Chapter 166: Practice Jumps to Mastery?

As the sun began to set, Axel and the others sprang into action.

Those who were too tired were permitted to drink a potion to recover, while the rest moved to their stations without needing any prompting. Eve, in particular, hurried to the castle as fast as she could.

Her sniping skills were crucial for dealing with the new type of zombies, after all.

Standing atop the wall, Axel watched as the solar-powered LED floodlights lining the wall’s edge flickered to life.

He sighed. “It feels like it’s been a while since we’ve done something like this.”

Back in Witcheria, in the Red Zone, enemies would be crawling around at all hours. So, it truly had been a while for him to face foes that only emerged at night.

Soon, the sunlight faded, ushering in the darkness. The floodlights illuminated only a limited range, making it difficult to see anything beyond a hundred meters. However, thanks to the still-bright sky, they could spot large silhouettes from a distance.

Axel scanned the walls and noticed the girls were scattered, manning their posts sparsely. They held crossbows loaded with regular bolts—just a precaution for self-defense in the worst-case scenario.

All eyes were trained on the horizon, focused on detecting or identifying two types of enemies while ignoring the rest.

The Pouncers, the size of regular zombies, and—

“So that’s the Amalgam…”

With keen eyesight, a result of his high stats, Axel distinguished a large shadow in the distance. Although it wasn’t visible yet, he could tell it was larger than even a Giant Zombie.

At that moment, Arianne, standing beside him, exclaimed loudly in surprise, “Sir Axel, you can see the Amalgam already?!”

“Huh?” Axel responded, pointing straight ahead. “I mean, it’s too big to ignore… I guess the spawn distance increased after the land area expanded, huh?”

“We’ve observed that change as well…” Arianne nodded in agreement before snapping back to reality. “But wait, please!”

She turned around and used a flashlight to send a coded signal toward the castle. Axel, unsure of the code, watched with curiosity. About 15 seconds later…

“…!”

Something flashed and soared overhead.

Axel followed the red dot with his gaze as it flew toward the giant figure in the distance. Almost as if drawn by an unseen force, the red dot shot straight into the shadow without deviation.

Then, milliseconds later, the sharp crack of a gunshot echoed in Axel’s ears. With a bullet velocity of 825 m/s, roughly Mach 2.4, it was clear that the bullet had reached its target before he even heard it.

With just one hit, the Amalgam fell.

Axel felt a twinge of disappointment for not being able to see the giant monster’s figure, but he couldn’t help but praise Eve’s skills.

Hitting a target nearly a kilometer away was no simple feat.

Even Axel wondered if he could accomplish the same.

“Eve has definitely improved her sniping skills…” he remarked with a soft whistle.

However, the defense was far from over.

As the zombies approached and entered the range of the LED lights, it became easier to identify them. With over 10,000 zombies in sight, though, finding just two irregular ones—Pouncers—was a challenge.

“Ah, or not.”

Before he could even voice his thoughts, the girls had already taken out the two Pouncers. One had a bolt skewered through its head, while the other had one through its chest.

A perfect one-hit kill with crossbows!

“Alright, let’s wrap up the operation for today!” Arianne called out after confirming the defeat of all three troublesome zombies. “Everyone, great job! Let’s keep this momentum going for tomorrow as well!”

“…”

But Axel lingered a bit longer.

He observed the dense swarm of zombies, with hardly any space between them. Then, he recalled the golems that were still sleeping in his inventory.

“Navi…” he said, his curiosity aroused. “Zombies are technically corpses, right? Can I place them in my inventory?”

This was something he hadn’t thought to try before. While he had experimented with their clothes, the idea of putting an entire zombie in his inventory had never crossed his mind.

At his prompt, a small figure materialized out of thin air, floating before his face as if swimming in the air.

[Unfortunately, they’re classified as undead and not corpses. So no, you can’t,] Navi explained. [Unlike golems, which are essentially made up of a non-living core covered in various wrappers, zombies still fall under the living category.]

“…”

Naturally, the mention of golems always brought a frown to Axel’s face.

After all, back when they were at the final major fortress, if he had known that a golem’s core was essentially the only thing he needed to store in his inventory, he wouldn’t have faced death so many times.

He couldn’t really blame Navi, though, since she hadn’t been present during that time. He could only attribute it to bad luck.

“As expected, zombies can’t be turned into money, huh…” he sighed. “Then, I’ll just use them to practice.”

Axel pulled a random holy sword from his inventory and jumped down from the wall.

“S-Sir Axel?!” Arianne gasped, shocked by his actions.

However, he wasn’t afraid of confronting the horde alone—not in the slightest.

Given his current stats, even if he stood there doing nothing, the zombies wouldn’t be able to hurt him at all. However, the unbearable rotten stench could pose a different challenge.

“First, the stance…” Axel muttered to himself as he landed, adjusting his posture.

He held the sword out before him, gripping the hilt tightly with both hands—a stable and standard hold.

“Then, from here…”

He murmured, trying to recall the lessons he had just taken earlier, and he nodded. “Step in range.”

Axel inched forward by raising his front leg and kicking with his hind leg. This propelled him forward… by about 200 meters. It was no longer a simple “step”; not even a leap would accurately describe how far he had gone!

Of course, Axel quickly recognized the mistake he had made. But he was still learning, after all. Making mistakes was part of the process. Thus, he brushed the error aside.

“Then… bring down the sword!”

With his “step in” literally placing him right in front of the horde, he swung the blade down. It was a standard downward slash—one he had practiced hundreds of times before. But something felt different this time.

Unlike the wooden sword he used for practice, his holy sword emitted a powerful glow as it descended.

Then, a bright white crescent wave surged forward, clearing all zombies in its path. A deep crater formed on the ground, the only sign that something had occurred there. Not a single trace of the zombies that had been struck remained.

“Whoa, what the hell was that?” Axel exclaimed in surprise.

Arianne, observing this from on top of the walls, could hardly believe her eyes. After all, Axel had only just learned the basics today.

They hadn’t even reached the advanced topics yet.

However…

’Sir Axel… used Mana Slash!’

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