Chapter 27: Underworld Realm

[Zone Entered: Underworld Realm — Outer Threshold]

[Recommended Level: 22-25]

Leon exhaled slowly and started walking.

He wasn’t here to admire the scenery, and there wasn’t much worth admiring anyway. Ash-grey ground stretched beneath a sky that seemed permanently stained by smoke, with dead trees scattered across the landscape like the remains of a forest that had long since been forgotten.

What mattered was the difference in levels. He was Level 19, stepping into an area recommended for players between Levels 22 and 25. That gap wasn’t insignificant, but with everything he had accumulated over the past ten days, Leon didn’t consider it enough to turn around. Mira hadn’t been wrong about the danger. She simply hadn’t known that Leon’s circumstances were anything but ordinary.

Ten days ago, that level difference would have meant something entirely different.

It still meant something now. He just intended to make sure it worked in his favor.

The first sign of company came less than two minutes later. Five silhouettes emerged from the ash-grey haze ahead, moving with a discipline that immediately caught Leon’s attention. These weren’t mindless monsters charging toward the nearest living thing. They moved together, their steps measured and their formation tight, as though they had been trained for combat.

[Monster Detected: Underworld Guard (x5)]

[Level: 22]

[Type: Undead Sentinel]

[Innate Talent: Deathless Resolve]

Deathless Resolve.

Leon filed the name away without needing to see its full description. Whatever the talent did, he doubted it was going to make his life easier.

The five creatures were clad in armor that looked like fused bone and blackened iron, each one carrying a long spear. They lowered their weapons in perfect unison as they approached. There was no hesitation, no wasted movement. Leon almost respected the precision of it, right up until the first spear thrust toward his chest.

He didn’t dodge.

Not yet.

Crack!

Arcane Requiem tore into the lead guard’s shoulder, and the combination of poison, decay, and the newly acquired leeching effect received its first real test.

Ding!

[Arcane Requiem: Leeching Effect triggered.]

[HP drained: 42. Restored to user.]

Forty-two points.

The vitality was siphoned directly from the undead guard and returned to Leon. He felt a faint warmth settle in his chest, small but immediate, and the corner of his mouth lifted.

If the effect worked consistently against these things, he wasn’t merely fighting them.

He was refueling himself with every successful attack.

The second guard closed in while Leon was still processing the result, its spear thrusting low toward his ribs. Leon twisted aside, relying more on instinct than conscious calculation, and answered with Verlimon’s Judgment.

Slash!

The impact sent a shockwave through the guard’s chestplate, cracking the bone-like armor and staggering it half a step. It wasn’t enough to bring the creature down.

These weren’t Mudback Boars.

Level 22 meant something in this place, and Leon adjusted his expectations accordingly as three more spears came toward him from different angles.

There wasn’t enough room to dodge all three.

Fine.

Then he wouldn’t.

Ding!

[Stoneskin has activated!]

Two of the spears scraped across his hardened flesh instead of piercing through it, producing a dull metallic sound. Leon felt the impact but little else. The third spear came straight for his chest, and he caught it against the flat of Bloodfang Edge, redirecting its momentum past his shoulder.

That’s three fights it’s already paid for itself, Leon thought.

Worth every fragment.

He pivoted with the motion and brought his blade around in a wide arc, cutting into the guard on his left. Corrosive Edge tore through its armor, while poison and decay followed the wound almost immediately. The guard staggered, its movements noticeably slower than they had been only moments earlier.

Leon narrowed his eyes.

Interesting.

Decay didn’t seem to care whether the thing wearing the armor was technically alive. That was worth remembering the next time he encountered something undead and assumed it would be immune to effects normally associated with living creatures.

Ding!

[Absolute Adaptation has activated!]

[Your body is adapting to spear-based thrust patterns.]

Good.

He’d need that.

Four spears were still in play, and the guards hadn’t lost any of their coordination. If anything, they had adjusted their formation around the injured one, compensating for its slower movements instead of allowing the weakness to disrupt them.

Leon fired twice more.

Mana bolts tore through the air, striking two of the nearest guards as decay began spreading across their armor in slow, dark patches.

Crack! Crack!

Ding!

[Arcane Requiem: Leeching Effect triggered.]

[HP drained: 38. Restored to user.]

[Arcane Requiem: Leeching Effect triggered.]

[HP drained: 41. Restored to user.]

Leon didn’t need the notifications to tell him the effect was working. He could feel the steady trickle of vitality returning to his body, keeping pace with the damage he was taking. The guards’ spears continued to find openings in his defense, leaving several shallow cuts across his arms and torso.

Perfect Body would take care of them eventually.

For now, the pain was simply information.

Ding!

[HP: 780/920]

He allowed himself a moment to appreciate how far he had come before pushing the thought aside.

Leon took a breath and reconsidered his approach. Five coordinated spearmen weren’t opponents he wanted to defeat through attrition if he could avoid it. He had too many advantages at his disposal to fight them the hard way.

He let Origin Eyes settle fully into focus.

The world changed.

Faint golden outlines appeared across the bodies of the undead guards, tracing the structure beneath their armor. Seams became visible. Weak points emerged where bone met iron and where the joints were forced to flex whenever the creatures moved.

There.

Every single one of them had the same weakness.

Leon moved.

Slash!

Bloodfang Edge slipped into the gap at the first guard’s neck. Corrosion ate through the already weakened joint, and the creature collapsed without ceremony.

Ding!

[You have killed "Underworld Guard (Level 22)" and gained 480 experience points.]

The remaining four immediately adjusted their formation, closing ranks around the fallen guard’s position.

Leon was already moving through the opening they had created.

Poison Howl escaped his throat, the low, resonant sound spreading across the remaining guards.

Ding!

[Poison Howl has activated!]

[All targets within range afflicted with stacking poison.]

The guards barely reacted.

Their undead bodies seemed resistant to the initial effects, but Leon wasn’t concerned. He had already learned that powerful poison didn’t need to cripple an enemy instantly. It only needed time to accumulate.

And time was something he intended to give them.

Crack! Slash!

Ding!

[Arcane Requiem: Leeching Effect triggered.]

[HP drained: 45. Restored to user.]

[You have killed "Underworld Guard (Level 22)" and gained 480 experience points.]

Two down.

The remaining three finally abandoned their formation and attacked from separate directions. Perhaps they had realized that maintaining their perfect formation wasn’t enough to keep Leon from picking them apart.

Leon didn’t try to overcomplicate things.

He simply positioned himself where the terrain gave him the most room, keeping his back toward open ground so the guards couldn’t surround him.

Slash! Crack! Slash!

Ding!

[Arcane Requiem: Leeching Effect triggered.]

[HP drained: 39. Restored to user.]

Ding!

[You have killed "Underworld Guard (Level 22)" and gained 480 experience points.]

One spear finally found its mark, slicing deeply across Leon’s forearm.

He winced.

Before the guard could pull the weapon back for another thrust, Leon drove Verlimon’s Judgment straight through its chest.

The resulting shockwave exploded through the construct’s body, crushing what remained of its ribcage.

Ding!

[You have killed "Underworld Guard (Level 22)" and gained 480 experience points.]

The final guard hesitated.

It lasted barely a fraction of a second, but Leon noticed it. Perhaps some fragment of instinct remained within the creature despite its Deathless Resolve.

He didn’t give it the chance to recover.

Crack!

Ding!

[Arcane Requiem: Leeching Effect triggered.]

[HP drained: 44. Restored to user.]

[You have killed "Underworld Guard (Level 22)" and gained 480 experience points.]

Five kills.

Twenty-four hundred experience.

More importantly, Leon’s HP had climbed back to a comfortable level almost entirely through the leeching effect he’d added to Arcane Requiem.

He released a slow breath and looked at the drifting ash where the five guards had stood.

Ding!

[Lucky Fate has activated!]

[Rare Drop Probability significantly increased.]

[Underworld Guards have dropped: 82,200 Eternal Coins, 3 Bonewrought Plating.]