Chapter 18: Rank Up!

Within the western kingdom, a huge palace stood erect in the middle of a ginormous city. It was like a medieval age city with castle towers and giant walls surrounding it, it looked impregnable, however, the leader of the Devastators had managed to conquer this city two year after the game was launched. Now it was the headquarter of the Devastators, anyone within the city was a member of this super guild. Its members were more than a few million, while they had several sub-guilds that were annexed to them. This guild was led by absolute power and made the world recognize it. Their leader was named Divine Cutlass. This was the guild where Ralph, AKA Blaster was serving under.

Ralph had a low standing in this guild. However, compared to many others high prominent members of other guilds, he was still a member of the Devastators this gave him a position of power.

Now, what happened was that a rumor began to spread around the guild.

A strange skeleton appeared in the vicinity of their base.

Normally this small information would not agitate the higher echelons of the guilds, it was just spreading around the lower level members, especially those that were there.

What happened that they were supposed to clear the demon-infested monastery. There were some skeletons and undead that roamed the place, and normally once their numbers have been reduced a small party of skeletons would usually spawn and they had to fight it to proceed forward.

The guild members did this so often that it was normal and no one thought anything of it. However, today it was rather different. The skeletons that charged at them at first were ground to bone dust without a problem, even the skeleton captain that was higher level than most of those skeletons was no match for the party of thirty or so high-level adventures.

Yet the moment only twenty of them remained, they dispersed each in a different direction, forcing the adventurers to either chase them or stand still like wooden polls, that was strange. Some even summoned Alfred to see if it was a bug in the game, but he denied it and didn't give them any information.

The strangest part, however, the skeleton leader at that moment was nothing but a lowlevel skeleton had run into the Monastery, using the various demons within it to halt the advance of an adventure that was following him, and the moment the skeleton was corned… it smiled and disappeared.

The adventure, of course, didn't suffer anything in that chase, he didn't delve too deep in the Monastery so he was able to turn back and sent his party members the feed of him chasing the skeleton and it disappearing in thin air.

This was a small incident that was swiped under the carpet rather fast.

It was strange, but no one paid it any heeds.

Only if they knew that that was the prelude to a game-changing event, they would have done their best to kill that strange skeleton…

Dave was now back at the giant courtyard.

You have managed to survive until the time limit.

You were the sole survivor of the expedition.

You currently have 150 contribution points.

You can now issue a challenge to your platoon leader. If you were to win you will take his role in leading the platoon number 22225. Once you lose you will be kicked out of the world of the dead.

Dave was not surprised, this was to be expected, however, he was still a bit distraught.

Mainly due to his level! His level never increased, and he never got any forms of experience or drops. This would force Dave into a corner rather soon, even if he manages to take the place of the elite skeleton leader, he will remain level 27… no matter his rank, even if he miraculously manages to become an abyssal knight, he will still be useless!!

Dave could only sigh, he didn't think that the AI would leave something this problematic in this quest. He was not allowed to leave this place until he dies, or by some heaven-defying miracle to defeat the undead king and take his position.

"This is absurd" thought Dave, but he didn't bother for the moment, he issued a challenge.

You have issued a challenge against platoon leader of the unit 22225 -100 Contribution points.

Normally the platoon leader should have been dead, but it seems that even after death. These undead will be resurrected back here in this world of the dead.

He inspected the platoon leader and saw his stats.

200 Damage nullification.

The two of them were teleported to a small arena, the seats were empty. This was probably a challenge not worth it for anyone to witness.

The platoon leader was an elite skeleton of level 35. He shouldn't be a challenge to Dave, at least from what he saw, he was alone and Dave had enough strength to fight against a sole enemy alone.

The fight initiated and Dave was first to strike.

The platoon leader was only equipped with a rusty old sword and he charged at Dave blindly.

No tactics, no skills, just instinctual level of fighting.

Dave was able to strike with his sword while taking the hit from the skeleton. He wanted to see how much damage he was going to receive.

Well, that was expected. Dave had a lot of defense for a player his level.

Dave struck down with a skill rather than hitting his target with his normal attacks.

Dave then waited until the cooldown of the skill was over and struck once more

every time the skeleton was struck it would be stunned.

And Dave just kept on taking 0 damages while striking down every time his skill was off cooldown.

He could defeat the Elite Skeleton with ease, but he didn't want to waste this time to grind and train his skill.

Destructive Smash has reached

Destructive Smash has reached

Sadly, it didn't go any higher as the Elite skeleton has been defeated. He couldn't regenerate Hp so Dave was a bit saddened.

yet if others knew how he tortured a skeleton to train his skill and felt sad about it they would feel their heart wincing.

You have defeated the skeleton elite of platoon 22225.

You are hereby elated the rank of

You have the right to command low-level skeleton units.

As you have challenged others, other can challenge you to your position.

+200 Contribution points.

Do well to serve the Undead King.

Your appearance had slightly changed.

Dave was a bit intrigued by this, as he clearly saw that his already rusted looking armor gained a bit of a dark shade of color. But that wasn't that strange. What was strange that he felt a slight itch on his chin.

He pressed his hand and found a small black beard growing. The elite skeleton that he defeated had something like this.

Dave found it interesting and stroke it a bit. But didn't delve into it any further. There was something interesting that caught his attention.

Dave felt a bit happy, now he can no longer follow, he could now lead.

Looking through a small screen he saw three different types of undead that he could recruit in his unit.

Ghouls, Zombies, and a variety of skeletons.

Ghouls had a huge amount of vitality but their attack power was low. The same could be said for the zombies, but they were much slower but had higher defense and would not succumb to attacks of players, they would always move forward even if their limbs were cut off or their bodies were mangled, they could just bite on the livings to retrieve some health back.

As for the skeletons they had different varieties. Especially archers and casters.

He could even higher casters.

However, every one of them had a cost.

A single caster required Dave to spend 20 contribution points to higher. He could even hire ten of them, but that was not efficient.

Dave then thought seriously about this.

An archer would cost 15 contribution points, while a normal skeleton soldier costs only 5 contribution points.

Ghouls needed 10 contribution points, and that was the same for the Zombies.

Dave then chose three Ghouls, three archers, and three casters. And one zombie.

The total cost for this was 170 contribution points. That left Dave with 80 contribution points. If he was to rank up to a captain rank he would need 1000 contribution points, and he needed good soldiers to fight with him and handle the threats of other members fighting him.

However, Dave's heart was still heavy. He needed to level up fast if he was to attain his goal of defeating the Undead King. And the risk of him dying at the hand of adventures would grow slowly.

He noticed that the missions that he was sent to accomplish were relatively close to his level, except that urgent assembly bonus quest. Next time he would need to refuse those as if he found himself facing high-level adventures he might die with a lot of regrets.

Something bright shone before Dave, and a huge wall like glass seemed to shatter before him.

It was the barrier that held him from moving closer to the palace.

Dave approached and was not met with any resistance when he went past the range where low-level monsters stood.

In this second level of the giant courtyard of the dead, everyone here was an elite tier monster.

Some of them were not just skeletons, there were several casters and variation of zombies and ghouls here.

Dave then understood that every time he ranked up he would get closer to the palace.

Though the numbers here were fewer than those behind him, they still numbered the millions.

There was a small hut before Dave where an old looking bag of bones was lording over. He was a zombie that was selling stuff!

Dave was surprised at the strange scene but went forward to check out the vendor's wares.

"How may I help a brother in arms?" said the Zombie as he was smiling showing several rotten and yellow teeth. That was probably supposed to be a smile.

The scene disgusted Dave, but he didn't bother.

"Show me what you have to sell," He said.

And then a small screen appeared before Dave.

It had several types of equipment and elixirs, there were even books of sorts. However, the price was astronomers!

The least expensive item was a small bottle that had the words:

"EXP Bottle" and it cost 100 contribution points!

Dave couldn't even afford it.

Dave sighed and finally understood that there was a way for him to reach higher levels. He would need to buy these and drink them, but he didn't know how much EXP they would give him or if they were enough at all. So he just left the small hut.