Victor lowered his head slightly as the black fluid continued crawling across his clothes, sword and skin.
The darkness had already swallowed everything inside the massive translucent domain, yet the killing intent surrounding him only became heavier.
Then Victor whispered.
"Nightmare Awakening."
The black fluid covering his body suddenly surged upward.
Within seconds, it hardened into a complete suit of black armour that covered Victor from head to toe, leaving only a narrow darkness where his face should have been.
Even his silhouette had become strangely indistinct.
Karl could still recognise Victor standing there, but the edges of his body seemed partially translucent, repeatedly blending into the darkness surrounding him before becoming solid again.
At the same time, another layer of black energy spread around Karl, Leon and Mira.
The translucent dome completely enclosed the three of them.
Leon reached toward its surface before immediately stopping himself.
"Yeah, I’m not touching that."
Mira ignored him because her attention had already shifted toward the surrounding domain.
Something was moving inside the shadows.
At first, Karl thought the darkness across the ground was simply reacting to Victor’s skill, but then one section twisted upward and formed a long claw.
Another shadow beside a broken tree stretched unnaturally before several white teeth slowly appeared inside it.
More followed as creatures began writhing out from every shadow across the battlefield.
Some crawled upon four limbs while others possessed bodies Karl could not properly identify, their forms constantly shifting between black mist and something almost physical.
The mercenaries who had been surrounding Victor instinctively stopped advancing.
Even the Vale family members who had been shouting only moments earlier began putting distance between themselves and the creatures forming around them.
Nobody spoke for the first time since the ambush began, the entire wilderness became strangely silent.
Then a scream tore through the trees.
"AHHHH!"
Everyone turned to see that one of the distant snipers who had been positioned high upon a thick branch.
A massive shadow beast had somehow appeared behind him.
Its jaws had already closed around half his torso.
The sniper screamed again while desperately grabbing the tree with both hands, his legs kicking against the creature’s face as he tried to drag himself away.
The beast bit down and his scream ended instantly.
Leon stared toward the tree.
Mira’s expression became noticeably stiffer.
Karl slowly looked back toward Victor.
A smile had appeared across the darkness covering his face.
Victor stretched both arms above his head while several loud cracks came from his shoulders.
"That was annoying."
Karl blinked, the battlefield had become quiet again.
Victor stood alone several metres away, completely unharmed except for the torn clothing around the wound on his shoulder.
The black armour covering his body was already disappearing.
He snapped his fingers and the massive domain vanished.
The protective dome surrounding Karl, Leon and Mira disappeared alongside it, allowing normal light to return across the wilderness for the first time since Nightmare Awakening had activated.
Leon immediately looked around as his mouth slowly opened.
"What the hell..."
Karl had seen countless battlefields in his previous life but this one was still unpleasant.
The forest surrounding the dungeon entrance had been completely torn apart.
Trees had been snapped through their trunks while several sections of the ground looked as though something enormous had repeatedly clawed through them.
The bodies were worse, there were barely any complete corpses left.
One mercenary had lost almost everything below his waist, while another body had been twisted badly enough that Karl could not immediately tell which direction the man’s torso had originally faced.
Several others existed only as scattered pieces among the damaged trees.
Even the distant snipers had not escaped.
Karl spotted parts of two bodies near separate positions inside the forest, while another rifle remained embedded inside the ground with nothing recognisable around it.
Leon swallowed.
"We were inside that thing?"
Mira looked toward Victor. "And you were controlling all of those creatures?"
Victor glanced around at the destruction before shrugging.
"This is going to be a big mess."
He walked toward one of the corpses and nudged a broken weapon aside with his foot.
"The newly transitioned professionals coming out here soon are going to get quite a surprise if we leave everything like this."
Leon looked around again.
"Surprise is one word for it."
Victor ignored him and opened his storage ring.
"Well, time to take care of the corpses."
A small bottle appeared inside his hand.
Karl immediately noticed the clear liquid moving inside it and understood enough from Victor’s expression to guess what he intended to do.
"Wait."
Victor stopped, Karl coughed lightly before looking around at the scattered bodies.
"Can I do the honours first?"
Victor raised one eyebrow.
"You?"
His gaze moved toward the mutilated corpses before returning toward Karl.
"Most of these people were hundreds of Levels above you, and half of them barely qualify as bodies anymore."
Victor continued.
"Even if your Necromancer skill somehow managed to summon one of them, you understand what would happen if anyone saw human professionals walking around inside your undead army."
He pointed toward the corpses.
"Half the Alliance would be after your head before dinner."
Karl sighed.
"I know."
Leon immediately grinned.
"Then what are you planning?"
Karl looked toward him.
"Something else."
Leon folded his arms.
"Seems like you awakened as a funeral priest instead of a Necromancer."
Mira laughed quietly while even Victor’s mouth twitched.
Karl stared at Leon for several seconds, one day.
Victor tossed the bottle lightly inside his hand.
"Whatever you’re doing, hurry up."
Karl nodded before walking toward the nearest body.
There was one thing he wanted to test before using Harvest.
Death Legion had changed considerably from any ordinary summoning skill, and Karl had never properly tested how large the Level difference between himself and a target could become before the skill completely failed.
He looked toward the remains of a mercenary Victor had killed near the centre of the battlefield.
The corpse was badly damaged but still possessed enough of its original structure to attempt a summon.
Karl raised the Death Stick.
Death Legion.
Death Energy flowed toward the body, for several seconds nothing happened and then the energy scattered.
[Undead conversion failed.]
[Target Level exceeds current summoning threshold.]
Karl clicked his tongue, so there is still a limit.
He had expected as much, but confirming it now was better than discovering it during an actual emergency.
Karl lowered the Death Stick before changing skills.
Harvest.
Dark energy immediately entered the corpse.
The remaining flesh shrivelled rapidly as something invisible was extracted from it and drawn toward Karl.
[Harvest successful.]
[Death Energy extracted.]
Karl’s eyes brightened slightly atleast that worked.
He moved toward the next body.
Harvest.
[Harvest successful.]
[Death Energy extracted.]
Another corpse followed, then another.
Notifications began appearing one after another as Karl continued moving across the ruined battlefield.
The Level difference that had prevented Death Legion from working did not seem to matter nearly as much to Harvest.
Karl quickly stopped paying attention to every individual message.
[Harvest successful.]
[Death Energy extracted.]
[Harvest successful.]
[Death Energy extracted.]
[Harvest successful.]
The constant notifications almost became irritating after several minutes.
Leon eventually sat against the jeep while watching Karl walk between pieces of corpses.
"You really did become a funeral priest."
Karl ignored him.
Victor remained nearby with the bottle inside his hand, apparently willing to wait as long as Karl did not take too much time.
Mira had already started examining several abandoned storage items and weapons scattered around the battlefield.
Karl continued harvesting, most corpses provided Death Energy and varying amounts of Death Points, but nothing especially unusual appeared.
Eventually, he reached the most complete body remaining near the centre of the battlefield.
The old man, Victor’s had killed him like everyone else, but compared with most of the mercenaries his corpse remained surprisingly intact.
Karl looked down at him, he recognised the man properly now.
One of Seraphina Vale’s granduncles.
His death alone would create a major disturbance inside the Vale family, especially after several of their high-level members had disappeared alongside him.
Karl felt no sympathy.
They had planned an ambush involving military betrayal, mercenaries and several high-level professionals simply to kill three newly awakened teenagers and Victor.
Whatever consequences came afterward belonged to them.
You should have thought about that before attacking us.
Karl placed one hand above the corpse.
Harvest.
Dark energy immediately flowed downward but this time the reaction was different.
Instead of the familiar stream of Death Energy, something far brighter suddenly emerged from the corpse and entered Karl’s body.
Karl froze as a new notification appeared.
[Harvest successful.]
[S-Rank Talent extracted: Rising Sun.]
Karl stared at the message, for several seconds he genuinely thought he had read it incorrectly.
Then his eyes widened.
Talent?
Harvest had always stated that talents could be extracted, but this was the first time the ability had actually succeeded in taking one.
And it had not extracted some useless low-ranked talent.
It had extracted an S-Rank talent.
Karl’s heartbeat immediately accelerated.
Rising Sun.
He hurriedly spoke inside his mind.
System, where is it? How do I use the new talent?
The response came almost immediately.
[When did I say you could use the extracted talent, Host...]