Bro, I'm not an Undead!

All stats were greatly influenced by a number of factors.

This was true for luck as well but it was a special case.

Luck was a stat that one would be born with a specific value of. Its increase or decrease was USUALLY tied to intervention by higher-level experts as even when one levelled up, this didn't correlate to an increase in luck.

The fact that these little creatures had such a large figure in luck was ridiculous and Skullius couldn't help but roar in anger at the consecutive rush of misfortune.

It could be said that his atrocious luck would work best when he was dealing with such an opponent as surely when Skullius set to stand and attack again, he fell forward all of a sudden, his chin landing directly into an uppercut from one of the gremlins!

The force almost made one think that Skullius' head would detach from his body as the Discount Human's mouth gushed out blood while his body started to grow heavy and hard to coordinate!

Heavy damage!

The fact that he wasn't dead was a miracle, which went against the very fact that he had atrocious luck but when one thought about how these gremlins were relying merely on their luck, it was understandable that one-shotting Skullius right away was not guaranteed. They lacked the skill and intelligence for it.

'Damn! I didn't want to carelessly use my mana before because I don't have enough to try out all my new stronger skills but...' he thought. '...if it continues this way, I won't have a choice!'

Four gremlins out of the tens leapt and locked their fingers as they sought to smash Skullius into paste!

The Discount Human rolled away only to find that he was heading into a crowd of more vicious-looking gremlins, all of them drooling as they snarled and screeched!

"Oh, come on!" Skullius yelled as the little creatures neared in their tens!

"Fine then! Let's see how lucky you socketholes really are!"

The Discount Human immediately cast one of his newest skills, 50 units of his mana being used as they were compressed and compounded into a small sphere of mana!

"Mana Blast!" he called as he flung the marble-sized sphere at the lot of them.

'Surely, with their numbers, I can catch some of them with this.'

BOOOM!

The small orb of mana exploded with a rough intensity amidst the raging gremlins, creating a larger force than Skullius hadn't expected!

Many of the gremlins were injured and flung after the crust was blown up, with none of them dying outright!

Skullius hurriedly stood and turned, going for the other gremlins that had sought to squash him before!

They seemed to have been alarmed by the explosion and seeing their fellow gremlins being pushed away and hurt!

Skullius' eyes quivered with rage as he made a short analysis.

'I see. Even with their luck, they can still take damage. All they have been doing is disrupting or hindering me now that I think about it. If that's the case, then let me see if this works!'

The Discount Human inserted his mana into the Baleful Gale Reaper and swiped forward, a small gust of wind that carried with it dust and dirt smacking against the four gremlins'.

The creatures raised their hands to cover their eyes from the dirt and at that moment, Skullius struck!

[Evil Darkness Production], [Basic Weaving]!

Skullius extended his index finger which produced a thin stream of [Evil Darkness] that shot towards one of the gremlins that was three meters away!

As soon as it reached the creature, its end exploded into a dark cloud that covered the gremlin's head while the rest remained as a thin line connected to Skullius!

The creature stopped as it panicked but Skullius didn't stop.

He pulled his arm back, the gremlin being drawn to him by the stream of [Evil Darkness] which acted like a rope!

It could be used this way too!

After spamming the combinations of the two skills, Skullius had learnt a whole lot of things about this new power, Red Rage's account which he had received later after it had happened helped him know that [Evil Darkness] could restrict movement and entry along with a few other versatile functions.

Skullius had only used enough mana to create such a limited construct.

The gremlin who couldn't see anything as the smoke-like Darkness covered his face reached Skullius quickly, only to receive a brutal slash with a wind covered Baleful Gale Reaper!

[You have killed (II) LV10 Lucky Strike Gremlin. 2500 Exp awarded]

[Your prey emits the Essence of Null Life. Would you like to extract it? Remaining time 59 seconds?]

"Oho...!"

This time, there was no salvation, as the gremlin was slit diagonally by an enraged and excited Skullius who instantly bore his hand into the chest of the gremlin when it fell.

He immediately drew the Null Life Essence from his prey finding it to be 35 points!

A mana crystal had formed immediately after the gremlin's death!

A dead core.

One of the benefits that Skullius ever enjoyed on his journey with Benzard and his crew was learning new things.

Carving out cores was one of them as his first experience had been when they had come across Onumbassssss.

Now, Skullius had used that knowledge as all creatures held within them a core, the fate of this construct after death being what differed with the species.

The Discount Human stored the item in his spatial storage and then rushed to meet the last three while keeping his awareness straight on the many that had recovered and were running towards him from behind!

At the moment, a shocking explosion resounded as the portions of the cave that had collapsed on Red Rage 'accidentally' were obliterated, a golden light exploding outwards as a particularly rageful looking Pelvis Boar-Man appeared!

Ridiculously, from the outburst of power which flung debris in many directions knocking and killing some of the gremlins, a small rock flew and smashed Skullius straight on the side of the head, making him spin like a top and roll on the ground!

Red Rage sped towards the many gremlins and with a shocking burst of speed and he threw his fists all around, each of his punches tearing apart the little nuisances!

In less than five seconds, ten gremlins were already on the ground, oozing as meat and blood.

Skullius on the other hand was kicked away by the other gremlins, tumbling on the ground but he stood and faced the horde of lucky gremlins!

"Kek..." Skullius cackled as he unflinchingly glared at his enemies, a crazed look in his eyes!

"I'm far from done you socketholes!"

Skullius gathered mana in his core as he prepared a heavy hitter!

He stretched out his hand and a bright luminance shone as a powerful skill let itself known!

[Manassault]!

A raging stream of mana compressed itself as it then shot out with a ravenous desire to destroy in a straight line while producing a bright flare-like light!

The gremlins sensed the danger, but their meagre luck-based measures couldn't shield them from the monstrous skill!

Or rather they couldn't use the boons of their luck to their advantage willingly.

Still, the streaking light razed through the gremlins that attacked in a crowded fashion, burning away bone and flesh alike as it instantly killed nearly fifteen gremlins while the rest were either critically injured or were saved by higher luck stats!

Red Rage merely watched as he hadn't been able to finish the other gremlins before Skullius launched [Manassault] which only stopped its advance after striking the cave wall with an extremely loud impact!

A crater which was six meters wide opened on the wall with hissing burnt rock and crisp crumbling ash!

The remaining gremlins looked on in shock with their eyes wide open, backtracking in fear.

This transcended their natural luck!

It was a powerful skill!

[You have killed (II) LV13 Lucky Strike Gremlin. 2700 Exp awarded]

[You have killed (II) LV12 Lucky Strike Gremlin. 2450 Exp awarded]

[Your prey emits...]

....

Skullius relished in the blood and guts sprawled all over as he then picked up his sword as he rushed up to the nearest corpse where the mana crystal was exposed.

He immediately grabbed it, his guidance field finally announcing what he had been waiting for.

[You have successfully completed your Second Task, gathering two Tier 2 mana cores.]

[You have reached Level 2]!

"Yes!" he had finally reached his goal.