After exchanging a few words, Michael watched Mage Lian fly away.
Though he knew the old mage wasn’t using flight magic just to show off, sometimes it certainly felt like it.
Not that Michael would ever admit to being envious.
His gaze shifted to the distant corpses of the mountain apes.
Before Mage Lian left, he had briefly considered asking for ownership of one, but he quickly dismissed the thought.
Technically, he already had a claim to at least one of them—perhaps even both.
But the real issue wasn’t ownership.
It was usefulness.
Reviving one as an undead? That would depend on whether he had the strength to do so.
If strength simply meant having enough mana, then Michael had more than enough now.
In fact, he was fairly certain he had more than required.
But then came the next problem.
Where would he even keep the body?
It was far too large for his storage space, and Undead Summoning?
Michael decided not to dwell on it too much—no need to ruin his good mood.
That didn’t mean he had given up on acquiring at least one of the corpses for himself, though.
“If only I had a place to store them…”
The thought lingered in his mind, but for now, it was a matter for another time—along with how he would fill his contract slots again and everything else related to his undead summons.
Right now, he had other things to focus on.
As for the changes in his soul, he wanted to explore them further, but this wasn’t the right place.
At the very least, he needed to return to the flying ship, where interruptions were less likely.
Just as these thoughts passed through his mind, a notification popped up.
[Your constitution is slowly weakening due to your overflowing mana.]
“Ah… I should fix this.”
There hadn’t been a notification about his constitution actually decreasing again, but this was probably just the first warning.
If left unchecked, more would follow—until his condition inevitably worsened.
With that in mind, Michael called up his status panel.
‘Status.’
*****
[ Name: Michael Norman ]
[ Class: Adept Necromancer ]
[ Level: 20 ]
[ EXP: 86,718/134,551 ]
[ Strength: 41.92]
[Agility: 62.66]
[Constitution: 40.22]
[Intelligence: 270.0]
[ 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, Mana Arrow, Death Ray]
[ Talent: Infinite Evolution ]
[ Class Skill: Contract Slot {50/100} ]
[ Gift: Mark of Origin ]
*******
To improve his condition immediately, there was only one solution—using his attribute points.
Michael was grateful he had saved some. If not, he would’ve been forced to search for alternative methods.
There weren’t many things in the world—at least none that Michael could think of—that could raise stats as effectively as attribute points without drawbacks.
Without hesitation, he allocated all his available points to Constitution, increasing it by 20.
That brought it closer to his Agility stat.
The effects were immediate.
A deep, involuntary groan of relief escaped him as a refreshing sensation spread through his body.
Thanks to the side effect of increasing his stats, Michael felt invigorated.
“There’s no notification saying the issue is completely gone, but it should be better now.”
He eyed his status panel, noting the stark gap between Intelligence and his other stats.
It was a clear warning—he needed to be more cautious when allocating points to Intelligence in the future.
For now, balancing his stats seemed like the wiser approach.
But with such a large disparity, achieving that balance wouldn’t be easy.
“Advancing might not even be a good idea in my current state…”
A headache brewed at the thought.
Advancing to the next rank would significantly boost all his existing stats—including Intelligence.
That meant if he didn’t find a way to contain or manage it, his already massive mana pool could spiral out of control.
“I wonder if evolving myself would change anything…”
His heart pounded at the thought.
The moment he saw his own name listed under the things his talent could evolve, he had already made up his mind.
His next evolution target would be himself.
There were concerns, of course.
But the potential gains far outweighed any risks.
“The body of a High Human might naturally handle large amounts of mana better…”
His undead High Human had a tremendous mana pool.
If evolution could grant him a similar physique, then it should be possible for his body to adapt.
But another question arose—
If his mana pool was already approaching that of his undead High Human, what would happen once he evolved?
“I’ll know by tomorrow anyway…”
His daily evolution points had arrived, bringing his total to 51.
Even if he didn’t add more undead to his army, he’d have enough points to evolve into a High Human tomorrow—assuming the evolution process for the living worked the same way as it did for his undead.
Shaking off the excitement, Michael shifted his focus to his skills.
[Skills: Undead Summoning, Undead Revival, Detect, Basic Shot, Share Senses, Spearmanship, Acid Shot, Bone Spear, Slow Curse, Blind Curse, Bone Armor, Corpse Explosion, Acid Ball, Mana Arrow, Death Ray]
It certainly looked impressive, even if his class rarely gave him the chance to use most of them.
His class made him an unconventional mage, but that didn’t stop him from wanting spells he could personally cast—or craving even more.
Thanks to the Soul Pool Fruits, he had gained three new skills.
Taking a quick glance at their names, he turned to check their descriptions.
[Acid Ball (Basic Mastery) – Proficiency: 4.0%]
Acid Ball allows the user to conjure and launch a small sphere of corrosive energy.
Current range is ten meters.
—
[Death Ray (Intermediate Mastery) – Proficiency: 2.0%]
Death Ray fires a thin, focused beam of necrotic energy that saps vitality from its target.
Current range is fifty meters.
—
[Mana Arrow (Basic Mastery) – Proficiency: 3.0%]
A staple spell for ranged casters, Mana Arrow creates a solid projectile of condensed mana that flies toward a target.
Current range is fifteen meters.