Two weeks later, Khan stood before the entrance of an abandoned mana-foundry on the outskirts of Virellia's industrial ring. Smoke no longer rose from its fractured chimneys, but faint pulses of unstable energy flickered behind shattered windows. Rumor claimed that a mana-core meltdown months prior had killed dozens of workers. The city sealed it off, but scavengers whispered of valuable components still inside.
More importantly, the guild board had posted a quiet contract: Investigate mana fluctuations. Discretion required. Reward negotiable.
Khan had reached Level 5 through a series of grim, exhausting tasks—clearing sewer vermin, dismantling rogue constructs, assisting in controlled exhumations for licensed necromantic research. Each job had nearly drained him. Each level gained felt earned in sweat and blood. His mana pool had grown respectably, but he was far from formidable. He could maintain three lesser thralls now, though the strain left him fatigued after extended periods.
The foundry doors hung open like a mouth frozen mid-scream. Inside, the air tasted metallic and stale. Broken conveyor belts stretched across the cavernous floor. Crystalline conduits ran along the walls, some cracked and leaking faint arcs of blue light.
He summoned his two skeletons and the partially repaired Carrion Husk, now reinforced with bone fragments fused through Bone Mend. They spread out under silent command.
Soul Sight revealed more than residual spirits here. He saw dense clusters of trapped souls embedded within shattered mana batteries, twisted by the explosion that had killed them. They weren't whole enough to reason with, but they were potent. Dangerous.
A low hum vibrated through the floor.
From the shadows emerged figures stitched from flesh and metal—former workers fused with mechanical limbs by runaway arcane energy. Their eyes glowed erratically, bodies jerking with unstable surges. Mana-Warped Remnants, Level 7.
Khan swallowed. They outleveled him.
Retreat was an option. Smart, even. But the contract reward would be substantial, and more than that, the density of death here was an opportunity. If he could dismantle even one of these warped corpses intact, the potential for a stronger thrall was immense.
The first Remnant charged, hydraulic leg slamming into the concrete with crushing force. Khan's skeleton intercepted it and was promptly smashed into fragments. The second skeleton darted in, slashing with jagged fingers, buying precious seconds.
Khan focused, activating Mana Thread at full extension. Instead of attempting to dominate the Remnant outright, he targeted the unstable mana battery embedded in its chest. If he could disrupt the energy flow—
The Remnant swung, catching him across the ribs. He felt something crack. Air fled his lungs. He crashed against a conveyor belt, vision blurring.
Pain roared through him, but so did fury. He was not dying again in some forgotten industrial ruin. He forced himself upright, tasting blood.
"Hold it!" he commanded.
His Carrion Husk leapt onto the Remnant's back, clinging despite losing another chunk of decayed flesh. The distraction was enough. Khan poured mana into Bone Mend—not to repair his thralls, but to destabilize the Remnant's fused joints. The skill wasn't meant for offense, but at low levels, versatility was survival.
The metal-bone seams cracked.
The Remnant staggered. Khan lunged forward and slammed his palm against the exposed mana battery, channeling Raise Lesser Undead not into the corpse—but into the battery's trapped souls.
For a heartbeat, nothing happened.
Then the battery shattered, releasing a torrent of wailing energy that funneled straight into his Mana Thread. Agony unlike anything he'd felt tore through his mind as fragmented souls resisted binding. He screamed, knees hitting the floor.
[Warning: Soul Capacity Exceeded.]
[Emergency Adaptation Triggered.]
Skill Evolved: Raise Lesser Undead → Forge Bound Remnant (Lv.1).
The energy collapsed inward.
When Khan looked up, the Mana-Warped Remnant stood motionless before him. The erratic glow in its eyes had stabilized into a steady, dim green. The mechanical limbs no longer twitched randomly. It turned its head slowly toward him and knelt.
[Bound Remnant Created: Industrial Revenant (Lv.6).]
[Maintenance Cost: 4 Mana/hour.]
Khan stared in disbelief. He had not grown absurdly stronger; the strain nearly blacked him out. His mana bar was almost empty. His ribs throbbed with every breath. But he had done it. He had taken something stronger than himself and, through risk and ingenuity, made it his.
The second Remnant charged, but this time the Industrial Revenant intercepted it with crushing force. Metal fists met warped steel. The battle was brutal and loud, but with coordinated commands and careful mana allocation, Khan managed to bring the second down, though he lacked the strength to bind it as well.
When silence finally returned to the foundry, he stood amid wreckage, sweat and blood mixing on his skin. One skeleton destroyed. The Carrion Husk barely functional. An Industrial Revenant kneeling in obedient silence.
He laughed softly, then winced at the pain in his ribs.
"I'm still weak," he murmured to the empty factory. "But I'm getting there."
Through the shattered roof, violet twilight filtered down, casting long shadows across the broken machines. Beyond the foundry walls, Virellia's towers pulsed with steady mana light, unaware of the small, ruthless victory won in its shadow.
Khan rested a hand on the cold metal shoulder of his new underling. He was no hero rising to defend the innocent, nor a villain seeking chaos. He was a young man who refused to remain powerless, who would carve strength from the bones of whatever stood in his way.
Eryndor had given him a second life and a system bound to death itself. Slowly, painfully, he would turn both into something worth far more than the one he had lost.