"Ordinary?"
Yami stared at the display, almost offended.
He'd used the Infinite Embryo something unique to each dungeon floor and the system had the audacity to give the result a title that plain?
Even the Leatherback Turtle had been classified as Elite.
Ella's meme level was low, sure, but she possessed something far more valuable... a unique S-rank meme.
[Meme]: Immortal Royal Control
[Grade]: S
[Abilities]:
Undead Summon — Call forth a large number of undead at will.
Undead Space — A personal dimension to house the undead.
Undead Creation — Transform corpses into undead.
Undead Dominance — Full control over any undead she creates, plus any undead below her level.
"…So you're basically the Queen of the Undead?"
The description was enough to make him pause.
Not only did her ability set not clash with his Shadow Monarch powers... they complemented each other perfectly.
And while her meme level was low, that was just a temporary problem.
"Alright. Let's fix that."
Magic stones were the key to upgrades, and he wasn't about to hoard them.
[Ding! Spent 100 magic stones — S-rank meme 'Immortal Royal Control' upgraded to Lv.2.]
[Ding! Spent 1,000 magic stones — upgraded to Lv.3.]
[Ding! Spent 5,000 magic stones — upgraded to Lv.4.]
[Ding! Spent 20,000 magic stones — upgraded to Lv.5.]
When the glow faded, Ella's aura had grown denser, her crimson gaze sharper.
The process had cost him 26,100 magic stones in total, and the next upgrade would require 50,000 more than he currently had.
Still, the effect was clear.
[Ding! Ella's rank has reached the current maximum. To increase the cap, plunder another world and unlock the second floor.]
"…So rank limits are tied to dungeon floors. To get stronger, I have to invade other worlds."
His earlier uncertainty was gone. Piece by piece, the system's rules were falling into place.
And at the core of it all was one simple truth:
If he wanted real power, he had to go after other worlds.
That was where the real treasures waited.
There were still some magic stones left, so Yami poured them into Ella's other meme until it hit level 4.
The cost was exactly the same as her S-rank meme had been which was surprising but when the glow faded, a new notification appeared.
[Ding! Immortal Girl Ella's D-rank meme "Hard Armor" has reached its upper limit!]
It wasn't the upper limit of her rank just the meme itself.
"…So D-rank can only go this far."
A bit disappointing, but useful knowledge. It meant lower-ranked memes had less growth potential.
On the plus side, the test confirmed something else — the magic stone cost per level was fixed:
Lv.2 — 100 stones
Lv.3 — 1,000 stones
Lv.4 — 5,000 stones
Lv.5 — 20,000 stones
Lv.6 — 50,000 stones
He could also see that the higher ranks — S and SS — didn't just have bigger limits, they felt… sharper, more dynamic.
"Owner."
The voice was clear, cool, and unexpected.
Yami blinked. "…You can talk now?"
Ella nodded, her tone calm. "Yes. Just learned."
The phrasing was stiff, but enough to communicate.
He couldn't help but grin. "So upgrades improve command capabilities too, huh?"
Pulling up her updated status, he checked her over.
[Monster]: Immortal Girl Ella
[Rank]: Level 5
[Title]: Messenger
[Race]: Undead
[Memes]:
D-rank: Hard Armor (Lv.4)
S-rank: Undead Control (Lv.5)
Her rank had climbed, her title had changed and her presence felt far more refined than when she'd first been created.
This confirmed it... monsters might actually gain intelligence as they leveled up.
Or perhaps it was a trait unique to those born from the Infinite Embryo.
Either way, Ella's newfound ability to think and speak would be a major advantage.
Shifting his focus, Yami turned to the ordinary protoembryos.
Unlike the Infinite Embryo, these were expendable. Creating monsters from them required two things: the embryo itself and whatever memes he decided to fuse in.
To test it, he took a basic zombie prototype and opted to hatch it without adding any memes.
[Ding! Hatching a base embryo requires 1 magic stone.]
Just one.
[Ding! Zombie embryo hatched successfully. Monster "Zombie" obtained. Monster template acquired!]
"Roar!"
The thing that appeared before him looked every bit the classic undead — rotting flesh, gray skin stretched thin over bone, teeth bared beneath torn lips.
"…Yep. That's a zombie."
Yami wasn't exactly eager to get closer, though he could feel the absolute control he had over it.
"Master, I can control it," Ella said softly, raising a pale finger.
A swirl of gray mist spread from her hand, wrapping around the zombie.
The creature's feral posture shifted it straightened, eyes dull but obedient.
"Undead Control," Yami thought. Not surprising he'd already seen that ability listed in her status.
Still, the experiment had given him more useful data: no matter who controlled a monster, he retained supreme authority over any he'd created himself.
Even if Ella commanded it, his dominance over the creature overrode hers completely.
The results were promising and another perk appeared alongside them. Monsters created here automatically generated templates.
[Monster]: Zombie
[Rank]: Level 1
[Title]: Ordinary
[Race]: Undead
[Memes]:
F-rank: Infection (Lv.1) via template
With this template, he could mass-produce zombies as easily and as quickly as lighting a fuse.
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