"Bam!"
A loud crash rang out.
The Necrotic Arrow slammed hard into the Kite Shield.
Zong Shen, bracing the shield from behind, felt an immense force slam into his arm.
He staggered.
Fortunately, he managed to withstand the Necrotic Arrow's attack.
With the Primary Heart of Strength equipped, Zong Shen's Strength had reached 18 points. He was only three points behind Colby, which was why he could bear the impact of the Necrotic Arrow.
This was one of the advantages of choosing a Strength-focused build at the start.
Compared with lords who had chosen their backgrounds based on personal preference, Zong Shen was far more capable in combat during the early stages.
[-52] [Block]
Two notifications appeared above his head in quick succession.
The blow had left the already dented shield even more battered.
He hadn't taken any damage.
But the shield's durability had dropped by two-thirds.
That made Zong Shen wince.
"My lord..."
Behind him, Tie Zhu seized the opportunity to stand up. Seeing his lord standing in front of him with a shield, taking the attack on his behalf, his eyes welled with tears.
He was utterly moved.
[For your selfless act of Rescue] [Tie Zhu's Loyalty to you has increased by 2 points. Current Loyalty: 100] [Loyalty has reached its maximum. Tie Zhu will obey any order you give unconditionally, even if it means sacrificing his life.]
Tie Zhu's favorability had maxed out.
He became the first subordinate under Zong Shen to reach maximum favorability!
But the situation on the battlefield left them no time to chat.
Zong Shen sprang to his feet and charged forward with his shield raised.
"Tie Zhu, don't just stand there. Get in here with me!"
With that, he charged straight at the Necromancer, taking the lead.
The longsword in his hand flashed like a streak of silver lightning as he swung it at the enemy.
[-3] [-20] [-23]
The remaining two bone plates shattered one after the other.
Zong Shen's longsword struck the creature's head, carving a gash into it.
The blow exposed dry, gray-black flesh.
It also dealt 23 points of excess damage.
Tie Zhu arrived just then.
He went to work with his daggers, slashing left and right and leaving two cuts on the Necromancer's head.
[-37] [-37]
Without the protection of its Bone Armor, the Necromancer could no longer cast spells at its leisure.
With Zong Shen and Tie Zhu attacking it from both sides,
it found it even harder to fight back.
During the delay,
the three Wolf Cavalry had finished off the two Skeleton Warriors and the Shortsword Undead.
They closed in,
and the fight turned into a group beating.
After everyone landed a blow,
the Necromancer was left with only a sliver of health.
Then Zong Shen swung with all his might and delivered the final strike.
[-46]
A flash of green light, and the Necromancer disappeared, leaving several white and green orbs behind.
[You have slain the lv. 11 Resentful Necromancer (Green)] [You have gained 380 experience points.] [Your soldiers will receive half the experience.]
A beam of white light enveloped Tie Zhu, who leveled up once more, reaching lv. 3.
As an assassin, Tie Zhu put his attribute point into Agility.
Since he wasn't a Hero, soldiers like him didn't have twenty-four passive skills like Zong Shen. They only had four attributes and their class skills.
However, as they leveled up, their four attributes would increase, and their class skills would gradually grow stronger.
Unfortunately, despite killing so many undead, the three Wolf Cavalry still hadn't leveled up.
Zong Shen was now level 5 and needed 900 experience points to level up. Reaching level 10 would require several thousand points.
Thinking it over, he realized there was no need to rush.
Since Tie Zhu had leveled up, his health had been restored to full.
Every level-up was like having one's condition reset.
As for the three Wolf Cavalry, they were in decent shape overall.
Each had lost only twenty or thirty health points.
And after leaving combat, their health was slowly recovering.
That was because Zong Shen's First Aid skill had reached level 2.
It could increase the party's health recovery rate by 40%.
"Stay here and keep watch!"
Zong Shen gave the order.
As for himself, he began gathering the rewards dropped by the undead.
It was time to clean up the battlefield.
Zong Shen's Item Management had reached level 2, giving him 32 personal Storage Grids.
He also had the 24-slot Kodo Beast Leather Backpack, making him a walking warehouse.
He picked everything up.
A quick glance showed that the undead had dropped mostly common-grade weapons and Leather Armor.
Aside from that, there wasn't much worth keeping.
The weapons and armor were only a little better than the shabby gear they had received at the start.
They were about on par with the equipment he'd gotten from the Marauders before.
Zong Shen planned to take everything back to his territory and sort it out there. He would pick a few pieces with decent attributes for his soldiers to keep as spare gear, and sell the rest or wait until he had built a Blacksmith Shop to dismantle them.
There were only a few items that could be considered worthwhile.
Zong Shen began inspecting them one by one.
[Soldier Strengthening Bead (White) ×3] [Can be used on any soldier to randomly enhance 1 base attribute.] (A strengthening item for soldiers. If it's good for them, it's good for you, too.) [Soldier Strengthening Bead (Green) ×1] [Can be used on any soldier to randomly enhance 3 base attributes.] (Use good steel where it counts. A strong soldier can even hold the line alone. Think about it. Really think about it.) [Pet Contract (Green) ×1] [Can be used to form a contract with any unowned, non-humanoid creature. The chance of success varies according to the target's condition. The base success rate is 20%.] (Become a master of pets, starting today.) [Bone Scepter (Green) ×1] [One-handed] [Quality: Fine] [Magic Damage: 30–33] [Bludgeoning Damage: 17–19] [Casting Speed: +8%] [Durability: 150] [Skills: Summon Skeleton lv. 1, Bone Armor lv. 1] [Required Intelligence: 16] (That's right, this was the Necromancer's weapon. Not bad. I'll keep it.) [1st-Order Infantry Training Manual ×3] [After building a 1st-order barracks, you can spend resources and Training Manuals to train your Farmers into 1st-order infantry.] (A must-have for turning Farmers into soldiers.)
Next came a batch of resources.
[Primary Elemental Crystal ×4] [Iron ×9] [Mithril ×3] [Copper ×3]
But the item that caught Zong Shen's attention the most was the last one.
[Necromancer Recruitment Scroll] [Commune with the great mysterious forces to immediately recruit a powerful 3rd Order mage-type warrior: a Necromancer.] [Uses 2 Command Value] [Default aptitude: Excellent. Level: 10. Can advance or be enhanced later.] [Click to use] (A powerful Necromancer, a warrior who commands life and death.)
A Necromancer Recruitment Scroll!
Zong Shen had just experienced firsthand how formidable they were.
As long as they had companions to protect them, mages could deal sustained damage.
This would further strengthen his fighting force.
But the moment he thought of the Necromancer's dried-up face, Zong Shen found himself hesitating as he held the recruitment scroll.
If he recruited something that ugly, wouldn't he have nightmares every single night?
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