The Ruined Death Knight

"This should be far enough..."

Observing his surroundings, making sure that no one followed him, he opened the status window.

"Status..."

[Status]

Name: Rue Danzel

Level: 20

Race: Draugr

Class: [Undead Guardian Lv. 20]

Sub-Class: [Runesmith of Undeath Lv.10]

Health: 5500/5500

Mana: 1012/1012

Attribute points: 0

Attributes: Strength:140 Agility: 127 Intelligence: 92 Endurance: 99

Talents: [Superior Undead] [Sin of Wrath] [Reinforced Soul] [Superior Unique Concioness] [Rune Vision] [Dead Rune Knowledge] [Undead Carver]

Skills: [Intermendiate Weapon Mastery Lv.1] [Earth Wall Lv.1] [Leap Lv.1] [Silent Steps Lv.1][Undeath Corruption Lv.1] [Dash Lv. 1] [Shield Bash Lv.4] [Gale Mana Blade Lv.3] [Greater Sense Danger Lv.1] [Curse of Exhaustion Lv.1] [Piercing Lv.1] [Mana Arms Lv.1] [Riposte Defense Lv.1] [Armor Mana Plating Lv.1]

[Remark: A true anomaly among even the Superior Undead, with knowledge of runes and skills, far surpassing that of a Draugr, one would never expect that his powerful Draugr warrior would spend months sitting at home.]

[XP: 105 825]

"Let´s hope that no one will realize..." Searching through my storage ring, Danzel held an un-runed sword that he stole from one of the drunken mercenaries.

With the use of the [Ring of Spatial Storage], he just had to touch the sword and make it vanish in an instant.

Though it was quite petty for him to steal a weapon from someone else when he had a small damn armory to his fingertips.

Here he was taking advantage of a drunken man...

"The sword is pretty worn out anyway..." Sitting with his back on one of the huge trees and started engraving a rune on the blade.

After a total of twenty minutes, he removed the mana from his finger and observed the blade.

[You received 2000 XP]

"It´s still on the good quality... Oh well, at least now I can finish the mission."

Putting the worn-out sword away, he started raising his skills.

[Riposte Defense level has increased from Lv.1 to Lv.10]

[Piercing level has increased from Lv.1 to Lv.10]

[Shield Bash level has increased from Lv.4 to Lv.10]

[The skill Shield Bash has reached this maximum level]

...

[Riposte Defense Lv.10 turns into Vanguards Defense Lv.1]

[Piercing turns Lv,10 into Penetrate Lv. 1]

[Shield Bash Lv.10 turns into Shield Charge Lv.1]

[Mission Completed! Class advancement is unlocked]

[Undead Greater Guardian]

[Undead High Blade]

[Black Guard]

[Undead Warden]

"The choices have thinned out compared to the previous advancement..."

Although he felt quite bitter about not having five classes to choose from, he didn´t mind it too much.

After all, wouldn´t he be torturing himself if he was forced to pick one out of two amazing classes?

Moving his finger on the first class, the description came in front of him.

[Undead Greater Guardian]: A Greater Guardian is a figure who excels at defense with his shield. Though he is no meat shield to speak for. With his weapon, he is capable to unleash a burst of strength which if underestimated would be ones undoing. Truly a guard to be afraid of.

[Undead High Blade]: A person who is used on wilding heavy weapons with just one hand is a High Blade. They learned various techniques to bring the full potential of one blade and unleash devastating attacks be it from near or far. His attacks are to be wary of.

[Black Guard]: Be it a fallen paladin or someone who decided to pursue the dark arts with their weapon and shield in hand. The Black Guards have learned to use dead mana in their techniques just for the purpose to make them all the deadlier. Their ability might be weak against holy magic and light, their knowledge of dark arts together with their physical powers are to be feared.

[Undead Warden]: A Warden is one of the highest defenses lines to face against. Their techniques can restrict and force an enemy into a fight, be it with the use of magic or other abilities. Although they aren´t suited to defend someone, they are the most suited to a fight of endurance.

Reading through all the given information, Danzel couldn´t help but curse internally for his incapability to choose every single option and be done with it.

Alas, the world is cruel.

"Alright, let´s do a rundown before I choose."

"The [Undead Greater Guardian] class should probably be the upgrade version of my current class which has a nice balance between attack and defense.

"Compared to the [Undead Warden] and [Undead High Blade] that are mostly base focused, with one focusing on the attack while the other focusing more on Defence. Though I ain´t much fond of the [Undead Warden] of his nature of being a meat shield, [Undead High Blade] does sound quite appealing."

"Lastly the [Black Guard] one does sound similar to the [Spell Blade] that I got once offered, but it focuses more on the usage of dead mana..."

...

"Ugh... I know this would happen..." Danzel cursed under his helmet as he was in the same position as back then.

Three out of four classes were improvements of my current class with a different focus, while the last one being [Black Guard] is a different path to choose from.

The description of the class was pretty vague too, as it didn´t want to place a focus on defense or offense.

Which at this point itself made it uncomfortable to choose, as the other three classes pointed the direction where the class will be going towards.

But what do three classes didn´t have was one crucial point...

[Your Class changed from Undead Guardian Lv.20 to Black Guard Lv.1]

[Your passive training has XP gain has been increased]

[You gained 5 Strength, 5 Agility, 10 Intelligence, and 15 Endurance,] and unlocked various skills!]

[You gained the talent [Dead Mana Affinity]]

[You gained the talent [Dead Mana Resilience]]

[Status]

Name: Rue Danzel

Level: 20

Race: Draugr

Class: [Black Guard Lv. 1]

Sub-Class: [Runesmith of Undeath Lv.10]

Health: 6325/6325

Mana: 1122/1122

Attribute points: 0

Attributes: Strength:145 Agility: 132 Intelligence: 102 Endurance: 114

Talents: [Superior Undead] [Sin of Wrath] [Reinforced Soul] [Superior Unique Concioness] [Rune Vision] [Dead Rune Knowledge] [Undead Carver] [Dead Mana Affinity] [Dead Mana Resilience]

Skills: [Intermendiate Weapon Mastery Lv.1] [Earth Wall Lv.1] [Leap Lv.1] [Silent Steps Lv.1][Undeath Corruption Lv.1] [Dash Lv. 1] [Shield Charge Lv.1] [Gale Mana Blade Lv.3] [Greater Sense Danger Lv.1] [Curse of Exhaustion Lv.1] [Penetrate Lv.1] [Mana Arms Lv.1] [Vanguards Defense Lv.1] [Armor Mana Plating Lv.1]

[Remark: A Undead Black Guard nearing the 3rd-tier, with knowledge of runes and skills, far surpassing that of a Draugr, one would never expect that his powerful Draugr warrior would spend months sitting at home and stealing from others.]

[XP: 425]

And that crucial point was...

That he was simply poor!

With the skills and levels slowly becoming at five digits, upping them in the future would be that much harder in the nearing future.

And the current him doesn´t want to go and isolate himself into some random mountain and train himself for thousand of years just that he could become an immortal master of some sorts.

Nevertheless, he was already immortal, to begin with.

Training for thousand of years just to gain strength didn´t sound that appealing in Danzel´s opinion.

Not only did he think that this would affect his mental state for the worse, but the opportunities that he would miss were endless.

Such an example was the [Earth Wall] spell that he yoinked from those army people and the book that he bought about magic.

Knowledge was a power that couldn´t be underestimated.

Why should he waste his time figuring something by himself, when he could easily use the work of someone else for his own benefit?

Efficient progress is good progress.

With the skill [Undeath Corruption] reducing the cost of skill under the categories of dark arts.

It was basically having a discount coupon for 20% at all times!

If that wasn´t a killer deal then neither did I!

...

I ain´t a cheapskate, alright?

I choose the class for the potential that it offers me!

Since my body has dead mana to begin with, wouldn´t it be wise to learn more about it?

Knowing yourself is the beginning of all wisdom!

...

Shaking his head from the useless thoughts, he focused his gaze upon the two new talents.

"To think that it would give me two things instead of one. And talents at that..."

[Dead Mana Affinity]: The option of Death affinity will be unlocked in your skills from now on.

[Dead Mana Resilience]: With learning how to handle Dead Mana, your body has become more used and resistant against Dead Mana. Reduce the damage taken in dead mana used attacks by 10%. That effect is being increased by an additional 5% if the user is one of the Undead.

Looking at the description of both talents, I nodded from approval.

"Though I haven´t met any attacks that used dead mana, a reduction of whole 15% does seem quite useful. As what the other talent does I got no clue...."