Tonight, hundreds of multi-kilometer clouds gathered in a thunderous dance, releasing deadly electric discharges upon the Kadogan Empire's lands. It seemed as if the heavens themselves waged war on the earth, relentlessly trying to crush it. Blow after blow hit ancient trees, shattering them into splinters.

The calamity spared no one, as monsters, wild animals, and even travelers from intelligent races burst like soap bubbles immediately after lightning struck. Such powerful storms hadn't been witnessed in the world for over a thousand years.

A lightning bolt struck a forest troll, unable to find shelter from the natural disaster. His body instantly covered in bright, glowing cracks, shimmering, and then...

With a resounding clap, the troll's body exploded into pieces, scattering fragments across dozens of meters.

In another part of the empire, an electric discharge descended at unimaginable speed from the heavens, meeting a copper-ranked adventurer rushing to the city of Raga.

Like several thousand beings before him, the adventurer's body proved too weak to become a vessel for a massive spiritual entity that had recently breached the world's borders. His equipment, mixed with internal organs, erupted like fireworks across the nearby landscape.

For hours, thousands of similar incidents occurred throughout the Kadogan Empire. Anyone without reliable shelter fell victim to the wrathful heavens, from forest wolves to ogres, peasants to adventurers. Meanwhile, something noticed something abnormal in this furious storm.

(Kadogan Empire, Eastern Plains, vicinity of the Thordark Dungeon)

The core of an ancient dungeon sensed something curious after losing a couple of its wards to the celestial electric tendrils. Two warrior skeletons guarding the surface entrance almost instantly turned into bone powder. However, the dungeon, closely connected to its creations, felt how they attempted to absorb a vast amount of alien energy.

This was no ordinary natural disaster, the dungeon's core concluded. Apparently, its minions were too weak to absorb this heavenly gift. But in the controlled dungeon, much higher-level monsters resided. This meant the chance to acquire this celestial power was far from elusive. The core immediately gave the command. One of its strongest subordinates, the treasury guardian, a level fifty death knight, ascended to the surface.

A massive pile of bones, over two and a half meters tall, clad in heavy iron armor, the death knight's armor plates were several centimeters thick, making him nearly invulnerable to physical attacks. The rough stone floor of the dungeon trembled under his formidable stride. This killing machine, weighing five hundred kilograms, moved towards the upper levels.

Stepping outside, the death knight turned his empty eye sockets towards the raging black sky. Like other floor guardians, the death knight wasn't a mindless puppet. He possessed his own will but wasn't free. The core had granted him life, creating him once from its mana reserves. Hence, it held the power to keep this creature in its domain like a slave.

For nearly fifty years, the death knight had not left the zone he guarded, forced to engage in battles with rare unfortunate adventurers. However, today, the core promised him power and granted permission to leave his sanctuary, slightly loosening the leash that had been taut for centuries.

He patiently continued to watch upwards expectantly. This power could grant him the long-awaited freedom from the walls of his native dungeon, a freedom he had never known but instinctively craved. Suddenly, two bright red flames ignited in his empty eye sockets. Like an undead, he couldn't ignore the converging streams of some life energy above him, marking him as their target.

With a thunderous roar, the death knight raised his massive two-meter iron sword, pointing the blade directly at the sky. He invited. He challenged. He was in anticipation.

Incredible power began to spread throughout his body. The once empty eye sockets flared with crimson flames. He felt this energy with his entire being. This immense force clung to his body like a wild beast, pouring uncontrollably into every cell. But at some point, he started to feel that in the currents of this power, he was gradually losing himself.

His body quickly developed glowing cracks. For the first time in his existence, the death knight felt incredibly fragile. This energy was simply tearing him apart from the inside!

//BOOM//

(Kadogan Empire, Eastern Plains, Thordark Dungeon)

Even such a formidable creature struggled to absorb only a quarter of the power that sought a home. The core entered into contemplation. The death knight was one of its strongest guardians. If he wasn't suitable as a vessel, then there was little chance for the rest of its guardians.

Something new needed to be created. An empty shell capable of containing this energy. The problem was that, according to the core's calculations, its mana reserves were insufficient to create a vessel of sufficient strength. However, it had a solution.

On the fiftieth floor of the Thordark Dungeon, the process of creation began. The dungeon core expelled all the mana it had accumulated over the last few decades, forming an entirely new creature with truly monstrous potential for development.

[Creating Guardian Level 10.]

As expected, in the middle of the vessel creation process, the core's mana reserves treacherously dropped to one-fifth of their original volume. Nevertheless, the core had a fifty-floor reserve, created over the last few hundred years. Without hesitation, this reserve was put into use.

Cries echoed across all floors from the dungeon's former minions. It forcibly disintegrated hundreds of its minions into pure magical energy, reclaiming what it once gave life to. The mana formed from the remains of several hundred minions was directly pumped into the forming vessel.

After just a couple of minutes, ninety percent of all dungeon inhabitants had been disintegrated. However, as it turned out, the remaining ten percent, along with the remnants of the core's mana, were not enough to complete the creation of its new guardian. The core fully realized this, ceasing the senseless recycling of its minions.

There was only one option left. Absorb a high-level guardian, take its life force, and thereby complete the formation of its creation. However, unlike other creatures spawned by the dungeon, high-level guardians had their own will and would never allow themselves to be consumed. They wouldn't allow it while they were alive.

[Mental Leash Level 10.]

The tenth-floor guardian roared like a cornered beast. The frosty basilisk almost immediately understood its creator's intentions. An invisible leash pulled it with tremendous force from its own abode towards the room with the "magma floor" trap. The claws on its powerful paws literally dug into the stone floor of the room, unwilling to leave it with its entire being. But the basilisk couldn't fully resist the will of the core.

The basilisk's body trembled with fear and a sense of hopelessness. Slowly but surely, it approached the room with the magma floor trap. Fire was the natural nemesis of its frost element. Step by step, the creature's roar became louder and more desperate. And after about half a minute, it was already in place. In the center of the most hated room in the entire Thordark Dungeon.

[Magma Trap Level 8.]

//GULP-GULP-GULP//

Magma slowly began to rise from under the latticed iron floor of the room.

The basilisk's roar echoed in wild agony as its paws, tail, and belly gradually melted upon contact with the fiery puddle.

Engulfed in bone-charring flames, the basilisk's wild roar turned into desperate whimpering. It yearned to run and save its life, but its body seemed unresponsive. The core suppressed its will, restricting the movements of its guardian. After a couple of dozen seconds, there was no trace left of the once formidable creature. With its demise, the basilisk expelled a tremendous amount of pure energy, immediately captured and redirected into the nearly completed vessel.

At the cost of hundreds of lives and nearly depleting the core, the process was completed. However, the dungeon understood that it wasn't time to rejoice yet. The created guardian was merely an empty shell, intended to become a vessel for the unrestrained power raging outside the dungeon. The last step remained—transporting this soulless shell to the surface.

A group of four goblins raced through the winding corridors of their native dungeon. Running blindly towards the uppermost floors—the exit to the surface—they didn't run empty-handed. The core ordered them, sparing no effort, to drag a creature incapable of moving on its own to the surface. At first glance, it resembled an ordinary humanoid skeleton, but upon closer inspection, some details set it apart.

The bone mask on its face had sharper edges than a regular human skull. Unlike regular round eye sockets, its eyes were slightly squinted, smoothly narrowing towards the nose, giving the impression of a somewhat malevolent, even angry gaze. On top of the skull, two tracks of short spikes adorned it. Additionally, the bones of the Lord's Skeleton were incredibly dense, rivaling even adamantium in strength and weight.

After a good quarter of an hour, the goblin quartet, having worn their feet to the blood, finally reached the exit from the dungeon. Their goal was to carry their load fifteen meters away from the entrance, essentially a regular cave in the rocky mountains.

[Area Expansion Level 9.]

To avoid accidentally losing control over its new guardian, the core needed to expand the area of its mental influence beyond the dungeon. This effort cost it significantly, further depleting its mana, already nearing zero.

Any other core would have long surrendered in its place. Maintaining magical reserves in such an extremely depleted state was deadly dangerous—on the verge of suicide. However, this core was consumed by its insatiable greed.

Having such a creature at its disposal would give the dungeon a huge advantage for its further development and expansion. Most restraining factors, such as endless adventurer raids and other external threats, could be nullified by just this guardian.

//ZZZ-ZZZZ-ZZZ//

Suddenly, before the goblins could bring the shell's body to the designated point, thunder echoed. Three electric arcs seized the bony body with a dead grip, simultaneously incinerating the four goblin corpses.

The Lord's Skeleton's body slowly began to be covered by a web of brightly glowing white veins.

In the absolutely lifeless eye sockets, blood-red lights began to flicker.

The web of white light completely enveloped the body, which began to vibrate with a terrible rumble. It seemed like a little more, and it would explode, like thousands of overloaded vessels before it. However, that didn't happen. Heavenly tendrils absorbed this vessel like a sponge, and then the core felt life bubbling in its guardian.

+ [Master Level 1.]

The core rejoiced. Although for now, it was just a first-level undead of an unknown class, its potential far exceeded any guardian it had ever created! All that remained was to bring its creation back to the dungeon to retain the expansion of its influence area.

[Mental Leash Level 10.]

[Mental Attack Neutralized]

Unexpectedly, even for the dungeon, its new creation exhibited an incredibly high resistance to mental attacks, including the Mental Leash, a category it fell into. Usually calm and reasonable, the core was literally infuriated by this turn of events.

[Mental Leash Level 10.]

[Mental Attack Neutralized]

[Mental Leash Level 10.]

[Mental Attack Neutralized]

[Mental Leash Level 10.]

[Mental Attack Neutralized]

... ...

[Mental Leash Level 10.]

[Mental Attack Neutralized]

In a burst of anger, feeling nothing but hatred, malice, and resentment, the core didn't even notice how it drained the last drop of its mana.

//CRACK-C-C-C//