The Exiled First-born of the Noble House. Rising to the Top With the Worthless Skill [Null Poison] - Chapter 200

The Dead Lich

About 20 minutes passed as we walked under my and Snow’s guidance.

——-This is a half guess, but I think this area is where I heard the sound coming from.

Even after coming this close however, my skills were still unable to detect anything.

………..no signs of mana or life.

As I looked around, restlessly trying to find any signs of monsters, suddenly—–

From behind, I heard Esta scream out in shrill voice.

Turning around quickly to see what had happened, I saw a white bone arm sticking out of the ground and grabbing on to Esta’s leg.

“Esta, stop that! Ralf, quickly smash the arm that’s grabbing on to Esta!”

Esta was about to blast magic aimed at the hand but I stopped her, and order Ralf to cut off the arm instead.

Hearing me, Ralf quickly drew his tamahagane sword and cleanly cut off the arm that was grabbing on to Esta’s leg.

Esta quickly shook her leg in disgust to get rid of the arm that was still clung to her leg even after getting cut off, and it finally released its grip as the white bone hand got flown into the air away from her.

………looks like all’s fine for now.

I panicked for a second from the surprise attack but if I’m not detecting any life presence, it has to be only undeads here.

And since I didn’t detect any mana either, it was probably the lowest class of undead, at the same level as goblins or kobolds,—–the Skeleton.

“Chris! What the hell was that!?”

“Probably a skeleton. It was too weak, and it being an undead allowed it pass through my detection skills and catch us off guard, but its not a monster you need to be afraid of.”

“…………A skeleton, I see. I really lost my cool for a second there.”

“So do skeletons show up in this region normally? Or is this a side effect of the Dead Lich?”

“Honestly, I have no idea. But, I still can’t sense the Dead Lich———“

The moment I had said till there, suddenly I felt a burst of strong mana from the front.

I don’t know how to properly measure a monster’s mana so let me put it this way, it was as strong as Esta’s own mana.

“I take it all back. I’m sensing a strong mana source from our front……….probably the Dead Lich itself. Watch your steps and let’s get closer.”

“Man, I suddenly got the chills, how scary.”

“Ralf, don’t let your mind wander to useless things. And let us get ready for the battle.”

With the mana signal as our guide, we headed to where I assumed the Dead Lich was and soon enough, we caught sight of a monster wearing a gaudy red robe in front of us.

From afar, one could easily mistake it for a human but there was no doubts about it, that thing was indeed a monster.

It’s skin had rotten and had dark, muddy texture.

It was almost as if its skin was melting away, and it only had its left eye still intact.

In its right eye socket, there was a beautiful stone embedded instead, I could sense a strong mana presence from that stone.

In contrast to its worn out appearance, the robe that covered its body was probably as high quality as it looked, and the 2m long staff that it held was also clearly a very high quality one, even I could tell that.

It’s equipment coupled with this mana quantity, it made it clear that this monster was definitely a strong one.

“Heyy man…………this smells like danger alright.”

“It’s exactly as you sensed, Ralf. It may be a monster, but also a powerful magician. The Mithril rank is not just for show.”

“Esta, you okay with being the main fighter? If it looks too dangerous, I don’t mind taking it on myself.”

“Chris-san, what are you saying!? I won’t lose no matter what. Just relax, and focus on my support as we planned.”

Esta gave a cool laugh and said that to me.

I was still slightly worried, I won’t lie but if she’s this confident then it should be alright.

Hearing Esta’s words made me happy to see her growth after all this time, so I focused on doing my job as the support as she asked.

Just like our info said, soon all sorts of monsters were beginning to appear around the Dead Lich, and it suddenly looked like we were going to get surrounded.

“Wights and Skeletons. There’s a couple Skeleton Warriors as well but, it’s the number of Skeleton mages that’s a bit more surprising.”

“Regardless, it’s me and Snow handling the scrubs right?”

“………No, Ralf, you act as Esta’s support instead. There’s too many magic using monsters so we need to clean them out faster. So I’ll handle the scrub hunting instead.”

“You know, I’ve handled situations like these in the dungeon as well……..I could’ve handled it too! But, I’ll follow your orders as always!”

Certainly, after his recent experiences in the dungeons I’m sure Ralf probably could’ve handled it as well but, I prefer always choosing the safer route.

Besides Ralf acting as Esta’s wall will make things safer on that side as well. And it’ll allow me to fight without worrying as well.

“Ralf, you’ll protect Esta. I’ll get rid of the surrounding scrubs asap and then switch to support as well.”

“Leave it to me! I’ll block everything they throw at us!”

“I’ll get rid of the Lich pretty quickly as well so Chris-san, you can take your time fighting if you want to.”

“You two sure have gotten a whole lot more reliable than before eh.”

If they are talking this confidently, I guess I should focus fully on my job as well then.

I gave the usual handsigns and signals to Snow like I did in the Roza forest, and made Snow circle around to attack them from both sides.

In that time, I cancelled all my detection skills and activated, [Flesh Enhancement] [War Dance] [Valour] [Physical Ability Boost], these 4 skills and then also used, [Intimidating presence] on top.

I had been using [Intimidating Presence] in battle here and there now.

It didn’t have much effect on any of the stronger opponents but, against weaker ones it showed its true usefulness.

Since I couldn’t use it on myself, I had no idea what it actually did or how it affected the enemies but, according to Ralf, it was like getting hit with a wave of killing intent apparently.

Those hit with this skill get paralyzed in place for a little while, and some turn tail and run away completely as well.

I didn’t think it’ll be too effective against undead enemies but, when I used it against the Skeletons coming towards me, they suddenly froze in their place.

Using that opening, I jumped into the middle of the huge number of monsters that were trying to surround us——–and as if opening a hole in the horde, I rushed straight to the middle of the group and began slicing them apart from within.