Abium tracked the skeleton closely while keeping a reasonable distance and ventured deep into the forest.
On the other hand, the skeleton also crept into the forest without making any extra movement and even used its small-distance teleportation skill from time to time.
After a few minutes, the skeleton stopped its movement and revealed its clear appearance to Abium.
It was not a skeleton, but it looked more like a ghost.
It wore an eerie blackish cloak, held a strange staff in its hand, appeared to have the same height as him, and even had a human-like face.
But what surprised him most were its strange transparent appearance and its eerie-looking body.
Utilizing the time, he activated the [Spiritual Scan] ability and scanned it.
Before long, a row of information appeared in front of his eyes.
'Shadow Spectre? However, why does the status show zero strength? Does that mean it can't harm others? Is this the reason for the illusionary state?' He furrowed his eyebrows in suspicion.
'Still, its other attributes look normal, though. It seems I need to deal with it carefully.' He nodded inwardly and waited for the Shadow Spectre to move again.
After two minutes of rest, the Shadow Spectre ran in the opposite direction and even passed through the trees.
'What an amazing ability. But something isn't right.'
At that moment, Abium felt uneasiness inside and even considered stopping his chase. But after some thought, he decided to continue.
After moving for more than an hour, the Shadow Spectre reached the island's center and exposed the enemy's hideout to Abium.
Dense woods vanished slowly and soon revealed an open grassland area with few trees to his eyes.
Abium quietly stepped out of the dense woods and saw a fortress-like building next to a large pond. His heart suddenly pounded as he noticed the water inside the pond and felt unease.
'I smell the power of chaos in that area. I've got to be extra careful.'
He hurriedly sneaked behind a bush and observed the fortress's outskirts.
A few Elite skeleton soldiers appeared near the outposts and walked around like military soldiers. Several ordinary skeleton soldiers were scouting the surrounding area and seemed well organized.
Abium turned his gaze further ahead and saw a clear view of the fortress. It was a gigantic stone structure that looked like a mountain and appeared square-shaped. Multiple outposts were visible in all directions and seemed to be well-fortified.
'It looks more like a military fort. If my guess is right, the walls should be around 6 to 8 meters tall. Several ballistas are also placed on the wall and look destructive. With so many skeletons guarding the fort, it will be even more difficult to approach.' A frown appeared on his forehead. Following that, he quietly moved ahead and followed after the Shadow Spectre.
Suddenly, he saw red dots on the blue screen and furrowed.
'Enemies?'
He looked ahead with normal eyes but no sign of skeletons which puzzled him deeply.
'Are they hiding somewhere?' He got startled inside.
'But why are they hiding in their territory?' While thinking, he also looked at the Shadow Spectre and noticed that it was moving straight towards the red dots.
At that moment, realization dawned on his face.
'That Specter knew about my pursuit! No wonder I felt uneasy earlier.'
Shadow Specter was guiding him directly to the center of the place where the red dots were hiding!
They were waiting for him!
Abium might have walked straight ahead and been caught by those skeletons in seconds if not for the scan function.
'No, they would've killed me.'
He abruptly hid behind a tree trunk and thought of what to do next.
He first looked up at the nearby outpost and guessed he was only a few hundred meters away from it.
'As long as I manage to walk past that nearby outpost, I'll be able to sneak into the fortress. After that, I'll get more cover to battle. Should I try?'
If he wanted to complete this mysterious mission alone, he had to kill all of the Skeletons.
But to deal with them all at once was nearly impossible. Hence, Abium had to take some risks, like sneaking into the fortress and assassinating all the high-ranking Skeletons first.
If not, he had to use guerrilla tactics and hunt the skeletons outside the fortress and in the woods. Unfortunately, he doesn't have enough time to search through the forest to find these skeletons.
Shaking his head, he focused his attention on the nearby outposts, then on the fortress walls, and counted the number of skeletons.
'There seemed to be 30 to 40 skeletons standing near all of the outposts, 20 skeletons stood on the fortress wall, and another 20+ skeletons hiding ahead of me to ambush me. If my guess isn't wrong, another 50 skeletons should be hiding inside the fortress.'
At that moment, he thought of targeting only one group first.
'My target is the ambush group.'
'If I attack them now, the others would get alerted and storm towards me. Still, if I use my spells, I can kill them without any problem.'
As for raiding the fortress, he felt that would be suicidal.
'Raiding a fortress isn't a matter for me, but assassinating all the High-Rank undead skeletons is.' He looked up at the sky and sighed helplessly.
But as he was about to take action, a black knife appeared from the right, tore through the air while making a rippling noise, and arrived before him.
'Noticed already?!' His expression stiffened.
However, he quickly moved his sword and blocked the knife with it.
Clang!
A second later, the clanging sound alerted the surrounding skeletons!
'No good!'
At that moment, Abium saw three shadowy figures running in his direction and clicked his tongue in annoyance.
'Skeleton Assassins.' He scanned the surroundings with his cold eyes, fixed his gaze on the cloaked assassins, and prepared for battle.
But suddenly, they seemed to have sensed something and stopped.
Simultaneously, the three Skeleton Assassins took out the strange golden bone and blew whistles.
'What the-? These skeletons are trying to expose my exact location to other skeletons!' He cursed at them inwardly and saw multiple red dots moving in his scan.
All those hiding skeletons walked out of their hiding spot and sprinted toward him the next instant.
Meanwhile, Abium showed a grim look and tightly gripped the Sword of Wrath.
'My location has already been exposed. My only option now is to battle these skeletons and reduce them as much as possible. I must be careful of those long-range ballistas. Although I hadn't entered its attack range, I shouldn't ignore its presence. One single bolt, I would be ripped to shreds.' While thinking, Abium touched his space ring, took out three knives, and threw them precisely at the incoming Skeleton Assassins.
Simultaneously, he distanced himself from the Assassins and soon looked at his right side.
'This is a well-organized plan. These skeletons are using tactics like humans. No, I think there should be a necromancer hiding in this fortress.' He thought inwardly.
At that moment, a 2.5-meter tall knight appeared from the right and unsheathed a broadsword from its back.
It wore metallic black armor around its skeletal body, covered its head with a helmet, and appeared stronger than any other skeleton he had ever seen.
'Death Knight!' Abium narrowed his eyes and was about to move towards it but froze.
At that moment, the Death Knight opened its mouth and spoke in a familiar language!
"It's been a while since a brave soul came to this island. Shall we start our game?"
'What the hell? Did it talk just now? How did it know the common tongue of Easica?' Shock appeared on his face.
He hurriedly shook his head, gripped his sword firmly in his hand, and asked,
"How are you able to talk?".
The Death Knight replied arrogantly:
"Why would I have to answer a half-elf who is going to be a specimen? Our orders were to capture you and others at all costs, not to answer your stupid questions. If you surrender now, it will be an easy death."
At that moment, its reddish eyes also flickered intensely and radiated chaotic energy everywhere.
'Order? As I thought, there seems to be a necromancer controlling this group. But there are many things I don't understand. Damn it; I lack information about the magic world.' Abium grumbled and soon thought of finishing his job sooner.
'Nicolaus and others might be in danger. I have to get out of here as soon as possible.'
"Worried about your companions? Don't worry; they will also come here sooner." The Death Knight halted its footsteps as it arrived 20 meters away from him and continued in puzzlement.
"But there is one thing I still do not understand. I thought we had concealed our presence very well earlier. How did you discover us?"
Instead of responding to the Death Knight's question, Abium took a step back and started to back away.
"Capture him!" Death Knight looked at the seven Elite Skeletons who arrived next to it and ordered.
Meanwhile, the Elite Skeletons also unsheathed their weapons and dashed forward towards Abium.
On the other hand, Abium continued to back away, calmly raised his hand, and conjured a ball of flame.
He then focused his attention on the seven Elite Skeletons and threw the [Red Orb] spell at them.