Evil Spirit (2)

The first thing the Graveyard had to build to produce Ghosts was the Abandoned Tower, which cost 2,500 Psychic Energy. It also required the prerequisite building, the City Defense Fortress, which cost another 2,500 Psychic Energy. Together, that was 5,000 Psychic Energy. If Green had to build them himself bit by bit, who knew when the Year of the Monkey would finally arrive.

Moreover, it could only produce ordinary Ghosts. To obtain the elite troops known as Evil Spirits, he still had to upgrade the tower into the Evil Spirit Tower, which required another 2,500 Psychic Energy.

Therefore, when Green heard that an Evil Spirit with the potential to evolve had become entangled with Roddick, it immediately piqued his interest.

When Roddick learned that Green was interested in the Ghost, he was overjoyed, as though he were sending away a plague god. He hurriedly took out a porcelain bottle and handed it to Green.

It was a porcelain bottle engraved with magical runes, a magical tool for sealing Ghosts that Roddick had bought from the Mages Association for a considerable number of gold pounds. However, the bottle was of low quality. It could only seal a Ghost temporarily and could not contain a true Evil Spirit, so to Roddick, it was merely an expedient measure. Especially recently, the Ghost inside had grown increasingly restless, as though it might evolve into an even more ferocious Evil Spirit at any moment.

As a Necromancer, dealing with spirit bodies was Green's specialty. Besides, with the Graveyard present, the instant he took the porcelain bottle, a prompt appeared: "A trapped wild undead has been discovered. Recruit it..."

Green had originally been prepared to fight, but he never expected a prompt saying it could be recruited directly. Even more astonishing, the recruitment cost was actually zero!

This gave him a sudden flash of inspiration. The last time he had encountered the Hard-Skin Ghoul, the Graveyard's prompt had offered either battle or recruitment, but the recruitment option could not be selected at all. He had only managed to bring it into the Graveyard by beating it half to death in battle. →This time, however, the Ghost had triggered a direct recruitment prompt, and it cost no Psychic Energy. The difference between the two was obvious: the Graveyard's principle for recruiting wild undead creatures was that the target had to be subdued or controlled.

Green naturally would not give up this opportunity. He immediately moved to select "Yes" and bring the Ghost into the Graveyard.

However, just then, a thought suddenly arose in his mind. It made him hold back in the end. After pondering for a moment, he had Roddick pour some blood into the porcelain bottle to feed the Ghost.

Roddick was dumbstruck. Feeding a Ghost human blood—wasn't that just trying to catalyze its evolution into an Evil Spirit? And he was the focus of this Ghost's obsession. Once it became an Evil Spirit, Roddick would be the first one it tried to kill. But faced with Green's stern gaze and the towering Skeleton Soldier eyeing him hungrily, he had no choice but to pinch his nose and admit defeat. He cut open his wrist, filled a bowl with blood, and let Green pour it all into the porcelain bottle.

The porcelain bottle trapping the Ghost had originally been a very low-grade magical item, capable only of containing a Ghost. Once blood was poured inside, the Ghost was immediately stimulated into struggling and roaring frantically. Looking in through the bottle's mouth, the translucent Ghost flew and crashed around the cramped space like a headless fly. Its originally bluish-white spirit body slowly began turning red after absorbing the blood, and its aura rose rapidly. →The Ghost had already been on the verge of evolving into an Evil Spirit. Now that it had been stimulated by fresh blood, the process accelerated. Its rapidly swelling aura and power slammed against the porcelain bottle with loud cracks, as though it were about to shatter at any moment.

Green nodded in satisfaction. Ignoring Roddick, who was breaking out in a cold sweat, he focused intently on the inside of the porcelain bottle.

By this point, Green had almost concluded that this Ghost, named Maxim, had not formed naturally. Some Necromancer had probably noticed that Maxim possessed a special constitution, deliberately killed him, and transformed him into a Ghost. That person had even deliberately released him, allowing him to level up through slaughter and bloodlust, intending to come collect him once he matured.

Then Green suddenly thought of a name—Cristiano!

That famous Necromancer from the neighboring city. Green had a feeling that this Evil Spirit was absolutely connected to him.

Having seen through the situation, Green gave a cold laugh. "No matter whose handiwork this is, all that painstaking effort has merely prepared a wedding dress for me." His expression immediately hardened. The porcelain bottle shook even more violently. The blood had already stained nearly the entirety of the Ghost's spirit body, and it was only one step away from evolving into an Evil Spirit, breaking through the bottle, and escaping. Green suddenly flung out his hand and smashed the porcelain bottle onto the ground. With a crack, the ceramic shattered, and a dark-red, sinister light shot out from within, lunging straight at the traitorous Roddick.

Roddick was the focus of the Ghost's obsession. After becoming an Evil Spirit, its hatred for him had only grown more bitter. The moment it emerged, it would definitely kill him first.

Green had calculated that at the very instant he shattered the porcelain bottle, he could select recruitment in the Graveyard.

At that moment, the Evil Spirit had only just taken shape, and Green had shattered the porcelain bottle himself rather than letting the Evil Spirit break free. Thus, although the bottle had shattered, the magical runes on it had formed a magic array that did not immediately collapse. Instead, it continued to hold for less than half a second.

That half-second was precisely what Green wanted. While the Graveyard still judged the newly ascended Evil Spirit to be bound by the magic array, he selected recruitment directly and brought it into the Graveyard.

All of this had been a plan formed in Green's mind. Whether it would work or not, he had no certainty. After selecting recruitment, he watched tensely, already prepared to summon his entire undead army and surround it if anything went wrong.

At the same time, with a bang, the Evil Spirit completely broke free of the porcelain bottle's remaining magic array. Yet a new, more complex, rotating circular magic array formed beneath its feet. A radiance rose from the array and wrapped around the Evil Spirit. It struggled desperately, but the light bound it. Then, with a sudden flash, it forcibly dragged the Evil Spirit into the magic array.

The next moment, an Evil Spirit covered entirely in dark red appeared atop the ruins of the Abandoned Tower within the Graveyard.

Like the Hard-Skin Ghoul back then, this Evil Spirit suffered a brief bout of mental confusion after appearing. It hovered blankly in place, its soul fire flickering where its eyes should have been, sinking into prolonged thought. After a full two minutes, the Evil Spirit began to move. Yet it was no longer as frenzied and bloodthirsty as it had been outside. Drifting slowly and quietly, it resembled a jellyfish, giving off a tranquil beauty.

Only Green knew that this Evil Spirit, whose soul body carried a dark-red, bloodlike hue, possessed vastly greater combat power.

Evil Spirit Maxim: Level-three elite troop, combat power 11.9, recruitment price 45.

Its combat power was a full 31% higher than that of the level-two elite troop Hard-Skin Ghoul, nearly twice that of the Gun Skeleton Soldier. It also possessed three magic spells: Spirit Body Concealment, Evil Spirit Wail, and Death Seal.

The first spell allowed it to conceal itself through invisibility and ambush. The second launched ultrasonic attacks. The third used its own malicious intent to seal away part of an enemy's life force.

When Green saw this, he was overjoyed. He had not expected subduing this Evil Spirit to grant it three magic spells, especially Evil Spirit Wail and Death Seal.

The first spell, Invisibility Ambush, was a Ghost's innate talent, while the second and third spells were genuine necromantic spells.

Evil Spirit Wail was a second-circle spell that used spirit-body vibrations to generate high-frequency ultrasonic waves to attack enemies.

Death Seal was a third-circle spell. It was precisely because it possessed this spell that the Evil Spirit could become a level-three elite troop.