[Chain the Dead activated]
[Maximum Animus Soul Point capacity reached. Further thrall binding denied.]
Hehehe... Ethan couldn't help but feel a flicker of pride. His theory had been spot on.
With a total Animus stat of 40, and each undead using up 2 Soul Point slots, it made perfect sense that he hit the cap right after claiming his 20th thrall.
But then… The system didn't stop there.
[New Skill Acquired: Break the Chain]
[Active Skill - Break the Chain: End your Thrall's existence in undeath.]
"A new skill?"
Ethan had finally gotten the answer he'd been waiting for. Break the Chain. It all made sense now.
He was a little annoyed, though. Why did this skill only appear now, after he'd already hit the limit? Why not offer it earlier?
Then again, maybe the system was trying not to overwhelm him, choosing to reveal skills gradually as he progressed.
That… actually made more sense.
After all, just from the three skills he'd received upon claiming his Grave Caller class, he already had a lot to manage: one to raise the undead, one offensive skill, and one enemy debuff that let him use his undead thralls to amplify his damage output.
Now, with Break the Chain added to his arsenal, he finally had a way to dismiss or sacrifice existing undead when needed.
Ethan wasted no time testing out his new skill. He chose one of the Dusk Fang wolves, the smallest and seemingly weakest among the group.
He stepped toward the undead beast, which stood still, mouth slightly open, emitting a low, guttural growl.
"You're already dead anyway, so no hard feelings, okay?" he muttered.
[Break the Chain activated]
[You have severed the chain to Dusk Fang Lv.14. Undead Thrall dismissed.]
A swirl of black and crimson energy began to unravel from the wolf's body, slowly at first, like mist being peeled from its form.
Then, the creature collapsed to the ground in silence.
But it didn't stop there.
In an instant, something was violently drained from within. The body began to decay at an unnatural speed. Shriveling, drying out, as if every last ounce of energy, every drop of vitality, had been sucked out in a breath.
Within moments, the carcass was nothing more than a husk, hollow and brittle. And then… it was still.
"So, this is the price they pay for being given a second chance?" Ethan murmured.
"Practically, they were already dead to begin with."
Just like him.
With the biggest question surrounding undeath finally answered, Ethan took the rest of the night to reflect and piece together several other discoveries. Bits of knowledge that had slowly surfaced as he tested the limits of his abilities.
For starters, Chain the Dead could only be used on corpses he had personally slain, and only within a short time window. Somewhere between thirty seconds to a full minute.
Any longer than that, and the body would no longer respond to the skill. The soul, or whatever tethered the corpse to the realm of undeath, was already gone by then.
And more importantly, once a thrall's chain had been severed, it was final. There was no reviving that creature again. It was done.
He also learned something new about his Dimensional Storage: it seemingly froze time for anything placed within it. That meant food could stay fresh indefinitely, which was useful in itself.
But even more interesting, if he stored a monster's body immediately after killing it, the timer on that one-minute resurrection threshold would pause as well.
That opened a new tactical option: kill now, and decide later.
The only real problem was space. Right now, his dimensional storage was too limited. He could barely fit a few larger creatures inside.
Ethan found himself wondering if there was ever going to be a chance to exploit that system glitch again. But then again, doing so would mean stalling his leveling progress indefinitely. Not knowing how long he'd have to wait between each opportunity.
A dangerous gamble. One he wasn't sure he could afford just yet.
With his experiments wrapped up, Ethan pushed forward with the night's hunt, intent on fine-tuning the composition of his undead army.
His goal was a formation versatile enough to face any challenge the future might throw at him.
For now, two Wild Boars were enough. Their sheer size took up too much space, but they were sturdy and vicious, perfect for causing chaos and holding the front line as makeshift tanks.
Next, he settled on four Dusk Fang Wolves. They were silent and deadly, natural assassins in the field. But while they excelled in speed and physical strikes, their stealth was limited by their larger frames. They could navigate ruins, sure. But they weren't small enough to vanish into the shadows completely.
For scouting, he relied on the venomous rats. He kept six of them in total. They could scatter and explore vast areas efficiently. Their small size gave them a natural advantage in slipping through tight spaces unnoticed.
Then came the Thorn Crawlers, four in number. These plant-like monsters could lash out with long, thorny vines and bind enemies from afar. When it came to fighting higher-level monsters, having multiple units capable of immobilizing threats would make all the difference.
He also added four Bloom Flares, another plant-type monster. These ones specialized in long-range support, launching explosive seed pods to damage and disrupt from a distance.
With the Wild Boars drawing aggro at the front, the Bloom Flares could bombard enemies from the rear with ease.
What he lacked now were support-type undead, ones that could heal, or provide buffs to his allies' strength and defense. If he ever found monsters with such abilities, he might need to rethink and reshuffle his entire army again.
But for now… this would do.
Until… Suddenly, he felt it. One of his undead thralls was calling to him.
Was it from one of the venomous rats?
They were the only ones he'd ordered to scatter and scout. Two of them, in particular, had been assigned to tail the human party he'd encountered the night before.
Something was happening.
Concern, or was it curiosity? Without wasting time, Ethan darted through the ruined streets of the city, keeping low, weaving between debris, and avoiding dense monster clusters to conserve time and stamina.
Then he heard it, sounds of battle. Not far now.
He crept to the edge of a crumbling building and peeked around the corner. There, in a plaza-like clearing, were the four humans… locked in combat.
But not just against any monster.
He froze. If he had a throat, he would've swallowed hard. The creature they were fighting was humanoid. Massive and grotesque. Its body was swollen with muscle, yet rotted and blistering like meat left to fester. The skin pulsed, as if something beneath it was ready to burst.
A zombie?
No, this was no regular undead. It was bigger, stronger, far more dangerous than anything he'd expected to find here.
He had no idea such creatures even existed in this part of the city.
And even though it was just one monster… the four humans were clearly struggling. Their attacks barely seemed to faze it. The thing moved through their strikes like it felt no pain at all.
Was this monster truly that powerful?
"Let's see…"
Was this the right moment to step in?
To finally start the mission he'd been slowly building toward?