Percival sat on the floor, his back rested on the massive, heaving flank of the dead Great Merbeast.
The battle had been brief. After a series of quick combo Swordsman Skills, he ended the boss by combining ⸢Sword Projection⸥ and ⸢Soulfire⸥, creating a giant projection of a blazing blue sword that skewered right through the Merbeast's skull.
Percival exhaled, watching his breath mist in the humid air. A golden light bathed him, signaling the end of the raid and the accumulation of his efforts.
He glanced down at the floating interface.
⸢Gate World cleared successfully!⸥
⸢The sunken kingdom has been given a fitting end. To die is better than to live as monsters.⸥
⸢Rewards: +4000 EXP⸥
⸢+3 Skill Points⸥
⸢+ 600 Mana Coins⸥
⸢Congratulations, you have leveled up!⸥
⸢Lvl 15 → Lvl 16⸥
⸢+160 Mana⸥
⸢+120 Attack⸥
⸢+70 Defense⸥
⸢+50 Health⸥
⸢All Attributes increased by +25⸥
⸢Rewards: +3 Skill Points⸥
⸢+350 EXP⸥
⸢+2 Summon Space⸥
⸢+500 Mana Coins⸥
He dismissed the notification with a thought, his eyes flicking to his Experience bar. With the 4000 EXP he just earned, he was already dangerously close to the next threshold.
Killing a few beasts would certainly get him to Level 17.
Interacting with the Merbeast, he discovered some valuable loot.
⸢Iron gold (×10)⸥
⸢Magic Herb (×7)⸥
⸢Merbeast Fang (×4)⸥
⸢Thick Merbeast Scales (x5)⸥
⸢Armored Claws (x2)⸥
⸢Beast Core (C-Grade)⸥
⸢500 Mana Coins⸥
⸢6 Health Potions⸥
⸢2 Elixirs⸥
⸢Goldscales Wrought Armor - B-Grade⸥
⸢Rusted Wielding Anchors - B-Grade⸥
⸢Goldscales Wrought Gauntlets - C-Grade⸥
Percival swept the loot into his inventory and rose off the carcass, his boots splashing into the shallow water.
Because this was a Grinding Gate and not a newly opened one, the unique Aspect as well as the main artifact were gone—claimed by the first clearer long ago.
With no further rewards to collect, Percival sheathed his sword and turned to face his legion.
They stood at attention—a ragged assembly of bones. He spotted the Bandit brothers, wearing their weak leather armor, then the guards he resurrected from the Kingdom of Thorns.
Even though they had better steel armor, it still wasn't good enough to keep up with the coming battles. Their weapons were even worse.
"You need better equipment," Percival stated flatly.
The empty sockets of sixteen skeletons stared back at him.
As Percival already knew, he couldn't level up his Skeleton Soldiers—that privilege was reserved for Soul Soldiers—but he could fortify them.
It was a mechanic unique to the Necromancer Class that he had discovered earlier.
When a beast or a person died, they dropped physical loot. But they also possessed an "undead echo" of their equipment.
If Percival chose to raise the corpse, the skeleton would rise wearing that gear.
However, if he chose not to raise the corpse and avoided exploiting it with his other Skills like ⸢Corpse Explosion⸥ or ⸢Soul Draught⸥, he could harvest that spectral equipment into his Undead Inventory.
The gear in this Inventory could then be used to equip his existing minions.
This was a C-Rank Gate World, and that meant the equipment here was fairly superior to the D-Rank scraps from the Kingdom of Thorns.
Earlier in the dungeon, they had slaughtered a patrol of Merman Warriors. Percival didn't use ⸢Soul Draught⸥ on all their corpses and he also couldn't raise them because Dungeon beasts were classified as Soul Soldiers since they contain specters of mana.
But that meant he could harvest their gear, and he had done just that. Now, the equipment was sitting in his inventory, waiting to be used.
He opened the interface.
⸢Undead Inventory⸥
⸢Merman Warrior Armor Set (x13)⸥
⸢Merman Warrior Water Sword (x20)⸥
⸢Sea Bow and Arrow (x10)⸥
He looked at his army. Presently, he had 17 Skeleton Soldiers: 12 Skirmishers, 4 Rangers, and Argus, the Skeleton Beast.
Since Argus was only a mount and not a beast of battle, Percival didn't need to worry about him for now.
He focused on his main army.
He didn't have enough armor to equip all sixteen Skeletons, but the Skirmishers took the brunt of the damage and therefore needed the upgrade first.
He selected the armor.
⸢Merman Warrior Armor Set - C Grade⸥
⸢Property: Simple Gold Metal⸥
⸢Aspect: Extra durability and Constitution⸥
⸢Defence: +7⸥
He highlighted 13 Skeleton Soldiers; the 12 Skirmishers and a single Ranger.
⸢Equip 13 Skeleton Soldiers with Merman Warrior Armor Set?⸥
"Yes."
With a sound of a blazing fire, the rusted iron and rotting leather clinging to his Skirmishers dissolved into wisps of dark blue smoke and drifted away.
In its place, blue fire erupted around their ribs and limbs.
It solidified, hardening into reality and forming plates of burnished gold metal, scaled like the creatures of this deep, and formed over their bones.
Pauldrons shaped like fins snapped onto their shoulders, and greaves encased their leg bones. Even the lone Ranger he had included in the selection received the golden armor.
⸢Armor Set has been equipped⸥
⸢Defense stats of equipped Skeleton Soldiers increased by +7⸥
"Now for weapons," Percival muttered.
He selected the Merman Warrior Water Sword for the Skirmishers and the Sea Bow and Arrow for the Rangers.
Again, the blue fire came and blazed away the chipped axes and dull swords into Percival's Undead Inventory.
They were replaced with serrated blades formed from sharpened water and bows made of flexible, hardened coral.
⸢Weapon Sets have been equipped⸥
⸢Attack stats of equipped Skeleton Soldiers increased by +7⸥
Percival turned to his Soldiers. They resembled royal fish-guards, but at least, they looked less like a band of risen brigands and more like a legion of fierce bone warriors.
He turned back to the massive corpse of the Great Merbeast, then he used ⸢Soul Draught⸥ to drain all the soul energy and revitalize his legion.
Satisfied, he stepped toward the exit portal. "Let's go."
The second run of Depths of the Drowned was a massacre.
With his Soldiers now upgraded, Percival barely had to unsheathe his sword.
When the Trench Stalkers leaped from the pools in the Gallant Gate, the bonemen clashed with a fearless desire to fight and kill.
Percival's training, combined with their new equipment, was enough to give them a slight edge over the Stalkers. Especially with their numbers.
The Skirmishers carved through the Stalkers' wet flesh easier than before. The +7 Attack bonus meant that enemies who previously took four hits to kill now fell in two.
The Rangers maintained the backline perfectly.
The Sea Bows had a higher draw weight and velocity. And with every shot, the arrows whistled faster through the humid air, piercing the thick hides of the Coral Knights before they could even close the distance.
Percival intervened at times, taking care of the Atlantic Sorcerers and the Hounds.
But for the most part, he walked behind his formation like a general inspecting a drill.
'The increase in their efficiency is undeniable,' he noted, watching a Skirmisher parry a trident strike and riposte cleanly through the enemy's neck.
'I was worried that not being able to level up my Skeletons would be an issue. But if I can teach them more battle techniques and keep upgrading their equipment, they can actually be a force.'
This didn't mean he had lost sight of his present primary goal: Unlocking the Summon Soul Soldier Skill.
And just before they entered the Fortress of Fins, he received the notification.
⸢Congratulations, you have leveled up!⸥
⸢Lvl 16 → Lvl 17⸥
⸢+120 Mana⸥
⸢+10 Attack⸥
⸢+50 Defense⸥
⸢+50 Health⸥
⸢All Attributes increased by +20⸥
⸢Rewards: +2 Skill Points⸥
⸢+400 EXP⸥
⸢+2 Summon Space⸥
⸢+500 Mana Coins⸥
Now three levels away from his goal, Percival pressed on. They encountered another group of Merman Warriors (Lvl.28), and after their execution, he quickly stripped the undead gear from their corpses.
He equipped the remaining three unarmored Rangers and stored the rest. Now, his entire infantry was clad in burning gold.
They breached the Throne of the Deep for the second time.
The Great Merbeast rose again, screaming its tragic history of evolution and suffering.
"MY PEOPLE WERE SUBMERGED INTO THE WA—"
Percival didn't wait for the monologue. He launched into an assault, using the Skills of both of his Classes.
The Skeletons battled the swarm of beasts, and this time, their armor was durable enough to tank the Merbeast's area-of-effect splashes as it battled with Percival.
But like before, the battle was very brief.
Percival cut down the boss's health to critical, then finished it off by detonating the corpses of the beasts his Skeletons had slain.
⸢Corpse Explosion⸥
Multiple blasts filled the chamber, felling the Merbeast and wiping out the remaining Stalkers, Coral Knights and Leviathan Hounds.
Ding!
⸢Gate World cleared successfully!⸥
⸢Rewards: +2200 EXP⸥
⸢+2 Skill Points⸥
⸢+200 Mana Coins⸥
He watched the EXP race down his level bar, managing to fill it up right when it almost ran out.
⸢Experience: 50,000/50,000⸥
⸢Experience: 50,002/67,499⸥
⸢Congratulations, you have leveled up!⸥
⸢Lvl 17 → Lvl 18⸥
⸢+120 Mana⸥
⸢+120 Attack⸥
⸢+60 Defense⸥
⸢+60 Health⸥
⸢All Attributes increased by +3⸥
⸢Rewards: +2 Skill Points⸥
⸢+350 EXP⸥
⸢+2 Summon Space⸥
⸢+300 Mana Coins⸥
Percival felt his Necromancer Soul Core expand, a well of dark power filling up with more death mana.
He was getting stronger. And more importantly, he was only two levels away from Level 20.