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He remained conscious inside his dead body, unable to move, breathe, blink, or do anything. It would’ve been a nightmare if he didn’t have access to Basic Healing, which was harder to use in this state.

Pressing that quasi button inside him to activate the alpha skill felt less tangible. He threw all he had at it, forcing whatever little spirit and life energy he had left to help him. He prayed, too.

Gilbert was in a race against time. He needed to repair the damage to his spinal cord and jump-start his heart. Severe brain damage was imminent the longer he went without breathing.

There was nearby movement. Could that be more goblins? Jack? Or actual help? He couldn’t tell.

His perception was dull. But he could still sense stuff around him. Maybe not through his body. But through his Extra Life trait. He hoped for salvation, just like before.

His dad had once told him he should’ve died in a fishing accident when he ended up under the water.

In fact, he had died. But after receiving some CPR, he’d come back to life on the bank, vomiting up water.

People in his hometown in upstate Florida would run with that story for a long while every time he was in town. They’d bring it up now and then at church events.

Who would’ve thought that event could translate to a life-saving power in this god forsaken world?

Gilbert would’ve pondered on that longer if he didn’t come back to life with a shock, gasping, pissing, sobbing like a baby even though he was a big six-foot-three man, who liked to lift weights and do outdoor activities and barbecue on the weekends. Dying and reviving in a hellish place could break a man, truly.

“Whoa,” said a familiar voice.

It came from the suspect someone had reported on for Gilbert and his fellow officers to remove from the mall’s premise. Everything had gone wrong when it should’ve been routine.

Now the suspect was standing over him, hood on, face shrouded in darkness.

Worse yet, that she-devil was standing slightly behind him.

Gilbert didn’t know who was more monstrous. The guy who used evil magic. Or the female Marine without morals.

“Please, take me back,” Gilbert pleaded, throwing aside all of his limited pride.

Zarian turned to the amoral Marine. “What do you think?”

Gilbert’s hopes dimmed. He could sense the young wizard was the more reasonable of the two. The woman, who was closer to Gilbert’s age, looked down at Gilbert like she was preparing to step on a bug.

“He has that healing touch. I’m okay with giving him another chance as long as he goes along to get along,” she said.

“Yeah, I’m thinking the same.” Zarian pulled his hood off, scruffy and youthful face, and reached down, offering his hand.

You could tell a lot about a man based on their hand. Zarian’s offered hand was rough, dirty, and hadn’t seen better days in a long time.

Gilbert took his hand like it was the Lord’s hand leading him to salvation. Then he felt surprising Strength from Zarian, yanking Gilbert off the floor and up to his feet.

It was unfair how Gilbert’s time in the gym was thwarted by gamey points and a nerd’s wet dream called the System.

A few seconds barely passed before Gilbert nearly collapsed, still weak from his ordeal. The parasitic cloak-thing moved its flesh and bone tentacles all over him, holding him up.

Gilbert tried not to shudder.

“Para will keep your friends safe,” Zarian said. “I see Jack isn’t here.”

“I don’t like that one,” Naomi grouched.

Zarian let out a sigh. “Leave him. He’s not our concern.”

Gilbert shuddered at hearing them mention Jack. His memory of his death at Jack’s hands flashed clear with sharp, snappy details. He rubbed across his neck, shuddering again.

Should he tell them how Jack broke his neck? But the way Zarian was acting like Jack wasn’t a problem was telling. The male suspect with evil black magic was too powerful for anyone to stop.

Even so, Jack had done the unthinkable and attempted to murder a police officer directly. Zarian was a problem. Naomi was ruthless. But Jack was a true criminal.

“He snapped my neck,” Gilbert admitted.

“Who? Jack?” Zarian looked surprised.

Gilbert nodded shakily.

“Sir!” Naomi grunted. “Permission to hunt him down?”

“Hunt, no. But if we come across him … I won’t hold you back,” Zarian said. “Come on. I need to finish studying the necromancy spell and have that down pat. Then we need to find that Slave Cook and get some water. I’m getting hella thirsty.”

If Zarian was hella thirsty, then Gilbert would call his thirst extra hellish. Coming back from the dead because of his Extra Life and Basic Healing didn’t relieve him of much discomfort.

In fact, maybe it would’ve been nicer to stay dead.

***

With Gilbert saved, Zarian assessed the damage after the hallway showdown.

Lincoln had his jaw ripped off and a big dent in his chest. Mark had died after getting savagely beheaded.

Zarian’s gaze lingered on Mark while under the weak sconce light. Mark had been the only black cop. He’d given Zarian the most trouble, too.

Seeing him dead like that didn’t leave Zarian with a positive impression. Mark and Lincoln could’ve avoided this fate if they had stayed and worked with Zarian.

When Zarian looked at Naomi, he saw her expression was unreadable. Stone cold, giving nothing away.

Am I the scary one or is she?

Naomi was truly intimidating.

Para had already feasted and stored away some of the goblin corpses. She still had plenty of room for a few bodies to keep in her fleshy dimensional storage.

Now Zarian had to bury Wally, Kenneth, Mark, and Lincoln.

Would he have to bury Jack once they found him?

That depends… Zarian left it at that.

He looked Gilbert up and down while Para used flesh and bone tentacles to keep the healer up. He was the last cop standing. Big guy, too. He looked like he could easily toss around hay bales and men Zarian’s size.

Gilbert was only Level 3, though.

Naomi could crush him – she was Level 14 now.

At Level 19, Zarian didn’t even register Gilbert as a threat. Hell, all of Zarian’s skills had leveled up, Straight Darkness leading the pack at Level 8 now.

Concentrating on a dark claymore for Naomi worked out really well, Zarian thought.

Naomi, thankfully, was both strong enough and fast enough to handle upfront battles because of her stat choices and rapid growth. Her class was very useful, too, as long as she avoided gassing herself out.

She was a good battle partner for Zarian. However, the budding wizard couldn’t stop at using only Naomi’s abilities.

Gilbert could freaking revive from the dead.

How had he done that? Was that part of his Basic Healing skill?

Did Bianca and Hannah have little interesting tricks with their abilities that Zarian hadn’t delved into yet?

He was a wizard, after all. He wanted to see more magic work in concert. In fact, he should pay more attention to Hannah’s Basic Enchantment.

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As for Gilbert’s rise from the dead act…

Zarian looked up at the big man for a long while.

Gilbert lowered his head under the wizard’s intense gaze. Gilbert lowered even further when Naomi looked at him.

I think he’s the nicer cop. Gilbert had that small-town feel to him. He’d been less outspoken compared to the others, even though he could star in an action movie with his size and standard good looks.

“Did you level up some?” Zarian asked.

Gilbert nodded. “Basic Healing went up.”

“Was that the only reason you survived?” Zarian asked.

Gilbert shifted uncomfortably.

Naomi let out a sigh that sounded intimidating, and Gilbert caved.

The big man said, “I have an uncommon trait, Extra Life. I’m still conscious even after death. But not for long. I had to fix myself before my death was final.”

“You’ll make for a great tank,” Zarian said, before turning back to return to the rubbish room.

“What does it mean to be a tank? I’ve never gotten into that gamer stuff,” Gilbert asked Naomi carefully, still acting wary of her.

“Me neither, but I imagine you’ll want to toughen up fast. Who knows when we’ll throw you in that fire to soak up hits for the sir,” Naomi said plainly.

Zarian winced from being called ‘the sir.’ They needed a better designation for his role as the leader.

He didn’t want to be the one to bring it up. That felt uncool.

Zarian turned into the rubbish room and received a Searing Flash directly. He threw himself backwards and shouted in surprise.

“Gahhhhh DAMMIT,

Bianca!”

He heard her incessant cries, apologies, and sobs. Just in time, too, because Para nearly freaked out and went berserk.

It was a good thing Zarian had raised his Willpower to 50. Having solid Willpower helped wrangle Para down when she was mad.

He waited to recover from the Searing Flash while using it as a research opportunity. All the darkness he had on him, especially under his fleshy cloak, had weakened severely. Bianca’s strangely strong skill was worse when he hadn’t prepared for the flash.

There was no lasting damage, only the sensation of being sunburnt, which was a quick fix. And Bianca couldn’t use that skill more than once in a fight. But damn, was it an effective skill, even with her at a lower level.

I need defenses against light types, Zarian thought. I need those badly.

It didn’t take too long to fully recover. Bianca was crying her heart out and slobbering over anyone she could latch onto, as she kept apologizing profusely to Zarian about the accidental Searing Flash.

She and Hannah were scared when Zarian and Naomi had gone away, leaving them behind.

Zarian was going to apologize, but Naomi cut in first: “You wouldn’t be so scared if you weren’t so weak. We can’t rely on Zarian all the time. So stop being dead weight and get ready to work harder.”

“I’ll do whatever you want,” Gilbert said, sitting tiredly on a busted chest flipped upside down.

“Yes, yes, yes! I’ll work hard! Don’t kick me out, por favor, please!” Bianca raved, teary-eyed.

“Can you help me with my skill, sir?” Hannah asked Zarian.

He smiled. “I was thinking about that. But let me get a vote first.”

He scanned the room, meeting everyone’s eyes. “There’s two options. We can wait and give me time to learn necromancy and do some tests. Or we push for water.”

At the mention of water, everyone’s eyes gleamed.

Naomi held her composure the best. Her Strength and Agility stats were the highest, so her body was more optimized. But even she could suffer from thirst.

Zarian was seriously thirsty. He’d been through a lot, after all. Stealing life energy could only do so much.

Gilbert, Bianca, and Hannah looked downright desperate for water.

“Would having that necromancy spell make things easier?” Naomi asked.

“It’s skeletal based. But maybe the minions I make will remember their past life and lead us to the Slave Cook,” Zarian offered.

“I think that’s the better choice,” Naomi said.

“I agree,” Gilbert said. Bianca and Hannah muttered in agreement when they were obviously in need of water now.

Zarian went to work.

The necromancy section had more pages and information than the blood section. It turned out that necromancy was complex. It was the manipulation of the dead, reverting the absence of life in favor of raising an antithesis to the natural order.

Zarian wouldn’t be creating a new life. Instead, he would animate what had been and twist it for his own needs.

The pages went into greater depth on bone-necromancy and why this was preferred by the grimoire. The lack of flesh removed a majority of weaknesses.

Skeletons were surprisingly durable. They could get up and put themselves back together after repeated hits.

They didn’t smell or spread disease, which was an immense problem with necromancy sometimes. The author hated how modern necromancy could lead to uncontrolled outbreaks and plagues if the undead flesh wasn’t preserved correctly.

Apparently, a lot of lazy necromancers would tend to cut corners and cause unnecessary sickness while trying to use necromancy for cheap labor.

Working with whole bodies was a lot easier, apparently. A whole body kept more of its prior existence and a touch of former magic, which cut the costs of raising the dead.

Animating skeletons cost a lot more, especially if you wanted to make them powerful and unique. It took extra magic to make the skeletons move around with weight and power.

Despite the tradeoff, the adaptability of skeletons was a major draw. Working with baseline skeletons could lead to subtypes in their advancement.

Zarian could make his skeletons evolve magically if they had proficient exposure to certain elements or magical enhancements.

I can have undead pokemon battles with my skelly boys and girls.

Zarian grinned.

Okay, I’m game. I don’t care if it costs more. I want lightning skeletons. Fire skeletons. Ice skeletons. All the skeleton types.

Zarian finished the last bit of the necromancy section, which came with a memorization test. The grimoire served as the test taker. He only had to think to answer, and the grimoire would make a record of his choices.

He passed the test with a B, which was good enough. Then the last necromancy pages revealed themselves with a dramatic flip and flash of green light.

He received a congratulating certificate for going down the path of skeletal necromancy. Hooray. This was way better than getting a high school degree.

He was now considered a novice necromancer, a sub-type of wizard. And he unlocked the necromancy spell of his grimoire.

Zarian had to hold in the shout of glee that wanted to come out. He didn’t just get a badass spell, he also gained some insight into the Wonder stat.

It was practically luck, faith, and spiritual perception rolled into one. With raising skeletons, faith was part of the process.

It was a little like doing the work of a god to play with life or death. Could it be said that leveling up in the Star System is a path to godhood?

With just one question, Zarian had more bundling up in his head. But he was too thirsty and hungry to sit with these vital thoughts. It was time to do some testing.

Zarian used Para’s help to get to his feet. Naomi turned from her vigilant watch near him and nodded. She’d been there the whole time, securing his safety.

Gilbert was sitting in one corner by himself, looking haunted. Bianca and Hannah were practically inseparable now, commiserating together.

“Okay, everyone, I passed my necromancy test,” Zarian said.

“There was a test?” Gilbert blurted out. “Who tested you?”

“The grimoire,” Zarian answered plainly.

“Man, I can’t wrap my head around any of this stuff.” Gilbert looked intellectually broken.

“Before I play dark god, can I have your attention, Hannah?” Zarian called. Then he added, “Please.”

Everyone looked at him like being polite wasn’t his thing. Zarian had no reason not to be polite when people were polite with him. And he was in a good mood.

Hannah walked up with Bianca clinging from behind. Zarian held out his hand in front of her, palm up. Then he slowly gathered the darkness into his open hand and formed it into a knife.

He could’ve done it faster, but he wanted the weapon conjuring to happen with an emphasis. Hannah looked like she was impacted by the display, growing more tense from anticipation.

“Can you use your skill on this?” Zarian asked.

“I think so. The skill says it could work on most objects. So far, I can enchant for Reinforcement.”

Zarian tilted his head. “It could do more than one enchantment?”

“Yes.”

“Show me the reinforced one.”

Hannah aimed her hands over the dark knife and squinted her eyes.

A pale glow shone from her down-turned palms. The glow turned into runic symbols, circles, pentagrams, and hieroglyphs.

None of that was immediately recognizable to Zarian, not at first glance. When he used his Identify trait, it gave him .

Then the magic symbols settled on the dark knife. Zarian pulled it away slowly and looked it up and down.

Amazing.

He could feel its solidity as if it was its own object. His concentration lessened considerably. He barely had to think about it to keep it formed.

Hannah’s Basic Enchantment skill could make Zarian’s talent for dark weapons a ton easier. It was like layering one’s inherent magical ability over another to act as a force multiplier.

Even if Hannah’s abilities weren’t as damaging as Zarian’s, he found her powers to be incredible. In fact, her powers could sometimes be the most vital depending on the situation and how she grew.

This is magic. It’s simple, but really cool. And if she works on it, she’ll become more advanced and do all sorts of things.

She could help make his skeletons into different elemental types or make them tougher and stronger. Though, that depended on some factors.

Did skeletons count as objects? They weren’t alive, technically. They were reanimated dead. That was an object, wasn’t it?

More importantly, would the System let Zarian get away with that level of magic layering and force-multiplying? He wouldn’t be a true wizard if he didn’t try.

Nonetheless, he needed to keep the older woman close. He needed her to grow strong.

“Hannah, you’re amazing,” Zarian said.

The thirty-year-old woman stumbled back in surprise. Even under the dirt and grime, there was a bit of red showing on her cheeks. Bianca cheered for her, making it a big deal.

Zarian was moving on, turning to Naomi with a big smile. Then his smile dropped when he noticed Naomi’s expression was on the verge of being upset.

“Something wrong?”

Naomi wiped the look off her face and shrugged. “Nah, I’m just tired, sir. I’m gonna take a seat, if that’s okay. I can use some time off my tired, beaten feet.”

Zarian nodded, and Naomi took a seat in the corner. She hadn’t given herself time to relax at all, had she? She should’ve mentioned that earlier.

Frowning, Zarian turned and noticed Gilbert’s gaze.

“What?” Zarian asked.

“You should apologize.”

“What? Why?”

“Don’t think about it. Say sorry. But not now. Do it later. Trust me.” Then Gilbert held up two fingers and mouthed aloud, “Twice divorced.”

Zarian looked at Gilbert as if he was crazy. Then he shrugged and moved outside the rubbish room. Right when he entered the hallway, he realized his mistake. But it was too late to go back now. Necromancy came first.