The Ruined Death Knight

With Skull Claws' howl shaking the whole room, the dark green mist engulfed her, making it for neither Velkir nor Danzel to see what was going on through the mist.

Watching from the side, Danzel looked at the dark mist that was being made from his own mana. The more he looked, the more concerned he became.

"How long will it last..." Danzel mumbled before gazing to his side.

It might have looked like he was staring at the wall, but in truth, Danzel was watching the status of his mana.

[Status]

...

Mana: 5635/6050

...

Mana: 5282/6050

....

Mana: 4592/6050

...

At first, he didn´t think that he would be lacking mana for the ritual, as he rarely managed to lower his mana pool in a fight. But after seeing the drain rate of the ritual, he wasn´t too sure if his mana will last him enough for Skull Claws' evolution.

`By the rate that my mana is being drained, I will last 3- No, at best 2 minutes with my mana. If by then Skull Claw hasn´t achieved his evolution, then...´ Danzel thought to himself as he watched the dark mist.

And as he waited, the 1 minute passed with the second minute passing right after.

His expected limit has reached and Danzel felt more of his remaining senses weakening with the lack of mana.

`This feeling...it´s the same when I was revived after being frozen by that Archmage.´ Danzel thought as he looked at his mana pool.

...

Mana: 825/6050

...

"Only a few more seconds' worths of mana..." Danzel mumbled to himself as he stared at the mist.

With the howls seeming never-ending and his mana being drained, reaching 300, Danzel opened his mouth as if he wanted to say something but nothing came out.

After seeing that another 100 points of mana have been drained, Danzel's ethereal eyes flared up and he strengthen his connection with Skull Claw to give him a command.

`Skull Claw, as your master, I have no use for weak soldiers.´

Hearing the echoing cold voice of her liege, Skull Claw which was being infused with his mana, froze for a split second.

`You have two options, Skull Claw´

Yet her lieges voice didn´t stop there.

`You can choose to join the dark solitude that death offers you and become free from my binds.´

Skull Claw who hearing that, even though she couldn´t completely understand what her liege meant by his words, Danzel's will was enough to allow her to picture a world made out of seeming less darkness and those that reside there were covered with the same darkness.

Just that faint image in her head made her body tremble from fear.

And before she knew it, her lieges second option echoed in her mind.

`If you so wish to prevent such fate, then stay bound by my will and follow me! Overcome it! Overcome this trial and reach the required strength to stay as one of my soldiers! This is your second No, this is your only option that is left!´

Hearing the echoes that by each passing moment were becoming ever so faint, just like Danzel´s, her ethereal dark green eyes flares up.

"Gwaaaouhhh!!"

Her howls became stronger and her iron-like claws dug into the floor even deeper.

After hearing her lieges words, she started to rapidly absorb the dark mist that continuously strengthen her body so much that her body itself was starting to break apart. But that by itself didn´t stop her from absorbing the mist.

At this point, the mana that she previously absorbed the minutes before together with the current wave of mana that she now absorbed was the trigger for a change to happend!

Her claws that were digging the floor were gradually becoming much larger and the cracks on them were being regenerated. The tips of her claws now had turned into a pitch-black color while the other part of her legs became seemed more metallic, but in the end, stayed still as bones.

From her spines, another set of ribs seemed to grow with the same metallic feature as the claws. With her spine extending, Skull Claw became much longer than she previously had and grew a bit in the height department, but the latter was so minimal that one wouldn´t be able to notice.

The most noticeable change of it all though was the dead mana that was surrounding each of her bones eves so slightly.

The only area where the dead man wasn´t present was only her new skull.

Her new skull naturally grew to adjust with her new length and her teeth became much sharper. But the most instinctive feature of her skull was the new hole that opened between the middle of her two eye sockets.

And in that very whole was just like her eyes, another ethereal dark green flame appeared.

Once the change stopped, the dark mist that was engulfing Skull Claw like a cacoon burst towards the outside and send a wave of dark green mist to the surrounding room.

Danzel and Velkir felt the mist pushing them back, but since both of them were strong enough, they weren´t sent flying to the wall. Most of what the mist did was brush the dust from their clothing.

But the most damage that the mist did was making a mess to Velkirs room, with the flask breaking apart and notes flying to the ground.

And in the middle of the mist bursting out was none other than Skull Claw excluding an aura of a 3rd-tier undead.

"Gwaaaghooooh!" Skull Claw howled in joy after feeling the new changes in his body.

Ending her howl, she searched for her liege but once she found her liege, she turned her head to the side in confusion as her vision wasn´t the same as she was used to.

Seeing her confused, Danzel stepped forward and touched her skull.

"Well done, Skull Claw. Now you gained the strength to follow me and another eye on top of that." Danzel said, making the already confused Skull Claw more confused.

Alas, Danzel wasn´t going to clarify what he meant and instead went to see Skull Claws [Status].

[Status]

Name: Skull Claw

Race: Death Hound

Level: 60

Class: [Death Hunter Lv. 2]

Sub-Class: [Undead Mount Lv. 10]

Health: 8 530/22 055

Mana: 357/2 211

Attribute points: 0

Attributes: Strength: 420 Agility: 585 Intelligence: 200 Endurance: 400

Talents: [Superior Undead] [Wolve] [Alpha] [Wolve] [Third Eye][Far Sight] [Tracker] [Leader] [Tyrant] [Dead Mana Affinity] [Steel Body] [Undead Servant] [Unique Concioness] [Reinforced Body] [Body Manipulation] [Mount of Dead Warrior] [Ambusher]

Skills: [Dark Mist Robe] [Penetrating Bite] [Death Howl] [Undeath Corruption] [Temporarly Ethereal Body] [Dying Hunter´s Mark] [Chase] [Cursed Claws] [Mount] [Soul Seeing Eye] [Dark Mist] [Burrow] [Leap]

[Remark: A hound born from death. A rare undead species that is said that they will chase their prey till their death. This Death Hound in particular took upon a forced evolution of some traits of his master´s mana, unlocking abilities that not all Death Hounds might have. Beware of its claw as even a scratch would leave the flesh of the living to decay rapidly. This Death Hound is a servant of the Wight named Rue Danzel.]

...

Seeing Skull Claws' status, Danzel couldn´t help but remember the golden alpha wolf that he once fought some years ago. But what surprised him the most was that Skull Claw managed to take some traits of his mana and create a set of talents and skills.

Those respectively speaking based on his guess were

[Temporarly Ethereal Body] and [Soul Seeing Eye].

The most powerful of those two was [Temporarly Ethereal Body].

As it hints by its name alone, the skill allowed the user to turn a part of their body for a certain amount of time into an ethereal state, enabling them to ignore all physical and life force attacks.

It was such a powerful skill that even Danzel was a bit jealous of it.

Unfortunately, it did have its downsides such as the mana cost increasing the more parts you turn ethereal, which suggests that making your whole body ethereal would cost one enormous amount of mana. The other downside was that one became more vulnerable against magic by a whole 20%.

The other skill, [Soul Seeing Eye] wasn´t particularly impressive as the previous skill. If Danzel had to explain it, then it would be a version of his [Eyes of the Damned] skill, just better in shorter ranger and worse at long range.

It also had the effect to predict the actions of those who are afflicted with [Fear] to some certain.

`Skull Claw also gained various weird skills and even a subclass of being a mount. I guess the time of riding Skull Claw manifested in the form of the [Undead Mount] subclass and some other talents and skills.´ Danzel thought as he browsed through all the skills and talents of Skull Claw.

But before he even got half of them, Velkir's cold voice made him lose focus.

"I see, Danzel, you are...