Floating Skull

Once the space stabilized, Yang Mu casually waved his hand, and the six Undead Servants vanished, reappearing within his Undead Space.

Good. The space was stable, and the spiritual imprints had formed. This space had been anchored by him and become his exclusive Undead Space. The death mist formed by the laws of death, undeath, darkness, and so on within it could slowly strengthen and repair the undead inside.

The storeroom, which had originally felt somewhat cramped due to the many Undead Servants and corpses, immediately became spacious.

Only then did Yang Mu begin processing the corpse materials he had acquired.

First came the Faith Knight Owen. Yang Mu removed his heart, soaked it in a nun's blood, and used a magic array to connect it to dark energy, triggering the Guardian Corruption Reaction. This time, the magic array was no longer connected to inert dark energy.

Instead, it sought a demonic plane similar to the Abyss. Although the Abyss was the largest demonic plane among the Infinite Worlds, so vast that it could cover several world clusters and was still expanding,

the Abyss was not the only plane inhabited by Demons. Demons existed in many dark planes. Fortunately, as a major world, this world also possessed a Demon Space.

As large amounts of red-black power spread from the magic array, accompanied by the scent of sulfur, star-shaped black spots appeared on Owen's heart. The instant seven black spots appeared, Yang Mu shut down the magic array.

The Knight's Heart Loyalty Paradox was complete.

Yang Mu then sliced Sabo's brain and mixed it with Vanessa's spinal cord, placing the mixture inside the crystal skull refined from Lilith's skull when he escaped the manor.

He then burned Ina's Bible, mixed its ashes into the contents, shook it continuously, and drew in the surrounding elements to form an Elemental Siphon.

The Twin-Witch Spiral was complete as well.

Finally, he used Felice's hair and the hair of the two Wizards to wrap a cross counterclockwise, then inverted it to form the Nun's Anchor.

Once all the materials had been processed, Yang Mu drew a new magic array on the floor, enclosing the previous two within it, until the entire cabin floor was covered in magic arrays drawn in blood.

Only then did he place the Loyalty Paradox, Twin-Witch Spiral, and Nun's Anchor at three separate nodes, pile the remaining corpses within the magic array, and take out the wraith he had obtained from the dog-faced humanoid, suspending it above the array.

Once everything was ready, Yang Mu began the Undead Refinement. As the magic array activated, deathly power like black mist spread through the entire cabin, filled with screams, wails, and mournful cries.

Yang Mu remained unmoved and maintained the operation of the magic array. He had seen far too many minor scenes like this. As long as a Lower Demon did not tear open the magic array and descend before him, he could completely ignore such abnormalities.

The corpses within the magic array began to dissolve, turning into white sludge that wrapped around the Wraith above. Amid its screams, it transformed into a skull that let out a strange, chattering laugh.

The three objects at the nodes also turned into three streams of flowing light after the skull formed and plunged into it.

Blue flames ignited around the newborn undead, which had originally been nothing more than an ordinary skull. A shattered inverted-cross holy emblem appeared in its right eye, while a dark double spiral appeared in its left.

As the light of the magic array dimmed, the undead known as the Floating Skull was successfully refined.

All the diffuse dark power around it was absorbed by the Floating Skull, causing the blue flames around it to turn deep blue.

The Floating Skull was a Mage-type undead, similar to a Skeleton Mage or Lich. Depending on the materials used in its refinement, it possessed different spellcasting abilities.

The Floating Skull Yang Mu had refined possessed four abilities.

They were Ice-Fire Annihilation Blast, Holy Corruption Arrow, Shadow Binding, and Dueling Shackles.

Ice-Fire Annihilation Blast was a collapsing sphere formed from ice and fire elements. Upon exploding, it created an Annihilation field with a radius of five meters. Its attack strength was 110 degrees, already the highest level of attack power among Apprentices.

Degrees were the unit used by the Mage World to measure a spell's power. A 10-degree spell was roughly as destructive as a grenade.

Although Ice-Fire Annihilation Blast was powerful, it could only be cast three times every twenty hours.

Holy Corruption Arrow fired a cursed arrow carrying mental contamination. It had an attack strength of 95 degrees, dealt double damage to targets with faith, and contaminated their minds, causing believers to question the object of their faith and triggering a backlash from that faith.

Holy Corruption Arrow could be cast five times every ten hours.

Shadow Binding was an enhanced version of the Shadow Chains Yang Mu had once cast. Unlike Shadow Chains, which could only rely on existing shadows, Shadow Binding could actively release an area of shadow. Even if it failed to bind a target, anyone within the shadows would be slowed.

It could be cast ten times every ten hours.

Finally came Dueling Shackles, which forcibly placed a single target into a duel state. In that state, the target could not receive any healing or enhancement effects. Likewise, the Floating Skull could not receive any enhancements either.

It could be cast once every five hours.

All of the Floating Skull's abilities could only take full effect against those at Apprentice Rank. Once Official Mage Rank was involved, all effects would weaken according to the gap in strength between both sides until they became ineffective.

With the Floating Skull, Yang Mu's strength immediately increased greatly.

Moreover, because Yang Mu had also added the Wraith he acquired into the refinement, the Floating Skull possessed Wraith Transformation, granting it immunity to physical attacks.

With this, Yang Mu effectively possessed an undead at High-Level Mage Apprentice Rank, one even more powerful than himself.

This was the terror of a Necromancer. As long as he had enough materials and was given enough time, he could create an undead army, and one powerful enough at that.

With one spellcasting undead, the enhanced Ghoul Allen, three Ghoul Werewolves, and two Armed Skeletons, Yang Mu's undead squad had taken shape. Against any Apprentice Rank professional other than a Necromancer or summoner, they held an absolute advantage.

Yang Mu had spent only half a day refining the Floating Skull. By the time he returned to the deck, it was merely sunset.

Felice was standing by the ship's railing in a daze.

"Hey, Felice, can you cook?"

Yang Mu stepped onto the deck and greeted Felice, but his voice startled her. She shuddered involuntarily.

"Y-Yes... What do you want to eat?"

Felice answered Yang Mu fearfully, pressing herself as close to the railing as possible.

"Hmm... steak. Hurry up and eat all the meat and vegetables we can still eat. We don't know how long we'll be drifting at sea. If it takes too long, this stuff will spoil."

"O-Okay. I'll make it right away."

Before long, Yang Mu and Felice were sitting across from each other in the dining room, each with a large steak before them.