As Michael stood near the entrance of the Association, lost in thought, the vibration of his phone in his pocket snapped him back to reality.
He pulled out his phone and saw that it was an email from the Association, the notification causing his phone to buzz.
Michael unlocked his phone and opened the email.
It contained a lot of information, including the location and details of the crack he was about to enter—far more detailed than the paper he held in his hand. Additionally, there was a list attached to the email.
“This is pretty user-friendly,” Michael noted. “Since the email is solely about the Goblin World corrupted crack, it’s likely I’ll receive similar emails in the future when I want to visit other cracks for the first time.”
However, his attention quickly shifted to the attached list, particularly the very first item:
[1. Goblin Corpse – $500]
“This is even better,” he muttered. “I can earn back whatever money I spend here. Though… I’d have to kill two goblins just to make up the cost of buying one goblin corpse. And it even says the price can go up to and not exactly it. Tsk, the Association is as greedy as it is selfish.”
Having already made up his mind about his next steps, Michael turned away from the entrance and headed toward the trade center to purchase monster corpses.
Upon reaching the trade center, Michael noticed a different face behind the counter.
It wasn’t the scarred man he’d seen yesterday.
Though he briefly wondered why the other man wasn’t there, he quickly brushed the thought aside. It wasn’t something worth dwelling on as he and the scarred man weren’t close.
“Good morning,” Michael greeted the middle-aged man at the counter.
“Good morning to you too. How may I help you?” the man replied with a warm smile.
“Do you still have monster corpses here?”
“Yes, we do. Are you looking to purchase some?”
“Yes, please.”
Compared to the cold demeanor of the scarred man from yesterday, this middle-aged man was like a ray of sunshine in winter. They were like two completely different species!
After explaining what he needed, Michael was once again led to the cold storage area where he’d been the day before. However, this time, he wasn’t here for forest wolves.
Why? Because they were far too expensive for him.
At $4,000 per corpse, they were entirely out of Michael’s current budget. His bank account balance was only enough to buy three again, which wasn’t a sustainable option.
Had Michael known about the abilities of his talent earlier, he wouldn’t have wasted $12,000 on forest wolf corpses yesterday. Instead, he would have spent the entire amount on goblin corpses.
Sure, goblins had trashy base stats, and their inherent weaknesses might carry over even after evolving, potentially making them weaker than forest wolves of the same rank. But that didn’t matter.
Michael had identified himself as a horde-type necromancer. His strategy was simple: overwhelm his enemies with numbers. He fought to dominate by sheer force of numbers—bullying his way to victory.
Having a few high-quality undead was great, but not as great as having multiple quality undead.
In any case, his undead could always evolve, so their weaknesses wouldn’t remain constant forever.
Unfortunately, Michael, unaware of the ability of his talent, had been more focused on getting the most value out of his previous purchases.
Though he felt his earlier decisions had been a waste, Michael didn’t regret them.
At the very least, he had acquired Lucky and Prince, two strong Rank 1 undead. It would have been the same case had he bought goblin corpses too, as his evolution points yesterday could only evolve a monster so far.
It might have even cost more m, but Michael was still unsure.
Did evolving a common-rank undead by one star cost one evolution point each time, or did it raise a one-star undead directly to three stars, regardless of its starting point?
Now that he had several goblin corpses, all at one star, he would soon be able to figure it out.
Unlike his cautious approach to buying forest wolves yesterday, Michael didn’t even glance at the ranks of the monster corpses this time. He simply purchased ten with the highest levels available.
He currently had only seven open slots left for summoning undead, but considering the risk of failure, he bought three extras. Hopefully, his luck wouldn’t betray him.
These corpses were all providers of evolution points, after all!
The purchase cost him $10,000, nearly reducing him to the same broke state he’d been in before awakening.
The pain of parting with such an amount was sharper than the sting of his first heartbreak back on Earth. Still, Michael wasn’t too downhearted. At most, the goblins he was about to hunt would cover the damages.
After completing his purchase and making the payment, Michael wasted no time leaving the Association. He quickly hailed a taxi to Sun Park, the designated location for entering the crack.
His allotted time in the Goblin World corrupted crack was from 11:45 a.m. to 1:00 p.m., and the clock currently read 11:20 a.m.
Fortunately, there was still time. Michael wasn’t in a frantic rush to enter the crack; as long as he arrived and checked in, he would be fine.
That said, he still hurried to get there.
Seated in the taxi, Michael used the time to reread the email the Association had sent him about the Goblin World crack.
The email’s content wasn’t extensive, so within ten minutes, he was done reading and left with nothing else to do except stare out the car window.
He could have browsed the Supers Association forum, but Michael preferred to do that in a calm state of mind. Right now, he was far too preoccupied.
—
Author’s Note:
You all know the drill by now—yet another electricity outage, so no extra chapters today. Honestly, I’m not even sure if this chapter was edited properly or done well, and I don’t want to risk writing something I’ll regret later.
As always, please show your support and let me know your thoughts about this chapter! Your feedback means a lot.