Chapter 81: Necromancer!

"Soren, are you alright?"

Evan came running over and asked as his gaze landed on the dead body of the wolf before him, mauled by its own claw.

No matter how he looked at it, it was already deader than dead, yet how that claw managed to swipe Soren’s head was something he couldn’t fathom.

’Is it a dead reflex? But looking at the force, it didn’t seem so?’

"Yeah, I am fine. I dodged it in time, thank you."

Soren woke up from his trance and lightly distanced himself from the Phantom Wolf corpse, standing beside Evan.

Currently, his entire body was drenched in blood and bits of flesh that splattered from the attack just now, which he was removing with the help of mana.

Yet he felt like the smell wouldn’t go away without taking a proper bath.

"Soren... you aren’t hurt, right?"

"Soren..."

By now, Aria, Sylvia and Aurelia also came near him, Aria directly placing her Stone Golem in front, their eyes filled with worry.

"Don’t worry, Evan alerted me in time. So, I wasn’t injured."

Soren said lightly, to which Evan showed an embarrassing smile.

"What was that just now? Wasn’t it already dead?"

After seeing he was fine, Aurelia asked from the side, with clear surprise on her face.

"Yeah, I clearly cut off its head. I don’t know how it could still attack after that."

Evan nodded as well, looking slightly puzzled. In fact, the same question lingered in Soren’s mind too, let alone theirs.

"Maybe... it was still alive for a brief moment? I heard some high-level monsters possess abilities like that."

Sylvia proposed, although she herself didn’t quite believe her own words.

After all, monsters capable of such things weren’t simply high-level. They were usually on the level of the Professors of the Elite Hunter Academy.

A mere level 40 wolf shouldn’t possess such a unique ability.

’I am 100% sure it was dead when I touched its body before. And I am sure it didn’t have any special skills or traits like Sylvia said.’

Otherwise, he would have seen it already with his Eye of Insight.

’Then, the only way a dead monster can move that I know of is...’

Soren paused, his eyes getting faintly darker and solemn.

’Necromancy!’

The dead couldn’t move like the living. That was the universal law.

But this world had an exception.

Necromancers, a dark-attributed class highly related to death itself, could break that law and command the fallen as their servants.

Although it wasn’t a class that was forbidden in this world, it was still something rare.

For once, Soren hadn’t seen a necromancer in any of the three sections yet.

’I don’t feel any presence of dark mana either.’

Soren was really confused as it didn’t make sense. For once, he thought he hadn’t offended someone enough to want his life.

Of course, there was that Darius, but he shouldn’t be after him, considering the place. Not to mention, he didn’t have any subordinates with a class like that.

Besides, there was no reaction from the Professor or the senior hiding behind, watching students from the dark, which he was sure of.

’Maybe... it was really a dying trick?’

Soren had a hunch there was something wrong, but since he couldn’t come to any conclusion, he could only let it slide for now.

He would talk to Professor Lyra once he reached the camp.

"Soren...should I...incinerate its whole body?"

As Soren decided to let the matter rest for now, Aurelia from his side asked, still wary.

"No, please don’t do that. Don’t worry, with its condition now, it shouldn’t be able to move anymore."

But Soren shook his head immediately.

Instead, he slowly came closer to the severed body of the Phantom Wolf, far more carefully than before, and stored it directly into his inventory.

Just like he said, there was no reaction like last time, calming the tense nerves of his teammates.

But it was expected, as the body was already in pieces.

With its condition, its harvesting value had decreased even further. However, Soren didn’t let Aurelia incinerate it because, first, he wanted Professor Lyra to see it.

And second, he needed the monster core inside its body.

His unique skill, Core Infusion, allowed him to extract the mana from the monster’s core and store it inside his body for his own use.

Of course, he wouldn’t want to waste it.

"Let’s continue to the camp then."

Soren said before signalling Aria to desummon those Stone Golems, as they were too slow.

Then he, along with his team members, left the forest, heading straight in the direction of the camp.

For a moment, the forest slowly returned to silence, with only the devastated land and scattered blood around as a sign of the gruesome fight before.

Until...a shadowy figure slowly condensed at the very spot where Soren stood moments ago, her gaze lowered toward the charred ground below.

She appeared so quietly that not even the faintest rustle of leaves followed her arrival.

"Nice reflex and skill sets. But still...just an A-rank class?"

The woman murmured in a soft, magnetic voice, sounding faintly unimpressed.

"Although I have to admit, their coordination was impeccable. It seems I underestimated them a little."

A beautiful smile curved beneath her cloak, one that could make kingdoms fall. Unfortunately, no one was here to witness it.

"Tch... tch... Even my little girl seems to have grown quite a bit stronger. Too bad she is just a Healer."

Her gentle voice carried a trace of nostalgia and something deeper, a fleeting pain that vanished as quickly as it appeared.

In the next instant, her eyes turned solemn and cold, like something that crawled out from the depths of hell.

"This test was a failure. It wasn’t even a challenge for him."

She bit her lip lightly, displeasure flickering across her expression. So far, she still couldn’t see anything special about Soren Kingswell.

’It seems next time I need to let him take a little more risk.’

Just as the thought crossed her mind, her expression shifted. Her eyes slowly lifted toward a certain point in the sky.

To ordinary eyes, there was nothing there.

But her crimson gaze pierced far deeper, as if seeing beyond the surface of reality itself.

Something hidden within the very fabric of space.

"Tch... it seems she already noticed something unusual. Space Mages are always troublesome."

She clicked her tongue softly, a faint frown appearing on her otherwise flawless face.

"Let’s leave before I am noticed."

With that, her form soon began to fade, drifting with the passing wind like dust carried away by an unseen current, starting from her feet and slowly climbing upward.

Even as her body dissolved into the air, her gaze remained fixed in the direction Soren had gone.

"Soren Kingswell...I hope you won’t disappoint me next time."

Just then, a gentle wind stirred, lifting the edge of her cloak just enough to reveal the faint smile that played across her lips.

If Soren were standing there, he would have seen that she looked remarkably similar to Sylvia Everhart.

The main heroine of the game,

Lover’s Labyrinth

!