Chương 4: The Shadow Hunter

With his Mana restoring at a staggering pace—likely due to the effects of his Unique Titles—Alex began to expand his senses, merging Mana with Nether to perceive his surroundings more clearly. This was a technique he had developed only a few hours earlier, which he called "Spiritual Senses." It was a basic ability all Undead like him possessed, the very thing that allowed him to see, hear, and interact with the world as if he still had all his senses intact. Well, maybe not taste—he was unable to eat anything.

As he stepped inside, he caught fragments of conversation and quickly slipped behind a wall. Four large figures lumbered past, spears crusted with blood and a massive bear carcass slung between them.

"Did you hear?"

"What?"

"Queen says humans are here."

"Nice! Easy food."

"Yes."

"This zone was selected for system integration."

"So we're trapped?"

"Who cares? Humans yummy. Tastier than tough bear."

"True." Alex waited for the perfect moment. The instant their backs were fully turned, he sprang forward. He used his Self-Binding Command to correct minor mistakes in his movement without fully surrendering control. His new body moved as fast as the old one, yet carried far greater weight. When he leaped over the first troll, his fist alone punched straight through its stone-like neck and tore the jugular apart. The other trolls gasped.

"Huh?!" They could barely register what had struck their companion—only a streak of black darkness—before a blazing sword whipped toward them, launching dozens of burning slashes into their eyes with flawless precision.

"Gyaaaah!"

"Fire!"

"Uuggh!" The three trolls screamed, clawing at their faces and desperately trying to extinguish the flames while swinging their hammers wildly. Alex quickly donned his armor and braced himself. A hammer blow he couldn't fully evade slammed into him, sending him crashing to the ground. From there, he watched the trolls accidentally strike one another in their panic. Their enormous size and slow wits were a massive disadvantage, and he exploited it ruthlessly.

Without wasting a second, he climbed the nearest troll and swung his sword with all his strength, reinforcing his arms with bone armor to add crushing weight and power. SLAAASH! A single, devastating slash tore cleanly through the troll's neck. Its massive head tumbled to the ground and rolled, tripping one of its comrades. The last troll finally regained some of its vision and caught sight of Alex's true form.

A strange, completely white knight stood before it, helmet shaped like a skull, with gleaming violet light burning inside the empty eye sockets. The troll froze, caught between shock, rage, and fear.

"U-undead! Undead!!!" As the troll's roar echoed through the nest, Alex leaped toward him. He dodged the giant hammer by releasing two channeled fireballs from his feet, then brought his sword arcing down toward the troll's head.

"Nnnggh?!" The troll raised its arms in defense, but both were severed cleanly. Flames engulfed its body as it howled in agony. Alex finished it with a sharp slash across the neck, beheading the creature.

"Good thing I polished the blade so well." He had no time to waste. Alex leaped onto the final troll, stabbing straight through its skull and into the brain. Then he stood motionless, listening to the thunder of approaching footsteps from deeper in the nest.

"Looks like I won't be getting much of a break. Well, it doesn't matter." Ding! [You have slain [Mountain Troll – Level 10] x4 – Bonus experience earned for killing enemies above your level. 80 TP earned.] [Class: [Soulweaver Necromancer (F+)] has reached Level 3 – Stat points allocated, +1 free point.] [Race: [Undead Skeleton (F)] has reached Level 4 – Stat points allocated, +1 free point.] The author's tale has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

"Experience required to level up seems quite high," he thought.

"I suppose I'm meant to slaughter hordes of weaker monsters or take down big ones for rapid gains." He sharpened his senses as the next wave drew near. Expanding his Spiritual Senses, he quickly formed a mental map of the area. Ten trolls were converging on him from three separate paths. Some radiated magical power and carried giant wooden staffs carved from entire trees.

"They've got mages. I'd better hide." He extinguished all flames, activated Shadow Veil, and tucked himself into a corner after storing his bone armor. The ten trolls soon arrived, wandering about in confusion.

"What happened?"

"Where?!"

"Ah, they're dead!"

"Who did it?!"

"Come out!" As they roared in fury, spittle flying everywhere, Alex seized the moment. He summoned dozens of Bone Spears he had modified earlier, infused them with flames, and launched them at his enemies.

"Bone Crafting can even be used like this!" The Blazing Bone Spears tore through heads and bodies. Three trolls died instantly as the spears pierced deep into their brains and burned them from within. Four more collapsed, screaming in pain. The remaining three mages rose, conjuring spells as they sensed his presence darting around them.

"Die!"

"Burn!"

"Be sliced!" Protective magical barriers shimmered around the mage trolls. They swung their enormous staffs, unleashing massive fireballs, cutting winds, and pillars of flame. Alex dodged and weaved through the waves of mana, predicting each spell's emergence and evading them with pinpoint accuracy. He leaped over one using Brutish Force and shattered its barrier with a sword reinforced by bone armor—forming a giant white blade wreathed in flames and coated in shadow.

"WHA—?!" The mage troll panicked for only an instant before its head was crushed under the blunt force of the massive Bone Sword. The other mages struck back, lightning and wind hammering his armor nearly to pieces. Alex fell but rose again quickly. His Nether was halfway depleted and his Mana sat at around forty percent, but he could still push through. Soul Threads wrapped tightly around his body, reinforcing flexibility and movement. He issued himself a command to sharpen his dodging, precision, and accuracy.

Then he reshaped the bone armor on his sword into a giant bow, molded the bones of a fallen troll into an enormous arrow, coated it in flames, and fired it at the nearest conjuring mage. BOOOM! The arrow punched straight through the troll's chest and exploded, blasting a hole clean through its body and into the cave wall. The final mage tried to stomp him while hurling thunderbolts. Alex endured the hits as his HP plummeted.

Clenching his teeth, he scrambled up the troll's leg, moving faster and faster until he reached the back of its neck. There, he stabbed with merciless strength.

"Gaaahhh!" The Mountain Troll collapsed to its knees and died. Alex swiftly finished off the remaining wounded trolls with several more Giant Blazing Bone Arrows, emptying his Mana in the process but completing the fight.

"It's done…" Ding! [You have slain [Mountain Troll – Level 10] x10 – Bonus experience earned for killing enemies above your level. 200 TP earned.] [Class: [Soulweaver Necromancer (F+)] has reached Level 4 – Stat points allocated, +1 free point.] [Race: [Undead Skeleton (F)] has reached Level 5 – Stat points allocated, +1 free point.] He felt a flicker of irritation. He had been so close to Level 6 on his Undead Skeleton race, yet fell short by roughly ten EXP.

"Are there more trolls?" He stood atop the mage troll's corpse and pushed his Spiritual Senses to their limit while absorbing Mana from their cores, an ability he had discovered simply by willing his body to do it. Using the surplus Mana, he broke past his limits and scanned even farther, forming a complete mental map of the nest. Only one path remained: an underground passage where twenty more Mountain Trolls and a significantly larger one—likely the Queen—waited.

"Twenty more plus the boss. I need to prepare." The trolls seemed wary. Instead of rushing him, they had chosen to guard their queen, apparently believing the previous group would be enough. This gave Alex a precious window of a few minutes, time enough to search the bodies and see if anything useful remained.

"All these items are so big… I can't wield any of them yet. Also, when do I get a proper storage? It looks like the System doesn't include an inventory." Alex felt a pang of disappointment that the System wasn't more game-like, though a spatial inventory might have been too great an advantage. At least he could already store bones. Or could he?

"Maybe there's a loophole." After searching the corpses, he found pouches containing giant bottles of potions and antidotes, poisoned arrows, and magic crystal balls that enhanced a mage's power. He covered the items in bone and absorbed them.

"It works…!" To his surprise, the loophole existed. By fully encasing an item in bone, he could store it inside his Bone Storage. With this discovery, Alex gathered the most valuable loot: three [Giant Magician's Crystal Balls], one [Giant Magician's Tree Staff], and around six [Giant Health Potions]. He examined each item's description out of curiosity, learning how the System classified equipment.

[Giant Magician's Crystal Ball (D Grade)] A giant crystal ball crafted from refined Mana Stone through Advanced Alchemy. Designed for Giant and Ogre-type individuals. Any Magician-type Class can benefit from it, though its weight may prove too much for smaller races. Effect: +20% to All Magic Spell Power when Mana is imbued and held close.

[Giant Magician's Tree Staff (E Grade)] A crudely crafted staff made from an entire large pine tree, specifically for Giant and Ogre-type individuals. Any Magician-type Class can benefit, though its weight may prove too much for smaller races. Effect: Decreases Mana Consumption of Spells by 5% and grants +10% to All Magic Spell Power.

[Giant Health Potion (E+ Grade)] A massive potion created through shamanistic alchemy, composed almost entirely of herbs and spiritual grasses beneficial to Giant and Ogre races. Smaller races may gain minor benefits, though the effects are weak unless fully consumed. It also tastes terrible. Effect: Once fully drunk, heals up to 20% of Total HP and increases HP Regeneration by 50% for 5 minutes.

"They seem like such wastes," Alex thought.

"I can't benefit from the potion, and the crystal and staff are far too large, they don't shrink as I'd hoped. But… I could use them as materials. Those crystal balls feel even stronger than monster cores, and the staff can channel and hold significant Mana…" He considered several possibilities. Though he currently lacked the magic to reshape them, one utterly ridiculous idea still crossed his mind.

"Well, why not experiment?"