Level One Apprentice! Engraving the Bone Dog

An hour of intensive instruction ended with Mentor Makley's deep, magnetic voice.

Tylen felt as if he had stepped into a new world, countless pieces of knowledge about the runic structures, mana circuits, and node resonance of Bone Domination churning in his mind.

"Alright, that's all for today's lesson."

Makley looked at Tylen with a profound gaze:

"Once you fully digest today's knowledge, you will have grasped the core essence of Bone Domination."

"But this is only the first step."

"After you successfully break through the bottleneck and become a first-level apprentice, and master soul resonance through the Spirit Summoning Control Method, you can attempt to create your own Skeleton Servant."

"This is the foundation of everything for us Soul-type Wizards."

Tylen bowed respectfully, his tone filled with gratitude and aspiration:

"Thank you for your guidance, Mentor. This student will keep it firmly in mind."

Makley nodded with satisfaction, then his expression turned serious as he instructed:

"Also, don't go out to collect corpses for the next three days."

"The end-of-month audit is about to begin; higher-ups will come for spot checks."

"Clean the morgue thoroughly, inside and out."

"And make sure someone is here at all times—don't let them catch any excuse."

"Yes, Mentor."

Having said all this, Makley's figure twisted, transforming once again into a black crow. He flapped his wings, flew out through the vent, and vanished into the night.

After seeing off his mentor, Tylen closed the window.

As the [Slacker Saint Body] took effect again, the swollen sensation of mental overload quickly receded, replaced by an exceptionally clear and logical train of thought.

"From what I just learned, controlling runes also consumes mental energy."

"So, I need to reallocate this limited mental energy."

Tylen sat at the desk, tapping his fingers lightly on the surface, configuring resources in his mind.

"My current mental energy cap is 3.6."

"Thanks to the 30x recovery rate, I can fully restore my mana with each meditation session."

"That means I have at least three full bars of mana per day, totaling 10.8 mental energy."

"The Magic Thorn Art's sharpness is already sufficient to handle crises among low-level apprentices; no extra practice needed."

"With the experience books backing me up, there's no need to waste precious mental energy on tedious spell deduction."

"My top priority now is to quickly raise my Runic Studies level and gain an immediate boost in combat power!"

Having made up his mind, Tylen turned his gaze to the Grand Monthly Card panel.

After completing the task earlier, there were still two level rewards unclaimed.

Lv.5: Concentrated Soul Fragment x2; Blank Experience Book x5 (Each book grants 100 experience points, can be used to increase skill proficiency)

Lv.6: Wizard's Experience x4

"Experience books are really something great!"

With a thought from Tylen, the four books emitting a faint blue light turned into streams of radiance and drilled into his brow.

Boom!

[Spirit Summoning Control Method: 7666 → 11684/100000]

The progress bar surged forward sharply, directly breaking through that invisible threshold called "0-level apprentice"!

Tylen immediately sat cross-legged, closed his eyes, and began spell deduction.

He still had 2.6 mental energy left, but he didn't plan to spend it all on spell deduction.

He only symbolically consumed 0.6 mental energy, guiding the massive flow of experience to wash through his Spirit Sea.

In an instant.

The thick mist that had originally shrouded the magic array in his Spirit Sea began to melt and recede rapidly, like snow under a blazing sun.

A large patch of mist dissipated, revealing the profoundly intricate, complex, and mesmerizing array lines and nodes beneath.

Those lines were no longer rigid strokes; they seemed to come alive, emitting a faint blue glow, pulsing like a breath.

In that moment, Tylen's thoughts resonated strangely with these lines.

He instinctively felt that his thinking was no longer confined to the narrow vessel of his brain but began to extend outward rapidly along those nodes.

Like tentacles, or the ripples of a radar.

This was the first time he had so clearly and concretely felt the existence of his own soul.

It was an immensely complex, deep, and blurry shadow, tightly interwoven and fused with his physical body.

The surging spirituality within him rushed like an underground river, flowing through every nerve and every cell.

And it was precisely this existence that was now gradually establishing a deeper connection with the invisible, omnipresent magic in the air.

At this moment, Tylen could faintly perceive the free-floating magic particles in the surrounding space with nothing but his will.

They were like countless tiny fireflies, drifting and sinking in the darkness.

And through these magic particles as a medium, Tylen discovered that he could resonate with certain special existences.

"This is... spiritual resonance!"

Tylen was overjoyed.

The core effect of the Spirit Summoning Control Method was to summon souls and control them.

And the mark of entering the first stage and becoming a first-rank apprentice was the ability to perceive, communicate with, and even control external spirituality through magic!

This meant he was no longer just a butcher who could only toy with corpses—he had finally stepped over the threshold of the supernatural.

When Tylen opened his eyes from that mysterious state.

Although his body hadn't undergone obvious changes like muscle bulging, he could clearly feel a much closer connection to heaven and earth.

"First-rank apprentice..."

"Just now, the teacher said that becoming a first-rank apprentice means I can try to forge my own Skeleton Servant."

"Doesn't that mean I can get started right now?"

Thinking this, Tylen's heart pounded violently.

He turned his head to look at the few human corpses in the morgue—he had no right to use those.

"But..."

Tylen's eyes suddenly lit up, and the corner of his mouth curled into a smug arc.

"I scored a lot of stray dog corpses today!"

No sooner said than done!

Tylen rushed into the cold storage like a gust of wind and dragged out a stray dog corpse with a moderate build and the most complete skeleton.

The Bone-Cleaving Knife spun in his hand.

Boning, cleaning, acid soaking... half an hour later.

A set of crystal-clear, thoroughly cleaned dog bones lay before Tylen.

"To perform Bone Domination, I first need to engrave the complete set of Bone Domination runes onto the bones."

Tylen recalled the knowledge in his mind:

"Under normal circumstances, the most common method for this process is 'Alchemy Etching.'"

"By wrapping the bones in pre-made rune molds and immersing them in a special strong-acid alchemical solution, the chemical reaction corrodes the patterns into the surface."

"This method is efficient, has a high tolerance for error, and is suitable for mass production."

"Unfortunately, I have neither the molds nor the expensive alchemical solution."

Tylen sighed and pulled out the Purple Diamond Carving Knife from under his bed.

"No conditions? Then I'll create the conditions."

"Hand-carving is slow, but it not only trains my technique, it also deepens my memory."

Tylen took a deep breath. With the blessing of the Slacker Saint Body, his gaze swept over the dog skeleton before him like an X-ray scanner.

Under thirtyfold thinking efficiency, a complete, three-dimensional rune structure blueprint quickly took shape in his mind, perfectly overlapping with the bones in front of him.

"First, I need to carve the rune cores at all the joint nodes, to serve as magic relay stations."

"Then, through magic circuits, I connect these cores into a whole."

"Finally, I draw auxiliary rune frameworks like [Sturdy] and [Agile] on the periphery to ensure structural stability."

Plan set.

Tylen flicked his wrist, and the Purple Diamond Carving Knife landed on the center of the dog skull's forehead.

Sssss...

Fine bone dust flew.

Tylen's hand was steady as a rock; every cut landed precisely on the predetermined position, with consistent depth and smooth lines.

With the blessing of the [Slacker Saint Body], he was not only astonishingly efficient, but also accumulating experience at a terrifying speed.

In the first hour, he still had to be cautious, pausing now and then to check.

In the second hour, his movements gradually relaxed and began to develop a rhythm.

In the third hour, he could already carve with ease and leisure, even sparing attention to think about how to optimize the circuit paths.

The fourth hour, he was as smooth as if the carving knife were an extension of his own fingers.

When the fifth hour arrived.

Tylen set down the carving knife, stood up, and stretched hard, his joints crackling like a string of popping beans.

"Hah!"

He let out a long breath, gazing at the masterpiece before him.

On this dog's skeleton, a quarter of the key areas—the skull, spine, and limb joints—had already been carved with neat and orderly runes.

The dense lines flickered faintly in the candlelight, exuding a kind of eerie beauty.

"Just one last step."

Tylen turned and picked up a roll of thin iron wire.

He spent ten minutes physically reinforcing the joints of the dog skeleton.

After all, this was his first practice run; the runic connections might not be stable enough, so the physical reinforcement served as a double safeguard.

Once everything was done.

Tylen glanced at the clock on the wall.

1 AM.

"Sleep!"

Without a moment's hesitation, Tylen flopped straight onto the bed and fell asleep instantly.

Twenty minutes later.

Tylen's eyes snapped open.

Refreshed and clear-headed!

All muscle fatigue and mental exhaustion had been fully restored.

He jumped out of bed excitedly, like someone discovering an incredibly addictive new game, eager to test the results of his new gear.

He walked to the table and picked up a round bone piece engraved with special inscriptions.

This was the master switch and control core of the Bone Domination rune system.

He placed it in his palm and took a deep breath.

Channeling the newly born, still somewhat clumsy magic within him.

"Rise!"

He consumed 1 point of mental energy, slowly infusing it into the bone piece in his hand.

Hum!

The bone piece glowed faintly, and an invisible wave instantly transmitted to the dog skeleton on the table.

Crack!

The lifeless bone dog lying on the table suddenly twitched violently, as if electrified.

"It moved! It actually moved!"

Then he watched as the bone dog stiffly and dryly stood up.

Tylen jumped up in excitement: "It worked! It worked!"