...I'm dead. Just soooo dead...

"Garami, you're unexpectedly weak to scolding?" - Mira

"It's part fire after all..." - Garami

"Hmm? Was there such an attribute...?" - Mira

I tracked through the forest with my chatty companion while I still felt like a living dead after Ice-guy... after Alf snapped at me. I can't call him Ice-guy after he exploded like that. 

I know that I'm in the wrong here for recklessly charging at those gorillas, but this has been the first fight in who knows how long now without me having some handicaps on me! Of course, I wanna party it out then! 

...Yeah, definitely not a good reason to endanger even Marc, who's our client. My bad...

Let's ignore the faulty demon and move on! Alf, along with the fallen angel and Marc's busy preparing the camp. For some reason, Marc was the one most excited about having to camp for a night. Meanwhile, I and Mira are on an equally important mission:

Search and Destroy!

We've currently slashed and hacked our way through flora and fauna, both in search of the luck-bringing cat and for potential Materials for the scouting troops. 

I reached Lv.10 with Assassins in the brawl. The fight with the gorilla must have pushed me close to the finishing line. The skill I got's called [Critical Dance], which improves damage dealt with enemies for each attack you dodge in a row.

Getting hit a single time's enough to reset the skill, same with not being in a battle for a certain amount of time. The highest bonus increase is [Skill Level * 2]%, but anything that deals more damage is welcomed by me.

The last guy that challenged us is... this guy!? Grr... make use of your measly existence and become my Light attribute skills' proficiency! I grabbed the sucker with a thread and threw him down from the tree with a slamdunk. Now, [Glow Bullet] festival!!

"Stop, STOP! Garami, the poor guy's already dead!" - Mira

...Oh yeah, the corpse's not good if it's too damaged. The sudden appearance of this guy again must have pushed my beserk button. 

"What is this guy anyway?" - Mira

"...Aquarect. Sans Glavras." - Garami

"Okay... wait, 'sans Glavras'!? Wasn't Glavras-?" - Mira

"Disaster? Yup." - Garami

Visually, this guy looks no different from the Glavras Aquarects, but it has two obvious differences from those I met in the Water-Knot. One is that they are only called "Aquarect". The second is that they have access to the [Spider Thread] skill while retaining their original powers.

Were they mutated by the World System after the Dungeon collapsed? Eh, not my problem. What matters is that I can convert this guy. 

"Just have to find the bosses..." - Garami

"Hm? Said something?" - Mira

"Nothing important. Just trying to find out what happened with all those coming from the Water-Knot." - Garami

"That Disaster-Dungeon you talked about before?" - Mira

"That one." - Garami

I've been looking for the remaining survivors of the Water-Knot in my free time after I met Moles again in the city.

I found out that the Sahuagins are currently recreating their old society on Mayhem Island, which was their home before they went to defeat Glavras in the Water-Knot.

The snake monsters and tortoises are all been observed in Little Wasteland. If the Aquarects has made Sea Tree Island their new home, then that's all of the survivors!

...Just where did the three remaining bosses go to?

"You're saying this spider has mutated since the collapse of the Dungeon? Then, you cannot recreate their previous form as undeads or something?" - Mira

"Never could. Can only make undeads like this," I said, using my threads to draw up a table on one of the trees.

Even if I convert a unique monster doesn't mean I'll get a unique undead. Only the one closest thing to an existing undead. And the variants of that with lower racial ranks.

"Oh, I see... wait, there are no rank Ds?" - Mira

"Spectermancers can't make undeads above rank D. Only exception is if they have an Advance-tier class and make an undead with it. Not sure if Master-tier main classes work. Also, there are some limitations regarding size as well, even if you have enough materials. Can't make Big-size undeads, or what's above that again" - Garami

"Meaning the Giant Snake's not possible?" - Mira

"It's possible. It's just a notch bigger than an adult human." - Garami

"Then why's it called 'Giant' then!?" - Mira

Hey. for a snake back on Earth, that's big enough. Its only strength is its big size though.

"Damn, Spectermancer sounds worse than I first imagined. I was wondering whenever to take it or not after graduating from Squire..." - Mira

"Not recommended, unless you have a skill like [Evil Royalty]." - Garami

"Why's that?" - Mira

Hmm, there are no more monsters close by, so I guess we can take a break.

"First, you can only make undeads by directly affecting the corpse. The odds for success gets lower for each racial rank, and this is something I learned recently, but even if you succeed with a rank D or above, the stats and skills will be so low that even a G-rank creature can beat it." - Garami

"...That's pathetic." - Mira

"Right? After that, you unlock [Necromantic Rite] which absorbs corpses to gain Materials used to make undeads later, based on the blueprints you get based on what creature you absorb. But the total amount of Materials you can hold at one time is extremely low... unless you have [Evil Royalty], or something similar that increases the "storage capability". And Rite alone cannot obtain blueprints for D-rank undeads or above." - Garami

"Your class sounds less and less attractable... 'Rite alone'?" - Mira

"Mhm. The evolved skill, [Necromatic Ritual], can obtain blueprints, regardless of the racial rank." - Garami

"Ooohh~." - Mira

"But, you only obtain Ritual when you advance to the Necromancer class." - Garami

"Oohhh..." - Mira

Ritual is the tier 2 variant of the line, only halfway to the highest tier, which is 3. Only if you ignore the tier-Ex, which is limited to Extra Skills~.

"Finally, you need to use more of the undead-commanding type skills the bigger the undead. It's well up to Small-sized undeads, which is the same as a human, but the Medium-size needs the control-ability that is required for two Small-sized undeads. the Big-sized undeads requires 5, and Huge-sized needs 10." - Garami

"I'm not sure about these sizes and all, but it sounds difficult." - Mira

So true. I didn't know that Necromancers-in-training had it so difficult before I became one myself. I used most of my time when I was affected by the Waning-ailment to seriously study the class. 

And boy do I want to get Necromancer now. I found out that Necromancers, as opposed to Spectermancers, cannot give copies of their own skills to the created undeads; they really SHARE them with the undeads!

Meaning the undeads gets the skill at the same skill level as my own if I want to! And I can choose whenever to use the original skill level, or that of [Necromatic Ritual], which is the skill responsible for the skill-sharing. There's no extra proficiency for my skills either way though.

The skills the undeads can take variates between each blueprint. And if there are two or more blueprints with the same skill(s), the proficiency between the two's shared. It also means the undeads won't be able to learn skills outside their "natural" ones, and those I can share with them. Less quantity of skills for a higher quality of undeads, I guess? I can add classes even to non-humanoid undeads after all then.

"Enough of undeads. Garami, mind if you show my current stats now? It's impossible to remember it all in my head." - Mira

Okay, here you go~.

"Yay! Just two more levels before knighthood!" - Mira

"...Just three levels up? Isn't that a little low?" - Garami

I mean, the fishing festival she and Alf had on Plain Island, the D-rank gorillas before, and the genocide we've been giving the monsters here should give her a little more on her class at least.

"Squire is a difficult class to gain proficiency with from the beginning. I've had this one in 15 years, so gaining three levels in less than a week's incredible." - Mira

Ah, good point. My classes sky-rockets whenever I do anything, but that's probably because I'm super-used in using them, so the proficiency gain's higher than normal. It all started from utilizing the roach army though.

"You took [Throwing]?" - Garami

"I fell in love with the idea you told me off. Oh, and [Evasion] was something I always wanted, but other skills came first and I needed to save Skill Points for Knight, so..." - Mira

Yeah, unless you get double the Skill Points, even a 1 Point skill requires you to wait a good while before it pays itself back.

"You're close to evolving as well." - Garami

"Kinda nervous about that though. You change into a completely different species, you know?" - Mira

I'm an expert at evolving at this point, so even if you tell me that... 

"Then, ignoring racial evolution, which Knight are you going for?" - Garami

This is important to know regarding future party-play... and I'm honestly bored, so I wanna have something to talk about. And Mira's the only one who I can talk to without freaking out inside.

"Hmm... what can I go for?" - Mira

"You don't know?" - Garami

"I know there are five classes Squire advances into, but there is no public information about how to obtain them." - Mira

That's how they play it. Not so knightly if I say so myself... or maybe most knights never knew the requirements themselves and obtained the classes by chance? Or someone influential's keeping the info under wrap? Not that either matters to me.

"So Garami, Kigal-Note, please!" - Mira

I was thinking the same thing. Let's see...

"Knight's not that difficult. You just need a set of matching Weapon Proficiency and Weapon Arts skills." - Garami

"Got it. Like, can a Squire reach Lv.50 without that?" - Mira

If there is one, they deserve those skills for free. 

"Sky Knight needs... [Sky Jump] skill, Legion of One title, and high SPD stats." - Garami

"Damn, I've only got one of the cleared..." - Mira

This knight's more in my favor, but I can't take it. Moving on.

"Holy Knight needs... positive Karma. 150+." - Garami

"Ugh!" - Mira

"Plus the Saviour title, and having cleared a Quest related to the church... is what I can guess from the Quest name." - Garami

"Impossible, impossible. Completely impossible~." - Mira

Saviour's the next-in-line after Rescuer... maybe I should try to get that?

"Guardian Knight needs high VIT-" - Garami

"Ah, you can skip that." - Mira

Defense power's wasted on this girl. 

"Finally, Dark Knight." - Garami

"I was waiting for this one!" - Mira

"Hmm... Negative Karma of 150+, several Hunting Titles, with at least one Slaughterer-tier..." - Garami

"-!" - Mira

"And... the Destroyer title." - Garami

"SO CLOSE!!" - Mira

Just one step short from reaching your dreams. 

"Isn't the requirement for Destroyer to break lots of stuff?" - Garami

"From the name, obviously yes." - Mira

"Then, there's tons of 'stuff' here to destroy, without angering any people," I said, spreading my arms to show my point.

"...The forest!? That's going to attract all the monsters miles away... you're tired of hunting?" - Mira

"It's boring, and the others are on the beach. We have enough speed to run away in case something bad appears." - Garami

The noise will also make the weaker monsters too scared of disturbing us while we feast on the jungle's top predators that are brave enough to attack us. Maybe we'll even attract the kidnappers? If that happens, I'll sneak around and stab them from behind. 

I gave Mira the run-down of my idea.

"...That's a plan I can live with. But what if some boss-class appears?" - Mira

"Got a secret move in that case." - Garami

Named "Chaotic Zahhak". I'll spam that, then we're gonna get the hell outta here and regroup!

"Alright then," said Mira before starting to slash at one of the damn big trees with Airgetám active. 

She must be using some Art, cause the greatsword went into the tree with ease, even reaching to the other side despite the sword being too short for that.

It seemed like the Art ended when Mira had cut through 90% of the tree, but then she used [Lightforce Shield] and exploded her way through the last part. I get she has several skills that enhance light, [Light Spirit] included, but that firepower surprises me every time.

And the tree fell. Watch out below!!

"...Getting the title could turn out to be even easier than I first thought." - Garami

When the tree fell, it crashed into the next tree, which repeated a few times that ended with a clear stripe in the forest.

Environmental destruction!! Type "Domino-effect"!

Jokes aside, won't this attract too many monsters? The sound was more impressive than I first thought. 

Mira's... looking a little too pleased with the increased destruction. Crap, she's not gonna be allowed to get [Sadistic Constitution]. She'll lose herself to the skill too easily.

And here comes the monsters~. A flock of what appears to be the gorilla's pre-evolved form appeared from the forest, a party of six. Rather, these are just regular, old gorillas, right? Their stats and skills are on the low side, so Mira can probably take care of them herself.

"Mira, dodge-tank, go." - Garami

"Wait, what are you talking about!?" - Mira

"Just need [Evasion] to Lv.Max for that combo-skill, right? Make use of this good opportunity." - Garami

"...Just watch my back, okay?" - Mira

Mira went charging at the gorilla party while letting them attack her. They only use large swings with their arms, but Mira's used to high-speed movement from the beginning, so she's dodging them with ease. Probably would have done so even without the skill.

I twirled with my dagger while being bored. The gorillas are gonna collapse from the loss of stamina at this rate. Mira's just too experienced in moving around while consuming as little energy as possible. No wasted movements. 

...And now, something's coming from above. I looked up at the tree-tops and saw another monster party. This time with Aquarects.

You guys are always a source for irritation, right!?

Let's shoot those bastards down to the ground! Hey, I'll shoot, not you!

[Intuition] showed me that the spiders were going to fire their beloved water blasts at me, Wait, isn't this a good opportunity for me as well? 

As the spiders shot towards me, I did the opposite of what Mira's doing and received the blasts... with Arrow Guard. The [Guard]-move that blocks against long-range attacks. 

The damage is... nothing to worry about. The small amount I took's already recovered with Auto-Recovery, and we're in a deep jungle. There's practically no sunlight, so no damage from that front! Still enough to kill my undeads...

The spiders kept on blasting at me, unknowing that they did close to zilch damage that's already recovered. [Guard]'s getting tons of proficiency now~.  I wonder if I can use my dagger to block them... whoa!?

"Garami, that's so cool! How did you do it?" - Mira

No clue. The dagger suddenly emitted a black blade, kinda like those weapons used in a galaxy far, far away. It's completely soundless though. And looking closely, it's more like the blade got extended instead of turning into a cylinder of darkness. With the dagger being one-edged, it now looks like a katana... in a way... perhaps?

This... it's the Darkness attribute? It has the same feel as the [Aura of Darkness]... except this feels less violent than the aura. It's still like a lake...

Incoming water blast! Whenever it's because my mind was focused on the strangeness of my dagger, I tried to slap the blast with it... and it worked. What the heck!?

"Alright, this is getting so cool, it's turning into weird. What is wrong with that dagger of yours?" asked Mira, after finishing off the gorillas. She must be more interested in this.

The problem is: I have no clue myself.

The spiders ran with visible panic after I swatted some more water blasts. I then proceeded to Identify the weapon so I could unveil this mystery.

...Yeah, no clue. Sword professor~, please tell me the answer~.

"What is... what the heck's this!? Auto-growth!? And-" - Mira

"Enough of that, Explain this." - Garami

"Seriously, you... From the looks of it, this 'Enhanced Dark Weapon' effect's the culprit here. Since there are no Darkness attribute effects of the weapon itself, it rather enhances the weapon itself, resulting in this mess." - Mira

Hmm... it turned into a blade of darkness? Then I wasn't too far off when I compared it to those buggers used in sci-fi movies. 

Still... even if it sounds great on paper, reality ain't so nice. First off, the blade's gone dull. It's no better than a wooden sword like this. Second, I can't add [Aura of Darkness] to it. Maybe the darkness of the blade's rejecting the darkness of the Aura?

"Even so, it works wonders for parrying. Use this when you need to defend, then turn the effect off when you go for the attack." - Mira

That's a good thing to know. Back to environmental destruction! 

---

Later, back at the camp

"Garami, 'I will not endanger my crew by rallying the monsters in the nearby area'!" - Alf

"I will not endanger my crew by rallying the monsters in the nearby area..." - Garami

Another scolding... and I can't deny it either...

Turns out all the weaker monsters did flee the jungle, just like I foresaw. The thing I didn't expect was that they all tried to enter the camp.

The only thing that prevented an all-out war with the weaklings and Alf & co was, for some crazy reason, Marc's cooking. After fixing the camp, Marc had started to cook diner, and for the poor animals that have had to live on fruits and insects, the smell of his cooking was like a gift from the heavens.

"I've heard of people taming weaker monsters and animals with food before but on this scale?" - Mira

"It is a talent in its own right." - Noire

Damn, why was Mira only give a warning while I have to be denied those delicious goodies? Hey, that lemur over there. Share some with me. No? Please? Just hand it over already!

*Groooowl*

Let me eat good fooooood!!