Chapter 71: Peak Condition

Ethan woke up to the feeling fingers in his hair and the low afternoon light bleeding through the half drawn curtains in the dorm.

For a breif second he expected stone, blood, and a single gold eye. Then the feeling of the soft mattress resolved under him, clean air filled his lungs without grinding against broken ribs, and Lila face hovered above his with a soft smile as her fingers moved through his hair.

"You’re awake," she said.

"You’re in my hair."

"I’ve been in your hair since you walked out of a hole in our bedroom, said three words that weren’t actually words, and face planted into the mattress." Her fingers kept moving. "You were too wrecked to answer me. When you collapsed, I let you sleep. You’re welcome."

Ethan exhaled and sat up slowly. The system’s restoration in the dungeon had left his body whole; the memory of the damage still sat at the back of his mind, and Lila finally sat back when he rose fully.

He opened the system.

```

[Name: Ethan Shaw]

[Age: 19]

[Awakened Class: Necromancer]

[Rank: C]

[Level: 5]

[Title: Corpse Hunter]

[EXP: 40 / 1500]

[Death Energy: 1200/1200]

[Control Capacity: 72]

[Skills:]

- Raise Undead

- Death Sense

- Command Undead

- Death Link

- Death Control (New)

- Undead Recovery (New)

```

He focused on the new descriptions one at a time. First, he read on Corpse Hunter...

```

[Title: Corpse Hunter]

[Description: Recognition for locating and claiming corpses under adverse conditions.]

[Passive Effect: Corpse Hunter amplifies Death Sense when searching for usable remains. It improves speed and clarity when marking optimal corpses that are due for raising.]

```

Then, he moved to the new set of skills...

```

[Death Control]

[Description: Death Control is a skill that externalizes Death Energy beyond undead binding. With this skill, Death Energy may be drawn out of the host’s body and applied as reinforcing force to physical attacks, impacts, and short-range strikes.]

[System Note: It passively drains Death Energy with output and duration.]

```

```

[Undead Recovery (Passive)]

[Description: Undead Recovery is a skill that activates while a bound undead remains in Storage and is not fully destroyed, residual damage is gradually repaired over time.]

```

He read through every description carefully. Corpse Hunter sharpened the way the world showed dead things. Death Control was the a new thing to him. It was not a skill that was similar to Command Undead. It was a skill that put the pool into his own hands. That way he wouldn’t be made to rely on his corpses too much.

Undead Recovery meant Bef and the Raven were not permanently disabled simply because a Cyclops had folded them.

Lila nudged his shoulder. "How bad?"

"It went fairly well," Ethan said. He paused, thinking if he should say the other bit, and said it anyway, "except a Devil class almost killed me."

She jabbed two fingers into his temples hard enough that he flinched.

"Ow."

"You should have let me go with you."

"The entry looked exclusive. And I’m fine." He caught her wrist lightly before she hit him with a second jab. "I’m Rank C now, the system restored me after I completed the objective. Did you really think I’d let myself die in a smelly dungeon?"

Lila went still. "Rank C."

"Yeah. Rose from E to C. Got a title, a bigger pool, and two new skills." He counted, "I raised the Devil. That was what I needed to do to be able to leave that place."

For a moment she only stared. Then her eyebrows raised as if she just remembered something. "Wait, a title?"

He nodded. "Corpse Hunter. Apparently I’ll be finding better corpses faster now. I think it’s kind of like a passive buff."

Lila stared at him flatly. "That sounds... weird."

Ethan raised an eyebrow. "Weird?"

"Yeah, weird. I’m having mixed feelings about it. Your... system or whatever gave you a name to make you good at finding dead things. I don’t know if I should be happy for you or grossed out."

Ethan opened his mouth to reply, then closed it after thinking about it for a moment. "You do have a point..."

She stood up and stretched. "Okay. You need a bath. You smell like dirt and sweat."

"That’s just evidence of my hard work."

She chuckled, waved, and went to the door. "Just be quick about it. I’m hungry."

Ethan stared at the closed door for several seconds. "You can cook though..."

***

There was no class that day. The schedule was blank, and every student had nothing to do that afternoon.

Ethan decided against going to train immediately. They ate late, and for the rest of the day, Lila clung to him without even trying to hide it— leaning against him at the counter, hooking her feet over his on the couch, and placing her chin on his shoulder whenever he sat still long enough.

He did not call her clingy. Calling her out on it wouldn’t make a difference. Besides, having a cute girl all over him was better than being pounded by a hulking mass of flesh and bone.

He told her bits of the clear when she asked — Crawlers, the kill he achieved by sending the raised crawlers inside the beasts body, a story that made her gag, the failed first raise, and everything else that happened after.

She hit his shoulder lightly. "You’re lucky you didn’t get Bef killed. If you did, I would have burnt your clothes off."

"That’s assault."

"That’s payback."

***

By evening, Ethan went back to the gym annex.

The place was quiet, and Ethan claimed a corner mat, rolled his shoulders as he slowly began to adjust to his new body condition and decided that he was going to try Death Control.

He sat down, opened the system, read through the description one more time and focused.

His Death Energy rose when he pulled and moved. Not into a corpse, but up his arms where it settled on his knuckles with a faint spark.

**BZZT**

It zapped, and flickered out.

He tried it again, this time, it zapped twice before dying out.

H shuddered, then shook his hands. He glanced at his Death Energy pool and saw it tick downwards by two points.

"Okay," he muttered. "This is harder than I thought."

He adjusted output, and this time, it held. He tried a short palm strike, but his focus shattered as it flickered again, and the shudder this time ran across his body.

He sat back down on the mat, and he accidentally let the energy slip.

**BZZT.**

The shock jumped from his arm, through his fingers and ran across the gym floor before shimmering out.

He withdrew his hand immediately. It was useful. Dangerous if he got stupid with the output. He was preparing himself for a third hit when the gym door opened and he felt a presence he knew all too well.

Ava walked in as if the gym had been placed here for her convenience, her yellow eyes bright, and her stride carrying an excited sway to it.

She was a black tank top, a pair of black joggers and white sneakers that squeaked against the gym’s polished floor.

"Shaw!" she said, smiling the moment she found him. "Didn’t expect to see you here." She looked at him once. "You look... different."

Ethan deadpanned. "Don’t tell me you wanted a session this late..."

"Oh no, not at all... was coming to do a quick workout but since you’re here, why not get on with it am I right?"

Ethan blinked, then he sighed. This wasn’t the quiet evening he had hoped for...