[You assisted in killing a Extraordinary★★★ LV 43 Corrupted ???]
[You’ve gained 45,000 Experience Points]
[You killed a monster three levels higher than your own, earning a 21x experience multiplier]
[You’ve gained 945,000 Experience Points]
[You have levelled up to level 23!]
[You have levelled up to level 24!]
The first thing that caught Michael’s eyes was the monster’s rank.
A part of him use to wonder if he had seen wrong then due to the haste to escape but it seems he hadn’t.
“Extraordinary, three stars?”
Fear gripped his chest—just for a moment—before confusion followed.
“The rank is high… but why is it so weak?”
The old him, fresh after awakening, would never have dared to say that. But the Michael of now could. He had grown. He had earned the strength to judge.
With a race rank like that, the monster’s potential placed it solidly in Tier 3—the realm of Kings.
He could accept the relatively low level—it wasn’t that low—but its combat ability didn’t add up. Not to him.
Prince and Gale had ganged up on it, sure, but watching them fight, it had been clear: either one of them could’ve ground the monster down alone. It would’ve taken longer, but the outcome wouldn’t have changed.
Wait.
Michael paused in thought.
“I’m looking at this from the wrong angle. No one ever said a high race rank equals overwhelming strength in one-on-one combat.”
In fact, he’d seen it before—monsters within the same rank often had varying strength levels.
This one?
It wasn’t weak.
No, far from it.
Its abilities were unique.
“In a pure duel at peak potential performance….”
He exhaled slowly, gaze settling on the monster’s corpse.
“The only real weakness was that it operated alone.”
“But in a group…?”
He didn’t need to finish the thought.
Extraordinary-ranked creatures were never to be underestimated.
This one may have been outmatched, but its rank wasn’t a lie.
Not at all.
Michael then turned his gaze to the ball of flesh skewered on his spearhead.
For a monster so terrifying, its true body was surprisingly small.
“Unfortunately, aside from being marked as corrupted, nothing else shows. Are you really a taboo existence?”
Of course, Michael didn’t expect a response from a dead creature.
Still, the size of the body bothered him. Compared to the overwhelming presence it had projected before, the tiny mass looked almost pitiful. But he wasn’t going to complain.
Smaller meant easier to store.
Had it been larger, Michael would’ve had to deal with another round of storage headaches.
Carefully and cautiously, he removed the ball of flesh from his spear and placed it inside his storage space. Then, he turned his attention to the string of system notifications that had been piling up.
“I leveled up twice!”
That meant he was now just one level away from hitting Level 25—the peak of Rank 1.
When he first Awakened, he thought reaching that level would take forever. Yet here he was: in just over a month, and with less than two months remaining before the Awakener Academy entrance exam, he was on the brink of achieving his milestone.
And now, that final step was within reach.
Michael glanced around.
Putting aside the blood-soaked ground drenched in black ichor, what surrounded him was a field full of Rank 2 monsters. They stood eerily still, vacant eyes staring into nothing.
Just as he’d suspected—their master’s death had left them without a will of their own.
They were now nothing more than experience cracks waiting to be harvested.
Fortunately, Michael had told his undead to keep their hands to themselves right after the corrupted creature fell. If they’d wiped these monsters out on their own, he really would’ve had no place to cry.
Though he technically still had more than a month left to reach Rank 2, getting there early was only an advantage.
And Michael knew—it was time.
Without a moment’s hesitation, he took a deep breath, raised his spear, and locked onto the first motionless beast.
“Let’s level up.”
**********
Verren stood in silence, brows furrowed as he stared at the unmoving corpse of at his feet.
Around him, knights formed a circle—swords drawn, breathing calm, yet wary.
Their eyes occasionally flickered to the strange armored beings nearby.
Verren glanced at them.
These were not ordinary summons.
Each seemed to be no weaker than an Advanced Knight.
Then Verren’s thoughts shifted to a youth.
Sir Mic.
Though they’d only exchanged a few words, it wasn’t like Verren was without knowledge about the youth.
He remembered the Princess’s warning clearly: Be careful around him. He’s not what he seems.
And Verren wasn’t one to ignore the words of the Great Mage lightly.
Then there were the summons. Not just the armored ones.
Earlier, as he fought those Grand-tier monsters, he’d felt it: a weighty gaze upon him.
That boy had a strong summon that could kill him.
And according to what he knows, it probably wasn’t only one.
“He’s strong,” Verren muttered under his breath, eyes narrowing.
Yet despite the difference in strength, he couldn’t help the curl of excitement in his chest.
Though it won’t be as enjoyable to fight with pure skills, fighting in our respective zones shouldn’t be bad…
The thought lingered like the whisper of a future challenge. Yes, he wanted to face the boy now.
What did a youth like that look like when he went all out?
Still, fantasies of duels could wait. There was work to be done.
With a sharp nod, Verren raised a hand, signaling his knights. “Clean up the rest. Leave none alive.”
With military precision, the knights swept through the battlefield. Steel clashed with bone and hide, and monsters that once stood frozen now crumbled one by one.
*****
Around Michael were several dead monsters.
However his eyes weren’t on his surroundings again.
With an excited smile on his face, Michael stared at the panel in front of him.
‘Status.’
*****
[ Name: Michael Norman ]
[ Class: Adept Necromancer ]
[ Level: 25{MAX} ]
[Strength: 41.75(6.0^)]
[Agility: 57.51(8.0^)]
[Constitution: 50.12(4.0^)]
[Intelligence: 190.32(11.0^)]
[ Attribute Points: 50]
[ 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, Basic Martial Art……]
[ Talent: Infinite Evolution ]
[ Class Skill: Contract Slot {105/125} ]
[ Gift: Mark of Origin ]