Evolving My Undead Legion In A Game-Like World

Chapter 963: Merging

After storing all the epic grade treasures, Michael did not immediately leave for the blood pool.

The epic items and the blood pool were unquestionably the greatest things the cave had offered, but that did not mean the rest of the space had nothing left worth checking. Shojo had accumulated many things in its lifetime and across five hundred years of operating in this forest.

Michael moved through the remaining sections of the cave methodically.

As expected, there were other items. Some had belonged to wanderers and careless individuals who had strayed too deep into the forest and paid for it. Others had come from stronger opponents Shojo had dealt with before its ascension to Rank 4.

The grades varied. The lowest among the recoverable items were three star Rare grade, with a handful of Extraordinary grade pieces scattered through the collection.

After checking every corner of the space carefully, Michael had recovered twelve intact items in total. Combined, their value probably could not match a single epic grade treasure in a direct comparison. But that was a high bar to measure against. At the very least they were genuinely useful supplementary pieces.

He could also set some aside for Lily to play with or use as she grew into her strength and sell the rest toward paying off a portion of his debt.

The debt to the elves was not included. No matter how much he accumulated, that particular balance sheet was less a debt and more a permanent feature of his financial landscape at this point.

Rich in assets. Perpetually in debt. Such was his life.

After clearing the cave, Michael made his way back to the blood pool.

He stood at its edge for a moment, looking at the layered colors shifting slowly beneath the surface. The pressure it radiated had not diminished in the time he had spent searching the rest of the cave. If anything, standing closer to it now made it more pronounced.

He summoned the undead Drakeblood.

It appeared in its humanoid form, the familiar scaled features and dragon horns catching the bioluminescent light of the cave walls. The moment it fully materialized, Michael felt something closer to yearning coming from the undead.

Michael did not stop it.

Under the combined gaze of Michael and the demonic supernatural standing beside him, the Drakeblood walked toward the pool and stepped in.

The moment contact was made the blood began to boil.

The Drakeblood’s skin began to turn red.

Michael activated his talent without hesitation.

A panel appeared immediately.

[Extraordinary material detected. Merge with undead Drakeblood?]

Michael accepted.

He exhaled slowly as the process initiated, watching the Drakeblood sink deeper into the pool as the merge began pulling the accumulated essence inward.

Fortunately his evolution points from these past few days had built up considerably.

From the pool a light emerged. Not the blinding flash that had accompanied Lily’s evolution. This was steadier, a warm luminescence that rose from the blood’s surface and wrapped around the Drakeblood’s submerged form without obscuring it entirely.

Through the glow Michael could still make out the Drakeblood’s figure. The connection between them remained clear and active.

From what he could tell this was going to take a while.

That was not a problem.

What was good was worth waiting for.

Michael sat down near the pool’s edge and occupied himself with his own thoughts, one eye always on the luminescent figure in the blood.

Roughly an hour passed.

Then a thought came through the connection.

The Drakeblood wanted to transform. The pull toward its true form was pressing against whatever restraint the undead state imposed on it, insistent and growing stronger as the pool’s essence continued working through its bloodline.

"No."

Michael sent back a firm refusal immediately.

The true form of the Drakeblood was not a small thing. The body expanding into its true form would displace the pool, potentially scattering everything. Completely unacceptable.

Another hour passed.

Michael watched as the Drakeblood’s silhouette within the pool began to shift, its outline growing in size. The pool’s level was dropping as the accumulated essence continued being drawn inward, the volume of blood visibly lower than it had been an hour ago.

The intent to transform came again through the connection.

Michael suppressed it again. Firm and immediate.

The Drakeblood endured.

Another hour. Then another.

Each time the transformation urge surfaced Michael pushed it back, and each time it returned it was stronger than the last, the bloodline responding to what was being absorbed by demanding the form that could best contain it.

The outline in the pool was noticeably larger now. What had been a humanoid silhouette was becoming something that strained that description.

The pool’s surface was significantly lower. Most of its contents had been absorbed.

Michael looked at the ceiling above them. Then at the cave walls. Then at the Drakeblood’s growing figure.

He made his decision the moment the pool’s contents were fully consumed. He told the undead Drakeblood to no longer suppress its transformation.

Michael recalled his other undead into the coffin space and teleported, reappearing in midair above the hill, the Everlong Forest spreading outward in every direction beneath them.

For a moment nothing happened.

Then the ground began to shake.

The shaking intensified. What had begun as a low tremor moving through the earth beneath the hill spread outward through the surrounding forest, the trees nearest the hill shaking as the vibration reached their roots.

Then the hill split and gave way.

A head emerged first.

Then a roar.

It hit the open air with a force that pressed against Michael even at his elevated position.

It was the Drakeblood. But different.

The scales that had always carried a reddish tint were deeper now, saturated with a blackish crimson. Two long horns curved from its head like a crown.

More importantly, it was growing.

Michael watched from midair as the Drakeblood continued to expand, its true form asserting itself without restraint for the first time since the merge had completed.

A hundred meters.

Two hundred.

Four hundred.

Michael’s eyes widened slightly.

Six hundred.

It stopped somewhere just past seven hundred meters, the full length of the undead Drakeblood’s true form stretching across the Everlong Forest, its head raised high enough that Michael at his elevation was looking at it more or less directly rather than down.

Silence settled over the forest.

Then the Drakeblood turned its massive head and looked at him.

Michael looked back at it.

[Undead High Drake - Level 100 (MAX!)]