The Ruined Death Knight

Chapter 85 - Broken Smithy

"The effect is indeed quite good..." Danzel said while looking at his gauntlets.

Having long left the crime scene he created, he found his new undead rune of Eniv quite to his liking.

In less than ten seconds he managed to turn a human adult into a complete mummy with pure his touch.

"This uncommon rune far surpasses the common runes that just enchanted my previous equipment... I wonder how powerful the other level of runes is." Danzel said while tightening his fist.

Just the pure imagination of the other levels made him excited.

Of course, he will understand the weakness of the [Rune of Eniv] that it also affected him and not his opponent alone.

The description itself mentions that it also affects the wearer.

And when considering the disadvantaged against the rewards, the rune itself would be useless. But that only counted if you have any life force inside your body in which every living being should naturally have.

But as an undead being who used their dead mana to replace the life force by itself, that negative didn´t affect me at all. That point alone was in my opinion laughable.

As the name went, undead runes were best at the hands of an undead himself.

That, or in the hands of a masochist...

Though I wasn´t sure if anyone would feel the pleasure of having their vitality by itself being sucked off. The world was big enough for at least one weirdo to be into that kind of stuff...

"I will have to get myself another one of the uncommon ones. Maybe it will give me another hint towards my research." Danzel mumbled to himself while touching the hilt of Veren.

Another pleasant surprise in getting the undead rune was the knowledge that was imprinted in my mind.

In the previous normal runes, I had to carve the rune with my normal green mana and that didn´t change until I learned the [Rune of Eniv].

Unlike the normal rules, the undead runes not only my normal mana but dead mana too. That information alone made me realize why I was stuck at the Veren rune without any progress so far.

Since the Veren rune was in a way also an undead rune I simply had to not only use my normal mana, but the dead mana itself to carve the rune!

Of course, that was easier said than done as runes required a precise amount of mana to work correctly. Otherwise, it will fail or into pure quality.

The process was as hard as trying to replicate a drawing with 100% accuracy.

No matter how it resembles the original piece, there will always be a small difference in the colors.

That process alone bought me a lot of frustration, but also hope in the future.

"Sigh...Once I deliver the third patch to Gerak I should take a break and figure the Veren rune out. Though he is probably going to complain about my break, I don´t want to destroy his armor too before I got the guarantee that Veren gives me..."

With the previews armor being severely damaged by those two assassins. Gerak gave his armor as a present together with that thing that I ordered before.

`Though I wouldn´t have called it a present since he had me pay for it...´ Shaking his head of that greedy dwarf, he made this way towards the Ouru Fire Smith.

Arriving in front of the workshop he grabbed his [Sun Timer] from the [Ring of Spatial Storage] (Yes, somehow there was still a tiny bit of space left) and saw that it was 4 am early in the morning.

"If I remember right he opens his smithy around 7 am... Should I go to the old owner before coming back?" Danzel mumbled to himself.

`I should even check the [Sun Timer] before I even left... going inside now would only piss him more.´ Grumbling internally, he walked past the smithy and went to wander around until 7 am.

But right as he passed the door of the Smithy he noticed the door handle to be broken and the door is slightly open.

"This..." suddenly I felt bad premonition at the sight of the broken door.

`Gerak would never let his door open...´

With heavy steps, he changed his mind and walked towards the door.

"It´s indeed broken..." Pulling Veren off this sheath and walked inside the smithy with his ethereal flame eyes to flare slightly stronger than before.

"..." Closing the door, he stared silently around the smithy.

The receptions table in front of the shop has been broken down with a variety of poor quality armor leaning on the ground with some right of destroyed.

"What the hell happend here..." Danzel asked himself with his usually cold voice sounding even colder than before.

It was as if a whirlwind hit the whole place.

Walking towards the reception table, he halted suddenly.

"Blood..."

Staring at the bits of blood on the floor, Danzel would frown if he could.

He walked pasted the blood towards the stairs leading to his actual smithy.

*Thuad, Thuad, Thuad~

Every step of his was heavier than the one of before.

"It´s locked..." Staring at the locket up door, he raised his feet and kicked the door down.

*Baahm!

"What happend!?"

"Who is it!?"

Glancing at the bulgy six men carrying boxes of armor in their arms, Danzel eyes turned colder than ever before.

"I see..." Danzel said in a tone half laughing and half-mocking himself.

"Guys! This guy is the mercenary on the same list of the dwarf!" One of the bulgy said while looking at a paper in his hand.

"You mean this bastard over here?"

"Hehe, now our worries of before are no more! If we capture this guy the reward that we will get is enough to set us for life!"

The men put down their chest of armor and weapons and bought their weapons out.

"Mercenary bastard! If you come with us quite we promise that you will suffer far less than you are going through." The man holding a mace in his hand said with a devious smile on his face.

"Haha...." Danzel though couldn´t help but laugh.

"What are you laughing at!" The man yelled, feeling being mocked by him.

Ignoring the man, I guided the mana in my whole body.

"I indeed hate humans..." Danzel whispered to himself before dashing towards the man with [Dash] and a vicious grin to this face.

"This guy! He is a tier two knight!" The men paled suddenly before they guided their life force in their respective weapons. Farther enchanting them.

"That´s something new." Danzel comment by the look of what he guessed was life force, before dashing towards the two men holding a sword.

He swung his sword towards the man in the left, before being shortly blocked.

"Ha! You are just speed-" As he was about to laugh at his attempt of attack, he felt his sword becoming heavier with every moment.

"Huh?" 

The sword was swept over by the pure physical strength of Danzel and cutting the man's throat, which shortly made blood come out like a spring.

"Gah! Geah!" Falling to his knees, he tried stopping the bleeding by putting pressure on the wound, but his attempt was as useless as other man swinging his sword from behind me.

"You bastard take this!"

"..." Danzel instead of turning around to block that swing stood still and watched the man approaching with a side look as his skill [Sense Danger] didn´t activate.

*Ting!

The sword shortly clashed at his armor, but instead of digging into the mercenary's shoulder and crippling him, a strong mana wave pushed the man's sword and making the lose his balance.

"Wha-!"

"Too weak..." With a diagonal swing, Danzel slashed at the man through all his chest while taking the arm that was holding the sword off.

"Ahhhhh!" With a horse scream echoing through the room, the man shortly died.

"This bastard! Kill him already!" The man with the mace ordered the other two with a spear in their hands.

"But..." The two men looked at the men with a shaking voice.

The one with the mace was annoyed by those two.

"Move already you cowards! Otherwise, I will not let you come out alive be it defeating him or not!"

"..." 

A feeling of dread was slowly overcoming their minds with the dilemma that was put in front of them.

On one side they had to fight the mercenary and the other was dying by the man with the mace after everything is done.

Biting their libs until bloodshot started to show, one of the men used his mana at his legs and life force at his arms.

"Ahhh!" The man rushed towards the mercenary with a battle cry with his spear in this hand.

Braver than the other man with the spear whose legs were shaking in fear.

"Hmm...? You use Sprint?"

Recognizing the man's ability, a hint of nostalgia came to Danzel before his grin turning all the more vicious.

"Sure I will play along."

Using dash they were three meters apart.

"Take this!" The life force traveled through the man's arms and into his spear.

"Hmm..." Feeling the skill [Sense Danger] activating, he knew that using [Armor Preserve] wouldn´t be enough to block it.

`Better than the other, but still lacking...´

The men thrusting his spear at the mercenary chest with immense speed.

At least immense towards his standards.

"Too slow..." 

Sidestepping the man's thrust, he punched at caving his face and cracking his skull.

"Bah!"

The man was sent flying two meters back and stayed on the ground unmoving.

"Hihhhh!"

The other men screamed out of horror before falling back to the ground.

"Tch, useless trash..." The man with the mace looked at his subordinate on the ground in disgust before moving towards the mercenary with confidence.

"Don´t think of me like those trash that you just killed. I once was a silver adventure for you to know." The man said while rushing towards Danzel.

`Though I failed the silver rank test, I hold the same strength!´ The man thought arrogantly.

"[Leap Step]! The life force run through his leg and with a crack in the floor, he dashed far faster than the through the use of [Sprint].

"Take this! [Heavy Strike]!" Being in front of Danzel the mana surrounded the mace and fell towards his helmet with the intent to crush his face.

Ignoring the [Sense Danger] skill from the incoming mace. A bright blue light surrounded his other hand that was not holding Veren.

"[Riposte Defense]" 

*Thuad!

A sound of clashing metal appeared That resulted from the mace and a dark gray shield with a dark crystal that appeared out of nowhere.

"How-"

"And you lack technique!" Not letting the man finish his sentence, Danzel swung Veren at the man's head, decapitating the man.

"Now.. you." With blood splashed in his armor and sword, he pointed at the man in the ground.

"Tell me where Gerak is."