against mental attacks by a total of 30%.
The modification of it gave the skill to reduce the mana cost of Death based skills a total of 20%.
The precious useless skill became something that now he always used at the first sign of a battle.
'I could also go ahead and make a skill into the 4th-tied, but without knowing what the capabilities of a [Death Knight] are, I might make a mistake if the 4th-tier skills also have modifications...'
Though he was endlessly curious about what the next skills had in hold for him.
He decided to wait.
'My goal will soon be finished anyways...' He thought as he gazed at his mission.
[Currently achieved: 8932/ 10 000]
"Soon enough..." He mumbled to himself with an eerie voice.
As he said that, he turned towards the door where Wilhelm was sleeping with his ethereal eyes flaring up.
Noticing a presence that shouldn't be there, Danzel drew his sword, making the druid who was seating a few meters to the floor widen his eyes. His eyes glowing with life force.
"So you realized, huh?"
Saying those words, several arm-thick veins burst out of his and directly moved toward Danzel while destroying a large chunk of the ground and walls.
Seeing the sudden hostility coming from the druid, whom he fought together for several months, Danzel couldn't help but curse out loud.
"You!"
Knowing that he wasn't able to manifest his [Soul Reaping Blade] fast enough to cut down the wave of huge beings
He brought out the kite shield with a skull carved in front and activated its effect.
