Dead Man Walking: Living By Day, Dead By Night
Chapter 157: Reaping the Rewards

Zane gazed at the shocking new skill he achieved? A New Skill? Was that the result of consuming a Horde King's blood crystal? This was shocking new information. When he thought about it, this meant that the overwhelming majority of awakened survivors would be limited to one skill.

The reason being is that it would normally take a group of 6 awakened survivors at level 25, and partially equipped with gear to take on a Tier I Horde King like Eliza. As for those higher Tier Horde Kings, Zane did not even want to think about how hard they would be to kill.

But the problem with this was that only one blood crystal dropped per Undead. This rule seemed to be universal even applying to the mighty Horde Kings. If it took a minimum of six Awakened Survivors to defeat a Horde King, but there was only one blood crystal.

Then this meant that there would be a severe competition to see who received the Horde King's blood crystal. In fact, among parties with less trust, they might even turn on one another and kill each other for the grand prize.

But putting these notions of future conflicts between survivors for Blood Crystals aside. Zane noticed that he received 1,000 XP for a Tier I Horde King Blood Crystal. In addition to this, he received a new skill which was the real prize.

---

[Congratulations! You have unlocked the skill Commander of the Dead!]

[Commander of the Dead: Active: Type: Command]

[Tier I]

[Unique Skill]

[Description: You have the ability to command Tier I Undead, which you come across in the wild to do your bidding.]

[Horde Size: 0/100]

---

The more Zane inspected the skill, the more he realized how OP it could be if he leveled it up properly. At the moment, he could only control a horde of 100 Tier I Undead. And he would essentially have to replace Undead in the wild and usurp the authority of the Horde King who is already in charge of them.

Interestingly enough, Zane could summon and dismiss these undead at a moment's notice. Vanishing them to a unique inventory management feature that exclusively dealt with the Undead beneath his command.

What this meant was, Zane could employ 100 Walkers or other Tier I Undead to act as meat shields for him and his party. But what was also interesting was unlike the Walker's in the wild, Zane could also manage the equipment of these undead, and could even level them up.

Simply thinking about the possibilities that Zane could use to employ his small horde of undead, they were truly endless. Of course, Zane did not immediately announce this new skill to the others. Instead, he went back and celebrated their victory after a hard fought battle.

It was not until after sharing a few drinks, and partaking in some food, did Zane finally wander off to bed. Where he laid next to Madison. After everything that happened tonight, Madison was quick to fall asleep. But Zane was wide awake.

After all, he unlocked several new achievements in his system that were remarkable.

---

[Achievement: Reclamation]

[Requirements: Reclaim a City from a Horde King]

[Progress: 1/1]

[Rewards:

50,000 XP

Settlement Expansion]

[Claim: Y/N?]

---

Zane did not immediately claim the achievement. Instead, he looked over at another, which surprised him.

---

[Achievement: Horde King's Demise – Tier I]

[Requirements: Slay a Tier I Horde King]

[Progress: 1/1]

[Rewards:

50,000 XP

Trinket: Decrepit Diadem]

[Claim: Y/N?]

---

Zane's eyes nearly jumped out of his sockets when he saw the rewards for the two achievements. Just for two out of three of the achievements he had received, the man had gained 100,000 XP combined. This was enough for three whole levels!

But there was a third achievement that Zane unlocked, which surprised him. This one was a hidden achievement, and its rewards were far superior to the previous two.

[Hidden Achievement: Guardian of the Living]

[Requirements: Be the first Living Being to Slay a Horde King]

[Progress: 1/1]

[Rewards: 100,000 XP

Material: x7 Unholy Essence – Tier I

Trinket: Eliza's Bane]

[Claim: Y/N?]

---

Zane's eyes nearly jumped out of his sockets with the rewards gained from the achievements and the amount of blood crystals he had obtained in this battle. Zane now could level up five times. Making him jump from level 16 to level 21!

He, of course, quickly accepted the achievements and applied his attribute points where he felt necessary.

---

[Achievement Unlocked: Reclamation]

[+50,000 XP!]

[Level up You are now level 17!]

[+2 Attribute Points]

[Achievement Unlocked: Horde King's Demise – Tier I]

[+50,000 XP!]

[Level up You are now level 18!]

[+2 Attribute Points]

[Level up You are now level 19!]

[+2 Attribute Points]

[Achievement Unlocked: Guardian of the Living]

[+100,000 XP!]

[Level up You are now level 20!]

[+3 Attribute Points]

[+1 Skill Point]

[Level up You are now level 21!]

[+2 Attribute Points]

---

Doing the math, Zane now had 11 attribute points to spend. He also had 1 skill point to spend, which he could invest into one of his two skills.

Zane had a desire to get all of his attributes to level 20 so that he was physically and mentally superhuman, and then after that, he planned to invest primarily in dexterity and constitution. As a result, he allocated his 11 attribute points evenly across the board. He also applied his skill point to his new skill since it was vastly under leveled compared to his original one.

---

[Attributes:]

[Strength: 17]

[Dexterity: 18]

[Constitution: 17]

[Intelligence: 17]

[Wisdom: 17 ]

[Charisma: 17]

Skills:

[Dead Man Walking – Tier IV]

[Commander of the Dead – Tier II]

[Description: Your ability to control the undead around you has improved by leaps and bounds. You can now usurp control over Tier II Undead. In addition to this, your Horde Size has increased by +150, giving you a total amount of 250 Undead to control.]

---

Zane felt like he had made a wise decision by upgrading Commander of the Dead instead of Dead Man Walking. It was definitely something that gave him a considerably higher boost of combat power, rather than the passive bonuses that the first skill gave him.

As for the two items he received from the achievements, Zane was quick to give them a close inspection.

---

[[Decrepit Diadem]

[Item Quality: Legendary]

[Item Level: 25]

[Item Slot: Trinket]

[Value: N/A]

[Item Effects:

+25 Control

+25 Horde Size

+25% Horde XP Gain]

---

Zane did not hesitate to equip this legendary piece of equipment and in doing so, immediately boosted his ability to control his horde as well as the amount of Undead he could have in it. He then looked at the other item he had received from his hidden achievement.

---

[Eliza's Bane]

[Item Quality: Legendary]

[Item Level: 25]

[Item Slot: Trinket]

[Value: N/A]

[Item Effects:

+25 Control

+25 Horde Size

+25% Horde XP Gain

+2 Dexterity]

---

The effects of the second trinket were almost the same as the previous one, with one exception: it gave him a +2 Dexterity bonus. Bringing his total dexterity with his current level and all items equipped to 18 (+9) for practical purposes, this meant that so long as he was wearing his equipment, Zane had a dexterity rating of 27.

This was an insane level of dexterity, and Zane suspected it was close to what Eliza had before her death, specifically when she was at fully health and stamina. Because while she was faster than Zane, Zane was still fast enough to survive her attacks. Something he would not be capable of doing without his full equipment, and his legendary cloak, which he gained from a previous achievement.

At the very least, this meant that at his current level, Zane could keep up with a Tier I horde King in terms of speed. But that was about it. If he was unfortunate enough to come across another of such monsters, he would doubt he would win a second time. The reason being that Zane did not believe all horde kings were as foolhardy and quick to anger as Eliza had been.

There was, of course, one other thing that Zane had received. Which, upon further inspection, was a very high quality item.

---

[Material: Unholy Essence – Tier I]

[Material Type: Upgrade]

[Material Quality: Epic]

[Description: Unholy Essence is used to upgrade equipment to a higher level, thus increasing its capabilities.]

[Material Effects:

Upgrade level 15 Equipment to Level 25

25% Chance of Item Quality being upgraded from Rare to Epic

[Requirement: Level 25+]

---

This was a very valuable item to Zane. This meant that he would not have to craft new gear when he reached level 25, instead he could simply apply the Unholy Essence to his current equipment and have it upgrade itself into proper level 25 equipment.

That was a bigger boon than Zane currently realized, and thus he decided to hold on to the Unholy Essence until a time where he was capable of using it. After reviewing all of his latest upgrades. Zane went to sleep, not because he had to, but because he wanted to. Especially after everything that happened on this night.