The screen changed instantly, deploying a new window with detailed information, and what Mark saw made the piece of bread in his other hand drop.

His eyes opened wide, his mouth hung slightly open, and for a couple of seconds he forgot to breathe.

"This has to be a joke..."

[User Profile]

[Username: DarkLord69]

[Level: 33]

[Experience for next level: INVALID PARAMETER]

[Class: Necromancer]

[Race: Human (Reincarnate)]

[Karma: Negative]

[Unique Talent: Sovereign of Evil (All monsters, undead, and evil creatures see the user as their absolute ruler)]

Mark fell silent, looking at the screen for a moment.

’...I leveled down,’ Mark thought in disbelief.

To him, what he was seeing made no sense, because he clearly remembered that after the fight against the giant serpent, he had unlocked a new ability and leveled up to fifty-two. However, now he was level thirty-three.

’This has to be the work of that shit god,’ Mark thought, gritting his teeth. ’...Although thinking about it, it’s not like I had much to begin with.’

Because being honest with himself, the difference between his previous level and his current one hadn’t changed in practical terms, since in both cases he still depended completely on his subordinates for everything involving combat.

Ely, who was at his side, pointed at the screen in front of them.

"Master, is your real name really DarkLord69?" she asked, leaning in to look at the screen more closely.

"No, that’s not my real name, it’s more like... a nickname," responded Mark in a slightly embarrassed tone.

"A nickname?"

"Yeah."

"And what does it mean?"

"...I’ll tell you later."

Then Alice’s voice rang out with annoyance.

"My lord, why is your karma marked as negative?" she asked, looking at the screen with her brow slightly furrowed. "You’re the kindest person I know, it doesn’t make sense that your karma would be negative."

"It’s probably due to my class," Mark explained. "Necromancy is considered dark magic, so anyone who uses it automatically has negative karma regardless of what they do."

"That’s unfair..." said Alice, frowning more.

"That’s the way it is."

Then Mark felt Aria touch his arm and point her finger directly at the screen.

"Master, what does that mean?" asked Aria, pointing to the line that said ’INVALID PARAMETER’ in capital letters next to the experience for the next level.

Mark looked at where she was pointing.

"I don’t know either. It’s supposed to say how much experience I need to level up to the next level..." he admitted, frowning.

"Does that mean you still can’t level up?" she asked, tilting her head.

"I hope that’s not the case..."

Mark let out a sigh and decided not to spend more time on that screen, so he moved on to the next section of the menu.

[Skills]

The screen changed and what appeared before him was a list that took up almost the entire screen.

[New Available Skills:]

[Raise Skeleton, Bone Shard, Poisoned Touch, Dark Reinforcement, Curse of Weakness, Corpse Explosion, Soul Drain, Summon Wraith, Bone Wall, Amplified Curse, Raise Skeleton Army, Life Drain, Shadow Step, Creeping Shadows, Bone Spear Throw, Necrotic Spike, Soul Echo]

[Unique Reincarnate Skills:]

[Wake Up, Shared Life Essence, Aura of Death, Touch of Death, Consciousness Modification]

Mark opened his eyes in surprise because as he read the list, he recognized each name instantly.

They were the skills from Eternal Conquest Online.

And while they weren’t the max-level skills he was used to, it was a good arsenal of low-level skills that covered practically every situation: ranged attack, defense, crowd control, summoning, mobility, enemy weakening, etc.

"..."

Mark looked away from the screen slowly and looked at the others.

They were all silent, watching him, waiting for him to say something.

"...I think I recovered my powers."

The silence that followed was total, but it didn’t last long.

"WHAT?!" they all said at the same time.

Ely opened her eyes so wide it looked like they would pop out of her sockets. Aria brought both hands to her mouth. Alice’s body tensed instantly. And Yuki, who normally didn’t react to anything, blinked twice in a row.

"Are you serious, Master?" asked Rose incredulously. "Did you really recover your powers?"

"Yes... or rather, part of them," responded Mark, returning his gaze to the list.

"What do you mean by that?" asked Ely, bringing her face closer to Mark’s.

"What you see here are only low-level skills," he explained, pointing to the list on his screen. "However, the mid and high-level ones are nowhere to be found."

"How is that possible?" asked Aria, looking at the screen.

Mark fell silent because he didn’t have the answer, but then Alice spoke.

"The column of light..." she said, clenching her fists.

Rose, who was sitting next to Mark, tensed instantly upon hearing Alice’s words.

"Shit..." she said in a low voice, bringing a hand to her forehead. "I think I ruined everything."

"What do you mean?" asked Mark, clearly confused.

Rose fell silent for a second with her hand still on her forehead.

"When you were inside that column of light," Rose began to explain, lowering her hand, "your magical signature started changing in a way I had never seen before."

Everyone listened to her in silence.

"At first I thought the light was attacking you... Your magical signature was disappearing little by little, and I... I panicked," confessed Rose, biting her lower lip hard. "So I begged Alice to pull you out of there."

"And I obeyed her..." added Alice in a low voice.

"But now I realize they weren’t erasing you..." continued Rose, looking directly into Mark’s eyes. "They were remaking you."

The room fell silent.

"I’m sorry, Master..." said Rose with guilt. "If it weren’t for me, you probably would have recovered all your powers."

"..."

Mark remained silent for a few seconds and then let out a heavy sigh.

"Are you angry with us, Master?" asked Alice worriedly.

"No," responded Mark, shaking his head. "You did what you thought was right, so there’s no point in being angry with you all."

"Do you really mean that, Master?" asked Rose with guilt.

"I always speak sincerely," said Mark, showing them a smile. "So don’t blame yourselves for that."

Rose opened her mouth to say something but couldn’t find the words, so she just remained silent.

"Well... let’s see what other surprises are in here," said Mark, looking at the rest of the menu.

[Equipment]

[Inventory]

[Quest]