Hours passed as Hazard examined the skill stones. He had nearly five thousand skill stones and began learning all martial skills with weapons. He felt he could now call himself the god of martial skills at rank C, as most of the skills were at this rank—from maces to daggers. There were also many magical skills, and he preferred to learn all of them: magic of ice, water, fire, wind, earth, light, darkness, fate, and many more. However, all were at rank D, except for a single rank A skill stone belonging to the Holy Element, which was practically useless to him as it would harm him as well. Still, he decided to absorb it.

Skills such as identification, cartography, truth verification, blacksmithing, woodworking, translation, and even poetry—Hazard had practically become an encyclopedia. Yet, despite possessing the skills, he still needed considerable experience to control them properly. After exhausting the skill stones and their duplicates, which slightly increased his skill levels, he began experimenting.

The first was dark magic, the closest element to death magic. As he released it, he started healing himself, satisfied with the process while standing on the terrace of his castle. The castle was 800 meters high, allowing him to see for kilometers—if the towering black mountains, like skyscrapers, didn't limit his view. Only after fully regenerating his bones did he realize two hands were caressing his long, fifty-centimeter horns. Standing three meters tall, those hands seemed small to him. As he turned, he saw Madian, fully healed, clinging to one of his horns. At 180 cm tall and weighing 60 kg, she was practically a weight on him, but the demon horn and Hazard's strength were not something to be shaken by such a weight.

Seeing that Madian had returned, Hazard activated his iron magic, summoning chains from nothing and fully restraining her. At that moment, Madian attempted to multiply, but Hazard's anti-magic activated—albeit weakly. Even so, she successfully split into four copies, surrounding him before slowly approaching.

Observing this, Hazard decided not to threaten Madian further in order to understand her intentions. As she got closer and realized that Hazard showed no hostility, she reverted to one form, stepped in front of him, and gazed into his empty eye sockets. Hazard couldn't understand her actions, but they shocked him. Madian climbed onto the massive chair on the terrace and nestled into his arms. Seeing this, Hazard felt as if a small, helpless child had sought refuge in him. He regretted summoning her the way he had and began searching the Demon King's marketplace for appropriate clothing. Fortunately, within minutes, he found a lightweight, Roman-style white dress for a mere gold coin. However, what he received was drenched in human blood, which made sense to him—after all, which Demon King would bother tailoring?

Cleaning the garment with purification magic, he carefully guided Madian to wear it. Once she was dressed, he gently stroked her head. Madian, having never experienced such an act in her hundred years of wild life in the Abyss, immediately embraced him tightly and released a violet secretion magic toward him. Hazard, now possessing some knowledge of various magics, observed the violet aura seriously. Knowing it wouldn't harm him, he felt reassured and accepted it, experiencing a sense of calm. But what happened next was strange—he felt sleepy. An emotion that had been absent from his new life for months. After not sleeping for so long, he welcomed sleep with open arms and drifted off.

[You have tamed a level 1 Warlord-rank Madian.]

Meanwhile, Alex, from an extremely distant vantage point, was trying to analyze the Undead Army's movements and find a safe way to approach. However, he failed to notice the humanoid female figure behind him. Only when he heard breathing did he turn around—only to be met with a mouth full of teeth and overwhelming darkness that swallowed him before he had a chance to think.

If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.

As time passed, Hazard felt himself awakening. Wondering how long he had slept, he checked the Abyss Summoning cooldown and saw that he had slept for twenty hours. His gaze shifted from the system to Madian, who was curled up on his lap, still asleep. Stroking her, he prepared to get up, but what he saw next shocked him—a level 4 Hero's soul, along with a glowing rank A skill stone called "Fusion," filled him with joy. But had he known that his target also possessed an S-rank skill, one he had failed to obtain, his joy would have turned to sorrow.

Checking the system logs, he realized that Madian had been tamed and that he was the one who had defeated the level 4 Hero. This earned Madian even more affection from him. Seeing that she had protected him in his sleep, he allowed her to rest a little longer. Madian was an undead creature, but as a dream specialist, she could relieve mental fatigue by casting a spell to sleep.

With a few more gentle strokes, Madian awoke. Stretching like a kitten, she locked eyes with Hazard. Understanding that she couldn't communicate telepathically, he gestured with his hands to ask about the Hero and where he had been killed. But Madian misunderstood his intent. Instead, she attempted to bring something up—Hazard quickly took her to the terrace's edge, where she vomited out a nearly digested skull, corroded by powerful acid. Realizing the fate of the Hero's body, Hazard checked to ensure no undead had been harmed before returning to his seat, gazing at Madian, who was now clinging tightly to him.

Meanwhile, the undead on the ground all looked up in confusion at the falling object. Seeing that it was just a skull, they resumed their tasks.

Hazard, after taking note of his stock of Fire Gems, which needed trading, and ignoring the constant messages from Horror, descended the castle and exchanged a red gem for a Death Gem. Despite significantly increasing the mines' efficiency, he had never been able to deplete Horror's stock, which made him admire the creature immensely. But after some browsing in the system, he noticed a new trade window. Opening it, he found that he could now trade across ten Demon King channels, allowing him to profit from material exchanges. However, he had no time for that now.

He headed toward the Heroes' equipment, ordering the liches and mages to sort them by quality, intending to sell everything. As he had discovered, even tattered, bloodstained clothing was marketable.

At that moment, the sun rose. Seeing this, Hazard realized that hours had passed since the Abyss Summoning cooldown ended. Thus, he resumed summoning the dead from the Abyss. The portal opened just like before, maintaining its usual size, making Hazard suspect that another Madian was about to appear. His suspicion was confirmed when a new Madian emerged—however, its arrival was anything but peaceful. Without hesitation, it attacked the first Madian beside Hazard.

Hazard paid no mind. At his command, the knights' swords struck without a moment's delay, skewering the newly summoned Madian. Thick black blood flowed as it gasped for breath. After withdrawing the swords, the injured Madian could barely move. Meanwhile, Hazard noticed his tamed Madian preparing to strike but stopped her and handed the wounded one to his knights. Even with her multiplication ability, she couldn't escape them.

Approaching the struggling, blood-spewing Madian, Hazard infused her with his dark mana's healing properties, stopping the bleeding. However, he lacked the mana for a full recovery, so he called upon two nearby liches to complete the healing. Once restored, the new Madian was no longer as defiant.

Hazard, prepared this time, had purchased several more dresses for his Madian. He pulled one out, cleaned it with purification magic, and dressed the new one, who stared at him in surprise with her Abyss-black eyes. Yet, as Hazard gently touched under her chin, a system message appeared:

[You have tamed a level 1 Warlord-rank Madian.]

Two Warlords at the cost of mana—if the Demon Kings knew, they'd surely be pulling their hair out in frustration.