Undead Staff, the book of the undying.
Mikel went to the army castle and had a meeting with his 9 generals. Each general is in charge of a legion of 5 thousand strong.
"Bobby, I hear you guys distributed the army into nine parts?" Bobby used to be a big guy coaching boxing in the past. Mikel liked his honest and straightforward approach to dealing with people and poached him from central base.
"Leader!" They all stood in attention when he walked in. Mikel is not a scrawny kid whose presence can be dismissed easily. Tall, swimmers body with compact muscles.
Not to mention he exudes a silent pressure that he isn't aware off.
"At ease soldiers. I have come to pick your brains about something. But first, explain to me your new arrangement." Mikel came inside and took a seat watching everyone with sharp critical eyes.
"The army was becoming too large to be managed effectively do we decided to have it divided to better train the soldiers.
"Sounds good. But how are the nine of you able to manage a five thousand team when most of you were normal people before?" Mikel gave a smile that is not a smile.
"April, sir. The AI has been helping us with logistics, training programs and even made suggestions where necessary." Mikel's smile faltered. Betrayed by his own toy.
"Then I can't wait to see the level of your soldiers." Mikel conceded. Then got to why he came.
"The base leaders are asking for an army to go over for training. But first, I am going to give you all something to help improving your sight. With this potion, you will be able to spot an enemy coming a mile away. It should help when fighting a creature who has been practicing swordsmanship for who knows how many centuries." Mikel took out a crystal clear potion in a vial made from transparent glass.
"What does it do?" Lin Mo asked, his eyes looking at the magically sparkling potion. A mana potion is easy to spot.
"I guess we will find out." Mikel pulled ten vials and placed them on the table.
"It is supposed to be excruciating. Good luck." He opened his own and gulped it down to the last drop.
"Mia!" One of the three female generals followed the base leader in downing the potion.
Not wanting to be seen as 'cowards' the others also one by one drank up everything.
A groan came from Lin Mo, he is 5'9 thunder type super power user. Lightning surrounded his body in a cocoon. It looked like a purple gray sphere that is gently wrapping around Lin Mo.
His eyes turned a deep shade of purple before he passed out. Thinking of something, Mikel put a communication bracelet on each person and asked April to put barrier around each of them. This way, their power will not destroy the castle.
Mia is a wind type ability user. Her power also wrapped around her as she lost consciousness in pain from the potion.
Gu Man is an ice ability user. The chill of his power made the room temperature plummet before April activated the barrier.
Huang Muyan is a fire Lightning type. Bobby is a body type and Mikel watched his body transform into an absolute beast, an ape animal transformation. It turned out he can also manipulate ice in this form.
This was the first time he turned into a large ape with blue fur and an ice shard spikes on his back. He looks terrifying and beautiful.
"Absolutely unreal." He wanted to go out an test his powers but he had to fall down in sleep for evolution as well.
Then there is Mu Bai, also known as Baby Bai Bai. He has powerful spirit power. His evolution knocked him out in an instant. Mikel did manage to see his eyes turn a pale purple color before falling unconscious.
Poison Ivy, her name is actually Ivan and he has poison type powers. Absolutely lethal and good for both close combat and group control.
Gina also known as Madame Gin, famous for her ability to bend and shape anything with her mind. An extreme version of Mu Bai's spirit power. She can shake the foundation of an entire building with a thought. She went down even before Mu Bai.
Her hair turned completely white. Not silver white, blond white or golden white. The color of the clouds white. Breathtaking.
Mikel saw Amon, a former soldier whom he stole from the central base, also go down. Amon is a weapons specialist and knows how to fight against any opponent.
But he hadn't actually awakened any ability. But just now, Mikel felt a strong plant type mana all round him right before plants started to surround his body, leaf by leaf he is wrapped into a budding flower.
Mikel also fell unconscious in a multicolored but transparent ball like object. He felt his mana heart jump up to 9% and still rising.
He began to become nervous. Reaching 10 percent mana heart is indeed his goal. It will let him have power over an element, his lifespan will increase by centuries, spells will be cast with a single thought. Of course he hopes it happens.
April put the meeting room into lock down with a high level barrier. Mikel has started to use the energy convergence scroll. This made the mana pour into his body nonstop making his mana heart finally reach 10 percent.
That is when Mikel fell unconscious. When he woke up, his body brimming with an astonishing amount of power. He also found that instead of bonding with an element, he became another Madame Gin.
Ten people in the conference room fell unconscious for four days. Mikel woke up 5 days later. The others had woken up and decided to stand guard to keep him safe.
Finally, the transparent sphere surrounding Mikel started to be sucked into his body. When they saw this scene, they all ran away from the room.
The furniture in the room started getting destroyed, the windows shattered outward as if a hit by a storm coming from within the large conference room.
A psychic blast rocked the entire floor, scaring everyone in the corridor to lay on the ground to avoid being swept away.
Mikel felt great, his body reborn. The power pulsing under his skin tickled his muscles. The strong mana pulse from the heart made him feel like a god.
A super strong mental power because of the mental force awakening potion. His boost of mental force power and the recently awakened spirit power caused a mutation. Mikel entered into his space to test his new power.
He looked at an army truck M939 series 5. His mind touched the outside of the truck and it suddenly felt very fragile to him. He surrounded the truck with her spirit power and gently folded it into a large boulder, even smoothing out the bumps and sharp edges.
It is a mental type of brut force. Not only can his mind see, it can also crush things with only his intent.
Although he had been hoping for fire so he will shout the mad king's famous line, he has to admit this is way cooler.
When he came out of his space, he found that the others are only waiting for him. As soon as he appeared, they all knelt in front of him. Mikel, frightened, took several steps back.
The people cried and said they are very grateful to Mikel. These nine have been to so many meetings together, they have a fairly good relationship. With Mikel now as an honorary member, they opened up and broke bread together.
"Boss..?" She walked in slowly, as if she is afraid of startling him.
Mikel put on boxers, track pants and a lose top. It still managed to show his well defined muscles. Now 6'6 in height, Mikel felt like a big guy. But after the apocalypse, the average height has moved up to 6'0.
"You look good." Poison ivy looked at Mikel with eyes shining. As if she is recognizing a rare specimen.
"Its the mana heart. It advanced so much in a short time." In the end it had reached 12 % making Mikel one of the most powerful figures in end times.
"The room is wrecked." Bobby said looking around in surprise.
"I need to talk to all of you for a while before I leave the building." Mikel called all 9 generals inside. He is happy to feel their mana heart has reached 4%.
"I trust you understand the need to keep what happed here a secret." He gave each of them a meaningful look.
Gu Man bowed, placing his hand where his heart is. "Leader, you have given us a great thing. We swear to never reveal anything about it." Although it is light, it means more to Mikel than a lengthy solemn vow.
The rest of them also bowed one by one. Mikel smiled, their contract will make sure they do not betray him. Now or in the future. Mikel is not in a hurry to make them swear an oath.
"Good. I want you all to get used to your new power. Use your power to lead my army and protect the citizens of toy city." Mikel instructed.
Mikel can fell their gratitude. Previously he had been on the fence about leaving his army in their hands. But she can now feel the power of the blood contract between himself and the army. Especially all those who have successfully created a mana heart.
The smile on Mikel's face deepened. Finally a practical skill. This mana heart is wonderful. He then gave them a task to join the training in the central base with the hunters, but they are to only take only a third of the soldiers, and the less powerful of the men. Protect the toy city soldiers and don't let them take advantage of them.
Toy city sent 15 thousand level five mages to the central base for the training agreed upon in the meeting. With five of his nine generals leading the army soldiers.
Mikel sent people and his golems to mine the ore for creating that Nano technology suit. Then opened a production line using April an the golems to produce a large quantities of the optimized version of the suit.
April improved the Nano fibers into assimilating human skin in appearance and in accommodating the human body. The suit is now basically an extra human skin. It allows the body to survive the elements, absorb impact and prevent skin puncher from external forces. It can even cover the eyes, allowing a person to see under water with absolute clarity.
It also absorbs oxygen and feed it back to the body like fish in the water. This human skin will allow a temporary evolution of the wearer depending on the situation.
The suit can now be worn on the body to cover every part of it like scales of a beast. Even though each scale camouflaged human skin, they are seven times harder than the original design. What Mikel was aiming for is for his soldiers to be able to use their powers without ruining their own bodies, or the clothes they are wearing tiering up, revealing their bodies underneath.
The result however, became so much more than what he had hoped for. The Wei family Nano suit's initial design and April the AI's advanced calculations produced a suit akin to growing scales on the human body.
April implanted recording camera lens as 'scales on the suit to record from every angle of the wearer. The suit is extremely thin and shows ripples only when the camera lens among the suit scales is recording. The scales will show themselves only when activating their defense against an attack.
Three days after the test was conducted, many went swimming in the depth of the ocean, while others lunged into boiling lava while others tested the suit against icy depth of the freezing lakes. The suit regulated normal body temperature even during these types of elemental attacks.
This results pleased Mikel very much. The bullet proof aspects of the suit only works against normal weapons. Mikel used his 12% mana heart to 'summon' the suit instead of making it with technology. As a results those suits summoned using his unique summoning skill can defend against artifacts, can absorb impact from a brut force attack, and even use mana to maintain
This is his power, the ability to summon dead objects, just as the blood kin claimed in his last life. Unlike the bullet proof suit he materialized in the past using superhero consumed, this suit can absorb impact. However, summoning ten of these suits using his magic took a lot of mana from him.
Mikel decided to focus on creating more suits without wasting time. He drank mana dew, chew on mana grass for four days straight, while creating more and more Nano scale suits.
After creating more than 800 suits, he decided to inscribe spirit flame inside a neutral mana stone. This spell is taken from the book of the undying. A puppetry spell. It is a flame is also called a life essences flame. It gives puppets an intelligence of a newborn.
But unlike human children, it will only take days for these children to reach adulthood. Then they will become a puppet capable of carrying missions on their own. Overtime, they may even develop personalities.
It took Mikel 16 tries to finally successfully inscribe a magic circle into a mana stone. Then he infused the stone with his newly acquired spirit power. 20 minutes of him pouring his power into the stone without feeling any changes. At last, the stone flickered with a green ominous flame that soon went out.
Mikel decided to rest and recover his mana without taking the mana recovery potions made from mana grass. When he woke up, he saw the stone he had thrown aside burning with a black flame inside. No matter how you look at it, this flame is unsettling.
But, according to the book of the undying, a black flame is a high level of puppet spirit. There are three types of puppet essence flames. Green, blue, and lastly, black.
Mikel felt the connection, the extra set of haze within his own thoughts. Confusion, curiosity and a bit of vigilance. Mikel quickly pulled out his undead staff, infused it with his mana and then recited the puppet vessel fusion spell. The toy soldier and the small black flame collided and fused into a single entity.
The eyes of the puppet are all black, without any whites. Then the plastic body of the puppet moved, it moved fast, faster than a new born vampire, appearing in front of Mikel on its knees. "Master!" The voice didn't sound to be coming from its throat, but from its heart, from the flame.
"Good." Mikel walked around the puppet. "Stand." The puppet stood still without making any extra movements. Mikel touched the back of the doll's neck and his eyes widened. The plastic material felt hard and cold. Like iron or stone.
"Can you perform flexible movements?" Mikel asked the puppet, it bent down and flexibly touched its feet, then jumped up moving in ways a normal human can not hope to. A dark smile crept on his lips.
Hehe..
In his room at home, Mikel downed a glass full of high quality bourbon. Mikel went to seclusion. During this time, he wats to use the newly acquired spirit power to imbue his toy soldiers with an artificial spirit.
The spell is in the book of the undying. Having the undead staff will help him in creating an advance artificial spirit. Advance means able to make decisions and be as good as a human, but unlike the humans with specific places on the body where joints are located, the puppet has the ability to bend and stretch where impossible for humans.
This is why Mikel wanted a puppet. Coming out of the space, Mikel told April to let the puppet watch some martial art videos and learn from them.
The puppet had moved according to the memories in Mikel's mind. He wants to see if they can learn from watching a video.
After a long while, Mikel asked the puppet to show him what it learned from the video, the puppet didn't move. Disappointed, Mikel went back to the book of the undying.
There, he found out that he needed blood essence of the being he wishes to copy into the puppet. But, who would allow themselves to lose even a drop of blood...?
Mikel rushed to the basement of his wooden hut. There, he found the large glass jars carrying the heart blood drained from the powerful blood clan elders.
The first process is to cut off the blood connection to the original host. This is necessary if the beings are still alive.
The book has a ritual to cleanse the blood of the influence of the original host while keeping the memories and power belonging to the owner.
Mikel went hunting for a wild beast. This way if he fails, it will not waste the precious blood kin elder blood in his storage.
He hunted a mutated tiger. Level 6 flame tiger. Feline eyes stared at Mikel with a ferocity that would make a lesser man weak in the knees.
It flashed in front of him, swiped it claws on his legs in a slit second.
Mikel's skin is very hard, when it touched him, his body released a sharp 'clang' sound. Leaving only torn pants and a silver line on his legs. "Good." Mikel smiled at this.
His new body after forming a 12 %mana heart is not weak enough to be torn apart by a level 6 beast claw.
He released the spirit power, wrapped it around its powerful body and then started squeezing it. The bones shattered, blood splashed onto the ground making him frown. He decided to extract the heart of the beast so he doesn't waste it.
The stationery hard chest of the tiger ripped open, Mikel cut out the heart and placed it inside a container. Then place the body of the tiger into his space.
Mikel is a cruel killer, usually he doesn't kill. When he does, he has remorse or care about the other party's agony. He doesn't revel, nor does he pay any attention to the pain he caused. If he wants someone dead, he is not particularly clean about it.
Mikel was a normal person when the apocalypse first came, but in his last life, he lived a life worse than death. This twisted his personality, and dulled his humane factors.
Inside his space, Mikel drew complex magic circles and placed the tiger's blood in the middle. He raised the staff and started the incantations. The phases are tongue twisters and they need to be repeated until the blood shows a reaction.
Mikel started to feel like he needs a glass of water, the glass bottle started to levitate in the air, a light shot from the magic circles into the bottle. The previously red blood changed into a deep blue color. Then is started to condense little by little. Until it shrank into nothing more than a cupful.
Mikel completed the process. Only to find that the heart dissolved and became blood as well during the ritual. Mikel turned a tiger toy into a golem, infused it with another puppet life essence flame, This black essence flame has been combined with a drop of the defeated tiger's heart blood.
The tiger did not speak, but Mikel can tell that it understood him very well. Then, the tiger extended claws, metal claws similar to the ones Mikel saw in the previous tiger. His eyes bulged in shock. Bending over, he took the paw of the tiger and examined it.
"Magnificent!" Mikel is over joyed. This is why puppetry is considered evil. It is not just the heart blood that can allow the puppet to obtain the essence of the living. Mikel read the book, the more he read, the happier he became.
Mikel took the corpse of the dead tiger and used the staff to transfer it to his puppet. It turned into a black light and fused with the tiger puppet. The originally white fur on the toy golem turned jet black, like the fur on the dead tiger.
It's originally all black eyes slowly became a piercing blue. Looking at the tiger, it looks and sounds like the real tiger from the day before, the only difference being that it is now completely loyal to it's master. The size has also increased to slightly above two meters in height. Mikel inscribed runes on its body that allows the tiger to shrink and enlarge to the size of a school bus.
Infusing the corpse allows the puppet the ability to grow stronger with mana resources. Mikel gave it the metal mana grass. It opened it large snout and swallowed everything. All the mana went to the essence flame on the tiger's heart. The flame became strong, it burned brighter with more brilliance.
Mikel gave it the air elemental mana grass, and its movements got faster than before. He laughed. This may be the most powerful tool in his hands.
"Your name shall be Ripper. You will help me rid the world of the blood suckers." He closed his eyes and let the overwhelming joy wash over him.
The book of the undying and the undead staff have now become his most precious tools.
.....