Colin stared. “What?”
Even Isa blinked rapidly, her usually unruffled expression decidedly ruffled. “You… immortal?”
“Yep. Wouldn’t have had to waste your Miracle on me,” he said, nodding at Colin.
“Gods. I can only imagine,” Isa muttered to herself.
Levi chuckled. “That was a lot of people’s reactions, yeah. Well, or, you know. They died. Because I didn’t exactly project the whole immortality thing, so lots of people found out when the ‘dead’ me got back up and stabbed them in the gut.”
Colin’s jaw gaped. He stared. “Ohhh. That makes so much sense now.”
“Concur. I always thought his fighting style was borderline suicidal. Now I see the truth,” Isa said, nodding along. “An immortal has no fear of death. Why let such base limitations hold him back in battle?”
“You guys believe me?” Levi asked, a little surprised.
Isa shrugged. “I’ve heard of stranger things happening in this world… and in the multitude of worlds around it.”
“Uh… I don’t know. You’re a liar, but it doesn’t feel like you’re lying, this time,” Colin said, scratching his cheek. “Immortal, huh? Immortal.”
“It wasn’t immortality like you’re expecting, I don’t think. It was a shitty, broken kind of immortality. But it all went away when I landed here, so don’t get any ideas.”
“Were you, like, a god where you came from?” Colin asked, still flabbergasted.
Levi shook his head, laughing. “No. Not even close.”
“Must’ve been a hard landing, to come down and find yourself a mere mortal once more,” Isa commented.
“It did kinda suck, but I got over it. All I really had to do was remember not to casually take lethal blows.” He waved his hand. “It’s not important. Unless… well, Isa? This change anything?”
“What, about me turning you into a vampire? Absolutely not.”
“But I’m experienced. I’ve got decades of history as an immortal. I’d be a very responsible vampire,” Levi said, puffing up his chest and thumping it.
“Hypothetically, if I were to reach out to your compatriots, would they second your ‘responsible’ claim?”
Levi pouted. “You don’t always have to fact check everything I say. You can just believe me. It’s a far less unreasonable claim than claiming to be immortal, when you think about it.”
“So that’s a no,” Isa murmured under her breath.
“Oh, come on. I’d be the best vampire,” Levi argued.
“If you really want to become a vampire, level up and get the ability to vampirize yourself,” she pointed out.
Levi sighed. “Obviously I’m working toward it, but that’s a long way away. You could turn me into a vampire right now.”
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“Speaking of, did you hit your skill goal?” she asked, glancing at him.
“Did I?” Levi murmured to himself. He called up his skills.
Levi | 18 | Lv 40
Class: Necromancer [SPECIAL]
Str: 51
Mag: 103
Dex: 54
Spd: 58
Def: 20
Res: 101
[Swordsmanship]
[Shadow Manipulation]
[Shadow Step]
[Optimized Raise Dead]
[Drain]
[Shape Dead]
[Heal Undead]
[Call Ghosts]
[Death Resist]
[Strengthen Undead]
When you name an undead, that undead levels up alongside you. Their relative strength will be maintained in relation to yours, with the chance to gain bonus EXP based on the undead’s own achievements. You can name up to five undead that are eligible for this skill.
“Excellent. Yes, I have it. And… let’s go ahead and name the Armalgam, Handy, the Spinal Cord, and the Slombie. Which conveniently leaves one open slot for the future!”
The Spinal Cord didn’t really need to level up, since it was more a weapon and a utility undead than a battle zombie. But he had five slots, so might as well fill them and let it soak EXP while it could. He’d always been a smoke ‘em while you got ‘em kind of person, and this was no exception. No point throwing EXP away when he could put it on something, even if that something didn’t really have much use for it. It was just that later, if he needed more battle zombies, he could take the Spinal Cord out of the fourth slot and put in a second extra battle zombie.
Names accepted. Amalgam, Handy, Spinal Cord, and Slombie will all level up.
Levi chuckled under his breath. “Yes, my unstoppable undead unkillable zombie army!”
“You want to add a few more ‘un’s to that?” Colin asked.
“I could. Unguessable, unobtainable, un—”
“We’re almost there. On your guard,” Isa stated shortly.
“I still had more.”
“I feared as much.”
Levi chuckled.
This time, there were guards outside of the village. Two burly cannibals stood at the entrance, hands on their weapons. The bulky zombie Levi had rezzed previously was strung up in pieces on the trunk of a nearby tree, a clear warning to anyone who dared to attack the town.
Just out of sight, Levi pinched his chin. “Honestly? I’m just surprised they didn’t eat him.”
“Undead meat doesn’t taste good,” Isa said.
“You’d know, I guess.” He gestured. “Come on. This one’s guarded. Let’s go see if the guarded all of ‘em.”
“Not just rushing in blindly?” Isa snarked.
“No. That would be stupid. If there’s a path of least resistance, we take it. If there isn’t…” He shrugged. “Then we do the blind rushing.”
Isa gestured ahead of her. “Lead on.”
Levi took the lead. He wound the way around the settlement, briefly checking in on each entrance he encountered. All of them were guarded. Once or twice, they encountered cannibals out hunting in the woods, but between the three of them and Levi’s undead, they made short work of any lone cannibals. All the gates they encountered were guarded by at least two of the beefy cannibals. Two or three pairs of guards wandered the perimeter of the walls, but never alone, and always close enough to the city that Levi couldn’t be sure they wouldn’t alert the rest of the village when they were attacked. Just like attacking the gate guards, attacking the patrol guards would kill their stealth, and they’d be back to brute forcing their way through. It wasn’t not an option, but it wasn’t a great option, either.
Levi crouched in the undergrowth, thinking. Abruptly, he snapped his fingers and stood. “That’ll do. Isa, grab Colin.”
Isa obeyed. “What are we doing?”
“Enacting my great master plan.” Levi edged forward until he could see the wall. The patrolling duo passed by, and still he waited. Ten, twenty, thirty seconds.
And then he charged forward. The Spinal Cord lashed out from his hip and dug into a crack in the stone wall, pulling him upward. He flew toward the top of the wall, Armalgam’s arms out to brace himself.
Isa snorted. “I can’t say I saw this one coming.” She ran after Levi and leaped up, easily landing on the top of the wall.
Levi scrambled up. For a moment, they both crouched on the wall, and then they hopped down, into the village. Inside the village, and not a single guard alerted.
“Time to be serial killers,” Levi said, grinning. He drew out a knife and spun it, then swooped through the undergrowth toward the nearest house’s back door.
