Karl stared at the notification for a moment before looking down at the dried wolf corpse.
System, why did Death Legion fail?
The answer appeared immediately.
[Target corpse has already been affected by Harvest.]
[Harvest extracts and consumes the remaining Death Essence within a corpse. A corpse without sufficient Death Essence cannot be converted into an undead.]
Karl nodded slightly.
So I have to choose between harvesting a corpse and turning it into an undead.
That was simple enough, he walked toward one of the wolves he had deliberately left untouched and placed his hand above the corpse.
Death Legion.
Dark Death Energy immediately spread from his palm and entered the dead wolf.
The corpse began changing almost instantly, its flesh rapidly disappeared while the bones beneath it darkened until they became almost completely black.
Faint blue runes appeared across the skeleton one after another, spreading from its skull down its spine and across each of its limbs.
Within several seconds, the dead Greyfang Wolf slowly pushed itself onto four legs, Karl stared at it.
Leon had already stood up from his rock.
"Damn."
Mira looked over the undead wolf carefully while even Victor’s previously relaxed expression became noticeably more attentive.
This was nothing like an ordinary low-level undead, most skeletal creatures possessed pale or dirty-white bones, occasionally carrying traces of whatever monster they had been created from.
The creature standing before Karl had a completely black skeleton, while the blue runes covering its bones released a faint glow.
Karl immediately used Perception, his expression changed slightly after seeing the result.
The Wolf had retained nearly seventy percent of its original attributes and that was absurdly high.
When ordinary Necromancers converted common monster corpses into undead, the resulting creature usually suffered an enormous reduction in attributes.
Cheap corpses like Greyfang Wolves were even worse because their bodies possessed little natural affinity with Death Energy.
Yet this one had retained most of its original strength, Victor walked closer and examined the skeletal wolf from several angles.
"What exactly is that?"
Karl looked toward him. "My undead summon."
Karl shrugged slightly.
"It probably works differently because of my twenty-one-star class compatibility."
That explanation was not completely unreasonable as nobody knew what twenty-one-star compatibility actually meant because nobody within the Human Alliance had ever recorded it before.
Victor remained suspicious for another moment before eventually letting the matter go.
Leon, however was far less interested in explanations, he walked over and slapped Karl across the back.
"Damn, looks like I actually have to work hard if I want to dominate you."
Karl glanced toward him before chuckling.
"Dominate me in your dreams, I’m the one who’s going to dominate all of you."
Leon immediately pointed toward himself. "We’ll see about that."
Mira shook her head. "You two awakened yesterday."
"And the rivalry has already begun," Leon replied proudly.
Victor released a tired sigh.
"Enough."
He looked around the basin toward the remaining restrained wolves.
"You’ve already reached around Level 10, that’s enough of this."
Leon looked toward him. "We’re stopping?"
"Yes."
Victor dismissed the dark restraints and the surviving wolves immediately fled toward the surrounding forest without looking back.
He glanced toward Karl, Leon and Mira.
"If I keep crippling monsters and feeding kills to you, you’ll reach Level 100 without knowing how to properly swing your own weapons."
"Levels without combat experience are useless, from here onward, you’re entering actual dungeons and fighting for yourselves."
Karl nodded, that was exactly what he wanted anyway.
Power levelling had allowed them to skip the weakest stage, but continuing like this would accomplish very little beyond inflating their Levels.
Victor walked back toward the slope.
"Let’s move."
Karl dismissed the newly summoned skeletal wolf for the moment before following him, while Leon and Mira climbed after them.
Once they returned to the road, Victor removed the wilderness jeep from his storage equipment and the four climbed inside.
Their next destination was an old dungeon located considerably farther from Ardent City.
Karl remembered the place well, it was a large-scale dungeon designed for professionals roughly between Level 10 and Level 30, making it one of the more popular wilderness training locations around Ardent City.
Every year, once newly awakened professionals gained enough experience to safely leave the city, the dungeon became crowded with young teams attempting to level and improve their combat ability.
However, there was something unusual about it, the dungeon had already been cleared on Easy, Medium and Hard difficulty.
Hell Mode remained undefeated, that alone made it unusual because most dungeons below Level 100 did not even possess an accessible Hell Mode.
Yet this one did and despite existing for years, nobody had successfully cleared it.
By the time Victor brought the jeep to a stop near the dungeon, the surrounding area was almost completely empty.
The main wave of newly awakened professionals had not reached the point where they were comfortable entering the wilderness yet.
Most people below Level 25 preferred the safer dungeons and training facilities inside Ardent City.
Victor stepped out and looked toward the dark portal standing between several stone formations.
He stared at it for several seconds before yawning. "Ha... I’m already regretting agreeing to babysit you three."
Victor crossed his arms. "This is unbelievably boring."
Leon immediately walked beside him and placed one hand upon his shoulder.
"Now, now, Uncle Victor, that’s not the attitude you should have."
Victor slowly looked toward the him as Leon continued confidently.
"The day I become a War God, I’ll personally take you on a levelling session."
Mira burst out laughing, even Victor chuckled before pushing Leon’s hand away.
"Fine. I’ll wait for that day."
Leon grinned. "Remember those words."
Victor returned to the jeep and leaned back against the driver’s seat. "Go, I’ll stay here."
The three walked toward the dungeon portal and as they approached, the available difficulties appeared before them.
[Easy]
[Medium]
[Hard]
[Hell]
Leon rubbed his hands together. "So we’re going to slowly farm our way up, right?"
Karl nodded. "Indeed."
He opened the team interface and immediately invited both Leon and Mira, they accepted and then Karl selected the final option.
[Hell Mode selected.]
Leon froze. "What?"
The portal immediately expanded, Leon turned toward Karl in disbelief.
"Wait, you bastard, are you fucking mad—"
Dark light swallowed all three of them before he could finish and the dungeon entrance returned to normal.
Victor opened one eye from inside the jeep, he stared toward the portal for several seconds before a quiet chuckle escaped his mouth.
"Little bastard."