Dave flew down to the ground, [Demonic Ascension] was up. He looked around himself. His undead management panel was greyed out. He couldn't summon his undead to his location. He had to find them himself.

Dave pressed his palm on the ground, black sigils spread from his hand to the dirt, and with a puff of smoke, Grumpy appeared next to Dave.

Dave patted the creature and asked, "Grumps, can you sense any of my Death Knights?"

Grumpy sniffed at the air and turned his head toward a random location.

"Take me there then," Dave said. He felt he would have better chances of fighting the enemies in the Drow Kingdom with at least one or two of his Death Knights.

Dave hopped on top of Grumpy, and the two-headed ahead.

After a few minutes ride, Dave heard the rustling of bushes around him. Turning his head, Dave spotted one of the dark-skinned elves watching him closely.

Dave cursed, without Dortha, he was easy prey to the creatures of this dangerous area. He had yet to inspect any of the dark-skinned elves, but he knew that if they existed in a high level area such as this place, they would be hard to kill.

The elf that was watching over Dave drew a bow and aimed at the sky. The nocked arrow had a small round cannister at the tip. When the elf shot the arrow, the projectile made a whistling sound. The dark-skinned elf was notifying the rest of his tribe or allies to Dave's location.

Dave cursed, and bent forward, "Grumps, you gonna have to pick up the pace!"

Grumpy understood that the two of them were in a dangerous situation, so he rushed ahead with more vigor. Grumpy changed trajectory a couple of times. He was following a scent only he could smell in the air while Dave kept a watchful eye on the brushes they passed by.

Soon grumpy stopped near a splatter of blood, sinew, and bones.

"Huh, this is where Singund fell," Dave said to himself.

"I haven't yet fallen, Lord," Dave heard the sound of Singund echoing from under a bush.

"Singund, you're still alive?" Dave asked the brush.

"For now, I won't be, so if you don't help me, Lord."

Dave hopped off grumpy and went toward the brush. He found the decapitated head of the orc chieftain laying on its face inside the bush.

Dave picked up the head, wrinkling his nose. He said, "How the heck are you still alive?"

"That's my ability, can you please place me next to the rest of my body?" Singund asked.

Dave turned to the splatter of blood and bones and said, "There's not much left of it anyway."

"It doesn't matter. I just need to be there."

Dave nodded and took the head toward the splatted on the ground.

When he placed the head down, the blood converged and twisted, the bones latched to themselves, reconstructing the orc's skeleton. Then the flesh and blood coursed through the ground and wrapped around the skeleton. Bones, tendons, blood vessels, and flesh morphed, recreating the orc's body.

Then the death knight's armor appeared on the body. The head attached itself to the rest of Singund's body, and the orc was back anew.

"Argh, that was an awful experience," Singund grumbled.

"Well, at least you're alive. The Tengu wasn't as lucky." Dave said.

"Yeah, I felt his undeath force disappearing a while ago. Where is the abyssal, Knight?"

"For now, he's wounded and had escaped somewhere. I need to get Bud and Dog. If we want to explore this area more," Dave said.

"What if we reencounter Lord Dortha?" Singund asked. He was looking around, searching for something.

"Hopefully we won't for now. I just need to level up a bit," Dave said.

Singund went to a nearby bush and drew the Death Knight Flamberge from it. He then went to another bush and took his Death Knight Tower-Shield.

"Well, if you want to grow stronger, this is a good chance. We are surrounded," Singund said.

"Yeah, I know. Dave replied. His unequipped his Doom Knight Bastard Sword and wielded General Ouki's Glaive.

His Doom Knight tower shield was broken with one hit from Dortha. This was a clear indication of the strength of the Abyssal Knight. Dave knew that if he meets him again, there will be hell to pay.

Half a dozen dark-skinned elves crept around Dave. They had their bows at the ready, and their name-tag was red. They didn't accept trespassers, and Dave and Singund were just that.

Dave inspected one of the dark-skinned elves.

***

Name: {Unknown}

Race: Drow

Level: 450

Tier: Epic

Base damage: 100,000-150,000

Danger Level: Normal

HP: 1,500,000

PD: 50,000

MD: Immunity

Skills:

Node Worshipper: By worshipping the nodes protecting the Drow Kingdom, all the Drows receive the following benefits.

Power (Increased Strength) [Every third consecutive attack will deal twice the base damage]

Life (Increased Regeneration) [Every 30 seconds the Drow will regenerate 10% of their base HP]

Durability (Increased toughness)-Disabled- [Increased defensive value by 200%]

Lore: Drows are creatures of the night. In the Underworld they had proven themselves the better race for ages past. But the arrival of the Ash King destroyed their ego with the sheer might of his armies. Now, the great race of the Drows is nothing but slaves for the Ash King. After ages of subjection, they are now nothing but a husk of their former selves. Yet, this husk still retains the strength of the old.

Dave turned to face the Drows, his Glaive at the ready.

"Too bad, they're immune to magic, this would have been much quicker," Dave said and pointed his glaive at the first Drow coming toward him.

Two of these Drows had swords, two others at the back had bows and arrows and two flanked Singund and Dave with long spears.

"Two each?" Dave suggested.

"I wouldn't have minded taking them all on," Singund replied.

"Yeah, let's have some fun then," Dave said and rushed the first Drow.

The nearest Drow to Dave had a sharp and thin sword, almost like a rapier, if only a bit wider.

The dark elf threw a piercing attack at Dave, but Dave quickly sidestepped and smashed down with the blade of his glaive at the Drow. The creature stepped back drawing his sword above him in a diagonal way, aiming to parry Dave's cleaver. This would have been a great way to destabilize the heavy weapon and allow the Drow to preform a perfect counter after reposting.

However, the Drow failed to realize the weight behind Dave's cleaver. The 1,000 points in strength weren't just numbers.

Dave slammed down with his glaive, on the sword, the thin rapier was unable to parry the cleaver, and the elf was smashed down with the sharp end of the pole weapon.

-250,620

Dave smiled saying, "You didn't expect that, did you?"

His question was rhetorical as he didn't wait for the Drow to answer. Dave spun into [Blade Storm] the ability he gained when he used [Infernal Tornado] while carrying Ouki's Glaive.

The attack landed on one of the spear-wielding Drows and the two with the rapiers.

Grumpy rand up on the elves at the back that were aiming their arrows at Dave, he used [Petrifying Gaze] on one, stopping his drawing of the bow and smashed the other with the spiked knob at the end of his tail sending the second one reeling from shock.

Singund dove into the fray with Dave, the indignation he suffered at the hand of Dortha was transferred to unbridled wrath that poured onto the Drows.

Three minutes later, all the Elves had fallen to Dave's hands. Dave needed about 20% more experience to level up.

There was no loot that dropped from the elves. Well, there were some bows and leather armor, but they were of a low quality despite the high level.

"Alright Singund, we need to fight just a few more times, and we can leave this area. I don't think we are strong enough to beat the bosses here." Dave said.

He was level 449 right now, if he encountered more of these groups of elves, he will fight them and level up to 450, the minimum required for him to be able to inspect and use Abyssal Knight Deadra's weapon and shield.

"As you command, I sense a few of these creatures moving away from us in the distance, we can catch them off-guard if we go now," Singund said, his orcish nose was twitching like a dog that picked up a scent.

"Right, let's go then," Dave said and rode on grumpy. Singund stomped his foot on the ground and summoned his war-boar.

"Oh, you can summon it?" Dave asked.

"Yes, but only the boar, I can't summon the rest of my regiment. There is a law in these lands that prevents me from doing so," Singund explained.

"Right, I had the same problem. Where are the elves you talked about?" Dave asked.

"Over there," Singund pointed.

"Lead the way then," Dave said, and the two moved to where Singund pointed.

After a few minutes of trot, Dave received a notification.

***

One of your underlings, [Death Knight] Dog the Dullahan has entered a battle with one of the guardians of the area

Node of Power!"

***

"Ah, shit, man, Dog, why'd you have to get in trouble the moment I remove my eyes off you!" Dave cursed.

"Lord, the dullahan is also in this direction. I believe it was he who brought the attention of the elves we are chasing over there." Singund said.

"Right, let's go then. We'll go and try to extract Dog from there if he helps us fight, I can level up faster. There is no need for us to fight the boss right now." Dave said and urged Grumpy to go faster.