One Thing Subdues Another

Bloodthirsty Mosquitoes weren't stupid—after being tricked too many times, they began avoiding the death zone around Armory Camp.

But they were no match for human cunning, and couldn't escape the hands determined to hunt them.

Medivh had Transcendental Skeletons carry sealed blood barrels across the wasteland on guerrilla missions, luring and killing Bloodthirsty Mosquitoes.

Armory Camp didn't deploy its full force; only a few combat squads took turns hunting.

The other combat squads guarded Armory Camp, ensuring no enemies could launch a sneak attack and that any Magic Beast herd rebellion could be suppressed immediately.

Non-combat skeleton squads, against the backdrop of Bloodthirsty Mosquitoes ravaging the Odyssey Region, either scavenged the wasteland for remains of creatures killed by the mosquitoes or fired bricks and built walls and underground warehouses at Armory Camp.

During the Mosquito Plague, Medivh didn't idle—he spent the entire time in the underground fortress refining various skeletons.

The Mosquito Plague lasted over a month. By the time the Bloodthirsty Mosquito swarms fled back to their birthplace, asking about the Golden Bell's story was already something from two months ago.

Those two months, Medivh didn't rest. He threw himself into smelting skeleton parts, assembling and resurrecting all kinds of skeletons.

Under his diligent work, the skeleton population at Armory Camp exploded.

In those two months, Medivh refined 325 Grey Bone Skeletons, 236 White Bone Skeletons, and 164 Green Bone Skeletons.

Among the Green Bone Skeletons were six Transcendental Skeletons: four Flame Skeleton Knights, one Earth Skeleton Knight, and one Flame Skeleton Mage.

The Skeleton Knights were forged and assembled from the remains of Human Knights unearthed from an ancient battlefield; the Skeleton Mage was refined and resurrected from the remains of a human mage excavated from the same battlefield.

Through Suixin's Voice of the Soul, Medivh restored the historical knowledge carried by the Transcendental Skeletons.

The Flame Battle Qi Breathing Technique still only had the first volume, but the Flame Battle Skills increased from three to five.

From the Earth Skeleton Knight, Medivh obtained the first volume of the Earth Battle Qi Breathing Technique and three earth-type battle skills.

The Flame Skeleton Mage held a Fire Skull Staff in one hand and a Magic Bone Book in the other, and like all combat skeletons, was born with Bone Armor.

The Flame Skeleton Mage's Magic Bone Book recorded five fire-type spells and three universal spells.

Medivh couldn't learn the fire-type spells, but the universal spells were within his ability to study and use.

The Flame Skeleton Mage had strong mental power and could speak directly with Medivh, no need for Suixin to relay information.

Under the Flame Skeleton Mage's instruction, Medivh learned the universal spells Cleanse, Mage Hand, and Magic Shield.

Cleanse went without saying—it was just an auxiliary spell for cleaning dust.

Mage Hand was a simple application of mental power to one's own mana, used to grasp objects.

With Medivh's current mental power and mana, he could only grab small items; crushing someone to death was out of the question.

Mage Hand was merely an auxiliary spell. True attack spells were element-specific ones like Flame Grasp or Death Grasp.

The Flame Skeleton Mage knew Flame Grasp. Once Medivh advanced to a full mage, he could try researching whether he could create a Death Grasp spell.

Magic Shield, as the name implied, was a spell that channeled mana to protect oneself.

After learning the three universal spells, Medivh finally started to look a bit like a proper mage.

During the Bloodthirsty Mosquito rampage, the skeletons at Armory Camp gained massive improvements by hunting the mosquitoes and absorbing their Magic Beast blood and refined blood essence.

All the Transcendental Skeletons in the camp took that final step, advancing one rank to become low-level Skeleton Knights, Skeleton Mages, and Spirit Cat Warlocks.

Among the Green Bone Skeletons, six Skeleton Warriors, three Skeleton Rangers, two Skeleton Assassins, and one Skeleton Farmer awakened Bone Spirit Power and advanced to become first-rank low-level Bone Spirits.

Currently, Armory Camp had a total of 469 Grey Bone Skeletons, 328 White Bone Skeletons, 290 ordinary Green Bone Skeletons, and 34 Transcendental Green Bone Skeletons.

By the time Medivh had been a Pioneer in the Odyssey Region for eight months, the skeleton count at Armory Camp had surpassed one thousand.

A thousand skeletons that never slept, never tired, worked with terrifying efficiency.

During the Mosquito Plague, the brick factory never stopped, and construction on the Wall District continued without pause.

With segmented construction, the northern wall was already complete, the eastern and western walls were over halfway done, and the southern wall had reached thirty percent completion.

At the current construction speed, the high walls of the Wall District would close the circle in another month, fully enclosing Armory Camp within its fortifications, making it even more secure.

"Moo..."

After more than a month of raising them, the herd of bovine Magic Beasts had mostly recovered.

Medivh sent Transcendental Skeletons to collect blood.

Under the watch of dozens of first-rank skeletons, the herd's Magic Beast leader let out an uneasy cry.

The herd's panic quickly subsided, as they realized the skeletons weren't there to kill and eat beef—they only wanted a portion of their blood.

Medivh understood sustainable development. He wouldn't kill the goose for a single egg's worth of short-term gain. He took only a small amount of blood, not enough to affect the bovine Magic Beasts' growth.

"Moo!"

Once they confirmed Medivh's intent, the bovine Magic Beast leader let out a light, cheerful call.

Just a bit of blood—take it. As long as they weren't after beef, everything was negotiable.

That herd of bovine Magic Beasts had no obvious elemental affinity. Because of their large horns, Medivh named them Big-Horned Oxen.

Big-Horned Oxen were bulky and heavy.

An ordinary Big-Horned Ox stood four meters at the shoulder and measured five meters in length. A first-rank Magic Beast-grade Big-Horned Ox stood six meters at the shoulder and measured eight meters in length.

A charging Big-Horned Ox was like a tank. Under normal circumstances, it had few rivals in the Odyssey Region, but it was helpless against Bloodthirsty Mosquitoes.

Seventy-four had fled to Armory Camp, including five first-tier Magic Beasts, while the rest were ordinary Big-Horned Oxen whose Magic Beast bloodlines had not yet awakened.

After drawing the blood, Medivh used the collected Magic Beast blood to cultivate Green Bone Skeleton Rangers.

The Magic Beast blood extracted from five Big-Horned Oxen allowed two high-year Green Bone Skeleton Rangers to awaken Bone Spirit Power and advance to first-tier Bone Spirit Rangers.

This was a sustainable process—roughly once a month, he could draw blood and nurture two Bone Spirit Skeletons.

Medivh left the ordinary Big-Horned Oxen untouched, hoping more would awaken their Magic Beast bloodlines and supply him with Magic Beast blood.

After the blood draw, Medivh had the Logistics Skeletons deliver high-quality fodder to the Big-Horned Oxen as a reward.

After the Mosquito Plague, a large number of beasts had been killed or migrated away, leaving the Odyssey Region short on food.

But this didn't affect Armory Camp. Medivh commanded a legion of skeletons that needed no food—the only ones consuming supplies were himself, Audrey, the Alien Maid, and the herd of Big-Horned Oxen and other herbivores penned in the camp.

The Big-Horned Oxen and herbivores could be fed by cutting grass on the wasteland, so there was no shortage of food.

When the Mosquito Plague broke out, Armory Camp had hunted a large number of beasts fleeing through the area.

That meat was stored in the Underground Freezer Medivh had built using the magic core of a Cold-Horned Deer.

At their daily consumption rate, the meat in the Underground Freezer would last years without running out.

Food scarcity simply didn't exist at Armory Camp.