Soul Summoning (2)

Green was thrilled as he watched the Skeleton Soldier crawl out of the magic array amid shimmering light and shadow effects.

The Skeleton Soldier was exceptionally tall, with thick bones like steel. It wore a leather cuirass and helmet, with a shortsword and shield strapped to its back. It was the very Skeleton Soldier Green had recruited from the Graveyard.

"Wonderful! The undead creatures in the Graveyard really can be summoned into reality!" Green nearly shouted. As the magic array vanished and the Skeleton Soldier stood before him, he immediately went over to touch and squeeze it. Its white bones felt cool to the touch, and it lacked the rotten stench he had expected from an undead creature.

When Green touched it, the green soul-flame in the Skeleton Soldier's eye sockets flickered. It clearly disliked being touched, and malice lurked within its soul-flame. But before Green, it was innately suppressed, and promptly dropped to one knee in submission.

"Sadly, this room is too small to see how capable the Skeleton Soldier is." Green felt a slight pang of regret, then used [Reverse Necromancy] to send the Skeleton Soldier back to the Graveyard.

After successfully using Soul Summoning for the first time, Green had learned the spell. All that remained was to become more proficient, so he could cast it in the blink of an eye when sudden situations arose.

Early the next morning, Green was somewhat exhausted, yet still brimming with excitement. He had spent the entire night summoning the Skeleton Soldier and sending it back over and over again, practicing Soul Summoning while testing how many spells his magic power could sustain in succession and how long it took to recover after being depleted.

The results were barely satisfactory. As a Novice Necromancer Apprentice, Green could use [Soul Summoning] twelve times in a row, meaning he could summon twelve Skeleton Soldiers consecutively. After exhausting his magic power, it took roughly three hours to recover. As he practiced and raised the level of [Soul Summoning], the magic power it consumed would decrease further. The effect was quite good—after just one night of practice, Green's Soul Summoning had already risen to [LV2]. Its casting speed had increased, and its magic consumption had decreased. But he was dissatisfied with the latter, his magic recovery speed. Taking three hours to restore his magic power greatly affected his sustained combat ability. The root of the problem was that he had no Meditation Method.

The Meditation Method was the foundation of every mage. If spells were martial moves, then the Meditation Method was the inner cultivation manual. It could raise a mage's spiritual power. Once spiritual power increased, more magic power could be stored in the body, and magic power would recover faster as well.

Unfortunately, Green also had no Meditation Method he could cultivate. Unlike spells, Meditation Methods were even more precious. Unless one inherited one through a master-disciple lineage or attended a proper magic academy, it was difficult to obtain an advanced Meditation Method. That was why Green had not mentioned one when he met Doctor Wilkins. He simply could not ask for it, and might only make the other man unhappy.

"Looks like being a rogue mage isn't easy! You want everything and have nothing." Green shook his head with a sigh. Fortunately, he still had one hope: building a Magic Guild in the Graveyard should grant him a Meditation Method.

However, building a Magic Guild was expensive. It required a full two thousand Psychic Energy. If that were spent on recruiting Skeleton Soldiers, he could recruit four hundred of them—enough troops to make up an entire battalion. After absorbing the Wind Blade Bracelet last time and opening the Graveyard, Green had only twenty-five Psychic Energy left.

"Forget it. I should focus on what's in front of me!" Green returned to the Graveyard and spent all twenty of his remaining Psychic Energy in one go, recruiting five Skeleton Soldiers. This already put Green's current combat strength far beyond that of an ordinary Novice Necromancer Apprentice.

Ordinary Novice Necromancer Apprentices could only summon one or two Skeleton Soldiers after learning Soul Summoning, and the strength of those Skeleton Soldiers depended entirely on luck. If their luck was poor, even a successful cast would only summon a Skeleton Soldier missing arms or legs. Green did not need to worry about such problems. The Skeleton Soldiers he summoned came from the Graveyard; regardless of their combat strength, they were at least well-equipped and had intact bones.

Green also had another idea. Because of the Graveyard, he was unlike other Necromancers, who could only summon specific undead bound by contract, while nearly all other undead creatures were summoned at random. The undead creatures in the Graveyard were like Green's standing army, so an idea sprang into his mind: he planned to change the Skeleton Soldiers' equipment. At this world's level of weaponry, even knights used Enchanted Rifles. Having Skeleton Soldiers still wield shortswords and shields was simply too shabby. If he had the chance to replace them with Enchanted Rifles in the future, their combat strength would surely double.

But that was only a preliminary idea. To actually put it into practice, he would need to prepare on many fronts. Buying arms alone would require a large sum of money, and there was also the question of whether weapons equipped on the Skeleton Soldiers could return to the Graveyard with them.

Green was an impatient man. Whatever he thought of, he immediately put into action. Once again, he used [Soul Summoning] to call a Skeleton Soldier out of the Graveyard.

He wanted to conduct an experiment: remove the Skeleton Soldier's leather armor, put a piece of clothing on it, then send it back to the Graveyard.

When Green tried to remove the Skeleton Soldier's leather armor, he could clearly feel its resistance. The Skeleton Soldier was tall, the leather armor was tight, and all the buckles had rusted shut. After fiddling with it for ages without managing to remove it, Green had no choice but to settle for the next best thing and take off its round shield. As for the shortsword, the Skeleton Soldier gripped it tightly and refused to let go even in death. Green then casually grabbed a book from the table and stuffed it into the Skeleton Soldier's leather armor before casting Reverse Necromancy and sending it back to the Graveyard.

The instant the Skeleton Soldier vanished, the round shield left behind trembled slightly and began to decay at a visible rate.

Green hurried into the Graveyard and found the Skeleton Soldier he had just summoned. He could not help but rejoice inwardly. The book was still safely tucked inside its leather armor, which showed that if he changed the Skeleton Soldiers' weapons and equipment in the future, they could be brought in as well. Then inspiration struck him—if he could bring things in, wouldn't this vast Graveyard become his portable storage space?

With the experiment a success, Green was in a good mood. Unhurriedly, he devoted his energy once more to raising the level of [Soul Summoning].

Green also discovered that when he used [Soul Summoning], he sensed neither Void Spirit Energy nor the Death Arcane Plane beyond the Graveyard. This prevented him from randomly summoning undead creatures with Soul Summoning as ordinary Necromancers did.

Green had originally wanted to try a random summon and compare its combat strength with that of the Skeleton Soldiers in the Graveyard. Since he could not get what he wanted, he could only give up.

In the blink of an eye, evening arrived. Green had spent the whole day practicing [Soul Summoning], casting it repeatedly until his magic power was exhausted, then entering the Town Hall in the Graveyard to rest.

Green found that when his magic power was depleted, lying on the bed and letting his mind enter the Graveyard was equivalent to sleeping. Moreover, while he remained inside the Town Hall, it produced an effect somewhat like meditation, speeding up his magic recovery so that he could fully recover in two hours.

This discovery temporarily made up for Green's disadvantage of lacking a Meditation Method, allowing him to progress through his [Soul Summoning] practice even faster. In a little over ten hours, it rose another level.

However, when [Soul Summoning] reached [LV3], Green had no time to celebrate. He suddenly felt a stabbing pain in his head, struggled to breathe, and suffered muscle spasms. The sensation was unbearably painful. Only after a full seven or eight minutes did it ease somewhat. He felt wetness beneath his nose, while his ears rang and tingled. When he wiped his nose and the sides of his ears, his hand came away covered in blood.