In the Land of Origin, before Michael had used the Law Seed, he had his undead drag back the bodies of the monsters that had fallen in the void.
What he hadn’t expected, however, was that alongside the corpses came loot.
Spirit crystals! All of them from Rank 3 monsters!
There were nine in total. Pitifully few, perhaps, but not too bad considering that nearly five dozen monsters had been involved to get this much.
Michael wondered when a new loot would appear though.
Michael didn’t rush to refine the crystals. Instead, he stored them away for later use.
With the corpses piled before him, he separated those whose remains were too mangled to be useful—unless he chose to evolve them back into shape—and set aside the intact ones.
Michael’s plan was simple.
He wanted to see if, as a Rank 2 necromancer, he could revive a Rank 3 monster.
Normally, not many necromancers would attempt such a thing. But Michael was no ordinary necromancer.
To him, rank was merely a measure of division, not an absolute barrier. His current power made him confident he was not weaker than the average Rank 3 necromancer. What he just didn’t have was the rank and the law.
In his mind, there was no reason for failure.
Yet, unlike what he had imagined, the attempt didn’t even reach the point of failure. The process collapsed before it had truly begun.
The problem, however, wasn’t with him—or even with his Undead Revival skill. The issue lay in the corpses themselves.
To raise a monster as undead, a necromancer needed two things: a fragment of their own soul, and the lingering soul of the fallen creature. Through this bond, life was forced into death, and a new contract was formed. But when Michael reached for the lingering souls within these bodies, he found nothing.
The corpses were empty husks.
"How...?" His confusion lasted only a moment before the answer became obvious.
Prince.
Prince’s soul puppets didn’t emerge from nowhere—their origin was these very same monster souls. Prince had taken them all, leaving only lifeless shells behind.
Michael felt a twinge of disappointment, but it faded quickly. Even if he had managed to raise Rank 3 monsters, he had never planned to revive a lot of them.
At least not now.
The reason was simple: feedback.
If his undead began at Rank 3, he would lose the growth feedback that came from pushing Rank 2 creatures into Rank 3.
That feedback was invaluable, and Michael had no intention of wasting it.
Only when advancement ceased to provide meaningful gains would he abandon that strategy and begin raising Rank 3 undead from the start.
And that day, he believed, wasn’t far off.
His new race made his stats so absurdly high that increasing them through feedback would eventually hit a ceiling. Michael doubted he’d get more than fifty feedbacks from Rank 2-to-3 advancement before the benefits dwindled into insignificance. At that point, only then, would he start raising undead that were already Rank 3.
For now, however, the corpses Prince had drained were useless to him or any necromancer. At best, they could be sold off for profit.
Which meant that, at present, only three monsters could be revived as undead. And as luck would have it, these three were the strongest among the entire group.
Michael was just considering which one to start with when, at that very moment, his original body within the Damaged Coffin of the Forgotten began using a Law Seed to seek out the truth behind Laws.
He had thought he could keep his attention divided between both bodies, but it proved more difficult than expected. After instructing his undead to remain on guard, Michael sat cross-legged on the floor and shifted the majority of his focus back to his true body, allowing the two of them to prehend the mysteries of the Law Seed together.
Only after the original body paused did Michael’s body in the Land of Origin regain the ability to freely divide its focus once more.
When Michael and his original body finally withdrew from the depths of the Law Seed’s illusion, both were left trembling in silence. The visions of rivers, storms, floods, and oceans still echoed through their minds like the crashing of waves. For a long moment, they could only sit in stillness, trying to steady their souls after brushing against a truth too vast to fully grasp.
It was then their gazes finally shifted to the series of glowing panels they had left unattended.
[Skill Advancement: Water Wall → Intermediate Mastery.]
[Skill Advancement: Water Wall → Advanced Mastery.]
Michael blinked. The jump alone would have been shocking, but the notifications hadn’t stopped there.
[New Skill Acquired: Water Blade.]
[New Skill Acquired: Aqua Bind.]
[New Skill Acquired: Frost Shards.]
[New Skill Acquired: Ice Armor.]
[New Skill Acquired: Ice Ball.]
[New Skill Acquired: Frozen Lance.]
Six new skills.
Every single one water or ice related. And none of them at basic level—every one already stood at least at intermediate mastery.
Michael’s lips parted in disbelief.
"So this... ?" he whispered.
Michael’s mind thought back to the effect of his True Person title and his gift, the eye of truth.
When one thought of it, the two gave him an advantage in terms of prehension.
The Eye of Truth had let him glimpse the essence of water and he had managed to carve out skills rooted in that very prehension.
Michael quickly skimmed the descriptions.
[Water Blade] – Condenses water essence into a sharpened edge.
[Aqua Bind] – Condenses liquid chains that can turn to ice to restrain target.
[Frost Shards] – Condenses cold water vapor into crystalline projectiles.
[Ice Armor] – Forms a layer of hardened frost over the body, reducing damage.
[Ice Ball] – Condenses water into a solid sphere of ice and hurls it at a target. The impact delivers blunt force along with freezing energy, slowing or immobilizing the enemy.
[Frozen Lance] – Focuses water into a spear of ice capable of piercing defenses.
Michael clenched his fist and thought back to another panel.
[Your affinity with the world has increased significantly.]
"Does that mean... I’m more or less a genuine genius now?" Michael murmured.
Michael conveniently ignored the fact that even if that was the case he had gotten it from cheating.
This evolution had indeed brought him a lot.
It was then Michael thought of one last thing he was curious about.
His talent.
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