Michael didn’t bathe immediately after brushing his teeth—his stomach wouldn’t allow it.
Aunt Mia seemed to have cooked a huge meal last night, likely remembering his words about his appetite.
Unfortunately, he’d been too far gone to enjoy it fresh.
Still, food was food.
With his hungry stomach growling, Michael wouldn’t even care if it was a day old as long as it was edible. He devoured half the pot of rice, leaving Lily staring at him, stunned, as though he had a wormhole in his stomach. Only then did Michael feel half full.
After satisfying himself, he finally went to bathe.
Unfortunately, by the time he finished, Aunt Mia still hadn’t returned. Michael had to leave without speaking to her.
He could have waited, but there was no time.
The day before, when Michael discovered that having more undead increased his daily Evolution Points, he realized he needed to contract more before 2 p.m., when the points refreshed.
Missing that window would mean waiting another day.
It was a little after 10 a.m. now, leaving him roughly four hours.
With transportation to the Association taking an hour, Michael had only three hours left—and that didn’t include the distance to the Dimensional Cracks in Woodstone City.
Unfortunately, Michael had no information about their exact locations or the necessary permissions to access them. Otherwise, he’d have gone straight there instead of to the Association.
He briefly considered riding Prince to the Association. The idea was thrilling, but he didn’t have the guts to try it.
“Maybe once the Federation releases more information about Supernaturals and it’s widely accepted, using powers in public will be fine,” Michael mused, watching the taxi he was in drive past buildings.
Knowing he still had some time before reaching the Association, Michael relaxed in the back seat and pulled out his phone.
It was the perfect time to log in to the forums and scout for more information.
Nothing concerned Michael more right now than the issue of his undead.
The thought of having his forces divided between the Land of Origin and reality, without the ability to summon or dismiss them at will, left him deeply unsettled.
“How do other Necromancers deal with this?” Michael wondered.
For the next 30 minutes, he absorbed another dose of knowledge.
As he suspected, other Necromancers faced similar challenges, but the situation wasn’t as dire as he initially thought.
If anything, it seemed Michael was the greedy one for wanting all his undead stored conveniently in the Netherworld.
But could anyone blame him?
He was human—greed was part of the package.
Just as the real world was crucial to Awakeners, the Land of Origin held even greater importance to many.
However, Michael, having faced nothing but obstacles there with no opportunities gained yet, didn’t fully share this sentiment.
According to forum posts, Necromancers and Beast Tamers—who, like Michael, struggled to store their undead or tamed beasts—could use a ritual to grant access to a subspace for their companions.
Rituals were similar to casting spells, but instead of relying solely on one’s internal energy, they required the use of external materials.
Unfortunately, the methods for such rituals weren’t easily available.
Access required connections and resources, typically found in two places.
Awakener Academies and Guilds.
Yes, Guilds.
Due to the game-like nature of the Land of Origin and the world of Awakeners, terms like guilds were standard.
These groups united individuals with common goals, pooling resources and knowledge.
But Michael wasn’t part of either. He hadn’t been accepted into an Awakener Academy, and this was the first time he’d even heard of Guilds.
The posts were direct.
Having the right connections and resources, which weren’t cheap, could easily resolve his issue of placing undead in the Netherworld.
However, these resources were tightly controlled by influential groups, requiring one to join them first.
There was good news—Michael now had a potential solution.
The bad news?
He wasn’t even qualified to approach the gates of an Awakener Academy.
Though specific names of Awakener Academies weren’t revealed on the forum, it was clear from the posts that the minimum requirement to be a student of an Awakener Academy was to be a Rank 2 Awakener.
Had this been a year or two ago when he was 16 and had Awakened, this wouldn’t have been as much of an issue for Michael.
The principal of his school truly didn’t know what he was saying when he claimed that 16-year-old Awakeners could easily prepare for an Awakener Academy in just three months.
It was like how an Awakener had claimed in the first post Michael read: a rank three Cultivator could handle a rank two rare-rank Wyvern.
Michael suspected that particular Awakener held a grudge against Cultivators and was simply trolling them.
Sure, Awakeners could grow stronger quickly by leveling up, but it wasn’t as simple as it sounded.
For one, leveling became progressively harder as one grew stronger, and so did the monsters.
However, this wasn’t Michael’s immediate issue; as long as there were monsters he could kill, he could handle that.
The real obstacle was the time limit: three months to reach rank two.
While Michael was confident about reaching rank one, rank two was an entirely different matter.
He’d also read about special recruitment for students with exceptional talent, but unless he was willing to expose his talent, he could forget about such an opportunity.
“Whatever, I’ll just do what I can.”
Even if he didn’t manage to enter an Awakener Academy, Michael didn’t believe he’d be any worse than those who did, not with his talent.
At most, he’d follow the path described in the forum posts, like most Necromancers: dividing his forces between both worlds to maintain a balance of power without crippling his combat prowess.
It seemed like as long as it was in a space where Supernaturals lived, it wasn’t rare to have his undead out.
Michael didn’t know why the Federation or the Supers Association weren’t mentioned as potential sources of knowledge or resources for rituals, but he figured there was a reason.
He just wasn’t qualified to know yet.
Since there was still time before he reached the Association, Michael continued reading the forum posts, steadily increasing his understanding of the supernatural world he had stepped into.