"Where is Umi?" Abium quietly changed the topic.
"I cast [Crystal Cocoon] spell on her and left her in the woods. She'll be fine." Fennelis said in a cold voice, covered her snowy hands with crystalline ice, and sprinted forward.
"I'm also coming," Nicolaus said as he enveloped his sword with a Basic Sword Aura and followed after her.
On the other hand, Abium suddenly sensed another precarious sensation from his left and made a sword stance before leaping sideways and slashing his sword at the thin air.
He soon felt that his sword had cut through something and smiled. Simultaneously, he noticed that the surroundings started to distort before revealing the appearance of a shadowy skeleton.
It was another Skeleton Assassin!
At that moment, a sharp cut appeared on its chest area and revealed the broken sternum.
Due to his sudden attack, the Skeleton Assassin also got startled and tried to back away. But Abium didn't give it any chance, moved forward, and swiftly decapitated it.
Afterward, he followed the other two and joined the fight. However, he was constantly distracted by something else. It was a strange sense of impending danger.
'When did my intuition become so sharp?' He was baffled inside. As he continued to fight the enemies, he even managed to foresee some of the opponents' incoming attacks and was astonished.
'Strange. Does this have something to do with my rebirth or the Time Divinity?' But he soon shook his head and decided to complete the mission first. He and Nicolaus soon cooperated with Fennelis, used her Ice Touch spell to slow down the enemies, and started eliminating the undead skeletons. Whenever a Death Knight comes forward to attack them, Abium would take the lead and confront it without any difficulty. However, Nicolaus and Fennelis switched positions at other times, giving Abium some free time.
For the next 30 minutes, the trio battled against the undead skeletons, killed more than 20 assassins, 40 plus Elite Skeletons, and seven Death Knights, leaving the old Necromancer alone in the courtyard.
"It seems he is the final boss," Nicolaus said as he gazed warily at the black-cloaked old man and gripped his weapon tighter. Although the Necromancer covered his head with a black hood, Abium and others managed to see his face more clearly and felt an eerie feeling from his gaze. The Necromancer had a wrinkled face, strange reddish eyes, greyish white hair, and looked leaner. If not for the olive skin that covered his bones, he would look more like a zombie.
'He looks strong.' Abium maintained a considerable distance and watched him cautiously.
Meanwhile, Fennelis suddenly coughed while spitting out a mouthful of blood, stood unsteadily, and returned to her regular form.
"I don't have any more strength left." She added.
Noticing her exhaustion, Abium took out the water pouch from his space ring and passed it to her.
"Drink this and take some rest, My Lady. Meanwhile, I'll take care of this Necromancer." While saying this, Abium grasped his sword tighter and sprinted forward.
Simultaneously, he released his spirit power, activated [Spiritual Scan] ability, and scanned the Necromancer.
In the next instant, a row of information appeared before his eyes.
However, when he read the status, he was stunned inside.
He has such low physical attributes! His strength is 1.5 points, his vitality attribute shows 2, and his agility shows 1.6.' While reading the status, he also looked at the other areas and realized that this guy was an Official Necromancer!
'His spirit power is 60!' A strange chill appeared in his heart.
Additionally, he saw three Necromancy spells in the status, 'Summon Undead,' 'Speak with Undead,' and 'Death Chain.
'Although all of them are useless spells for combat, he isn't a normal foe.' Just as he muttered, the bone staff in the Necromancer's hand suddenly glowed in an eerie reddish light and released a unique wave!
Simultaneously, Abium felt a dangerous sensation in his mind and hurriedly cast the [Blink] spell on himself.
Indeed, his [Blink] spell model had long refilled on its own. Having created the mana imprint, he didn't feel the need to sit down and meditate to replenish his spell model.
Abium's body disappeared from there a second later and reappeared behind the Necromancer.
Meanwhile, a dense ray of reddish light emerged from the bone staff, moved towards the area where he stood before, and soon landed on the fortress wall.
A fist-sized hole appeared over there the next second, and soon a large part of the wall crumbled into dust!
On the other hand, Abium didn't waste a moment as he slashed his sword and swiftly decapitated the Apprentice Necromancer's head.
Yes, he killed the Official Necromancer without any resistance!
'That's it?' He raised his eyebrows in suspicion and soon saw the Necromancer's head falling on the ground before rolling over the nearby grass.
A strange silence appeared in the courtyard.
Even though he killed the Necromancer, Abium remained vigilant and observed the surroundings for any anomalies.
After a few seconds, he let down his guard, moved closer to the bone staff, and looked at it.
But just as he was about to pick up the bone staff, it made a creaking sound and broke apart into many pieces!
'What happened?' He muttered to himself in shock.
In the meantime, Nicolaus moved closer to him and kicked the Necromancer's head away.
"He is pretty weak, isn't he?" He asked coldly.
"No, something is wrong. This guy's strength should be way above us, but something doesn't add up. How did he die without showing any resistance?"
Suddenly, Abium turned around and noticed that Fennelis was nowhere to be seen!
"Don't worry; she went to pick up Umi." Nicolaus saw the worry on Abium's face and spoke.
"Oh, that's a relief." Abium breathed out a sigh of relief and sat on the ground to take some rest.
Meanwhile, Nicolaus sat next to him and took a deep breath before speaking.
"I have never fought like this in my entire life. Although I went along with the garrison leader to eliminate some goblin nests in the past, this is entirely different. I almost died two times in a single day." His voice contained a trace of anxiousness.
"Haha, did you get any sword insight in this fight? If you are okay with it, I can teach you some sword skills, though." Abium chuckled and responded with a laugh.
On the other hand, Nicolaus remained silent for two seconds and then sighed.
"I can't accept it without giving anything in return."
Upon hearing those words, Abium felt amused inside.
'He hasn't changed a single bit.'
"So, what are you planning to do after we leave this pocket dimension? Are you planning on searching for your long-lost friend in this dimension?" He asked.
Meanwhile, Nicolaus raised his hand, rubbed his chin, and soon spoke with a thoughtful look on his face.
"You said something about the 'Will' or 'Artificial Spirit' protecting this dimension, right? I want to meet that spirit and ask about it. Maybe I can get some clues-" He suddenly paused as he recalled the past and said grimly.
"I at least want to know if she is still alive or dead."
While speaking, he looked up at the sky and zeroed in on the blue screen.
"Now that I think about it, this mission should've been over, right?"
Shocked, he stood up and said.
"Wait, there seems to be one more enemy left."
Abium also got startled by his words, activated his [Spiritual Scan] ability, and scanned the surroundings.
"No, there is no enemy nearby." He replied with a frown.
Nicolaus retracted his gaze before turning his attention towards the destroyed gate and speaking.
"It must be a low-level skeleton. Wait, I'll check if Lady Fennelis and Umi are okay."
While saying so, he turned around and was about to take a step but stopped.
He saw Fennelis walking through the broken wooden door with Umi at that moment and breathed out a sigh of relief.
Before long, she arrived closer to him and asked.
"What are we going to do next?"
"It's better to rest here for some time before searching for the final skeleton, My Lady. After all, there are still more than 35 hours left for the mission to complete." Nicolaus said solemnly.
They then made a small campfire and started applying herbal medicine to the wounded areas.
After two hours of rest, Abium finally stood up and thought of exploring the fortress' keep and storage first.
Soon, they took a fire torch from the nearby wall and started walking towards the keep's entrance.
They then arrived in front of the keep building's entrance gate and looked at the metal door. After taking a close look at the gate, Nicolaus took a step forward, raised his hands, and pushed it open.
However, Umi appeared to have sensed something from inside and stepped back quickly.
"N-NO! Something is up, Big Bro!" She warned Nicolaus.
Furrowing, Abium also scanned the surroundings and was startled as he saw a red dot.
Simultaneously, he saw a shadow figure moving in their direction from inside at an unimaginable speed.
"Be careful!" He yelled, picking up Umi in his right hand, and backed away in a hurry.
Meanwhile, Nicolaus and Fennelis were surprised by his warning and tried to back away.
But all of a sudden, the shadowy humanoid figure disappeared from there and reappeared in front of Nicolaus.
It moved its black scimitar in a flash, aimed at his neck, and slashed it.
On the other hand, Nicolaus also sensed the impending danger and tried to duck his head while moving his sword towards the upcoming scimitar to block it.
But to his shock, the scimitar suddenly changed his direction, moved towards his wrist, and cut it neatly!
Slash!
Scarlet blood splattered everywhere on the floor as his wrist fell on the floor with a thud.
"ARGH!"
A second later, Nicolaus's painful scream echoed at the keep's entrance.
The shadowy figure drew its scimitar again, aimed at Nicolaus's neck, and made a slash to finish him off.
But before the scimitar could reach his neck region, crystalline ice appeared out of nowhere, enveloped his entire body, and blocked the attack!
Noticing that its sneak attack failed, the shadowy figure turned blurry and disappeared from there, leaving everyone stunned!
"W-What the hell was that?!" Fennelis asked in shock.
She turned her head toward Abium, looked at his chest, and soon cried out.
"Oh no!"
At that moment, Abium also got stunned by her words, looked at his chest, and soon realized that Umi was coughing up blood!