Alex moved along the tree lines while staying alert. There was a dim light of the half moon in the forest that barely seeped through the dense canopy of the forest. Fortunately for Alex, at night there were certain trees with bioluminescence which would emit the dim light at night. some to attract insect for pollination and some to attract the prey. Alex's visibility had now hit rock bottom as he could barely see 100 meters ahead.
He soon reached a small opening in the forest as he stopped and looked at his map. although it was dark in the forest, he could use his skill on the map and it's outlines would light up in his view. as long as he didn't provide mana to the skill, the map's outline would stay lit but it won't catch on fire. He could see that in the opening ahead, there was a small courtyard like structure. the walls were made of rocks like some ancient castle and he could see a huge number of undead roaming inside the boundary of the wall. The skeletons were wearing various accessories and other ornaments that indicated that this was a burial ground of some sort which was contaminated with impure energies resulting in the dead transforming into the undead.
Alex scouted the location for quite some time from the cover of the forest as he decided that it was time to level up twice. There was weird excitement in his heart as he saw these skeletons as now that he had a taste of power, he wanted more. he wanted to get stronger but at the same time, he didn't forget the incident with the bear. Caution was necessary as he decided that instead of diving head first into the fight, He should make a foolproof plan to get all the experience points he can and escape unscathed from here.
the biggest threat he saw in the group of undead were the four to five skeletons with thick bones and armor. they had swords and shields along with a set of full body leather armour with bone helmet. he decided to wait and carefully observe everything.
Finally after few hours of observation, he formed a plan in his head. there were many trees in the cemetery and the leaves fallen from the trees had formed a thick layer on the ground, fortunately for him, this layer was dry and was an excellent fuel for fire.
He decided to start from securing a safe position as he decided to slowly climb a tree. Alex climbed the most sturdy tree in his vicinity as he secured a good position for himself on top of the tree, between the branches full of leaves. when he was finally secured, he decided to rub his hands together as he smiled 'Lets get the show started'
'Immolate'
He whispered as a small patch on the ground lit up. he had used up most of his mana but the level upgrade had also expanded his mana pool as well as replenished some of his mana.
Karrr!
the undead roared as the ground caught fire all of a sudden. unfortunately, unlike Alex's expectation, there was no panic. the undead slowly moved back. alex continued to light up patch after patch of land. the cemetery was soon engulfed in flames as alex could hear the pings of experience points increasing in his mind.
The undead soldiers looked around but found no one around as they left the cemetery to search for the culprit of the strange fire. Alex swiftly used Immolate skill on the five soldiers before they could leave too far. one of the soldier was heading in his direction but before it could reach even half way, alex used the fool power of his skill on soldier which turned the soldier into ash in about 30 seconds.
Alex sighed in relief as he continued his hunt. his mana was almost empty as he saw the last skeleton soldier die in the middle of the cemetery. as soon as the soldier died, alex heard a crackling sound. The biggest tomb stone cracked as the alex saw the ground crack open. a pitch black hand with metal glove blasted through the earth as slowly an undead in the armor of the black Knight emerged from the ground.
It was wearing dark armour which was rusted from many places, in its hand was a pitch black Axe with strange golden carving. The Axe's edge shone with silver shine which indicated that it was still sharp despite being buried for a long time along with the skeleton.
Garrrrrrr!
The skeleton stood up and roared in high pitch as alex was forced to close his ears. This was the Second Uncommon monster he had encountered. There were tiers to the monsters just like hunters. Majority of the monsters were called Common monsters. Then there was a leap in quality which separated certain monsters from the uncommon monsters from the common monsters. The bear that Alex encountered was probably a weaker uncommon monster. He estimated that this Undead Knight should be one of the stronger once among Uncommon monsters.
After uncommon monsters, there were leaders of monsters which were called elites. They were capable of going against conventional armies themselves and if not contained, can wreak havoc amongst the human population. Above elites, there was whole other system in place to identify the ranks of the monsters due to their huge variety. There were two main branches that separated the monsters.
According to the size, the giant monsters were divided in Behemoths, Those stronger or bigger than behemoths were called titans and then there world ending giants that had impossible sizes which were only described in stories and legends that various hunter brought back with them in their travel through various dimensions.
among the humanoid sized monsters, there were Primordials, The Ancients, Overlords, Elders and Mythic Monsters. There was no set hierarchy and it all depended on the evaluation of the Hunter Association.
Alex's estimated that the Undead Knight in front of him was a peak uncommon ranked monster. He decided to go by the book as he remembered the words of Professor Ainsley 'Remember, If the monster has more than one skill, its an uncommon monster, if it has more than two, its an elite. '
Alex didn't know if he should test the claim or leave the premises as just to be cautions, he activated the skill and lit up the body outline of the undead knight. the undead knight however stopped looking around in blind and turned his hand to look straight into Alex's eyes. Alex could feel shivers going down his spine as he saw the cold stare from those empty eye sockets of the undead knight.
*Graaaaaaah*
the undead knight roared in high pitched sound. it was a guttural scream of eternal fury, laced with the echoes of forgotten torment. the undead knight picked up the speed as it charged towards alex's direction. as the sound of undead knight's armor reverberated through the silent forest, Alex immediately activated the immolate skill.
He could feel his mana being drained as the orange flames appeared on the armour of the undead knight. The ornamental lather work and strings were set aflame as the undead knight reacted. Midway, alex saw the undead knight swing it's hand which was holding the axe. he could only see a streak of blur before he saw the blade of the axe shining in front of his eyes.
It was as if his death was near him as a sudden surge of adrenaline was released into his body which allowed him to barely move his head out of the way.
*Thaak*
The axe slammed into the tree mere inches from Alex's face, splinters exploding in the air like shrapnel. He felt the searing warmth of liquid trickling down his cheek, the unmistakable sting of a fresh wound. A jagged, horizontal cut marked his skin—a stark reminder of how close he'd been to losing far more. A second slower, and the brutal strike would have claimed his head, sending it tumbling to the ground with a sickening finality.