The Sovereign Necromancer: System of the Dead

The Assets Value

The plastic radio dropped from my fingers and hit the wet concrete floor with a dull clack. Chiamaka’s voice stopped, cut off by another massive explosion that shook the entire third floor. The green walls groaned, and chunks of old white plaster rained down around us, covering Amarachi’s hospital bed in white dust.

"Tobe, my chest feels like it is on fire," Amarachi said. Her voice still had that double sound, a deep, heavy vibration layered right underneath her normal tone.

The purple glow in her eyes grew wider, eating up her pupils until her gaze looked entirely alien. She gripped her own chest, her fingers tearing at her thin cotton hospital shirt. The oily fluid on the floor tiles was no longer just pooling around her boots; it was moving up her shins like black ink, sinking directly into her skin.

I grabbed her under her arms, hauling her small body off the mattress. She felt much lighter than before, almost hollow, like a dry stick. "Hold onto my neck, Amara. We have to move now."

"I can walk," she said, her teeth clicking together. She pushed against my shoulders and stood up on her own two feet.

The moment her boots touched the broken concrete, the black fluid on her skin vanished, absorbed completely into her body. Her face went tight, her jaw hardening into a sharp line that I had never seen on her before. The weak, crying girl who spent her days coughing up blood on the Mainland was gone. Something inside her was waking up, and it was cold.

"They want to use me," Amarachi said, looking down at the dead Vanguard guards on the floor. Her purple eyes did not show fear. They looked focused, almost calculative. "Chiamaka and that rich man on the Island. They did this to me."

"We will make them pay for it," I said, checking my system interface.

[Current Mana: 2/100]

[Passive Recovery: +1 Mana per minute.]

Two points. I could not call the shadow gorilla. I could not even wake up a common street rat. I was completely defenseless against whatever was waiting for us downstairs.

"We go through the back stairs," I said, pulling her toward the exit. "The main yard is full of hunters."

"No," Amarachi said, her voice dropping an octave as the heavy echo took over. She reached out and grabbed the golden rifle from the limp hand of the guard the gorilla had crushed. The weapon was heavy, but she lifted it with one hand as if it weighed nothing at all. "The back stairs are already blocked, Tobe. I can feel them. They have three energy nets set up at the base of the tower."

I stared at her. "How do you know that?"

"The core inside me sees their power," she said. A strange, sharp grin touched her lips, but it was not a happy look. It was a look of pure spite. "They want an asset? Let us show them how much this asset costs."

We ran out into the corridor just as the ceiling at the far end collapsed entirely. Huge blocks of concrete blocked the way to the elevator, leaving only the front stairwell open.

Down below, the sound of heavy boots echoed up the shafts. The Top 5 Hunters were not taking their time. They were moving fast, clearing the floors with brutal speed.

[Tobe,] Grim spoke up, his voice echoing in my brain. [The girl is right. Her core is connected to the rifts in the city. Every time a hunter uses a magic skill nearby, she can trace the trail. But you cannot fight them with two mana points. You need to kill something to get more soul fuel.]

"There is nothing left to kill up here," I muttered under my breath, my boots splashing through a puddle of water from a broken pipe.

[Look out the window,] Grim said.

I glanced through a cracked glass pane looking down into the internal courtyard. The space was crawling with small, leftover sand lizards that had fled from the gorilla earlier. They were trapped in the alley behind the kitchen, snapping at each other in the dark.

"Amara, cover the stairs," I said, pointing my hand toward the courtyard window. "I need thirty seconds."

She did not ask questions. She dropped into a low crouch behind a metal medicine cart, leveling the golden Vanguard rifle at the stairwell door. Her grip was steady, her purple eyes tracking the darkness down the hall with zero blinking.

I smashed the remaining glass out of the window frame with the metal IV stand and leaned out. I did not have the mana to summon, but my passive system skill was still active. I focused my mind on the three injured lizards trapped in the alley below.

"Extract," I commanded.

A blue system light flashed across my vision, accompanied by a harsh chiming sound.

[Soul Extraction Successful.]

[Target: Low-grade Sand Lizard (x3)]

[Mana Restored: +45]

[Current Mana: 47/100]

"Good," I growled, turning back toward the hall.

The heavy iron door at the end of the stairwell blew inward. A man wearing a silver coat and carrying a double-barreled shotgun stepped through the smoke. He was Jude, the Rank-4 Hunter who usually guarded the border wall between the Island and the Mainland. He was a professional killer, famous for leaving no survivors during guild cleanses.

"Found them," Jude said into a small collar microphone. He raised his shotgun, aiming it right at my chest. "The boy is here. The girl has the rifle."

Before he could pull the trigger, Amarachi fired first.

She did not hesitate or flinch from the loud blast. The golden rifle shot a massive beam of blue light that tore through the medicine cart, striking Jude squarely in his silver breastplate. The force of the magic blast lifted the grown man off his feet, throwing him backward into the stone wall of the stairwell.

But his armor was thick. Jude grunted, shaking his head as his silver shields absorbed the damage. He scrambled back to his feet, his face twisting into a nasty snarl. "You little rat. I will break your legs before I take you back to the Chief."

He leveled his shotgun again, his fingers squeezing down on the double triggers.

I leaped forward, my hand striking the concrete floor. "Arise!"