The First Imprint

Several days had passed since his spar and Peter was back at the Abyssal Tyrant's Inheritance Ground. Several Mana crystals were placed in front of him as he ravenously absorbed the mana that was being emitted from the crystals. His goal was to reach the 7th stage of the Novice stage and receive the first implant of the mana absorption runes.

His already enlarged mana core was being brimmed to the max currently, growing with every minute. Whilst he sat and cultivated in the Inheritance Ground in safety, his shadow soldiers were dispatched to the second Enchanted Zone.

Since the first Enchanted Zone had already been cleared, Peter went after the next zone, only targeting Tier 4's and higher. Gollum - being the only Tier 6 - led the army of beasts fighting diligently. Peter's undead army worked without rest, relentlessly. He had already piled up large amounts of dead Tier 4's for his master to resurrect.

'Only a bit more.' Peter gritted his teeth, focusing his utmost efforts on condensing the gaseous mana into his mana core.

It only took a couple more minutes till he finally broke through!

Peter stood up triumphantly, drinking several potions, rejuvenating his strength.

"Ella. Get the surgery materials ready. I'll be back in 30 minutes." Peter said ecstatically, before teleporting to the Abyssal Tyrant's inscription room.

He grabbed the finest materials like an excited child grabbing his toys.

'Do you want me to make the inscriptions? I know you're excited but If we even make a small mistake, it could cost us our lives.' Noah suggested.

Peter stopped and waited before agreeing to switch with Noah.

Noah sighed deeply, taking off the bandage around his eyes. He focused deeply, beginning the inscription.

**

'I sense a powerful presence coming towards us. Should we retreat?' Gollum gripped his large club tightly, coming to a halt. He looked back at the thousands of Undead soldiers behind him, also gesturing for them to stop.

For the first time since he began wreaking havoc in the Enchanted Zone, he felt a strong presence. The terrain of this Enchanted Zone was cold and filled with snow; however, this didn't bother the shadow soldiers much.

"What the actual hell. We just got out of a bloodbath, killing hundreds of beasts and now there's more. Not to mention, these guys are freakish." A large wounded man appeared out of the dense frosty forest.

He was a tall and built 6ft 4 man decked out in the finest armor, He carried a large shield on his right hand and an axe in the other.

His party of hunters had just come out of the forest after clearing a dungeon mission, set by the Hunter Association. Looking at the composition of the 5 man team, anyone could tell they were seasoned Hunters.

'Humans? This is bad. They seem wounded, we should be able to take them.'

"Attack!" Gollum roared, pointing his club at the party of Hunters.

"Well sh*t then. This is gonna be rough. Get ready squad. COME AT ME!" The tall man pulled in agro, slamming his shield, causing the undead soldiers to focus on him.

The only 2 females in the group - the ranger and healer - leaped back to a safe distance providing support to the main group, consisting of 2 Combat Specialists and one tank.

Although the party of Hunters was tired, they were still renowned as high B rank Hunters so taking care of Tier 1's and 2s was easy. With a single skill, several hundred Tier 1s and 2s would die.

Peter had made sure that if one of his soldiers died, they wouldn't regenerate, to reduce the mana consumption.

'The Tier 1s and 2s are dropping like flies. I only sent the weakest ones to test their strengths, I guess they're extraordinary humans. This might be difficult.'

**

"Master I'll begin the surgery now. Implanting the first Rune of absorption." Ella adjusted her latex gloves and surgical mask, before applying the anaesthetic. She grabbed her first utensil, taking a deep breath.

'The Shadow soldiers seem to have encountered a tough group. They should be fine.' Noah smiled, closing his eyes.

The surgery took almost 4 hours to complete. It was a simple procedure of cutting the chest open and implanting the rune right next to the heart and close enough to the mana core, so thatit wouldn't disturb any natural flow in the body. Fortunately, there were no implications and Peter was all stitched back up.

"Master. Master. The surgery is complete, I've already passed through a healing solution through your veins, so you should be all healed up."

Peter groaned opening his eyes and getting off of the Surgical bed. He pulsed his hands, clenching his fists and opening them again. The change in his body felt evident as though he was in a state of meditation constantly. His mana core pulsed every second, signaling his mana core was brimmed to the top. Adding the new rune's passive absorption and the mana absorbing necklace he had, he would naturally breakthough minor stages in cultivations.

It felt like he had all the mana in the world as if he could never run out of it.

'Let's go test it out then. This pseudo - unlimited mana.'

"Thank you Ella for the hard work. I'll be back shortly." Peter smiled, locking onto one of his shadow soldier's positions excitedly.

"Master wait-"

Peter had disappeared, teleporting straight to the battlefield.

"...At least put a shirt on." Ella finished her sentence, shaking her head.

Finally arriving on the battlefield, Peter immediately switched with Noah, sensing the powerful presences.

"Master?" Gollum looked back at the young man finally appearing, from the shadows of one of his soldiers.

"I'll take care of it, Everyone other than Panther and Gollum leave." Noah's command, caused the several thousand troops to all vanish into dark smoke, before joining back into Noah's shadow.

"There only seems to be 1 guy left. You did a good job Gollum." Noah praised.

"Thank you master. It was nothing." Gollum respectfully replied, bowing his head slightly.

"YOU DARE TALK LIKE THAT AFTER KILLING MY PARTY MEMBERS!" The large man roared, releasing his anger. His team of 5 was now down to 1. No matter how strong they were, against thousands of beasts, there was no chance of survival.

Running was the first thought of the group after seeing the large army of black smokey beasts but when they became surrounded, their only choice was to fight.

"I commend you for killing a large number of my army, with total kills of 2632 Beasts. Although most were weak Tier 1's, I respect your determination. You will serve humbly under me." Noah smiled, drawing his blade and instantly appearing in front of the Large man.

He could practically spam his movement techniques and spells now, his only problem being his weak body and low endurance.

It didn't take much effort to kill an already half dead man, but Noah finished him with a single slice.

"Round up all the beasts and other dead bodies. Time for a mass addition to our army." Noah flicked his sword, spluttering the blood off the blade.

He wanted to test his limits but there wasn't anythingto test it on, unfortunately. His shadow army was just too powerful.

It only took a couple minutes ofr his shaodw soldiers to round up all the dead bodies.

'Exsurge A Mortuis.' Peter's body pulsed with mana as his mana flushed out of his body, transferring to all the dead bodies, making them rise one by one.

'I'm surprised. My mana wasn't completely depleted and even now my mana core is being filled ravenously with mana. This rune is broken in terms of balance.' Noah couldn't help but smile.

The new beasts and first undead humans all kneeled to their new master.

Surprisingly, the large man was able to speak.

"He must have been the strongest one of the group. Cultivation of at least in the Lord Rank. It's unfortunate he came across my undead army at such an unfit state. He could have annihilated us."

"Please give me a name master." The large man spoke.

"Mmh," Noah stroked his chin in deep thought, "How about centurion?"

"That's a fitting name for this valiant man master." Gollum nodded in approval.

A bright pruple light surrounded the large man's physique enlargening it to a large 7 meter tall being. It seemed that his weapons also changed as his battle axe enlarged and his shield was almost the size of his body.

'A true tank.' Peter agreed, nodding his head in approval.

He sensed the thousands of undead and couldn't help but smile.

'That's 2/4 Enchanted Zones down.'