After moving far away from the village, I finally stopped near an open area inside the forest.
Without wasting time, I summoned all of my undead and took every corpse out of my inventory as well.
The dead bodies quickly piled across the ground.
Then I began resurrecting them one by one.
Unfortunately, I still didn’t possess any large-scale resurrection ability yet, so I had to manually use **[Resurrect]** on every corpse individually.
It took quite a while.
But in the end, the results were worth it.
Soon, forty new F Rank Undead Wolves stood before me in complete silence.
A satisfied smile slowly appeared on my face.
"My small army is finally starting to take shape..."
The undead wolves looked far more intimidating than before.
Their empty eyes glowed faintly while their sharp fangs reflected the sunlight leaking through the trees.
Then I took out all of the remaining F Rank monster cores and tossed them toward the wolves.
The undead immediately began devouring them.
Crunch.
Crack.
The sound of cores breaking echoed continuously through the forest.
After around twenty minutes, the wolves finished consuming every single core.
And then—
Their evolution began.
Mana erupted from their bodies as energy spread around them.
Their bodies slowly expanded in size.
Muscles became denser.
Bones thickened.
Sharp claws extended further outward.
The wolves that were originally normal-sized had now become much larger and more ferocious-looking.
However, when I glanced toward Vargan, I immediately noticed the difference.
Even after evolving, these wolves were still noticeably smaller than him.
Most of them were now around five feet tall and seven feet long.
Large enough to terrify ordinary humans.
But compared to Vargan...
They still looked smaller.
"Hah... it can’t be helped," I muttered.
"After all, I still haven’t found another elite monster."
Then another thought crossed my mind.
Honestly...
I had been ridiculously lucky recently.
First Vorak.
Then Vargan.
Both were elite monsters.
And elite monsters were clearly far rarer than normal creatures.
After calming myself, I finally took out the real treasure from my inventory.
The F+ Rank monster cores.
The moment twenty F+ cores appeared before me, the surrounding air instantly became heavier.
Dense mana fluctuations spread through the area.
Even breathing felt slightly harder.
I looked toward the floating cores with a serious expression.
Then I asked cautiously,
’System... are you sure my soul and core can handle the connection with an E- Rank undead?’
[Do not worry, Host.]
[You possess a True Core alongside a Divine Ranked Class.]
[Your soul is far stronger than ordinary F Rank beings.]
[Currently, Host can support undead all the way up to peak E+ Rank without issue.]
Hearing that reassured me slightly.
"...Alright."
I took a deep breath before looking toward Vorak.
My loyal guardian.
The elite hobgoblin slowly stepped forward and knelt before me.
His crimson eyes stared at me with absolute loyalty.
I tossed the cores toward him.
"Eat."
"And show me what you can become."
Vorak immediately obeyed.
One by one, he swallowed the F+ cores whole.
As the last core entered his body—
BOOM!
A violent wave of mana erupted outward.
Crack!
Crack!!
The sound of bones breaking echoed from inside his body.
His muscles swelled violently while green blood burst from parts of his skin.
For a moment, the entire scene looked horrifying.
His original five-foot frame slowly began growing larger.
Six feet.
Then seven.
His body became broader and more muscular while intense mana pressure spread around him.
The green-and-crimson skin covering his body gradually darkened into a deeper shade of green.
Then, for the very first time—
Crimson hair began growing from his head.
Burning-red like flames.
And finally...
A massive crimson tattoo slowly appeared across his back.
A lion’s face.
Ferocious, Prideful, Dominating.
The tattoo almost looked alive.
The entire evolution process continued for nearly twenty minutes.
Though honestly...
It felt much longer.
Then finally—
The mana storm settled.
What stood before me now no longer looked like an ordinary hobgoblin.
Vorak stood over seven feet tall with a heavily muscular body and broad shoulders powerful enough to crush stone.
Long crimson hair flowed behind him while the massive lion tattoo covered almost his entire back.
Most importantly—
The aura radiating from him had completely changed.
An E- Rank aura.
Even standing several meters away, I could feel the pressure pressing against my body.
"...Perfect."
That single word escaped my mouth unconsciously.
This evolution is far beyond my expectations.
’System, show me his status.’
A blue screen immediately appeared before me.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
## [STATUS: UNDEAD CRIMSON BLAZE HOBGOBLIN (E-) ELITE]
**NAME:** VORAK
**RANK:** E-
## AFFINITY:
[FIRE (F)]
## SKILLS:
* Crimson Lion Berserk [E]
* Crimson Fang Strike [E]
* Infernal Roar [E]
### [Crimson Lion Tattoo]
The crimson lion tattoo is not mere decoration.
It is the symbol of a forgotten goblin bloodline that once hunted magical beasts through blazing warfare.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
My eyes immediately widened.
"A bloodline..."
That alone sounded absurdly powerful.
Without hesitation, I opened the skill descriptions.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
## [SKILLS]
### Crimson Lion Berserk [E]
The crimson lion tattoo glows across the body as flames erupt around the user.
Effects:
* Strength greatly increases
* Speed greatly increases
* Fire attacks gain explosive properties
* Pain resistance rises massively
* Rational thinking gradually decreases
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
"...Wow."
That was the only thing I could say.
Vorak had become terrifyingly strong.
If he entered a battlefield right now, he would become an absolute nightmare for ordinary soldiers.
After calming myself slightly, I noticed something important inside his status window.
Fire affinity.
Which means...
"...From now on, he’ll need fire-attributed resources to rank up further."
That immediately sounded expensive.
I sighed tiredly before shifting my gaze toward Vargan.
Then I look towards my loyal pet dog, who is wagging his tail so fast that few undead wolf got blown away by it.
and those undead that blown away shook their head helplessly and start gathering together but far from that husky dog.
"...Ahem."
I coughed lightly.
Then I took out another twenty F+ cores.
"Vargan..."
"I hope you won’t disappoint me either."
"HOWWWLLL!!"
Vargan let out an excited howl before immediately devouring the cores.
Twenty minutes later—
His evolution began as well.
BOOOOM!!
A violent wind exploded outward from his body.
His massive frame started growing even larger.
Crack!
Crack!!
The sound of bones shifting echoed repeatedly.
At the same time, his fur began changing color.
Most of it remained green—
But blue shades slowly appeared near the edges like flowing storm energy.
The transformation continued for several minutes.
Then finally—
It ended.
I stared at the creature before me in complete silence.
"...What the hell..."
Vargan had become enormous.
Over ten feet tall.
Nearly fourteen feet long.
His massive body radiated overwhelming physical power.
Wind currents naturally circled around him while faint sparks of lightning occasionally flickered across his fur.
I subconsciously swallowed.
"This thing is only E-Rank...?"
For the first time, I truly understood how massive the difference between major ranks actually was.
Even though I possessed a True Core and had reached the peak of F Rank—
I still didn’t think I could survive even a single direct clash against Vargan.
Maybe after saturating my core further using monster cores...
Then perhaps I could fight weaker E- Rank monsters.
But right now?
Absolutely not.
I quickly shook those thoughts away and opened his status window instead.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
## [STATUS: UNDEAD TEMPEST HOWLER (E-) ELITE]
**NAME:** VARGAN
**RANK:** E-
## AFFINITY:
[WIND (F)]
[LIGHTNING (F)]
## ACTIVE SKILLS:
* Tempest Step [E]
* Thunder Fang [E]
* Storm Howl [E]
* Gale Claw Rend [E]
* Skybreaker Pounce [E]
## PASSIVE SKILLS:
* Lightning Reflex [E]
* Tempest Body [E]
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
I stared at the status screen silently.
Compared to Vorak, Vargan possessed dual affinities.
And even more skills.
Meanwhile, Vargan sat innocently before me while wagging his gigantic tail again.
The Seven Undead wolves that were blown away earlier from vargan tail.
Looked at now big vargan and his big tail. and when they saw that I was about to face vargan. there expression become terrified and run away far from that big husky dog.
the next moments vargan tail moves like a windmill and instanlly 15 undead wolf near it blown away.
when they watched this scene they breathe a sigh of relief and show pity for those wolves.
Watching this scene made my eye twitch slightly.
"If I ever release this thing inside a house..."
"It’ll destroy the entire building."
I sighed before refocusing.
I clicked on his skills section to expand info.
[SKILLS]
Storm Howl [E]
Effect:
Vargan releases a terrifying howl infused with wind and lightning.
Tempest Body [E]
(Passive)
Effect:
Wind naturally wraps around his massive body.
Skybreaker Pounce [E]
(Finisher skill)
Effect:
Vargan compresses wind beneath himself before launching forward like a cannon.
----------xxxxxx----------------
I closed this skills tab with shocked expression.
"Ok no comment, you are way too op." I said with plain expression while looking at Vargan.
Then I finally took out the remaining F+ cores from my inventory.
One hundred and eighty cores.
"...Here goes nothing."
I selected the seven undead wolves that had survived the goblin battle earlier.
Then I added eleven other wolves.
A total of eighteen.
The undead wolves immediately began devouring the cores.
Soon afterward—
Their evolution started as well.
Unlike Vorak and Vargan, their transformations weren’t overly dramatic.
Still, after nearly an hour, eighteen E-Rank Undead Wolves stood before me.
Their bodies had become much larger and sturdier.
Each wolf now stood around seven feet tall and nearly nine feet long.
Looking at the group before me filled me with pride.
"What is a goblin army compared to this..."
A smile appeared on my face.
But I quickly calmed myself again.
I understood something important.
Even though my undead are strong—
If these forty undead wolves and two elite undead fought tens of thousands of monsters continuously...
They would eventually fall from accumulated injuries.
"Hah..."
I sighed softly.
I still needed more undead.
Stronger undead.
Creatures capable of standing at the top of E Rank and beyond.
Then I looked toward Vargan.
"Vargan."
"Take ten E- Rank undead wolves and begin hunting."
"Your targets are E- Rank monsters and above."
"Ignore weaker prey."
"HOWWWWL!!"
Vargan immediately affirmed the order before leaving alongside ten undead wolves.
The ground shook slightly as the massive beast disappeared deeper into the forest.
Then I looked toward the remaining seven evolved wolves.
"From now on..."
"Your names will be Deathfang Wolf-01..."
"Deathfang Wolf-02..."
"Deathfang Wolf-03..."
"...all the way to Deathfang Wolf-07."
The wolves howled proudly after receiving their names.
I nodded slightly before continuing.
"Take the remaining F+ wolves and begin hunting."
"Hunt everything from F- Rank to E- Rank."
"But if you encounter enemies stronger than yourselves—run."
"And if escape becomes impossible..."
"Return to the Death Realm."
The wolves immediately howled in acknowledgment.
Only one E- Rank wolf remained behind beside me.
My personal mount for now.
I climbed onto its back slowly before raising my hand.
"Go."
The undead wolves vanished into the forest like shadows after receiving my command.
I watched them disappear before slowly looking toward the quest paper in my hand.
Then a smile appeared on my face.
"...Let’s begin the hunt."