"Thank god I hadn't thrown this wooden spike away," Ren muttered as he looked at the terrified face of his minion.
The vermin he just killed was lying on the ground, its back facing the sky as Ren sat upon it.
"Wait, will you even be considered a minion with your size after I transform you? Oh, the notifications."
Facepalming, he instantly brought forth all the notifications he had missed to check them out.
[Level 14 Vermin killed. Exp +327]
[Leveled up! You have reached level 7!]
[Leveled up! You have reached level 8!]
Ren whistled seeing his level jump up to eight. He hadn't expected to gain two levels at once.
He didn't feel any changes in his body but he didn't worry about it because the changes happened gradually and one wouldn't be able to feel any difference except their exhaustion being cleared up.
Not able to control himself anymore, Ren decided to have a quick look at his status.
｢Name: Ren
Level: 8
Bloodline: Heir of Oblivion
Strength:22~>26
Agility:16~>18
Vitality:12~>14
Stamina:17~>19
Mana:12~>16 — [8/16]
Spirit Power:67
Skill:———｣
"Hm… my mana replenished by leveling up and thankfully the upper limit is now more than enough to turn a level fourteen vermin into a minion."
But he needed to replenish his mana by six points.
Shaking his head, Ren ordered his level ten minion to go and hunt some vermins while he cleaned the blood and grime from his axe.
Unable to sit still after a few minutes, he himself started to hunt some lower-level vermins.
A few hours later, he finally reached Level 9.
Mana:16~>18 - [15/18]
Looking at his mana stat, Ren was now able to confirm that a person didn't necessarily have to be present inside a safe zone for natural mana recovery.
"Now it's your turn." With a touch of his hand and a mental command, the vermin's corpse twitched—slowly returning back to life.
Ren jumped away from it and focused intently on the transformation.
The spikes present on its back which were just two to three inches in length started growing further and didn't stop until it reached two feet in height. Its back started to bulk up by each passing second as it slowly stood up from the ground. Now, its height reached more than ten feet and was comparable to a huge orc.
Its blade-like arms started to become sharper and honed, the color changing to crimson-dark.
And its eyes also switched colors to just like Ren's and his minion's.
Satisfied with the change, Ren nodded to himself.
But looking at its sharp blades, his eyes inadvertently fell to his axe.
'I have a low reach when fighting big monsters like this one. But I don't have the time to train in a new kind of weapon.' Sighing, he decided to search for an alternative after reaching Highcrest.
Placing a hand on his chin, Ren contemplated what to do with these two as he couldn't exactly place them in a house. That was simply an idiotic plan considering the sheer size of his new minion.
But before that, he decided to test something.
Looking at his new minion, he stepped closer and placed a hand on its chest.
A golden prompt suddenly appeared above its head.
[Name: …..]
A thoughtful look appeared on Ren's face as suitable names surfaced in his mind.
"Alright, you are quick and agile so your name will be Shrike, and seeing your blades and what you did to Caleb, I will call you Fleshcleaver."
Satisfied with the names, Ren ordered both of them to continue hunting in the forest for the rest of the day. So that he could reach level ten by tomorrow morning.
'I can't take any chances tomorrow.'
He had been away for too long from the village and with Evan's decision to depart from the village of Brookfield tomorrow morning, he needed to make some preparations.
As he moved through the forest, Ren suddenly remembered something and changed his direction.
Moving for a few minutes, he finally saw the river from where they collected the water for consumption.
The water was light-blue with hues of orange sunlight falling on its surface from the setting sun in the distance. It gave off a serene and calm atmosphere.
Even though staying in the village wouldn't let someone starve to death, they could still die of thirst and hunger if they were outside the barrier for long enough.
And tomorrow, they would be going towards the city and Ren didn't know how long would the journey be.
Opening his inventory, he took out all his pots and started filling them up with water before storing them back.
After finishing, Ren took one last glance at the river before going back.
Just as he was about to go back to his room to rest, his ears perked up sensing some noise.
Moving towards the sound, he finally saw Ronan and Evan chatting together while Lina stood beside Evan quietly.
Ronan's voice continued to increase the further he spoke.
"What do you mean by this? How do you expect Caleb to move with us tomorrow? Have you not seen his condition?"
Ren already had an inkling as to what the reason for their argument could be and after listening to Ronan, he realised that he was actually right.
Before Evan could say something, Ronan interrupted him once again, "Who made you the captain, letting you decide when we will move?"
"It's the best option for everyone, we don't have any specific time for when the barrier will collapse. And we can't let those hordes of zombies attack us first, so we have no other choice but to escape first."
Evan clenched his jaw. The anger burning in his chest had only one target—himself. For the stupid decision he'd made when partying up.
But he still didn't show his frustration and tried to explain everything patiently.
But was Ronan going to listen to any of it?
He started arguing fiercely with Evan. Now, Evan too began to feel angry and was about to shout back, but before the matter could blow up any further—Lina stepped in.