Bro, I'm not an Undead!

Skullius stood from the waist high waters and breathed out a sigh of relief.

“Well done. Took you quite some time but well done,” Fore said with a slow clap of his hands. “Some starter Tasks you’re getting.”

Skullius gave Fore the stink eye before walking out of the river.

He had just cleared a white Cluster on his own, a second Conqueror’s Halo appearing above the last one which looked brighter than this one.

Convincing the group to let him enter the Cluster alone had been a very big hassle. They had refused, all except Stylla of course who merely watched the three bicker, Fore and Bron claiming that even if he relied on that ridiculous flame attack, it was bound to cost a large amount of mana.

They were right.

Skullius had finally decided to tell them that it was a Task from the Deity Quintess, by far the most popular Deity he had heard of.

This had made his life much easier as the group had finally unanimously agreed to let him enter the Cluster under the condition that he would exit if things got hairy.

Skullius had to battle the sense of camaraderie that kept welling up from within him but he suppressed it with the thought that these guys were probably only alive because they were not actually concerned about Skullius in terms of his benefit, but for their own sakes.

The Cluster they had found was a few meters into a wide river and Skullius had had quite an interesting experience within it.

First of all, he had taken every Enriching gem he had come across before he faced hundreds of bee-like creatures that flew in the air at high speed. These large bee-like creatures would spread out a certain gas which would be harmful to the body when inhaled._.

The gas had caused Skullius insides to swell but he obviously didn’t suffer from anything else, his Crystalline Hold being able to tank attacks from the monsters.

The bee-like creatures had then stormed towards him with the sharp and pointy stingers at their backs.

Frankly, defeating these creatures wasn’t too hard even as they fought alongside their Cluster General, a giant hairy brown and black creature with a scary presence.

[Revenant Flames of Ecstasy] had dealt with it though, as when Skullius torched the creatures, all of them died, save for five that turned into his burning thralls, aiding him in the fight against the general.

After avoiding being skewered by the Cluster General and finishing it off with [Manassault], Skullius had completed the Fourth Task, and ascended another level in the Foundation Stage.

‘I should really spend my experience. I’ve accumulated quite a lot of it. But should I still save some for my potential next Apostle? Hmm… I wonder….’ Skullius thought as he looked at Fore with an intrigued glint. ‘What would happen if I… got a human Apostle? Would I get a good bro from him?’

For a moment, Skullius considered this but he quickly tore his mind away from it. If he killed Fore, he would probably be hunted down by the others.

Besides, could he even kill the bastard?

“Alright then, let’s meet up with the others. We’ll clear a few other Clusters before taking on the tough one. After a proper rest of course,” said Fore as he sat atop the horse, patting at the space he had left for Skullius behind him.

The Discount Human grumbled.

He felt it better to be behind Stylla. It was strangely… soothing.

Nevertheless, he jumped on the horse and the two rode ahead.

They had split up from the others as Stylla and Bron had already cleared two white Clusters that were nearby while waiting for Skullius.

The four then met back up and began their clearing spree which saw them wiping out the existences within six white Clusters.

Each clear didn’t take much time, but the travelling from one spot to another was what caused them to lose a great deal of sunlight.

He also managed to finish his Fifth and Sixth which were at dealing with large numbers of monsters as well as obtaining unique resources from Cluster beasts, which wasn’t all that hard.

In addition to this, Skullius managed to fill up his Null Life Essence bar.

6000 Null Life Essence points!

There was also quite a bit of experience and with this much of the two resources, Skullius resolved himself to an additional plan after he was done partying up with the three for the day.

Skullius had seen quite a bit of special equipment in his time in Aigas.

The rarest items he had seen so far were undoubtedly the All Eater scroll and the ArchLight Generation Keeper. The former was legendary and the latter was rare+, meaning it was just shy of the legendary status. He wagered that whatever was in the chest he had found in the Labyrinth of the Yoke was also bound to be legendary too.

That was if he was ever able to open it.

This was in terms of Aigas standards though, as Null Life standards were higher than this.

This thought reminded him of the work that needed to be done.

He had to get more familiar with [Evil Darkness] and [Just Light], especially the latter because he didn’t have much of an appreciation of it and the answer to this was naturally… the Fruit of World Myths!

But then again…

‘Maybe with this amount of Null Life Essence points, I can probably get something legendary from Serenity!’ Skullius thought.

The dichotomy between Null Life and the powers of the Insurgent Magnus made him both excited and frustrated as he was torn over which to start with.

For now, he would put those thoughts aside.

The party rode the vast stretches of lands, passing many settlements in the region until they reached their destination.

The final Cluster to be cleared for the day.

This one, was different.

A white-blue Cluster.

A large tear in space that was almost too straight to call natural, stood before the four.

It rose up to five meters into the air, having not a single colour but two, a prevalent white with smoky trails of blue that swirled within the gap in a turquoise hue.

The pressure released from the Cluster was more intense than the others, causing Skullius to feel both excited and frightened…

As he focused on it, he realised that what gave him a sense of dread was not the whole Cluster but the swirls of blue.

They made this experience different from the other ones.

“I hope you’re all well rested. We had a good long journey to get here and I trust we’re all at our peak,” said Stylla.

Everyone nodded.

Skullius had recovered all his mana and after downing a few water skins he was feeling great, along with the new stats he had acquired with his arrival into level 6.

Bron then turned to Skullius, this time with concern.

“The experience inside will be different from what you’re used to. Do you still want no help?”

“Yes,” Skullius answered succinctly.

This time, Stylla who had picked up on the fact that Skullius was trying to complete Tasks before, turned to the Discount Human and questioned.

“You claimed that clearing a Cluster alone was the Task you had. So, tell me. Is fighting without help another Task? And if that’s the case, then how did you have two Tasks at the same time? Isn’t it supposed to have been completed already?”

Stylla wasn’t the type to invade the privacy of her party members, but this was seriously starting to annoy her.

Was there something else involved?

“That’s not something you should be worried about. I don’t need to explain it to you, do I? We’re not permanent partners,” Skullius said coldly.

He had made an effort to keep himself from falling down the rabid hole of camaraderie and he would continue to do so by being distant.

Fore and Bron gave him displeased looks but he ignored.

Stylla turned away with a shake of her head and unsheathed her sword.

“Let’s go in.”

Skullius sighed. At least this was his last hunt with these guys and he would be free.

Besides, he didn’t have time to worry about these guys’ feelings as he had received a rather problematic Seventh Task.

There was a major change in the Tasks. While they had been unspecific before, being general and loosely related to Clusters, this one was strangely related to him and his power.

~~~

Exp : 32000/32000

Fifth Task : Invade the mind of a Cluster General

….