Sun Tae was flooded with requests to join a guild, he was a b rank hunter after all but he refused every offer, instead, he applied for a raid independently. Joining a guild was tempting but he would outgrow the need for a guild way too fast for it to be worth it. So, he stood at the entrance of an A rank dungeon and stretched. His official class was magician, so he would be staying in the back but just in case, he still had the spear with him. Who knows what will happen, right?
The strike team entered the dungeon and immediately, the portal closed behind them, "shit, a red gate?" The leader cursed, "okay, guys, we have to work together here, we can't afford to make any mistakes and-"
An arrow made of light shot at the leader, who barely had enough time to raise his shield. The surroundings were a jungle, with thick foliage, making it impossible to see who attacked them.
Another arrow shot out, this one killing a b rank hunter next to Sun Tae. He didn't even have time to copy a skill from them as more arrows descended on them, slowly picking off the weaker hunters. The remaining hunters ran in different directions. Tae didn't even notice that he was alone until a bunch of forest elves came charging at them. The fuck? Forest elves were A rank monsters, there shouldn't be this many in a dungeon of this man's level! He shot them with chain lightning and went to absorb their skills. Forest elves were vulnerable to fire and lightning spells, so they fell easily.
[Subject is able to be extracted, choose one:
Physique: A rank
Senses: A rank
Mana: A rank
Archery: A rank
Forest survival: B rank
Light arrow: B rank]
He chose to copy forest survival and light arrow from the first two forest elves and a good mix of physique, senses and mana from the other six. His senses now were at b rank level. With his new survival skills, he stalked through the jungle, picking off more and more forest elves and yet, no matter how many he killed, there seemed to be more. By the time he found the rest of the raid team, he had reached A rank. He saw a group of five, the tanker leader, a wizard, two warriors and a healer, struggling against a group of forest elves.
Sun Tae unleashed a chain lightning at them, killing the elves, after which, he absorbed their abilities.
"Hunter Sun Tae!" The leader exclaimed, "you know lightning magic? That's great, you'll be a great help in the- oh, shit"
Sun Tae staggered, falling to his knees, he had used too much mana, even with his A rank reserves, that many chain lightnings were really exhausting. And to top it off, he had been running for a few hours, his muscles were fatigued, "let's rest for now, it is almost night, we should be good to get some sleep in", said the leader.
They made a makeshift camp under the trees. Sun Tae went to sleep immediately and dreamt of a large cathedral, himself sitting atop a throne of hundreds of corpses. Magic rolled off of him, an unimaginable aura of power. He looked past the cathedral windows, to a castle, surrounded by darkness, Sung Jin Woo standing in front of it, releasing a similar aura. The scene changed. He and Sung Jin Woo stood against an army of dragons, with the shadow army and an army of corpses behind them, "charge!"
When Sun Tae awoke, he saw a screen in front of his face.
[necessary power threshold reached. Class: Necromancer gained. Graveyard panel activated]
There was a new panel in his system, with a cartoon graveyard on it.
[0/500 summons stored in the graveyard]
He knew exactly what he needed to do, so, as everyone else was still sleeping, he turned to the forest elves and activated a new skill. The forest elves raised from the dead as zombies. They bowed their heads to him. Was this his true power? Not just copying the skills of the dead but also making them his minions? He focused and, in a vortex, they disappeared, the ten forest elf zombies appearing in his graveyard panel.
[10/500 summons stored in the graveyard]
Soon, the other hunters woke up and they marched through the forest. It took them another three days till they found the boss. In this time, Sun Tae had gathered another 20 undead to add to his horde. When they faced the boss, a high elf, Sun Tae let out a warcry, empowering his allies, after which he took out the guards with a chain lightning. That left only the boss. High elves were S rank monsters, so the small group of them had a hard time fighting them. The mages slung spells at him, whilst the tanker leader and healer kept the boss busy. Whilst they were fighting, in between casting spells, Sun Tae absorbed the abilities of the rest of the elves. When the tanker fell, all hope seemed lost, but Sun Tae stepped up, copying his taunt from the corpse and keeping up the strategy, taunting the boss, who was slowly being chipped away at, until, finally, they killed him.
[Subject is able to be extracted, choose one:
Physique: SS rank
Senses: S rank
Mana: S rank
(...)]
He chose the physique and knew that he was on the verge of reaching S rank physique, whilst his senses and mana were at high A rank. Finally, the gate opened again and they were able to leave.
The hunters association was there already, ready to take their testimony. Out of the 40 raiders, only five survived, it was a massacre. They lost many high ranking hunters that day.
The testimony took a good few hours before they were free to leave. Sun Tae went to sleep immediately, exhausted by the gate trip. He would take it easy for the next few weeks, he vowed.