Bro, I'm not an Undead!

A tall, armoured Skullius ran at full speed within the thick forest.

He had long left the abrupt setting of the valley in the middle of the Tremur Forest and was on his way to retrieve the beloved Red Rage.

His figure zipped through the trees as his speed after evolution was vastly superior to its prior state.

As he dashed without a shred of fatigue being found anywhere within him, another figure that ran a short distance ahead of him giving the Penetrator a delightful sense of security that he carried with each step.

It was an ethereal fox with half Skullius’ height.

It had a beautiful mix of white and orange on its ethereal body like tendrils of smoke, dark eyes making the look more artistic to say the least.

This was what Skullius had asked for and it turned out that it was indeed easy for the Grinning Jester Fox to grant it.

Skullius had requested for safe passage to the location he had been in before he was ‘abducted’ by Benzard and his group.

The UNCoddled curse, according to a more detailed deduction by the fox seemed to affect an individual based on their contribution and level of strength.

It was just an assumption.

If the curse was a threat to a creature as powerful as the fox then it was extremely deadly to everyone else under its level.

Also, any personal or close form of help to Skullius would incite danger on the helper.

Thus, to assist Skullius, the fox had created this ethereal form that shared a small portion of its power to protect him so that he wouldn’t be besieged by powerful beasts until he reached his destination.

Skullius couldn’t quite remember the way he and the others had come from but since he had mentioned that he had an encounter with Azila, the fox told him that he would probably find where exactly he was looking for if it left him around the Ape’s general territory._.

This development had lead to the current one where Skullius was journeying with the ethereal fox.

“Are you not interested in returning to the Labyrinth?” the fox asked.

Skullius turned to the creature mildly surprised at its sudden words.

After exiting the Labyrinth, he truly hadn’t wanted to think anymore about it for a while, not to mention, he had to face this fox right after, distracting him from the matter entirely.

On top of that, why would he return?

“Even if I can go back why would I? Besides, I didn’t see the gate. How would I even go back in?”

“If it was advertised so openly how would it be the secret location of a powerful expert who existed many years ago? As the one with the power of Fulgardt’s class, you have the natural right to enter and leave as you please,” the fox said. “Hmm. Besides, there is more to that place than you’d expect.”

“Oh…” Skullius said.

Was there really anything other than a bunch of imprisoned warriors in there?

The fox’s response also made Skullius remember how he had used the Keys along with Sause to open a way out of the Labyrinth.

Was that unnecessary?

No.

‘Right. I can’t access the new class in my Penetrator form. I probably wouldn’t be recognised.’

“I’ll probably return in the future. I don’t have the strength nor the basic knowledge to understand some of the things in that place,” he said.

The fox turned its head towards him and grinned, this time in actual amusement.

“If that’s the only reason you could have asked me to help you kill all the pathetic weaklings in this place. You’d gain a substantial amount of strength within the day through all the cumulative mana. What’s more, I have vast amounts of knowledge myself,” it said.

“That true, but I feel its more attractive to learn it all on my own outside this place, bro,” Skullius said, withholding the real reason why he wanted to get the flesh out of here.

He preferred to learn the way Serenity told him to.

With the situation having drifted its way towards his strength, Skullius scrutinised his status now that he wasn’t in a tense battle or a serious negotiation.

He immediately noticed that the skill for his [Vehement Bone Nullmancer] class that had been hidden had finally been unlocked!

~~~

[Bringer of All | Lv.1]

As a powerful existence that lords over his apostles and digests the concepts of mana, draw yourself and your Apostles together using a single non-Null Life Skill as a base to create a unique variation of a ‘Bringer of All’.

<Current combination limit – 1 Apostle>

Mana Requirements: 5000 Mana Points, 5000 Null Life Essence Points

Duration: 5 minutes

Cooldown: 48 hours

~~~

‘BRO! What’s with that cost?!’ Skullius thought. He barely even understood what the skill could do.

He had gotten a shit ton of skills in the past 30 minutes and was still trying to process them all.

Seeing as he couldn’t use this [Bringer of All] skill yet, Skullius decided to check in with his other skills which had all levelled up after his evolution.

This only applied to the skills that he had received after he became a Null Lifeform and pretty much confirmed that evolution was a free ticket to levelling up his skills. Those that had the capability to evolve anyway.

[Unbound] had its duration of effect increased for Basic Random Upgrades from 5 to 6 minutes, which really wasn’t much of a thing to be excited about really.

[Apostle Summon] had a significant change. The limit for the Apostles Skullius could summon had increased to 2!

This meant that with each level, he would gain a slot for another summon!

This would have made Skullius really happy but how to evolve these skills was still up in the wind.

‘Couldn’t I have used the corpse of that thing with the large sword? Oh, right! The skill says I can only summon from those I killed myself.’

Nevertheless, he couldn’t wait to summon another Apostle when he found a worthy candidate.

[Apostle Armament] also had the number of skills Skullius could grant to his Apostles increase by 1 which was actually pretty good.

[Depths of Core] didn’t change at all. At least there didn’t seem to be a change. Apparently, the limit was still a blue core and Skullius was interested in trying this out now that he had sufficient mana for it.

What was the difference between cores?

The Penetrator chose not to use the skill while the fox was around as he was afraid of what it would do. Skullius got the feeling that this skill was a pretty big deal.

‘Nice. I wonder if this will be enough for me to survive out there. Oh… I also have that stuff,’ Skullius thought.

Within his armour storage was a myriad of items.

The Voiding Key, the All Eater scroll, Sause’s nail, the chest he had taken from the room behind the spiral grove door, two spatial storages rings and some other treasures.

After Skullius had evolved, he checked the two chests within the room. He was able to open the first one immediately, finding the All Eater scroll and some other artefacts that he decided to sit down and check later as their descriptions were too intricate.

The second one however, didn’t budge nomatter how much strength he used when trying to open it.

It was only after he used the guidance field that he found out that he had to use [Evil Darkness] and [Just Light] to open it which was frustrating as [Flesh It Like You Mean It] was on cooldown!

The spatial storage rings were from Reon and Denille.

Skullius took out Reon’s and claimed ownership of it after injecting mana into it.

When he felt the familiar feeling of himself being connected to it, his consciousness picked up the contents of the space within the ring.

There were 13 cores of different quality from the beasts that Benzard and his group had killed along with some coins, food in the form of meats and bread as well as parts of the various beasts.

Denille’s ring had 2 cores and a few coins, the crest that Eobald had given him along with the Arcane Teleportation Scroll.

The other item worthy of note within Skullius’ armour was a particular sword he had taken from the Labyrinth.

A blueish curved blade with a golden hilt.

Demion’s Dance!

Skullius had taken the sword before opening a portal to Denille’s position with Sause.

He had wanted to use [Unbound] on it but he was afraid of finding the sword to lose its skills which he wanted the most.

His fight with Benzard had solidified the fact that he needed to learn how to fight instead of just throwing his skills around like a sockethole.

He felt that Demion’s Dance which allowed him to use the fighting style of this Demion guy who seemed to be pretty famous, could get him a good start in the art of fighting.

Skullius stored the sword. Perhaps he could find someone who could restore it to its peak.

After taking in all this while sprinting, Skullius noticed the fox slowing down its pace.

He looked ahead to find out what had made it decelerate and he saw that the terrain was changing a few meters ahead.

There was a meadow in the distance, populated by strange creatures which noticed the approach of Skullius and the fox from the distance.

Skullius’ senses flared as his expansive [Basic Mana Manipulation] skill sensed the powerful presences these creatures exuded.

They had established a community just like the goblins but they were in no way as weak…