CHAPTER EIGHT: SUMMONING SHADOW UNDEAD

"I agree to join," he said after he saw the approval from Amelia, Charlotte, and Martins.

"Great then do you still have to do something on that planet?" Headmaster Yun asked.

"I still have some unfinished business that I want to settle here" He answered.

"You have one year because the next one year is when we are open for another round of admission, we only give admission once every five years," Headmaster Yun said.

"And I will love to see how much you can grow then and if you can pass the test," Headmaster Yun told him while grinning.

Butterfly goddess took the jade back and with a step, she arrived at the far end of the ship while still talking to the headmaster. The three were released from the pressure including him. She soon finished talking with the headmaster and turned back to him.

"What sword intent do you cultivate" Her voice drifted towards him.

"Slaughter" He answered with one word.

She nodded her head and

"Whoosh," She disappeared.

The ship was silent for some time.

"Power" Martin exclaimed breaking the silence.

"Wait something appeared in my mind," Amelia said.

"Hmm and me too is it from the woman" Charlotte asked.

"I probably think so, she passed onto us a cultivation technique" Martin answered.

"Whoo" Amelia exclaimed in surprise and disbelief at the power she just witnessed.

"I want power," Mark thought as he clenched his fist. He just saw the true display of power from the lady and it triggered his thirst for power.

"How long more till we reach the mercenary land," he asked Martin. "One week" Martin answered. The three left him alone while they went to check the cultivation technique they were given.

****************************************************

Six days soon passed and they did not hear from the lady but Mark has been training hard to increase his stamina. He got a pattern that if he train till he exhausted all his stamina and if he recover it will increase by one. So he focused on training his stamina since he does not have anywhere he can improve himself. The three also focused on the cultivation technique.

#Strength: 1

#Agility: 1

#Speed: 1

#Stamina: 9

#Defense: 1

This was the end product of all the training he had been doing for a week but he was not able to increase his stamina again when it reached nine so he speculated that that was the limit it could reach.

The ship drove through the water while they stood at the cabin of the ship. Faraway, they were seeing an island that was full of bushes. He knew that they were almost arriving at the mercenary ground. Martins already explained to him the different divisions of the mercenary ground.

The East is for the supernatural. The West is a place where the representatives of humans dwell. The South is a very cruel ground where sacrifices were usually dropped. The sacrifice was the innocent humans and fugitives that were bought here. The reason they were here is to serve as lab rats for different kinds of cruel experiments and also to pleasure the supernatural.

The north is a place where abomination dwells. Abominations are different hybrids formed from the fusion of human genes and other genes through grueling experiments. They are usually stronger than humans but they are a lot weaker than the original bloodline the gene came from so they are usually called failed products and dumped in the north. The abomination already formed a faction. The south is the connecting point for all these regions because fresh blood is usually available in abundance there. He was disgusted when he first heard the story.

"Where are we going now," He asked Martins.

"Somewhere we can stay hidden for sometimes while you get stronger and that's the abomination ground," Martins told him.

"Ok," He nodded his head.

"We can't go in through the normal method because people would have probably known your face and you will most likely be a wanted person on earth," Martin said.

He smiled wryly because he did not think that a day will come when he will become the most wanted person on the whole earth.

"It all comes down to power," He said as he sighed gently. If he had displayed the power that the lady displayed earlier, then the whole earth would have bowed down to him.

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One day later

After making a detour, they finally arrived at the northern region, the abomination land where no one dares to trespass. Most of the abominations have lost their mind and they roam alone, only a few have formed faction among them. They were humans who were being tormented. The four finally stepped on the dry land of the abomination ground, their ship was already underwater.

"This place can conceal our presence for like three weeks before we are found out if we are careful," Martins said.

"What are we waiting for, the countdown starts now," Mark said.

They entered the dense forest. Not long after, they saw their first prey. It was a human with battered clothe but has sign of blood in its mouth.

"A ghoul' Martin said. Ghouls are failed vampire experiments. They were made as a result of the imperfect fusion of the vampire genes with the human genes. They lose all semblance of consciousness and they crave human skin. They only eat humans and they will continue to eat humans till they evolve or die.

#Strength: 7

#Agility: 5

#Defense: 2

"Your fight," Martin said as he moved back. Mark summoned his gauntlet and sword while scales started to appear on his body and his eyes turned red after the transformation. His strength and agility have increased by one hundred percent now while his remaining stats increased by fifty percent. The ghoul saw him and rushed towards him, the agility of the ghoul was quite high, he could not catch its movement speed but he predicted where it will be coming.

"Whoosh," it arrived in front of him and clawed his stomach. It was not that the ghoul was too fast but his agility was extremely low. He thrust his sword into its head and chaotic energy entered its body while quickly destroying it from the inside. The ghoul died. He looked at the blood because it felt like he had a connection with its blood on the ground. He focused on the blood and streams of blood essence came out from the body of the ghoul and entered his body through the ground and it condensed into a drop in his stomach.

"It looks like your transformation is just for show, a ghoul that is usually weak injured you, you are too useless" Charlotte mocked him.

He smiled embarrassedly.

"Did you get the blood essence?" Martin asked.

"Yes I think so" he answered.

"I want to do something," He said as he withdrew his weapon. Since the ghoul died, apart from the blood essence, something in his body felt a connection and he felt like it must be because of his shadow ability. He walked towards the ghoul and closed his eyes. The connection was vivid.

"Arise," He said as he raised his two hands. Soon, a cry was heard and something crawled out from the ground, it was a human with a claw. The human was pitch black as it blended with the night. He felt another connection in his mind as that of a superior looking at its inferior.

#2 Ability cells used for performing awakening

"Subordinate greets sovereign" He was dumbfounded at what just unfolded in front of him. Even though he was kind of expecting this, he was still surprised. He looked at the cold emotionless face of the shadow, but he could tell that it was feeling a joy and reverence that a son will feel for his mother for him. The joy that he was not completely erased from existence and reverence towards him like that was his duty.

"Stand" he answered.

"This subordinate will follow you forever," The shadow said as it stood up.

#Congratulation on performing your first awakening.

#Note: The shadow can get stronger by devouring another shadow til it reaches a limit of what your body can take before evolution.

"Analyze," he thought

#Shadow solider

#Strength: 1

#Agility: 1

#Defense: 1

He saw that its stats were only at one.

"I have a lot of experiments to perform tonight," He thought as he summoned it back like he was told and it was sucked into his shadow. He turned back to look at Martin, Amelia,d Charlotte that were looking at him as if they were looking at a monster.

"Can you create a liege of those things?" Charlotte asked.

"Possibly" He answered.

They did not know that someone was looking at them, it was the Moon goddess. She was told to make sure they are safe for a year before bringing them back. She took out her jade and headmaster Yun's face appeared.

"We've found a very rare gem, it could get stronger by devouring the blood essence of other creatures and I think its soul ability is to control shadow undead and make them follow him. An ability that has been lost when shadow sovereign did thousands of years back then" She said.

"That's very fascinating, I feel like if given enough time we have a probability of not losing our home," Headmaster Yun said.

"And maybe there is someone that can transcend," He said.

"Let's watch for now," He told the butterfly goddess.

Back in the forest, he already killed another ghoul, he summoned his shadow soldier. "Devour," He said. The shadow undead pointed its hand forward and soon a black mass of shadow rose from the dead ghoul's body and entered the shadow undead. He used analysis on it after it consumed the shadow.

#Strength: 8

#Agility: 7

# Defense: 2.