Global Game: Developing a Knight Clan-Chapter 94 - 93: Tier Seven Tier Master, Game Time’s Up
Lince slaughtered everything in his path, continuously using his Magic Power to stabilize the core of his magic and keep it churning through the sea of bones.
He hoped to slaughter the entire incoming tide of Undead.
However, a commotion this large couldn’t possibly last forever.
It wasn’t that Lince lacked the Magic Crystals to sustain his Hurricane Technique.
Rather, it was that as Lince continued to slaughter the Skeletons...
...deep within the Great Tomb in this Underground Space, on the far eastern side, six Undead Creatures abruptly awoke around a structure that resembled an altar.
One was Tier Seven, and five were Tier Six.
The Tier Seven Undead Creature was a monster with a human face and a horse’s body, its bones resembling black crystal.
It stood over six meters tall. In one of its bony hands, it held a Skeleton Staff; in the other, a Giant Bow.
Beside it stood the five Tier Six Undead Creatures. One was a Tier Six Lich with the Body Type of a Beastman.
It looked like a desiccated corpse, a rather alien sight in this land of white bones.
Two of the other four were beast-shaped skeletons—a bone bird and a bone lion.
The final two were a Tier Six Skeleton Earth Knight and a Tier Six Skeleton Grand Mage.
The awakened centaur-like Undead gazed into the far reaches of the Dark Space.
The soulflame in its eye sockets flickered erratically.
"It has been many years since a living being last came to the first tier of the Tomb of the Dead."
"How long has it been, exactly? Decades? Centuries? Or even longer?"
The centaur-like monster’s voice suddenly rang out, carried on ripples of Magic Power.
"I do not remember either. It has been a long time since an edict from the Lord of the Undead was passed down from the lower levels of this space."
"Perhaps the Netherworld outside the Great Tomb has already been occupied by the living?"
The Tier Six Lich’s expression shifted as if it were still organizing its thoughts, and it spoke with some uncertainty.
"Lord Tier Master, can you make out the appearance of the living intruders who have invaded the Great Tomb?"
"Shall I go and clean them up?" the Skeleton Mage suddenly interjected.
The Tier Master looked at its Undead subordinates.
But the centaur-like Tier Master replied with what might have been a smirk.
"You will not be able to ’clean’ this one up."
"This is no ordinary living being. We are dealing with a young Dragon Species."
"If you wish to test the Power of a Dragon Species, I can certainly oblige you."
The surrounding Undead were stunned to hear it was a Dragon Species.
But after the initial shock, a trace of greed flickered in their eyes.
They were shocked that a Dragon Species would ever come to the Land of the Dead. After all, as they understood it, Dragon Species—even Sub-dragons—considered their Bloodlines noble.
Since time immemorial, dragons had viewed the Undead with a natural disgust, as if looking at shit in a latrine. Why would one ever come here?
As for the greed...
...that was self-explanatory. They naturally coveted the unique soul of a Dragon Species.
Furthermore, even if they didn’t devour its soul, an Undead Bone Dragon—the result of a Dragon Species’ death and transformation—was an incredibly rare and powerful asset.
"A young Dragon Species?"
"Does that mean it hasn’t reached the High Tiers?"
"This is a great opportunity! Lord Tier Master, are you really going to let it go?"
The Lich’s eyes brightened as it looked at the centaur-like monster.
However, the centaur-like Skeleton Tier Master merely snorted coldly.
"Hmph. Let it go?"
"No, it doesn’t need me to. Look, it’s almost here already, isn’t it?"
???
The stunned Undead all looked up, following the Tier Master’s gaze toward the distant sky of the cavern.
It was true!
Approaching from the distance, a Giant Dragon whose body glinted with a cold light was rapidly closing in.
The Tomb of the Dead possessed an Authority that made it a special domain unto itself. Because of this, while the Tier Master’s subordinates couldn’t immediately identify the nature or number of the intruders on the first tier like their master could...
...the moment the Giant Dragon came into view, they were able to discern its strength.
"What kind of Demon Beast hybrid Dragon Species is this? How can a Tier Six Giant Dragon grow so large?"
The Lich was the first to express its astonishment.
In its experience, this Giant Dragon, Lince, was indeed absurdly large.
From what it knew, most Giant Dragons that had yet to reach the High Tiers were already considered impressive at twenty or thirty meters in length.
But this Giant Dragon before them?
It was approaching sixty meters long.
"Based on its appearance, it somewhat resembles a descendant of the legendary Steel Dragon Bloodline."
"But its aura is strange. I can even sense fluctuations of Wind Attribute Magic Power."
"No, I can even feel fluctuations of Dark Attribute Magic Power around it. Just what kind of Demon Beast hybrid is this Dragon Species? How can its Attribute Abilities be so jumbled?"
The Undead all voiced their opinions one after another.
Just then, the centaur-like Tier Master stomped the ground with its Bone Staff.
Instantly, all the Undead fell silent.
"In the coming battle, you old bones had best look after yourselves!"
"If you don’t want to die, be on your guard. This Giant Dragon doesn’t feel like an easy opponent, even with the Authority of this tier."
As it spoke, the Scepter in the centaur-like monster’s hand dissolved into black smoke and vanished.
At the same time, its other hand raised the stringless Bone Bow, aiming at the rapidly approaching Giant Dragon as if preparing to shoot a normal arrow.
It held the bow in its left hand and drew the string with its right. A vast amount of black smoke billowed from the stringless Bone Bow as black Magic Power coalesced into a bowstring and an arrow.
In that instant, a massive amount of Magic Power from all around the altar could be seen converging like a whirlwind onto the centaur-like skeleton’s Bone Bow.
A powerful fluctuation of Magic Power pulsed, and a black-gold light tipped the magical arrow.
BOOM!!!
A sound like a massive sonic boom erupted.
The air vibrated as massive torrents of wind trailed the black, giant arrow hurtling toward the Giant Dragon high above.
The two were about to collide.
But in the next moment, an unexpected scene unfolded for both sides.
The Giant Dragon had been prepared to meet the giant arrow that had locked onto it.
But in an instant, a flicker of bewilderment crossed its stern eyes. Then, to the utter surprise of the Undead on the altar, the Space around the Giant Dragon began to ripple violently, like the surface of disturbed water.
And so, as the giant arrow streaked past, the Giant Dragon was nowhere to be seen in the entire Underground Space.
It was all so stunning and completely unexpected!
"What?!"
Seeing this, the Tier Master and its six Undead subordinates were all stunned.
"A Spatial Attribute?"
"A Tier Six Dragon Species that possesses a Space Ability?"
The Undead were once again on high alert, as if facing a formidable foe.
They feared that the terrifying Giant Dragon might suddenly emerge from anywhere around them.
Unfortunately for them, even after a long while, they saw no sign of the strange Giant Dragon.
And so, exchanging glances, the Undead all began to mutter amongst themselves.
At that same moment, in the real world, Lince was at a loss for words.
’To think it would remind me at the very last second that I have less than thirty seconds of game time left for today...’
’I wanted to test the strength of a Tier Seven Undead. Oh well, it was a bit risky anyway. This is for the best.’
’If need be, isn’t it better to save them for the next Inference Day to grind for experience?’
Lince sat in front of his computer, not dwelling on it, and quickly analyzed the situation.
Brother Cheng Takes Off was already following Lince’s instructions to find a way out of the Great Tomb. Once he was outside, Lince could guide him toward the outer regions of the Land of Death.
After all, Lince’s Space Ability to transport others required a direct line of sight to execute the spatial transfer.
Besides, he hadn’t planned on using his Space Power to transport anyone just then.
He had just tested it; his current, ordinary Space Travel Ability could only cover a distance of about five hundred meters at once, and the Magic Power consumption was immense—at least two to three percent per use.
If the cost was that high for him alone, wouldn’t carrying someone else be even more draining?
For long-distance travel outside of combat, it was simply more practical and efficient to fly.
As for the Space Power granted by the Blood Covenant, that was a system-bestowed Ability that consumed none of Lince’s Magic Power. The restriction, however, was that it only allowed Lince to appear by himself next to the target of the covenant, even across different maps.
In short, with Lince’s protection, he could now instantly go to Ah Cheng’s aid whenever he was in danger. This did indeed solve that player’s predicament.
However, the idea of leaving the Land of Death in one go was completely unrealistic.
For one, Lince couldn’t transport him across such a vast territory with his ordinary Space Ability. For another, his status as an Undead made it difficult for him to appear in the world of the living.
Therefore, Lince’s suggestion was that if he didn’t want to stay in the dangerous Great Tomb, he should head for the borderlands.
Furthermore, if he was afraid of the dangers along the way, Lince could fly him to the border once he was out of the Great Tomb.
In this way, the player’s troubles and predicament would be considered solved.
He’d at least be able to see the sun in the borderlands, right? That was infinitely better than being stuck in the dark Land of the Dead.
And as long as he didn’t get involved in border conflicts, surviving with his Tier Four Power would be quite easy.
Having done this much, Lince felt he had done more than enough.
As for what to do with him later, Lince still needed to think it over. He also needed to continue building his own strength.
Just as Lince was mulling over these things, the familiar logout prompt finally appeared.
[Daily game time limit reached. Player is being forcibly logged out.]
[Please set your character’s behavior for the offline period....]
The same old routine.
Lince, of course, mindlessly chose the ’conservative’ option again.
After all, what if something in real life suddenly delayed him on Inference Day and he couldn’t perform a Consciousness Descent? If he had chosen the ’aggressive’ behavior setting, wouldn’t his character be doomed?
[As the Player’s Power has increased again, all characters owned by the Player will now be updated accordingly.]
The familiar character card upgrade process quickly completed in the real world.
And then, as if on cue, a surprise reward appeared.
[Congratulations, Player, on completing your first exploration of the Land of the Dead during a game day and for killing a large number of Undead Creatures. You have received a Growth Level bonus of +25%. This reward can be claimed during your next game session.]
’I can even get experience from an eight-hour game day?’
’I guess it’s not that strange. After all, I killed a ton of Undead this time.’
’It was several times more than the number of Human Race soldiers I wiped out during the last Demon Beast Tide.’
’But the experience I gained this time wasn’t as much as before.’
’This is probably because I’m Tier Six now. There’s another reason, too.’
’At least half of the Undead I killed this time were Tierless Undead Skeletons, most of them the slow-moving kind that an ordinary person could kill with a hoe.’
’So, looking at it that way, the reward isn’t actually that small.’
Lince was in a great mood as he looked at the reward.
’This really is a great place to grind for experience. I have to go back for another run on Inference Day!’
