Time Is Power

When the Necrotic Black Light targeted a set of bones over three hundred years old, a conspicuous blue glow lit up in Medivh's spiritual vision.

Bones over three hundred years old could be transformed into Blue Bone components.

Medivh could not see any further information. His spiritual realm was not strong enough; he needed to become a first-rank mage before he could refine bones over three hundred years old and obtain detailed information.

When the Necrotic Black Light targeted those fresh corpses, Medivh's mind stung sharply, and he quickly canceled the spell.

Corpses less than five years old could not trigger the time spell.

If he used the conventional Bone Resurrection, he would suffer backlash from the Hospice Blessing.

Medivh had not been a Necromancer for long. His mana was limited, and after casting the time spell several times, he had to meditate to recover.

Over the next few days, Audrey dug through the earth while Medivh spent his time casting spells and meditating.

After several busy days, the box beside Medivh held more than twenty bone components.

Human bone components were divided into six parts: the skull, torso bones, left and right arm bones, and left and right leg bones.

The bones buried beneath these ruins all had some age to them.

More than half of those twenty-odd bone components were Green Bone over a hundred years old.

Different bones had different specialties. Medivh selected a set of warrior bone components and began his first Temporal Bone Resurrection.

Under his control of mana, the six Green Bone components rose into the air, assembling and fusing within the Magic Rune Array.

Resurrecting a Green Bone Skeleton was difficult for Medivh, and fine beads of sweat soon formed on his forehead.

He gritted his teeth and persevered. Just as his mind began to grow hazy, a stream of sweet spring water descended.

The Green Bone Skeleton had been successfully resurrected. He received feedback from the Spring of Time; not only was his mana fully restored, but his spiritual power had also improved somewhat.

Temporal Bone Resurrection could actually strengthen spiritual power.

Medivh grew even more excited. With a talent like this, he would never need to worry about cultivation resources.

A Green Bone Skeleton Warrior was equivalent to an Apprentice Knight. Its Green Bone body was incredibly sturdy, not much weaker than Audrey.

"Medivh, am I really that useless?"

After years of bitter training, she was only slightly stronger than a skeleton Medivh had casually resurrected. Audrey began to question her life.

"No, you're very talented. I have high hopes for you."

The Green Bone Skeleton Warrior could fight Audrey evenly only because it was unafraid of injury.

A body of flesh and blood simply could not compare to the undead in that regard.

In truth, Audrey was quite strong. She was not far from refining her Battle Qi and advancing to a first-rank knight.

Knights were where the real qualitative change began. The gap between Apprentice Knights was not particularly large.

Medivh took out the remaining knight cultivation resources and gave them to Audrey, guiding her training. This was her reward for all her hard work excavating these past few days.

With the Green Bone Skeleton Warrior, she no longer needed to do such backbreaking labor and could train in peace.

In the blink of an eye, Medivh had already spent a month and a half in the Odyssey Region.

During that month and a half, Medivh spent every moment other than eating and resting meditating and refining bone components.

He refined nearly two hundred sets of bones. More than half were between one hundred and three hundred years old, while the rest were all over fifty years old.

He matched, assembled, and resurrected the refined bone components according to the specialties of the original bones.

As he continued assembling and resurrecting them, Medivh discovered that each time improved his spiritual power, but that state of fully restored mana and spiritual power only occurred when he resurrected a new type of skeleton.

At present, six White Bone Skeletons and twelve Green Bone Skeletons were active among the ruins.

The White Bone Skeletons consisted of four farmers and two hunters.

The Green Bone Skeletons consisted of eight farmers, one hunter, and three warriors.

These ruins might once have been a village. Most of the bones buried underground had belonged to farmers.

White Bone Skeletons were comparable to elite soldiers, while Green Bone Skeletons were comparable to Apprentice Knights.

In actual combat, warriors were stronger than hunters, who were far stronger than farmers.

Green Bone Skeleton Farmers were not skilled in combat. They relied on their sturdy bone bodies and lack of pain.

Skeletons resurrected through Temporal Bone Resurrection did not require Medivh to provide them with additional equipment.

Skeleton Farmers came with bone sickles, Skeleton Hunters came with Bone Bows and Bone Arrows, and Skeleton Warriors came with Bone Swords, Bone Shields, and Bone Armor.

Their equipment was an extension of their skeletal bodies. If damaged, it could slowly recover.

During this month and a half, aside from the group of thugs they encountered near the ruins at the beginning, only the occasional wild beast came to attack afterward. Things had been fairly peaceful.

Medivh assigned the skeleton warriors and hunters to patrol and hunt, while the farmers excavated the underground bones at locations he had marked.

This Residential District had existed for quite some time and held many buried remains.

Perhaps because they had been bathed in Holy Light, the bones in this world were less likely to decay.

During this period, the farmers unearthed several sets of bones over five hundred years old. In his spell vision, those bones shone with dazzling purple light.

However, such extremely old bones, preserved only because they had been properly buried, were rare.

This did not surprise him. During archaeological work in his previous life, he had handled many intact skeletons over a thousand years old, and some that had been especially well-preserved even retained flesh.

Medivh was only a Mage Apprentice. He did not even have the ability to refine Blue Bone, so he could only store the Purple Bone away for now and use it after his realm improved.

"Lord Wester, the mercenaries in the Odyssey Pioneer Territory have sent word that they did not see Medivh there."

While Medivh was busy excavating history, Wester's steward reported the reply from afar.

Medivh had left Winter Fortress nearly two months ago, yet he still had not arrived at the Pioneer Territory.

"I overestimated him. He couldn't even reach the Pioneer Territory?"

Wester set down the letter in his hand, his gaze deep.

He believed Medivh was seasoned and might become a threat to him, so he had deliberately arranged a grand show.

Yet Medivh could not even make it onto the stage.

"My lord, even if Medivh has a few clever tricks, what can a Necromancer Apprentice possibly do?"

The steward flattered Wester's arrangement.

Medivh had just graduated from the Mage Academy when exile and the broken engagement came one after another, leaving him no time to catch his breath.

Aside from Audrey, who had unexpectedly followed him, he did not have a single guard by his side.

A Necromancer Apprentice was a useless cripple, while a beautiful noble young lady like Audrey would be highly conspicuous upon reaching Odyssey.

That combination was prey the thugs would eagerly chase.

So it was perfectly normal that they never reached the Pioneer Territory.

"Have them search the route they came from. We can't let that money go to waste."

Wester nodded slightly, agreeing with his steward's analysis.

But since the money had already been spent, he could not let those mercenaries earn it too easily. He ordered them to search along the road, just in case.

"Medivh, are you designing a castle?"

At lunch, Audrey saw Medivh writing and drawing on sheets of paper and leaned over to look.

"That's right. We can't live in a carriage forever. I'm planning my territory."

Medivh nodded.

The draft paper contained two architectural designs. One was a cluster of ten-by-ten small squares, each one hundred meters on a side. The other was a large square one thousand meters on a side.

The clustered small squares were the Residential District. Each small square would contain two rows of back-to-back residential buildings.

The left and right sides and the centerline formed three vertical streets, while the upper and lower sides formed horizontal streets.

The large squares were the development zones he had planned.

A ring of Fort Towers lined the borders of the large squares, while the space between two large squares formed a main road.

His future territory would be enclosed by Fort Towers.

Along the Fort Towers on both sides of the main road, the inner forts would house the Logistics Skeletons of the corresponding areas, while the outer forts would house the warriors.

This was an enormous undertaking. Only an infrastructure fanatic like Medivh would design something like this.

After all, undead skeletons never tired. Once he had enough skeletons under his command, there would be no shortage of laborers to work.