Reborn with a Necromancer System - Chapter 80

Chapter 80: Free Study Day

Kai let out a slow breath, watching Willam vanish through the portal. “See you in a day, Mirlin!” Willam called over his shoulder, his voice laced with a mix of excitement and reluctance. Kai still wasn’t sure why Willam insisted on sticking so close to him, but he found himself oddly missing his presence. Not that Willam was a friend, exactly, more of an insistent curiosity with an obsession for rare magic, but his erratic energy had become an expected part of Kai’s routine.

The academy was quieter than usual with so many students using their free study day to travel. That made it the perfect time for Kai to execute his plan.

Slipping away from the academy unnoticed by using his concealment skill, he made his way to the nearest forest. It wasn’t particularly dangerous, lacking any arcane beasts, but it had more than enough wildlife for his purposes.

The first step was further expanding his forces.

Within the hour, the ground was littered with the corpses of deer, wild hogs, and even an owl he had struck down mid-flight. Once the slaughter was complete, he piled up the undead and stepped closer to them before lifting his hands with a grand gesture.

‘Mass Raise-.’

“Wait. I don’t have to waste life essence on this.”

He looked at the corpses hesitantly for a brief moment before summoning a monstrous thing from his shadow space. The Grave Maw slithered into existence and instantly consumed all of the undead beasts before it, its grotesque body shifted, becoming more twisted and bloated with every new corpse added.

New rows of jagged fangs pushed through its already overcrowded maw. Clawed limbs protruded at odd angles, twitching as if unsure whether they belonged to a beast or a nightmare. A sickly black ichor dripped from its misshapen body, staining the earth beneath it. The stench used to be unbearable, a putrid mix of rot and raw meat, but Kai has grown used to being around his undead.

‘If this thing had a soul, what level would it be? I’d probably meet my requirements for my next rank just by absorbing it.’

It was a dangerous thought. Kai suppressed it and bound the Grave Maw in a cube of condensed shadow before forcing it back into his shadow space. It was too unpredictable, too dangerous to let loose unsupervised. Even in his shadow space.

—

Kai followed the sound of lost souls in the woods. Men who sounded alone.

Forgotten.

Deeper in the woods, following the murmurs of the dead, Kai stumbled upon a cave nestled between jagged rocks, its entrance yawning open like the maw of some slumbering beast. A foul stench of decay seeped from within, thick and cloying, coating his tongue with the taste of rot.

He stepped inside, shadows creeping over him as he moved deeper, his boots crunching against something brittle. He glanced down. Bones, snapped clean in half under his weight, their marrow long since sucked dry. The walls bore the dark stains of old blood, some smeared in desperate handprints, others splattered violently like the aftermath of a wild struggle.

Against one side of the cave lay what remained of the hunters. Their bodies slumped in unnatural positions, limbs twisted as if they had died mid-motion. Some were missing chunks of flesh, ragged wounds exposing sinew and bone, while others were little more than skeletal husks. Rusted weapons—blades dulled and bent, were scattered across the floor, some still clutched in death-stiffened fingers. Arrows jutted from the cave walls, half-buried in stone, suggesting a final, frantic stand against something too strong to be felled by steel alone.

Kai knelt beside one of the corpses, fingers tracing the torn fabric of a once-sturdy leather tunic. He could still sense the remnants of their life force clinging to their bones, like whispers of what they had once been. A flicker of amusement curled at the edge of his mind, they had fought so hard, only to end up as carrion.

A familiar thought whispered in the depths of his consciousness. This is a waste.

He could make use of them.

The temptation curled through his veins, hot and insistent. What did it matter if they had been men once? They were nothing now, just remnants, forgotten by the world. But under his command, they could serve again. He could rebuild them, shape them into something more than what they had been.

His fingers twitched as he summoned his magic. Necrotic energy coiled around his palm, eager, hungry.

But then another thought followed, slithering through his mind with quiet venom. ‘The academy is filled with the living. Living that could die. And the dead can become my soldiers.’

He exhaled slowly.

The logic was irrefutable.

If he turned the right people, the strongest ones, no one would need to know. He wouldn’t have to scavenge in forests, hunting for corpses like a vulture. No more weak bodies to work with, no more relying on beasts and forgotten dead.

He could have an army. An army of the skilled, the intelligent. He could reach into the citadel itself, take those who had already proven their worth in battle, and make them his.

The power was right there.

His jaw clenched.

‘No.’

It was one thing to claim the dead from the wilds, those long abandoned, rotting beneath the open sky, but to take from the living? To steal their will before their time?

The thought of it made something inside him recoil, but at the same time, it lingered.

‘Not yet.’

“Mass Raise Undead.”

His magic surged, latching onto the broken forms before him, dragging them upright. The hunters’ bones snapped into place with sickening cracks, their empty eye sockets flickering to life with eerie, pale light. Their stiff fingers tightened around rusted weapons, bodies awaiting his command.

Kai let out a slow breath, shaking off the lingering temptation.

For now, the dead would suffice.

Now, the real training could begin.

Kai left the cave and stood in a small clearing. He summoned his elite undead from his shadow space, watching as his core team emerged from the darkness. He inspected them one by one, and the system popped up with information.

[Ralts – Chaos Lich]

The powerful lich floated ominously, her skeletal fingers twitching in the air as she silently studied Kai. That habit unsettled him. Her role was clear: battlefield control and annihilation.

[Joran – Brawler]

The towering undead cracked his knuckles, awaiting orders. He was the front-line brute, made to handle powerful magic users and disrupt their casting.

[Rhea – Commander]

She stood tall, her gaze calculating. She had improved since last time, now able to issue tactical commands without hesitation.

[Finn]

Still the most basic of his creations, but that was going to change soon. Kai planned to reinforce him with new sigils.

[Merri – Shadowsworn]

She melted in and out of the darkness, a mere whisper in the air, her dagger-like fingers twitching in anticipation.

[Voltis and Zephyr – Arcane Wolves]

The twin wolves prowled at the edge of the formation, their forms crackling with raw arcane energy. They were his hunters, meant to chase down and eliminate stragglers.

[Kael – Splitspeed Rogue]

Kai managed to use three sigils on Kael’s body, as if it was made for sigilcraft. Lightning, strengthening, and a barrier sigil made him fast and incredibly durable. Lightning danced across Kael’s body as he prepared for battle. Speed was his greatest weapon, his attacks a flurry of well-placed strikes.

[Joe – Death Knight]

Joe grinned. At least, Kai assumed it was a grin. The ever-irritating, competitive undead, planted his massive blade into the dirt, eager for the fight. Somehow, he retained part of the recklessness and bravado from the soul that belonged to the body.

Flanking Ralts were two lesser liches, both directly under her command. They were extensions of her will, amplifying her abilities and allowing her to dominate the battlefield with coordinated spellwork.

‘I wonder if the system will show more information as I rank up. I want to know more…’

But, for now, he had ideas to get to work on when it came to Finn, and that was going to be dealt with before anything else.