Rewards

Rhode himself was in bad shape after landing.

With his current Constitution, jumping down from a height of five or six meters was already hard enough. And since he'd had to assassinate the Necromancer Apprentice, he hadn't been able to roll to absorb the impact. He'd had to take the full force of the landing.

Rhode felt his legs go numb all at once. They might have been broken. A sharp pain shot through his waist.

While the surrounding Undead Creatures were momentarily out of control, Rhode looked at the system log.

...

You killed a Tier Two Hero.

A glorious victory! You gained 400 experience!

You earned the Speed Achievement [Brave One].

[Brave One]: Kill a creature one tier above you by yourself. Basic reward: 1 Skill Point. While equipped, increases damage dealt to creatures of a higher tier than you by 10%.

You earned the Speed Achievement [Blood of the Hero].

[Blood of the Hero]: Kill a Hero. Basic reward: +1 to all attributes. While equipped, increases damage dealt to Heroes by 20%.

After killing a Hero, your Hero Specialty has been partially activated. (1/3)

The sheer number of rewards in the system log left Rhode momentarily stunned. He hadn't expected this Necromancer Apprentice to be a Hero.

Come to think of it, Rhode realized there had been something unusual about the apprentice.

The number of Undead Creatures controlled by the Necromancer Apprentice had been far too great. Whether it was the considerable number of Walking Corpses and Skeleton Soldiers or the Skeleton Warriors, Rhode knew enough about necromancers to realize that an apprentice-level necromancer shouldn't have been able to control so many Undead Creatures.

Necromancers had to expend some of their Spirit attribute to control Undead Creatures. When an Undead Creature died, the Spirit attribute it had occupied was returned.

When a necromancer controlled too many Undead Creatures at once, their Spirit attribute would become extremely low, weakening the effects of their spells. This was a balancing measure to keep necromancers from becoming too powerful.

Through meditation, necromancers could gain a special Control Spirit attribute, which they could use in place of their Spirit attribute to control Undead Creatures, making up for their limited Spirit.

Even with the extra Control Spirit attribute, the number of Undead Creatures controlled by this apprentice had exceeded Rhode's expectations. He hadn't thought much of it when he'd observed them earlier, but now that he knew the apprentice was a Hero, it was easy to recognize the problem in retrospect.

Without examining the achievements he'd earned, Rhode confirmed that he'd gained a large amount of experience and immediately chose to level up.

You spent 300 experience. Remaining experience: 125. Class Level increased from Level 6 Militiaman, Tier 1, to Level 10 Militiaman, Tier 1...

You gained 4 Free Attribute Points and 4 Skill Points...

Rhode quickly assigned 2 Free Attribute Points to Constitution to heal his leg injuries, then put 1 point into Strength and 1 into Speed. He also spent 2 Skill Points to learn Advanced Swordsmanship.

(Advanced Swordsmanship: Years of honing your swordsmanship have taught you a variety of deadly sword techniques, which you have integrated into your instincts. Your instincts alone allow you to use the right move at the right time. You can wield any kind of sword with ease. Damage dealt by sword-type weapons increases by 30%.)

Assigning the points with his mind took only an instant. By the time Rhode had finished, the other Undead Creatures had raised their weapons and were charging at him.

After the Necromancer Apprentice died, the Undead Creatures he'd controlled in life returned to their natural state: destroying all living creatures. Rhode hadn't yet learned how to control the undead, or he could have taken control of this group of low-tier undead now that their necromancer was gone.

The healing effect from putting Free Attribute Points into Constitution was immediate. The pain in Rhode's legs vanished completely. He cautiously put some weight on them and found they were almost as good as new.

The two Skeleton Warriors nearby had already rushed up to Rhode. He drew his sword, ready to fight.

Just then, Rhode suddenly felt a chill down his spine. Without stopping to think, he quickly rolled in one direction, and luck was on his side: he dodged an attack from an unknown source.

The Skeleton Warrior that had just reached the spot where Rhode had been wasn't so lucky. The attack struck it squarely, denting the Iron Armor it wore and breaking who knew how many of its ribs.

As soon as his roll ended, Rhode sprang to his feet and looked in the direction the attack had come from. To his astonishment, the Necromancer Apprentice he'd killed earlier had gotten back up. Its head hung low, and its body was poised to attack.

This was beyond Rhode's expectations. For a moment, he could only watch as the risen Necromancer Apprentice attacked the Skeleton Warrior beside it. With a single punch, it warped the shield the Skeleton Warrior had raised to block. The spot where the Skeleton Warrior's sword struck its body rang like metal against metal, but it kept attacking as if nothing had happened.

"Is this... Undead Mutation? Or Magic Energy Modification?" Rhode wondered.

The system log had shown the experience he'd gained, so Rhode was certain he'd successfully killed the Necromancer Apprentice. Now that the apprentice's corpse had stood back up and was attacking indiscriminately, Rhode began guessing what had caused this change.

Drawing on what he knew from his previous life, Rhode tried to remember.

The first thing that came to mind was Undead Mutation. In the game in his previous life, many of the powerful necromancers he'd killed had pulled a trick like this after death.

Powerful necromancers had large amounts of Death Energy within them. When they died, this Death Energy would lose control and transform their corpses into Liches within a short time. That was Undead Mutation.

But an apprentice necromancer wouldn't have nearly enough Death Energy for Undead Mutation to occur, and besides, Liches didn't fight the way Rhode had just seen. With that in mind, Rhode ruled out Undead Mutation.

Rhode watched the resurrected apprentice. Its torso hung at an unnatural angle, but its arms and legs were remarkably nimble. It parried the attacks of two Skeleton Warriors, and when its fists clashed with their swords, it even managed to chip the blades.

Based on the apprentice's fighting style and the kinds of unusual changes possible at an apprentice's level, Rhode quickly figured out what had happened to the corpse.

"Magic Energy Modification..." Rhode murmured as he watched the apprentice's corpse fight the Skeleton Warriors.

Spellcasters had mana in their bodies, which dissipated when they died. Magic Energy Modification used methods of controlling the undead to bind the mana that would otherwise dissipate within the body, allowing the spellcaster's corpse to expend it through punches and kicks.

Magic Energy Modification had far fewer requirements than Undead Mutation. Any spellcaster with mana could undergo the modification. However, it had an extremely low success rate and only took effect after death, so few people would willingly undergo it.

Rhode recalled that, in the game in his previous life, this modification was more often used on suicide soldiers on the battlefield.

By now, the surrounding Undead Creatures had closed in. The nearest were some Skeleton Soldiers, while the Walking Corpses were still approaching because of their slower speed. Rhode had no choice but to deal with the undead in front of him first.

Since the risen apprentice's corpse wasn't an undead creature, the Undead Creatures were attacking it too. The two Skeleton Warriors Rhode feared most were now fighting the apprentice's corpse, and for the moment, neither side could overcome the other.

With the Skeleton Warriors no longer a threat, Rhode could easily deal with the Undead Creatures in front of him, thanks to his increased strength. Before the surrounding undead could get any closer, he charged at the Skeleton Soldiers beside him.