Bone Warrior

Huo Ling slowly climbed to the eighth floor. Looking at the zombie not far away, a smile curled across his lips.

"Zombie, I want you to help me cultivate!"

As he traced the runes, magic power surged. A Bone Cone as long as his forearm floated before him.

Then, propelled by tremendous momentum, the Bone Cone shot forward with a whoosh!, striking the Black Iron zombie.

The zombie's tough skin proved as fragile as paper beneath the spell's assault.

The Bone Cone blew the zombie's head apart, dispatching it cleanly and decisively.

Several White Bone Fangs then wiped out the other zombies as well.

Huo Ling formally began crafting the Black Iron-tier zombie before him.

Even though the zombie had already been killed, he could still sense its strength from the corpse.

Zombies truly were excellent materials!

A spell descended, and the bones began absorbing the essence from the flesh and blood.

Feeling the strength of these bones, Huo Ling knew this Black Iron Skeleton Warrior was a sure thing.

After consuming a great deal of magic power, several spells landed on the corpse in succession. A powerful Black Iron-tier Skeleton Warrior was successfully crafted by Huo Ling.

Bone Warrior

Name: Bone Warrior

Bloodline: Undead Bone Clan

Rank: First-Rank Black Iron Warrior (Stage One)

Strength: 13.7

Constitution: 10

Agility: 9

Soul Power: 15

Skill: Basic Skeleton Warrior Combat Techniques

After examining this Black Iron-tier Bone Warrior, Huo Ling nodded in satisfaction.

Its attributes were fairly good. After all, it had only just been crafted. Huo Ling brought it downstairs and continued having it absorb the zombie corpses dragged over by the other Skeleton Warriors.

Compared with the apprentice-level Skeleton Warriors, this Black Iron-tier Bone Warrior absorbed them much faster.

This Skeleton Warrior would be one of Huo Ling's trump cards. A Bone Warrior could be up to two stages higher than its caster.

That meant that as long as this Bone Warrior continued absorbing soul power and flesh-and-blood essence, it could currently reach Black Iron Stage Three at most.

A Bone Warrior's overall attributes could not compare to those of a combat professional of the same rank, but the resources needed to train a combat professional far exceeded those used to create a Bone Warrior.

For a mage, a Bone Warrior that obeyed every command was, in certain respects, more reliable than a combat-professional teammate.

Having successfully created a Black Iron Bone Warrior, Huo Ling was in high spirits and wanted to continue searching for zombies that had broken through.

However, those zombies did not move during the day, and they did not cultivate battle aura or anything of the sort. Their strength relied entirely on physical power.

This made Huo Ling's search even more difficult, so he simply gave up.

After all, even a zombie that had broken through to the Black Iron rank looked no different from an ordinary zombie when it was not attacking.

As the sun gradually set, Huo Ling, who had been busy all day, returned to his old nest.

At present, he had one Black Iron Bone Warrior, five Skeleton Warriors at the peak of the apprentice rank, and twenty low-level apprentice Skeleton Warriors under his command.

Huo Ling left these low-level Skeleton Warriors within the residential complex. If there was the slightest disturbance there, he would be able to discover it in time.

The other six stronger Skeleton Warriors stood guard at the entrance.

At night, Huo Ling continued studying spells. There were still several spells in the spellbook that he had yet to master.

Negative Energy RayBone CageSoul Lash

Learning these three spells would also be a fine addition to Huo Ling's offensive methods.

Negative Energy Ray

Spell Effect: Communicates with negative energy. After a brief casting time, fires a ray at the target, dealing magical damage and striking at its morale.

Casting Time: 3 seconds

Spell Cost: 15 magic power

Spell Range: 25 × mental power

Spell Power: 50

Bone Cage

Spell Effect: A control spell. After a brief casting time, forms a cage made of bone around the target. Magic power may be spent to repair the cage and extend its duration. The control effect disappears once the cage is shattered.

Casting Time: 4 seconds

Spell Cost: 20 magic power

Spell Range: 10 × mental power

Spell Duration: 15 minutes

Extended Duration: 10/10

Spell Armor: 50

Soul Lash

Spell Effect: After a brief casting time, forms a whip of the soul that can ignore defenses and lash the enemy's soul one to three times, causing intense pain.

Casting Time: 5 seconds

Spell Cost: 20–50 magic power

Spell Range: 15 × mental power

Attack Count: 1–3 lashes

Spell Power: 0

(This spell only causes pain to the soul and does not inflict tangible damage.)

After spending several hours, Huo Ling successfully mastered these three spells, raising his combat power another level.

He did not waste the remaining time either. Dawn was still far away, so Huo Ling continued meditating.

After daybreak the next day, he began checking the results of his cultivation.

He summoned his status panel for a look:

Name: Huo Ling

Mental Power: 16.3/16.3

Magic Power: 163/163

Skill: Dark Breath Meditation Method

Zero-Rank Spells: White Bone Fangs... Minor Injury Treatment

First-Rank Spells: Bloody Skeleton, Bone Shaping, Wraith Modification, Bone Revival, Bone Armament, Bone Cone, Mage Shield, Language Comprehension, Healing Light Injuries, Negative Energy Ray, Bone Cage, Soul Lash

Secret Art: Bone Graveyard 0/5

Potential Points: 17

At a glance, Huo Ling noticed a problem.

He had spent roughly thirty potential points last night, yet his mental power had only increased by one point and his magic power by ten points.

Based on before, that amount should have increased by at least three times as much.

Could it be that because his rank had risen, the effects of potential points had been reduced?

Huo Ling fell into thought. If that was the case, his cultivation speed might not be as fast as he had imagined.

He would need to spend at least three times as long to advance to the Silver rank.

He stopped thinking about it. Being able to use potential points to help him learn was already a blessing bestowed by heaven.

Huo Ling stored the Bone Warrior and four Skeleton Warriors in the Bone Graveyard, leaving the rest in the Spirit Realm.

Then he crushed the Blue Star Beacon and stepped through the portal.

In the days that followed, Huo Ling's life was simple and monotonous.

After class every day, Huo Ling would enter the Spirit Realm to continue hunting zombies, gathering potential points, and strengthening his Skeleton Warriors.

Heaven did not disappoint those who worked hard. After more than half a month of grueling effort, Huo Ling had four Bone Warriors under his command.

The strongest among them had possessed a relatively solid foundation to begin with and had already reached Black Iron Stage Two.

With the help of these bodyguards, Huo Ling could live more securely in the Spirit Realm.