Evolving My Undead Legion In A Game-Like World

Chapter 878: Next Step

Now that he was finally out of the secret realm back in the Land of Origin, it was finally time to focus on what mattered next.

There were quite a lot of things to settle, but one of the most important was his advancement.

Michael had not expected the time it would take for him to heal his soul would arrive so soon.

It happened faster than he could fully comprehend his law to completion, something that was already close as well.

It was time he started preparing for the next plan.

Over the next few days, Michael did very little that could be called normal training.

He did not sit in quiet meditation. Instead, he moved around the academy almost constantly.

Using his resources and connections, Michael began acquiring corpses at an astonishing pace.

Michael did not ask too many questions about their origins.

He only cared about one thing.

Numbers.

His contract slots were around two thousand, and Michael intended to fill every single one of them.

Each day followed a similar rhythm.

Many people found his activities strange.

But few interfered.

After all, necromancers dealing with corpses or craving them was hardly unusual.

What they did not know was how extreme Michael’s scale had become or what he planned.

Every day, Michael also spent a certain amount of time inside the spatial space of the Damaged Coffin of the Forgotten.

Within that pocket dimension, the work truly began.

His talent operated almost nonstop.

Sometimes he devoured materials to generate Evolution Points.

Other times he directly spent those Evolution Points to evolve newly contracted undead.

The process repeated again and again in no particular order.

Contract.

Devour.

Evolve.

Repeat.

At first, the consumption rate was extremely high.

Michael burned through resources rapidly as his army expanded.

But something happened after a while.

Every undead under his command generated one Evolution Point each day.

The amount from a single undead was insignificant.

However, once the number of undead began to rise past a thousand, the accumulation became terrifying.

Eventually, Michael reached a point where the daily generation of Evolution Points from his undead alone was enough to sustain his evolution process to some extent. Even so, for the sake of speed, he still devoured whatever he could, which mostly consisted of monsters from Level One dimension cracks.

There were many of these cracks around Aurora, so Michael was not lacking in terms of monsters to revive and devour.

Everything flowed smoothly in his favor, if he ignored the crippling debt he had accumulated as the top student of his year group. Top students were allowed to owe debts to the school in huge amount. The higher your rank the higher you could owe the academy. Another benefit of his placement, otherwise with his requirements, Michael would have needed to hunt the monsters himself.

Regardless, the army was growing.

And more importantly, it was growing stronger.

Meanwhile, in the Land of Origin, the kingdom was still dealing with the aftermath of the ruin.

The entire capital buzzed with tension.

For Michael, the situation quickly became exhausting.

Directly and indirectly, the aftermath of the ruin began to overwhelm him.

Everyone knew something major had happened inside the ruin, even if the details remained unclear. And the disappearance of an imperial prince was not something that would quietly fade away.

The capital gradually felt less like a place to remain and more like the center of an approaching storm.

During those days, his interactions with Arianne had also reached a quiet conclusion.

The two of them had spoken a few times after returning from the ruin, but neither of them addressed the matter directly. The atmosphere between them had been obvious to both sides for some time, yet the circumstances surrounding the ruin and the political tension within the kingdom made it impossible for Michael to remain any longer.

In the end, he chose to leave.

Before departing the capital, he extended a simple invitation for Arianne to visit his territory in the future should the opportunity ever arise.

Under Arianne’s slightly pitiful gaze, Michael eventually departed from the kingdom capital using the Duke’s flying ship and began his journey away from the center of the kingdom.

Once he left, the suffocating atmosphere surrounding the aftermath of the ruin slowly faded behind him.

Hopefully it remained that way.

Just like that, more days quietly passed.

Life within the academy gradually returned to its usual rhythm, but for Michael the days were far from idle. The scale of his earlier expansion had finally reached a point where further rapid growth became difficult.

The easy gains were gone.

From that point onward, Michael could only rely on the natural daily accumulation of Evolution Points generated by his undead legion.

Compared to the earlier explosive growth, the pace had slowed considerably.

But it was stable.

Every day, thousands of undead silently produced Evolution Points for their master. Individually the numbers were insignificant, yet together they formed a steady stream that allowed Michael to continue evolving his legion.

One after another, his undead slowly advanced toward Rank Three.

There were no great battles during that period. No major disturbances within the academy either.

The only notable moment came when the new year arrived.

While most students celebrated outside, Michael spent the day quietly within the academy grounds, where he briefly contacted his family through a video call.

The conversation was not particularly long.

But it was enough for him.

After that short moment of normalcy, life quickly returned to its previous pace.

Eventually the new year passed completely.

Days turned into weeks.

Weeks gradually slipped into another month.

Now it had been seven months since the moment Michael had first stepped into this strange world of power. And now, once again, Michael stood at the edge of another threshold.

[Name]: Michael Norman

[Rank]: 2 (MAX)

[Level]: 50

[Talent]: Infinite Evolution

[Gift]: Mark of Origin, Eye of Truth

[Title]: First in History, Outlier

[Class]: Master Necromancer

[Attributes]

Strength: 1036.75

Agility: 1057.71

Constitution: 1235.92

Intelligence: 1400.92 (250^)

Attribute Points: 0

Compared to a month ago, very little had changed.

Most of his abilities remained the same. His rank had already reached its limit for this stage, and the level displayed on the panel had long since stopped increasing.

The only real difference lay in his attributes.

Putting aside the increase in his attributes that came from his law getting increasingly closer to completion and the pitiful bits of feedback he received from his new undead advancing in rank, over the past month, Michael had poured every single attribute point he had into one place.

Intelligence.

The stat had climbed steadily as a result, rising far beyond what it had once been.

For a necromancer, intelligence represented far more than simple mental power. Most importantly, the huge increase had expanded the number of undead he could bind to his soul.

The increase had not been insignificant.

The additional intelligence alone had granted him several dozen new contract slots. Even to Michael this was still a significant amount. After all each slot represented another rank 3 undead.

Naturally, Michael had not allowed those empty spaces to remain unused for long.

Every single one of them had already been filled.

Within his perception, the presence of his legion expanded slightly once more. Thousands of undead existed under his command, each one connected to him through the invisible web of contracts that formed the foundation of his power.

Then there was his advancement mission.

Only two percent remained.

Michael’s gaze lingered on the final line of his advancement task.

[Comprehend a Law: 98%]

[Have 5 Rank 3 Undead: 5/2086]

For most people, this would have meant that his advancement was still incomplete.

But Michael knew the truth.

In reality, the requirement had already been fulfilled.

His comprehension of the law had long since reached completion. The final two percent displayed by the system was nothing more than a consequence of his own restraint.

Michael had been suppressing himself.

For days now, he had deliberately held back from completing the final step.

The reason was simple.

His contract slots.

If Michael had advanced earlier, the result might have been undesirable. So he waited patiently.

During that time, he poured all of his effort into filling every remaining contract slot he possessed.

Two thousand.

Every single one of them.

Now the final undead had already been bound.

His legion had reached its current limit.

There was nothing left to delay.

Michael slowly exhaled as he sat cross-legged on the ground within the spatial space of the Damaged Coffin of the Forgotten, with thousands of figures surrounding him.

Michael’s eyes narrowed slightly.

Seven months since the moment he had awakened. Now he had finally reached the next gate.

The threshold separating Rank Two from Rank Three.

The moment he released his suppression, the final two percent would vanish instantly.

And the system would recognize the completion of his advancement task.

Michael remained seated in silence for a few seconds longer.

Then, slowly, the restraint he had maintained for days began to loosen.

The last barrier holding his power back quietly dissolved.

It was finally time.

Time for his ascension.