Read Novel Full Chapter 896: Skip this - !!!! Wait for next!!!!
Chapter 896: Skip this Chapter!!!! Wait for next!!!!
A/N: To avoid complaints about pacing, feel free to skip this Chapter and wait for the next one which will be up in a few minutes. This Chapter exists purely to show Michael’s thought process behind his class decision, and I felt it was necessary to include rather than summarize or skip over entirely. Decisions like this shape a character’s entire future, and I wanted to give it the weight it deserved rather than glossing over it in a single paragraph.
I do read your comments and I do take them seriously, which is why I am always working to improve. However there are some moments in a story that cannot be rushed or cut without the narrative suffering for it, and this was one of them. I hope those of you who stuck around enjoyed it. As always, thank you for reading and for your continued support. It means more than you know.
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"Fortunately there’s you to take the blame. If not, this decision would have been much harder."
[Class Skill]: Death’s Ground {Basic Mastery}
[Description]: The user designates an area as consecrated ground. Within this domain, all undead under the user’s command receive a passive buff. The domain persists as long as the user maintains focus or remains within range.
[Effect]: All undead within the domain receive +10% Durability and +5% Regeneration.
[Stat Buff]: Strength +5%, Constitution +15%, Agility +5%, Intelligence +10%
[Range]: Scales with Intelligence.
Just like when Michael had advanced to Rank 2 and obtained a new core skill, Spirit Eyes, this time the system had granted him another.
When he first received it, he had only given it a brief glance alongside the other skills he gained from advancing and from his increase in stats. Compared to everything else at the time, it had not stood out much.
"...Just decent."
That had been his initial judgment. Nothing extraordinary. The boost didn’t seem like it would make much difference for undead who were already absurdly strong.
When one advanced in rank, changes were inevitable. Either a new core skill appeared or existing ones improved. Leveling up skills was the more common outcome, almost guaranteed every time. A new core skill wasn’t exactly rare, but it wasn’t as common either.
Now that he was at the junction of an important decision, he finally looked at it properly.
His expression shifted slightly. "...Hmm."
The skill could absolutely not be said to replace the Grave Warden class. The difference in scale was simply too large. Where Grave Warden offered a 30% domain-wide attribute boost, automatic enemy conversion, 40% durability increases across his entire army, and command over other dead creatures, Death’s Ground at basic mastery offered 10% durability and 5% regeneration. Comparing the two directly almost felt insulting to the class.
But Michael’s eyes lingered on the skill a moment longer.
Perfect mastery was a different conversation entirely. According to what he had read about the awakener skill system, skills at that level were sometimes barely recognizable as the same skill they had started as.
If Death’s Ground reached perfect mastery, the gap between it and Grave Warden’s domain effect might not close entirely, but it could narrow considerably. Enough, perhaps, to make the absence of that class less significant than it looked right now.
It was a stretch. He knew that.
Michael clicked his tongue softly. "...Of all the times to use one."
He had been holding onto his perfect mastery skill ticket with the quiet understanding that when he finally used it, the moment would have to be worth it. And here he was, seriously considering spending it not on a combat skill or a core ability, but to fact-check a class decision.
It was a little embarrassing if he was honest.
But the alternative was making a choice he might spend years second-guessing. If Grave Warden could be adequately covered by a skill he already possessed at its ceiling, then Death’s Heir became the obvious answer with no loose ends. And if it couldn’t, then at least he would know.
Michael exhaled slowly. "...One last check."
He reached for the ticket in his storage space. The description said he was to tear it to use it, which was quite different from the previous skill potion version where he’d needed to drink it.
Michael tore the silver parchment and a skill list appeared in his mind. He skipped directly to Death’s Ground and selected it. Immediately a flood of new information filled his mind as the description on the panel in front of him changed.
The panel shifted.
[Class Skill]: Death’s Ground {Perfect Mastery}
[Description]: The user designates an area as consecrated ground. The domain pulses with the authority of death itself, enforcing the user’s will upon all that stands within it. Undead under the user’s command are recognized as extensions of that authority. The domain persists as long as the user maintains focus or remains within range.
[Effect 1]: All undead within the domain receive +35% Durability, +25% Regeneration, and +20% to all attributes.
[Effect 2]: Fallen enemies within the domain have a chance to rise as undead under the user’s temporary command.
[Effect 3]: The domain passively suppresses the combat ability of living enemies within range by 10%.
[Stat Buff]: Strength +10%, Constitution +25%, Agility +10%, Intelligence +20%
[Range]: Scales with Intelligence. At perfect mastery, base range is significantly expanded.
Michael stared at it for a long moment without speaking. Then slowly, very slowly, he exhaled.
"...So that’s what it becomes."
The gap had narrowed. He had been right about that. The durability increase alone had jumped from 10% to 35%, the attribute buff had expanded from a selective stat boost to a full spread across everything, and the domain now suppressed living enemies on top of empowering his undead. Even the secondary conversion effect had appeared, echoing one of the features that had made Grave Warden so attractive in the first place.
It was not the same. He was clear-eyed about that. Grave Warden’s 40% durability across his entire army regardless of location, its deeper conversion mechanics, its natural synergy with everything he already was, none of that was fully replicated here. The class would still have done more.
But this was no longer a wide gap. This was a manageable one.
Two times Michael had come very close to death. Perhaps it had been more than two, but it was only two occasions that had left a deep impression on him. The first was when he was still a new awakener and Jester in its master form had almost killed him. The second was his recent brush with death in hell. Both times it had been his personal strength, or the lack of it, that had held him back.
Regardless of how strong his undead were, there was something that had hardly ever changed in Michael’s relationship with them. Setting aside the cannon fodder, he had almost always been the weak link in fights that required him to rely on his undead fully. Which was understandable for a necromancer, since an undead army was supposed to be the primary strength.
But Michael’s path had never been like other necromancers. He wasn’t sure when it had started, but for some reason he always seemed to attract opponents above his level at every stage of his growth.
With all of that in mind, Death’s Heir was the more attractive option. And if he wasn’t wrong, combined with this skill and the class’s effect of amplifying all death and dark-related abilities by 50%, he would only grow stronger alongside his undead rather than falling further behind them.
In the path to power one only gained more or lost more.
Michael only wanted gains.
"I choose Death’s Heir."