"I..." Bryan opened his mouth, but before he had time to speak, Lisa had already begun raining a flurry of blows upon him with her delicate fists, scolding him as she struck: "Damned Bryan, you actually kissed me. My first kiss was actually stolen by a madman, heavens, this is too terrifying, I'm going to kill you!"
After kissing Lisa, Bryan's heart was thrown into a chaotic panic for a moment as well; it was Lisa's first time, but wasn't it Bryan's too?
Lisa's expression was terrified and her buttocks still hurt, so the blows from her delicate fists carried no force at all. Bryan felt neither pain nor itch, so he didn't put up a counter-resistance either, rapidly pondering in his mind just how he could make Lisa stop pursuing this matter.
After beating him for a little while, Lisa seemed tired. Her eyes were somewhat red and swollen, but she still stared fiercely and menacingly at Bryan. After staring for a little while, Lisa frowned and said coldly to Bryan: "Bryan, as long as you tell me one thing, I agree to let you off."
Startled in a daze, Bryan said foolishly: "Tell you what thing?"
"Over this recent period of time, why is your strength getting stronger and stronger? You couldn't even dodge skeleton warriors in the past, but now even zombie warriors can't hit you. And last time even that idiot Bark was taught a lesson by you, and this morning Claude's battle qi clearly struck inside your body, why didn't you die immediately? What are all these things because of?" Lisa stared closely at Bryan as she questioned him.
Startled in his heart, Bryan secretly thought it was bad. Because of practicing demonic arts, his body truly kept growing stronger, but he hadn't expected Lisa to notice it so quickly.
Pondering rapidly for a moment, Bryan foolishly and honestly chuckled: "I, I don't know either. It's just that I ate some things recently, and only then did I feel my body getting stronger and stronger with strength."
As soon as these words left his mouth, Bryan saw Lisa's eyes visibly flash brightly. Then Lisa eagerly leaned close in front of Bryan, her eyes fixed upon Bryan's body, and said: "What kind of things did you eat? As long as you tell me, I won't pursue today's matter anymore."
"Use magic reagent mixed with lizard tails and jackal teeth... soak it in warm water for a day, and then drink it all down together, and your physical strength will get better and better." Bryan frowned and thought carefully for a moment, then honestly chuckled as he said to Lisa.
Lisa wore an expression of utmost solemnity, listening with rapt attention as Bryan finished speaking. She repeated Bryan's words once, and then muttered to herself: "Eh, could it be that these disgusting things have this kind of effect when mixed together?"
Bryan didn't answer, only looking at Lisa and foolishly smiling.
"Hmph, I'll let you off for today, and wait until next time to find you to practice magic." Lisa thought for a moment, crawled up from the ground, and prepared to leave. Following that, she let out an "ouch" and cursed angrily once more: "Damned Bryan, how could your kick be so heavy, why is it that every time I run into you recently I'm so unlucky!"
While cursing, Lisa rubbed her buttocks with her hand and walked towards the outside of the trial grounds. As soon as Lisa opened the door and left the trial grounds, Bryan immediately followed right after, also hurriedly leaving when people weren't paying attention.
By nightfall, at the time of night when all was quiet and still, Bryan sneaked over to the garbage dump like a thief. First, he tried to issue commands to the little skeleton using Mental Power to make it come out, but who could have known that the little skeleton once again couldn't receive them? With no other choice, Bryan could only endure the foul stench as he rummaged back and forth through the garbage dump for a good while, ultimately digging the little skeleton out from under the garbage.
The little skeleton slumped beneath the garbage, without a breath of life as though it had fallen asleep. Several ribs on its chest looked as if they had fallen apart, presenting the appearance of having suffered heavy injuries. Through his connection with the little skeleton, Bryan knew the little skeleton wasn't scrapped. Thinking of how the little skeleton had ended up like this because it had received his command to exact revenge on Lisa, and looking at the little skeleton's wretched appearance now, Bryan felt a pang of heartache in his heart.
"Claude, oh Claude, you just wait for me, sooner or later I'll settle accounts with you!"
Scooping up the little skeleton in one embrace, taking advantage of the dark night and howling wind, Bryan once more sneaked away at a run toward the sundry storehouse. As Bryan ran swiftly, the several broken, scattered ribs on the little skeleton's chest even shook and emitted a "clang-clang" sound of impact, causing Bryan a great deal of heartache.
After returning to the sundry storehouse, he carefully closed the door. Bryan thought for a moment, and once again placed the little skeleton inside that small wooden bucket. Following that, he rummaged about everywhere to get seven broken bones, inserted them into the wooden bucket, continued to infuse demon abyssal power into them, and re-conjured the Yin Demon Essence-Congealing Array, attempting to repair the little skeleton's body by the method of repairing a demonic treasure.
This time, after Bryan injected demon abyssal power into Little Wood, he found that compared to the physical exhaustion and weakness he had felt last time, his body felt much better. It was as though, after the demon abyssal power had enveloped and dissolved Claude's battle qi that morning, it had grown stronger. This made Bryan entertain another thought.
After settling the little skeleton in place, Bryan pulled that copy of Necromancy Basics out from under the small wooden bed and continued to study it. Over these past few days, every time Bryan came back, without fail he would read this copy of Necromancy Basics.
Although this book was merely a basic magic book and did not record any powerful necromancy within it, to a rookie like Bryan who was completely clueless about magic, this book still appeared far too profound.
Today, turning through the Magic Dictionary while studying the Necromancy Basics side by side for comparison, before he knew it Bryan once more sank into an obsession. It was just that during this process, even with the Magic Dictionary in hand, he was still just as unable to understand some of the terminology inside.
With a heavy sigh, Bryan put down the two books in his hands, secretly thinking that after all his understanding of magic was only a dozen days or so, and if he could understand everything in the books, then the Babylon Academy of Magic and Martial Arts would have no need to exist. Thinking it over, Bryan decided to take advantage of his work convenience to eavesdrop inside the classroom where the necromancy students attended class.
After calming his mind and concentrating his spirit, Bryan once again plunged into meditation, seizing every moment to raise his Mental Power with meditation. Without realizing it, he meditated until late into the night, and then fell peacefully asleep.
Rising bright and early the next morning, Bryan was once again full of spirit and vigor, and his entire body seemed to have an endless supply of strength. The little skeleton inside the small wooden bucket by the bed lay quietly without the slightest breath of life, but around the edges of the seven broken bones inside the bucket were seven small whirlpools, within which faint, pitch-black radiances flowed.
Looking closely, the scattered ribs on the little skeleton's chest had unexpectedly rearranged themselves properly without him noticing, and within the little skeleton's two hollow eye sockets, faint pitch-black lights seemed to sparkle as well, appearing rather somewhat eerie.
Bryan contacted the little skeleton through Mental Power, instantly sensing that the little skeleton seemed to possess a joy akin to rebirth. Empathizing with it, Bryan smiled slightly and muttered to himself: "Little skeleton, oh little skeleton, you follow me Bryan, so you can be considered lucky. As long as my demon abyssal power is sufficiently powerful, I will be able to continuously refine you, refining you stronger and stronger as well, and sooner or later one day that brat Claude is going to have terrible luck."
Because the little skeleton was still undergoing refinement inside the bucket, Bryan had no choice but to get up himself. Early in the morning, he threw yesterday's garbage out into the garbage dump, and after washing his face with clear, cold water, Bryan full of vigor first wiped the stone statues along the path clean. Afterward, he finished the tasks he was supposed to do, and after collecting a piece of black bread, he rushed eagerly toward the necromancy classroom holding a broom.
"If magic wants to be perfectly cast, incantations and gestures are mutually linked; if the incantation is incorrect or the gesture is wrong, neither can magic be unleashed. Magic is a mysterious force, capable of borrowing power from the elemental forces of the heavens and earth through Mental Power plus some abstruse incantations, and then making magic find its targeted objective according to the gestures..."
The necromancy students were either listlessly or attentively listening to the instructor Gene's explanations. Separated by several windows, Bryan listened with rapt attention, the broom in his hand dragging unconsciously.
Gene, just like Fanny, was an advanced necromancer and concurrently a necromancy instructor. Gene primarily explained some magic outlines and basics, and was responsible for helping students interpret some difficult points in their studies. Fanny taught the students to use some offensive and auxiliary necromancy spells, and was responsible for leading students to perform necromancy trials.
Throughout the entire Babylon Academy of Magic and Martial Arts, the other departments not only had advanced mage instructors, but generally also had Archmages with even more profound knowledge and astonishing strength holding down the fort. Yet because there were too few necromancy students, there were likewise only two instructors, and both were merely advanced mages. On one hand, it was because there truly was no need to invest too much teaching staff and resources into a tiny necromancy department; on the other hand, it was also because of the decline of the necromancy department, which made the number of Archmages correspondingly far too small.
Inside the Babylon Academy of Magic, as long as students passed numerous trials in their magic and became advanced mages, they could graduate. Of course, if students wished to continue pursuing advanced studies within the academy, they could still remain at the academy to study. Because many departments had relatively many students, they would be divided into magic apprentice classes, junior mage classes, and intermediate mage classes, but necromancy students were too few, and therefore all the students were in a single class.
At this moment, Bryan's focus was matchless, his head lowered with a trace of a delighted smile on the corners of his mouth. In this brief moment of time, from Gene's explanations, Bryan had already figured out several principles that he had previously been unable to think through no matter what. At this moment, Gene's flat, rigid voice falling into Bryan's ears was simply identical to heavenly music, and Bryan's whole person was completely intoxicated within it.
With a "thud", a student wearing a magic robe suddenly collapsed in front of Bryan. His rear end stuck up in the air, and his face made intimate contact with the white jade flagstones. Following that, he grimaced in pain as he crawled up from the ground, turned around to glare at Bryan, and said angrily: "Bryan, you actually used a broom to trip me."
"Ah, I... I'm just sweeping the floor!" As soon as Bryan saw that the one who had stood up was Fitch, he immediately said in a flustered, honest-sounding voice.
Fitch stood one meter seventy-six tall, with light blue hair. His emaciated, skeletal body paired with his oversized magic robe made him look somewhat like a wooden stick wrapped up inside something. He was an intermediate mage among the necromancy students who had always wanted to pass the trial to advance to an advanced mage, but unfortunately he had failed trial after trial. A few days ago he had reportedly gone for trials again, and judging by the look of it he had only just returned.
Earlier, Bryan had been listening to Gene talk about magic basics to the point of being spellbound, and the broom in his hand had been randomly waving about unconsciously, so it was hardly surprising that Fitch had been tripped by it.
"Oh, so Fitch has returned. Haha, is it that you didn't pass the trial this time either? Looking at it, if you want to become an advanced mage, you still need to exert a lot more effort. The instructor very much welcomes you to return once again; Bryan must have been unintentional just now, don't hold it against him!" Inside the classroom, Gene chuckled lightly, speaking indifferently with a mocking tone in his voice.
Yet hearing him help himself speak like this, far from feeling even a shred of gratitude, Bryan instead cursed him in his heart as a busybody meddling in other people's business.
Ordinarily Fitch's temper wasn't too good, but he wasn't considered too bad either. Even though he suffered repeated defeats in his trials for advanced mage, he possessed an infatuated fondness for necromancy, endlessly and tirelessly repeating trials. Fitch was the boss of Bark and the others, but usually he didn't generally bully handymen like Bryan.
However, Fitch and Gene both harbored a secret unrequited crush on Fanny. The vast majority of the reason why Fitch worked hard to advance to an advanced mage was for a single sentence from Fanny: "When you become an advanced mage, I will consider it."
Precisely because of this, this one instructor and one student always looked at each other with displeasure. If not for Gene putting in a good word, Bryan might have been able to escape a calamity, but now that Gene had spoken up, he was surely going to meddle and ruin things.