The sky darkens as I sit in front of the rift and close my eyes, reaching into the far corners of my mind to think of possible ideas.

After a few seconds, I get up and begin testing everything I've thought of.

I open my status and scroll through, trying to activate my body double skill many times, but nothing happens because all three of my doubles are still alive and well back in the real world.

I even attempt to create lifelike manifestations of Emrie out of earth magic, pure mana, and even try water magic, but none of them portray levels, and it's very difficult to make a voice come out of an inanimate object.

The black sky continues to descend, not caring for my lack of time, which only makes me speed up my scrolling and pushes me to think of even more out-of-the-box ideas.

Then, in a final moment of desperation, scrolling through everything I have, one skill pops out at me, and I open it up to read its description.

____________________________

Combat Magic [Superior Dark Summoning]

Info: Dark Magic allows the caster to summon darkness. It is the absence of light. Or, the absence of magic itself. If Dark Magic clashes with any pure mana-based attack, it will negate the opponent's attack proportional to the amount of MP the enemy is exerting.

An [Advanced Grade] hidden ability: The MP necessary to negate attacks thrown by elemental skills by the opponent only need to exert 25% of the attack's MP to negate it.

An [Extreme Grade] hidden ability: Portals of shadows can be created within the caster's mana control aura and can allow items or portions of the caster's body to phase through it as long as they stay touching the caster.

A [Superior Grade] hidden ability: A single opponent killed by the caster may be resurrected in the form of shadows. The remains of this opponent must be sacrificed to the shadows, and only one contract may be created at a time. Once a new contract is created, the old one will disappear. The shadow soldier will be reborn at the level it was killed, but may gain exp to level up and increase its mana control naturally. Its experience points will be split evenly with the caster while it is walking in the world of the living. This resurrected form is capable of expressing free will, but their link to the world of the living can be severed by the caster at any time. If the shadow summon is killed, its level and mana control will decrease by 10% once it is summoned again.

Grade: Superior

[Upgrade]

____________________________

I haven't used this skill at all, other than passively the few times I tested out the sword I made out of the Lich King's Dark Stone and Scythe.

The Superior Grade hidden ability is the one that catches my attention.

I recall the Lich King creating a summoned soldier in our battle. It may have been obliterated by me in a single strike, but it did, in fact, have a level, and according to this, the shadow summon has free will but only at the whims of its master.

One of the terms of using this perk is that I have to sacrifice the remains of the enemy to create a summon.

There are only two corpses in my item storage available to me right now. The first is the corpse of the mountain king, the monster from the Vice City labyrinth. I don't know much about it, and if it still has ties or deep-rooted loyalty to the Association. I didn't even hear it speak out loud at all during our battle.

Most importantly, I still need to let its body dissolve inside the Labyrinth in order to trigger the transfer magic for the next floor. I can't risk severing my access to such a great farming resource, so this isn't a viable option for me.

The second corpse I have availible is the bones of the Lich King that I've been keeping locked away in my storage.

It has no ties with the Association and is an intelligent creature that can speak. While it may have resentment toward me personally, I get the feeling there will be a far higher chance of my success with this monster than trying anything else.

Divine Beast or not, I defeated this monster when I was far weaker than I am now. This fact, combined with the shadow contract allowing me to make the summon disappear at any moment, makes me feel even more confident in this decision.

If not this, then I'm going to be jumping through this rift without an explanation for my lost ally.

While I could make up a lie of Emrie's demise within the construct, coming back with a copy of him will be far more profitable for me in the long run if I can pull it off.

With the dark sky descending upon me, I calculate there is less than two minutes remaining before this entire pocket world is completely gone.

With a sigh, I open up my item storage and let the massive bone remains of the Lich King that I've been holding onto for so long out to form a pile on the floor. The absorption notification to allow me to claim the monster's buff [Curse of The Lich King] is still available on its remains, but I've made up my mind not to accept that ability.

I place my open palm on the floor while activating my Dark Magic and concentrating on the shadow summoning ritual.

A pulse of pure dark energy ejects from my palm and opens a massive black circle on the ground.

It looks almost as dark as the sky above, but I don't compare the two and just concentrate on what's happening in front of me.

The bones of the massive skeleton fall into the darkness that I've created, and I hear a ding sound in my head and a status screen appears in my consciousness.

Shadow Summon: Lich King

[Lv. 3642]

A list of all of its stats shows up in my mind's eye too, and I curiously read them all as an enormous black skeleton rises from the circular shadow I've created.

The only difference between it and the Lich King I faced on the battlefield in the Dark Continent is the fact that it has no Scythe, no Cloak, no Soul Energy, no Demon Cores, and no Dark Magic at all.

It does still hold two buffs:This book is hosted on another platform. Read the official version and support the author's work.

​​[Curse of The Lich King][0/2500]

[Greater Form of The Dark God]

It seems as though it has no one under its curse now, and it is still able to stay in this massive Dark Form.

At the center of its chest, I see a small silver core of threads shimmering and spinning in circles at a fast rate, but a similar mental block hits me to the same extent as when I peered into Ember's core in the past.

This time, however, I'm able to stare at it for almost a full tenth of a second and analyze it, realizing it doesn't have the golden threads that Ember's does.

As interesting as it is, my mind is still pushed away from it subconsciously, and I focus on the task at hand, scanning its stats and abilities more.

Below this, at the bottom of its status, I see another small screen labeled [Modes]

[Dormant] - Default

[Command]

[Battle]

[Free Reign]

The Default mode is set on dormant. The massive black summoning circle beneath the skyscraper-sized skeleton shrinks and disappears leaving the rocky ground un-altered beneath it. The black skeleton continues staring forward as if it's still frozen in time.

It's in a dormant state right now, and I don't know what will happen if I change it to the other modes, so I just yell out to it to see if it will follow my orders.

"Deactivate your Greater Form Buff! I need you to shrink down to my size!"

The black skeleton just stares off at attention, unmoving and unthinking as the void above continues to rapidly fall faster.

It's less than 50 kilometers away now, and I'm sure there's under a minute left before it envelops the rift and everything on this cliffside.

I grit my teeth, and think carefully while scanning over the possibilities.

The next mode available is [Command] it will most likely allow me to give it orders, and do exactly as I command.

The mode beneath it is [Battle]. My instincts tell me this will put the summon into high alert and fend off or attack anything in its surroundings.

Just looking at the last option, [Free Reign] makes me shiver for a moment. This one is self explanatory, and I don't plan on allowing this mode to be activated any time soon.

The massive black skeletons' overwhelming aura seeps out of its body even in this dormant state. I can feel its evil nature glaring down at me even while its mind and control is locked away behind the shadow summoning ritual. The stench of death still permeates out from it, and its mana control would easily knock out any hunters below the double ranked up status just from being this close to it.

After coming to a quick decision, I yell out again.

"Switch Modes. Command mode!"

The interface at the bottom of its status shifts.

[Dormant]

[Command] - Selected

[Battle]

[Free Reign]

I yell out again for it to deactivate its buff and shrink back down to my size.

The moment the command leaves my lips, the mindless shadow form of the skeleton does exactly that.

It stands at attention, and my mind races for even more ideas.

The sky gets darker and darker, and the endless light source that was lighting up this construct before dims.

The entire forest turns dark, and it feels like it's turning to night, simultaneously pressuring me to work faster as the seconds tick by.

I dig through my storage and pull out an old black cloak, a minotaur's horn, item box, and handfuls of mana crystals to get to work.

I begin imbuing my newly upgraded legendary grade conceal skill into the cloak to specialize it for visual effects, while I make the minotaur horn into a pendant solely worn to alter one's status. At the same time, I throw a few red divine fragments into an item box for him to wear around his waist.

At the same time, I create 3D lifelike images of the hunter Emrie Carter that Ember was impersonating before and speak to the paralyzed Lich King before me to give it another command.

"Use this gear, and impersonate the hunter before you. Change your appearance to match his."

My gaze looks up at the sky, then back to the Lich while I use conceal to change my own form and begin talking in Emrie's voice to give my next command.

"This is how you must speak. Use this voice, and no others. I need you to become this identity. Your name is Emrie Carter until I tell you otherwise. We're on an infiltration mission, there will be no room for errors. Do as I command, read the room, and follow my lead."

My heart beats more and more while the Lich does as I say, taking the newly created cloak, putting it on to shift the black shadow-filled skeletal form it has into a lifelike image of the bedrock region's hunter.

He ties the item box around his waist, and then words come out of his lips.

"Of course, master, this is an easy feat."

The orange-haired fire wielder looks me straight in the eyes, and I wouldn't be able to tell the difference if it wasn't for the overwhelming mana control aura pouring off him, as well as the fact that his status shows all of his original information.

I send a telepathy message into the Lich King's psyche next.

"I'll be able to communicate faster this way, can you hear me?"

"Yes." Is all I get as a response before I begin showing the Divine Beast puppet how to alter his status to match the bedrock Region Hunter's was.

I feel a ripple of dark disdain pour off of the summon, but Emrie's face still keeps its smiling impression.

With the high pressure of this situation, I can't tell if I'm hallucinating this, or if the monster's emotions are really leaking out from behind this skill.

Less than 15 seconds remain while I try to solve the final problem before me.

The Lich has unimaginably high mana control, enough to rival the A-Class hunters in strength if he walked in there like this.

Another order blurts out through our link before I can think of the possible consequences.

"I need you to make a limiter. You're a Divine Beast, you can do that right? Something that will hide your mana control... It only needs to be for a small amount of time. Just enough to keep up appearances once we walk through that rift."

I turn toward the Lich, and it doesn't respond for a moment while putting its hands in the air in front of its face to focus on something.

The moment it does, I realize what an absurd request that was. The limiter that Ember made for me took him almost a year inside an isolation pod to fully heal from. However, the quick response isn't one that I fully expected.

"In this shadow form, my body cannot tire, so it can be done. I can create a limiter that will last one hour, but my Immortal Core will be dormant for quite a while afterward."

As the sky continues to disappear, a bright silver light forms between the creature's hands.

My heart beats faster and faster as reality shrinks around us, and the silver light glows brighter.

Ten seconds pass before the light finally hits its maximum luminosity, lighting up the darkened world around us far brighter than the cyan rift.

It disperses in a flash, and I instantly feel the overwhelming dreadful aura of the Lich King vanish.

Without thinking any longer, I grab the replica of Emrie Carter by the shoulder and start running toward the rift.

"That will do! Limit your output to that of a level 600 hunter, do this for me, and maybe I'll reconsider leaving you in suspended animation for eternity once we're done here."

Again, I feel a faint aura of envy and darkness pulse out from the Lich while it calibrates its output to a level 600 hunter. However, during the shift, I feel an odd aura that feels like one of minor respect, like the Lich is giving me a mental handshake for my last remark.

Everything is happening so fast, so I don't dwell on the minor changes around me and push through. I'm more focused on the feeling of extreme relief that washes through me realizing that with just seconds to spare I really managed to pull it off. I claimed everything I could from this construct, and the Association won't be even suspicious in the slightest.

I load my own item box up that will be searched by the Association with a single item. It's one that I believe will simultaneously make it seem like I never made it up the cliffside and up past the ocean at all, but will also score me enough points to keep my number-one ranking.

We both jump through the rift as reality collapses and disappears into the endless void behind us.

Bright cyan light fills my vision, and the ringing of bells chimes in my ears, then my feet fall onto the hard mana shielding of the Apex Region's test site, right back in the same square room I started in almost a month ago.

Over two dozen people fill the room, but my mind is elsewhere as I try to make sense of the hundreds of unexpected system notifications that barrage my psyche.

–

[Level Transfer]

[Level Up] x816

[MCP Transfer]

[+19,743,387,910,550 MCP]

[Skill Transfer]

[Imbuement][Mythic Grade]

[Barrier Creation][Mythic Grade]

[Flight][Mythic Grade]

[Area Buff][Mythic Grade]

[Mind Palace][Mythic Grade]

[Astral Spears][Mythic Grade]

[Flash Step][Mythic Grade]

[Call of The Void][Mythic Grade]

[Crystal Creation][Mythic Grade]

[Heavy Hand][Mythic Grade]

[Additional Stat Transfer]

[+6,118 Strength]

[+4,004 Mental Strength]

[+1,992 Speed]

[+1,901 Agility]

[+1,885 Defense]

[Additional PP Transfer]

[+105 PP]

[Congratulations! Rising Emperor's Domain Milestone Reached!]

[1589/1000 Links of Loyalty Created]

[New Perk Unlocked: Ruler's Gaze]