No! I don't want to be a Super Necromancer!

The forest had grown deathly quiet.

With Damien's subtle guidance and the strategic deployment of his undead beasts, the squad had smoothly reached 6000 A-ranked kills. The latter 3000 had been a haze of bloody battles with too many close shaves than they liked.

After a particularly tough battle against strange giant squirrels, they reached a clearing.

Yet, rather than feeling relief, a deep unease settled over them.

Captain Lin Zhong glanced around warily, gripping Titan Mourn's controls tightly. "Something feels wrong. It's too quiet."

Lieutenant Chen Liru floated silently, scanning the skies. Her brows furrowed. "No birds. Not even insects. It's like everything suddenly vanished."

Damien's senses screamed warnings, his instincts honed by countless battles now flaring with anxiety. This silence wasn't natural. It was oppressive. Dangerous.

Then, breaking the oppressive stillness, a faint rustle emerged from the thick foliage ahead. The squad snapped into combat formation instantly, mana and weaponry poised.

From within the shadows of the trees, a small creature trotted forth gracefully.

It was a fox, with vibrant fur shimmering between silver and fiery orange. Its eyes were bright emerald, large and soulful, radiating an almost hypnotic melancholy. Its slender frame was delicate, elegant, and achingly beautiful.

"Oh," Xu Meilin murmured softly, unconsciously lowering Storm Widow's weapons. "It's… lovely."

"Be careful!" Damien warned the team. "This one might be above A-ranked!"

But it was already too late.

The fox's sad gaze locked onto the squad, and a gentle pulse of invisible energy washed over them. Every squad member stiffened, their eyes growing blank, expressions frozen in dreamy fascination.

Only Damien remained unaffected, his mind shielded fiercely by his powerful Necromantic Core.

The fox blinked slowly, its melancholy shifting into confusion and indignation. It tilted its head, clearly startled that Damien had resisted its powerful mental charm.

A low, mournful howl rippled from the fox's throat, resonating through the forest.

Immediately, the canopy erupted as three towering, massive shapes crashed to the ground, shaking the earth with their immense weight. Three enormous gorillas emerged, each radiating overwhelming pressure.

They were S-ranked beasts!

Behind them, the forest came alive. Hundreds, then thousands of apes filled the trees, the ground, snarling, shrieking, and pounding the earth in rhythmic fury.

The air trembled with their combined power, an entire army answering their queen's call.

The fox continued to watch Damien intently, eyes glittering with a strange mixture of surprise and wary respect.

And then, abruptly, one of the S-ranked gorillas surged forward with a furious roar, its massive fists raised to crush Damien in one brutal blow.

Damien smiled.

Finally, after all this tedious hiding, he could unleash his true power.

"S-ranked gorilla?" Damien mused quietly, the corner of his lips twitching upward. "I wonder how it compares to those Royal Lightning Dragons I massacred back when I was… weaker."

The gorilla struck downward violently, but Damien's figure blurred into motion.

With agility that defied mortal comprehension, he easily avoided the strike, countering instantly with a blow of his own.

His fist, brimming with condensed death energy, punched straight into the beast's armored chest, sending it staggering backward, roaring in pain and anger.

Damien laughed, eyes alight with exhilaration. This beast was strong, powerful beyond any ordinary awakened but still far weaker than the dragons he'd slain.

The fox, watching anxiously from a distance, let out an urgent cry, commanding her army forward. All at once, thousands of apes surged toward Damien in a tidal wave of fury.

He simply laughed louder, eyes burning with fierce delight. "I may not particularly like being a Necromancer, but I've always loved this part!"

Damien threw his arms wide. Shadows surged forth, seeping into the earth, burrowing deep into the countless corpses scattered across the forest floor from their earlier battles.

"Arise! All of you!" Damien roared, voice echoing with otherworldly command.

The forest trembled with unnatural force as thousands of fallen beasts—wolves, bears, monkeys, scorpions clawed their way out of the soil, their eyes burning crimson with necrotic light.

Wounds still gaped open, oozing thick, blackened blood, their bodies grotesquely animated by Damien's will.

They let loose bone-chilling cries of undead defiance, then surged forward like a black tide, slamming headlong into the stunned ranks of the living.

Chaos detonated across the battlefield as death clashed against life in a brutal, blood-drenched storm. Twisted and mangled, Damien's undead tore into the ape horde with unrelenting savagery.

Razor-sharp claws slashed through hide, decaying fangs crushed bone, and their mindless ferocity overwhelmed the living. The air filled with the screams of dying apes and the crunch of shattered limbs.

Desperate and furious, the living beasts fought back, but they were outmatched. Not in strength or skill, but in inevitability. They were fighting an enemy that felt no fear, no fatigue, no pain.

And worse, every one of their fallen kin rose seconds later, reborn as another monstrosity in Damien's swelling legion.

Soon the battlefield turned black with rotting muscle and reanimated fury.

The undead moved like a single organism, flowing around resistance, tightening their grip. At first, the apes roared in defiance, their fury shaking the very canopy above. But as their own dead began to turn on them, as familiar faces returned as snarling horrors with empty eyes, that defiance cracked.

Their roars faltered.

Then turned to howls.

Then to screams. High-pitched, desperate, broken.

Their formation shattered. Some fled. Some collapsed in shock. None escaped. And at the heart of that spreading nightmare stood Damien, silent and calm, like a god of death surveying his altar.

With every enemy slain, Damien's Necromantic Core swelled with renewed power, feeding his rise. He could feel the energies converging inside him, faster, sharper, deeper.

After devouring thousands of A-ranked beasts, his stats had already reached the limits of mortal growth: 100 points in Vitality, Strength, Agility, Intelligence, and 10 points in Sense.

He was no longer merely human.

No beast, no awakened warrior, no monster in that forest could match the death-wreathed presence he had become.

The second S-ranked gorilla lunged, its body cloaked in elemental mana, fists blazing like meteors.