CHAPTER 48: A WORM

"Kekeke, since you already came all this way, why don’t you stay..." a voice came from the cave.

Cipher and his party felt the world freeze around them before seeing massive tentacles made of shadows rushing out of the cave and toward them. Just as they were about to be encapsulated by the shadows, Cipher showed a slight smile. "Got you," he thought.

Instantly, a portal appeared before the party and the chairman came out. His hands glowed blue as he grabbed the dark tentacles, snapping them apart to reveal the boss - a huge skeleton monster about eight feet tall.

"There you are," Marcus said. "Good work, Cipher. Get going."

Cipher didn’t waste time and began moving with his party. "Let’s move," he shouted, and they rushed into the middle cave. The Immortal King glanced at them, but the chairman teleported before the cave entrance, extending his hands defensively.

"Who would’ve thought that the leader of the cult was just a squirming worm," the chairman said.

"Worm?" the Immortal King questioned. "Worm, you say?" As he spoke, his aura continued intensifying. "A worm? I am the Immortal King! I was on the verge of ascension, about to transcend this pathetic mortal realm and claim my place among the gods! Years of preparation, thousands of sacrifices, all leading up to this moment - my apotheosis!"

"But you... you insects just had to interfere! If not for you meddling fools, I would be a god by now! You will pay for this transgression. Every. Single. One of you!"

As he spoke, thousands of undead began rising from the ground.

The chairman observed the Immortal King nervously.

He had received a report on his stats from Cipher. Although he was at the later stages of A-rank just like him, he had a few troublesome skills - especially his unique skill that allowed him to summon endless undead and buff them.

He glanced toward the main battle. The others were still fighting against the initial undead wave and would take some time to come here. He hadn’t taken anyone with him when teleporting as the main party needed all the strength it could get to not be overwhelmed. He let out a sigh.

"Come at me," he taunted.

...

Inside the cave, Cipher and his team moved cautiously.

Although he was aware of the monsters’ locations through ESP, he was still unfamiliar with the terrain. And who knows, those cultists might have set up traps.

Speaking of, his plan to expose the Immortal King had gone quite well. Since he didn’t know whether or not the Immortal King was in the cave, he had shown hesitation, hoping that if the Immortal King was in the cave, he would show himself to stop them, and if he was outside, he wouldn’t stop him and they’d know that at least he wasn’t in the cave.

Although the plan wasn’t all that great and had many flaws, the Immortal King seemed to have fallen for it. Now they just needed to clear the caves and rescue the civilians before returning to backup the chairman.

He needed to find a way to kill the Immortal King for good.

After checking his stats, he hadn’t seen anything special, apart from his unique skill that had the designation "ultimate" instead of "unique." He wondered if this was the natural progression of unique skills.

Even so, he hadn’t seen anything to do with revival in the Immortal King’s skill descriptions. He had even checked his necromancer class’s trait, but there was nothing. He wondered if he hadn’t received his ability to revive at this time. He really hoped that was the case.

He then summoned his own system as they approached the corner where the undead were situated. "The monsters are up ahead. Get ready," he said to his teammates, and they became alert.

[Name: Cipher]

[Level: 80 (8,000/80,000)]

[Species: Human]

[Class: Cheater]

[Health: 3200/4000]

[Mana: 110/330]

[Strength: 40]

[Stamina: 40]

[Agility: 40]

[Intelligence: 33]

[Stat Points: 38]

[Cheat Points: 2400]

[Skills (8/13): Pain Tolerance (S), Mana Manipulation (A), Regeneration (C), Aura (D), Dagger Throw (D), Mana Recovery (D), Voice Transmission (D), Assassinate (E)]

[Unique Skill/s (1/2): Heavenly Demonic Sword Art (Unique)]

[Cheats: Cheat Shop (Max Level), Absolute Appraisal (Max Level), Aimbot (Max Level), Fly Mode (Max Level), ESP (Level 2), Infinite Inventory (Level 1)]

[Owned Cards: ]

He had killed thirty D-ranks and four C-ranks to get here, leveling up nineteen times and also gaining 38 stat points and 1520 cheat points in the process. He decided to distribute the stats now before entering the next battle so his true rank wouldn’t change.

First, he put seven points to intelligence to see if what Ryker had told him was true.

Instantly, a system notification came:

[Congratulations! Aura (D) has advanced to Aura (C)]

Cipher smiled. It really worked. It seemed the conditions for advancing aura was having all equal stats for a certain level. So to get B-rank, he just needed to have eighty in all stats. At least that’s what he theorized.

Now with that out of the way, he distributed the remaining 31 stats - eleven to intelligence, ten to strength, and ten to agility. Feeling satisfied with this, he closed the system.

He then turned to his team as they were about to turn the corner. "The monsters we’ll be facing from now on are much stronger. Selene will be our main damage dealer and Ryker will support her. I’ll also be fighting, but my focus will be mainly on finding a path forward.

Maya, support them. Dante, stay by her side. Keep your eyes on her at all times. Don’t engage unless you absolutely have to," he instructed. They nodded, acknowledging his instructions.

When they turned the corner, undead came rushing toward them. Cipher swung his sword, slicing through the initial charge and instantly separating from the team as he moved forward to find a path, all while slaughtering any undead that approached him.

Maya raised her hands, causing a golden energy to cover Selene and Ryker, who instantly engaged the monsters.

...

Author’s Corner

apart from his unique skill that had the designation "ultimate" instead of "unique."

Unique Skill: Undead Legion (Ultimate)

Category is still unique skill