Chapter 88: Level Six

Back in the silence of dorm 303, a rift opened in the bedroom as a leg crossed the threshold first.

Ethan blinked. "Oh..."

He somehow made it back to his room....

For a moment, he expected the night air on his skin, the fountain back in the park or even the hunters closing in on him... instead he saw nothing. No MCA hunters in sight. No Lila waiting with questions — her door was closed, she was still asleep.

He sighed, took off his hoodie and sat on the edge of the bed as he opened his system.

```

[Objective Complete: Dungeon has been Cleared]

[ Reward granted: EXP +1000]

[Bonus reward: Decisive use of undead — EXP +500]

[Bonus reward: Devil-class undead successfully raised — EXP +150]

[Core Skill Refinement — available]

[Would you like to accept these rewards?]

```

Ethan’s eyes widened. As expected, he would get bonus rewards if he performed well.

He hurriedly clicked on [yes] and the systems numbers began to change...

```

[Level Up]

[Level 5 → Level 6]

[EXP: 247 / 2000]

```

Ethan blinked... "The fuck?"

For one greedy second he had expected the bar to keep climbing until Rank C cracked open into something with a different letter.

B rank, to be specific...The system had thrown enough raw experience points at him that ranking up felt more deserved than earned.

Instead, he was at Level 6, still at rank C and two thousand to the next threshold.

```

[System Notice]

[Rank Advancement Requirement had been updated: Host must reach a minimum of Level 10 within current Rank to rank up.]

```

"Level ten huh," he muttered.

"What the fuck." He wasn’t exactly angry. He was just mildly annoyaned that he went through all that just to be given a number instead of a letter.

He let it go after a few breaths. Rank C at Level 6 was in a way better than the sorry E rank state he started with.

He had already gotten his rewards. What good would it do to be angry that he didn’t rank up?

"Alright. Let’s not be greedy now..."

He looked at his system. Only Core Skill Refinement remained.

```

[Available skills:]

-Raise Undead

-Death Sense

-Command undead

-Death Link

-Death Control

-Undead Recovery

```

He took his time to carefully consider his options.

If he went with Raise undead, the cost required to raise a monster would be lower, he would have cleaner binds, and higher chances of successful raises.

Refining Death Sense would give him better perception in finding suitable corpses. Coupled with Corpse Hunter’s passive effect, it would probably make finding corpses less of a chore.

Command Undead spoke for itself. The command times would be better and response quality would improve.

Death Link would probably give him a better view of the surroundings through the corpse’s surroundings. That sounded useful.

Then there was Death Control. The only skill that he was still more or less clumsy in using. If he used the skill refinement on it, control would be better, strike force would improve, and the chances of him experiencing a leak would reduce.

And finally, Undead Recovery. The refinement would probably make his undead recover faster. At least that way, he wouldn’t be put in a situation where he would be forced to still use an undead while they were on the brink of destruction.

He hummed, considering them for several seconds before his eyes landed on Death control and Undead Recovery.

One needed refinement because he didn’t quite know how to fully wield it, the other needed an upgrade because he wanted to be able to properly monitor it.

"I’ve made my decision..."

He selected Undead Recovery.

```

[Core Skill Refinement applied: Undead Recovery]

[Result:]

- Recovery process now carries an estimated time to full integrity

- undead recovery timers are now available while in Storage

- Minor improvement to recovery rate has been applied under stable binding

[Undead Recovery has been refined.]

```

A new screen unfolded in his vision and on it, a new tab appeared.

```

[Bef — Rank E Beowolf. Est. full recovery: 04h 12m]

[Beowolf (2) — Rank E. Est. full recovery: 04h 40m]

[Blood Raven — Rank C. Est. full: 09h 05m]

[Iron Golem — Rank D. Est. full recovery: 18h 22m]

[Cyclops — Rank B Devil. Est. full recovery: 2h 50m]

```

Ethan nodded once, feeling actually satisfied when he had come to terms with the fact that he wasn’t going to rank up and opened his full system stats.

```

[Name: Ethan Shaw]

[Age: 19]

[Awakened Class: Necromancer]

[Rank: C]

[Level: 6]

[Title: Corpse Hunter]

[EXP: 247 / 2000]

[Death Energy: 1500/ 1500]

[Control Capacity: 72]

[Stored Undead:]

- Beowolf Rank E [Bef] (recovering)

- Beowolf Rank E Slave x2 (recovering)

- Crawler Rank D Slave x2

- Blood Raven Rank C Slave (recovering)

- Iron Golem Rank D Slave (recovering)

- Cyclops Rank B Devil (recovering)

- Wolf Alpha Rank B Devil

[Skills:]

- Raise Undead

- Death Sense

- Command Undead

- Death Link

- Death Control

- Undead Recovery (Refined)

[Undead Legion: 10/72]

```

Ten corpses under his command with two Devils included. Level 6, full pool and a refined skill.

He lay back down on top of the blanked and a small satisfied smile formed on his face before he was taken by sleep. He would continue grinding tomorrow...

***

By the time he went to class, the hall was quiet in a way that felt wrong.

Professor Crane was already at the podium, waiting for students to come in as she was already in class.

He stayed silent, watching more students filter in as some of them whispered in confusion...

When the last student finally got seated, she began speaking. But she didn’t start with today’s topic. She looked at the tablet, scanned the room and finally tapped on it.

When she did, an image appeared on the projector.

Ethan’s eyes widened a fraction. That was the park he went to last night.

He remembered the details all too well— the fountain, the benches that were behind, and that small coffee shop on the right.

"Last night," she said, "an unsecured dungeon rift opened inside the the treeline of a park at the edge of the city grid." As she said this, the images changed. Once, twice, untill it landed on a crack in space in the treeline. "The MCA response team was dispatched within that time when they were notified of it. However, by the time licensed hunters arrived at the scene, the dungeon was already cleared. Corpses all over the place, no o active signatures, and no mana fluctuations. The only thing the hunters were able to recover were a few sacs of Aetherite, and almost no Brimstone. The dungeon closed before they could finish."

The class stirred. Some in surprise, others in awe.

Marcus muttered something about show-offs. Nora’s face remained unreadable and Aria’s eyes narrowed as it seemed that only her fully understood what that meant...

"Rouges," Crane said. "It was believed that a rouge hunter had beaten them to it and the MCA is taking serious actions regarding this."

She let the words settle before speaking again. "I am telling you this," she said, "because some of you treat ’rogue’ as merely a word or tag. The MCA does not. An unidentified clearer operating inside city limits ahead of official response is treated as a threat until proven otherwise. Every unidentified dungeon clear robs the MCA of information and resources that would help in devicing more ways help mankind. So If you are ever tempted to solo a dungeon for your own selfish desires, undertstand the kind of attention you’re drawing to yourself."

Ethan was surprised. He knew that clearing the dungeon would draw MCA attention. He had expected that. What he didn’t expect was for news to reach the academy. That only increased the amount of people he needed to avoid.

"Tournament preparation continues. Read the rules properly before that time." She tapped on the tablet and the projection closed. "Now for today’s lesson."

***

By the time class was dismissed, Ethan was already on his way to the East grounds.

On the pathway, students talked about what Professor Crane just told them. One person made a comment about how rogue hunters wanted dungeon resources to themselves calling them ’rotten and greddy’ in the process.

That got Ethan thinking.... If that waa the case, then dungeon had to be precious enough for people to risk being executed just for it.

Unfortunately, there was no way to test how true that was. ℯℯ𝘭.𝘤ℴ𝘮

Wait... Nora had a sac of Brimstone in her dorm and was currently doing research on it. He had completely forgot. If dungeon loot had a specific benefit outside MCA research, she should know that by now.

"I’ll check in on her later..."

When he finally reached the East grounds, he took off his bag and reached into his shadow, excited to test the newest addition to his legion.

He really wanted to see how fast it moved, how slow it responded and he wanted to know how using Death Link on it would be like.

However when he pulled, the system bloomed in his vision.

```

[Ding!]

[Undead Summon has been detected.]

[Target: Wolf Alpha— Rank B Devil]

[Summon has failed]

```

Ethan blinked. "What?"