Chapter 41 – A Town Overrun by the Dead

Under the twilight sky, me and Aaron proceeded along the less maintained path. As the day became darker, my 《Night Vision》 automatically activated.

[Ho, you also have a night vision skill] [Is it obvious?] [I also have it too, so I can tell from the way you are moving.]

Certainly, when I looked closely, Aaron traversed over the rocks and fallen trees with ease. Anyways, it’s not like I’d seen all of them, but Aaron did have a lot of skills compared to other warriors. I knew that he had appraisal, concealment, and now a Night Vision skill. Judging with how he handled his holy sword, he most likely possessed Holy Sword mastery too. Due to his Concealment skill, I couldn’t see his abilities. Such a mysterious old man.

Aaron noticed me staring and said.

[To be honest, I am rather anxious since I don’t really know how many skills you have. By any chance, can you lift the Concealment and show them to me?] [As expected, but I can’t show it to Aaron just yet] [Hmm, well said. Since we both have Concealment skill, it’ll be stupid to not hide one’s own skills.]

Even Aaron himself did not seem to be willing to show his skills to me. So it’s only fair.

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As we went further westward, the road soon changed from soil to cobblestones. Through the cover of fog, I could see the sight of a castle with town built in its surroundings. It used to be a lively town. I could tell from the residual feelings that still lingered on the buildings.

Aaron muttered the name of town in a nostalgic tone.

[I have returned to Hausen, once again] [Hausen……] [Yes, I once ruled this town. Before the Lich Lord took it away from me.]

I kinda knew it already due to semi-starving state…..that there was something unbearably tasty in that castle. The Gluttony skill kept urging me to go there, telling me to eat some monsters’ soul. It’s like that, when it comes to the Gluttony skill, it felt like all my hard work had gone for naught.

Noticing me clutching my eye, Aaron asked in a worried tone.

[Does it hurt?] [Yeah, but it’s alright] [Once we entered the town, please don’t fight carelessly. The outer vicinity is guarded by Skeleton Knights and Skeleton Archers. It should be easy for you to handle the Skeleton Knight with the basic swordsmanship I have taught you. But you must be careful with the Skeleton Archer. They can attack beyond our range of attack. I may be able to block the attacks, but it might a little difficult for Fate]

Certainly, it’ll be troublesome trying to block arrows that come from every directions. However, taking out the origin of the arrow before that happened is much easier.

[I’ll handle the Skeleton Archers] [How will you do that?]

Looking at my equipmentーーthe black sword, Aaron narrowed his eyes. There is no way it can be used for long-ranged attack, that’s what he thought, I assumed. Rather than explaining about it, I chose to demonstrate it. I turned Greed into his bow form.

[This is how.] [Ho, interesting weapon. So it can change its shape……what else it can turn into?] [It can turn into a scythe] [Beats me. This is the first time I ever see a weapon like that. Ahahaha, I’m glad to have been able to live this long. Very well, Fate will handle the skeleton archers. I’ll take care of the skeleton knights blocking our way]

With our roles decided, we approached the town gate. The gate was heavily damaged, so it’s easy for us to get in. A monster appeared before I knew it. Just as I passed through the gate, a skeleton knight sprang up and swung its sword at me. Also, from the top of the wall that surrounded the town, skeleton archers had already nocked their bow and aimed at the both of us

Well, let’s activate 《Appraisal》 to see their capabilities.

Skeleton Knight   Lv 35 Durability: 2290 Strength: 2540 Magic: 1230 Spirit: 1120 Agility: 1740 Ability(s): Two-handed Sword Mastery, Agility Strengthening (Small)

Skeleton Archer   Lv 35 Durability: 1290 Strength: 1440 Magic: 1110 Spirit: 1230 Agility: 770 Ability(s): Bow Mastery, Sniper

That’s actually quite good. From the Skeleton Knight, I have the Two-Handed Sword mastery already, but not with that Agility Strengthening (small). So that would do. The skeleton archer had bow mastery and snipe skill. Let’s see what they do with 《Appraisal》.

Bow Mastery: Improve the damage of bow type weapon. Enable the use of 《Charged Shot》. Snipe: Double the range of bow.

That snipe skill could proof troublesome. However, it’s inferior to my black bow. As long as I can see the target, then the arrow will reach it regardless of distance. I used 《Appraisal》 skill once more to see the detail on charged shot. Apparently, it increase the penetrating force of an arrow the longer the user draw the bow.

If more than 50 skeleton archers used snipe and 《Charged Shot》 at the same time, there is little I can do to prevent them.

That’s why I have to preemptively strike them down.

[Aaron, I’ll handle the Skeleton Archers. We’ll go with the original plan] [Ah, but isn’t this still a bit too far?] [It’s not an issue. I’ll hit them all regardless.]

As long as they are within my line of sight…. I nocked a magical arrow on the black bow, aiming at the first skeleton archer that enter my view. The arrow landed in between of what used to be the skeleton archer’s eyebrows.

The skeleton archer got up as if nothing had happened.

[Hahaha, that was an excellent magic bow, but it seems that you have never fought an undead before. You’ll have to do something like this]

To give an example for me, Aaron brandished his holy sword at the approaching skeleton knights. He then infused magic power into his sword. Afterward, the ground beneath the skeleton knight turned bright with white light. That was the technique of Holy Sword mastery 《Grand Cross》.

Even so, the scale was so big that Hado’s grand cross would be nothing next to it. A huge group of over 100 skeleton knights were swept away in a single strike. Aah, one day I’ll get the skill from someone who can use it at similar scale. The more I think about it, the more eye-opening the battle gets.

[How about that? You’ll need to use holy attribute to defeat an undead. Can you do it?] [I’ll try!]

I won’t give up just yet. We won’t be able to enter the town if I don’t get rid of the skeleton archers guarding the walls. I’ll follow on what Aaron had showed me. He struck with Holy attribute attack… the weakness of the undead. Then, I’ll use fire attribute attack in exchange for that. At that moment, the currently under bow form Greed quipped in with 《Mind Reading》 skill.

『So have you decided……? Let’s try it』 [Fire attribute are flashy. And it takes time to burn things completely. I need something that is quick-acting]

I drew the black bow once more, aiming at the skeleton archer that I failed to kill early on. But this time, I infused the 《Dust Magic》 that I obtained from the Sand Golem into the arrow. The magic arrow infused with dust attribute stuck on the same spot the skeleton archer was hit previously.

What followed afterward, the skeleton was quickly petrified into a solid stone statue.

《Gluttony Skill activated》《Durability+1290, Strength+1440, Magic+1110, Spirit+1230, Agility+770 will be applied to your stats》《Bow mastery, Snipe will be added to your skill list》

I listened to the inorganic voice, and aimed at the next one. Aaron said with admiration.

[That, is really something. You actually infused magic spell into your magic arrow……. I heard that there was an experiment about it back at the royal capital. However it was difficult to control, and caused a huge accidental discharge. That accident killed the test subject. Ever since then, infusing magic spell into magic arrow had never been attempted again. But even then you did it so easily. That is ridiculous!] [Ahaha……it’s nothing much]

It’s very rare for Aaron to praise me, but all the difficult control and everything else was by passed thanks to Greed. Greed is actually more awesome than I previously thought. When that thought crossed my mind, Greed spoke to me with pride.

『Now you understand my greatness. Honor! Honor, and revere me!　You should start calling me Greed-sama. Ha, Fate?』 [Never]

It’s been quite a while since the last time Greed boasted that much, so let’s leave him be. I better quickly eliminate all the skeleton archers on that wall.