"Sanguine Resurrection, huh… so that's what the '???' was in the Quest rewards," Zane muttered to himself, as he dismissed the notifications before him. As soon as he did so, a new hologram appeared, outlining the next chapter of the [Sovereign's Rebirth] questline.
[You have met all the requirements to activate the Main Quest: Sovereign's Rebirth — Chapter II]
[Objective: Obtain 5 Servants with the
[Reward: 10 SP, 50 Bloodrunes, ???]
'Huh… isn't this the exact same as the previous quest, but just with a different skill?' Zane murmured. 'But unlike Blood Mark…'
Narrowing his eyes, Zane opened his status page and tapped on his new ability to view the details.
[Sanguine Resurrection]
[Type: Active]
[Tier: Sovereign]
[A special power belonging to the Blood Sovereign, God of Vampires and Blood, Essence of all Life. Allows for the resurrection of a dead being above Elite-rank. With enough Charisma, they can be turned into loyal servants. The total Servant capacity is shared with
[Current resurrection rank limit: Monarch]
'… As expected, it can be used to revive the dead. But if that's the case, then…'
Narrowing his eyes, Zane made up his mind.
His idea—it was worth a try.
*****
Zane's first objective was to test that the skill really worked. To do this, he returned to the chamber where he'd fought Dahrka, the Fallen Paladin, and looked around. The body had long disintegrated like any other Dungeon monster, but Zane could feel it—its Soul was still lingering here. Naturally, the ability to sense that was also part of his new Immortal Blood Body.
As it would turn out, the 'Charisma' stat was a new secondary stat he'd gained after obtaining this new revival skill—something Zane hadn't even noticed until it was mentioned in the [Sanguine Resurrection] description. It was listed right beside the main stats, and was represented by the 'CHA' acronym. Currently, Zane's CHA stat was at 15—he didn't know how the System reached that value, but he didn't care that much either.
Instead, he focused on the task before him. Lifting his arm, he closed his eyes and angled his palm downwards, standing right at the spot where he felt the Soul energy to be strongest and most concentrated.
Then, slowly, he opened his eyes—his pupils had now turned deep black, and dark energy trailed from his hand down to the ground.
'Sanguine Resurrection.'
As those words crossed Zane's mind, the crimson+ energy coming from his palm immediately began converging. They shrouded the air and began to slowly revolve, forming into complex shapes and combining into one whole figure.
It began with a dark, shadowy cloak. Then, from beneath it reached out two opaque black arms, strong and sturdy. And finally—from the place where its face should've been, two slit white eyes awoke, blazing and demonic.
"𝑫𝒂𝒉𝒓𝒌𝒂... 𝒎𝒚 𝒅𝒆𝒂𝒓 𝒇𝒂𝒍𝒍𝒆𝒏 𝒑𝒂𝒍𝒂𝒅𝒊𝒏. 𝒀𝒐𝒖𝒓 𝒐𝒍𝒅 𝒌𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒎𝒂𝒚 𝒉𝒂𝒗𝒆 𝒍𝒐𝒏𝒈 𝒑𝒂𝒔𝒔𝒆𝒅, 𝒃𝒖𝒕 𝒚𝒐𝒖𝒓 𝒍𝒆𝒈𝒂𝒄𝒚 𝒄𝒐𝒏𝒕𝒊𝒏𝒖𝒆𝒔. 𝑰𝒕 𝒊𝒔 𝒕𝒊𝒎𝒆 𝒚𝒐𝒖 𝒔𝒆𝒆𝒌 𝒂 𝒏𝒆𝒘 𝒓𝒖𝒍𝒆𝒓 𝒕𝒐 𝒇𝒐𝒍𝒍𝒐𝒘 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒔𝒆𝒓𝒗𝒆."
Through his deep, Sovereign voice, Zane spoke to Dahrka's mind, and bent down slowly before reaching out his hand.
"𝑻𝒆𝒍𝒍 𝒎𝒆, 𝒘𝒂𝒓𝒓𝒊𝒐𝒓. 𝑫𝒐 𝒚𝒐𝒖 𝒘𝒊𝒔𝒉 𝒕𝒐 𝒇𝒊𝒈𝒉𝒕 𝒃𝒚 𝒎𝒚 𝒔𝒊𝒅𝒆?"
There was a brief moment of hesitation. At first, it seemed like the negotiation wasn't going to work. The shadowy figure grew hazy and glitched, the black energy making up its body becoming unstable. Zane narrowed his eyes.
'Not much of a talker, huh… is my current Charisma still not enough…?'
In a last-ditch effort, he suddenly remembered the weapons he'd taken from Dahrka, and pulled them out from his deep cloak pockets—[Twin Shade].
For a moment, the Fallen Paladin froze, peering down at the two daggers Zane offered in his hands. Then, it looked back into Zane's eyes briefly, before kneeling down, bowing its head, and holding out its own hands, palms facing up. It was the signature movement of a knight receiving their weapon in medieval times, and Zane, realizing he'd succeeded, smiled as he placed the daggers into Dahrka's shadowy hands.
As soon as its foggy black fingers wrapped around the similarly-colored knives' hilts, a notification appeared before Zane, marking his success.
[Dahrka, Fallen Paladin — Resurrection Successful.]
[Error: The number of Servants currently in your possession has already reached your limit. To add
'… Oh, right. I already have 5, huh…'
It was a shame that these blood-related skills of his didn't tier up at monstrous rates, probably due to the fact that they weren't obtained through [Devour]. In other words, Zane would have to tier them up at normal speeds, which was usually quite slow. Otherwise, he'd already have tiered them up multiple times, increasing his Servant capacity.
'Hm…'
Zane didn't have many options to choose from. Ultimately, he chose to let one of his footsoldiers go—Samuel Von Asvielgard The Second, his first Dungeon Monster Servant.
[Operation Successful — 'Samuel Von Asvielgard The Second' has been removed from your Servant army.]
[Dahrka, Fallen Paladin — Monarch-rank Servant Registered!]
[Naming available. Would you like to rename the Servant?]
'Oh…? So Monarch-rank and above Servants can be named?' Zane pondered. 'Hrm… out of respect for his pride as a warrior, I won't touch his name. Instead, I'll just remove the unnecessary title.'
From behind him, the shadowy energy around Samuel Von Asvielgard The Second faded away to nothingness, and the Undead Knight returned to normal while Dahrka, Fallen Paladin's name was changed to just 'Dahrka' in the System.
"𝑮𝒐," Zane ordered. "𝑲𝒊𝒍𝒍 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒕𝒓𝒂𝒊𝒕𝒐𝒓."
Without specifically mentioning who in order to test his new Servant's intelligence, Zane gave his verdict. Immediately, Dahrka vanished from his original spot and reappeared behind the abandoned Undead Knight, before re-sheathing his twin daggers.
His movements had been too fast. In the blink of an eye, the armored soldier's head fell to the ground.
At this sight, Zane smiled darkly. Dahrka was going to be a valuable asset in the future, for sure.
Turning around, Zane ordered his new Servant to investigate ahead, and take out any enemies that loitered on the path from here to his destination. Without a single word, the shadow paladin bowed in acknowledgment and dissipated the moment after, using its teleportation abilities to traverse the catacombs and scout ahead.
Shortly after, Zane followed, a new goal in mind.