Unlike the first two weeks after his awakening—where everything moved from one chaotic event to the next—the days that followed were relatively peaceful for Michael.
Whether it was related to his class, his family, or his identities in the Land of Origin, everything progressed steadily.
Not only did he now have 105 contract slots, which would soon be filled with the Greater Flame Lion's corpse, but thanks to the support from the Hunter Guild, he didn't seem far from leveling up again.
"If nothing unexpected happens," Michael murmured, "after filling up my contract slots today, I can start saving to evolve Lucky, Prince, and the others."
Especially Prince and his undead griffin.
With their current strength, Michael had high hopes for their growth post-evolution. He could feel it—this next stage would bring a significant boost.
Prince was already at the peak of Rank 1, and the griffin had stepped into Rank 2. Their levels were 25 and 27 respectively. Once they evolved into one-star Extraordinary creatures, their potential would shoot up to level 42.
Then there was Lucky.
Lucky's next evolution would make him a three-star Extraordinary creature, pushing his peak level all the way to 63.
But Michael hesitated.
This evolution… it felt different. Stronger. Riskier.
What if Lucky accidentally advanced to Rank 3?
It sounded unlikely—maybe even exaggerated—but Michael couldn't shake the feeling. And if it did happen, it wouldn't be a small problem.
Until Michael himself advanced to Rank 2, he couldn't safely allow Lucky to evolve.
If his suspicion was correct and Lucky stepped into Rank 3, not only would their contract break due to the two-rank gap, but Michael would suffer a devastating backlash from the connection being severed.
Best case? He'd be knocked unconscious for days. Worst case? He'd be forcefully teleported to another random location in the Land of Origin.
Basically that meant death.
To Michael, this restriction between necromancers and their undead felt more like a shackle than a balance.
Imagine if he could evolve an undead straight into a god-level creature.
Who would he need to fear in this world?
He would have an unstoppable, high-tier Carrier—something capable of challenging monsters far above his own level. His leveling speed would skyrocket.
Unfortunately, reality wasn't that generous.
Michael cleared his traces from the area and stored the corpses of several fire lions—including their leader—into his storage space.
Then, without wasting time, he mounted his undead griffin and flew off.
He didn't return to the capital immediately.
Instead, he headed to the secluded location where he kept his undead and usually conducted his experiments.
This was where he planned to fill up his remaining contract slots and use Undead Summoning on those undead that couldn't be summoned.
At present, Michael could summon 70 undead.
It was a significant number—and even more terrifying when considering that all 70 were Rank 1 creatures.
Thanks to his trips into dimensional cracks back in the real world, some of these undead weren't just at the early stage of Rank 1 either.
Take Lily and Beginning, for example.
Weeks ago, during the chaos involving the demonic supernaturals, he had assigned them to protect his family. At that time, they were among his strongest undead. But while he continued to grow stronger, they fell behind in level.
Thankfully, thanks to his recent ventures—especially the dimensional cracks in Brightgate City and the high-risk tasks he took in the Land of Origin—both Lily and Beginning had managed to catch up. They were now level 18.
Not far from the top-tier undead in his current arsenal.
Michael, on the other hand, was still some distance away from reaching the halfway point in experience needed for his next level.
Progress was slow—but there was progress.
Even if nothing major happened, at this rate, he was confident he could at least reach level 25 before the academy entrance exams.
Michael stepped into a clearing.
He knelt beside the Greater Flame Lion's corpse. Its body, though lifeless, still radiated a residual heat.
The other two fire lion corpses lay nearby, their fur scorched and smoldering. Without hesitation, Michael began to use Undead Revival.
Dark mana surged from his hands as he channeled his necromantic energy into the lions. Runes formed mid-air, circling each corpse with slow precision.
Minutes passed. Then—movement.
The Greater Flame Lion's charred eyes flickered open. Its large frame slowly lifted itself off the ground.
The other two followed shortly after, standing to either side of their leader.
He opened his panel. The three new additions pushed his contracted undead count to 105—completely maxed out.
As there was still time, Michael once again tried undead summoning on his previous undead and the three new ones.
Fortunately, lady luck smiled at him today and he was able to add 9 more undead to the list of undead he could summon including the three fire lions.
A satisfied smile tugged at Michael's lips. "Seventy summoned. One hundred and five contracted."
It was an army in its own right.
Unfortunately, Michael had already used his evolution points for the day, so the newly summonable undead would have to wait.
It was important to note that Michael only used his evolution points on undead he could actively summon.
Even if some had been evolved before, if they weren't currently summonable, he'd rather choose a random undead under his control and evolve that one instead.
That said, the only undead he chose to evolve were his undead humans.
Because of that, he now had several High Humans under his command.
Speaking of High Humans, just like the rest of his undead army, they had grown quite powerful.
After following him on tasks and even accompanying him into dimensional cracks, their levels had improved significantly.
Even those who were slightly lower in level could hold their own against stronger enemies.
The race itself was really a cheat.
Unfortunately, most of them were still purely physical combatants.
Michael hadn't yet figured out how to make them learn magic. He hadn't given up, of course, but it was proving to be more difficult than expected.
Not even the red cauldron in his soul—his talent—had been helpful in that regard.
Speaking of the red cauldron…