A New World, An Immersive Game Experience

Naturally, Eldrain didn't just stand and wait for this flaming disfigured centaur to get up. He used Frost Needle, the spell he was still most comfortable with, right away. Aiming this for the head, not knowing what the weak spot of the undead was, while at it he also activated Observe to figure out what he was facing.

[Flaming Reanimate (Corbol)] (Weakened State)

[Tier 4 (Fallen, unwilling undead); Level 29]

[HP: 809/1006]

[Mana: 300/525]

[Attack: 64(128)]

[Agility: 163(325)]

[A Flamming Reanimate, a cursed way of being brought back from death. As if in a burning inferno, the victim will burn for the rest of their undead life. The pain will never stop. Even after all its flesh has been melted off. The pain will only increase, the flames no longer able to consume something corporeal will dig deeper, burning the soul of the person into their bones. Binding it to this plane as long as its bones remain.]

[The Flamming Reanimate is currently still in the early stages and thus weakened. As soon as all its flesh has been burned off, it will leave its weakened state and recover its normal abilities. Rage taking over the mind of the victim at this stage.]

[Status: Immunity to fire damage.]

Wait, what? Eldrian stopped in an awkward position with his spear half pulled out. Is he, this Corbol, still alive?

To confirm this Eldrian asked, yet he got nothing in return but a howl of anger and pain. Along with a blind attack in his direction, not nearly close to him as the undead just reacted in the direction it heard something. Eldrian's attack with Frost Needle had also landed, or rather it would have if the flames hadn't melted it before it could reach the undead's skull.

This flaming reanimate trashed around in agony trying to put out the flames burning its body, destroying anything that might enter its range. If it heard something it would momentarily shift its rage to it, but soon it will return to just acting blindly. Eldrian could see that while he might be able to contend with it in this blind rage, doing so would already be hard. The only silver lining was that its HP was decreasing by the second as more flesh melted off.

Screw this, I am not fighting it. Eldrian decided, not wishing to start something he felt certain he would not be able to end. In its weakened state, he might be able to contend with it, but Eldrian had no idea if this state would last. Even with its HP decreasing Eldrian did not feel confident in taking it on, its movement erratic and unpredictable in this state at best.

Knowing that everyone else was out for the night, Eldrain knew there was no backup coming for him. Adding even more to this was the fact that Eldrian had no idea when the weakened state would end, or how.

As such he quickly turned around, fully pulling his spear out, and looked for anyone who could help kill the Flaming Reanimate. Not seeing anyone, Eldrian apologized to the locals nearby in his heart, and ran.

He quickly escaped from the inn, only to see everyone in chaos. On the walls soldiers were already busy fighting off weaker undead, arrows raining over from the opposite side with little care for friendly fire. Naturally, arrows did little to skeletons and zombies, including the poison coating the arrows.

Shit, is this more than just a night raid? Eldrian wondered, quickly running into other undead who had been launched over the walls. He had to admit it was a crazy effective method of disorganizing the defense. There was nothing they could do to stop the undead from flying over the walls. Luckily this method resulted in most of the launched undead losing a good chunk of their HP.

Eldrian tried his best to escape instead of fighting when he saw no immediate need to defend. Naturally, this didn't hold long. Turning one of the corners he ran into an undead beast having just finished standing up. Without delay, it charged at him. Eldrian wanted to simply run, but in the corner of his eye he saw a woman lying on the floor. Not knowing if she was alive or dead Eldrian felt he had to stay and fight.

Cursing Eldrian jumped back and blocked with his spear, this undead seemed more normal. It was not human, naturally, as most of the undead in the forest, rather it was an undead wolf. It was similar to those he had seen Evale and the others kill with ease. Eldrian quickly tried to create distance between himself and the undead wolf so he could use his spear, while at it he also used Observe to figure out what the zombie in front of him was capable of.

[Zombie (Direwolf)]

[Tier 2 (Weaker Undead); Level 6]

[HP: 111/179]

[Attack: 11.5]

[Agility: 125]

[A simple-minded undead; created by destroying the soul of the original being. The ashes of the soul are used to imbed its creator's will. In some cases, this happens naturally when the area where the death occurred is laden with the aura of death. In most cases, the abilities of the original are lost, and only hunger consumes it. Needing to feed to keep its flesh from rotting and falling off.]

Good, I can deal with this. Eldrian smiled, feeling confident upon reading the stats of the monster. The only thing he didn't like was how he didn't really know how to hurt the thing. Luckily he was faster and much more experienced than ever before. Eldrian quickly decided to try a few things out on this enemy.

Having made enough distance, Eldrian had thought the undead beast would try and avoid his spear, it did not. It charged without regard for danger, catching Eldrian slightly off guard. Just slightly though, Eldrian quickly reacted to the charge by bringing his spear up and into its path. Causing the undead beast to skewer itself.

This would normally have been the end of things. A vital hit, with the spear Zamia had given Eldrian would surely kill any normal beast. The undead instead kept trying to get closer to Eldrian. Dragging its body further on the spear, clawing at the ground for grip and snarling at Eldrian with pure hunger.

Only 13 damage taken even though the spear struck right through the entire beast. Less than a third of what the spear should have done.

Shocked by its actions, Eldrian was forced to let go of his spear before it could make it to his hands. Dropping it he stepped back and threw magic at the beast, he started with Frost Needle simply due to habit. Letting the spell pierce the undead beast's head with ease as it struggled to move with the spear inside it.

While it created a hole straight through the head, it had only done 10 damage. This was better than the spear, as it was the damage Eldrian could expect from the spell. But again no vital hit seemed to occur.

The zombie seemed unbothered by the hole created in its head, it kept trying to get at Eldrian without any thought of its own safety. Forced to dodge a sloppy attack, Eldrian pulled out his spare weapon, Gray, the magical greatsword he had gotten. With little grace, Eldrian returned the favor of the attack with his new weapon. Making sure to not thrust it into the undead beast and lose it as was the case with Aoidos.

Again the attack did little damage to the undead, only 10. Eldrian quickly realized that magic seemed to be much more effective. He also calmed down as he realized that all that was new was the toughness of this enemy. Eldrian was used to fighting living things, who would die upon a vital hit. This seemed to not exist with the undead.

Knowing this Eldrian quickly found himself able to dodge and counter against the undead beast with ease. He stopped countering upon the second attack, instead, he used this fight to test what magic worked best. Naturally, Eldrian knew of undead from other games, and while he knew this world was much more real, he assumed a great deal of it would be useful to him.

He simply wanted to test the elemental effect and as such Eldrian decided to use the Tier 0 spells. Certain he would be able to launch them all before killing the undead.

Floga and Anthos were surprisingly effective. Floga normally only did one or two points of damage, but against the zombie direwolf it had done ten. Anthos, which normally healed for 2HP and recovered some stamina, instead had caused five damage.

After having finished using all the different elements, Eldrian ended the fight with Mifotia. The small fireball spell. It was the first time he used it with the intent to kill, and Eldrian also enhanced it with his hidden class bonus. Using the boost didn't do much, only increasing the damage to 15.4, from 14; while also increasing the mana cost from 24 to 26.4.

This was extremely effective though, Eldrian having simply aimed the spell at the beast's neck. Upon landing, it robbed it of the rest of its HP and caused the head to sever from the body. Seeing this Eldrian wondered if that would kill the zombie in itself as he looked at the XP he had gained.

[600XP gained]

Seems that there is no bonus for it being undead. Eldrian thought as he realized this was similar to the XP he gained from normal direwolves, less even. He did not stay on this topic though, recovering his spear now that he had confirmed it was dead. He had no other way of confirming this, seeing as undead didn't breathe and they had no heartbeat.