The Ruined Death Knight
chapter-108

Putting aside the talent [Dead Mana Affinity], he was pretty satisfied with his choice.

Unlike the previous advancement, where he got just 5 strength added, this time he got 35 worth of attributes in one go.

And compared to the skill that he got last time, he got two talents added instead!

Which not only was more than one but in his opinion, getting talents were much better than getting those money-hungry skills.

Although I ain´t complaining of the capabilities of [Sense Danger] as it has already proven this own worth already.

A skill starting at 5000 XP for the first level was like a hot knife cutting through my ribs.

Like... couldn´t it cost the same as [Piercing] or [Shield Bash].

Alas, I couldn´t complain as the price was quite fair...

Unlike the times I used [Piercing] and [Shield Bash], most of the time I relied on the more expensive skills, such as [Intermediate Weapon Mastery], [Gale Mana Blade], and recently the [Earth Wall].

Of course, the lower-cost skills were by no means useless.

After all, the [Dash] that evolved from [Sprint] is one of the most valuable abilities that I have in my hand.

Or rather foot?

Anyways, if we aren´t to count the skills that I learned from those army people. Then I officially evolved all my skills at least once!

Till yet by each evolution, the skill showed great improvement by his core.

Which made me all the more excited about reading through the three recently evolved skills.

Without being able to get over his excitement, he pressed the description of three skills one by one.

[Penetrate]: By the use of mana you learned how to engulf your weapon with mana which helps increase the penetration ability overall. By your countless usage of his technique you learned that by moving your mana in the arm that is holding the sword, you can force your arm to move faster and stronger for a piercing attack.

"So the skill turned out similar to [Riposte Defence], not bad. Being able to pierce someone faster with greater strength is good enough. Wherever I start using it or not..."

"..."

"Let´s go next"

[Vanguards Defence]: A technique with the pure purpose to maximize the potential with a shield. By using mana at the holding hand of the shield, the weight holding the arm would get degrees much less and the movement speed of the arm would increase, making it easier to react to attacks. Additionally, by engulfing mana in your shield, the shield is capable to hold much more generated energy and the shield alone is capable of. Last 8 seconds

"Hmm, the skill hasn´t changed much other than it generally makes my hand movement much faster though the weight decreasing and the fact that it can absorb an attack better...."

Although being able to ignore some of the incoming attacks force is quite good, he wasn´t excited about the skills change.

After all, where [Vanguards Defence] realy show this worth would be against opponents that are much stronger than he is.

If he were to use that skill on a much weaker opponent, it will just be overkill and a waste of mana.

But since the skill was the ideal skill for blocking, I didn´t feel bad having it in my arsenal.

It was just that my expectation was much higher on such an expensive skill...

Moving his gaze at the last skill, his ethereal eye flared up for a second.

"This is..."

[Shield Charge]: By engulfing your shield with mana, you learned how to release your mana to create a shockwave. Additionally, through manipulations of mana, you can let out a small burst of mana behind the shield to serve you a small boost.

"I have to try this." Equipping the dark crystal shield from the storage ring, he faced towards the tree he was sitting before and started guiding his mana as the skill information was inside his head.

With the dark green mana surrounding his shield, the skill activated.

`[Shield Charge]´

With mana concentrating on the front of the shield, a strong burst of wind came from the side of the shield, dragging Danzel to hit the tree first with his shield and second with his face.

*Creck

"Ugh...I didn´t expect that coming" he mumbled quite annoyed.

The impact with the shield managed to crack the front of this huge tree, which showed the power behind the skill [Shield Charge].

Although Danzel had the information regarding the skill implanted directly to his mind, that was only in the theory of it.

As the saying says, actions speak louder than words.

Though he knew that he was supposed to be pushed forward, he vastly underestimated the burst of speed.

It was like an explosion happend which forcible dragged his whole body in the aimed direction.

Though he found the skill somewhat hard to use, he saw the potential that it had if combined with other skills together.

[Shield Charge] Wasn´t only an attack skill for the shield alone.

This true strength lay upon that sudden burst that dragged him!

He could imagine himself using the [Dash] to close the distance and with the built momentum use [Shield Charge] to ram at someone at high speed!

With him wearing heavy armor, the power that he would be able to generate was quite scary to say the less.

The skill alone managed to crack the surface of that huge tree.

If we were to imagine instead of the tree to be someones face, the fate that awaited that poor guy would be nothing good.

"Other than the fact it´s quite hard to control, it´s nothing that a bit of practice wouldn´t solve. Considering that fact, [Shield Charge] takes the first place among these three." Closing his whole status window, he put his dark crystal shield inside the ring.

Taking his [Sun Timer] out he glanced at it before putting it back.

"Around two hours huh? Let´s better return." After sighting internally how fast time passed.

After familiarizing his body with the increase of stats and clearing his mind from all the knowledge, he made his way back to the mercenary camp.

As he expected to find the mercenaries to continue fooling around and drinking, what he found was a quiet place with some sleeping on the ground with a wooden cup in hand or sleeping in the carriages with their foot kicking each other´s.

Expect of the one campfire that was lit up, nothing else was there to light up the place.

Of course, to Danzel that was of no problem since of the night vision that he had.

"I guess everyone went to sleep, huh..." Expect the three men sitting near the campfire with an expression as if they would fall asleep at any moment.

Everyone else seemed to be asleep.

`Well, it makes sense if they walk from early morning to be tired. They aren´t undead unlike me.´

After thinking about it, Danzel decided to go back to the woods and do something that he haven´t done for a long time.

Training.

With no weapons to engrave runes on and nothing else to kill, training was his last option left if he wanted to receive XP.

And with the recent XP gain increased by the class advancement, he was curious how much XP he would receive if he were to train for an hour-long.

He could also play the nice guy and tell those half-asleep guys back in the campfire that he would keep watch through the night.

With his undead nature, he could keep watch of all eternity if he was willing to.

But why should he do that?

Instead of wasting his time and watching the campfire...burn.

He could make himself productive.

With him being poor beyond belief, he needed to start and gain XP for either his classes or level. Knowing that his skills and classes level up would cost all the more XP the further he would upgrade them, he needed to shake does bones his and start earning his keep.

Arriving at the spot he was before, he equipped his shield.

"Let´s practice on the new skills until the sun comes back..."

With dark green mana surrounding Veren and his shield, he started practicing on the huge trees.

***

[You received 5000 XP]

"Oh? Another hour has passed?" Looking at the notification Danzel stopped his training.

Looking at the sun that had risen, he put Veren to his sheath and his shield on the storage ring.

"I should go back..."

Leaving the overly abused tree behind with many cuts and cracks behind, he was in a good mood.

He was satisfied with the recent XP gain from training his body.

As one total hour of training resulted in 5000 XP alone!

He already gained 35 000 XP in a total of 7 hours!

Though it was a bit slower if he was carving runes, making runes required the weapons to be `consumed´ too!

Put with him having only to physically use his body, he made up for the lack of stuff to engrave runes upon!

He only had to practice seriously for a whole one hour to gain a total of 5000 XP!

Though it was quite mentally straining, with the body of an undead.

I could in theory keep up training 24/7!

Not only that, that training also allowed me to get better used to my previous and new skills.

Those points alone were a win-win situation for Danzel.

Learning and earning XP at the same time!

Arriving at the mercenary camp, everyone was getting up with still a sleepy expression look on their face.

"It seems like I arrived at the right of time."

Seeing the magic caster Serran looking around as if he was searching for something with bags under his eyes, I started walking towards him.

"Hey guys, did anyone see my sword lying somewhere around?" One mercenary said near Danzel said.

Which he in turn completely ignored....