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
While Mary and Alyssa were talking, they did not realize that Malachi was inside the ceiling, listening to their conversation.He heard them talking about bones and how it manage to turn non-living objects into hideous creatures. The talk went on for hours until the both of them decided to leave.“This is my chance. Seraphina, keep a lookout for me.”“Humph! Didn’t you say that you work better when alone.”Malachi ignored her and tried to cut the ceiling only to find out that it was made from a powerful material. ‘I can’t get cut it. I need to enter from the entrance.’He slipped out and landed in the hallway, only a few meters away from the door. His feet was silent. They didn’t make any sound even when he jumped from 5 meters.His movement was so discreet that the 5 thieves that tried to pick the door did not notice him. All of them wore dark attires that covered their entire body except their eyes.One of them who seemed to be the leader said: “All of you owe me a lot of money. I j
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 returned to the Academy. Although he failed the mission, he did not care as he already got what he wanted. With ease, he walked to the mission hall and reported the situation.The target was an impostor. It was possible that the target switched identity with someone else and was still in hiding somewhere else.“Although you did not complete the mission, you will still earn half of the merit of this mission, so that will be 50 merit points. That’s actually quite a lot for your first mission.”Malachi then requested to leave the region for a few weeks.“Well, this shouldn’t be allowed, but since you did not die on your first mission and manage to obtain a valuable information, I will let you.”Suddenly, a firm hand slammed on the table. “Who give you permission to give such permits?” A man glared at the receptionist before he set his gaze towards Malachi.“You want to leave the region? You haven’t even graduated yet. You shouldn’t even be allowed in the mission hall, and now you
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
Malachi knew that this abomination he had created was now under his control, bound to his will through the dark magic he had harnessed. But with this power came the responsibility of maintaining dominion over it.Having an undead was like having a wild beast as a pet. The more higher the quality and the stronger the undead, the difficulty of controlling it became significantly harder.The quantity also mattered. The more undead a necromancer control, the more effort he needed to control them. That was why a lot of necromancers decided to only control a few high quality undead instead of commanding a whole army of undead. Only powerful necromancers dared to command thousands if not tens of thousands of undead. There were huge cons of picking this path however. Necromancers who had an army of undead usually had low individual strength. It meant that they rely on their undead army to their bidding. If they were caught in personal combat, they would lose. These necromancers preferred t
Malachi's confident smile remained as he held out the Fragments of Aetherium Crystal for all to see. The inn's atmosphere shifted from one of amusement to one of intrigue and curiosity as patrons whispered and pointed at the valuable crystals. Some even wondered why this kid was brave enough to bring those crystals all alone.Monkey Monk's expression changed from one of dismissive arrogance to one of apprehension. He knew the worth of those crystals, and the stakes had just been raised far higher than he had anticipated. Malachi took a step closer to the table where Monkey Monk presided. "Can I play now?”Monkey Monk hesitated, glancing around at the expectant faces of the inn's patrons. He couldn't afford to back down now; his reputation as a fearless gambler was at stake. "Very well," he said with forced confidence. "But only if you're willing to match my bet with those crystals." Malachi nodded, his eyes never leaving Monkey Monk's. He placed the Fragments of Aetherium Crystal o
Under the bridge of a dirty slum. A man lie dead on the side of the river. His blood made their way down to the stream and washed away. The man died an unfortunate death. His limbs were twisted with some of the bones crushed and jolted out of the skin. His teeth was no more, and one of his eye balls were gone. It was a gruesome sight, enough to keep naughty children to never go out at night ever again.There was the sound of footsteps approaching. Walking out of the darkness, Malachi appeared and confirmed that Monkey Monk was truly death. “This man has faked his own death many times before,” Malachi said.“Well, I don’t think he can fake his own death anymore,” Seraphina replied.Malachi turned around and smiled. “You did a great job.” He reached out his hand and a massive head approached.Malachi rubbed the undead’s head like it was a dog. Suddenly, coughing sound was heard.Malachi and everyone else turned around to see the body on the pavement actually moved. Monkey Monk cou