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As the Sword Saint, the blade couldn’t be the only thing Erin knew how to handle. She also had ample experience in other aspects. Barehanded fights were one of the many skills she had aside from the sword. In her past life, she travelled a lot. Oftentimes, she needed to cross the sea and not all waters were peaceful. Some contained creatures of the depth that could easily capsize the transport she was on. Therefore, she had taken it upon herself to learn to swim.

Despite having such knowledge, she could not swim to the surface. She was just drowning. No matter how hard she kicked, she only continued to drown. She couldn’t breathe. Her lungs began to burn. Her body soon began to tire. However, she refused to accept her fate. She kept swimming regardless of her despairing circumstances.

Just as she met the limit of her breath, the water surged upwards. She felt an invisible force carrying her upwards. In no time at all, she was brought to the surface, out of the water.

[Revenant activated]

[Experience lost -40% - Level Progression: 30%]

And Erin opened her eyes. She gasped but because of her burning lungs, no sound came out of her mouth. Her memories prior to her death gradually returned to her.

“That’s right… I killed myself to quicken my death. Strange… Why is it so dark? Could it be that my resurrection took longer than I anticipated? And...”

At the same time the breeze brushed past her and tickled her skin, she realized she was no longer under the influence of Lust Deviant and the brunt of overexerting herself was catching up to her. Her status was only; Mild Exhaustion.

“Fuck… is that the limit of Lust Deviant? I thought it would last longer. And...” Only now did Erin realize she was moving but she wasn’t moving on her own. She was still lying on the ground. Her senses were dull as she had just come back from her death. As her senses returned to her, she realized she was being dragged by her right leg. Her back grazing the tough and coarse ground. It was so coarse that she felt her skin was burning. And it wasn’t the sky that had darkened. She was in a cave without any source of light but that was nothing to her.

She mustered her slowly returning energy and tilted her head up. There were two Wights walking in front of her. One of them was grabbing her by her lower calf, dragging her. There was not the worst part. As the wind blew once again, she felt ticklish.

And then it made sense as to why her back hurt so much.

“Wait… am I naked?” she asked herself. Horror filled her eyes. In the hands of the Wights were her tools and apparels. They had apparently stripped her of her gear and equipment. She was, at present, without a single piece of clothing covering her body. Rage filled her heart and eyes then. “Fucking scums!” she roared.

The Wights immediately turned around but Erin had already summoned the strength to her body and she twisted her whole body. She went into a spin, releasing her leg from the Wight’s grasp. Since the Wight presumed Erin was dead, the grasp wasn’t strong. As she spun, Erin clad her tails with Arcane Armor and turned the Wight dragging her into pieces.

[Experience gained +10% - Level Progression: 40%]

The other Wight used her own weapon to attack her but it rammed into an ethereal shield. Before it could recover from its concussion, Erin conjured another Arcane Aegis from its back. She ended up sandwiching the Wight between two Arcane Aegises.

Erin let her gaze stay on the Wight as she checked on herself. The idea of these monsters doing something to her disgusted her to no end. Her face had contorted into a grimace that would even send shivers into the hearts of monsters. She made doubly sure that nothing was done to her, especially her womanhood. Women had a thing called hymen as a proof of their purity, or so she was told in her past life. However, that proof was fragile and could easily be torn from various simple activities. There were even some women who were born without such proof. But since Erin herself wasn’t even sure if she had a hymen in the first place, she didn’t think it would be a credible judge. However, she had her nose. If the monsters have done something to her, she would be able to tell by the smell.

Erin took a whiff of her fingers after touching her own cunt. She smelled nothing but her own sweat and bodily fluids. She finally released a sigh of relief but her furious gaze was still lingering on the Wight. She picked up her sheathed saber. Although the Wight was struggling, no hint of fear could be found in its expression. She drew her sword in a wide arc and sheathed it again. The Wight didn’t even know what happened and its head slid off its neck.

[Experience gained +10% - Level Progression: 50%]

Erin quickly put on her apparel and gears. “Ah… Fuck… fuck!” she cursed out loud. There was no damage to her weapons but the straps of her armor were torn and her undershirt was torn. That was to be expected since the Wights didn’t have enough intelligence for them to do any meticulous task such as taking apparel off without tearing it. Erin cursed out some more before wrapping her chest with some simple makeshift wrapping. Her pants were now mere shorts but it was still able to cover the important parts. Her appearance was now the embodiment of the insult, a naked warrior.

After she was dressed and her composure was regained, Erin surveyed her surroundings closely. Going by the foul air, she had no doubts she was still in The Singularity. Using her Spirit Sight, the density of miasma was even higher than what she felt on the outside. She concluded this cave most likely led to the dwelling of the Necromancer or this cave is the dwelling of the Necromancer. What she couldn’t figure out was why was she dragged into his cave?

“Wait… The Necromancer definitely knows of my Revenant skill since I was brought back to life after he had killed me with his thrall. Although... he does not know of the limits. He is under the assumption that I can not be killed through conventional means. So… either he intends to find a way to end me for good by bringing me to his dwelling or… he wishes to know more about my Revenant skill.”

Erin’s last words weren’t an impossibility. She had a skill that brought her back from the dead, a skill that governs life and death. It was something surely that would grasp the hearts of the scholars, a Necromancer no less.

Before she proceeded deeper, she took a step back and brought up her stats information screen. Though her memories in the past few hours were still cloudy, she didn’t forget the accumulated skill and ability points she had. She had sixteen in both. Now that she was deep within the enemy’s lines, she needed to be at the best she could. She didn’t ponder. She had long decided how she would spend them. For ability stats, she allocated six points in Finesse and Arcane, and two points into Might. She left her remaining four points alone for insurance.

[Might: 20 increased to 22]

[Arcane: 29 increased to 35]

[Finesse: 24 increased to 30]

For her skill points, she poured ten points into Lightning Magic, raising it all the way to its maximum level. Immediately, a flood of knowledge in the field of Lightning Magic surged into her mind.

[Lightning Magic: Lv 5 increased to Lv 10]

A laugh unconsciously leaked through her mouth. The spells she had received were nothing to scoff at. She felt strong. She felt that even the Razor Grizzly would not be her opponent now. She created a spark of lightning in her palm. She watched it dance aggressively in her palm without searing her skin, a symbol of her mastery over Lightning Magic.

For the remaining skill points, she poured it all into Toxin Resistance, raising it to level eight. Out of everything that had happened, her death by the colossal plant’s poison was still vivid in her mind. It was suffering, to say the least. She didn’t want a repeat of that.

[Toxin Resistance: Lv 3 increased to Lv 8]

“Good,” she told herself, cracking her knuckles and neck. “Now, time to move.”

“So you live...” A voice echoed through the tunnel Erin was in. The voice sounded close yet far away. “Interesting spell… No obvious repercussions. Bodily functions are all back to normal. No degradation of the soul… Truly an interesting spell...”

“Quit hiding. Come out and face me Ba’al, or hiding is your expertise? Should I call you a hiding-mancer then?” Erin taunted.

“I am not hiding… I have always been where I am… Just because no one could reach me… it does not mean that I am hiding… In fact… even if I tell you where I am… can you reach me?” the Necromancer said and chuckled eerily. “Well… can you?”

“I can,” Erin retorted firmly. “Just tell me— wait. You don’t need to say anything. I’ll find you myself.”

The Necromancer laughed. “Is this bravery or stupidity?”

“It’s anger, dumb fuck. Also, do you expect me to trust your directions?” Erin snorted. “Just because you’re someone who would fall for that kind of trickery, don’t think others will too.”

“Impudent!” the Necromancer raged, sending a tremor throughout the cave and shaking the tunnel. “Fine. Have it your way… It would be all the more… sweeter when you fall...”

“If you have anything else to say, do it now.”

“The Mist Pearls… you want them...” The Necromancer snickered. “However… if you fail to reach me in time… those will be no more...”

Erin sighed. “Sure. Anything else? These words may be your last, Bile.”

The Necromancer screamed at Erin for the insult before retreating his voice back to where he dwelled.

“Idiot,” Erin muttered. By communicating with her, it had only confirmed her suspicions that this cave was indeed the Necromancer’s dwelling. And the communication spell that he used had also revealed his approximate location to Erin. “You underestimated me.”

Following the trail of the communication spell, Erin arrived at a forked path, left or right. Erin didn’t stop her tracks and took the left tunnel. There were two reasons for her choice. The first and most obvious reason was that this path was where the trail was leading. Second, the air was fouler in this path.

The perfectly gentle path was slowly turning steep as Erin walked deeper. Soon, the path became so steep that one wrong step could make her slide all the way down. She clad her tails in Arcane Armor and used them to prevent herself from slipping. Since she was still a novice in using her tails, her pace was slowed. She was in a hurry but if she slipped now, she didn’t want to imagine the result. Although she had revenant, she had also understood the cost. It doubled for every death within twenty-four hours. If she died again, she would be losing eighty percent of her experience. She only had fifty percent now; an insufficient compensation. Remembering the description of Revenant, she shuddered to imagine the consequences considering the nasty personality of her patron Goddess, Nyx.

Erin had never feared death but now that she had no way of knowing what comes after her death this time, she was fearing death.

The steep path eventually came to an end, bringing her to another straight path that extended beyond what her eyes could see. Aside from the miasma and the odour, nothing of note could be found as she made her way through the cave. There weren’t even any guards. It was just empty paths. She became doubtful of the peaceful situation but then she thought about the dangers of The Singularity. The Necromancer probably did not take into account someone passing through The Singularity alive. Also, she was dragged into the cave while she was unconscious. She couldn’t appropriately judge just how deep she had actually ventured.

After walking for more than ten minutes, The path spread out before her in all directions. There were not just two but a total of twenty tunnels. Once again, Erin needed to choose a tunnel. Once again, Erin had no hesitation and walked down the northeast tunnel. Her path began to widen. A fouler smell drifted into her nose. She grimaced with her hand covering her nose. It wasn’t just the odour of miasma. It was the odour for something that had been rotting for a long time.

The path led Ern into a vast room of darkness but with her Night Vision, she could see the contents of the room clearly.

“What the… fuck?” she muttered. What was before her sight were hundreds of egg-like objects scattered all over the room. Half of these objects were burst open as if something had come out of it. As Erin took a closer look at one of the burst objects, she found a few rods and some tubes that transported some sort of fluid.

“These rods…” Erin picked one of the familiar-looking rods to inspect with her Appraisal. “Magic Relays...” she gasped when the result was displayed.

“This place… this is where the monsters were converted into thralls… I should destroy this place.”

As soon as that thought crossed her mind, her Sixth Sense went off. Erin immediately covered herself with Arcane Armor on her head and chest and cast Arcane Aegis in the direction of where she sensed the threat coming from. Javelins of darkness smashed against the Aegis and broke through on the fourth javelin, but Erin had already moved from that spot.

“Unbelievable...” said her assailant. It was the Lich from before.

“Meet again so soon?” Erin responded with a nonchalant smirk.

“How did you manage…?” the Lich asked. Though it asked with its voice, the words were the Necromancer’s.

“You left a trail, idiot.”

“Preposterous! I left no such trail.”

Erin raised an eyebrow as she activated Spirit Sight again. The trail of the miasma was as blatant as ever. “I’m seeing the trail quite clearly though.”

“Impossible… you could not be higher than level thirty. Yet… you see through all...”

“Perhaps you’re not as good as you think you are!”

“Silence! Don’t patronize me! I am a chosen of the gods… You are nothing before me...”

“A chosen of the gods… You’re an Apostle?”

“I am,” the Necromancer answered. “I have heard the voice of the divines… I had been a mere mindless beast but through the graces of the gods… I have become more than what you humans, Beast-kin, Faerie-kin can possibly imagine.”

“What a coincidence...” Erin muttered dryly but her stance uttered a different tone.

“Coincidence—? Ah, I see. So that’s why… You’re a chosen one too. Of course… how else could you be so… unexpected? Perhaps this is fate.”

Erin groaned. “Spare me the tale and speech. Chosen or not, I am going to kill you.”

The Lich laughed. “You are in my domain… Your god will not be able to help you here.”

As Erin was preparing to throw an Aura Shot, her Sixth Sense went off again. She immediately leaped from where she stood and something fell with a huge force that created a small crater on the ground.

“A Wight— no. This feels too strong to be a Wight.”

As the dust settled from the exaggerated entrance, an imposing suit of armor stood in the small crater. Tendrils of darkness were wrapping around the armor suit like it was holding all of it together. Within the armor, smoke and flames were exuded constantly from the visor. In its hand was a huge greatsword. As the armor suit straightened its posture, it stood around the height of three meters.

“You think the Razor Grizzly was my strongest thrall?” The Lich guffawed with a strange glee. “This Ashen Knight of mine before you is my strongest thrall!” Its claims echoed out into the vast room.

Erin gave no retorts. She didn’t need to be told to know the strength of the Ashen Knight. It was level thirty but the threat it oozed off was more than what she felt from the Razor Grizzly. Her level was higher than before but in the face of this Ashen Knight, she felt that the gap was once again widened. Even now, her Sixth Sense was going like a clocktower stuck perpetually on the stroke of midnight.

Erinthea - Faerie-kin: Five-Tailed Fox-kin

Level: 27 | Status: Mild Exhaustion

Might: 22 | Arcane: 35 | Finesse: 30

Magic Arts

Spirit Magic Lv. 8 | Arcane Edge Lv. 5 | Arcane Armor Lv. 10 | Lightning Magic Lv. 10 | Arcane Aegis Lv. 3 | Mystic Tail Arts Lv 1

Combat Arts

Sword Art Lv. 7 | Fleet Foot Lv. 5 | Brawler Lv. 5

Innate Skills

Appraisal Lv. Ex | Night Vision Lv. Ex | Sixth Sense Lv. Ex | Toxin Resistance Lv. 8 | Lust Deviant Lv. Ex | Mana Harvest Lv. 1 | Lightning Resistance Lv. 1

Unique Talent

Mystic Blade Lv. Ex | Revenant Lv. Ex

Level Progression: 50%

Remaining Skill Points: 0

Remaining Ability Points: 4