Alaster stepped out of the void, rolling his armored shoulders. [Death Pact] had leveled significantly, and now covered his arms and chest. It nearly covered his stomach. The Bonus was level eight now, and he suspected that when it reached level ten, that it would cover him completely.

Alaster called out his Undead and the Ring portal materialized. Wide enough for two Blackguards at once, they marched out. When all the Blackguards were out, the Minotaurs began to march out next, one at a time. Their imposing thick black armor reflecting very little light.

He had completed the Hollow Tunnel Dungeon six more times, totaling seven. Each time, it was completed faster than the last. In no small part due to Alaster’s increasing Undead. [Raise Undead] was now level twenty-four, and allowing him to raise ten Undead. That ten was doubled by his Legion Evolution. He could now raise twenty standard Undead, plus one Skeletal Mage, and over fifty [Horde] Skeletons.

‘How is this Adept range?’

[Class: Death Knight

Level: 30<37

EXP: 74%<52%

Health: 675/675<745/745

Health Regeneration: 16/min

Mana: 730/730<905/905

Mana Regeneration: 17/min<20/min

Abilities: Necrotic Bolt, Raise Undead, Bone Crafting, Mana Manipulation, Death Touch, Skeleton Creation, Meditation, Necrotic Heal, Dead Aura, Flesh Crafting, Raise Mage, Dead Bomb

Bonuses: Horde, Death Pact, Split Mind, Swap, Blood Price, Dead Embrace, Imbuement, Blood Aura, Fine Control, Dark Sight

Stats:

Strength: 104<118

Dexterity: 100<114

Constitution*: 113<127

Wisdom*: 172<200

Intelligence*: 130<165

Free Points: 0]

[Wisdom 200 Bonus Unlocked: Soul Domain]

[Wisdom 200 Bonus: Soul Domain

Level 1: 0%

Create a Portal to your Soul

Size: 10 meters]

The young man’s stats were good, but fairly average for his level. What he was capable of with those stats was extraordinary. Currently, he doubted anything sort of an entire Mid to High-Adept party would be able to defeat him.

Alaster had been planning on repeating the Dungeon until he had beat it ten times, or reached level forty, whichever came first. However, when Alaster had unlocked his Wisdom two hundred Bonus, he had immediately attempted to use it. Only to receive a failure notice.

[Warning: Unable to activate]

So, when he defeated the Ogre Boss once again, instead of immediately entering the Dungeon again, he paused and took a look over his Status, as well as attempt the Bonus once more. It was rare, but not unheard of, for certain situations to prevent the use of certain Abilities, the most common of reasons being Dungeons. Most of Colius’ Warp Spells were severely limited or outright disabled while he was in a Dungeon. The old wizard had regularly complained about how easy it was for others to level up in Dungeons.

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Alaster’s many Undead took up guard positions around him. A dozen Blackguards with long spears and kite shields that had a small groove where they could rest their spears in. Six massive Minotaurs with long and powerful glaives and tower shields with numerous small spikes on them. The spikes occurred when the Goblin crossbow bolts embedded in the shield and the Living Bone enchantment attempts to repair the damage without removing the bolt. Instead, it grows the bone around the bolt. When Alaster leaves the Dungeon, the bolts, encased in bone, vanish, causing the bone to fill the void.

However, that was only eighteen. One Night Child had immediately climbed a nearby tree. But Alaster’s newest pride stood in front of him. Make entirely from memory, bone, and Necrotic Mana, a large stallion awaited orders.

Alaster didn’t know anything about the skeleton of a horse. Instead, it had been a mess of trial and error. As his Undead butchered the Goblins, Alaster would spend hundreds of Mana only to see the Undead abomination fail to move properly. While experimenting, Alaster didn’t strengthen the bone. It was a waste of even more Mana and time to do that when he didn’t even know if the design would work.

Due to this, and his Mana becoming much stronger, the Undead was capable of moving with more force than the bone was capable of withstanding. Numerous times, when Alaster had miscalculated the joints and bone sizes, the bones would collide and shatter. It took an entire Dungeon Run to get the general shape correct. It took another Run to get the general shape to look correct, as well as get the armor plates to work correctly, while still standard bone.

Alaster didn’t intend to use the Stallion in the Dungeon. It was too narrow. However, it did intend to use it in combat eventually. So he treated the design as such. The armor was angled, so any braced weapons would be pushed to the side. The armor on the sides were plates layered over each other to allow greater flexibility.

When he deemed the design satisfactory, Alaster attempted to ride it, and quickly learned the importance of saddles and stirrups. Unfortunately, Alaster was unable to create stirrups flexible enough with bone. However, since the Stallion was an Undead, Alaster didn’t need the stirrups to direct the beast, and could instead control it with mere thought and intent. So Alaster instead built them into the armor. The Saddle was simply a trial and error of comfort.

In the latter stages of the last Dungeon, Alaster had even built a back rest so he could lean back in comfort.

‘Dungeons really shouldn’t be this easy for people.’

Regardless, Alaster was proud of the beast. Standing at nearly six feet tall, in all black armor, it was an intimidating creature. A creature made unnerving, because of it didn’t move unless ordered, nor breath.

Alaster’s latest Bonus, [Soul Domain] was ambiguous. He was not sure what it would actually do. ‘Create a portal to your Soul’. The Soul was not a physical thing. So how could a portal be made to reach it? In addition, the Ability did say, Range, or Radius. Nor did it specify a Mana Cost. All it said was Size, a size of ten meters.

‘What better than to try it out?’

Alaster mentally activated [Soul Domain].

Two meters away from him, a portal opened. Like someone had used a knife to make a vertical cut in a stretched cloth, followed by someone grabbing both sides and pull apart. In the end, Alaster was faced with a two meter tall, meter and a half wide portal of glowing sickly green Mana. However, when he looked closer, he could see a hint of reddish orange.

‘Interesting. Its made up of the mana I use.’

But Alaster wasn’t about to go through a strange portal unaware. He still vividly remembered how he had been thrown several meters away when he tried to enter the portal generated by the Summoner’s Ring.

Alaster ordered one of the Blackguards to step forward.

“You shall be the first on new ground! If, there is, in fact, ground. Onwards!”

The Blackguard saluted and marched through.

[Warning: Change Detected in Ability]

[Wisdom 200 Bonus: Soul Domain

Level 1: 0%

Create a Portal to your Soul

Size: 10 meters

Minions Stored: 1/5]

‘Huh, that's cool. A weaker version of the Summoner’s Ring. And, if I lose the Ring in some way, I can still store some. Though I hope that it will increase eventually.’

Alaster had been wanting to learn an Ability to store his Minions. As much as he liked the Ring, it could be lost, or removed, or even cut off. But it was much more difficult to disable Abilities, as they were tied to the Soul, though still possible. There were Abilities that worked similar to a curse and weakened Abilities or even disabled them temporarily. Though, those were typically costly and had several limitations.

There were also enchantments that could be used to disable Abilities. These were typically used as shackles or secure rooms. But since they were still enchantments, they were expensive, leading only the more wealthy to have access.

Alaster had even heard of a certain ore that could naturally sever the link between the physical world and a person’s soul. It was painless, and only effective so long as the material was present. However, it completely removed access to even the most reliable of Abilities. Alaster wasn’t even sure if his Undead would still function if he encountered the material. Would they stand there like statues? Continue to obey orders and simply be unable to receive new ones? Fall apart? Or maybe even go wild, attacking anything around.

Undead weren’t just Minions, after all. They were naturally occurring in the world. ‘Naturally’ being very loose. Almost always, Undead were caused by some outside influence. Wild Undead, having no master, typically mindlessly wondered around attacking every living thing they found. However, on the very rare, almost completely unheard, chance that a truly naturally occurring Undead rose, they were always extremely powerful.

Typically, such natural Undead took the form of Liches. Immensely powerful Undead Mages, capable of raising legions of their own Undead. They were highly intelligent, and could be reasoned with, however they were still filled with the primal instinct and need to rip apart everything living thing. Even trees were left alone, though they took a lesser priority to breathing creatures.

Seeing no other changes, Alaster stepped forward and lightly touched the portal with his finger. It rippled like water. His finger passed through effortlessly. The sensation was strange. Cold, with a hint of warmth. Yet he felt perfectly fine. He wasn’t tossed away. The tip of his finger didn’t get chopped off.

So Alaster stepped through.