“What is it?” Mareona asked.

“I will tell you guys later when we return.” Aldred checked his stats.

—————

[Aldred]

Health Points: 45/125

Level: 60

Titles: Tough Boy

Power:

-Fire Manipulation (Click to show the list of skills)

-Water Manipulation (Click to show the list of skills)

Attributes:

-Strength: 13

-Vitality: 25

-Intelligence: 50

-Dexterity: 7

Stat points: 72_-.

Skill points: 72

—————

He leveled up to gold instantly the moment he killed Milet. He looked at the corpse and approached it. “I have promised to make you my undead slave. Now, arise.”

Black mist entered Milet’s body. And then the black mist enlarged before the Gold Rank undead stepped out of the black mist with his spear. He knelt on one knee. “What is your command, master?”

Aldred and the others were shocked. “You can talk?”

“Yes, I can, master.”

“Aldred,” Bartrem called. “Ask him why he wanted to kill you. Maybe we can get more details from him.”

“So what is your answer?” Aldred asked Milet.

“I am not the only one that has been sent, master. There are many like me who were ordered to kill the empress’ subordinates in various places. As for why I wanted to kill you was because you are in the empress’ camp.”

“So the emperor knows nothing about his talent?” Bartrem asked again.

“I do not know. I am simply ordered to kill all of you.”

Bartrem sighed, disappointed at the lack of information. “We cannot deny the possibility. The emperor might hunt you again, Aldred.”

“You have to leave this place,” Mareona said. “Sooner or later, they will find a way to kill you.”

Aldred grimaced. He did not want to leave his friends. “Let’s talk about this later when we return to the fort.”

The boy then walked to the corpses and turned them into his undead. Aldred prioritized the silver-ranked ones, and after converting them all into his undead, he got 9 silver ranks, and the rest were copper. Totaling his undead at 169 Copper Rank, 10 Silver Rank, and 1 Gold Rank.

Bartrem couldn’t say anything when he saw the large formation of undead. Each undead had a powerful regeneration ability that made them impossible to kill, and now Aldred had more than one hundred of them? Not to mention he had 10 Silver ranks and 1 Gold Rank. The undead could be summoned anywhere and anytime as well, making the boy a highly-mobile one-man army. Bartrem nodded admittedly. The more he looked at the boy, the more he was convinced he could change the world.

Aldred ordered his undead to disappear.

“Let us return to the barrack,” Aldred said.

They all nodded, hopped onto the horses, and rode back to the fort.

Back at the Pressure Platoon II barrack, Aldred invited Mira, Bartrem, and Mareona to talk inside. Pongo was there as well. Aldred forgot about him sometimes.

“Took you longer than expected,” Mary smiled when he saw Aldred and the rest. They did not smile back, which worried her. “Did something happen?”

“We met a Gold Rank. Aldred almost got killed by him.”

Mary stood up. “What?”

Sophia still sat on the bed.

Mary approached the boy and caressed his cheeks. “You look fine though.”

“Aldred killed him,” Bartrem said.

“You did?” Mary asked. “How?”

“I crushed the crystal.”

“Instead of escaping, you use the power of the crystal to kill him?”

Aldred nodded. “Mareona and Bartrem almost got killed as well. Mira saved them by sacrificing her lifespan.”

Mary looked at Mira. “Thank you.”

Mira simply nodded.

“Since all of you have gathered. I wanted to tell you about something.”

“I have been wanting to know, but what is it?” Mareona asked.

“Divine dimension.”

Aldred, Bartrem, Mary, Mira, Mareona, Pongo, and Sophia entered the divine dimension. They were standing on a grass field with the river beside them. A few meters ahead was a field of vegetables. To the west was a thick forest with beautiful leaves and fruits hanging, waiting to be plucked.

“Let me welcome you guys to my dimension,” Aldred said. “In this place, I am the god.”

The boy snapped his fingers, and the sky turned dark with countless stars twinkling. The stars disappeared and hundreds of moons appeared. He snapped his fingers again. The sun and the blue sky returned, but the trees sank into the ground before a new type of tree came out with different leaves and fruits.

“You can grow food in this place?” Bartrem asked.

Aldred nodded. “Crops and fruits grow faster in this place. I have brought some fish before and they reproduce so quickly. I never brought it to the real world, because I wanted to keep this place a secret. I am sorry.”

“You did the right thing, Aldred,” Mareona said. “This place is too valuable.”

Bartrem nodded. “If we have access to food and water whenever and wherever we want, we don’t need to bring so many supplies to war.”

“I can also save our medicines here.”

“Then it’s even better. You’re a walking fort, Aldred. Whenever you go, the army can survive without having to bring any extra bags,” Bartrem said. “Although we only fought skirmishes all this time, there will come a day when we need to march long distances.”

“How heavy is their bag usually?”

“At minimum 60 pounds, but we usually need to bring 120 pounds of weight. Water, food, camp tools, weapons, armor, and everything else a soldier needs during a long march.”

“That’s rough.”

“It is. Believe me when I say more people die during the march than the battle itself.”

“I understand.” Aldred did not think that his divine dimension could be so useful. He only thought of it as a playground at first, and a place to enter the dungeon for leveling up.

“I also have something else to show you guys. System, let them enter my party.”

[Party system activated. Selecting targets… Success]

A panel of status screens popped out in front of their faces.

“Those are your status screens,” Aldred said. “You can check your strength, intelligence, and other attributes.”

Sophia was amazed. All of her attributes were turned into numbers and could be quantified.

Bartrem, Mareona, Mary, and Mira were all in a daze looking at the screen panel.

“I think it’s broken,” Mareona said.

Aldred frowned. “Why?”

“My intelligence is under 15. How is that possible?”

Aldred laughed. “The screen never lie and it’s never broken.”

“Are you saying that I’m stupid?” Mareona stomped and pouted.

“I never said such words.” Aldred smiled.

Mareona knocked his head.

“Ouch!”

“That’s for saying that I am stupid.”

“But I did not say anything.” Aldred felt wronged. Why did Mareona become so unreasonable? He cleared his throat. “The reason why I can increase my strength so fast is because of this. Whenever I kill, I get an experience and that experience will increase my level. If your level reaches 60, you will turn into a Gold Rank.”

Their eyes lit up when they heard that.

“Now this is something that you must keep a secret,” Bartrem said. “The fewer people know, the better.”

Mary nodded. “If the emperor knows about this, he won’t let you live any longer even at the risk of a civil war.”

“I am planning to let the soldiers level up as well. Is that possible?”

Bartrem shook his head. “I won’t be surprised if Pharder planted a spy in our ranks. Not to mention they can be bribed with incentives. They’re pitiful men, Aldred, fighting just to survive. What do you think will happen if Pharder offers them salvation?”

“Betrayal.”

“Yes. Just like what Mira said, people easily fall for temptation. They cannot help it. Our best choice is to let them level up without knowing it’s because of us. Can your power do that?”

Aldred asked the system.

[Yes it is possible]

“I can do that.”

Bartrem smiled and nodded. “Perfect.”