“Roar!”
The Goblin King let out a series of roars, raising its spiked bone club high as flames erupted from its entire body like an exploding volcano.
Glaring fiercely at the incoming rock spear, flames enveloped its body and wrapped tightly around the spiked bone club held high in its hand. Then, it brought the club down with full force, slamming it right into the Storm Torrential Spear.
The moment they collided, the ground beneath the Goblin King's feet shattered instantly. The violent impact tore open the webbing between its thumbs and forefingers as it clung onto the spiked bone club.
“Roar!”
Enduring the searing pain, the Goblin King held the spiked club firm with everything it had.
However, an ominous crack rang out from the spiked club in its hands. The tip of the rock spear ground into a fracture on the club. Tearing, spinning, impacting. Unable to withstand the pressure any longer, the spiked club snapped in two, its upper half flying into the air.
With nothing left to block it, the rock spear pierced straight through the Goblin King's curtain of fire, tearing through its shoulder.
Seizing the opening, Number Zero commanded all the Mage Golems to raise their wands from afar.
Tier 2 Magic, Water Prison.
Blue magic circles snapped open in unison, aiming directly at the fallen Goblin King. Water gathered in the air like tentacles, sweeping toward the monster.
“Roar! Roar!”
The Goblin King bellowed, frantically clawing at the water wrapping around it. Brandishing the remaining half of its spiked club, it spat threatening roars through the pain, struggling as it retreated, desperate to escape.
How could Li Xiuman possibly let such prime prey get away? He immediately charged toward the Goblin King.
Seeing Li Xiuman rushing forward, the Goblin King frantically hurled Fireballs at him.
Li Xiuman tightened his grip on his skeleton sword. Water enveloped the blade as he effortlessly sliced through the Fireballs and thrust forward at the Goblin King.
The Goblin King raised its arm with a violent snarl, bringing the broken spiked club down hard.
“Tier 1 Magic, Rock Shield!”
Li Xiuman quickly raised his left arm, instantly manifesting a shield of rock. The impact shattered the shield, but successfully deflected the blow.
Capitalizing on the momentum, he swung his right arm and thrust his Rib Sword forward. The blade plunged into the Goblin King's chest. Infused with the Power of Death, the surge sent a violent shudder through the Goblin King's body.
It could feel an exceptionally ominous aura flooding into its system, causing its strength to rapidly wane. Blood poured steadily from the pierced wound, refusing to clot or heal.
“Roar!”
It bellowed in terror. With its left arm rendered completely useless from the pierced shoulder, it was forced to swing wildly with its right arm, unleashing strike after strike.
Li Xiuman effortlessly parried blow after blow, closing the distance while continuously driving his bone sword into the target. Wounds multiplied across its body as its aura grew weaker and weaker. All around them, the golems relentlessly cast water magic, covering its body with streams of water, aiming to enclose it completely.
“It's over, Goblin King.”
Parrying another weak blow from the monster, Li Xiuman closed in, raising his other hand—which held his wand—and pressing it directly against the Goblin King's chest.
The Goblin King swung its club with all its remaining strength, attempting to knock Li Xiuman away. Li Xiuman raised his sword hand, deploying Death Shield around his body.
“Tier 2 Magic, Water Prison.”
As a blue magic circle opened at the tip of the wand pressed against the Goblin King's chest, violent currents of water condensed into existence. Like thrashing water snakes, they coiled around the Goblin King layer upon layer.
The Goblin King clawed frantically at the liquid, but its efforts were entirely in vain. Every golem cast water magic in unison, feeding even more currents into the thrasher water snakes, wrapping and engulfing the Goblin King's entire body until the water completely encased it inside a giant sphere, slowly lifting it into the air.
The Goblin King continued to struggle, bubbles continuously spewing from its mouth. Li Xiuman raised his wand once more, aiming it right at the monster—one low, one high; one still, one moving; one inside, one outside. The Goblin King stared with wide eyes, looking at the skeleton distorted through the refraction of the water. The soul fire within Li Xiuman's eye sockets flickered as he quietly watched the struggling Goblin King. And then...
“Tier 2 Magic, Intense Water Burst.”
A blue magic circle expanded at the tip of his wand.
Boom!
The water imploded violently inward. The Goblin King opened its mouth and coughed up a huge spray of blood as its struggles visibly weakened.
“Tier 2 Magic, Intense Water Burst.”
The blue magic circle opened once more, and the sphere of water imploded again, sending violent ripples across its surface.
“Tier 2 Magic.”
“Intense Water Burst.”
This time, the Goblin King could no longer hold on. Blood dyed the entire sphere crimson as its life faded away.
[Ding! Goblin King (Lv. 30) killed. EXP +5,500 + 550.]
[Killed Unique Variant (Blue). Obtained Blue Chest.]
Li Xiuman slowly lowered his wand. As the wand came down, the floating sphere of water seemed to lose its support, crashing to the ground with a splash alongside the corpse within. Crimson-tinted water splattered onto Li Xiuman's robes.
Unbothered, Li Xiuman walked over to the Goblin King's corpse with his wand in hand.
Splish, splash.
His steps made squelching sounds as he walked through the bloody water.
“Tier 2 Magic, Special Individual Reanimation.”
Li Xiuman pointed his wand down at the Goblin King's body. A pitch-black magic circle expanded, but the Goblin King's corpse remained completely motionless.
“Did it exceed my reanimation tier?”
Li Xiuman pulled out a dagger and dug out the magic stone from inside the Goblin King's chest. The orange-red magic stone resembled a heart, its size already surpassing the one he got from the fire lizardman king back then.
“Tier 2 Magic, Special Individual Reanimation.”
Li Xiuman aimed his wand at the Goblin King once again. Beneath the pitch-black magic circle, his mana drained rapidly. Only after consuming about a third of his total mana did the Goblin King finally show signs of life, staggering to its feet.
Its body hadn't completely rotted away; instead, its skin had simply turned from bright red to a dark, muted crimson. Does higher-level individual reanimation prevent the rotting effect on the body?
“Looks like removing its magic stone brought its strength down just enough to hit the upper limit of my reanimation ability. Saved myself a magic stone. Not bad.”
Li Xiuman looked at the Goblin King and sighed with satisfaction.
“Wait a minute, what's this?”
Li Xiuman noticed an additional special status in the Goblin King's status window.
[Status] Rot, Power of Death (Blessed by the Power of Death: Physical abilities enhanced, magic effects enhanced)
“Power of Death?”
“Wait... Could it be?!”
Li Xiuman looked down at the Sword of Death in his hand.
Could stabbing the Goblin King with his bone sword during battle have blessed it with the Power of Death status post-mortem? That meant his reanimated zombie Goblin King was actually stronger because of it!
In that case...
What on earth had he been missing out on all this time?!
Looking at the carpet of zombie goblins littering the ground, Li Xiuman felt a deep pang of regret. As for why he was only realizing this now...
Honestly, it was a bit embarrassing to admit. Since entering the dungeon, he hadn't personally fought at all, except for that initial encounter with the three "brilliant" thieves. When the mood struck, casting a spell or two from afar was about as far as he went.
As for pulling out his Rib Sword to engage in hand-to-hand combat... sure, the Rib Sword provided an EXP boost. But when killing low-tier monsters, Li Xiuman couldn't be bothered with such petty scraps—it was just exhausting. He much preferred sitting back and watching his zombie army fight. Taking the time to stab every single monster with his Rib Sword just for an EXP boost was time better spent grinding somewhere else. Besides, watching his zombie army fight gave him the simple joy of watching crickets clash.
Rate on N.U.
