Chapter 11: The Hunt and the Grave
Exhausted from the process, Ezren sat and meditated, focusing on restoring his mana. The familiar rhythm of dark energy pulsed through him as he recovered. Two hours passed before he regained his full reserves.
With renewed energy, he turned his attention back to the chimera. He gathered dark mana into his palms, forming two overlapping magic circles. Casting Reanimation, the corpse twitched and stirred, its limbs jerking with unnatural life. Without hesitation, Ezren followed with Branding, locking the creature’s obedience to his will.
Ezren rose to his feet, eyeing the dire wolf chimera as it shifted restlessly, its sturdy frame resting in a corner of the chamber. The creature’s snake appendages—four of them, each extending from its upper back—writhed and flicked with unsettling vitality. Their scaled lengths twisted and coiled like living whips, testing the air with sharp, twitching motions. The wolf’s muscular legs coiled with a twitching tension that promised devastating speed, every movement precise and coiled with lethal intent.
“Forty percent lock... Ridiculous.” Ezren muttered, running a hand through his hair. That left him with only sixty percent of his mana to work with. He still had ten bone spikes that needed Branding. Perhaps it was time to refine his control—master the art of throwing daggers and master the manipulation of bone spikes with precision.
He smirked, eyes narrowing with determination.
Ezren left the portal chamber and emerged into the cellar. It was early afternoon—about 2 PM, judging by the dim light filtering through the cracks above. There were no more soldiers investigating. Stepping out of the house, he opened the portal and commanded the chimera to hunt and return with its spoils. The beast bolted into the forest, leaving a trail of dust swirling in its wake. Ezren blinked, momentarily stunned. What the hell did I just unleash?
Hunger twisted his stomach. He hadn’t eaten since the night before. While the chimera hunted, he cooked the remaining boar meat over a crude fire. Minutes later, the beast returned, dragging four creatures—a rabbit, a frog, and two foxes—by the necks. Its snake appendages had killed the smaller animals cleanly, while the foxes bore torn flesh where claws had raked them.
The chimera dashed off again, leaving a gust of dust. Ezren frowned. “I need to establish a designated drop-off point. All this dust clinging to me.”
He ate quickly and sent a command to the chimera, instructing it to drop its kills near a house three buildings away from his own temporary residence. Then, he sat down and began meditating, using the Graveyard Absorption technique to harvest the lingering death energy saturating the plague-stricken village. The suffering of the dead clung thick in the air—an abundant, untapped resource.
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Over the next two days, Ezren repeated the cycle. Meditate. Absorb dark mana. Order the chimera to hunt and bring back its prey. Graos skinned the animals and crafted wolf pelts, while Ezren ferried the carcasses back to the portal chamber. The chimera’s brutality was staggering—its kills were numerous and efficient.
Foxes, wolves, rabbits, snakes, elk, frogs, boars—the beast brought them all. The smaller creatures were often killed by the snake tendrils, their necks crushed or twisted. Larger creatures bore savage wounds—limbs torn, bodies shredded. But Ezren knew Graos could restore the mangled flesh with mana.
He tallied the chimera’s harvest: fifteen rabbits, twenty wolves, ten foxes, thirty frogs, five snakes, ten boars, and twenty two elk. The forest’s ecosystem was collapsing under the onslaught.
Ezren stared at the piles of bodies, his expression torn between awe and unease. “I’ve created a monster.” Yet, the materials he had gathered were valuable beyond measure.
His efforts bore fruit. Through continuous meditation and harvesting dark mana, his mana pool expanded by ten percent.
On the third day, Ezren gathered vines and sticks, fashioning a crude backpack for the pelts. He bundled two wolf pelts and one elk pelts, intending to sell them in town. he left it for now inside the portal, its 8hr walk. The rest he left near the portal chamber for later use.
Satisfied with his preparations, he called for Graos. The creature emerged from the floor, its insectoid limbs twitching in anticipation.
“I need to alter my facial structure. How do I do it?” Ezren asked, folding his arms.
Graos’s hollow sockets regarded him with cold calculation. “Facial restructuring is possible. Dark mana can weave into muscle and bone, shifting form within set constraints. Full transformation requires extensive mana input. Minor alterations—cheekbones, jawline, brow structure—are efficient.”
“Teach me.”
Graos raised a clawed limb, tendrils twitching as dark mana coiled at the tips before stabbing into Ezren’s face. Ezren felt his mana being siphoned away, the sensation both draining and invigorating. “Channel dark mana into the dermis, allowing gradual displacement of tissue. Control is key—without focus, features will distort.”
Ezren followed Graos’s instructions, pushing dark mana into his face. A strange sensation washed over him, like molten wax reshaping beneath his skin. He felt his bones subtly shift, his muscles tighten, and his skin stretch in controlled increments. The pain was minimal, more of an eerie numbness.
He turned to his reflection in a pool of water nearby. The face staring back was different—his nose sharper, cheekbones more pronounced, eyes slightly narrower. A stranger’s face.
A smirk played at his lips. “This will do.”
Graos observed in silence before retreating into the shadows, vanishing into the portal’s depths. The floor solidified once more.
Ezren exhaled, rolling his shoulders. His disguise was complete. With his preparations finished, he set his sights on the town.
It was time to see what awaited him there.