Zyrus saw a pair of crimson eyes staring at him, and before he could make a move, a booming sound came from the opposite direction.

“Fuck,” He cursed at his carelessness and held his spear against his torso.

Screech

In the next instance, a pair of red claws scratched against his spear before disappearing again. Zyrus lashed his tail to strike at the enemy, but he was too late.

Buzzz

He could see nothing except a violet blur moving across the tunnel.

Clang

Fortunately, his back was already close to the wall. He was barely able to block the creature’s lightning-fast blows at a short angle.

‘I see now,’

Instead of deflecting the next attack, Zyrus sidestepped and kicked at the blurry shadow. His leg hurt more than he’d thought, but the enemy was no better.

“Chree”

The creature faltered in pain. At last, Zyrus was able to make out its features in that split second.

It was the weirdest-looking being he had seen so far after his regression. The creature had a humanoid shape with skinny limbs. With red spikes that jutted out from its joints it looked like an abomination from hell.

Whizzz

The most baffling thing, however, was its fighting style. It jumped around the walls like a frog, and when in the air, the purple-blue wings on its back buzzed like an insect. It relied on extreme speed to attack with the claws on its hands and feet.

Despite being caught off guard at the beginning, Zyrus was certain about killing the thing with a couple of blows.

However, he didn't plan to do that just yet.

He observed the creature’s every move to gather all the information he could. He paid particular attention to its head. There were cyan feathery wings on the sides of its face along with two pairs of red eyes.

Slash

“Chick-”

‘Low defense, does unidirectional high-speed attacks,’ Zyrus noted after slashing its midriff. He was calm like a predator, observing everything about the alien species with his reptilian eyes.

Dark green blood seeped out from the alien’s gaping wound, and this time, its speed was slow enough for Zyrus to observe its movement.

The way it bounced across walls was like a swimmer in the pool. It didn’t seem to have any powers besides its instantaneous and explosive speed.

“It’s fascinating and creepy at the same time.”

Zyrus thought as he walked towards the creature.

“Chreek”

“Oh! Do you understand what I’m saying with that bug brain of yours?” Zyrus looked unfazed but inwardly, he was very much shocked.

He noted more of its characteristics and kept his pace. He knew what was coming next even without his instinct’s warning.

Bang

The creature lunged at him from an adjacent wall, and this time, he allowed the crimson claws to hit his back.

‘Shhh..’

Zyrus inhaled a sharp breath filled with pain. Four, inch-deep wounds were carved on his back. The pain was very much worth it for the information he got.

‘Sharp, blade-like claws that can destroy cell structure and slow down the regeneration rate.’

Whizzz

He once again showed an opening in his stance, but the outcome was different this time. Even a bug brain knew how to use feints, so how could he not? He concentrated all of his mana on his right hand and accelerated the speed of his attack.

Stab

“CHrekk”

“Looks like you don’t have a second phase huh? Goodnight then,” With a forward push, Zyrus plunged his spear deep into its head.

The alien creature was a textbook definition of a glass cannon build. With its lackluster defense and pitiful vitality, it died with a single blow.

‘Phew… this is fun,’

Zyrus grinned as he knelt beside the creature. This reminded him of his early days in the sanctuary. He fought grueling battles every day in this same manner to figure out the monsters' strengths and weaknesses.

It was thanks to those broken bones and the countless near-death encounters that he was having an easy time in this life. Be it the low-level goblins or the highly intelligent spirits, he knew each and every one of their weaknesses. He had fought against countless races and devised strategies to slaughter them in the most efficient way.

Some succeeded whereas some failed, but he kept repeating the same process.

Over and over again.

His tenacity and battle instincts had made the biggest contributions to humanity’s rise in the sanctuary. Zyrus leaned back to check his wound and after confirming that it was fine, he looked at the screen that floated above the creature.

[You have killed a Verdara Beetle]

[You can sacrifice the slain creature to summon a fallen warrior]

After reading the message, he moved his right hand over with eager eyes. There was a violet-red insignia on the back of his hand. It was a dragon with pitch-black eyes and nine blue horns.

The insignia started glowing in a purple hue as his hand inched closer towards the corpse of the Verdara beetle.

‘Do I have to use a spell or a chant?’ Zyrus thought with scrunched brows as nothing happened after that. He placed the creature's blood on his hand, but it was of no use as well.

He recalled the class description and thought of something. He hadn't paid much attention to it, but there was a phrase about his authority as a Sylvarix.

In that case, all he needed was a ‘command’ to summon them.

“AWAKEN.”

Zyrus’s deep voice filled with mana rumbled across the tunnel. Instantaneously, a gray light flashed on his hand which was placed on the Verdara beetle.

His mana was being drained at a rapid pace, but at the same time, the corpse was decaying at a visible rate.

Cr-carrrak

When more than two-thirds of his mana was consumed, a grayish-black crack appeared on top of the crumbling corpse. As if someone had thrown a rock at the glass window, the crack expanded at a rapid pace and consumed the entirety of the corpse.

Zyrus paced back a step and observed the crack with rapt attention.

The crack stabilized within the fraction of a second, and a being walked out from the other side.

The creature looked similar to Zyrus with a few notable differences. Along with a pair of slit eyes and a short tail, the creature had dark green reptilian skin over its body.

“A Lizardman?” Zyrus was surprised as he looked at the summoned creature. He wasn’t sure about its species as it was quite different from the lizardmen he knew. It looked like a hybrid of a serpent and a lizardman, but there wasn't such a race in the sanctuary as far as he knew.

“Can you speak?” He asked as he stood in front of the creature.

The creature looked at Zyrus with a gaze filled with respect, but it wasn’t able to do much besides that. Zyrus wanted to give more commands, but he reined in his curiosity and opened his class window first.

[Class: Balaur Summoner]

[Summoned Subordinates: 1]

Rank I units:

Ophidian infantry: 1

There wasn’t much information about the creature. Left with no other choice, Zyrus gave the creature all sorts of commands to check its battle capabilities. An hour passed by before he got a general idea about his summon.

“Hahaha… follow me,” Zyrus walked towards the splitting tunnels with a wide grin. It was time to build an army to fight against the invading aliens.

…

Slash

“CHrek”

Zyrus ducked on the ground after hitting a beetle, narrowly avoiding a pair of crimson claws above his head.

Boom

Whizz

“Finish him,” he commanded the ophidian warriors to attack the injured Verdara beetle as he fought against another two aliens.

Contrary to his expectations, the dungeon's exploration didn’t go as smoothly as he had thought. He had managed to summon three more Ophidian infantry in just a couple of hours; however, things went downhill from then on.

At first he was opening the doors one by one. Whenever there was a beetle inside, he would kill it with his summons who possessed flexible muscles and high agility.

The summoned creatures didn’t have any weapons despite their ‘infantry’ tag. Instead, they fought with their fists and tails like a martial artist. Nonetheless, they were a good match against the Verdara beetles with their quick feet and a whip-like tail.

It was exhilarating to gang up on the verdara beetle and increase his troops with every kill.

But Zyrus made a serious miscalculation. He had overlooked the fact that the aliens were insectoid in nature, and just like any other insects, they were much more fearsome in groups.

He had provoked a swarm after he went in to explore a hall. It was in the middle of a tunnel, and Zyrus had to cancel the summoning as he ran for his life.

Only after running for an hour and losing more than half of his health was he able to shake off the Verdara beetles. And as lady luck would have it, he had encountered another bunch of aliens on his way back. The ones he and his three ophidian warriors were currently fighting.

Whip

Flick

Zyrus heaved a sigh of relief after the ophidian warriors finished off a beetle. The creature was reduced to minced meat after getting pummeled by the infantry trio.

Whizz

He rolled sideways to avoid the attack and stabbed towards the other beetle. The ophidians seized the opportunity as they lunged towards the first attacker as well.

The Verdara beetle didn’t have the chance to showcase its remarkable speed with three of them surrounding it. This had been their core tactic thus far where Zyrus acted as both a damage dealer and a tank who maintained aggro.

Zyrus baited the last pursuer and just when it was about to slash at his eyes, he used the butt of his spear to slam at its wings. It didn’t do much damage, but judging from the aliens’ scream it seemed to have hurt a lot.

He kicked its waist once again and slammed the alien onto the wall. They were having such an easy time because of his strong defense and the ophidian warriors ganging up on one target after another.

“Cshkrrii-”

The verdara beetle was finally dead once Zyrus plunged his spear into its brain. The eerie thing was it didn’t stop screeching in a metallic voice until all of its blood was drained.

‘This won’t work in the long run…’

Zyrus walked back with many thoughts running through his head. His poison breath was ineffective against the beetles, so he was left with no other aoe abilities. The summoned Ophidian infantry had the same issue as well. They were as strong as an average player in close combat, but their power was limited without complementary equipment and magic. The crux of the matter was that the aliens outnumbered them by too big of a margin.

‘Looks like I’ll have to create another spell that uses the power of concepts,’

As an archmage, he had no lack of aoe spells in his memories. Him not being able to use them due to lack of mana didn’t mean that his experience was wasted.

He wanted to create something with the source of origin and the concepts he had comprehended. And he had a clear vision for that.

It was time to give the aliens a taste of an Arcanist’s Domain.

 

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