The “Undead” is a creature, as the name suggests, that was once dead but was raised from it. They are normally found in ancient ruins or underground dungeons as these places are filled with Death energy that raises the dead, and creatures who die inside these dungeons become one.

The undead found in dungeons are typically weak but there are instances when they become stronger than the average; such as the presence of a Lich.

Lich, though not strong, has the power to cast buffs on undead creatures to make them stronger, faster, and tougher.

Outside the dungeons, undead creatures are created only through Necromancy; and Necromancers, like Lich, have the ability to strengthen them.

Though both undeads created inside the dungeons and by a Necromancer are still both undead, the ones created by Necromancers are superior as long as the necromancer maintains the undead’s body through reinforcement magicka. Such is the case with the undead creatures of the veteran spellcaster.

But the farmer doesn’t know the technicalities of this.

Its weakness…

Its strengths…

The strategy on how to fight them…

None of that matters to him… at least not anymore…

He has observed the veteran spellcaster’s so-called “Masterpiece” enough and so the others are now useless to him…

Well not exactly useless as there’s just one test he couldn’t do before…

The “Durability test”.

“Goblins are weak in general… I’m not surprised that its skull can be shattered easily.” The farmer thought to himself while looking at the body of the undead goblin, with its head blown to pieces.

“What I really want to test is that!” He glared at the undead orc behind the undead beastman and the undead lizardman.

“I already have high orcs at the farm but in the unfortunate event that something happens to them, I can just turn them into an undead.” The farmer wonders to himself.

“Anyway…”

“What happened to you?” The farmer asked while glancing back at the investigator mage.

“Mana… Deficiency…” It was the only words the investigator mage could utter as he continued to breath heavily. 

“I see…” Well, it’s not that the farmer knows the terminologies mages use but the what the investigator mage said was already self-explanatory.

“Just rest for a while and let me handle this.” The farmer said. He then prepares for the fight as both the undead beastman and lizardman start to charge at him.

The undead beastman, being the faster of the two, lunged at the farmer with the latter dodging the attack before retaliating with a hook punch to the beastman’s ribs.

“Huh?” The farmer’s punch connected but it didn’t feel solid. It was the beastman’s fur absorbing the impact of his punch; he doesn’t  know how to explain it but he knows that punching won’t do any good. And so, very quickly, he kicked the beastman’s knee to the side causing it to fall to its knee and bring its head to his level.

“Bad dog!” The farmer uttered before punching the beastman on the face, right between the eyes, and planting its head to the ground. Seeing the undead lizardman approaching, he then shoved the cudgel at the beastman’s skull, destroying it and at the same time planting it to the ground. He then charged at the undead lizardman, unarmed.

“Use your cudgel!” The investigator shouted. After resting for a few minutes, he was able to restore his mana, stabilizing his condition but not at the point where he could freely cast magicka spells.

“Lizardmen are known to have scales that are strong as a rock and have magicka dispelling effects! If you punch that thing barehanded, your Strengthening buff will be dispelled and you’ll break your arm!” He explained, assuming the farmer was using a Strengthening magicka buff to fight the undead creatures.

“Strengthening wha–?” The farmer looked genuinely confused.

The undead lizardman quickly slithered towards the farmer’s blindspot; even in death, it would still go with its nature of attacking its prey with assassination techniques. With sharp and poisoned talons, it tried to lop the farmer’s head but was quickly stopped by the farmer.

 “No kidding, it is as hard as a rock…” The farmer commented while squeezing the undead lizardman’s wrist.

“But you see…”

“I’ve crushed far tougher things than a rock!” The farmer said so as he glanced back towards the investigator mage’s direction.

“I see, he’s not the master of the Sacred cudgel for nothing…” The investigator mage thought to himself. Suddenly, he sensed a dark magicka in the air, coming from the direction of the veteran spellcaster.

“Shit! Stop him!” The investigator mage shouted at the farmer while pointing at the veteran spellcaster.

“He’s restoring the damage on the Undead Orc!”

“You worry too much.” The farmer said before stopping another attack from the lizardman, grabbing its arm as it tried to slice him with its talons. He then launches a barrage of punches into the lizardman’s abdomen, shattering its scales, then proceeds to dig into its stomach. He then inserts his other hand in it before proceeding to tear the lizardman’s body in half.

“All with his bare hands?” The investigator mage couldn’t believe it. Being able to defeat a lizardman unarmed, even if it was an undead…

No…

It’s because it was an undead that it was unbelievable.

A living creature will grow tired, feel fear, bleed, weaken, get hurt… Plenty of reasons why it is much easier to defeat a living being than its undead counterpart. 

“Of course… How could I forget… He’s the one tasked to defeat the Demon king.” Focused on the case, he has forgotten how the farmer and the young cleric only joined him so he could finish the quest faster and recruit him on their main quest.

“You cretin…” The veteran spellcaster uttered in frustration.

“Let’s see you fight this!.” He shouted before casting an illusion magicka spell.

“Induce Rage” Although the target of the spell is an undead, rage is almost always present among orcs, even in death. In some cases, an orc dying in battle will enter in a furious rage frenzy to bring down as many enemies with him as he can.

The undead orc howled in fury, lifting his ax up in the air before charging at the farmer. The undead tries to cleave him but misses due to its wide swing, it starts to attack him continuously, gradually increasing speed and power with each swing, but the farmer just keeps dodging it.

“Shit! I knew it! This is too much even for him…” The investigator mage thought to himself. He then starts to chant a magicka spell to try to help the farmer, but the farmer stops him.

“Save your mana! I got this.” He said. He then retreated to where his cudgel was planted, grabbing it before moving to the undead’s blindspot to the side. The undead tries to attack him but the farmer parries it with the cudgel, shattering the ax to pieces.

The attack the undead did caused its head to drop to the farmer’s level, giving the latter an opportunity to throw a powerful punch to its head, sending it to the ground then crushing its skull with the cudgel, killing it completely.

“Impossible!” The veteran spellcaster, even though he felt weak from mana deficiency, couldn’t help but shout in shock. Despite not being his “masterpiece”, the undead orc under the effects of Induce Rage was his strongest and toughest creature; for comparison, it would take at least three knights of the kingdom’s army to be able to subdue an orc warrior who’s under the effects of furious rage frenzy.

After coming to his senses, the veteran spellcaster desperately tries to get up despite being weakened by mana deficiency. He was able to get up for a few seconds but quickly fell to the ground and was unable to move.

“You should’ve run when you had the chance.” While the farmer fights the undead orc, the investigator mage sneaks towards the veteran spellcaster and since he saved his mana just as he was told, he is able to properly cast a Binding magicka spell.

“You good now?” The farmer approaches the investigator mage.

“Yeah, if it’s just a Binding spell, I can handle this much.” The investigator mage replied while rummaging through his sachet.

“Where’s the young lady anyway?” He asked.

“I left her resting in that shack… So what do we do now?”

“We’ll use this.” The investigator mage pulls a tubular container from his sachet.

“This is a stored magicka I keep in case of emergencies…” The investigator mage points it upwards to the sky. He then pulls a seal on top of it, releasing a colored fire that shoots up to the sky.

“Just hold this up to the sky and we’ll wait for the guards to come to us.” He instructed, handing the container to the farmer.

“How long will this last?”

“A couple of hours, just keep it straight up in the air.”

It took almost an hour for the kingdom’s guard patrols to find them even with the lightworks to guide them, and a half hour for all of them to get back to the city. Of course the farmer didn’t forget about the young cleric, who’s patiently waiting for him at the shack, he needed to get back to the city to borrow a cart and some manpower to retrieve the bodies of the adventurers they found underneath the shack.

“Where have you been?! What took you so long to get back?!” The young cleric, shouted; not in an angry tone but nervously and afraid, almost comical.

“Sorry! It took us a while to get back to the city with the suspect.” The farmer replied.

“You mean you went back to the city first then you came here?! That’s… that’s so mean!” The young cleric, almost crying, said. The young cleric kept nagging at the farmer, even as they walked through the forest, until they reached the city.