The next few days passed by peacefully, and Michael was once again able to maintain a better sense of time management.
Although nothing particularly significant happened during this period, Michael still managed to accomplish a few things.
First, his room was finally furnished to his liking, and he no longer stayed in the guest room.
With the enthusiastic encouragement of his aunt and cousin, Michael found himself dragged into multiple shopping trips to spoil them—at least just this once—before he became unavailable again.
They even convinced him to get a haircut.
Michael, who had grown fond of his long hair—something that still puzzled his family due to how quickly it had grown alongside his physical transformation—settled for a simple trim to make himself look more presentable.
Besides that, Michael also registered himself with the Supers Association branch in Brightgate City.
This not only gave him access to the dimensional cracks within the city but also provided a way to gather corpses to fill his contract slots.
Of course, there waa the issue of experience points as well.
In just four days, Michael had filled 90 out of his 100 contract slots using monsters from both Brightgate’s dimensional cracks and the Land of Origin.
Yes.
Although he’d been more active in the real world lately, Michael hadn’t abandoned his alternate identity in the Land of Origin.
At least he remained committed to increasing his Hunter level.
With Ace and Lia as his assistants, he completed five tasks from the Hunter Guild within these four days.
According to the receptionist, he only needed one more task to be promoted to Bronze Rank.
Not all of those tasks involved monsters—some were related to hunting criminals and bandits, which added even more human undead to Michael’s growing army.
Initially, Michael had been reluctant to revive just any random corpse without an impressive combat history.
But after seeing Spartan’s ability to learn skills, he lowered his standards.
Though Spartan still hadn’t learned a magic skill yet, its physical prowess as a high human made it a solid melee unit. Still, given its high mana levels, it felt like a bit of a waste.
Unfortunately, beggars couldn’t be choosers.
Even so, Michael still held hope for a bright future.
Regardless of everything else, Michael was satisfied with his progress over the past few days.
What pleased him the most was the fact that over fifty of his undead were now of Rank 1.
All of them were also rare rank creatures.
Just as he had suspected, his recent evolution had brought some pleasant surprises.
Aside from the abundant mana that now allowed him to cast Undead Summoning multiple times on a single corpse, his affinity with the dark element had significantly improved.
Issues that once gave him trouble—like Undead Revival and Undead Summoning—were now far easier to handle.
Out of the 90 undead under his control, Michael could now summon and dismiss a total of 70 into the Netherworld.
The remaining 20? Just bad luck.
Still, Michael was confident.
Even without resorting to the special methods other Necromancers used, and despite not having evolved those remaining undead yet, he believed the day he could summon them freely was fast approaching.
As Michael recalled everything that had happened over the past few days, he easily dodged his cousin’s attack.
With a swift swing of the wooden spear in his hand, he swept her off her feet.
Mercilessly, he spoke, “You’re resuming school in two days with this level of skill? Aren’t you scared of being bullied?”
Lily groaned and shot back, “It’s only because you’re too strong, brother! I’m not scared of being bullied at school—you’re the one bullying me!”
Michael’s lips twitched as he glanced at his cousin, who was now sprawled on the floor in training clothes.
They were currently inside a room that Michael had converted into a training space, thanks to how large it was. Two days ago, he had finally decided to act on his intention to make his family stronger.
Among his aunt and cousin, Lily was the only one he could start with for now.
Of course, he couldn’t turn her into a powerhouse overnight—but he could lay the foundation.
Lily’s natural talent was terrible, and paired with her low-grade cultivation technique, her progress had always been slow. But that was going to change.
So what if his cousin wasn’t born a prodigy?
With enough resources, Michael would make her one—even if he had to force-feed them to her.
There was another reason behind his push to train her.
In just a few months, Lily would turn sixteen.
In this world, that age marked a significant milestone: the first Awakening Ceremony for a child.
According to what Michael knew, there was no guaranteed awakening. It was left entirely to chance.
Still, Michael wanted to see if he could help Lily become a supernatural before her sixteenth birthday.
Even if she failed the first Awakening, she would still have two more chances in her lifetime. And if luck was on her side and she awakened later on, there was even a possibility she’d awaken with dual classes.
That was the foundation Michael wanted to build for her.
As for Lily going back to school in two days—what else was she supposed to do as a young girl, if not attend school? At least, until something significant came up.
In fact, she wasn’t the only one heading to school in two days.
Michael was going too.
Not to enroll, of course.
No.
It was time for his college entrance exams.
Exams to qualify for an Awakener Academy.
Time had passed so quickly that what was originally a three-month deadline had now dwindled down to just two months.
Michael exhaled softly and tapped the butt of his spear against the floor. “Get up,” he said calmly, “and swing your sword again.”
Lily groaned but rolled over and pushed herself to her feet, brushing her messy hair out of her face. Her arms trembled slightly as she picked up her practice sword.
Michael watched her with sharp eyes. “Again. One hundred swings. Don’t stop unless you collapse.”
“What?! You just knocked me down!” she protested.
“And you’ll get knocked down again,” he replied. “Better here than out there. So swing.”
Grumbling under her breath, Lily raised her sword and began.
