Evolving My Undead Legion In A Game-Like World

Chapter 964: Eco-Friendly Michael

How did it feel when one finally acquired the strength to stand strong anywhere in the universe?

Michael felt a wave of emotions flood over him.

Whether it was in the Land of Origin, Aurora, or the greater universe beyond, as long as he did not actively seek death, Michael dared to say he now had the strength to be regarded as a genuine pillar of power.

"I wonder how strong you are now," Michael said with satisfaction as he observed the gigantic body of the creature in front of him.

After all, there were differences between those of the same level. What Michael could say with certainty was that a creature near the demigod level, regardless of where it stood among its peers, was formidable anywhere in the universe.

What made Michael even more satisfied was the lack of instability in his connection with the undead despite it now being only a step away from the next rank.

Part of that came from his current strength. The other part came from the nature of his class, which granted him near-absolute dominance over undead creatures. Against undead that belonged to him specifically the effect was even stronger.

"Perhaps if I find a way to advance you to the next rank, nothing will go wrong."

One should know that for classes like Necromancer and beast tamer, it was strongly advised not to have contracted creatures two major ranks above their own as the risk of losing control increased significantly. It was not impossible to have a creature at that level, but unless one was fully confident in their control, the creature could turn against its master with lethal consequences.

This was not the first time a thought like this had surfaced for Michael, but it was the first time he had seriously entertained the idea of actually attempting it.

In any case there was nothing to be done about it now. His resources for any such endeavor were essentially nonexistent at this moment.

Michael had the undead High Drake turn to ash and absorb into his body as a tattoo that soon faded into his skin.

However his focus was not on that, because the moment the process initiated he nearly fell from the sky.

The tattoos granted by his class skill, which allowed him to engrave the essence of the dead into his body to boost his attributes and grant new abilities, came with a cost.

The most noticeable was the weight.

Fortunately it was not the weight of the entire undead, or Michael would not have dared dream of filling all his engraving slots since he would not have been able to move at all. But the remnant weight from each engraved undead was still enough to press down on his body in a cumulative way.

One could call it a burden since it offered no direct benefits in itself. Fortunately it was not a crippling one. It did make Michael’s physical movements heavier, but that was the extent of it.

When Michael added the undead High Drake back as a tattoo, the new weight nearly knocked him out of the sky. It seemed strange that a mere ten levels would cause such a pronounced change, but perhaps that was precisely what it meant to cross from a Drakeblood to a High Drake.

Michael had a strong suspicion that the next stage of evolution would have the word dragon in it somewhere.

After adjusting to the new weight and registering the slight passive strength boost from the High Drake’s engraved state, Michael turned to look at the destruction below.

The hill was gone.

The section of forest where it had stood was now a wide irregular crater, the earth pushed outward in every direction. Trees within a significant radius had been knocked flat or stripped of their canopy by the shockwave of the Drakeblood’s emergence, lying at angles that pointed away from the center.

The crater itself was deep enough that Michael could not see the bottom of the cave from his current position. Whatever remained of Shojo’s home was now open to the night sky.

Michael looked at it for a long moment.

This was the second time in roughly the same week that he had left a significant portion of the Everlong Forest looking considerably worse than he had found it. The first had been the two kilometre clearing carved out for the tribulations. Now this.

He was becoming something of a problem for the local geography.

Michael turned and spread his senses outward.

Within fifty thousand metres the forest was alive with presence, all of it maintaining careful distance from the crater and from him. Most were Rank 3. A few sat at the upper end of that range.

Regardless of their power they were all Shojo’s farm animals.

From Shojo’s memory Michael could tell that every creature in the Everlong Forest from generations back had been subject to Shojo’s blood curse, a binding that prevented them from leaving the forest’s boundaries regardless of how strong they grew or how much they wanted to. They had been born into a cage they could not see and had lived and died within it without ever understanding why the boundary of the forest felt like a wall.

With Shojo dead the curse would dissolve on its own over time. These creatures would eventually be free to go wherever their instincts led them.

Though they were monsters, Michael felt something that was not quite pity but sat close to it.

They had been cultivated like crops for centuries.

After a brief moment of reflection Michael set the sentiment aside.

"Now that I think about it, it’s about time I started increasing my other strength."

Michael still had more than two thousand contract slots to fill. This was the true foundation of his power. The more undead he contracted, the more evolution points accumulated daily, and the more options that opened up across everything else.

These monsters would do nicely.

As for destroying the ecosystem, Michael did not think killing monsters counted as destroying an ecosystem.

Michael cracked his knuckles quietly.

"Let’s get to work," he said to no one in particular, and disappeared.​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​