Breakthrough

The other two spells had also been carefully selected by Huo Ling.

Lesser Wind of Acceleration

Spell Effect: Communicates with wind elementals and releases a gust of elemental wind, increasing the target's movement speed by 15%. Mana may be paid to extend the duration.

Casting Time: 3 seconds

Spell Cost: 5

Duration: 15 minutes

Extended Effect: Pay 3 mana every 10 minutes

Note: This effect can be dispelled by dispel spells

Lesser Shadow Entanglement

Spell Effect: Communicates with shadow energy and releases three shadow tentacles, reducing the target's movement speed by 15%. Mana may be paid to extend the duration.

Casting Time: 3 seconds

Spell Cost: 6

Duration: 5 minutes

Extended Effect: Pay 4 mana every 5 minutes

Note: This effect can be dispelled by dispel spells.

Having borrowed some good spells, Huo Ling hurried back to his dormitory and teleported to the Spirit Realm.

This time, he had come not only to hunt walking corpses and increase his potential points, but also because the Awakening Orbs had been in place long enough.

It was time to retrieve these lovely little treasures and exchange them for magic stones.

With a goal in mind, Huo Ling moved quickly. That very night, he retrieved all the Awakening Orbs and killed a few walking corpses along the way.

He had gathered enough potential points to learn the spells.

That night, after spending several hours using potential points to master all these spells, he turned and left the Spirit Realm.

He did not dare continue meditating to increase his mana and mental power, afraid that one careless moment would cause him to break through to Black Iron.

The second month of school had finally arrived. Huo Ling could barely wait to pay the remaining balance and exchange for all three magical materials he needed.

The Lesser Dimensional Stone was the most expensive material. Because it contained the power of space and was one of the raw materials used to make storage equipment, it cost Huo Ling a full fifty credits.

That was already considered cheap. If he had bought it with energy crystals, the price would have risen by at least a third.

The Netherworld Flower was the cheapest, at ten credits. River Styx Water was expensive too, costing twenty credits.

This directly caused Huo Ling's credit balance to plummet from 100 to 20, but he could not concern himself with that now.

He officially began using mana to infuse these materials. What followed was the true focus of this advancement.

Huo Ling had also swiftly mastered the secret art Seed of the Bone Graveyard through potential points.

Huo Ling began his final meditation as an apprentice. It felt as though the final block had been placed atop a structure of building blocks, and a sense of completion filled his heart.

His mana began to boil, surging and splitting within his body. His mental power also began to grow, breaking through that paper-thin barrier.

With a soft "pop," a sound no one else could hear rang out in Huo Ling's heart.

He could now use his mental power to sense the mana space within his mind.

He had succeeded!

At this point, Huo Ling had become a true Black Iron mage.

Then, not daring to delay, he immediately cast the secret art: Seed of the Bone Graveyard.

This spell had to be cast at the very moment an apprentice mage advanced to a Black Iron mage, while the mana space had yet to stabilize.

The many materials that had long been infused with Huo Ling's mana gradually shattered under the spell's effect, then gathered together and condensed into what looked like a seed.

Afterward, guided by Huo Ling's own mana, it entered his mana space.

After this seed entered Huo Ling's mana space and came into contact with his Black Iron mana, it began to grow. A vine sprouted from the seed.

The vine began growing around Huo Ling's mana space, winding around it circle after circle.

Seeing this, Huo Ling understood one of this spell's effects.

This vine could help Huo Ling stabilize his mana space. Not only could it protect the mana space, but it could also help expand it.

And that was merely its most superficial effect.

Its true purpose was to use the Dimensional Stone within Huo Ling's mana space to open up a tiny secondary space.

Bone Graveyard!

The moment he saw this effect, Huo Ling was utterly astonished.

This was a small space. To think that he, a mere Black Iron mage, could actually possess something like this.

Upon probing it with his mental power, he found that the space was not large, only about the size of a five-square-meter room and roughly three meters high, like a miniature graveyard.

The ground consisted of dark brown soil, piled up like an opened grave mound. A crooked, toppled tombstone was planted before it.

Bone Graveyard

Spell Effect: Opens up a negative energy space that can store the caster's skeleton-type summons. This space can be expanded by supplying mana.

Spell Cost: 10 mana/day

Space Size: 5 x 3

Seeing this, Huo Ling could barely keep the corners of his mouth down.

With this spell, he could change his combat style.

At the same time, after Huo Ling advanced to a Black Iron mage, Alik's Spellbook also blossomed with new radiance, indicating that new spells had been unlocked within it.

He hurriedly summoned the spellbook and carefully examined the spells it had revealed this time.

Bloody Skeleton Bone Shaping Wraith Modification Bone Revival Bone Armament Negative Energy Ray Bone Cone Bone Cage Soul Lash

A total of nine first-tier Black Iron spells. He had struck gold.

Although these were all necromancy spells and seemed somewhat evil, Huo Ling did not care.

In this society, strength was the most crucial factor. Even necromancers could find a place on Blue Star, so long as they did not rob graves.

Others might look down on him, but Huo Ling was not even afraid of poverty. Why would he fear that?

Huo Ling could find all the other spells in the university's online store, but Wraith Modification was unique to the spellbook.

This immediately piqued Huo Ling's interest, and he carefully read through the spell.

Wraith Modification

Spell Effect: Modifies the targeted wraith, implanting a skeleton combat plan edited by the caster into the wraith. Once casting is complete, the wraith will possess this combat plan.

Casting Time: 15 seconds

Spell Cost: 30

This was quite a peculiar spell. It appeared to be meant to strengthen summons such as skeleton soldiers.

Among a necromancer's spells, skeleton soldiers were undoubtedly one of the great pillars of their power.

There were three types of skeleton soldier undead summons when a mage cast spells.

The first was Summon Skeleton Soldier. By paying mana and using a template from the Spirit Realm, the caster could create a skeleton warrior equal to their own level.

It generally lasted fifteen minutes. During that time, it could fight for the caster. Once shattered or when the time ran out, it would disperse into mana.

The second was Undead Summoning. This allowed the caster to communicate with the undead plane within the Spirit Realm, where all manner of undead sprawled across the mountains and plains.

By paying mana, the caster could summon skeleton warriors from the undead plane to their side. These skeleton warriors had greater attack power, but there was a chance of summoning defective goods.