The Ruined Death Knight

With them showing off their immense death aura, Danzel only finds it fitting to reveal his own.

Slowly, his dead mana slipped out of his armor naturally and mixed with his aura before it exploded outwards to all the undead and the 5 Anabast.

Making the draugr's gaze in awe and the Anabast feel as if they were nothing before this undead.

If one were to compare their death aura in a battlefield, the aura of draugrs would seem to be bloodthirsty warriors.

The Anabast auras would be like a giant reaper reaping through masses with ease.

As for Danzel, his aura would seem like a giant skeleton carving through the whole battlefield with his sword, slaughtering and altering the battlefield itself while laughing.

To the undead, it brought forth both awe and fear upon such existences far above their own.

"I indeed called you, though wherever you remain to serve or not is yet to be determined." Danzel said with his cold voice, snapping the Anabast off their awe in his aura.

Though his words brought confusion upon them. As they didn't understand what he meant.

Danzel didn't go ahead to explain what he meant, instead he raised his arm and pointed towards the first Anabast that was also the tallest.

Using [Grasp of the Undying], an invisible ethereal skeleton hand reached out towards the skull of ribless Anabast.

Before the ethereal skeleton hand was about to touch its skull, unexpectedly the Anabast that didn't have eye sockets turned his head towards the ribless one as if he was seeing the ethereal invisible hand.

That of course didn't go unnoticed by Danzel.

'Hoh? He can see it?' He comments internally as the ethereal hand use one finger to tap the skull of the ribless one, making the skeleton hand appear.

The ribless Anabast imminently after noticing his skull being touched didn't even waste a split moment to back off several meters back.

Around his arms was mana being channeled as its ethereal dark green flaring eyes stared at the ethereal hand with caution and focus.

Danzel nodded at his quick reaction, but what he aimed wasn't to use [Grasp of the Undying] to harm him, but to make a contract to open his status.

Ignoring the wary Anabast, Danzel gazed upon the status screen of his new undead.

[Status]

Name: ----

Level: 70

Race: Anabast

Class: [Death Shadow Magic Caster Lv.1]

Sub-Class: ----

Health: 11407/11407

Mana: 13 000/13 000

Attribute points: 0

Attributes: Strength: 650 Agility: 750 Intelligence: 1000 Endurance: 350

Talents: [Exalted Undead] [Fabled Undead] [Reinforced Soul] [Magical Talent] [Talent of Affinity] [Unique Consciousness ] [Greater Dead Mana Affinity] [Dead Mana Resilience] [User of Dark Arts] [Feared Existence] [Ever Lasting Manifistation] [Shadow Body] [Fire Affinity] [Water Affinity] [Ice Affinity] [Nature Affinity] [Earth Affinity] [Air Affinity] [Lighting Affinity] [Dark Affinity] [Mark of Call] [Undead Servant] [Subordinate of Death Knight] [Negative Effects Resistance] [Shaped Body: Hands]

Skill: [Robe of Shadows Lv.8] [Shadow Movement Lv.7] [True Death Lv.6] [Drain Life Lv.3] [Eyes in Shadows Lv.4] [Final Word Kill Lv.1] [Death Sharing Presence Lv.1] [Animate Shadow Lv.1] [Shadow Effigy Lv.1] [Death Shadow Bolt Lv. 3] [Death Shadow Plain Descend Lv.[Max.]] [Calling Illusion Lv.2] [Scare the Young Lv.1] [Shadow Entity Lv. 3] [Tempting Voice Lv.5]

[Remark: A 3rd-tier Undead wearing the shadows of death as his robes and using its magic to inflict death. Information about them is scarce and those who fought them called them immortal shadows or revenants. If you spot one of that undead, death is but certain. Even those matching their power need a miracle to survive once their shadows taint the world. This Anabast is a servant of the Death Knight named Rue Danzel. His master also carved Great Runes upon this Anabast body.

Reading through the status of the ribless one, Danzel would even frown if he could.

They were many many anomalies that he found out through the status of the Anabast.

A few of them were the [Exalted Undead], [Feared Existence], and [Death Shadow Plain Descend Lv.[Max.]], a maxed-out skill that was a first.

He found those two talents quite weird because they were supposed only to be unlocked when an undead reached the 4th-tier.

Even if his [Shadow Entity] was the Anabast version of his [Unceasing Soul of Death Essence] that granted him the [Exalted Undead] talent, [Feared Existence] was reserved for only the 4th-tier undead if he were to trust the description of the talent.

Having it should have meant that this undead in front of him was of the 4th-tier, but his level as much as his remark suggested that it was a 3rd-tier undead.

As for the maxed-out skill that they had, he didn't even know what to think of it, as he has never seen a fully maxed-out skill.

Even when he upgraded a skill to the max level of 10, it would still not show up like [Max.].

For all he knew, that skill can be of the 5th tier, if not above if a higher tier than the 5th existed. That, or the skill was of the lower tier and reached a point where it can't improve further.

What also surprised him were his attributes.

Sure, compared to him, they were mainly low, but if you consider that this Anabast didn't have a sub-class yet...

He went ahead to read through his skills and talents, which resulted in many of his answers being answered.

The most interesting from the talents side were [Fabled Undead], [Talent of Affinity] [Ever Lasting Manifistation], and [Subordinate of Death Knight].

[Fabled Undead] was the reason why the Anabast had the 4th-tier talents and [Exalted Undead].

What it did was essentially upgrade your race talent while also opening some skills and talents of a tier above his own, which explained [User of Dark Arts] and [Feared Existence].

[Talent of Affinity] in turn randomly upgrade one of the magical affinities or generated a new affinity, which in the ribless Anabast case, was the [Dead mana Affinity], making it [Greater Dead Mana Affinity].

[Subordinate of Death Knight] was in turn also something he just noticed.

It essentially raised all the stats by 5%, which was pretty good.

Though the most interesting and most powerful of all its abilities was [Ever Lasting Manifistation].

[Ever Lasting Manifistation]: The unique ability solely reserved for Anabast, the Immortal Shadows of Death. Their existence shall never vanish even if their soul and body are destroyed and even if they were to be destroyed, they will manifest once more after a millennium with both body and soul repaired. Additionally, this effect in turn reduces the total Health of Anabast by 50% while also every 2 seconds completely recovering 100% of their health. This effect can't be negated or affected with heal reduction effects. Making their ability to manifest everlasting for all eternity. Can't stay in the physical realm without some kind of support.

The fact that a soul can be repaired was incredible knowledge on its own, but their second effect of theirs was stupidly incredible.

Their health being reduced to half was a really big downside as their bodies will become less tough and other effects could one-shot them, but the fact of completely recovering after 2 seconds was way too good...

As for his skills, the most interesting was the maxed-out one, but when he tried to see through the information, all he saw was [???] despite being able to read the name.

Other than that one, he had some instant death spells just as [True Death] and [Final Word Kill], but the most useful ones that he saw were [Eyes in Shadows], [Death Sharing Presence], and [Drain Life].

The first two were a skill with the last being a spell.

[Eyes in Shadows] allowed Anabast to stay inside the shadows of others and travel with them while also being able to watch the outside world.

[Death Sharing Presence] in turn was an aoe activable passive that temporarily reduced the maximum health of the living by 0.1% every 2 seconds and it stops when the enemy's health is reduced by 50%. And once 50% was reached, the change of instant death spells to activate is increased by 50% of the effects changes.

As for [Drain Life], it was very similar to his [Grasp of the Undying].

It literally drained a portion of vitality and turned it into mana for the magic caster.

As for his other abilities, while they were interesting, they weren't as powerful as the other ones, except [Mark of Call] talent.

Which potentially was a monstrous talent.

It essentially increased the effectiveness of all spells by the amount he has forsaken.

Since he gave 5%, that talent only gave them a 5% bonus on all their spells.

'But if I gave one of them all my mana, how much power would they have become...' Danzel thought as he looked at the 5 Anabast.

Of course, he noticed that their true strength was against the living and not the undead such as him. So he didn't fear being killed by them.

'Though that shouldn't be possible as they have the [Undead Servant] talent and I also can cancel their anchor but seeing how Shiro ended up, I shouldn't fully trust the information of the status...' He thought as he read every single detail of their status just in case there was some kind of abilities that can lift away his control over them.

He even checked the over 4, which surprisingly weren't the same.

Each of them had a talent that had something to do with how he shaped them and [Talent Affiniy] chose another affinity or make them have an additional affinity that the others didn't have.

And the one Anabast that didn't have any eye sockets seemed to gain a talent that granted him some kind of mana sight. Which explained how he saw through his [Grasp of the Undying] despite supposedly being invisible.

"You five asked me if I called upon you. That isn't entirely right." Danzel said with his cold voice as he drew his sword from his sheath.

"I created you five and I also gave a portion of my mana to anchor yourself in this plane, to serve. Albeit I ain't going lying to you, your strength is lacking compared to the investment that I made." Danzel said with an ice-cold voice towards the five Anabast.

Hearing his cold words, the five Anabast flared their eyes before them going to the ground and falling to their knees with their arms to the ground.

"O the Creator of us. What can we do for you to not forsake us?" The ribless Anabast said with his eerie and cold voice of the dead.

Despite the lack of facial expression of skeleton type of undead, though with his connection to them being stronger than those of his draugrs, Danzel could feel faint emotion from them.

Each of them held a certain fear within them the moment he said of withdrawing their anchors.

The two eyes Anabast were the most distressed by his words but kept completely still so as not to show it.

The one whose bones flatten like armor, despite being covered in those robes had the most apathy in their situation. It was as if he would accept any outcome of his decision.

As for the one who spoke for all of them, he had the biggest emotion of fear and urgency among them. Though the latter wasn't affected by the former for reasons that Danzel couldn't understand.

But despite each of them having some certain fear within them, the most surprising emotion was of the "blind" Anabast, who held a strong emotion of awe towards him.

Experiencing this for the first time, Danzel somewhat froze as he digested this new experience.

Of course, for the Anabast, his silence made them feel as if the whole world was becoming heavier.

Despite their strength is incredible, they were still newborn undead with little to no knowledge except the one that they had since they were made.

They didn't know what will happen if their creator forsook the anchor binding them here, but they had an ingrained feeling that something bad will happen to them.

They feared being abandoned by their creator, but the fear of the unknown was as terrifying as their abandonment.

"It's simple really, you just have to prove to me that you are worth keeping. At least more worth that the mana that I granted you all." Danzel said as he pointed his sword toward them, making them stare at the sword with hesitation.

His will ran through them and they knew that this will be a test.

They slowly levitated through the ground from their kneeling position as mana ran through their bodies. Their hoods made out of shadows were slowly being submerged by the same shadows while their death aura slowly escaped their bodies.

Danzel matched them with his death aura as his sword was covered with an ominous dark green mana.

Though, before they could get to it, the small glass bottle hanging through his neck containing a piece of paper suddenly burst with dark green flames, making the glass bottle explode into tiny pieces.

Danzel blankly looked at the glass bottle that exploded before swinging his sword aimlessly to the side and withdrawing his mana and death aura.

"Though, that day will have to wait it seems. For now, stay here and familiarize yourself with your strength." Danzel said towards the Anabast as he turned towards the drugs.

"And you all! In that house, there is stuff to be used as weapons, chose any of you liking." Danzel pointed at the house where he gather the village's weapons and his own weapons from his storage ring.

Turning his back, Danzel started walking away from them all as he gather his mana to use [Phantom Phase].

Before he could though, the ribless Anabast said in a worrying voice.

"Where will you be going, Creator?"

Danzel turned his head and stared at them all who revealed their skulls once more.

"I have some...business to attend, for now, wait here." Danzel said as he was shrouded with dark green mist.

And the mist that covered moved an extremely fast-paced.

All that the five Anabast could do, was stared at the speed of the dark mist.