Dead Man Walking: Living By Day, Dead By Night
Chapter 189: It Is Time We Talked

While his enemies were making moves against him in the background, Zane was doing what he did best, fighting the Undead Hordes within the ruins of Old Reno, and reaping the benefits that came with that. Whether it was crafting materials, blood crystals, or achievements. Zane found himself racking up kills faster than he had ever done before.

Without even realizing it, he and the girls in the party had maxed nearly maxed out their Slayer of the Dead Achievements, with them only missing the Tier V variant of the achievement to fully unlock the collection.

That was a new feature that Zane discovered after unlocking several achievements in a similar theme. For example, the Corruption Achievements which required him to consume a certain number of Tier I, Tier II, Tier III, Tier IV, and Tier V blood crystals in order to unlock the achievement.

Like the Slayer of the Dead Achievements which required him and every other awakened to kill a certain amount of undead within each tier. These two achievements were a part of their own collections. Which once the collection was fully unlocked, there would be much greater rewards, in addition to those which were acquired by completing the individual achievements.

While Zane had maxed out these collections and gained the benefits, the XP they gave were not nearly enough for him to advance beyond Level 25. As it appeared, the XP required to advance beyond this level massively jumped over the previous levels.

This had been a theme with every five levels unlocked, but there was an enormous difference after reaching level 25. It was almost as if there was some kind of hidden barrier, like that the moment one advanced beyond level 25, they would become something else entirely. Dare he say superhuman?

In many ways, Zane already was superhuman. His attributes were currently on par with a Tier I Horde Kings, and his equipment definitely gave him a significant boost in this regard. Currently, Zane had all of his item slots full, having unlocked a variety of hidden achievements in his battle, which granted him the trinkets, rings, amulets, and other miscellaneous items that added to his stats.

Many of these items appeared to be geared towards Zane's ability, almost as if hidden achievements were more of a personal achievement, other than something just anyone could unlock. Or such were Zane's suspicions.

Because of this, the stats on his miscellaneous items were heavily geared towards one very specific thing. And that was his Horde. Each of these trinkets had at least one state that improved things like Horde Size, Horde Control, Horde Experience Gain, Horde HP points, et cetera.

To the point Where Zane's horde was now at a maximum threshold of 1,000 Undead Servants, the vast majority of which were now ranked Tier II, meaning they were between level 5 and Level 9.

He had an army of undead that fulfilled specific roles. There were the Infantry type Undead, which could be heavy infantry, light infantry, or skirmishers. There were even a few specialized infantry among them.

Then there was the Ranged Undead. These were mostly archers, crossbowmen, musketeers, et cetera. Again there were a few specialized Ranged Undead among them, such as Grenadiers et cetera.

And finally, there were the Casters among his Undead Servants. These were a type of undead that could only be unlocked at Tier III, and Zane only had half a dozen of them. But they were given to Olivia to command as she herself was more of a wizard style archetype.

During this brief time, the girls each gained one level, placing them at level 21. Knowing this, Zane suspected that they should now test their might against a worthy opponent. Tier V undead were easy enough for the lot of them to slay now, and they had killed most of those that existed in the local Horde King's army.

Because of this, Zane wanted to fight another Horde King, albeit a Tier I Horde King, and not a Tier II like Bartholomew. The reason for this was simple enough. Without gaining new skills, the girls would begin to stunt their development. As they had apparently mastered their current skills.

And though Zane and the girls had already beaten one Tier, I Horde King in the form of Eliza. That had mostly been done via a use of tricks and traps. As well as sacrificing several pawns in the process. Zane suspected Tier I Horde Kings were normally supposed to be fought like Dungeon Bosses in MMORPGs.

In other words, a full party of Awakened of an equivalent level, and with sufficient equipment, were needed in order to ensure a victory against them. If Zane was being honest, then he and the girls had gotten very lucky against Eliza, and that was entirely thanks to her foolhardy, and easy to anger personality.

But that mistake would not happen again, and Zane knew it. Normally, Zane would wait until the girls reached level 25, and he could upgrade their equipment with Unholy Essence before embarking on such a journey.

However, Zane had something that allowed him and his girls to fight a Tier I Horde King at their current levels. And he was confident that they would be able to win. And that was his own horde. The most difficult part in dealing with a Horde King was its Horde.

But Zane had a Horde of his own, one that was far more organized, and better equipped than those he had seen in the wild so far. If set up in a proper formation, his 1,000 Undead servants could take on a horde 10x their size, and emerge victorious. Allowing the six members of his party (including himself) to go out and focus their efforts on the Horde King.

It had only been a few days since he sent some scouts from Gravestone to search the surrounding towns for a trace of a Tier I Horde King, and during this time, Zane had been making his preparations. Buying Potions from the store and upgrading his equipment to Level 25 with his Unholy Essences.

Naturally, he had to buy a few Unholy Essences from the store as well to apply to his trinkets. But in the end, and after great expense, Zane managed to upgrade every piece of equipment he had not just to Level 25, but to Epic quality as well (other than those pieces that were already legendary) greatly enhancing his stats in the process.

When he finally received word that there were signs that a Tier I horde King controlled the town of Fallon, NV, and that the towns entire population had been converted into its horde of roughly, 10,000 individuals, Zane knew that this would be the perfect test for his party.

Because of this, he gathered his companions together the morning after receiving this information and spoke to them during breakfast about his plans.

"It is time we talked…"