Chapter 6: The Issue At Hand

Atlas quickly moved to check the power rankings, even though he hadn't gone to meet them nor had he seen their forms he had seen there Mana signature which was enough for the system to give a level.

If the system gave a level then it would recognize it as well as its threat if it wasn't a level 0, on the rankings list Atlas was still on the 5th spot while 2 new names were listed on the list instead of unknown.

Atlas widened his eyes in shock, he recognized these names. They were midnight and Liam, the two he wanted revenge on the most.

Atlas's mind went wild with thoughts going all over, these two were paragons he had seen it himself so he knew of this, why did they have a system? They recieved it a day before he did so they had it when they killed him.

If midnight used mind control when she had the system then that meant he was at a disadvantage, not only did they have Magic and Mana but their chaos abilities as well.

Atlas was snapped out of his thoughts by a notification from the system.

[Conditions Satisfied]

[1x Tome Of Magic Obtained]

[1x Tome Of Dark Arts(10 Levels) Obtained]

[1x Tome Of Choice(3rd Realm) Obtained]

He didn't know what conditions he satisfied but he wasn't complaining about this boost in power.

The tome of choice allowed him to choose any spell he wanted from a specific realm of power, this one was of the 3rd realm.

Realms went from 1st to 15th with the higher the number the stronger the spell. The tome of magic allowed him to choose any Stat to upgrade by 10. He could even distribute it to 2 stats if he wanted but no more than that.

The tome of dark arts allowed him to raise the level of his Summons including his ethereal by a certain amount of levels.

Currently Ajax was level 1 and Atlas himself was level 12, using this tome could raise Ajax to level 11 but no higher.

This was good as it wouldn't go beyond Atlas's Current level meaning it can't go beyond 12. It won't be wasted this way.

Atlas thought quickly and gave the level to Ajax, closing the level gap between them before using the tome of magic to add 5 more onto his Necromancy and Magic stats.

Using the tome of choice he selected the create Undead spell which allowed him to create an Undead from nothing which costed Mana instead of a corpse and soul.

He chanted the spell "create undead" and a blue glow surrounded his hands as the spell started to take effect.

A list appeared in front of Atlas with each of the options for him to choose from.

[Please Select An Option]

[Skeleton Archer]

[Skeleton Rogue]

[Beholder]

[Skeleton Knight]

He chose the Beholder by mentally willing it and a giant eye with tentacles flowing below it appeared in front of him.

[Mana 200>150]

Sending the beholder up into the air it activated invisibility as Atlas smiled, now he would hear everything they were talking about.

Linking his sight with the beholder allowed him to view others positions from a distance and allowed for hearing from a distance as well. This also allowed him to listen in on what the two were talking about.

"The last time it appeared it was around here," Liam spoke looking around the nearby forest. "The system couldn't be wrong so why can't it detect another of its own kind." Midnight wondered aloud.

Atlas Continued looking down on the two but as they continued talking, they said some things that made him wonder what they meant.

"Something isn't adding up here" Liam stated putting his hand to his chin, " we completed the quest to kill Atlas though because they stole the chip we had to kill all of them."

Liam continued saying "after it said something about conditions being met for, what was it again?" "The 5th system for the final class." Midnight responded

"Right, each of us had some weird quest to do before we gained full access to this system and it's information. Do you think Atlas could be alive somewhere with this system?" Liam asked looking towards Midnight.

"If you're asking what I think then I think the answer is quite obvious, the Necromancer class can raise the dead and in some cases like liches they, the necromancers themselves, were dead." Liam looked towards the center of the clearing they were in as midnight continued.

"With the power this system has it makes sense for it to be able to defy the natural order of things, especially if a necromancer in our world is possible."

"so what you're thinking is Atlas became an Undead himself and was the one to recieve the system." Liam concluded "but then why didn't he wake up as an Undead immediately after dying with the system?"

"It wouldn't make sense for that to happen as we'd just kill him straight away again wouldn't we? Otherwise he'd want revenge against us from before, not like he can do anything." Midnight countered.

"Also, we don't know if he would be undead. It was never a race in the game to begin with so it isn't a sure thing."

"Aernt Undead immune to mind control? Then you're abilities are useless, without that system he'd kill you quite easily." Liam chuckled, completely ignoring her previous statement.

Undead were immune to debuffs in the game, mind control was considered a debuff, because of this Undead were immune to mind control so now Atlas was immune to her chaos abilities.

"Well, let's keep looking. If it is him then he no doubt wants revenge, we'd need to kill him again as soon as possible." Liam stated as his gaze narrowed.

They started moving again in Atlas's direction, cutting off his connection to the Beholder and giving it orders to monitor the two of them and find the others with the system.

The Beholder flew off to follow at a distance since if they had the Mana detection skill they could detect the Beholder through its Mana signature.

Liam had the Paladin class while Midnight was the Rogue class essentially making her an Assassin. Together they were a threat Atlas couldn't beat and how they talked made him presume that all 4 were working together.

It would be a big coincidence if the system chose all of Liams group but one, if that was the case was it a test by the system? They said they got a quest to kill him from it so the system had wanted him dead before resurrecting him.

There were still too many questions left unanswered, too many loose ends for Atlas to feel comfortable.

Moving back towards Ajax who sat on a rock waiting for him to finish, Atlas motioned for Ajax to follow.

Soon enough, they were walking through the forest looking for deviants to kill for some much needed exp.

They had left the outskirts of the forest and had made it to where the core was, it was surprising that he hadn't encountered any deviants in awhile even though he was in the core of the forest.

In this part of the forest there were mostly C-ranked deviants with a few B-ranks though they were exceedingly rare.

"Ajax, go and bring me 8 deviants." Atlas commanded shifting his gaze to look toward Ajax.

"As you command" He stated before running off into the forest, it took a surprisingly long time or Ajax to gather all 8. It took around 2 hours.

Atlas wondered why it took so long but it seemed like the deviants in the forest were slowly making there way to a single point in the forest as said by Ajax.

"That might be the deviant that was said to he controlling other deviants," Atlas stated before turning to Ajax and asked "what did the gathering deviants look like?"

"They were mostly a type of creature that had a reptilian body with sharp teeth, however there were some others that had human type build but looked more like a Cactus without the spikes." Ajax replied.

It was what Atlas feared, "there should've been one that stood out as if it was the leader of the group, what did that look like?"

"It looked like it had a boars tusks but an elephants body." Ajax replied after thinking for a moment.

This was bad, it was a B-rank deviant called a mammoth for its mammoth-like appearance.

This deviant wasn't known to have any controlling abilities, this meant this deviant had evolved to gain more abilities. If it had another that Atlas didn't know of then it could easily be A-rank.

With his current abilities he could take a C-rank on at the maximum. A B-rank on the verge of A-rank would be faster and stronger than him, it could end the fight at any time it wished.

They had to get out of the forest and fast, it was going to turn into a war zone soon. With how many deviants it had gathered the mammoth could take on the small town he lived in and destroy it.

By the sounds of it the deviant had mostly Fleshrippers with a few Spectrals, Spectral were those Humanoid Cactus.

Atlas had no idea why it was waiting, all he knew was he had to leave and fast. Taking his hand to the forehead of each deviant he commanded "obey" and the three eyed, four armed, humanoids rose from the ground.

They were all at level 10, or C-rank capable of taking a 1 on 1 fight with Ajax who as a Defender has not only high defense but also Tank skills like taunts and high physical damage as well.

With only 2 hands he could summon 2 at a time and had to cast 4 spells.

[Mana 150>110]

[8/8 Slots Filled]

Looking towards his small army of undead creatures Atlas tried to think of where to go to next after he left the forest knowing he couldn't stay there.

Quickly, his beholder sent him a mental signal. This was a warning from the beholder, it warned him of the approaching danger.

Atlas dodged to the right as a Dagger flew by where his head had just been and digging itself deep into the dirt.

He recognized it as the starter Rogue Dagger that the rogue class got at the very start of the game.

"Shit they're here already?" Alas thought as his presence detection went off showing something running towards him at high speeds.

Atlas couldn't Dodge even after the warning, whatever was coming was simply too quick. Luckily, Ajax got in-between his liege and the attacker using his spiked Mace to swat them away.

However, the figure that went flying disappeared midair after taking damage. Atlas realized the skill was decoy, it launched a perfect replica of oneself at a Weaker level. It was a basic skill every Rogue knew.

But if it was a rogue then that would mean Liam and Midnight found him. All he could do now was to try and survive their attacks.