Birth of an Undying Army

Peter breathed heavily after the heavy training session. 3 more weeks had passed since he had begun his solitary training. Whilst Noah silently worked on learning braille via Peter's memories, Peter himself had perfected the 'Ethereal Blades' Martial art, alongside many other spells.

[Darkness Entrapment]

[Shadow Steps]

[Shadow Teleportation]

[Sense Boost]

[Darkness Slash]

He had perfected every one of those spells and diligently worked to create new combos to test in the combat hall.

He had already cleared 34 floors of the 50. What made Peter reluctant to face the next trial was that tier 2 magic beasts would start forming from the beginning of the 25th floor. Tier 2 beasts were much faster and stronger and Peter's Cultivation still wasn't high enough to kill them without sustaining injuries.

Even with the use of all the techniques that he had learned, he was capped at killing off peak tier 1 beast with high difficulty. Tier 2 beasts were just too much for him as of this moment.

Peter had thought long and hard and ultimately came to the decision that he would learn the 5 star spell: 'Monarch of Darkness'.

The worth of a single 5-star spell was priceless. Even in credits, they were worth several billion, due to how rare and unique they were. Whilst the 5-star spell books of common elements like fire, water, earth, etc. cost less, their prices also started with a couple of billion credits at the least.

Knowing how rare spell books for the Darkness Element were compared to the other elements, this was a chance he'd have to take.

Plus Peter still had to learn the inscription methods that the Abyssal Tyrant had left behind. His power would not be limited by any means.

'Okay, I think I've learned the basics of Braille. I think if I actually practice now I should be able to learn it fully. Wow, Peter, you've made some drastic progress; I'm skimming through your memories of the past few weeks right now.' Noah finally spoke in Peter's mind again, signaling his return from his intense studying session.

'It feels good to hear your voice again Noah. Yeah, I feel like I've hit a wall. I'll let you take control soon and start deciphering the instruction manual of the 'Style of the Soul Reaper' Martial Art but first, we need to discuss if we should go for the 5-star spellbook or not. I'm sure you've seen my memories and my thoughts on them. I've calculated all possibilities and this seems to be the best option for us right now.' Peter replied.

He was currently in a lotus meditation position, ravenously absorbing mana from the Novice Crystals situated in front of him.

'I know there are risks to this but I do agree with your trail of thoughts. Although we won't be able to learn any other 5 star spells, we can cover that gap with martial arts and other powerful spells. Especially as the darkness element spell books are rare than the other elements, I think we should go for it.' Noah announced.

'Then let's do it straight away!' Peter said excitedly.

**

"Everything is ready master. Just step onto the magic circle that I have drawn and focus on absorbing the knowledge that will pass to your brain and body. Once the mana crystals start burning, the process can't be hindered or stopped till the process is finished. Are you sure you want to do this master?" Ella asked, levitating above him.

Since the 5 Star spell book 'Monarch of Darkness' wasn't written in Braille and couldn't be translated, Peter had Ella read it out and ultimately she helped the most in setting up the ritual for transferring all the knowledge of the 5-star spell to Peter's mind.

"Fuuuu." Peter exhaled, sitting down in the middle of the magic circle holding the magic spell book in his hand, "Okay. I'm ready, let's begin."

"As you wish, master." As Ella said that, she activated the magic circle, and the dozen or so mana crystals situated around the magic circle lit up, signaling the start of the process.

The runic lines of the magic circle lit up purple and all the mana traversed through the lines directing to Peter's body. The magic spell book also lit up and floated up and out of Peter's hands.

Suddenly, the pages of the book began to flicker, and a transparent purple light established a powerful connection with Peter's forehead. It was as if the purple beam of light was drilling through his head.

"Aaarghh!!!" Peter couldn't help but let out a muffled shout. He clenched his fists and bit down on the piece of cloth he had ready around his mouth. The spell book had warned that there would be excruciating pain.

Tears ran down his cheeks as he tried his best to not move, if he made any sudden movements and broke the connection of the purple light with his mind, he would simply die.

'You got this Peter! Only a bit more. I can feel all the new information and your body's changes. Your mana core is expanding to facilitate the spell and your mental strength is also increasing. Only a bit more Peter!' Noah tried to reassure his brother and it seemed to have worked.

Peter bit down hard on the cloth and clenched his fists tightly, till blood poured out from his hands.

After several minutes of torture, the process was over and there was some noticeable changes to his body.

Firstly, his mana core had doubled in size reaching the size of a Novice Stage 6 Cultivator, although he was still in the 3rd stage. This meant that his mana reserves increased drastically.

Secondly, his muscles became much leaner and his body as a whole seemed to go through a purification, hence why a black gooey substance was secreted from his pores throughout the process.

Not only did he gain 2 more inches of height and leaner and more defined muscles, he also received a whole makeover. His hair grew in length to just above his shoulders and his face matured.

Whatever the process did to him, it improved his teenage body by a hundred folds. The 5 star book also had disappeared and disintegrated once the process was over.

'Teleport: Sage Pool'

With a simple incantation Peter had teleported with his shadow teleportation spell. He immediately took off his dirty clothes and jumped into the pool. However, he had accidentally jumped too high and ended up reaching the ceiling.

"Cannonball!!" Peter smiled, scrunching up into a little ball before finally falling into the pool.

'I didn't expect my body to change this much. I have a gist of how necromancy works too. This is amazing. We didn't even have to learn the spell, all the information literally got absorbed into us.' Peter said, floating on the surface of the warm water.

'True. Our body is completely different from the average cultivator of the 3rd Novice Stage. I believe we will always be above the average in our cultivation stage now. I guess it was worth learning that spell. Anyways. Hurry up. I'm excited to create an undying army! We'll head to one of the Enchanted Zones and go Hunting.' Noah said, excitedly.

**

After Peter had washed up and rejuvenated his energy and filled up his enlarged mana core to the brim, he used one of the exit points to teleport to the Enchanted Zone with the least number of dangerous beasts.

He planned to turn the beasts of the enchanted zone all into shadow soldiers under his legion. His goal was to conquer every one of the 4 zones by the end of the year.

As Peter leaped from tree to tree, he used his enhanced senses to determine if there were any beasts nearby.

He wanted his first loyal soldier to be the strongest beast he could defeat as of this moment and according to his calculations that would be a low tier 2 beast.

'Nice found something!' A smile appeared on Peter's face as he spotted a pack of Wind Element wolves. Each beast stood at 2 meters in height and had green fur, only the Tier 2 Wolf beast had a much sturdier physique and sharper fangs and claws.

There was one Mid Tier 2 and ten Tier 1's following right behind. The pack seemed to be busy hunting a herd of mutated deers.

Peter pulled out his sword from his dimension space in his bracelet and used the shadow steps spell to maneuver expertly in the air only rarely ricocheting off the trees to gain more momentum or to mark them with magic circles. He planned to kill off the ones separated from the group first.

'Darkness Slash'

'Darkness Slash'

'Darkness Slash'

He spammed three dense arcs of darkness mana which instantly cut down 4 of the Wind type beasts catching them by surprise.

Peter didn't waste time and used the shadow teleport spell to reach a tree he had marked with a magic circle beforehand, the wolves all rounded up growling at Peter as they saw their fellow brethren's' corpses.

Peter was pushed back by a gust of wind. He slammed into a tree but recovered straight after.

'Only the Tier 2 seems to be strong enough to hurt me, I'll take care of the weaklings first then kill it off last.' Peter created a simple trail of thoughts to follow.

He used the shadow steps spell again, to cut down several more wolves, backing out when the Tier 2 wolf would attack then teleport back in to kill off another Tier 1 Wind wolf. He worked diligently using a hit and run technique to swiftly kill the remaining Tier 1's only leaving the Tier 2 beast.

The Tier 2 Wind Beast swiped its claws causing a torrent of strong winds to push Peter back. The wolf sequenced this by nimbly moving in a zig zagging pattern till it opened its maws to eat Peter in one swoop.

"Not on my watch. You oversized dog!"

'Darkness Slash!'

Peter combined his strongest attack spell along with the 3rd form of the Ethereal Arts martial arts leaping up with the use of the Shadow Step spell before releasing his powerful attack towards the Large beast.

The attack cut through and shattered the beast's tough skull, killing it on the spot.

'I killed a Tier 2!!' Peter rejoiced.

'Well done brother.' Noah applauded.

'Oh yes! Time to raise them from the dead.' Peter smiled.

'Exsurge a mortuis.'

The incantation that only worked if someone had learned the 'Monarch of darkness' spell was spoken by Peter.

A large fraction of Peter's mana drained from him and the 10 tier 1 Wolf beast corpses all were wrapped in a purplish-black cloud of mana before they arose. Their dismembered bodies came back together and unlike their appearances when they were alive, they now had a new appearance.

Their eyes shone purple, whilst their bodies were completely black. Traces of purple runic lines spread throughout their black fur giving the wolves a splendid look.

Lastly, the Tier 2 Wolf beast rose from its dead position and also changed in its appearance. It stood tall in front of the pack of wolves.

"Awwooooooo!!!" The tier 2 beast howled, announcing the birth of the undying army, before it lowered its head in respect to its leader.

Peter Magtris.