Far Ahead

Medivh had no time to study the Orc Skeleton Prophet. At that moment, he was immersed in the mental leap brought on by the Spring of Time.

His accumulated foundation was already more than sufficient. This Spring of Time was the spark that would trigger a quantitative change into a qualitative one.

"So I've actually advanced to a full-fledged mage!"

After the mental leap continued for a while, Medivh's mental power surged dramatically. He advanced from a Senior Mage Apprentice to a Tier 1 Low-level Mage.

After advancing to a full-fledged mage, Medivh opened his eyes, unable to hide his joy and pride.

Before entering the Loran Mage Academy to study, he had learned quite a bit about mage apprentices.

For an ordinary mage apprentice, advancing to a full-fledged mage usually took decades.

Compared with those Academic School mage apprentices, Medivh was far ahead.

Mage cultivation required both talent and cultivation resources.

With talent alone but no potions to aid cultivation, meditation brought very little improvement. Even decades of painstaking cultivation might not be enough to reach the mental threshold for becoming a full-fledged mage.

With resources alone but no talent, the effects of cultivation-aiding potions were greatly diminished, and mental power grew slowly.

For mage apprentices like these, advancing to Senior Mage Apprentice was achievable as long as they had enough auxiliary potions. The key hurdle was the final step of advancing to a full-fledged mage.

A Senior Mage Apprentice couldn't advance to a full-fledged mage simply by reaching the required level of mental power.

In fact, this step was extremely difficult. Most Senior Mage Apprentices spent their entire lives stuck outside the threshold.

To improve the chances of success, the mage sages of old invented the Ascension Potion. It stimulated mental power, putting it into a highly active state of transition.

But it only improved the chances of advancing somewhat; it couldn't guarantee success.

This step depended greatly on personal talent and on how well the mage apprentice controlled their mental power and mana.

Take Medivh, for example. His mental power had reached the required level some time ago.

His opportunity to advance to a full-fledged mage came from the special Spring of Time, which was equivalent to an Ascension Potion.

During his previous crafting sessions, he had already discovered that each time he created a new kind of skeleton, he received a special Spring of Time in return, which stimulated his mental power.

In terms of how strongly they stimulated mental power, Transcendental Skeletons were more effective than Common Skeletons, and Mage Skeletons were more effective than physical combat skeletons.

That was why Medivh had chosen to trigger his breakthrough opportunity by resurrecting an Orc Skeleton Prophet for the first time.

Advancing as a mage was a test of the mind. If he failed, his mental power would be damaged, and he would need a long period of rest to recover.

Even potions that treated mental trauma could only shorten the recovery time to some extent. They couldn't heal him instantly.

So there was no possibility of repeatedly trying until he succeeded. Every advancement as a mage had to be treated with utmost care.

Medivh had prepared thoroughly for this advancement, and with no bad luck striking him, he succeeded on his first try.

Amid the joy of advancing, Medivh tested the Orc Skeleton Prophet's abilities.

The Orc Skeleton Prophet was a spellcaster. Like other skeleton spellcasters, he wore bone armor and wielded an Origin Bone Staff.

Besides the Origin Bone Staff, each type of skeleton spellcaster had another unique Origin Bone Artifact.

The Spirit Cat Skeleton Warlock's second Origin Bone Artifact was the Spirit Cat Warlock Blade, a pair of magical claw blades.

The Human Skeleton Mage's second Origin Bone Artifact was the Bone Book, which could store spells in advance for rapid casting.

The Minotaur Skeleton Shaman's second Origin Bone Artifact was a giant Totem Pillar, which served as their melee weapon.

The Orc Skeleton Prophet excelled at various Curse Spells. His second Origin Bone Artifact was the Cursed Sword.

It was a bone sword enchanted with curses. When the Orc Skeleton Prophet struck an enemy with it, he could inflict curses as well.

Time Skeletons retained only some of the knowledge they had possessed in life. This Orc Skeleton Prophet had mastered three Curse Spells: Curse of Weakness, Curse of Bleeding, and Curse of Pain.

Curse of Weakness reduced the target's strength and constitution. Curse of Bleeding made the target's wounds bleed without stopping, while Curse of Pain tormented the target with pain and wore down their will.

After advancing to Tier 1 Low-level Mage, Medivh could smelt older bones. He could now smelt Blue Bone that was three hundred to five hundred years old.

The bones excavated from this Ancient Battlefield were all Green Bone of a fixed age. There was no Blue Bone.

If he wanted to smelt Blue Bone, he would have to return to Kurd City.

Suppressing his urge to smelt Blue Bone, Medivh led the skeletons in excavating the Ancient Battlefield while smelting the Transcendental Skeleton bones they unearthed.

The Blue Bone back home wasn't going anywhere. But if he didn't excavate this flood-eroded Ancient Battlefield soon, he would lose a batch of excellent, high-age Green Bone.

Before long, he had assembled a complete set of human knight parts and began putting them together for resurrection.

After advancing to Tier 1, resurrecting a Transcendental Green Bone Skeleton was a breeze for him.

Green Bone Skeletons had a fixed starting level, which hadn't increased when Medivh advanced.

Like the other high-age Green Bone Knights, the newly resurrected Skeleton Knight was a veteran Apprentice Knight, just one step away from Tier 1.

He was a Flame Skeleton Knight. The sound of Battle Qi surging through the air was difficult to make out.

Medivh called over his personal interpreter to help record the historical knowledge passed down by this Skeleton Knight.

Like the other Flame Skeleton Knights, he had inherited the upper volume of the Flame Battle Qi Breathing Technique.

The only difference was the combat skills he had mastered. Of the three Flame Battle Qi techniques he had inherited, one was new.

Kurd City had a richer legacy of Flame Battle Qi. Medivh had the Flame Skeleton Mage record the new technique.

After resurrecting the Flame Skeleton Knight, Medivh continued smelting the Transcendental Skeleton bones delivered without end by the Logistics Skeletons.

After a while, he had gathered all the skeleton parts of an Orc Transcendental Warrior and began putting them together for resurrection.

The bones of the Orc Transcendental Warrior had resurrected into an Orc Skeleton Berserker.

The Orc Skeleton Berserker stood three meters tall and wore bone armor as thick as that of a human Skeleton Knight.

Their Origin Bone Artifacts were a pair of Hand Axes and a ring of Throwing Axes hanging from their belts.

Skeleton Berserkers had no complicated martial techniques. They had only one thing going for them: hack, hack, and hack some more!

Their Transcendental ability was Blood Rage Berserk. The more they fought, the stronger they became. The longer the battle lasted, the faster they attacked; the more enemies they killed, the stronger their attacks grew.

When Blood Rage Berserk had built up to a certain level, they absorbed their enemies' blood and formed a Berserk Blood Shield over their bodies.

The Berserk Blood Shield helped Skeleton Berserkers withstand damage and heal their damaged bones.

Blood Rage Berserk wasn't free. Real Orcs triggered Blood Rage Berserk by burning their vitality, while Skeleton Berserkers consumed Bone Spirit Power.

Only when Blood Rage Berserk had built up enough to create a Berserk Blood Shield did it become cost-free. At that point, it was the enemy's vitality that burned, and as long as the shield held, they could keep fighting.

The first time Medivh resurrected an Orc Skeleton Berserker, the Spring of Time's return was exceptionally powerful.

After absorbing that Spring of Time, Medivh fully recovered the mental power and mana he had spent, and his maximum mental power increased by quite a bit.

The more he worked, the more energized he became. After absorbing the Spring of Time, Medivh continued smelting bone parts and resurrecting Transcendental Skeletons.