Since the entire team had already reached max level, Michael decided to direct all the experience points to Prince.
Aside from being the only truly deserving “individual” in his immediate vicinity, Michael had another reason.
He wanted to run an experiment.
Does a stronger undead lead to a more powerful form after evolution?
Michael suspected this was the case, but he needed to confirm it through firsthand testing.
“How many corpses do we have now?” Michael turned to Lilian and asked.
“Seventy,” she replied.
Four hours had passed, and they had managed to kill this many Rank 1 monsters.
For most people—and even for Mira and Lilian—this was an impressive number. However, to Michael, it felt far too slow.
The only thing that gave him some solace was that, despite the amount they’d killed, the portal to exit the crack had yet to appear.
This meant they hadn’t even killed one-third of the monsters yet, implying there were at least 200 in the crack.
More monsters meant more money.
Michael had also ensured that all the corpses were in good enough condition to fetch at least $3,000 each.
If they sold all seventy for that price, the total would come to $210,000—more than double what he had earned from an entire Level 1 crack!
Sure, that crack had been filled with goblins, but still!
This realization made Michael even more eager to hunt for more monsters.
Also the number Lilian quoted was the one that she placed in her location in the land of origin.
Michael had a few slightly more damaged black ape corpses in his mark of origin for {Undead Revival}. He hadn’t forgotten he needed two more undead to reach his max number of undead at level 10.
After Mira and Lilian had reached max level and saw how much they stood to gain, they decided on the profit share.
They proposed a 90-10 split, with Michael receiving 90%.
While this might sound excessive, it made sense given that it was largely thanks to Michael that they were likely to leave the crack unscathed—and alive without doing much but tagging along.
However, as greedy as Michael was, he wasn’t that greedy. He had after all taken a few monsters to himself.
Michael had them revise the split, and in the end, they settled on an 80-20 division, with the two girls sharing the 20% of whatever profit they made.
Michael couldn’t have been happier with the outcome.
Since everyone wanted to maximize their gains, with barely any rest, they swept through the entire crack.
In the next 15 hours, the exit portal opened for the fourth time, signaling that the last monster in the crack had finally been killed.
“How many now, Lilian?” Michael asked, placing the freshly killed black ape aside.
“340, I believe,” Lilian replied, a little unsure. Michael, who had been keeping rough track himself, felt it should be about that number as well.
Lilian wasn’t as shy around him anymore, so she didn’t stammer as much, though her voice was still soft.
“340, huh? If they all sell for at least $3,000, we’re looking at over a million,” Michael said excitedly.
Mira and Lilian’s eyes lit up as well. One thing the three of them had in common was poverty.
Though Mira and Lilian were only going to split 20% of the total income, if everything sold for at least a million dollars, each would walk away with at least $100,000—and for barely doing anything.
This was exactly the kind of life they dreamed of.
The trio wasn’t the only one who benefitted, though. Even Prince had its share of gains.
Michael had been tracking its progress.
After personally killing over 300 Rank 1 monsters, Prince managed to level up six times, accumulating about 112,000 experience points.
Now, it was at Level 17, just one level behind Lucky.
Michael was thrilled by its rapid growth, though he also felt a bit anxious.
While it seemed like reaching Rank 2 might not be too hard, the reality was very different.
He noticed that starting from Rank 1, every level required 50% more experience points than the previous one:
Level 11 to 12: 3,500 EXP
Level 12 to 13: 5,250 EXP
Michael did a quick mental calculation.
To reach Level 25, the peak of Rank 1, starting from Level 11, would require at least 2,000,000 EXP.
The number was daunting. Worse, as a necromancer, unless he wanted to sacrifice the advantage of his class, his own progress would be even slower.
Fortunately, he had Evolution Points from his talent to rely on. With this, his undead progressed much faster than he did.
“Okay, let’s leave the crack. We’ve spent too much time here already,” Michael said, a mix of excitement and fatigue in his voice.
Though they hadn’t fought much themselves, moving around nonstop for hours was mentally exhausting and physically draining, regardless of how high their stats were.
As they made their way to the exit, Michael couldn’t help but wonder just how vast cracks could really get.
“Maybe there’s even one out there that’s basically an entire world,” he mused to himself.
The idea didn’t feel far-fetched. Perhaps the Aurora Realm itself was nothing more than a crack.
With nothing left to do in the crack, the team of three stepped through the exit portal and returned to the real world.
The moment they were out, they tapped the button to summon the supervisor.
The room housing the Level 2 crack was much larger and more refined compared to the one Michael had seen with Old Man Liu.
This place felt like a palace in comparison, almost heavenly.
Michael couldn’t help but wonder: If this is how the area around higher-level cracks looks, how extravagant must the ones for the truly high-level cracks be?
He sat on a sturdy metal chair with Mira and Lilian, waiting for the supervisor to arrive.
Despite spending nearly 20 hours in the crack—close to an entire day—it had been barely three hours in the real world.
As he idly opened his status menu to check his talent section, Michael froze for a moment, staring at the screen in a daze.
Apparently, without his noticing, his daily Evolution Points had already refreshed. In less than four hours, they would refresh again.
Currently, Michael had 18 undead under his control, which, when including himself, gave him 19 Evolution Points daily.
If he didn’t contract any new undead in the next few hours, he would receive another 19 points, bringing his total to 38 Evolution Points.
It was quite the haul.
Enough, in fact, to evolve Prince into a three-star Rare rank undead or to create at least five more Rank 1 undead at one-star Rare rank, bringing him significantly closer to completing his Advancement Quest.
Either choice wasn’t a loss, but Michael had already decided on the latter.
Currently, Prince was at Level 17, and Michael feared that evolving him now might cause an immediate breakthrough to Rank 2.
Though he hadn’t confirmed this suspicion yet, it was a risk he wasn’t ready to take.
Rank 2 creatures were no joke, and if he lost control over Prince, it would be a disaster.
For now, it was better to focus on creating more Rank 1 undead to strengthen his forces and ensure steady progress toward his quest.
As several thoughts flashed through Michael’s mind, the door to the crack containment space opened, and the familiar old female supervisor walked in alone.
A few men in black waited at the entrance, standing silently.
Michael noticed the woman frowning slightly as her gaze swept over the relatively less chaotic appearance of the crack.
After a moment, her expression relaxed.
Michael had a good guess about what she might be thinking but was thankful she hadn’t reacted the way Old Man Liu had.
I’m too exhausted to deal with anyone trying to show off by pressuring us, Michael thought.
“Seems like you had a good time,” the supervisor remarked, glancing at Michael and the others.
Their relatively clean and unruffled appearance made them look as though they’d been on a casual, slightly dusty trip rather than a killing spree.
“It’s modest,” Mira replied, her tone neutral. Then, as if on cue, she added, “You buy monster corpses here, right?”
The old woman nodded, gesturing for them to follow as she began to lead the way.
Signaling to the men at the entrance to secure the space containing the crack, she responded to Mira’s question.
“Yes, we do. We buy monster corpses or anything else of value that you may have brought out of the crack. What are you looking to sell?”
“Corpses of the black apes,” Mira replied simply.
“It must be a lot, isn’t it?”
“It is,” Mira confirmed.
The old supervisor chuckled softly at the response, seeming to be in good spirits.
Michael, walking slightly behind, couldn’t help but feel a sense of déjà vu.
This interaction reminded him of how Brian and Old Man Liu had reacted to his crack exploits.
Is there something about going on a killing spree that impresses these older supervisors? Michael wondered.
Compared to the others, though, this woman hadn’t mentioned anything about killing intent.
Maybe she doesn’t care, or maybe the team doesn’t have much to begin with, he mused, considering that Prince had done most of the killing anyway.
Michael soon dismissed these thoughts as the supervisor led them into an underground space.
The cool, controlled atmosphere reminded Michael of the Supers Association branch.
“All right, let’s get to business,” the woman said, turning to face them with a calm but expectant expression.