The moment Karl’s palm touched the awakening crystal, every line within the formation beneath his feet lit up at once.
The light did not remain confined to the platform as a pulse spread outward through the plaza, followed by a deafening crack of thunder that made hundreds of students instinctively look toward the sky.
Dark clouds were gathering above Ardent City and spread with unnatural speed, swallowing the clear morning sky until the sunlight almost completely disappeared.
Thick bolts of lightning moved between the clouds while a suffocating pressure descended across the entire plaza.
The students who had still been talking and cheering moments earlier immediately fell silent.
Several weaker students dropped directly onto their knees, while many others struggled to remain standing as cold sweat ran down their backs.
The principal slowly raised his head toward the darkened sky.
His expression went completely blank. "A... Celestial Phenomenon?"
The teachers beside him immediately turned toward the platform.
Everyone who had studied awakening history understood what those words represented, celestial Phenomena were not produced by ordinary classes or even most exceptional talents.
According to every confirmed record within the Human Alliance, such an event only appeared when someone awakened an SSS-rank talent or something equally extraordinary.
Ardent City had existed for centuries and produced countless powerful awakeners, yet there had never been a single confirmed SSS-rank talent in its entire history.
The plaza immediately erupted into excited discussion; Leon stared toward Karl with his eyes widened.
However, Karl’s reaction was completely different from everyone around him, Instead of excitement, confusion gradually appeared across his face.
He remembered his awakening extremely clearly.
Ten years ago, when he awakened the SSS-rank Sword Saint talent, an overwhelming sword intent had erupted from the platform and spread across the entire plaza.
Thousands of illusory swords had filled the sky before an enormous golden sword manifested above the city.
It had been one of the most famous awakenings in Ardent City’s history, but there was no sword intent now.
The pressure descending upon the plaza felt cold and strangely lifeless, carrying something Karl had never felt during his original transition.
This isn’t right.
Another bolt of lightning tore through the clouds before something enormous began taking shape behind them, Karl slowly raised his head.
A massive humanoid figure stood within the darkened sky, its body covered beneath a long shadowy robe while both hands rested upon an enormous black scythe.
Its face remained hidden, yet the pressure released from it caused another wave of students to collapse onto the ground, then figures began appearing behind it.
Skeleton warriors carrying rusted blades marched across the clouds in endless rows, followed by undead knights, ghouls, wraiths and countless creatures Karl could not immediately identify.
Massive skeletal dragons spread their wings above the army, while enormous undead beasts moved beneath them until the entire sky appeared occupied by the dead.
There were Millions or even tens of millions of them, Karl stared at the phenomenon with increasing disbelief.
Where is the sword?
There was no celestial blade, no sword intent and nothing even remotely connected to the Sword Saint talent he remembered awakening.
Before he could understand what had changed, a cold notification sounded directly inside his mind.
[Class Transition completed.]
[Class awakened: Necromancer.]
Karl’s expression immediately stiffened.
Necromancer?
For the first time since realizing he had returned ten years into the past, genuine panic entered his thoughts.
Necromancer was nowhere near Sword Saint.
Although Necromancers were considered combat professions, their reputation throughout the Human Alliance was mediocre at best.
Their greatest strength came from summoning and controlling undead creatures, but ordinary undead were generally weaker than monsters or contracted beasts of the same level.
Their personal combat capability was also poor, most Necromancers depended almost entirely upon their summons, meaning an enemy capable of breaking through the undead army could usually kill the summoner without much difficulty.
The largest problem was their growth, strong undead required powerful corpses, soul-related materials, death-attributed resources and enormous investments of mana crystals.
Even after spending that much, summons possessed natural quality limits that prevented them from growing forever.
A low-grade skeleton would eventually remain a low-grade skeleton regardless of how much its owner wanted otherwise.
This was why Beast Tamers and ordinary Summoners were generally preferred.
Beast Tamers could contract creatures possessing powerful bloodlines and natural growth potential, while Summoners had access to broader summon types and far more developed advancement paths.
There had been famous Necromancers throughout human history, but most had relied upon absurd wealth, rare inheritances or armies built over decades.
Karl possessed none of those things, more importantly, almost everything he knew about the future had been planned around the Sword Saint talent.
He knew which sword techniques would appear, where powerful sword-type equipment could be found, which dungeons contained resources useful to swordsmen and how to avoid the mistakes that had slowed his development in his previous life.
Yet somehow, the talent that should have become Sword Saint had turned into Necromancer.
How the hell did my SSS-rank Sword Saint become this?
A different voice suddenly rang inside his mind and Karl immediately recognized it.
It was the same voice he had heard while dying inside the dungeon.
[Detected: Host has expressed severe dissatisfaction toward the Necromancer profession.]
Karl’s eyebrow twitched slightly.
Severe dissatisfaction? I was only stating facts.
The notification changed again before he could argue further.
[Host has insulted the greatness of the Necromancer profession.]
[Strongest Necromancer System awakening conditions fulfilled.]
Karl’s thoughts stopped as a translucent dark panel unfolded before his eyes while the undead phenomenon continued covering the sky above the city.
[Strongest Necromancer System successfully awakened.]
[Host possesses the Necromancer class.]
[Talent evolution beginning...]
Karl watched the panel without blinking as several unfamiliar symbols moved rapidly across its surface and a moment later, the final result appeared.
[Talent successfully evolved.]
[God-Tier Talent obtained: Monarch of death.]
Karl stared at the words, God-Tier.
The highest officially recognized talent rank within the Human Alliance was SSS.
In ten years of exploring dungeons, secret realms and ancient inheritances, Karl had never heard of any confirmed talent being classified as God-Tier.
Yet the system did not stop there.
[The host currently doubts the potential of the Necromancer profession.]
[The Strongest Necromancer System will allow the host to witness its true potential.]
Three more notifications appeared before him.
[Supreme Skill acquired: Harvest.]
[Harvest: Extract attributes, talents and Death Points from dead creatures.]
Karl’s eyes narrowed immediately, the wording was simple, but the implications were absurd.
Attributes were one of the foundations of every awakener. Strength, agility, vitality and the other basic attributes normally increased through leveling, equipment, special treasures or extremely rare permanent resources.
If Harvest truly allowed him to extract attributes directly from corpses, then every defeated monster could potentially become a resource for his own growth.
And attributes were not the only thing listed.
It can even extract talents?
Before Karl could examine that possibility further, the second skill appeared.
[Supreme Skill acquired: Infinite Evolution.]
[Infinite Evolution: Consume Death Points to continuously improve the quality, level and evolutionary potential of undead summons.]
This one directly destroyed one of the greatest weaknesses of Necromancers.
Ordinary summons possessed fixed quality and potential and once they reached their natural limit, no amount of ordinary training could force them significantly beyond it.
Infinite Evolution removed that problem completely, as long as Karl possessed enough Death Points, his undead would never be permanently restricted by their original quality.
A weak skeleton would not necessarily remain weak forever.
The third skill followed almost immediately.
[Supreme Skill acquired: Monarch’s Evolution.]
[Monarch’s Evolution: All Necromancer skills consume only one-tenth of their original energy. Any Necromancer skill acquired by the host will automatically evolve into its corresponding Supreme Skill of the Monarch of Death.]
Karl remained silent as he calculated the difference, ten times the effect while consuming one-tenth of the resources meant his class skills were not simply stronger.
Their practical efficiency was completely outside ordinary standards, a spell that another Necromancer could only maintain for several minutes could potentially be sustained many times longer by Karl while producing a vastly greater effect.
Before he could examine the three abilities properly, another notification appeared.
[Basic class skill detected: Soul Fire.]
[Monarch’s Evolution activated.]
[Soul Fire has evolved into Hellfire.]
[Basic class skill detected: Corpse Explosion.][Monarch’s Evolution activated.][Corpse Explosion has evolved into Death Detonation.]
[Basic class skill detected: Undead Summon.][Monarch’s Evolution activated.][Undead Summon has evolved into Death Legion.]
Karl slowly inhaled as he looked over the three evolved abilities.
Soul Fire, Corpse Explosion and Undead Summon were among the most common introductory skills available to Necromancers, yet Monarch’s Evolution had transformed all three far beyond their original versions.
Hellfire possessed considerably greater destructive power than ordinary Soul Fire, while Death Detonation greatly increased the force of Corpse Explosion.
Death Legion was even more valuable, completely removing the normal limit on how many undead he could control at once.
Maybe I judged Necromancer a little too quickly.
While Karl examined the notifications, the Celestial Phenomenon above Ardent City finally began fading.
The enormous undead army disappeared into the dark clouds first, followed by the skeletal dragons and other creatures.
The scythe-wielding figure remained for several more breaths before finally dissolving as sunlight slowly returned to the plaza.
The pressure disappeared alongside it and students gradually climbed back onto their feet, yet almost every pair of eyes remained fixed upon Karl.
The examiner standing beside the awakening crystal hurriedly checked the results displayed upon its surface.
His excited expression immediately changed and he stared at the information without speaking long enough that the surrounding teachers began noticing something was wrong.
"What happened?"
"Why isn’t he announcing the result?"
"Did the awakening crystal malfunction?"
The principal pushed past two instructors and hurried toward the examiner.
"What does it show?"
The examiner silently pointed toward the crystal, the principal looked down and his expression froze exactly like the examiner’s.
The crowd became even louder as the two men continued staring at the result without saying anything.
Leon frowned from below the platform. "Why do they both look like they forgot how to read?"
The examiner finally recovered and activated the amplification spell beside him. "Class... Necromancer."
Confusion immediately swept through the plaza, several students exchanged uncertain glances while others looked back toward the sky where the Celestial Phenomenon had disappeared.
"A Necromancer caused that?"
"How?"
"Wasn’t that supposed to be an SSS-rank phenomenon?"
The examiner looked toward the crystal again before announcing the second result. "Class Compatibility... Twenty-One Stars."
This time, the plaza became completely silent, even several senior instructors looked as though they had misunderstood him.
Someone eventually shouted from the crowd, "Twenty-one stars? The maximum is eighteen!"
Another student immediately agreed. "The crystal must be broken!"
The examiner shook his head and checked the result again before responding through the amplification formation.
"The reading is correct, his class compatibility is twenty-one stars."
The confusion only became worse, eighteen stars was not simply considered exceptional. It was the highest-class compatibility ever officially recorded in human history.
Anything beyond eighteen was considered theoretically impossible because the known compatibility scale ended there.
Yet the awakening crystal displayed twenty-one, Karl barely paid attention to the argument.
His mind remained occupied by the system interface, but the examiner still had one final result to announce, he looked toward the last line and hesitated again.
"Talent Rank... F."