1 week later....

"Luckily I got a magic bag, this smithing equipment would be hell to carry by myself and it would be weird to see a guy pulling a cart to the forest." Damion got his skeleton smiths their equipment and it proved to be worth it as they collected enough iron for all 40 skeleton soldiers which they procceded to forge into proper armour. Damion checked his status scroll to see if he had meet the requirements for reanimating the dragon skeleton yet.

[Status scroll open]

Class: Necromancer Level: 75 Magic Affinity: All-rounder Vitality: 130 Strength: 135 Agility: 138 Defense: 132 Magic: 143 Skills: Heightened sense, Iron skin, Shadow step, Greater strength, Concealment, Death Glare Special Skills: Poison Strike, Appraise, Telekinesis, Mind-read, Telepathy Magic Skills: Heal, Fireball, Elemental Enchantment, Mist, Illusion Class Special skills: Reanimation, Bone repair, Necromancer's presence Familiar: Alvollas (Mind Demon)

"I only leveled up by 6 levels, I did at least 10 quests this week most of them were ogres and ghouls." Damion wanted to kill monsters that had bones for his skeleton warriors, Damion would also lead other monsters to the cave for his skeletons to get real battle experience. 

"Well at least my skeletons are all above level 40."  Damion looked at all his skeletons levels and all of them were above level 40, 69 being the highest which was Ezra. 

Damion thought that his level would take much longer to raise as he could not find any stronger monsters. Damion was thinking of finding Dungeons and Labyrinths, they held strong monsters that could help raise one's level tremendously and there are many valuable artifacts to boost powers. The thing was that he could not find any dungeons because when one is found they are either cleared by high ranking adventurers or are guarded by guilds that reserved the dungeon for their own benefit. Damion wanted to raise the dragon so that he could fly to find dungeons.

"Well I haven't tried to reanimate the dragon in a while so..." Damion stood up and walked over to the dragon skeleton. He relaxed his body and focused all his mana into his palms.

[Reanimation activated]

 The dragon skeleton started to move, the ground shook from the skeleton moving it looked roughly about 50 metres and its wings expanded to 120 metres. It was actually kind of small for a dragon, they usually were at least 200 metres for adults. Damion looked in amazement as he had finally resurected a dragon. 

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"Now lets see its level." Damion used appraisel to check the status of his new skeleton dragon.

[Appraisel activated]

[Ronrir: Level 73 Species Dragon]

"Hmm, not bad he probaly has some useful skills that would help in battle." Damion looked satisfied to see that his new warrior was so powerful and high-leveled. 

"Okay, once the smiths are finished forging the equipment we will finally move to a different place where you can test your abilities properly." The skeletons all bowed when their master had left the cave, it was still early afternoon so Damion decided that he should go explore the surrounding area around the cave in case anyone would walk near, he went further north. Damion then stopped right before the forest ended and lead into a tundra, he sensed hostility then he spotted it. Damion found a castle it was not big but it covered a bigger area than Tabark ruins, he tried to hide his presence so that the thing inside that castle would not notice him. A twig broke from behind Damion who readied his sword, a staff was at his neck. It was Tsubuki Fuka from the ranking competiton!

"You what are you doing here?" Damion looked at Tsubuki who had lowered her staff. Damion made sure that his mist at the cave was able to hide the aura of his skeletons even from magicians.

"I received information there was a suspicious person going into the forest once in a few days, to think it was you and you asked me to wait for you after the competiton. I waited there like an idiot waiting for you to come!" Tsubuki looked at Damion with wary eyes.(It seemed that Tsubuki did not notice the cave or his skeletons)

"Ok, ok calm down. Im here observing the castle over there, don't you feel the aura of that place?" Damion pointed at the direction of the castle.

"Hmm, yes I feel a strange feeling coming from there. It may be a vampire castle judging from my intuition." Damion felt excited, he had never faced vampires before but he studied them in books before from the guild library. 

"I guess i'll head there soon." Damion had a smirk under his mask. Tsubuki looked at Damion with a weird face. 

"What do you mean that your going in there, we need to report this to the guild." Tsubuki felt that it was to dangerous for a single person to go inside and face multiple vampires by himself.

"Hey listen to this, your a magician right? If you and I clear this castle together, you can get the vampire's grimoire wouldn't that be good for you?" Tsubuki considered what Damion said. Tsubuki knew that her magic is able to match other magicians 30 levels above her and judging from Damion's skill for fighting, they might be able to deal with a few vampires by themselves. 

"Okay maybe, we can do this but we should prepare equipment that is effective against vampires and if the enemies are too numerous we escape ok?" Tsubuki and Damion agreed after a few days of preparations, they would head to the castle then they went their seperate ways. 

"Master Damion should you trust that woman? I thought you wanted to go solo?" Alvollas seemed surprised by his master's sudden team up with a stranger. 

"Alvollas she's a talented magician and if it is true that there would be several vampires or another type of monster, a temporary ally would not hurt. Even if she were to find out i'm a necromancer she doesn't know who I am." Damion explained what he planned for the battle in the castle.

Meanwhile with Tsubuki....

"He seemed like he leveled up quite a lot since I last saw him." Tsubuki went back into the town to a tavern to drink her frustrations of the day away.

....

< To be continued >