The {Berserk} skill was powerful.
Observing the heightened ferocity of the orc, Michael decided to join in the attack.
At the moment, he had only one skill suitable for this situation, and it was from the same spell series as {Bone Armour}: the {Bone Spear} skill.
[{Bone Spear} (Intermediate Mastery) Proficiency: 15.2%]
Bone Spear summons a sharp, ethereal spear made of bone to pierce through enemies.
Travels up to 10 meters.
This was the skill he had gained upon advancing to Rank One, starting at {Intermediate Mastery}, a level Michael could rely on even in combat.
“{Bone Spear}.”
Michael activated the skill, and five magic circles materialized behind him in mid-air.
From these circles, white bone spears emerged, sharp and menacing.
Without hesitation, Michael launched them at the metal door.
Boom!!! Bang!
The spears struck the door with immense force, complementing the Orc’s relentless punches.
Michael observed the magic circles on the door’s surface shake violently under the assault. Continue your saga on empire
“It’s working,” he noted, feeling a surge of motivation.
Spurred by this progress, Michael channeled more mana and began to repeatedly fire bone spears at the door.
While he considered involving Lucky and Prince, he refrained, concerned that their raw power might risk damaging anything valuable inside the tower.
The Tower structure itself was unusual.
Aside from the entrance, the tower had no visible openings.
Out of curiosity, Michael had used {Detect} on the walls.
[Blackstone]
A highly durable material and an excellent conductor of mana. Ideal for creating defensive tools.
Even the walls were formidable, akin to a tortoise shell.
The entire tower was designed like a fortress.
For the same reason he didn’t have Lucky or Prince attack the entrance, Michael refrained from targeting the walls.
However, a thought lingered in his mind.
“If this building doesn’t yield anything useful, I’ll lay the whole thing bare just to collect some Blackstone.”
He didn’t know if this material existed in abundance outside the Land of Origin, but its impressive properties suggested it would fetch a high price.
That was all that mattered to him.
Money.
He was way too broke.
A few minutes later, just as Michael’s mana pool had been reduced to about half its total, the last remnants of energy in the magic circles on the metal door finally faded away.
The orc, still under the effects of {Berserk}—a skill that consumed mostly stamina, which it has more than enough of as an undead—delivered another punch.
This time, without the magic circles to absorb the impact, a massive dent appeared on the door.
Michael’s eyebrows raised slightly at the sight.
“Even the material used to make the door is special. I guess that’s expected if it was capable of holding magic circles for years.”
He was genuinely delighted by the discovery.
At this point, it felt like the entire tower itself might be the real reward of this ruin.
With the magic circles destroyed, it only took a few more punches and a hard pull for the orc to completely dislodge the door, leaving the entrance wide open.
As he stored the fragments of the black metal door in his storage space, Michael activated {Detect} to learn more about it.
[Voidsteel]
A rare, durable black metal that retains magical energy for extended periods. Resistant to physical damage and mana corrosion, it seamlessly integrates with enchantments.
Yet another fancy material.
The discoveries Michael had made so far only highlighted the grandeur of this ruin at its peak.
Though he couldn’t pinpoint the exact value of the materials he had gathered, their descriptions made it clear they were extremely valuable.
He speculated their worth might rival that of spirit crystals.
However, determining the rank was another matter. Spirit crystals from unranked creatures were classified as unranked, while those from rank 1 monsters held significantly more energy, earning them the rank 1 designation.
A single rank 1 spirit crystal was priced at $100,000 in the Supers Association Store—five times the price of an unranked crystal.
Michael doubted the materials he had looted from the gargoyles, along with what he intended to gather from this tower building itself, were worth any less.
Still, to determine their true value, he would have to wait until he returned to the real world.
In the end, Michael concluded that his current haul should be enough to finally provide for his family—clothes to cover themselves, armor for protection in battle, and weapons to fully utilize their strength.
All of this would undoubtedly require a significant amount of money.
“The stronger I get, the more I earn, the poorer I feel,” Michael muttered, feeling there were no truer words to describe his predicament.
After finishing the task of storing the metal door in his storage space, Michael eyes finally rested at the open entrance of the tower.
Just beyond the entrance lay nothing but darkness.
It made sense—there was no opening to let sunlight into the building.
However, Michael wasn’t discouraged. He had the perfect thing to light up the way.
“{Undead Summoning}.”
A greenish-black magic circle appeared beside him, and from it emerged a female orc—an orc shaman, to be precise.
This particular shaman wasn’t Lily, as Michael had long decided to avoid summoning her bearing the same name as his cousin until she was dressed.
It felt far too awkward. In hindsight, naming his first orc shaman Lily had been a mistake.
It was better to use other undead in the meantime.
That didn’t mean Michael had gotten completely used to the sight of naked undead bodies, but he had learned to look past it and endure the discomfort.
The summoned orc shaman possessed the {Fire Manipulation} skill, much like Lily.
Interestingly, not all orc shamans shared the same elemental affinity.
Among Michael’s 15 orcs, only five were female shamans.
Of those, two had fire affinity, while the others wielded wind, water, and earth.
Michael could foresee that, with more evolutions, it was likely he’d encounter some truly unique and rare elemental affinities among his orc shamans in the future.