Summon Skeleton Mage

"Can you swim?" Sulonna suddenly asked.

"Well, I actually can't." Looking at the cargo ship scraping against the reef a dozen meters away, Li Shaolin replied with a troubled frown. Before his transmigration, he'd been a total shut-in—work and online games were his whole life; he'd never had time to learn swimming or anything.

"Ah, then it won't be easy for you to get over there. What should we do? Maybe we can look along the shore for something else that floats?" Sulonna suggested.

Scanning the Long Beach, there were plenty of driftwood pieces and wreckage made of planks, wooden crates, and barrels, but none seemed sturdy enough to bear a person's weight.

Beneath that debris in the water, schools of tiny, bright-scaled fish were gathering, blowing bubbles as they darted around, feeding on the plankton mixed in the seawater.

"These fish look pretty special!" Li Shaolin said curiously.

"Yeah, you've got good eyes. Those are the famous Blackmouth Fish. I hear they're an essential ingredient for alchemy," Sulonna explained.

Blackmouth Fish? Alchemy? That old geezer Karnak was a Scourge alchemist, wasn't he? I think there's a Water Walking Potion among alchemy brews. Wonder if the old man's leftovers have any?

He quickly probed his Storage Space and searched carefully. He didn't find a Water Walking Potion, but he did discover a Water Breathing Potion. Overjoyed, he pulled it out.

Water Breathing Potion: Allows the drinker to breathe underwater for 30 minutes.

Seeing him produce the potion, Sulonna was visibly surprised. "You're an alchemist too?"

"No, no, Karnak gave this to me, heh heh."

With the potion in hand, things got simple. Each drank one, stowed away the Skeleton Warrior and Clay Golem, and began slowly walking toward the Sunken Ship.

The seawater gradually rose past Li Shaolin's chest. He felt the external pressure squeezing his ribs, making it hard to breathe—uncomfortable. Glancing over, he saw Sulonna with her long hair gently swaying, smiling at him.

"Can't let a woman look down on me." Li Shaolin gritted his teeth, shut his eyes, and plunged underwater. Instantly, all the chaotic noise faded from his ears. The Water Breathing Potion was remarkable—a faint sensation of air being drawn into his limbs and bones replaced the need for mouth and nose. He tried opening his eyes slightly and saw a blur of white. Gradually adjusting, he could make things out.

A small fish flicked its tail and slipped past his sight. Without thinking, he reached out to grab it, startling the fish into a slick escape.

After much struggle, they finally reached the reef. Both climbed up, soaked through, looking thoroughly disheveled.

"Heh, looks like your swimming isn't so great either," Li Shaolin teased, seeing Sulonna's state.

"Haven't swum in years—I've gotten rusty," Sulonna laughed in defense.

After resting a bit, they walked along the fallen mast like a tightrope to reach the ship. Li Shaolin took out the Book of the Dead and summoned three skeletons. The Bone Skeleton, after half a day's recovery in the book, had fully healed its broken chest and was ready for battle.

The wooden deck, neglected and unmaintained, was covered in patches of moss. Stepping on it felt slippery and unstable.

After a careful sweep, they found the wooden stairs leading to the lower cabin were already broken. Peering down, all they saw was clear seawater—it seemed the lower level was uninhabitable. Still, half the cabin had a roof, so it'd do for the night.

Sulonna meticulously scraped the moss off the deck with her short sword, clearing a clean spot. She found an iron sheet to lay down, piled some dry, rotten planks on top, and lit a small fire.

Warmed by the flames, steam began rising from their soaked clothes, and they finally felt a bit more comfortable.

"You're really handy," Li Shaolin praised sincerely.

"Back when I was an adventurer, I got used to being on my own," Sulonna said, seeming to recall the past with a sigh. "Get some sleep early—we're exhausted today."

"Uh, you didn't prepare a tent?"

"A tent? Couldn't prepare one. Do you have one?" Sulonna countered.

Li Shaolin pulled out the tent and bedding he'd bought in Goldshire from his Storage Space and spread them out.

"You keep that in your Storage Space? Good heavens, how big is your space?" Sulonna asked in shock.

Li Shaolin hadn't really paid attention. His Storage Space had 64 slots, and these items only took up one slot—no big deal. Wait, did that mean other adventurers' Storage Spaces weren't like this?

"Well, you know I'm connected to the Scourge Legion. My space seems to have mutated, heh heh. By the way, what's yours like?" Li Shaolin answered vaguely. Since his summoned Skeleton Warrior was a fact, he might as well blame all the weird stuff on the Scourge.

"I see. A normal adventurer's Storage Space has eight slots, which appear automatically after class advancement. It can only hold bulk food, drinks, or single pieces of equipment. Something like a field tent can't fit in there—unless you have extra space gear," Sulonna explained when he asked.

"In that case, you take the tent." Though Li Shaolin wasn't a gentleman or particularly noble, he stepped up in this situation—after all, he still had a man's blood in him.

Sulonna looked surprised, but it was expected. After these few days together, she understood that this man's thinking, in some ways, resembled a Paladin more than a mage.

"Well then, how about we sleep together? But don't get any ideas!" Sulonna's eyes twinkled, and she giggled.

That night, the moon hung in the sky. Tomorrow should be a clear day.

The buzzing of mosquitoes rose, then gradually faded. A frog the size of a bowl was hopping around, happily feasting. It was the Forest Frog he'd bought from a kid at the Darkmoon Faire—finally proving useful.

Li Shaolin and Sulonna fell asleep in each other's arms for the second time. What happened between them, and what stories unfolded, naturally remained unknown.

"Something feels off?" Li Shaolin woke up in the morning, staring at the rising sun with a strange sensation.

"What's wrong?" Sulonna was already busy stoking the fire, getting ready to roast the freshly caught Barbed Catfish.

"Not right—the skeletons are gone!" Li Shaolin realized with a start. Hadn't he stationed three skeletons on the deck last night to patrol? Now only the Bone Skeleton stood lonely beside him; the Black Skeleton and Bronze Skeleton had vanished.

Where did they go? Skeletons wouldn't wander off without my orders unless they encountered an enemy. Thinking this, he looked down and saw through a gap in the deck into the lower cabin—and was startled.

Vaguely, he saw that the seawater pooled in the cabin had turned red.

He hurried to the stairwell and peered down. Sure enough, the two skeletons stood silently in the water, surrounded by the corpses of Murlocs. It seemed this place was a Murloc nest. Had the two fallen in by accident, or had the Murlocs planned an ambush?

Either way, the Murlocs were all dead—no need to dwell on it. He took out the Book of the Dead to recall the two skeletons, which would get them out of the cabin.

Opening it, he was shocked! Overnight, without realizing it, he had leveled up to 12!

He recalled the skeletons and summoned them again, then sat on the deck to study his skills. Level 12 was another milestone. He could learn Skeleton Mage, Attack Retaliation, Terror, and Bone Wall. Among these, Skeleton Mage was unpopular with summoners due to low health and defense. Attack Retaliation, on the other hand, was jokingly called the "Iron Maiden" and was a necromancer's killer skill. Of course, these skills had already mutated, so he wasn't sure if they still followed the Diablo 2 evaluation.

But skeletons were strong, and he was lacking a magic attacker right now. His Fangs always felt weak, and their nature leaned more toward physical damage. Forget it—he'd go with Skeleton Mage.

After allocating the skill points, he learned the summoning incantation as usual. There were fresh Murloc corpses right below, so no need to go looking.

As the incantation rose, flesh and bones churned, but after a bout of effort, nothing emerged.

Something was off.

A closer look at the description revealed that it required resurrecting the corpses of dead mages and having them fight for you. It seemed it needed the bodies of mage-type monsters?

Sweeping below with Detection, a Murloc Sage's corpse came into view. The name carried the word "sage," so it should know magic, right?

With that thought, he recast Summon Skeleton Mage, and sure enough, from the shattered remains of that corpse, a white skeleton emerged, with white electric sparks crackling and spinning between its two bony hands—it was actually an Electric Mage!

Heh heh, Li Shaolin was overjoyed. With a wave of his hand to dismiss and summon, the mage appeared before him.

In its hands, two massive balls of electric light coalesced, with serpent-like lightning writhing and darting within—quite a sight to behold.

In his mind, he issued a command to attack the wreckage in the sea, and the creature brought its bony hands together. The two spheres of lightning merged instantly, and with a crackling hum, a thin, white bolt of lightning shot out, striking the pile of planks dead on!

A flurry of motion followed, and small fish floated to the surface, belly-up.

The power seemed mediocre, but the accuracy was impressive!

"The fish are grilled, Lin, come over and eat. Huh, you've got another skeleton? And a magic-type one?" Sulonna, who had just finished her work nearby, turned around to call him over for a meal, but caught sight of the Skeleton Mage and asked in surprise.