Liam stood in the middle of the big football-sized ground that was covered with wildly grown trees and plants.
This place was once a neatly mowed lawn with various structures for the children to play, such as swings and see-saw, but now it resembled a mini forest with the trees and plants completely taking over.
Amidst this wilderness, Liam calmly summoned his newly forged soul minion. He had not forgotten to grab the dead soul even though he had put on a show for everyone to see. This was the main reason why he had gone there in the first place.
Luna snarled as the new undead immediately materialized in front of the duo. Liam also watched the minion with rapt attention, trying to get a sense of its soul.
The duo silently stood and stared at the newly forged undead for several minutes. Not knowing what to do, the newly forged undead as well stared at the duo back, whilst scratching its head with its finger.
A few more minutes passed by like this when eventually, Liam let out a sigh and dismissed the minion. His hunch had been correct but that was all he knew so far.
He could tell that it was quite different from the normal soul minions he had forged so far but he couldn't understand exactly why. It was more like the minion was too weak for it to reveal any secrets to him.
The only thing that he could figure out was that even though when alive the mana 'zombie' had lost its mental faculties, when forged into a soul minion, it still obeyed his commands and did not run wild just like it did before dying.
So technically it regained some of ite mental faculties or perhaps its soul was not fully degraded like its physical body that as soon as it gained a soul body, it was able to think a little?
"Tsk. Tsk. What I thought was 100% correct. These could definitely become more powerful than normal human minions but I am not able to figure out how and why this soul is different. Hmmm. Maybe I just need more samples." Liam silently pondered.
Mana zombies were different from normal humans in the sense that every part of their body had been infused with pure mana, completely overwriting the basic biological wiring of the body.
This was why Liam had thought that the soul minions forged from mana zombies were perhaps more powerful when compared to normal soul minions.
However, he could only compare this between one human soul minion to another. There wasn't any beast mana zombie at least until the extent that he knew of.
"Well, I will come back to this when I make more of the same." Instead of wasting any more time, Liam hopped back on Luna and headed back to the base.
Even before they landed, they could see that the base was as lively as ever, with more and more people beginning to queue up outside the building. Recruitment was in full swing.
The news about the mana zombies was also starting to circulate, along with some rumours. People were more eager than ever to join the guild in order to obtain some beast meat for their families.
And since there were strict rules about dungeon raiding teams and membership hierarchy, people were willing to do almost anything at this point to become a part of their guild.
They had already missed a chance to join the Crimson Abyss guild back in the tutorial game, and they did not want to commit the same blunder again.
When Liam and Luna arrived at the base, they were greeted by an unexpectedly large crowd, not the ones from outside but rather the ones from inside.
"Liam, we are no longer able to access the dungeon." Alex folded her arms in front of her chest as she walked forward and mouthed the issue.
The two teams had attempted, as usual, to do the daily dungeon runs, but when they tried to step inside the portal, nothing was happening. Instead, they had obtained a system notification that the dungeon was currently being updated.
"Hmmm…" Liam nodded. He had somewhat anticipated that this would occur. Though he had hoped that the update was only specific to him, it looked like it had indeed ended up affecting the whole dungeon structure.
"That would be my bad." He smiled and explained what had happened and how he had triggered that update. Everyone stared in awe.
They were only now struggling to clear the first level of the dungeon, but Liam had not only cleared all five levels, he also triggered an update that was probably going to make the dungeon harder.
Looking at everyone's blank faces, Liam quickly added. "Since these two are not available, we just have to discover new ones. I am sure that there are more dungeon portals."
"Right." Alex nodded with a bitter smile. The problem was not that. The problem was the glaring difference in strength between Liam and the other members of the guild.
She did not know about the others, but she clenched her fists tightly, wanting to close this distance between the two of them.
Perhaps she was always fated to remain weaker than this person and could never match up to him. Still, she wanted to change this destiny of hers and become as strong as him.
"You heard the man. What are we all waiting for? Let's go then. Come on. Come on. Chop. Chop. Pack some supplies."
"Since we temporarily don't have dungeons to train, lets look for stray beasts nearby and hunt them down." Alex loudly commanded, and the group immediately started making preparations.
She then turned towards Liam and asked him, "I am assuming you want to take care of the dungeon finding business?"
Liam nodded in agreement. While they could also search for new dungeons, it would be a waste of manpower and efforts, not to mention very time consuming.
For finding the remaining dungeons, one would have to comb through the entirety of the country even, and would need to cover a lot of distance.
It was better that he took care of this personally because it would be far more efficient.
With the help of Luna and his soul minions, he would have to at most spend a few days to find new dungeons.
In fact, even without his soul minions, he would still be faster than others in this aspect. This was the advantage of having a flying mount.
For others it could take several months and there was a chance they might still return empty-handed. So this was a no brainer.
Liam discussed a few more details with Alex, Rey and Shin Soo. He also warned the group about the ferocity of the stray beasts.
When they first emerged out of the portals, they were mostly lower-leveled but now after these past couple of days it was possible that some of them underwent mutations and evolutions to become stronger.
It was a very real possibility that powerful elites and field boss level monsters might have evolved. So he warned them about these irregulars before sending them off.
Liam then checked the time and noticed that he still had a few hours left before the 24 hour deadline was up so he decided to take a good rest for the remainder of the day.
After all, his next opponents wouldn't be normal monsters. If the dungeon were successfully updated, then he would have to start facing higher level beasts soon, and perhaps those that possess mana cores.
So he wanted to be 100% prepared for this encounter and face the dungeon while he was at his best.
Liam silently walked up the stairs in deep contemplation and then flopped onto the bed to get a good rest. It was still bright outside, so it was an odd time of the day to actually sleep, but he had enough residual tiredness that he immediately fell asleep.
However, just after a few minutes, he drifted off into the same recurring nightmare that was his previous life. When Liam woke up again, he was sweating all over.
Haaa! He let out a deep breath and pulled the lazy fox lying next to him all bundled up.
Luna was still here, and this was a different life, not the one that he dreaded. He smiled a little as he reminded himself of this fact.
He looked out the window to observe the city around him, and everything seemed so calm and quiet. Unlike his previous life, where everyone was hiding and fleeing right about now, the current atmosphere was almost as if nothing had happened.
It was easy to become complacent and over-confident under such conditions, but Liam knew better than that.
With the future that awaited them, even if he grew slightly arrogant, there would only be death waiting. He needed to work harder and prepare more.
"Let's go, Luna. Time to start grinding."
He tossed the fox who was enjoying his warm and cozy hug onto the ground and got out of bed with an aim. It was time to do some work and old-fashioned fighting.
