Death knight

At the first floor of Gilbert Library, Aren, who was holding the recommendation letter came before a library attendant.

"I wish to become a member." he said, showing his adventurer card.

"Sir, do you have a recommendation letter?" the attendant asked, having a professional smile on her small face.

Hearing that, Aren pushed the recommendation letter which was written by William towards her.

"Here."

The attendant swiftly picked up the envelope from her desk, took off its seal and started reading the letter. When she read the last sentence a look of suprise flashed across her face. Then, she observed Aren again, this time with a strange expression. It didn't take her long to recover and put on the same smile, though.

"This is Sir William's recommendation letter so you can directly become a Yellow card member. Please wait a moment as I issue your membership." the attendant said, this time a little respectfully. He also noticed how she addressed William with 'sir' before his name.

It looks like this William guy is quite influential.

"Yellow card?"

"Oh, I'm sorry. Let me explain it to you. In our library, members are divided into four different classes; Red, Yellow, Green and White. Red card members can access books upto second floor, Yellow card upto third, Green card members upto fourth and only the esteemed White card members can enter the top floor. Sir William is a green card member so you can directly get your yellow card."

"Oh so how does one get higher card then?" Aren found this systematic card system very interesting.

"To get a higher level of card, you'd have to be recommended or do services for the library, donate money, etc."

After getting his card, he was not in a hurry to go to the higher floors. He first checked around the first floor and then second and third ones.

Four hours later, he exited the library. Now he wasn't as clueless as before and knew a little more than what the common folks knew. He had pretty much checked out the history and geography. He now also knew the names of some powerful figures residing in this continent like the rank 9 Swordsman Xenos, The Lightning Slasher.

'So there are other 8 continents as well besides Tanvr, all as big as North America. This world is quite huge. Also, rank 9 is not the end. There are legends left behind by those rank 10 existences.

I should buy some leather armours, holy water and familiarize myself with the area I am heading to tomorrow. If William has this type of status, then I'm afraid the commission can't be as simple as I thought.'

...

The next day, outside the city gates Aren was looking at the long bridge in front of him.

He was wearing a leather armour and a leather bag. Inside the bag there was a map of Blackthorn forest and several bottles of holy water which bought from the....Holy Light Cathedral. Though he didn't have a good impression of them, the light spells and especially this holy water was an effective countermeasure against death magic.

'Dawn is breaking. I should head ou- huh? Who is watching me?'

He had a feeling that he was being watched but he couldn't pinpoint were the this cold gaze was coming from. Turning his head towards the rising sun he threw all useless thoughts that came into his mind and started riding his horse.

After three hours of riding, he was once again at the entrance of Blackthorn forest. This time there were no bandits. The sun was shining brightly and he was starting to get hungry. He opened his bag, took out the map and started looking at it, confirming the route he'd have to take.

'So I can't ride horse from here on out.'

He swiftly jumped off the horse, tied it to a nearby tree and entered the forest. Sprinting through the forest he noticed that the deeper he went the frequently he encountered bones of humans and animals. After dashing for half an hour, the only things that came into his view were withered trees and branches as though their vitality was devoured from them.

"If priestess lupia saw this she would surely bring hell to whoever did this." Aren thought.

The only place where plants were still growing was in a small hill. At the top of the hill was the temple of Moon Goddess where Aren was going to. At this moment, however, he suddenly felt a chill on his spine.

Shiiing!

Oh no!

Aren made a dodge without hesitation. The next moment, a huge Greatsword came slashing down where he was standing. Aren looked at the wielder of this sword.

It was a death knight and not a rank 1 but a rank 2.

It was a genuine rank 2 death knight!

Behind this death Knight were several rank 1 skeleton warriors appearing leading their own squad of undead. They were emerging out of some unknown teleportation portals and their numbers were increasing rapidly.

"Shit! That bastard tricked me. This is no safe route, its a forbidden zone!" Aren cursed under his breath. Then he immediately started running towards the temple but how could the death knight let him. After its first attacked missed it promptly followed with another attack.

Clang!

Aren parried with his dagger but the death knight's strength was far higher than his. He was flown away by the rebound force. But this was exactly what Aren wanted. He knew he didn't have a slightest bit of chance at defeating the death knight. So he had to do whatever it takes to get away from it.

After gaining a distance, Aren immediately opened a bottle of holy water and held it in his hands. He was preparing to use this holy water to inflict some damages to the death knight and run away. However, the death knight didn't come after him. Instead, the skeleton warriors and undead behind it rushed towards him.

'Damn it...' he had no choice but to unsheate his dagger and splatter all of holy water on its blade. This was the best possible solution he could think of in that situation.

Shik* shik*

Two undead rushing at the front were the first ones to taste the power of holy water. The undead however, didn't seem to care. They just kept pushing forward and Aren brandished the dagger crazily. At this moment, due to the effect of holy water, this slightly above average dagger, seemed to become a 'Holy Sword' against these Undead. But even this holy sword couldn't help Aren get out of his predicament. Soon the effect of holy water started to wear off. Although he still had bottles of holy water he didn't have time to use it.

After the holy water was completely used up his momentum sharply decreased. He could only barely deflect the attacks of undead. He was getting more and more injuries.....He could already feel his death looming over....

He didn't want to die, however. His life was just starting. He had his dreams, ambitions and aspirations.

"Arghhhhh...!!!"

When he was almost about to succumb to his death, his will to succeed and live made him overcome his limits. Rainbow coloured light shone all over his body. Bathing in that light, his wounds automatically began to heal at the rate visible to naked eyes. There were lots of complicated runes appearing on his body and for a moment a lot of information about skills entered his mind. Also due to that light, every undead around five meters radius of him were disintegrated into white ash.

'Haa... Ha...Runic force? So I've advanced to a rank 1 fighter. Although I still can't beat that death knight. I can deal with these low level undead.'

After Aren advanced he found himself surging with great power. He jumped high up in the air and kicked the incoming Undead hard on their skulls, rotating his body as he did so. His movement flawless, as if he had practised this move for tens of years.

Crack!

The skulls of undead cracked due to the great power behind it.

This must be the whirlwind kick master told him about. When a person advanced to a higher rank he or she would learn six skills everytime depending on the training that person went through. Aren also learned six skills and whirlwind kick was one of them which only speed type fighter could learn.

'I can't reach the temple, that death knight is hell bent on not letting me go there. I have to find another way to escape.'

Fighting with undead, he was thinking about how he would escape from the encirclement of enemy. The skeleton warriors were also heading over where he was fighting.

'If I get surrounded by three of them then I'm done for. I've no choice but to do this.'

Looking at the three skeleton warriors, Aren forcefully got away from the swarm of undead and took out another bottle from his bag. This this time, however, he didn't have his dagger as it broke down after the first confrontation. The undead's attacks weren't only powerful but also had corrosive effects. Honestly, if he hadn't awoken his runes at that critical time, he would have ended up dead.

So he applied that bottle of holy water on his two hands like putting on cream and the next thing...

Holy Punch!

A skeleton warrior was blown to pieces. Even he was suprised with the effects. He didn't follow up with another punch though but instead ran at a direction opposite of the temple.

'I had seen that symbol somewhere near a cave...'

He had already found that emblem of skeleton William had shown him. He didn't inspect it of caution but instead went towards the temple. Who would have thought this would be the only chance for him to escape his death.

This is it!

He looked left and right, finding those undead still a distance away from him. Then without hesitation, he went inside the cave. After he ran for 5 minutes, he came to a dead end. There, he once again saw the symbol he'd seen outside. This time the symbol was a lot bigger and realistic than what he saw outside. It was craved on a huge wall. Beneath this symbol was a big magic array. Or was it an altar?

'There is no exit here.'

'According to William, this symbol should lead him somewhe-ahhh...ou..

What the hell? My body.....Why isn't it moving?'

He didn't know when but his body was stuck in the same position. He couldn't even blink his eyes. He was completely immobile now, his eyes showing the terror the felt.

Then, from the shadows, a vague silhouette came into his view. Soon, Aren could see who it was.

He was wearing a white vest over a skin-colored suit and pants of the same color. He had a wand on his hand which was glowing with yellow light.

"It took you long to reach here, adventurer Ren." his voice echoed inside the cave.