I walked down the grand staircase of the library. My footsteps echoed on the marble.
Behind me came the clicking sound of bone on stone.
Click. Click. Click.
It was a rhythm. A march. My ten Abyssal Soldiers moved in perfect synchronization. They did not breathe. They did not fidget. They simply waited for my will.
I focused on the lead skeleton. I mentally tagged him "Alpha."
Raise your right arm, I thought.
Alpha raised his right arm instantly. There was no lag. It felt like moving my own limb.
This was the difference between a low-level Necromancer and a Sovereign. Usually, controlling minions required intense concentration. It was like trying to play a piano while solving a math problem. If you lost focus, the skeletons would crumble or go feral.
But for me? It was effortless. The "Glitch" didn't just break the mana cost. It removed the mental burden. They were extensions of my own nervous system.
I reached the bottom floor. The lobby was empty now. The dust from the bone golem had settled.
I walked to the glass doors. Outside, the sun was dipping below the horizon. The sky was bruising into a deep, ugly purple.
The transition to Night was coming.
"Alpha," I said aloud. "Formation. Circle."
The ten skeletons spread out. Five moved ahead of me. Five moved behind. They drew their weapons. They didn't have real swords yet. They held jagged shards of glass from the broken display cases or heavy iron rods from the destroyed chandelier.
It looked primitive. It looked terrifying.
I pushed the doors open and stepped out into the cool evening air.
The campus was quieter now. The initial screaming had stopped. The panic had settled into something heavier. Dread.
People were hiding. They were barricaded in dorms and classrooms. They were waiting for the police or the army. They didn't know that the army was currently being eaten by Drakes in the city center.
I headed toward the Student Union. I needed food. My Mana regenerated, but my Stamina required calories.
As I crossed the main quad, I saw the blockade.
Someone had dragged picnic tables and vending machines across the path leading to the cafeteria. A crude wall.
Sitting on top of a vending machine was Brad.
The linebacker looked different than he had this morning. His varsity jacket was torn. He held a metal baseball bat that was bent at the top. He looked tired, but he also looked dangerous. He had leveled up.
Standing around him were six other guys. The football team. They were big, strong, and holding improvised weapons.
Brad saw me coming. He squinted in the twilight.
"Well, well," Brad called out. He hopped down from the machine. "Look who survived."
He didn't see the skeletons yet. The darkness of the twilight and the shadows of the trees hid them. My Abyssal Soldiers were black-boned and wrapped in shadow mist. They blended in perfectly.
I kept walking until I was twenty feet away.
"Move the barricade, Brad," I said calmly.
Brad laughed. It was a harsh, barking sound.
"You don't give orders here, Vance. This is the Safe Zone. We secured it. We cleared the cafeteria. If you want inside, you pay the tax."
"Tax?"
"All loot," Brad said. He pointed the bat at me. "And that scroll you found. I know you have it. Hand it over, and maybe we'll let you sleep on the floor in the hallway."
I looked at him. I checked his status.
[Name: Brad Lewis]
[Level: 4]
[Class: Warrior (Common)]
[Threat Level: Minimal]
He was Level 4. I was Level 10. The gap was already insurmountable.
"Brad," I said. "I'm going to give you one chance. Walk away. Go lock yourself in a dorm room. If you stand in my way, you die."
The guys behind him bristled.
"You think you're tough because you have a knife?" one of them sneered.
Brad stepped forward. "Grab him. Check his pockets."
Three of the players rushed me.
I didn't move. I didn't reach for my knife. I didn't cast a spell.
I just issued a mental command.
Kill.
The shadows behind me exploded.
The Abyssal Soldiers surged forward. They didn't run like humans. They moved with a jerky, unnatural speed, like a video game glitching out.
The first linebacker didn't even scream. Alpha slammed into him, driving a jagged iron rod through the guy's shoulder.
CRUNCH.
The guy went down, wailing.
The second attacker froze. He stared up at the seven-foot-tall black skeleton looming over him. The skeleton grabbed him by the throat and lifted him into the air with one hand.
"What... what is that?" Brad screamed. He stumbled back, raising his bat.
My skeletons didn't stop. They tore through the football team like wet paper. Bones snapped. Weapons were knocked aside.
It wasn't a fight. It was a disciplinary action.
Alpha threw the guy he was holding. The student flew ten feet and crashed into the vending machine barricade.
In three seconds, all six of Brad's goons were on the ground, groaning, bleeding, or unconscious.
Only Brad was left standing.
He was shaking. He looked from the monsters to me. His face was pale.
"You..." Brad stammered. "You're doing this? You're one of them?"
I walked forward. The skeletons parted to let me through.
"I told you," I said. "I'm taking it all."
Brad roared. It was a sound of pure panic. He charged me, swinging the bat at my head.
I didn't dodge.
I raised my left hand.
"Shield."
Two skeletons moved instantly. They stepped in front of me, crossing their iron rods.
CLANG.
The bat hit the iron and vibrated out of Brad's hands.
My skeletons kicked him in the chest.
Brad flew backward and landed in the dirt. He gasped, trying to suck in air.
I stood over him.
"You wanted the scroll?" I asked.
I raised my hand. Dark energy gathered in my palm.
"I used it."
"Please," Brad wheezed. tears streaming down his face. "Please, Kael. We were just... we were just trying to survive. Don't kill me."
I looked down at him.
Killing him now would be easy. It would grant me a small amount of XP. But Brad was a coward. And cowards were useful.
"Get up," I said.
Brad hesitated.
"I said get up!"
He scrambled to his feet, clutching his bruised ribs.
"Clear the barricade," I ordered. "Then stand guard. If anything tries to follow me in, you scream. If you run away, I will send them to find you."
I pointed at Alpha. The skeleton gnashed its teeth at Brad.
Brad nodded frantically. "Yes. Okay. I'll do it."
I turned my back on him. I knew he wouldn't attack. I had broken him.
"Let's eat," I said to my army.
We walked past the terrified linebacker and climbed over the vending machines.
Inside the cafeteria, it was quiet. The earlier carnage smelled worse now.
I went to the kitchen. I found a crate of protein bars and bottled water. I sat on a prep table and ate three bars in silence. My stamina bar slowly ticked up from 20% to 100%.
While I ate, I checked my notifications.
[Minion Kill: Level 3 Human]
[XP Shared: +150]
[Minion Kill: Level 2 Human]
[XP Shared: +100]
Interesting. I got XP even if I didn't strike the killing blow. That meant I could power level without lifting a finger.
I looked at my skills.
[Raise Undead (Rank F)]
[Current Units: 10/10]
I had a full squad. But I needed better quality. The skeletons I had raised from the bone dust in the library were generic. They had no special traits.
I looked at the dead Goblins scattered around the kitchen floor.
Monster corpses were better than human corpses. They retained some of their racial stats.
"Dismiss," I said, pointing at one of the weaker skeletons.
The pile of bones collapsed into dust.
[Current Units: 9/10]
I walked over to the corpse of the Elite Goblin I had killed earlier. The one that gave me First Blood.
I held out my hand.
"Rise."
The black mist poured out. It wrapped around the green corpse.
The flesh melted away, replaced by hardened black bone. The skeleton that stood up was smaller than the others, but its fingers were long and sharp like knives. It crouched low to the ground.
[Summoned: Abyssal Stalker (Goblin Variant)]
[Rank: E]
[Passive: Stealth. Moves silently.]
"Better," I whispered.
I spent the next ten minutes cycling my army. I dismissed the generic skeletons and raised the Goblin corpses.
By the time I was done, I had a squad of ten Abyssal Stalkers. They were fast. They were quiet. And they had claws.
I hopped off the table.
[System Alert]
[Night has fallen.]
[First Wave beginning in 5 minutes.]
The blue box flashed red.
[Regional Event: The Midnight Feast.]
[Objective: Survive until dawn.]
[Reward: 500 Gold.]
I checked the time. 7:00 PM.
Most players would hunker down. They would board up the windows and pray.
But the Night Walkers gave double XP.
I walked to the loading dock door. I pushed it open.
The darkness outside was absolute. The streetlights were dead. The only light came from the burning buildings in the city distance.
I could hear them out there. Low growls. The scraping of claws on pavement.
"Go," I whispered to my Stalkers. "Bring me everything."
My ten shadows leaped out into the night.
I leaned against the doorframe and waited for the numbers to go up.
[Your minion has killed a Zombie Dog (Lvl 5)]
[Experience +200]
[Your minion has killed a Giant Rat (Lvl 4)]
[Experience +150]
The notifications started to scroll. It was a waterfall of text.
I closed my eyes and smiled.
This was the glitch. This was the infinite loop. While the world slept in terror, I was getting rich.
Suddenly, a notification popped up that made me open my eyes.
[Alert: Your minion has encountered a Rare Enemy.]
[Enemy: Blood Knight (Lvl 15)]
[Status: Minion Destroyed.]
I stood up straight.
One of my Stalkers had just been one-shot.
I focused on the mental link. I could feel the location where the connection had snapped. It was close. Just across the parking lot.
A Level 15 Blood Knight. On the first night?
That wasn't supposed to happen. Blood Knights were mid-game mini-bosses.
"The Glitch," I muttered. "I'm drawing too much aggro."
If a Blood Knight was here, it would slaughter everyone in the building. It would tear through my skeletons like tissue paper.
I could run. I had Dash. I could sacrifice Brad and the others as bait and escape.
But a Blood Knight dropped Blood Essence.
And Blood Essence was the primary ingredient for the rank-up evolution of my Class.
I gripped my knife.
"All units," I commanded mentally. "Converge."
I stepped out into the dark.
"Let's see if you bleed."