Michael felt a sense of responsibility—and a pang of guilt.
Aside from his personal issues with the monster, he wanted it dealt with as soon as possible.
"If only I could know that monster's level without having to risk my life."
Knowing its strength would give him a much-needed advantage.
For one, it would allow him to prepare more thoroughly, minimizing any potential gaps in his plan.
But beyond that, another thought had struck him back in the mayor's office—one that could provide him with a surefire way to have more strength.
His talent's evolution ability was directly tied to the strength of the creatures he evolved.
The stronger a creature was before evolving, the more significant the transformation.
What if he evolved creatures only at their peak of their potential?
For example, he could take a goblin—something he could summon and dismiss at will—and evolve it into a hobgoblin.
Then, by raising it to level 14, the upper limit for common-rank creatures, he could evolve it again into a rare-rank being.
That alone might push it to the limits of a one-star rare rank creature.
Another evolution after that, and Michael was almost certain it would reach the mid stages of Rank 2.
If he repeated the process, evolving the creature again, it could potentially push it to the very peak of Rank 2.
Michael couldn't help but feel that he had been using his talent inefficiently.
But then again, he was still learning.
It was only natural that he'd take time to grasp its full potential.
At least this method seemed far more cost-effective than trying to evolve Lucky, which required a staggering 625 evolution points.
He had no idea how long it would take to accumulate that amount.
"If I don't see any changes when I try to evolve one of my human undead soon—since I'll be reaching 100 evolution points in a few hours—I'll test this method instead."
There were so many possibilities, but evolution points were always in short supply.
"If only I had treasures to increase my soul quality."
Advancing ranks was said to bring drastic transformations, and from Rank 2 onward, each breakthrough was supposedly more significant than the last.
"When I next visit the forum, I'll check for posts about the changes at Rank 2. Even if I can only find scraps of information due to member-level restrictions, anything is better than nothing. It would be even better if I could find specialized info on Necromancers."
Though he was still a newbie, experience was slowly molding him into something more.Michael organized his thoughts and planned out his next steps for the next few hours. Once he was done, he noticed it was time to return to the real world.
There was nothing left for him to do here except wait, which he considered a waste of time.
Summoning two undead orcs by his side, Michael reconnected his consciousness back to his original body in Aurora.
A moment later, his eyes opened in a dimly lit room.
"It's morning already," Michael noted.
He had arrived at the Land of Origin in the dead of night, and after everything that had happened over the past several hours, it was only natural that Aurora—being nearly four hours ahead—was already seeing its dark skies lighten.
Looking out through the open window at the slowly brightening horizon, Michael dismissed the undead in his room back to the Netherworld.
He stood up and made his way to the window, gazing at the scene beyond.
The silence in the air almost made one mistake it for peace and quiet. But looking at the collapsed buildings and ruined roads outside, Michael couldn't help but think back to the events of the previous day.
Feeling energized and unwilling to simply stay idle, Michael considered his options.
He planned to visit the Supers Association today to speak with Brian, but it was still too early. Morning visits weren't an issue—he still intended to go as soon as possible, given that he had things to do in the Land of Origin—but there was a difference between showing up a little after seven and arriving at eight, nine, or ten.
In fact, he wasn't even sure he'd catch Brian at ten, let alone earlier.
Not wanting to sit around, he quickly decided how to burn off some of his energy.
Opening his window fully, Michael leapt out of his apartment, controlling his movements to land silently.
Once on the ground, he turned back to glance at his apartment.
A few of his undead were patrolling the area, but he paid them no mind.
Crouching down, he gathered strength in his legs and propelled himself upward, landing smoothly on the roof of his building.
Had a child seen him, they'd probably point in excitement and shout, "Mommy, look! It's Superman!"
Up on the rooftop, Michael took a brief glance at his surroundings before sitting on a concrete structure that resembled a box. He pulled out his phone, which he had taken before leaving his room.
At first, he had planned to practice swordsmanship, but a different thought crossed his mind.
For some reason, he found himself recalling the mages he had encountered in the past few hours.
Though their strengths varied significantly, both the human mage and Mage Lian had demonstrated the full capabilities of magic users in their own ways.
Spear training could be done at any time.
For the first time in nearly a week since his awakening, Michael finally felt a genuine interest in trying out the methods of cultivation.
He pulled out his phone and navigated to one of the first emails he had received from the association after his registration.
The cultivation methods of a Knight and a Mage.
The two most popular supernatural professions in Aurora.
Two chapters again! We're back! I'll try to upload as usual and do more work behind the scenes on my end. Thank you for the continued support, and we're on our way to 200 chapters! I truly appreciate all of you!!! Thank you so much!