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Translated By Arcane Translations
Translator: FusionX
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“If you’re done, I’d like you to back away.”
Athena inserted herself between Annelise and me.
Annelise immediately stepped back at Athena’s words.
Athena responded by turning away after confirming Annelise’s retreat.
“So, is it finished now?”
I nodded at her question.
“Yes, it was successful.”
I had prevented the side effects.
While I couldn’t directly interfere with her mind at the moment…
‘I’ve secured some of the magical power.’
I had observed the creation process, and more importantly, the foundation was my demonic energy.
Therefore, some analysis should be possible. I had left myself a small window of opportunity.
Depending on Annelise’s future actions, I would decide whether to influence her mind, even if only slightly.
“Since we finished earlier than expected, let’s start with Baldur right away.”
As Annelise tried to stand, I stopped her.
“You don’t need to come. Focus on your training instead. You’ve gained a new artifact and potential – do you have time to waste?”
“…Yes, understood.”
With Cereo remaining by her side, there shouldn’t be any issues.
‘Come to think of it, Cereo has shown almost no resistance lately.’
It must be Annelise’s influence. Thanks to her, Cereo was becoming accustomed to me more quickly.
Of course, even without her, Cereo couldn’t have refused my orders and would have gradually been tamed.
However, with Annelise joining my party and being assigned to watch and protect her, Cereo had no reason to resist my commands.
It was probably what he wanted anyway. While he might not enjoy the surveillance aspect, he could always stay close to her under the pretext of protection.
Moreover, since Annelise knew this was the Cereo from when he was alive, she seemed more comfortable with him than with other undead.
‘His memories from life are proving helpful in this case.’
However, if anyone tried to directly harm Annelise, he would likely resist fiercely again.
Though that would be meaningless, of course.
As we stepped outside, Athena nodded approvingly, pleased that we had left her behind.
“At least she knows her place. Baldur will be happy about this too.”
“She would have been a hindrance. Unlike Master, she just awakened her magical power and can’t control it properly. She would have disrupted Baldur’s concentration.”
That was true. Potions were best consumed in a safe and stable environment.
Conversely, this meant that while Annelise had been safe, she hadn’t consumed the potion in a stable environment.
Of course, having me present had been more beneficial than that, so this had been the right choice for her situation.
We returned to Baldur, informed him of the situation, and assisted with his potion consumption.
Fortunately, there were no particular issues that required my intervention.
The potion’s quality wasn’t inferior.
As it was specially provided by the royal family, while mid-grade, it was close to premium quality, and helped expand Baldur’s capacity.
However, unlike Athena or Kayla, there was no dramatic change.
That was to be expected. While the royal family’s potion was nearly premium mid-grade, what I had given those two was beyond top-grade – the mere existence of such items would cause bloodshed if revealed.
Their transformation was due not only to their talent but also to the help of such precious items.
Therefore, even if Baldur had talent beyond theirs, the potion’s quality meant he couldn’t expect changes like theirs.
Moreover, Baldur’s talent was clearly inferior to theirs…
‘It’s rather unfortunate.’
Still, he had never shown much inferiority complex, only apologizing for not being more helpful, which made me more concerned.
After Baldur successfully consumed the potion, I gave both him and Annelise time to adjust.
The agreed period was three days. During this time, both entered training, and I asked Kayla and Athena to watch over them.
“And don’t look for me for three days.”
“…Why? Are you training too?”
“I have something to make.”
I showed them the pouch I had received from Pauli.
“Ah, those Soul Shadows?”
They knew about Soul Shadows, and since there was nothing to hide, they already knew about its contents.
“That’s right. I’m going to strengthen the Specter with these.”
“The Specter? Hmm… it has been helpful in various ways.”
Athena nodded in understanding, seeming to think it wasn’t her place to interfere.
No, she actually looked pleased about it.
“I’ll take good care of that woman, so don’t worry about it and focus on your work.”
“I’ll look after Baldur properly. Athena will help too, so you needn’t worry about this side of things.”
I was speechless at their blatant attitude.
‘It seems they don’t want me to show any interest in Annelise at all.’
Especially this time, helping her seemed to have triggered something.
“…Alright. Then I’ll leave it to you. I think I’ll be done within three days, but it might take a bit longer.”
“Understood. If that happens, I’ll guard the entrance to ensure no one approaches you, Master.”
“No, there’s no need for… just do as you please.”
I planned to post undead at the entrance so there was no need, but seeing Kayla’s eyes, I gave up as she didn’t seem likely to listen.
‘Well, she’s always been sensitive about anything related to my wellbeing…’
She valued my safety more than her own life. Since it wasn’t harmful and came from concern for me, I couldn’t say anything against it.
Athena, clearly seeing the situation, just cheerfully waved goodbye and wished me luck.
Shaking my head, I returned to my quarters and posted Living Armor and No. 1 and No. 2 at the entrance.
I chose them because their appearance was less unsettling, and I couldn’t post too many guards.
As soon as I entered the room, I brought out the Specter and set up magic circles to prevent demonic energy from escaping.
Then I opened my inscription and raised the demonic energy concentration in the room to extreme levels.
‘This will be the driving force for growth.’
Examining the Specter’s condition, I noticed it didn’t have as much life force as I had thought.
That was unavoidable.
Having this much was only possible thanks to the continuous high-rank requests we had been handling recently.
‘Most were monster subjugation missions.’
We had primarily taken urgent requests for the territory’s safety, and long-term missions like merchant escort would have tied up our entire party, which couldn’t be allowed.
Colmail needed to utilize our party to handle the requests flooding into the branch, so he had to avoid such missions.
‘Besides, monster subjugation requests were the most common.’
Given the territory’s location, monster appearances were inevitable.
Thanks to this, we had dealt with many monsters, and the Specter had managed to gather this much life force.
‘At this rate, evolution would have been impossible even after several years.’
Of course, that assumed we maintained the current pace.
Once we moved to Count Lineta’s territory and I became a recognized warlock, we would inevitably face more monsters, and evolution wouldn’t take years.
‘Still, that would be too slow.’
With various circumstances and conditions aligning, I had no intention of reversing my choice.
One day, two days.
As time passed, the internal demonic energy concentration rose until the magic circles could barely contain it, and I had to engrave multiple layers of circles.
‘This should be enough.’
The layered magic circles looked ready to burst at any moment.
But this level of preparation was necessary.
I even used the Death Aura on top of this.
Only then did I take out the pouch full of Soul Shadows.
The Specter, who seemed quite pleased after long exposure to demonic energy, began showing interest in the pouch.
Perhaps knowing what it contained, strong greed flowed through our connection.
Feeling its greed, I smiled lightly.
“Eat.”
Without hesitation, I threw the entire pouch to it.
The Specter immediately materialized to catch the pouch and tore it apart in one go.
Then it began absorbing all the Soul Shadows.
The Specter’s body, cloth-like in form, gradually darkened and began turning black.
And soon after.
Crack, crackle.
As the cloth tore, the black mass-like body inside became visible.
As it absorbed the Soul Shadows, the black mass writhed and slowly began taking shape.
The surrounding demonic energy concentration began dropping rapidly.
It absorbed an enormous amount of demonic energy, and its form changed accordingly.
The formless black mass elongated, then grew arms and legs.
The blackened cloth wrapped around its body, becoming a garment.
A Wraith.
The Specter’s superior form.
A high-level undead with proper self-awareness.
While a Specter could grow to become high-level, a Wraith was definitively high-level.
Once promoted, self-awareness was guaranteed.
But that wasn’t the end.
Just as the black mass transformed into a complete female form, the largest and thickest Soul Shadow was absorbed into the Wraith’s body.
Simultaneously-
—Ahhh.
A powerful mental wave spread out.
Several unabsorbed Soul Shadows burst apart, followed by the magic circles containing the demonic energy.
The Wraith’s size increased, and the design of the cloth covering its body changed.
‘…A Queen? Double promotion? Is this possible?’
It would be a lie to say I hadn’t hoped for this.
The two days spent concentrating and condensing demonic energy to its maximum density had been preparation for this slim possibility.
There were many Soul Shadows, and their quality was high.
However, the chances couldn’t have been considered high.
Naturally.
One promotion was difficult enough, let alone a double promotion.
Yet it had actually happened.
“Master! Are you alright!”
At that moment, Kayla rushed in.
“Kayla? I clearly said not to enter…”
“The undead at the entrance!”
As she spoke, I checked the connection.
The undead were safe.
“Ha, what’s this?”
All the undead had collapsed.
The cause was presumably the mental wave released when the Wraith was promoted to Queen.
The interesting part was…
The destroyed Soul Shadows had dispersed with the concentrated demonic energy and seeped into the undead.
‘A group promotion.’
More precisely, only No. 1 was promoted while the others were strengthened.
No. 2 had developed through growth, and the other Living Armors had weak self-awareness from the Soul Shadows I had given them.
But now an unexpected opportunity had arrived, and they seemed to have benefited from it.
“Stand guard. This will take some time.”
At my words, Kayla took position beside me, as if saying to leave it to her.
Base camp personnel gathered due to the commotion.
Pauli came running, asking what had happened, and Kayla shook her head at Athena, who had just arrived.
Seeing this, Athena seemed to realize there was nothing wrong with me and quickly ran to Pauli, asking him to clear away the onlookers.
Pauli nodded as if understanding the situation and began controlling the area.
Thanks to this, we could witness the Wraith Queen’s birth in peace.
‘These ones are just beginning too.’
The collapsed ones were also changing, though not as dramatically as the Wraith Queen, and I brought out other undead and moved them to one corner.
This much movement was fine.
I spoke to Kayla, who stood guard beside me like a statue.
“How are Baldur and Annelise doing?”
“They’re doing well. Thanks to the potion, Baldur can now use mature mid-level Aura.”
“Oh? Already?”
“He may seem lacking compared to Athena, but Baldur is also a genius in his own right. He was almost ready. He had been constantly working hard himself. He must have been quite frustrated.”
I had seen his frustration and knew he had put in the effort, so I didn’t say anything more.
“Then, how about Annelise?”
At the mention of Annelise’s name, Kayla momentarily showed an unwilling expression, but it was brief.
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