The Rising of the Scythe Hero

While I was mastering the scythe with poison resistance, Night and I kept exterminating monsters in the area. Even if the experience they gave was minimal, it was still something – and I didn't see the point in sitting around doing nothing.

After three hours, a notification popped up in my head: mastery complete. And, finally, I managed to level up. Now I was level 65. That meant I'd passed the halfway mark to the next ten-level threshold.

Before the main fight, I decided to take a short break and restore even the small amounts of Mana and Spirit I'd spent so far.

For the first time in this world, I was about to fight something that was almost on par with me. My blood was practically boiling…

The thought of leaving Night at the entrance and fighting the monster one-on-one briefly crossed my mind. But I shook my head, forcing the idea away. No, that wouldn't work. Sure, I bought Night primarily as a companion, not as a fighter – but just carrying her around like a lucky charm didn't sound like a great idea either. If I never let her face enemies close to her level or even stronger, then when I actually needed her, she might be useless due to lack of experience. I couldn't allow that.

"When the fight starts, don't overextend yourself, Night." I gently ran my hand through her silky hair. It calmed me down. "This monster is much stronger than you. Provide support, but don't take unnecessary risks."

"I understand, Master." Night closed her eyes contentedly. She clearly enjoyed the attention.

"Alright, time to go."

Nodding to myself, I stood up and headed into the cave. Naturally, Night followed close behind.

The moment my foot crossed the "threshold" of the cave, all my sensory abilities practically screamed at me about just how corrupted this place was. I could literally feel that the whole area was soaked in the stench of death.

As we went deeper, the corpses of monsters and animals were scattered all over the ground. Actual corpses. For some reason, they hadn't undergone necro-fication – they were just lying there. Or…

"Khrgh…" A hoarse, gurgling noise came from somewhere up ahead.

"Oh, come ooon." I rolled my eyes, turning around. "You guys can't be serious right now, can you?"

Of course they could. Both behind me and in front of me, the corpses started to rise – a full-blown zombie cliché.

Just a second ago, they were completely indistinguishable from regular dead bodies. I couldn't even sense mana in them. But now, as if following some typical movie script, they all suddenly sprang to life. And now, their magic signatures were obvious.

"The ones behind us are yours. Can you handle them?"

"Yes."

Taking her Filolial form – thankfully, the cave's size allowed it – Night confidently moved toward the resurrected rabbit-vampires, wolves, foxes, and… is that a beaver? What the hell…

I didn't have to worry about Night. But fighting here with my usual Reaper Scythe was going to be awkward. The height of the cave was fine for Night, but for me, swinging such a massive weapon wasn't exactly convenient. I had to set the scythe aside for now. Sure, I had other, smaller weapons in my arsenal – but I'd invested all my resources into the Reaper Scythe. Upgrading anything else felt like a waste…

And honestly, I didn't even need a weapon right now.

"By the source of power, I command: decipher the laws of the world and freeze everything. Ice Field."

The tunnel ahead rapidly iced over, covering the ground with a thick, solid sheet. Naturally, mindless corpses didn't have ice-skating skills, so they quickly turned into a chaotic pile of meat, sliding straight toward me.

"By the source of power, I command: decipher the laws of the world and strike this foe. Ice Shards."

Touching the frozen ground beneath my feet, I unleashed the spell. A moment later, sharp ice spikes exploded upward from the surface.

Honestly, my opinion of magic had improved lately. With enough practice, you could shorten incantations – and sometimes magic was way more effective than weapons. Plus, if you trained hard enough, you could even cast spells on the move, which made for a solid boost to my usual fighting style without drawbacks.

I cleared my side pretty quickly. Night wasn't falling behind either.

"By the source of power, I command: decipher the laws of the world and cut down my enemies. Wind Blades."

Flapping her wings, Night unleashed visible crescent blades of wind like a machine gun, slicing the weaker monsters in half and shredding the tougher ones.

"By the source of power, I command: decipher the laws of the world and blow them away. Wind Burst."

A strong gust instantly formed behind Night and exploded, launching her forward. Right in mid-air, she shifted back into her Filolial form, spun like a drill, and practically tore through everything in her path.

Damn… impressive.

Practice clearly showed we were both making solid progress with magic. Ever since I learned to properly read, studying new spells had gotten a lot easier – which wasn't surprising.

The only problem was that truly powerful, worthwhile spells started from Dritt level. Those could actually hit a wide area. Meanwhile, the first and second levels – Erst and Zweit – were more suited for single targets. There was also the fourth level – Liberation – but I barely knew anything about that. It was only briefly mentioned in the canon. Most people in this world didn't even know such spells existed.

"I'm done, Master."

After finishing off a few lucky survivors, Night ran up to me, her expression making her intentions pretty obvious.

"Good job. You handled that perfectly."

"Mmm…" The bird happily closed her eyes as I patted her head.

She really was so simple. And at the same time – ridiculously cute…

"Ahem."

Clearing my throat and forcing my thoughts back in order, I gave the signal to keep moving deeper into the cave. Nothing else came at us from behind, but we did run into a few more waves of revived corpses. At this point, it wasn't surprising anymore. And they weren't exactly strong, so it wasn't a problem.

At least… not until we entered what looked like a hall.

Up to this point, the cave looked completely ordinary – rough stone walls, stalactites, typical cave stuff. But the space that opened up ahead… looked strangely artificial.

The walls were smoother, almost polished. The floor was more symmetrical, perfectly even.

I would've thought it was someone's secret base or laboratory… but the place was completely empty. There was absolutely nothing inside.

Except for the dark hole at the far end of the hall.

Thump.

Something rumbled.

Then came the sound of shuffling, scraping against stone.

Thump. Thump. Thump.

And then… from that very dark hole, came the sound of heavy, barefoot footsteps.

Very large, barefoot footsteps.

A few seconds later, the source of the noise appeared.

"Guoooh…" the thing groaned. An ogre.

A full-blown necro-ogre.

Pale, corpse-like skin. A bald head with patches where the flesh had simply peeled off. Sunken eyes staring in different directions. A gaping, twisted mouth, releasing faint wisps of purple mist – obviously poisonous.

The thing was at least five meters tall. Maybe more – I was never great at judging distance. And in its hands… a massive wooden club. Seriously, where do these mobs always get clubs? Are they born holding them or what?

"Guo… oh?" The ogre tilted its head toward us. One second… two… "Oh… GUOOOOH!!!" it roared with all the might of its rotting throat. I could've sworn a chunk of decayed flesh flew out of its mouth…

With an earth-shaking crash, the monster charged at us. Moving so fast it crossed the entire hall in seconds, raising its club and bringing it down with terrifying force.

Dodging to the side wasn't difficult – not for me, not for Night. But the downward smash wasn't the end of it. That miracle club – honestly, I can't think of a better name for this legendary weapon – not only withstood the impact with the stone floor, but shattered it, sending sharp fragments of rock flying straight at us.

"Ow…" Night flinched, instinctively grabbing at a pretty nasty cut left by a flying shard.

"Don't stick your neck out, Night. Support me with dark magic."

"…Okay." She hesitated for a moment, but then nodded. Good girl.

Swinging my Reaper Scythe, I lunged toward the monster. Unlike all the others – this was the first one I could actually feel life inside. But life so twisted and distorted… it made you wonder if it wouldn't be better not to live at all than to exist like that.

The monster, still lifting its club, spotted me charging in. Apparently, sizing up its options, it decided not to lift the club completely, but instead dragged it across the floor with brutal force, aiming to sweep me off my feet.

I avoided the attack easily enough by simply jumping over it, but my assault stalled right there – the ogre, using the momentum, started spinning wildly, swinging his club in every direction.

"Decipher the laws of the world and strike this foe: Ice Spike."

A sharp shard of ice shot from my hand with a whistle, and I poured as much magic into it as I could, but…

Crack.

…The icicle shattered uselessly against the monster's leg, not even leaving a scratch. Great.

"Night."

"Yes, Master."

No need for extra words. The bird knew exactly what I expected from her.

Her lips moved soundlessly while the ogre kept spinning, gradually burning through its momentum. Just a few more seconds and it would attack again.

"Erst Speed Reducing… Erst Defense Reducing." Night whispered, casting Dark-element spells in succession.

Too bad that's all she'd managed to learn so far. But even lowering the enemy's speed and defense gave me a solid advantage.

The ogre finally stopped spinning and immediately locked eyes on me. After twirling around like a top, you'd think it'd be dizzy, but… yeah, that wasn't happening. Undead perks.

"GUOOOH!!!" Roaring, the ogre charged me again.

Even as it moved, it was swinging its club chaotically in front of itself, trying to prevent me from getting close. For its size, it was surprisingly agile…

But so were we.

"Erst Phantom Scythe."

Using the monster's own speed against it, I summoned a phantom scythe beneath its feet. In my mind, the momentum and the sharpness of the scythe would slice its leg clean off, but…

"Guoooh…"

In the end, the thing just tripped and faceplanted into the floor. The ridiculousness of the scene made me freeze for a moment, but I quickly snapped out of it, determined to take advantage of the situation.

Charging toward the monster's neck, I picked up as much speed as possible while chanting a spell.

"By the source of power, I command: decipher the laws of the world and freeze everything. Ice Field."

I focused on the spell, sacrificing the overall area to make the icy trail longer. The result wasn't perfect, but the difference was noticeable.

Thanks to that, I wasn't running – I was practically flying straight at the monster's head, just as it started lifting itself up.

I ducked low, aiming the blade of my scythe right at its neck, like a flying guillotine.

Just one more second… and…

"Huh?"

"Guo?"

We both made equally dumb noises as I watched my scythe sink into the monster's flesh… and then get farther and farther away from me.

BAM!

Everything went black.

Barely managing to move, I shook my head and heard the monster's furious roar. My scythe was buried deep in its neck – and now the ogre was yanking at it, trying to rip it out.

Stars still danced in my eyes, and my ribs ached like hell. Thank the system for my level – considering the speed I hit that wall, the absolute minimum I should've expected was every single bone in my body shattered.

Instead, I got away with some nasty bruises and…

"Ugh…"

…And, yeah, probably a broken rib. Lucky it didn't puncture a lung.

But now what? Even with Night's dark magic weakening it, and even after hitting it with everything I had – this thing was basically impenetrable.

Or… maybe not.

I squinted, focusing on the ogre.

I'd been just a little off. The scythe had, as they say, hit bone. Specifically, the spine. Unbelievable durability for a corpse…

Good thing it didn't have regeneration. Otherwise, I'd be completely screwed.

Right before I lost my grip on the scythe, I distinctly felt a crack. So I didn't necessarily need to repeat the whole maneuver – just hit hard enough to finish what I'd started and break the damaged spine completely.

Hold on a sec…

Mentally opening my Reaper Scythe's stats, I groaned and smacked my forehead. What an idiot…

[Reaper Scythe 21/30 (C)]

[Mastery achieved. Equipment bonus: Attack +30]

[Special Effect: Withering (active)]

[Mastery: 100]

And that's it. Ages ago, I upgraded it as far as my resources allowed and then basically forgot about it. I'd had no trouble killing monsters, so I stopped thinking about further improvements.

They say you only learn from your mistakes— or broken ribs. Or something like that…

I had more than enough materials now, so without hesitation, I dumped everything I could into upgrading the Reaper Scythe.

Alright… step by step. First, feed the scythe all available materials to convert them into energy. Then…

[Reaper Scythe 21/30 (C) → Reaper Scythe 30/30 (B)]

Fully maxed out the reinforcement level and raised its rarity. Perfect. Moving on…

[Mastery: 100 → Mastery: 0]

[Received 4000 Mastery Energy Points]

[Reaper Scythe 30/30 (B) → Reaper Scythe 30/30 (B) (Awakened)]

[Mastery: 0]

And lastly — Attack Class Level.

[Attack Class Lv. 2:

Attack Gauge 4/6]

Okay, for that I needed raw materials, not energy. Damn, I rushed the conversion. Good thing I didn't dump literally everything into it.

[Gauge filled. Attack +10]

[Attack Gauge 0/7]

Oh. There's even a cooldown for this function… I couldn't just refill the gauge immediately— had to wait. Guess I'd deal with that later.

"That's better." Groaning a little, I pushed myself to my feet.

"GUO-O-KH!!!" The ogre roared even louder, flinging my scythe aside.

It trembled in the air… and with a flash of bright violet light, reappeared in my hand. Handy. Though that same feature meant I couldn't even set the scythe aside— it always had to be somewhere on my person.

"Alright, round two?" I smirked, staring at the ogre's enraged, decaying face.