Faced with the incoming ten thousand bone weapons, the Ash Spider Queen had no choice but to transform most of her body into a dense ball of ash with the core at its center. She kept her spider legs in solid form and jumped around frantically, trying to dodge the endless bone weapons.

Boom! Boom! Boom!

Dozens of bone weapons just missed their mark and crashed into the ground, creating small craters and causing dust to fly everywhere.

Hundreds of bone weapons split off from the main group and circled around to the right side. The main group of bone weapons aimed for the Ash Spider Queen’s left side, forcing her to dodge to the right. Just when she changed directions, the hundreds of bone weapons that split off earlier cut off her path and flew straight at her.

With no time to dodge, the Ash Spider Queen absorbed four of her spider legs into her ball of ash. A split second later, four new spider legs appeared on top of the ball of ash and faced the incoming bone weapons.

Clank! Clank! Clank!

Hundreds of bone weapons clashed against the four new spider legs. The sharp and sturdy spider legs flailed around madly, deflecting all the incoming bone weapons.

In the few seconds that it took to defend against the hundreds of bone weapons, the main group of bone weapons caught up with the Ash Spider Queen and struck her from behind.

Bam! Bam! Bam!

Thousands of bone weapons crashed into the ball of ash, sending the Ash Spider Queen tumbling across the ground. Once she got knocked down, she quickly shrunk back her spider legs and made the ball of ash even denser.

Boom! Boom! Boom!

The bone weapons assaulted the ball of ash relentlessly. Small bits of ash were being chipped off every second, making the ball of ash smaller and smaller. The scattered ash tried to rejoin the ball of ash but were being blocked off and knocked away by other bone weapons.

Thousands of bone weapons gnawed on the ball of ash like the teeth of a hungry beast and rapidly reduced its size to that of a baseball.

Clank!

The final bone weapon struck the tiny ball of ash and sliced off the last layer of ash covering the core.

With no more bone weapons attacking it, the exposed core quickly absorbed the surrounding ash to cover itself up once more.

“Seems like ten thousand wasn’t enough…” Bone Forger watched the ball of ash absorb more and more scattered ash.

“Let’s skip one hundred thousand and go straight to a million…”

The pale blue flames expanded to cover Bone Forger’s entire body and burned with the intensity of a million suns.

Infinite Bone Control!

A million bones shot out of the ground from far and wide and hovered in the air around Bone Forger like a legion of loyal warriors.

Bone Forging!

All one million bones were forged into famous weapons that exuded a murderous aura. They formed an inescapable net that blotted out the sky.

Whoosh!

One million bone weapons whistled through the air simultaneously and collapsed upon the ball of ash like a raging tsunami.

Boom! Boom! Boom!

Hundreds of bone weapons smashed into the ball of ash every second, causing bits of ash to scatter everywhere. Layers of condensed ash held strong against the bone weapons and made them crash into the ground, creating small craters all around it.

The ball of ash tried to form spider legs to retreat. However, thousands of bone weapons immediately severed the legs from the ball of ash and sliced them up into individual specks of ash.

As the ball of ash grew smaller and smaller under the endless torrent of bone weapons, the Ash Spider Queen decided to take a risky gamble. The ball of ash split into a thousand identical small ash balls and shot out in all directions through the gaps in between the bone weapons.

The million bone weapons also split into a thousand groups of one thousand bone weapons and chased after each ash ball.

Poof! Poof! Poof!

Tens of thousands of bone weapons shredded dozens of ash balls into nothingness. With each passing second, dozens of ash balls were being destroyed.

900…

800…

…

200…

100...

…

10…

5…

2…

Only one ash ball remained. This final ash ball had dodged all the bone weapons with incredible speed and was headed straight for Bone Forger.

All the scattered ash from the other 999 ash balls had inconspicuously slithered along the ground and merged with this final ash ball. Its size was increasing rapidly and got restored to its original volume in a matter of seconds.

The large ball of ash transformed into spider form and frantically rushed towards Bone Forger to launch a final desperate attack.

“Foolish bug… did you think one million was my limit?” Bone Forger looked at the incoming Ash Spider Queen with a mocking gaze.

Infinite Bone Control!

A seemingly infinite number of bones shot up into the sky from every location inside this desolate bone world and gathered towards Bone Forger.

Bone Forging!

All the bones in this world were instantly forged into replicas of famous weapons.

“Bones in life… Bones in death…” Bone Forger spoke in a lofty tone. The pale blue flames that surrounded his body burned brightly like the midday sun and illuminated the gloomy bone world.

Bone Forger waved his hand towards the Ash Spider Queen as though passing down the decree for her total annihilation.

“Unlimited Bone Works!”

Densely packed bone weapons filled every available space around Bone Forger.

Whoosh!

All the bone weapons shot forward with a murderous aura under the decree of their master.

Faced with the incoming bone weapons, the Ash Spider Queen knew she was running out of time. She leapt forward with all her strength and launched a final desperate attack.

Boom! Boom! Boom!

Countless bone weapons smashed into the Ash Spider Queen at the last second. Her razor-sharp spider legs were only an inch away from reaching Bone Forger; however, under the relentless assault of the bone weapons, this final inch was like an insurmountable distance.

The bone weapons wrapped numerous layers around the Ash Spider Queen and formed an airtight sphere. The sphere of bone weapons tightened even further and spun around rapidly, shredding up all her spider legs like a cruel meatgrinder.

The Ash Spider Queen tried to resist, but as soon as she tried to form anything with her ash body, the countless bone weapons would pulverize it into nothingness.

Massive amounts of ash were being grinded off from the Ash Spider Queen at a rapid rate. Her ash spider form was no more. She had to transform back into a ball of ash to increase her defensive capabilities.

Inside the merciless sphere of bone weapons, the ball of ash got grinded down smaller and smaller until the core finally became exposed. The scattered ash tried to merge back with the core to protect it, but they could not penetrate the layers of deadly spinning bone weapons.

The densely packed bone weapons pounced on the exposed core like a pack of bloodthirsty hyenas.

Bam! Bam! Bam!

The core got bombarded by countless bone weapons. Under the immense pressure, cracks appeared everywhere and were spreading out rapidly.

The bone weapon that became a replica of Gae Bolg shot towards the fracturing core with an unstoppable momentum. It was the sharpest spear that was capable of penetrating everything.

Crack!

The sound of shattered glass resounded inside the sphere of bone weapons as Gae Bolg pierced the core and shattered it into a thousand pieces. The bone weapons continued to grind up the broken core until there was nothing left of it.

The Ash Spider Queen had finally been annihilated.

The sphere of bone weapons slowly stopped spinning and dispersed in all directions. They glided through the air in jubilance as though celebrating a hard-fought victory.

As more and more bone weapons began to disperse, three white orbs of light slowly descended onto the ground.

After flying for some distance, the bone weapons embedded themselves into the ground once more and transformed back to pieces of ordinary bones, patiently waiting for the next time their master calls upon them.

After confirming that there were no more traces of the Ash Spider Queen, Bone Forger grabbed the three white orbs of light and sprinted his way back to Kaius’ location.

Meanwhile, standing in a remote corner of this desolate bone world, Kaius heard the monotone voice of the System inside his mind.

[Level up!]

[3 attribute points acquired.]

[1 additional attribute point acquired due to Nether Physique.]

[Intelligence increased by 5 due to Nether Physique.]

[2 additional attribute points acquired due to Favor of the Nether God.]

This series of notifications repeated six times before finally stopping.

“The spider’s dead,” Kaius spoke to Lieutenant Bennet, who was standing beside him.

“Good! Milton is finally safe,” Lieutenant Bennet breathed a sigh of relief. Then, he knocked on the bone wall that separated the bone world from the outside world, “So how do we get out of here?”

“My summon is on his way to our location now. Once he ends his skill, we should be back to outside,” Kaius replied.

A short while later, Bone Forger arrived in front of Kaius and knelt on one knee.

“Master… your enemy has been vanquished.”

“Well done,” Kaius praised with a warm smile.

Bone Forger opened his bony fingers and carefully placed three white orbs of light on the ground in front of Kaius.

“Master… your spoils from the battle.”

Kaius quickly distributed his 36 attribute points evenly between Strength and Dexterity, then turned his attention to the three white orbs of light. This was the first time he had managed to kill a rank 2 cursed beast, so he examined the loot with great anticipation.

The first white orb of light gave 30,000 System Coins.

“What an absurd amount!” Kaius looked at his System Coin amount with delight. His accumulated System Coin amount prior to this was only 7,998. But now, he obtained 30,000 System Coins by killing just one rank 2.

Next, Kaius moved on to the second white orb of light, which gave a Random Class Skill Box (Gold). He promptly used the skill box and examined the new skill.

 

“A summoning skill! And it can even summon rank 1s!” Kaius exclaimed with joy. “Since I’m level 42, I can summon 840 regular undead creatures and 42 rank 1s! Now I don’t have to worry as much about replenishing my undead army every time they get destroyed.”

After using the skill book, Kaius examined the final white orb of light.

 

“This ring would be perfect for an assassin class,” Kaius thought as he put on One Ring. “But it’s still useful for me as a defensive tool.”

After Kaius finished examining all the loot, he spoke to Bone Forger, “Can you let us out of here?”

“I obey…” Bone Forger bowed slightly and deactivated his skill.

Rumble! Rumble!

The impenetrable dome of bones crumbled into pieces and began to fall onto the ground. During their descent, their solid state began to turn illusory. They made no sound as they hit the ground and simply disappeared into nothingness.

The gigantic forge in the far distance turned illusory as well and slowly vanished. The sound of a hammer striking an anvil echoed across this barren land one last time before never being heard again.

The world of infinite bones released its imprint upon the earth and returned to its origins.

Looking around, Kaius and Lieutenant Bennet saw that they were back in the outside world once more.

Thud!

Bone Forger fell to his knees after deactivating his skill. Since his skill had ended, he had entered into a weakened state, where all his attributes fell by 90%. His current feeble strength could no longer support his heavy body.

“You’ve done well. Go back and have a well-deserved rest,” Kaius praised once more.

“Many thanks… master…” Bone Forger expressed his gratitude. “I hope we can meet again…”

Bone Forger got dismissed pre-emptively back to the Netherworld.

Standing on an empty battlefield, Lieutenant Bennet turned to Kaius and asked, “Now that both the zombie horde and the beast tide got taken care of, do we rebuild Milton or move somewhere else?”

Kaius thought for a moment before replying, “It’ll be the same no matter where we go, so might as well just stay here and rebuild. Unless another rank 2 appears, I should be able to defend the city with my undead army.”

“Ok. Let’s head back to the city and see how many survivors we have,” Lieutenant Bennett suggested.

“Let’s go,” Kaius nodded.

The duo ran across the battlefield that was littered with the corpses of zombies and cursed beasts and quickly arrived in Milton.

The duo spent the next few hours going around the city to gather all the survivors and informing them of the current situation.

Some time later, at least one representative from each household had gathered on the vast grass fields behind EC Drury School once more. Except this time, Kaius and Lieutenant Bennet were the ones standing in front of the crowd.

“Both the zombie horde and the beast tide had been complete annihilated. Antonio’s forces had also been wiped out,” Lieutenant Bennet spoke into a microphone. “I hope to count on all of you to help rebuild our city and protect our home. With your help, not only will we survive in this new world, but we will thrive!”

After a short moment of silence, a man in the crowd finally spoke, “How do we know you’re not going to be the next Antonio? Are you going to force us to enter into a party and make us go out to kill zombies and earn experience for you?”

“I give you my word we will never do that to any of you. Only Kaius and I will be going outside the city to fight off zombies and cursed beasts,” Lieutenant Bennet calmly replied. “There are more than enough ways for all of you to contribute safely from inside the city.”

“Words are cheap! How can we trust you?” Another person in the crowd shouted.

“Yeah! How do we know you won’t turn out to be Antonio 2.0?”

A few other people spoke up as well and echoed this person’s sentiment.

“I trust them!” A clear voice sounded out from inside the crowd.

Everyone turned their attention to the sound of the voice. Three figures dressed in white walked out from the crowned and turned around to face them. It was Chris, Kayla, and Adam.

“I’ve known Kaius and Lieutenant Bennet long enough to know that they’re good people,” Kayla spoke loudly. She looked around at the crowd and continued, “My colleagues and I had been saved by them numerous times in the past and they had never asked for anything in return. So, if they wish to take on the difficult task of managing the city and keeping us safe, then my colleagues and I wholeheartedly support them!”

Seeing the three doctors support Kaius and Lieutenant Bennet, a wave of low murmur swept through the crowd.

A few seconds later, someone in the crowd spoke up, “I don’t know about those two, but I know for a fact that these three doctors are good people. They saved my kid’s life when the zombies broke into the city. So if the three doctors support these two people, then I’ll also support them.”

“I’ll also trust these three doctors and support those two!” Someone else chimed in. “I injured myself while escaping from Oakville and had nothing of value on me, but these doctors still treated me for free.”

“I’ll also support them!”

More and more people joined in and gave their support after seeing the three doctors’ attitudes. Almost every household had at least one person that got treated for free by one of the doctors in the past, so the people’s trust in the three doctors were quite high.

“Wonderful!” Lieutenant Bennet beamed upon seeing the complete reverse attitude of the crowd. “I promise we will do our best to make this place a safe and vibrant city in no time!”

After speaking some more about the general plans for the city, the crowd finally dispersed and went back to their homes. By the time they were finished, it was already nightfall. Now there were only Kaius, Lieutenant Bennet, Chris, Kayla, and Adam left on the grass fields.

“It’s good to see you guys are still safe and sound,” Kaius greeted with a smile.

“We have you to thank for that,” Chris replied in a grateful tone.

“You saved us again,” said Kayla with a gentle smile.

“Yeah, we owe you our lives,” Adam nodded.

“Don’t mention it. I’m just glad you guys are all safe,” Kaius waved his hand casually. “It’s getting late and we’ve all being through a lot lately, so you guys should go get some sleep.”

“Hm. Have a good night.”

“Thanks again.”

“See you tomorrow.”

After the three doctors left, Lieutenant Bennet spoke to Kaius, “We should get some rest too. Things will get busy tomorrow since we need to start rebuilding our defenses.”

“You’re right,” Kaius nodded. “I’ll have my undead army patrol the perimeters outside the city, so I’ll get notified if they encounter any danger. Have a good rest lieutenant.”

“You too.”

The next morning, many people woke up early and helped to rebuild the city’s defenses. Lieutenant Bennet oversaw the entire process and gave out many instructions.

After yesterday’s grueling battle, only 80,000 people were left from the original 90,000. Some of them had died when killing zombies and cursed beasts under Antonio’s orders, while the remaining died yesterday.

Kaius woke up early as well and went outside the city. He ran around the battlefields west of Milton to reanimate all the usable cursed beast corpses. In the end, he managed to max out his limit on the Lesser Reanimation skill with 400 Ash Spiders and 20 Ash Spider Lords. He commanded them to patrol the perimeters of the city and dismissed the undead army he summoned last night through Nether Lord’s Conscription.

Kaius walked up to Lieutenant Bennet and spoke, “These spiders should be able to keep the city safe for now. I’m going to Oakville to clear out the cursed beasts there. If we can secure Oakville, then we’ll gain access to Lake Ontario as another valuable food source.”

“By yourself? Let me come with you,” Lieutenant Bennet frowned slightly after hearing Kaius’ plan.

“It’s ok,” Kaius waved his hand. “I’ll have 45 rank 1s and hundreds of regular undead creatures protecting me. It’s more important for you to stay here and oversee the city’s rebuilding progress.”

“Ok, be careful then,” Lieutenant Bennet reluctantly agreed.

“Will do,” Kaius waved his hand goodbye and left the city once more.

After traveling on a bike southeast for a while, Kaius finally arrived at the west city entrance of Oakville.

Even from outside the city, Kaius could see Oakville had been overrun by numerous marine type cursed beasts.

Kaius examined his own status one last time before casting his newly acquired spell.

Nether Lord’s Conscription!

A gigantic portal cloaked in darkness opened up from behind Kaius. Various undead creatures emerged from the portal that linked to the Netherworld. There were 12 Bruisers, 10 Flickers, 10 Devourers, 10 Bloaters, 420 skeleton warriors, and 420 zombies.

Kaius also summoned his three Bone Lords. All 885 undead creatures stood behind Kaius like a legion of loyal soldiers.

Nether Lord’s Aura!

Corrosive Nether Domain!

Kaius’ new undead army had their attributes increased by 7%, while the cursed beasts inside the city suffered a debuff of 14% to their attributes.

After getting debuffed and taking continuous corrosive damage from the domain, the cursed beasts within Oakville became alerted of Kaius’ presence and started to rush towards him.

“I’ve become a lot stronger since the last time I was here. These cursed beasts can help me test out my new strength,” Kaius muttered with a hint of anticipation. Then, he gave a command to his undead army.

“Kill them all.”