Regardless of how many panels floated in his vision, Michael could not focus on them.

A grunt of pain escaped him before he could stop it, and then another, each one coming out with varying loudness.

Some distance away from where he lay on the ground was his spear, covered in fractures from tip to base. Layers of cracks ran across its entire length. At this point it could barely be called a weapon.

Michael’s own body was not in a much better state.

The bone armor had fractures of its own running across the sections that had taken direct contact with the blood spear, and beneath the armor the body it was protecting had not escaped clean.

Michael could feel a deep burning sensation across his blood-soaked body.

"Such a sneaky monster."

It was only after everything had settled that he realized the blood was corrosive as well.

With a burst of mana Michael blasted Shojo’s remnant blood from his body and the burning sensation reduced. Unfortunately the damage was no longer external and had already entered his flesh.

What kept the situation from being considerably worse was his physique. His divine body had advanced alongside his recent rank progression, making his recovery factor comparable to a genuine Rank 4 supernatural. The internal damage from Shojo’s blood corrosion slowed to a halt.

Unfortunately recovery did not mean the process was painless.

Without hesitation Michael shifted Beginning’s active trait away from the injury conversion that fed strength and redirected it toward the healing function instead, deliberately forsaking the benefit of growing stronger from his wounds in exchange for recovery speed.

There was nothing left to fight tonight, and walking around with corrosive damage eating through his flesh while waiting for passive regeneration was not a patience he was willing to test. He also switched his other open slot to the undead healing worm, stacking its effect on top of Beginning’s redirected trait.

Three sources working simultaneously was better than one, and before long Michael was largely restored, even if his tattered appearance told a different story.

Michael exhaled slowly in relief and sat up, observing his surroundings.

They were no longer inside any domain. They were back in the original world.

Michael looked upward at the sky. It was still dark.

"I wonder how long until dawn."

Putting aside everything before Shojo’s appearance, the fight itself had taken hours even with three of his undead coordinating against one opponent.

Part of that was because his undead were under instructions to preserve themselves rather than fight to the death the way Shojo had, with nothing left to lose.

Michael had given those preservation instructions deliberately. The current him would not be particularly affected by losing a Rank 3 undead as long as the numbers were not outrageous. But losing a Rank 4 undead was a different matter entirely.

If he had lost the Drakeblood, Beginning, or the demonic supernatural tonight, it was hard to say it would have crippled him, but he would not have come out unscratched.

Michael was glad it had not come to that. Just the thought of a loss like that turned his stomach, so he stopped thinking about it and turned his focus to the dead body nearby.

The corpse still radiated a terrifying aura.

In death, without Shojo’s conscious control to regulate it, the power it had spent a thousand years accumulating leaked outward unrestrained.

"Level 96," Michael muttered.

He had known Shojo was strong, but the confirmed number left a lingering chill in him. Level 96 meant four levels from becoming a demigod. Calling what he had just fought a creature close to that threshold was not an exaggeration. At most Shojo had been lacking only the final step, or perhaps two.

"Ironically, though I’m in one piece compared to my previous experiences, this is probably the closest I’ve been to death."

Compared to his first encounter with Jester or the heavy losses he had sustained in hell, though he had not ended up in some near-crippled state or triggered a system warning notification, this experience had been no less genuinely dangerous than those had been.

Perhaps the only reason he had fared better was because he was considerably stronger now.

Fortunately no cliché plot twist of a sudden breakthrough in the heat of battle had occurred. If something like that had actually happened, requiring him to be in real mortal danger rather than managed danger, he would have died.

If he had nine lives he would have spent all nine of them tonight.

Michael looked at Shojo’s massive body and shook his head slowly.

"Such strong vitality," he muttered, not without admiration.

Despite everything, the corpse was holding itself together. The massive frame had not collapsed or begun the visible deterioration that normally followed the loss of lifeforce. Only a small amount of blood had actually reached the ground.

The rest of the body had gone into a kind of passive preservation, the accumulated vitality of a millennium of cultivation still present in the flesh and refusing to simply drain away.

Michael understood it would not last forever. But given what Shojo had been before death, this state would probably hold for years before meaningful deterioration set in.

No wonder it was said that strong creatures were treasures, living or dead.

For Michael, the greater treasure Shojo could offer was its corpse.

"Unfortunately I don’t even dare to revive it anytime soon. After spending my previous blood essence, I still need to recover. Also, for a monster of this level my blood alone won’t be enough."

Still, he was satisfied. This was a ready-made Rank 4 undead after all. When he eventually revived it, he would be able to walk sideways not only in the Land of Origin but in his original world as well.

After recovering a bit more, coordinating briefly between both of his bodies, Michael brought his storage ring to the Land of Origin and placed Shojo’s body inside it.

Compared to the space in hiscoffin, his storage ring was more than sufficient to hold the body of a dead Rank 4 monster.

"When I have time I should transport a few of my undead to my storage ring as well."

Though he said it aloud, his gaze lingered on his two three-star epic grade storage treasures with a thoughtful expression.

After storing Shojo’s body, Michael recalled his remaining undead back into the coffin space, taking a brief moment to assess their conditions through the connection.

Aside from the demonic supernatural, the other two undead had not escaped unscratched, but the injuries were manageable.

After a few days of rest they would be as good as new, so Michael did not consider their state a serious concern. He sent all three of them to rest.

Though undead did not really need rest in the conventional sense.

As expected, the moment all three returned to the coffin space they stared around briefly in a daze before going motionless.

After that, Michael turned his full attention to the panels that had been waiting since Shojo’s death.

He pulled them into full view and made a quiet effort to keep his excitement from getting ahead of him.

"Calm down."

Michael stared at the notifications, his breathing slowly evening out.

Killing a monster of that level, even with the reduced experience from his Outlier title’s suppression, had still granted him several level-ups. That part was within reason. What he had not expected was the final result.

Level 74.

Michael let out a quiet breath, the corners of his lips lifting slightly.

"That’s higher than I thought."

There was a clear note of satisfaction in his voice. He had only just advanced four days ago, and yet here he was, already standing one level away from triggering another rank advancement quest.

Even Michael had to admit this pace was absurd.

Across the entire universe there might be those with monstrous talent, overwhelming resources, or rare inheritances, but this kind of progression rate should not have been common by any standard.

And yet here he was.

His gaze lingered on the number.

Level 74. Just one more level.

Reaching the peak of Rank 3 no longer felt distant. It felt close enough to touch.

"If I find another one..."

His thoughts sharpened. It did not need to be something on Shojo’s level. That was excessive and frankly unnecessary. What he needed now was something more manageable, something where a ten level difference would be sufficient for the multiplier to do its work.

With his current state, that requirement was not difficult to imagine fulfilling.

Unfortunately, Rank 4 monsters were not something that appeared casually, especially not in this region of the Land of Origin. Creatures like Shojo existed, but they were rare and almost certainly territorial.

Given that no other Rank 4 monster had come to investigate or assist during the fight, Michael suspected Shojo had been the only one in the immediate area.

Michael exhaled slowly.

The Land of Origin had its limitations, particularly in the region he currently occupied. But Aurora did not. Though he was more restricted there in terms of freedom, it offered more options.

What he needed was time.

With enough of it, reaching Level 75 was not a question of whether it would happen, but when.

Michael’s lips curved faintly.

"I won’t be stuck at Rank 3 for long."

That much he was certain of.​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​

*

A/N: Don’t hold on to those golden tickets! Vote to support!!