The lich felt absolutely helpless as he couldn’t do anything in this state of being constantly bombarded by spirit blasts. He cursed in his mind about his ill fate from being defeated and sealed in the sword to now being on the verge of death.

Using his will Nathan started to overtake the soul of the lich that had gotten too weak to resist Nathans’s enslavement. His free will was completely destroyed as he became a faithful servant of Nathans without any power to resist.

Nathan had stopped his magical assault on the lich as he knew he had successfully enslaved the lich.

“Come here!” Nathan commanded the lich to arrive in front of him as he prepared to question him.

| Yes, master. | His tone had changed to one of absolute obedience as he responded to Nathan’s wishes.

“What do you know about the gods?” Nathan was quite desperate to know more about the entities that had given him this chance especially now that they had put their attention on him.

| They are beings that have risen beyond the limits of any mortal creature. They have a great understanding of the laws of the universe as they abuse their power to fulfill their selfish goals. | The tone of the lich had changed to one of contempt as soon as he started to talk about the gods. Clearly showing his displeasure if not even hate towards them.

| They had invaded my world just as they did with yours. They sent their zealots to kill me in waves as I didn’t fall for their deception. | There was pain and anger that came from the very soul of the lich engraved in it for all eternity.

Nathan was unsure of how much he could trust and believe in what the lich had just said. There was a great part of him that felt immensely grateful towards them for reuniting him with Nicole, but if what the lich said held true he might need to rethink his future actions a bit more. But the question still remains how much of it was the delusions of the lich or the fact of the situation.

“Is there any crucial information I should know about them?” Nathan had felt that the lich had held back on something before.

| You cannot trust them at all. They can’t enter these worlds themselves but they have their ways to access them. Like through their believers or the minions they send here. |

This was quite an important piece of information from the lich. If the gods couldn’t enter the world themselves he wouldn’t need to worry about them just killing him instantly. Nathan felt quite satisfied with the information the lich had given him.

“You shall be known as Azrael from now on!” Nathan couldn’t refer to him as the lich, all the time after all.

| Thank you, master. |

“Azrael, send the skeletons to search the area for treasure.” There used to be quite a few people in the camp and Nathan didn’t believe he couldn’t find anything of worth from all these people that had gotten something from the wheel.

Nathan had no way of knowing this himself but quite a few powers of the old world had used this exact method to rise to power once again. Even if they hadn’t gotten anything great themselves, they could use their human resources to hoard all kinds of treasures from those that knew no better or were just simply too weak to resist them. In the end, Azrael with his knowledge knew much better of what was worthwhile to take or what wasn’t as his skeletons started to pile a bunch of loot in front of Nathan who was examining the space pocket he got from killing all these humans.

It was an extremely useful tool that let him store items inside a separate space. Food could last pretty much indefinitely in it and it was somewhat specious. In size, it was around 10 meters in diameter or so.

“Alright, let’s see what we have here.” Nathan started to rummage through the pile of items as he read their description. There were quite a lot of weapons in the pile that Nathan gave to the skeletons boosting their power. It was the same with the armor he couldn’t use himself as well. A pleasant surprise was among the items that was a grimoire! It was a simple-looking book with hard leather covers. that looked to be made of unknown animal skin. He wasn’t able to open it as well.

| Unclaimed Grimoire |

| The grimoire lets it’s user store spells while helping in the growth of the user |

| Requirement: 20 mana and spell power |

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| Current mana limit: 100 |

| Current spell limit: 5 |

| You meet the requirements to claim the grimoire as your own. |

Without any hesitation, Nathan had claimed the grimoire to himself. As another system message popped up.

| You have acquired a growth item. A growth item has the ability to evolve with the user while acquiring abilities that suit the user. |

The grimoire had changed its appearance now that Nathan had claimed it. Its design was still as simple as before only now changing its color to ash grey while a chain appeared out of nowhere as it settled on his waist.

Nathan took the grimoire in his hands now able to open it up and see that it only had five pages. In these five pages, he could store any spell he knew and cast it with the mana he could now put inside it. As long as he kept using the grimoire it would evolve specialized abilities making his choice of magic it held quite an important decision. In the end, he decided to simply store his soul slash on the first page.

“Azrael what is the exact difference between spells and just controlling the elements to do the same?” Nathan would have to be a fool not to use Azrael's vast information about magic for his own gain.

| Master the difference between spells and just controlling the mana is quite large as spells make the process of casting magic a lot faster as well as having the ability to grow in power as your proficiency with them increases. | The biggest downside to spells that Nathan could see compared to his way of using magic was the lack of flexibility it had. A good example would be his use of the bone spike if it was a spell it would be stronger, but he couldn’t create extra spikes from it to pierce the target even more.

| Werewolf paws |

| Gloves made from the corpse of a werewolf. |

| Agility +3 |

| Increases claw damage by 15% |

These gloves looked just like they sounded greyish brown in color with fur covering the top of it while the bottom half had no fur. They even had a special ability or having claws that came out of the fingers that could be toggled on and off.

| Boots of the swift |

| These boots were made by an elven craftsman as a gift to his son on his 100th birthday so he could always escape from danger. |

| Increase movement speed by 25% |

| Amplifies wind magic cast through these boots by 10% |

They looked pretty much how one would expect elven boots to look like they went higher up the leg then regular boots would and had many shoelaces to adjust the size of them.

He gave all the rest he didn’t want to use to the skeletons as he left towards the location of the last pests in the city. Near that location was also the last holder of a unique ability that Nathan was looking forward to. The location was on the completely opposite side of the city and he just so happened to see the treant king himself. There was no way it was anyone else but him.

A tree that stood right in the middle of the city with a human-like face on top of it. In height, it could easily be compared to the highest skyscraper, but most impressively was the circumference it had. As Nathan examined it in more detail he noticed that the two branches that reached from its trunk into the sky were actually its hands that it had raised into the air covered with leaves. While the bottom of its body was completely covered in soil, Nathan could easily imagine the tentacle mess its roots had created in the soil beneath the ground. It had most likely covered the whole city as it fed on it. Nathan wouldn’t be surprised if the treant king saw other species simply as fertilizer for himself may it be their bodies or soul.

“Azrael, what level do you think the treant king is?”

| It’s a boss around level 60-80. | The small army of a thousand skeletons that had gotten somewhat near the treant king had drawn his attention as his gigantic eyes opened and moved to look at them. The treant king didn’t say anything to them as he once again closed his eyes after a minute and continued to enjoy all the delicious fertilizer he was constantly getting in the city.

Nathan’s speed had fallen a lot now that he traveled with an army of a thousand skeletons that was the limit of Azrael's control. But he felt like it was worth it if he didn’t need to dirty his hand with blood like that again if he could just let the skeleton do the dead. It was quite annoying for him to use so much water magic to get all the blood off him.

But it’s not like there weren’t any other benefits to him slowing down his speed he could now put more focus on his magic training as his mastery of plant magic was rapidly increasing in the treant kings territory. The mage class was now granting him a 25% bonus as his lesser plant affinity was giving him another 25% together with the territory bonus it rose to all the way to 150% experience gain for plant magic.

| Plant magic | Level 5 |

| By using mana you can control the plants around you with high enough mastery you can even create plants. |

| Mana consumption based on the degree of manipulation and environment. |

| Unsuitable base mana: Cost of plant magic increased by 15% |

It had only been a few hours since he entered the city yet plant magic had already leveled up a few times just with him using it passively as he moved around. Yet this passive training was increasing some of his other skills as well. He was steadily growing stronger even without killing.

Currently, at Nathan’s destination, the leader of the group was having a conversation with one of his gang members. They were already a nefarious bunch of people before the apocalypse exploiting the underworld of the city as much as they could from prostitution to selling drugs and guns to even hired killing. There were always desperate people out there willing to do anything for money. One wrong step and you were set for life to walk down the wrong path.

“Brother white, why don’t we go look for more survivors in the city tomorrow?” They had just finished having their fun as they smoked their cigars and were having a drink discussing their future plans.

Brother wite smirked with a lewd smile as he recalled all the fun they had these past few days. “Definitely they just break too soon now that our power has increased so much.” He laughed with joy before his mood got ruined a bit by what brother black said.

“But damn that fucker, James has been going too far these days even for our standards.” He couldn't help but be disturbed by all the fucked up shit James had been doing now. Even before the apocalypse, he was a freak that liked to take a bite out of the unripened fruit.

“But what can we do, he is the strongest member of our group now with his weird-ass ability.” Brother white felt helpless even if he was the main boss of their gang. The ability of James was too valuable for him to intervene in his twisted hobbies.

“Sigh, I just don’t get how a man like that could still call himself a vegan!” In the end, this is what bothered him the most about James, how can a man that did such bloody things call himself a vegan and criticizes others about not being one!