At that moment, all the wounds on Natsuki Subaru's body healed in an instant, and his depleted stamina was fully restored.
Clang!
As the longsword came down, Subaru rolled out of the way. In the same motion, he propped himself up with his right hand and swept his leg out in a powerful kick, aiming for the knight's knees. With a crisp crack, the towering knight collapsed to the ground.
The second round was only just beginning.
His body fully restored, the battle-lust in Subaru's eyes burned hotter than ever. He shook out his right arm, now brimming with power, and twirled the dagger in his hand in a brilliant flourish. "Come on, you bastards!"
The surrounding knights seemed momentarily stunned by this sudden turn of events, their assault pausing for a brief instant. But soon, even more enemies poured out from the spatiotemporal rifts, swarming him like a black tide.
Natsuki Subaru took a deep breath, feeling the power surging through his body once more. This trial, which pushed him beyond his limits, would be ended by him and him alone.
As he slaughtered the knights, Subaru began to closely observe the battlefield. The number of knights wasn't decreasing; in fact, it was growing, threatening to fill the entire King's Audience Chamber. A doubt began to form in his mind. At this rate... can I really last until the end? I'm out of lifelines. In a battle of attrition, defeat is just a matter of time.
But then, as he parried a knight's attack, his eyes caught something unusual—the black-robed mages who had remained stationary beside the rifts. Wait a minute! The mages... what are they doing?
He noticed that the mages weren't participating in the attack or casting defensive spells. They just stood by the portals, their hands holding staves, their lips moving rapidly as if maintaining some kind of continuous spell.
Don't tell me... they're not preparing attack magic? A startling idea flashed through his mind. He looked from the mages to the rifts that were endlessly spewing out knights.
"I see! The portals are being sustained by the mages' magic! These knights are just their summons!"
With this sudden realization, a sharp glint flashed in Subaru's eyes. He immediately changed his tactics. After repelling a wave of knights, he activated [Sprint]. His figure moved like a phantom through the enemy ranks, heading straight for the nearest mage.
Thump!
The Kasaka's Venom Fang accurately pierced the mage's throat, interrupting the summoning ritual. As the mage fell, its corresponding spatiotemporal rift began to distort violently, letting out a piercing shriek before shattering like a broken mirror. The knights that had come from that portal all froze in place, the dark red energy within their armor rapidly dissipating until they collapsed into heaps of scrap metal.
"Just as I thought! The real targets are the mages!"
Subaru's figure flashed like lightning toward the next mage. With this crucial information, the tide of battle turned instantly. His dagger became a silver streak, piercing the throat of a second mage.
Squelch!
Dark purple blood sprayed out as another rift collapsed.
"12 left..." Subaru mentally counted the remaining mages, his dagger flashing again, felling another. "8 left..."
As the number of mages dwindled, the battle became progressively easier. Subaru moved like a reaper across the battlefield, his every strike precisely harvesting a mage's life.
When only three mages remained, they suddenly gathered together, joining forces to unleash a massive magic circle. In a blinding purple light, a giant armored golem, over ten meters tall, was summoned, blocking Subaru's path.
"Summoning another big guy? Trying to up the ante, are we?" Subaru sneered, his body moving like a nimble swallow to evade the golem's heavy punch.
CRASH!
The golem's massive iron fist smashed into the ground, instantly creating a crater three meters in diameter. As rubble flew, Subaru seized the opening and leaped onto its arm. He sprinted up the golem's arm and, upon reaching the shoulder, launched himself into the air. The Kasaka's Venom Fang accurately pierced the joint between the golem's head and chest. A profound blue magic surged through the blade, and with a deafening explosion, the golem's head was blown to smithereens.
Its giant body trembled a few times before crashing to the ground, kicking up a cloud of dust. Without a second glance, Subaru's figure shot through the bloody mist, heading straight for the last three mages.
Swish! Swish! Swish!
Three silver flashes crossed the distance almost simultaneously. The mages' chanting abruptly stopped. A thin red line appeared on each of their necks, and they slowly collapsed.
With the deaths of the casters, all the spatiotemporal rifts in the Audience Chamber slammed shut. The remaining knights, like puppets with their strings cut, stiffly fell to the ground, the crimson energy within their armor fading to nothing.
"Hah... hah..." Subaru gasped for air, looking around. The entire King's Audience Chamber was now piled high with the corpses of knights. The system timer was frozen at:
[04:29:16]
"A battle of four and a half hours, huh..." Subaru let out a ragged breath, only now realizing he had been slaughtering enemies in this hellish battlefield for that long. His entire body ached, and every wound burned. But the rewards were equally astonishing. His level had shot up from 49 to 60. "So I gained a whole 11 levels just by killing those knights..." He shook his head with a wry smile. The brutality of this trial far exceeded his imagination.
But no matter what, he had survived.
[NOTICE: All monsters have been eliminated. Ending Job Change Quest.]
[NOTICE: Based on the points acquired, you can change to a higher-class job. Analyzing performance in the Job Change Quest to assign the player a class...]
"Looks like it's over. What happens now?" Subaru wondered, looking at the system panel that had suddenly popped up. What does 'change to a higher-class job' mean? Shouldn't I get to choose my own class?
[NOTICE: Analysis complete.]
[Wherever the player goes, the breath of the Death God follows.]
[The path the player walks is paved with mountains of corpses and seas of blood.]
[The player craves the strength to forge their own path.]
[This thirst for power has called forth the spirits wandering the valley of death. These summoned spirits shall become the 'Army of the Dead,' and they shall clear a path for the player alone!]
"Army of the Dead? What's that mean?" Subaru frowned at the information.
[NOTICE: Your job has been decided.]
[NOTICE: Your job is... Necromancer.]
"Wait! What?!" Subaru's eyes went wide as he shouted in disbelief. "Necromancer? System, are you sure you didn't make a mistake? Necromancers are magic-based classes that summon the undead! I'm an assassin-type! My fighting style is close combat! All my attribute points are in Strength! And my gear—the Kasaka's Venom Fang, the Crimson Knight's Helm—and my skills—[Sprint], [Stealth], [Killing Intent]—isn't every single one of them standard for a melee assassin?! If I change to a Necromancer, won't all my close-combat skills become useless?!" he ranted, grabbing his hair in frustration.
[NOTICE: Do you accept this job? [Yes/No]]
"A choice? So I can refuse?" Subaru stared at the flashing selection box. "A Necromancer just doesn't fit my fighting style at all. I should choose No..."
[NOTICE: Necromancer is a Hidden Class. Are you sure you want to refuse?]
[NOTICE: Do you accept this job? [Yes/No]]
"Huh, Necromancer is a hidden class..." Subaru scratched the back of his head, vexed. "So it has special abilities? It says it's giving me a choice, but it feels like the system already planned this out, didn't it?" After a moment of hesitation, he finally made up his mind. "Fine, since it's a hidden class... Confirm!"
The moment his finger tapped the 'Yes' option, the entire King's Audience Chamber was plunged into darkness. Countless black energy tendrils surged from all directions, wrapping around Subaru's body like living things. A powerful, unprecedented force began to awaken from the depths of his soul. It felt like opening Pandora's Box—terrifying, yet full of temptation.
His vision was forcibly pulled into a collapsing world. The sky tore asunder; the apocalypse had come. On this doomsday battlefield, an army of angels with wings of white light clashed with an army of darkness. Decaying bone dragons spewed black flames amidst dark clouds, storms of armored spirits turned the living to dust, and frost liches froze entire oceans to build glacial fortresses.
In the center of it all stood a man in heavy shadow armor. With every step he took, the land for a hundred miles around turned to black scorched earth. Billions of shadow soldiers rose from the shadow at his feet, silent and disciplined. When a hundred-meter-tall lava demon charged, the man simply raised his hand and clenched his fist. The demon was pierced by a spear of shadow, its form twisting and reshaping into a new shadow servant. When the man raised his arm, the entire battlefield seemed to pause. The shadows of billions of corpses writhed and detached from their bodies, flowing together into a pitch-black tide that reformed into countless fully-armed shadow soldiers, who knelt in unison before their king.
The memory fragment ended abruptly.
"Was that... a memory from my new class?" Subaru stared at his hands, which were now wreathed in black mist. The power of the Shadow Monarch... it felt incredible.
[NOTICE: Based on acquired Promotion Points, you can evolve to a higher rank.]
[NOTICE: Bonus points have been applied.]
[NOTICE: Your Promotion Points have reached the maximum value.]
[NOTICE: You have been promoted from Necromancer to SHADOW MONARCH.]
"Huh? I was promoted from Necromancer to Shadow Monarch?" Subaru raised an eyebrow, looking at the new class on his panel. He recalled the apocalyptic figure from the vision. "Looks like this Shadow Monarch class... is ridiculously strong."
As the transformation settled, he noticed the corpses of the knights on the floor were now emitting an ominous black aura. Stranger still, he could hear the wails of their souls, not with his ears, but directly in his mind.
Is this the power of the Shadow Monarch? The ability to hear the voices of the dead...?
The thought had barely crossed his mind when a new system interface appeared above all the corpses simultaneously:
[NOTICE: [Shadow Extraction] skill can be activated.]
[NOTICE: Please set a command phrase of two or more words to activate the skill [Shadow Extraction].]
"Set a command phrase for a skill? Like a magic incantation?" Subaru mused, stroking his chin. It should be something simple... like 'Hello,' 'Good Morning,' 'Pledge allegiance to me,' or 'Genshin Impact, launch!'
He settled on something with more gravitas.
____
Unfortunately, two of our stories were removed... so I created a new account to post them: MikuDayo.
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