As he climbed the third mountain, the caterpillar flew around him, moving happily.
"You're almost at the acclaimed level 5, little one."
Although it was acclaimed by him, the caterpillar would have no obvious change other than to continue growing, surely. The important thing was that there he would finally complete his first Connection Crystal.
He had checked inside earlier; that crystal was almost created, and once it was formed, according to the system, he would get a statistics window.
KIII
The familiar sound in his head imparted the happiness he felt to the little caterpillar as it floated around him.
Edward suddenly frowned and looked more closely at the little caterpillar...
It had two tiny things sprouting from its back...
His eyes lit up.
Wings!
They were wings!
He couldn't help but feel happy about this and grabbed it to check.
Indeed, a pair of wings was growing on its back. Soon, it would be able to evolve.
The caterpillar didn't seem to have noticed until now, so after learning about it from Edward, its happiness and enthusiasm increased.
-
When they reached the top of the third mountain, Edward began to pray to the heavens that this guy would be there... He only had one pill left and several dozen minutes of the other. He didn't know how difficult it would be to kill this guy, who was presumed to be stronger than the other two.
His steps were heavy, but they avoided attracting attention. He didn't want to kill any more small undead, so he simply ran to the top, making sure not to be noticed by any of them. He also tried to get behind them to see if he could take the Wight by surprise.
A smile blossomed on his lips when his senses picked up something that his eyes soon found.
The Wight.
He was sitting on a huge rock in the middle of the place. He didn't need to climb the fourth mountain.
Just then, the Wight moved. With its back to him, it stood up and grabbed a sword it had been sharpening for an indeterminate amount of time.
'He was sharpening his sword?' Edward frowned and quickly hid. It seemed that this Wight would not be the same as the others.
Although it was identical, one thing was different. It had no fire in its hands or arms.
'Impossible for it not to have it.'
He could sense that it was a fire beast, and not only that, the system itself was telling him so. Above its head was its name and attribute.
It was a Fire Wight!
Why then did it not have what the others had?
His eyes lit up at one possibility.
'Could it be that he has good control over his own firepower?'
That possibility was terrifying... in that case, he would be in big trouble. It would mean that it was smarter and more powerful than its level suggests.
That would be possible if its "class" was special...
Edward shook his head. 'Let's test his ability first.' He thought and began devising a plan in his mind.
But he didn't have time.
Suddenly, the Wight turned around and lunged at him with a brutal charge, as if it already knew where he was.
Edward was forced to raise his sword to the height of his face to stop the approaching critical impact. His body was thrown to the ground and fell with an explosion that raised a large amount of dry leaves.
He took advantage of the leaves covering him to quickly reposition himself, but it was in vain. The Wight was able to follow him precisely and strike where he was.
He ducked and jumped toward the center of the area, managing to fall rolling on the ground.
Seeing that its enemy was not trying to escape, the Wight took soft steps in its direction until it stopped about 10 meters away from him.
Edward had time to get up and stare at it.
It was an intelligent Wight, more than he had expected. That meant its class was special, not typical of Wight.
Judging by its movements, Edward could guess that its class had something to do with a high level of perception... or perhaps magic.
He studied its posture, its sword raised downward, then looked at its expressionless face.
For a brief moment, he was stunned. 'It wants a sword duel!' He realized.
He had never heard of or seen a beast of such a low level with such a high degree of independence and understanding.
It was truly intelligent!
Edward smiled slightly.
"Well... Since you want to challenge me to a duel, I'll have to grant your wish," he said, drawing his sword.
Although in reality, he had no choice. If he could avoid a head-on fight, he would have done so, but unfortunately, the monster that had to be defeated with cunning by those without power turned out to be more cunning than he had expected.
Right now, he had no chance of killing it unless he engaged in a head-on battle with it.
Anyway... he had grown stronger.
The Wight seemed to smile with that horrible mouth; its teeth denoted a lunatic happiness. No one could understand what it was thinking or why it was doing it... It just did it.
It attacked first. Its body lunged forward, swinging its sword with such force that it quickly struck Edward's raised sword.
'Strong.' Edward noticed it immediately; his strength may have surpassed his own, though it's not certain.
'I can do this.' He smiled.
The blow he received pinned him to the ground, but that served as support so he wouldn't fall. His sword was slightly tilted, which had blocked most of the damage and dispersed it behind him. But it also allowed him to attack the Wight' shoulder with the same movement.
The attack was accurate, hitting exactly where Edward had planned, but at the same time, it gave the Wight time to attack him from the other side.
His body was finally struck and sent rolling across the ground a few meters away.
Both had been struck, but only one had lost his defensive stance.
Although it was nothing serious, Edward recovered very quickly and blocked several successive attacks from the Wight, dodging some, blocking others, and deflecting the last.
During the deflections, he took advantage of the moments to attack. His sword struck successively at the Wight's shoulder, chest, leg, and even stomach, finally forcing it to retreat.
Even so, these undead cannot feel much pain. Although it was forced back by the force of the impact, it did not have to catch its breath because, to begin with, it had no breath.
Its body was a dead machine, made to kill. Perhaps it felt pain for some unknown reason, but it was not too much, and that allowed it to return each of Edward's attacks with terrifying precision.