[Your mana has increased significantly.]
[Your mana is overflowing.]
[Your mana is overflowing.]
[Your mana is overflowing.]
[Your constitution has dropped due to your overflowing mana.]
[Your constitution has dropped due to your overflowing mana.]
[Your constitution is slowly weakening due to your overflowing mana.]
[You have gained the skill {Acid Ball}.]
[You have gained the skill {Mana Arrow}.]
[You have gained the skill {Death Ray}.]
[Your soul has been significantly strengthened.]
[Your connection with your soul has been strengthened.]
[Your connection with your undead has been strengthened.]
Michael’s eyes widened at the flood of notifications.
The first few messages weren’t too surprising—he had already sensed that his mana had increased.
What he didn’t know was just how much it had improved.
However, the next set of notifications made his heart tremble.
“Is my mana too much for my body to handle?”
The thought seemed absurd, yet Michael didn’t doubt it.
He recalled something from his early days as a newly awakened—a post he had read on a supernatural forum. It explained that while Awakeners could distribute their attribute points freely, balance was crucial.
For example, an Awakener could prioritize agility above all else, but if their body wasn’t strong enough to handle extreme speeds, they would collapse—or, in the worst case, their body might tear apart.
Similarly, someone who focused solely on strength without agility would be powerful but sluggish, slower than a snail.
These examples weren’t meant to discourage customization but served as a warning about reckless stat allocation.
Now, Michael was almost certain he had fallen into a similar predicament.
Fortunately, it didn’t seem severe—he still felt fine, if not better than ever.
Still, the notifications showed just how much his mana had increased.
And the next few messages confirmed it.
“I got three skills?”
One had to remember—every 20 points in Intelligence granted a 50% chance of gaining a skill.
Gaining three meant his Intelligence had increased by at least 60 points!
Michael’s heart pounded in excitement.
Normally, reaching this level of growth through attribute points alone would take at least ten level-ups.
Then, his gaze shifted to the last set of notifications.
[Your soul has been significantly strengthened.]
[Your connection with your soul has been strengthened.]
[Your connection with your undead has been strengthened.]
The soul was a sensitive topic, not just for him but for most Awakeners.
For Michael, his soul was the root of his growth, the source of his power. The messages filled him with anticipation.
Without hesitation, he called out his status screen, eager to see what had changed.
‘Status.’
*****
[ Name: Michael Norman ]
[ Class: Adept Necromancer ]
[ Level: 20 ]
[ EXP: 86,718/134,551 ]
[ Strength: 41.92]
[Agility: 62.66]
[Constitution: 40.22(-3)]
[Intelligence: 270.0{120.0^}]]
[ Attribute Points: 20 ]
[ Skills: Undead Summoning, Undead Revival, Detect, Basic Shot, Share Senses, Spearmanship, Acid Shot, Bone Spear, Slow Curse, Blind Curse, Bone Armour, Corpse Explosion, Acid Ball{New!}, Mana Arrow{New!}, Death Ray{New!}]
[ Talent: Infinite Evolution ]
[ Class Skill: Contract Slot {50/100} ]
[ Gift: Mark of Origin ]
*****
The first thing Michael noticed was the reduction in his Constitution.
Even his status panel reflected it.
It had only dropped by three points so far, but if he didn’t do something about it, it could get worse.
His eyes drifted down to his Constitution stat, and the moment he saw the change, his eyes widened in shock.
For the first time in a long while, intense emotion flickered across his face.
‘270!’
Michael screamed in his head.
That was how high his Intelligence stat had climbed.
The two Soul Pool Fruits had directly increased his Intelligence by 120 points.
Even ten level-ups wouldn’t have given him this much growth.
No wonder his Constitution had been affected.
To use an analogy, it was like filling a bucket with more water than it could hold.
At least a bucket could overflow—but in Michael’s case, his body was the container, and it was sealed.
Any more, and it would burst.
Michael forced himself to calm down, taking a deep breath before shifting his focus.
His contract slots.
This was the best way to confirm whether his soul had truly grown stronger.
He glanced at the status panel again… and froze.
Something wasn’t right.
Frowning, he shook his head and dismissed the panel.
Then, after taking another deep breath, he summoned it again.
[Class Skill: Contract Slots {50/100}]
Michael’s heart slammed against his chest.
100 contract slots.
One hundred.
His thoughts raced.
He did a rough count.
Previously, at Level 20, he had 50 contract slots.
Now, still at Level 20, he had 100.
Before, he had only gained 2 contract slots per level…
Wait.
Did this mean the Soul Pool Fruit had increased the quality of his soul so much that his contract slots had jumped to 5 per level?!
Michael felt dizzy.
But at the same time, he was ecstatic.
For any other Necromancer, this was a good thing.
But for Michael?
More contract slots didn’t just mean growth—it meant raw power.
More contract slots meant more undead summons.
More summons undead summons meant more evolution points.
It was more everything.
As excitement surged through him, his gaze instinctively shifted to his talent.
And the moment he saw what was written on top of the list of things he could evolve, his chest tightened.
[Michael Norman {Insufficient evolution points. Can’t be evolved}]
‘Fuck!’
The appearance of his own name in the talent section meant more to Michael than he could put into words.
For days, a single question had been weighing on his mind—
Could his talent evolve more than just undead?
Could he evolve himself?
Until now, he had no answer.
But today, that had changed.
Anything that appeared in his talent section had always meant one thing—
It could be evolved.
And now, with his own name listed there, the conclusion was undeniable.
Michael could evolve himself.
The biggest gain Michael got from consuming the soul pool fruits wasn’t his mana pool increasing.
This was it.
This was his greatest gain.