Blaze tried asking the system about the new skill, but there was no reply. It was as if it couldn’t hear him anymore.
Eventually, he gave up and focused on the other two skills.
Corpse Vault became Corpse Domain. At first, Blaze thought it was just an expansion. But he was wrong.
Almost all restrictions placed on the vault had been lifted. He could put as many corpses inside it as he wished, and the system had no control over what he did with them.
Since he was categorically deceased, he could put himself inside it as well!
"Let’s see what you got for me."
He raised his hand, and a pitch-black swirling portal appeared before him. Unlike the vault, it wasn’t a small hole in space, but like a giant gate.
As much as Blaze wanted to head right in, he sent in a grade-2 stalker first.
Strangely enough, a barrier was stopping the stalker. It was the same when he tried sending in Breaker.
Right... they aren’t dead, just undead.
Blaze was somewhat annoyed at having to explore an unknown territory himself, but what other choice did he have?
With a snap, six tendrils broke through his back, surprising him. He had forgotten that the mutations evolve alongside him.
"Six of them, not bad!"
Blaze’s mood was instantly lifted as he dug them into the ground like a harness. This way, if anything went wrong, he could pull himself out.
"Breaker, grab them, just in case I can’t get out on my own."
Breaker nodded and held on to the tendrils for its dear zombie life.
Blaze jumped inside, disappearing along with the portal. Leaving sliced tendrils behind. Breaker fell on its ass, looking at Marrow, who was just as baffled as he was.
"...how are we getting him back now?"
Meanwhile, inside the portal.
Upon seeing his severed tendrils, Blaze was just as speechless as those outside.
"Well, that worked perfectly."
Blaze turned around, seeing the endless expanse of absolutely nothing. Other than a few corpses he had stored in the vault.
Namely, the corpses of Hailey and his team, whom he unintentionally forgot about, along with a few pieces of David and his Headless adopted mother.
However, even then, he wasn’t focused on the corpses.
How could he when the domain looked so... bare?
As the name, Corpse Domain, suggested, the place had everything a corpse would need.
"Am I on Mars? Did I beat Musk to it?"
Blaze thought, looking around.
With a solid, rocky surface and a yellow sky, it looked like he was in a simulation room. Honestly, he couldn’t think of a single use for the domain other than storing corpses and hiding in it in case of emergencies.
"Yeah, it’s nothing special... unless."
He could store corpses there.
He needed corpses to build things.
Put two and two together, and he’d have a walking base with him at all times.
Sure, it wouldn’t be too useful, considering only he can use it. Still, it was something.
With that thought, he raised his hand again. Only this time, no portal appeared before him, he just disappeared from the domain and appeared in the real world.
The zombies jumped up after suddenly sensing their master.
However, they could barely react when he grabbed some processed stuff from the separator and disappeared again. He kept doing the same thing over and over.
To Blaze’s horde, it looked like he was teleporting around.
One moment he was near the separator. The next second, he was at the corpse pit, and even later, he was killing grade-2 zombies and disappearing along with their corpses.
No one but Blaze knew what was happening.
Meanwhile, the desolate planet inside the domain was taking shape as a makeshift base. It had everything that other Blaze’s lairs did, only it was more compact.
"And done. That was quick," Blaze said, admiring his quick work before stepping out of the domain.
Outside, the horde was busy placing bets. Since they didn’t have chips or money, they bet on the only thing they found valuable.
"Three frogkin chunks, Lord will appear at the main gate," Marrow said, pushing forward the spicy food chunk.
Breaker scratched his chin, then pushed three more and pointed at the spire.
Fester rubbed his hands and went all in, betting fourteen chunks, a week’s worth of rations, while its tail pointed at the throne.
Saturn was already running low on food, so the mighty frog king folded. As for Myrme and Cheetah, they could only tilt their heads, wondering what was going on.
Raven wasn’t even there, so there was no point in including his bets that he kept shouting through hivemind.
"No more bets," Marrow announced, eyeing the pool. "And now, we wait."
The next second there was a swoosh sound.
Their master had arrived... right next to his throne.
Fester jumped, punching the air as it balanced itself on its tail.
"What are you all doing?" Blaze asked, stopping next to Fester. "Get down before you break your tail."
"My lord! Why did you appear there?!"
Blaze raised an eyebrow, then leaned in closer. Instead of talking, he lifted Marrow’s chin with a finger and stared into her eyes.
"Where should I have appeared then?" he asked.
"A-Anywhere you wish, my lord!"
"Good girl," Blaze said, looking at Fester sharing his winnings with Cheetah.
He was surprised because he didn’t know when those two got closer.
Either way, it was time to test out his final skill before he got back to other projects.
He opened the Corpse Creation tab, and it too had changed a lot. Only the [Auto Assembly] feature remained unchanged.
Instead of having two slots for unification under [Manual Assembly], the screen now showed multiple slots. One for each primary organ of a zombie, like the head, heart, limbs, etc.
"So that’s what it meant by creation," Blaze mumbled, scratching his chin.
Unification meant unifying two corpses, while creation meant creating one from scratch.
Not only did the latter boast a higher success rate, but it also gave Blaze the freedom to experiment to his heart’s content.
Unlike the domain, he was more interested in the creation tab, and it showed, because he was smiling like a fool.