Second Saga 044

“I’m seriously starting to wonder if this stat was made for everyone else in the world but me.”

As Hydra ran in the alleyways between the shacks, he could see and endless line of skeletons behind him. He wasn’t even able to see them but he knew at the back of the line, there existed a numerous amount of zombies that were also trying to catch up. Naturally that would be impossible and as long as Hydra didn’t go back that direction he would probably never seen the slow pokes again.

The only scary part was now that the skeletons had found him, he had no way of losing them. It wasn’t like he could call out “To the death!” and start fighting. It simply wasn’t a possible solution. He also wasn’t able to gather any help, and if he tried to release the prisoners he would have to open the jail doors individually which would take time. Not only that, Hydra had no way of knowing if the key he made would even work for any of the doors.

He was now at the bottom, of his luck he finally didn’t even care to complain or grumble anymore. Afterall the only possible worse situation at this point was his death. That too was inevitable as he would die from poisoning sooner or later.

He had been running for quite some time and the timer for his [Stealth] would soon be over, but if the monsters could already see him he wouldn’t be successful in running away. It was like an infinite detector, once you were spotted unless you killed the monster it would endlessly follow after you until you left the region of the map or dungeon.

That wasn’t a choice for Hydra though. He could leave but regardless he would have to come back. And it would be a lot harder to come through the entrance storming his way through than having been teleported. At least if he died he would resp.a.w.n in that cell with Cline and could start all over again. AI’s might be smart but once the user ‘dies’ it’s registered as true death to them unless they are reaggro’d. This was a different case as opposed to bosses or NPC’s of higher intelligence levels such as Kurgal and Irina. They knew Hydra was able to revive and thus if they were to fight each other, Irina and Kurgal would remember that they had past grudges with one another.

However regular minion leveled monsters such as these skeletons wouldn’t be able to remember Hydra after death. Thus he was almost compelled to die and give it another try. The reason he thought of this, was because he had already found the exit and ran nearly the entire area while being chased. The only main problem was finding the [Ancient Shadow Core] or the two giant minotaur guards blocking the exit/entrance to Yorula.

The only possible way for Hydra to enter the bosses’ domain to use [Stealth] without being noticed. If he walked in visible it was the same thing as letting the boss and the thousands of minions eating his soul as breakfast.

‘Urgh I don’t know what to do!’

It was then that Hydra for the first time was pa.s.sing by the pathway that led to the ‘drop of salvation’. Upon seeing it an idea sparked in his head.

‘It might not be possible to kill individually, I should be able to handle them on the pathway.’

The thought process was truthfully not wrong, however it wasn’t exactly a way out either. The only result would be death for Hydra regardless of what he did. So why not try and level before he died? Thus he ran straight onto the pathway. At this point all the convicts could tell something was up as they could feel the ma.s.sive earthquake caused by the army of skeletons moving.

Even though they were only bones, they were still equipped with armor. It was easy to imagine that a few thousand with metal armor would still weigh an incredible amount. While being underground it was all the more easy to feel the vibrations through the ground as the convicts were directly beneath it.

“Hey! Look over there!”

“Holy S#$@! That’s guys being chased by an entire army!”

“Is he an idiot? He just ran straight to his death by going there!”

“No! That’s not true, this way he can handle them in smaller numbers!”

As the convicts yelled through the barred windows they watched as Hydra finally arrived at the end. Luckily The edge was a circle and if needed he could run around to to reposition himself. As the army of skeletons approached and the archers positioned themselves of the outer edge of the crater, the army marched onto the pathway.

There was something Hydra never thought of, and that was whether or not the pathway would be able to handle the weight of the army. But if it did managed to break due to tension he could only blame his ‘curse’ stat once more as he would fall endlessly to his death.

Luckily the archer’s didn’t seem to be skilled enough to reach him. As the arrows kept shooting but only reached the halfway point of the pathway. They were also not smart enough to have only the archers position themselves on the pathway on the pathway and shoot him from afar. However as skeleton’s they were simply not intelligent enough to use complicated tactics. Archers shot from afar and cla.s.ses with melee weapons would approach in close combat. That was the only algorithms they could muster with their level of intelligence.

Hydra, also didn’t know this but as a death was creeping closer he had no choice but to fight to decrease his losses. He might not be able to lose gear until level 50 but at this point the durability of dying was a lot worse early on as the durability of gear was low and the probability of gear being destroyed increased. Thus, Hydra would fight, pick up all the drops and fight some more.

The army at moment they reached the pathway had stopped running and approached slowly. They might be stupid skeletons, but they weren’t stupid enough to rush on the pathway and push one another to their own demise lessening the burden on Hydra. He had hoped that they would do that but at least by slowing down this gave Hydra the time to prepare his spells.

As he quickly activated [Shadow Blade] and wrote a perfect rune a 200% bonus menu popped up as he applied it to his sword.

“Now, I haven’t used it yet, and I’m not sure how well it will work against the undead but I have not choice!”

As Hydra spoke out loud to himself he activated another magic. As a few dozen runes floated out of thin air and appeared before him. He was slightly surprised at the runes were more numerous and complicated than he originally had thought. Because the runes were more complicated and time was of the essence he could only rush the written process and quickly cast out the spell. As the light grew signalling the finished magic sequence Hydra called out.

“[Shadow Rain]”

-The domain skill [Shadow Rain] has been invoked!
Monsters in the area of effect will slowly have their have their bodies possessed and will limit their actions.
Current effect: Stats down 1% 0 possessed monsters.

“Alright let’s do this!”

When Hydra called out the skill erupting from the runes a giant black hole appeared in the sky. It looked like an upside down black pool of water dripping continuously upon the monsters. As the droplets collided their bones the shadow slowly started to web out. The droplets were smaller than regular rain droplets and not all of the droplets were able to remain on the bones. But the effect was definitely noticeable and was stacking on every second. He might have a small mana pool but it should be enough to possess at least some of these skeletons or zombies.

As the levels of the skeletons themselves averaged level 30 and the zombies were only level 10. It might be an low leveled area but not even many would dare to charge and fight a couple thousand of low leveled monsters. Regardless of how strong you were you only had a set amount of health and mana pots. As portions were incredibly expensive someone like Hydra who was attempting to make money instead of lose money wouldn’t opt to buy such expensive items.

It might be possible later when gold became readily available but currently he was still in the lower levels of the game. One health potion alone costed 1 gold and that was a beginner’s pot that restored only 50 health! That was equivalent to 1 level and if Hydra wanted to fully heal himself that was over 30 potions! 30 gold was more than he even had right now!

Hydra mentally prepared himself.

‘No matter what. I’m going to at least gain two levels to make this worth the risk!’

Finally the ma.s.sive army drenched in black drop droplets arrived even though they were soaked the percentage hadn’t even risen by 2% and Hydra, didn’t place much hope in it because it was a skill to be utilized over a long period of time. If it could wipe out an entire army in minutes the Hydra would just raise his wisdom stat and talk around with the [Shadow Rain] out all the time. Therefore it was quite fair that it took a long time.

The problem was Hydra was unsure which would happen first, the monsters start to be possessed, his death by the monsters, or his death by the poison. It was now the start of a battle of 1 v 1000, and Hydra even though he knew his death was certain couldn’t help but want to release all the built up stress as of late. What better way than a thousand targets that were easily crushable in a 1v1 situation. Naturally it might be impossible to defeat this army but at this point Hydra was only concerned on getting as much experience and loot as possible!