Chapter 22: First Hunt (III)
"...Rise."
One word.
That’s all it took.
Emerald and black mana exploded from the two Shadow Wolf corpses simultaneously, twisting around each other like they were fighting for dominance — then, almost reluctantly, cooperating.
Two shapes formed.
Two wolves.
Malrik stared at them.
...Huh.
A slow smile pulled at the corner of his mouth.
"So."
"It actually worked."
His heart slammed against his ribs — hard enough that he almost checked if it was visible through his chest. Years of keeping a straight face, and *this* was what almost broke it.
In his previous life, he’d had the Class.
Just never the mana to do anything with it.
Necromancer. The title that had sat in his status screen like a cruel joke for years — visible to everyone, usable by no one. A constant reminder of everything he wasn’t.
Until now.
Their forms had no flesh. No blood. Only emerald and black spiritual energy shaped like wolves, dense and flickering at the edges. Their eyes, once crimson and *very* interested in eating him, now glowed with a steady emerald light.
The two spirit wolves lowered their heads.
Not out of aggression.
Submission.
Malrik was quiet for a moment.
Something unfamiliar settled in his chest. Not excitement — that was too simple a word for it. More like... recognition. As if two presences had slotted into his soul like missing pieces he hadn’t known were missing.
So this is what it feels like.
He approached the nearer wolf slowly.
It didn’t move.
He reached out and pressed his hand forward — his fingers passed through the wolf’s body before meeting a faint resistance. Like pushing into still water.
"...Interesting."
He turned to the second wolf and thought, almost idly:
Run.
Both wolves bolted into the trees.
Malrik blinked.
"...I didn’t say anything."
He hadn’t opened his mouth. Hadn’t moved. The command had formed in his head and they’d simply *gone.*
Soul Bond. No words needed. Intent transferred directly, clean and instant, like thought turned to action with nothing in between.
He tested it.
Stop.
They stopped.
Come back.
They came back.
Not a single sound from him.
"...Good." He exhaled slowly. "Very good."
He almost smiled again — a real one this time, wide enough that it would’ve looked suspicious on someone who smiled as rarely as he did. He caught it before it finished forming.
On the inside, though?
I finally did it. I finally used the Class Leon could never touch.
He glanced down at the two corpses still lying where they’d fallen. They hadn’t dissolved. Hadn’t turned to ash. The bodies remained exactly as they were.
Only the souls had been pulled free.
So that’s the mechanic.
"I’m not reviving the dead," he murmured to himself.
"I’m raising their souls."
A beat of silence.
Then something *flowed* into him — strange and sudden. Not mana. Not pain. Something quieter than both.
Instincts.
Fragments.
The cave’s layout — every tunnel, every turn, every dead end. The scent markers of the pack. The precise location of every remaining Shadow Wolf inside.
Malrik’s eyes narrowed.
"So there are..."
"...eight left."
No Alpha.
The information had come directly through the Bond. The pack had originally been ten. Two now stood beside him, heads low and eyes soft with that eerie emerald glow.
Which left eight in the dark.
The smile came back.
He didn’t stop it this time.
"Perfect."
---
He opened his status screen before stepping inside.
```
Name: Malrik Vesperion
Rank: Mortal
Level: 3
Class: Soul Binder
Class Rank: Epic ★
Talent: SSS-Rank — Infinite Evolution
Strength: 11 (3↑)
Agility: 12 (3↑)
Constitution: 16 (3↑)
Intelligence: 103 (3↑)
Free Attribute Points: 10
Soul Contracts: 2 / 50
```
He looked at the numbers for a long moment.
"Ten free points."
He crossed his arms.
Intelligence was sitting at 103. His mana output was already stable. Throwing more into it would be like adding a second engine to a cart that only had two wheels.
The real problem was obvious.
A bigger army means nothing if the commander dies in the second wave.
Five points into Strength.
Five into Agility.
The moment the last point was allocated, warmth spread through him from his core outward — into his arms, his legs, the muscles along his back. His grip on the spear tightened without meaning to.
He raised it once, testing the weight.
*Lighter.*
"Much better."
He looked toward the cave entrance. The darkness inside was total. Somewhere in that dark, eight Shadow Wolves were going about their evening completely unaware that two of their packmates had recently undergone a significant career change.
"My army is still too small."
He glanced at the two spirit wolves flanking him — patient, still, waiting.
"Numbers and strength." He said it like a promise. "We build both."
He raised his spear.
Then, through the Bond — silent, wordless, clean:
Bring them to me.
The two spirit wolves disappeared into the darkness of the cave
Comments