The World of Tactics

Chapter Twenty-Two IV: Dire Homecoming

"Dark magic, a very interesting topic. To revive the dead is not to revive the soul, but the dead body. Once the revived dead body is dead again, the undead body will no longer be usable. The undead may be immortal, but once their vassal dies, their immortality ends. Hence, be careful, little lichlings. You could still die with an immortal vassal.

Another thing to note is that high-quality fresh material will produce the best undead. Always be on your guard and never try to approach your enemies. That is the reason why you have to continuously create or summon undead monsters. Your body is brittle and fragile, easy to break and pulverized, and never let your enemies close in. Keep that in mind because you don't want to be dead. Won't you?

Anyway, the last lesson today is to erase your traces. As tricky as you might think you are. Sooner or later, you will eventually be found and killed. We undead are not liked by those living, so note. Note, note it! However, it's only a matter of time until a lichling like you becomes a full-fledged lich. Then an arch lich, just like me. Stay alive, lichlings. Stay alive." Noted in a book written by an arch lich.

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He had considered the earth draco lizard, but he decided that it was better to have Goon and Uzi because their speed stat has a higher limit than the earth draco lizard. Not only that, Goon and Uzi could attack twice and once per bout. This is also a limitation that the earth draco lizard could not compensate for. For now, the earth draco lizard is on the bench until there are enemies that have high defense. That is when the earth draco lizard will come into great use.

Moving on to the [Inventory] tab, he feels that Uzi should be the one to carry the last remaining herb batch that only had two blades of grass left. Otherwise, Goon has got enough weapon durability to last this battle. The same goes for himself since he is fully decked out for battle. None of the flesh walkers could even scratch his defense at all. His defense is sitting at twenty-three. He did not move on to the few remaining tabs as of yet because he had opened his status screen. He added his last three unallocated points to his speed stat. Now, his speed is sitting at thirteen points. This is enough for him to attack twice against the flesh walkers.

He skipped the [Skills] tab because he knew for sure that Uzi and Goon could not have new skills and his skills slot was fully decked out. Going there was unnecessary. He moved on to the [Conditions] tab and only saw one option. The one option was [Route], which meant defeating all enemies. He hurried on to the last tab, the [Start Battle] tab. He presses on the [Start] option before selecting the [Yes] option afterward. Then the familiar [Player's Turn][1] came into view.

Sometimes, he would subconsciously think that he was in a game every time a battle started. However, he knows that this world is not a game and the world laws here lean slightly toward a tactic-like game. That also means that he is living in the real world. If he were to die at this moment, then he would not respawn like a player and stay dead permanently. He did not like the thought of death, which is why he had mainly focused on his defense all this time. To him, survival is a must and not a necessity. He refocused back on the battle.

On the map, they were situated in the bottom left corner. Firstly, he moves Goon to the left a few squares. This is to pull the attack of the very front flesh walker. The same goes for Uzi, but Uzi has situated two squares to the left of Goon. Two squares away from the right of Goon, is where he will position himself. As for Dork, he preferred that Dork should stay where he was to avoid any battle. Unless necessary, he did not want Dork to be within the attack range of the flesh walkers. As for Lawrence, he [Command] Lawrence stands right next to him, but out of the flesh walkers' range.

Due to the formation that the flesh walker is using, the middle flesh walkers are two squares away from the other two that form a straight line. This means that he could directly pull the flesh walker to attack right away once it was the enemies' turn. Just to ensure that Dork would not randomly move during Neutral's turn, he made Dork wait within the same square tile. Thus, the [Player's Turn] ended just like that. It was now [Ally's Turn][1], the ally was Lawrence.

On the map, Lawrence was a green pixelated unit like before. Nothing changes as much, but he was a bit curious about what makes the distinct difference between neutral and ally. He gets the fact that they are different in coloration and are the target of the attack, but what is a significant difference is that it made the map listing the two of them different from each other. However, time did not last for him to think because Lawrence had already stood in the adjacent square that he commanded Lawrence to move toward. As for Dork, [Neutral's Turn][1], Dork did listen to his command and [Wait] in the same square Dork was originally in.

Now it was the moment of truth, [Enemy's Turn][1]. The very first to attack was the center-most flesh walker. The first flesh walker took a stab at Goon with its lance. Goon easily took on the stab of the first flesh walker because Goon could not dodge it. It inflicted no damage at all. Goon retaliates with two attacks in session and each counterattack deals eight damages (Goon, EXP +100, Level Up). In total, the first flesh walker already suffers sixteen damage and Goon also manages to level up with that single bout. He did not hesitate to allocate all of the three unallocated points to Goon's skill stat.

The first reason why he did so was because of his mental note that he kept a few days ago to test out his skill stats. The other reason was that he felt that Goon's two points in the skill stat were too low compared to the other stats. For some reason, he felt that the skill stat would come into use later on and he could not shake off that feeling at all. This is also why he had increased Goon's skill stat. At least now that Goon's skill stat has reached five points, it looks better compared to the rest of the stats.

The second to attack was, unexpectedly, the flesh walker. The flesh walker, who was situated two squares away from the center-most flesh walker, was the first flesh walker. The second flesh walker was slightly weaker than the first flesh walker in terms of the defense stat, with a one-point difference. Even so, Uzi still suffers two damage from a rusty lance thrust. In return, Uzi attacked twice and dealt six damage each. A total of twelve damages (Uzi, EXP +100, Level). Once Uzi leveled up, he briefly judged for a moment and allocated two points to defense, while the last points were allocated to Uzi's strength stat.

Throughout the many battles of the past, he had finally realized something extremely fatal. He had forgotten to consider allocating the unallocated points into Goon's and Uzi's maximum health points. Sooner or later, due to their low health. The two, Goon and Uzi, would not be able to match an enemy with the same stat caliber as theirs. The only two flaws were their health. He felt that it was a bit late to realize this, but he did not regret his past allocations because it was one of the reasons why he was still here today. Even so, he felt that each level up that Goon or Uzi gets. It was best if he allocated one point to their maximum health point. He took note of this.

He was not expecting anything when he placed himself on the attack range of the third flesh walker, because he knew just how fatal Goon and Uzi's attraction was. But, the third flesh walker did not ignore him because of that and he was attacked. He stood tall and posed ready to block. The third flesh walker attacked and he easily blocked the attack. Even so, he was not satisfied because it was not a true block. The reason why was because the third flesh walker was not able to pierce through his defense, to begin with. This is his mind must have been due to his skill. He is convinced that the skill stat is also very important.

He counter-attacked twice in return for the third flesh walker's strike. The first, he aimed for the heart and dealt only four damage each. Eight damages in total, the defense of the flesh walker is no joke and were like metal plates (John Smith, EXP +20x2). He was quite satisfied because he got forty experience points in total. Two more bouts and he could easily level up. The double experience effects of the dragon stone crystal are very powerful and beneficial. The enemy's turn ended with that last bout. It came back to [Player's Turn][2].

By his estimation, the battle would end at the end of the enemies' turn or the third turn. Either way, he calmed down and took an overview of the battlefield map. After some consideration, he moved Uzi to the backside of the third flesh walker that was on the opposite side of where he was currently adjacent. Uzi attacked from behind and dealt four damages. It was not expected, but Uzi manages to dodge the attack of the third flesh walker. Dodging or not, it did not matter much because Uzi's current defense stat is high enough to suffer no damage from the attack of the third flesh walker. At the end of the bout, Uzi attacked once again and dealt another four damages (Uzi, EXP +100, Level Up). This time, he did not forget to allocate one point to Uzi's maximum health points and allocate the two other stat points to Uzi's strength stat.

Once Uzi's turn ends, he turns his attention towards Goon. He moves Goon to attack the same third flesh walker. Uzi lacked strength, but Goon did not and each attack dealt eight damage (Goon, EXP +100, Level Up). Goon did not even get a scratch at all and gained a level in return. He allocated one point to Goon's maximum health points as Uzi, but the remaining two points went into Goon's defense stat. It was worth the fighting against the flesh walkers. Going at this rate, Goon and Uzi will grow rapidly. He could not help but sigh at that thought.

As for his turn, he first commands [Lawrence] to attack the third flesh walker on the last remaining open adjacent square. He had already calculated Lawrence's total might and it barely reached fifteen points, which could ensure that Lawrence could deal at least one damage to the third flesh walker. This would also allow Lawrence to grind some experience off of the third flesh walker. Next, he actually [Command] Dork to go right behind Lawrence so that Dork can finish off the flesh walker with a fireball spell. It would cost Dork one health point, but it would also allow Dork to gain a lot of experience in return. Then he did not move and ended his turn.