The sun came into view, illuminating the trees and plants that had waited for it all through the night. Malachi was meditating while perched on a rock when the grass swung in the wind and ruffled his hair.His lungs threatened to drag the adjacent grass into his nose as he inhaled deeply. The grass in front of him was flattened as he let it out through his mouth, creating a tremendous wind."My strength has increased," Malachi spoke. The reason he wasn't fond of physical activity was that it was more efficient to increase his physical prowess through meditation. Sure, there were times when he needed physical activity to break through his limits, but it wasn't necessary to do it every day. Using his mind, soul, and dark magic, he was able to break every organ in his body and repair them simultaneously, making his body more resilient.Dark magic was a potent source of energy capable of offensive or defensive purposes, but it could also be used for healing and much more, such as trapping

Malachi was walking through the mission hall. There were a lot of people here, most of them assassins, though he did see some spell casters and warriors. This was the Assassin Academy, after all, so most people here were assassins. The syndicate had many branches specialized in different fields.Malachi wondered if he should have created an academy system in the past. Would that increase his overall strength? He shook his head a second later. People could not be controlled as easily as controlling undead. He knew his undead were loyal, but no one could guess the human heart. One moment they might be a friend, the next moment they bit your hand.“What’s a kid doing here?”A comment by a random passerby pulled him out of his thoughts. The people here were much older than him. In fact, all of them were graduates. All of them already finished their study and had become a formal members of the syndicate. They still had to come to the academy to take missions though.Soon after, Malachi arr

Malachi let out a sigh as another arcane bolt came flying towards him. He tilted his body to the side, making the bolt missed its mark.On the tower, Stork frowned as he kept missing his shot. He activated his Eagle’s Vision, making his vision keener and capable of spotting distant targets with exceptional clarity.His hand grabbed an arcane bolt from his Aetherial Quiver, enchanted to hold a vast supply of arcane bolts, ensuring he was always ready for distant kill.With swift motion, he released another bolt towards Malachi. Once again, Malachi moved his body right at the last second, but Stork already anticipated that.With his ability ‘Wind Whisper’ Stork manipulated wind currents to adjust the trajectory of his arcane bolt, ensuring it reach its mark.The bolt changed direction, and went towards Malachi’s chest. “I got him!” Stork announced, but he was soon disappointed as the bolt went through Malachi like he wasn’t there in the first place. Then Malachi vanished, revealing tha

A few hours earlier.Malachi summoned his Stygian Dagger as four shadow hands grabbed on all of Mary’s limbs. Lifting her in the air, preventing her from moving or trying to escape.“Why are you doing this? Is this about the bones? Alyssa said my life is going to be in danger, but I don’t expect it to be this soon. I will tell you everything I know about the bones. Please spare me.”Malachi raised an eyebrow. ‘Is this really the target? A member of the Syndicate shouldn’t act like this.’The boy raised his palm. A line of fire formed on it, creating a sigil that changed every second. Malachi approached.“What are you going to do?” Mary watch in horror. “No. Don’t torture me. I will tell you anything you want to know.”Malachi put his palm on the bare skin of her stomach. Nothing happened. He checked her wrist, her ankles, her back. There was no Umbral Brand on her body.“You’re not the target,” Malachi said.Hearing that, Mary was a bit confused before she let out a sigh of relief aft

Malachi stood in the dimly lit chamber of the Shadocraft Academy. The chamber was one of the academy’s facilities, and Syndicate members could rent them for their personal use. Malachi spent 10 merit points to rent this chamber, and spent 40 merit points to obtain a high quality corpse. A high quality corpse simply meant a corpse with minimal wounds or damage to its organs.The quality of his undead was determined by the quality of the corpses. The more damaged a corpse was, the lower its quality would be when he turned it into an undead.“What corpse did you buy?” Seraphina asked.Malachi rolled his eyes. “Is your job asking questions or helping me? Why is your god sending a useless minion to me?”Seraphina pouted. “Humph! You think I am useless? Check this out!” Seraphina blew an ethereal wind that brushed past Malachi’s face. The wind looked extremely cold, but Malachi did not feel it.The wind then moved around in the air before forming an ancient and cryptic text.“This is necr