In addition to the elite Skeleton Squad, Zhao Lun also made significant progress. After a half day of devouring, refining, and expending his magic power, he completed the identification of all 800 skeletons. Once he replenished his magic reserves, Zhao Lun was surprised to find that his power had increased a notch, bringing him closer to level 4.
This discovery made Zhao Lun quite happy. Although his skeletons were growing stronger, Zhao Lun, a person who lacked a sense of security, always believed that true strength came from himself. So, despite his busy schedule, he still managed to squeeze in time to practice his spells. By now, Zhao Lun had mastered all the spells he knew. However, for some unknown reason, his power remained at the "Black Iron Elite" level.
Zhao Lun found this highly illogical. Why were his skeletons, each with a single spell or combat skill, already at the elite level, while he, having mastered eight or nine spells, was still at the same level? This was a mystery that Zhao Lun had yet to figure out himself.
During the same period, Ollis had gone back and forth multiple times with over a hundred skeletons. Each trip took longer than the last, indicating that the nearby skeletons had been nearly wiped out. But that was sufficient. In the few trips Ollis made, they had gathered nearly five hundred skeletons. These bones were piled up by the altar like a small mountain. With this amount of bones, Zhao Lun felt that he now had enough materials to construct the Bone Conversion Pool.
"Ollis, bring me twenty level 2 skeleton skulls."
Zhao Lun summoned all his courage to decide that, with the Skeleton Archers still inactive, he would take the opportunity to construct the Bone Conversion Pool. He felt an inexplicable sense that this structure would be of great importance to his domain.
Thanks to Zhao Lun's diligent attention to Ollis' preferences, Ollis had been obedient and cheerful, no longer displaying the petty grievances he had in the past. He happily led several skeletons to gather the skulls and placed them near Zhao Lun. Under Zhao Lun's command, they extracted the Soul Fire from the skulls and placed it on the pile of bones.
"Don't faint this time like you did before. If you do, I won't dare construct any more buildings before reaching level 5!" Zhao Lun muttered, gritting his teeth, before raising his staff and beginning the chant to build the Bone Conversion Pool.
Contrary to Zhao Lun's concerns, the construction process was not as difficult as he imagined. The chant for the Bone Conversion Pool was simpler than that for the Altar of the Domain, with three fewer syllables. Having already cast the spell once before, Zhao Lun was somewhat immune to the mental fatigue, so this time, he completed the chant in just under two minutes, without collapsing like last time. He only felt an unprecedented exhaustion in his mind.
As soon as Zhao Lun finished the chant, the pile of bones near the Altar of the Domain began to react, just like when the Altar of the Domain was constructed. However, this time, the light beam was far less intense and didn't shoot straight into the sky. Still, it was visible within a radius of several dozen miles.
"This really is an incredible miracle," Zhao Lun muttered to himself, barely managing to stay upright as he watched the liquefied white bones dance in the air.
"Boom!"
Just as Zhao Lun spoke, the white liquid in the sky suddenly began to descend, splashing onto the ground about twenty meters to the left of the Altar of the Domain, emitting a bright light. The sudden flash nearly blinded Zhao Lun, forcing him to instinctively shield his eyes and turn away.
About three minutes later, the intense light began to fade, and Zhao Lun dared to look back.
"So this is the Bone Conversion Pool? Not bad, it looks pretty good!" Zhao Lun's eyes lit up when he saw the newly-formed pool.
What stood next to the Altar of the Domain was a pool about ten square meters in size, filled with clear water, revealing the white bone-like bottom. The surrounding floor was made of bone, intricately engraved with magical runes that made Zhao Lun's heart race. A single one-meter-wide path led up to the pool's edge.
Zhao Lun, still captivated by the runes, could hardly resist but reluctantly tore his gaze away to open the domain's attributes page and look up the information on the Bone Conversion Pool.
Bone Conversion Pool (Level 1)
Quality: Common
Building Skill: Basic Bone Conversion
Description: To ensure your domain's growth, it is crucial to enhance it as soon as possible.
Upgradable
Basic Bone Conversion: Automatically devours the bones within a one-mile radius and can convert them into Energy Fire or white bones.
Consumption: One level 3 Soul Fire per day
In addition to the information from the attributes page, Zhao Lun also received some details transmitted directly from the Bone Conversion Pool. These included instructions on how to use the pool and additional information not mentioned in the attributes page.
"Energy Fire? What's that?" Zhao Lun immediately focused on this unfamiliar term. Although he didn't find any information about it on the attributes page, further exploration of the data sent by the pool clarified its meaning.
From Zhao Lun's understanding, Energy Fire was an upgraded version of Soul Fire. Like Soul Fire, it was used for devouring and refining. However, because Energy Fire was created by the Bone Conversion Pool, it was more efficient than Soul Fire, requiring less time for refining. Additionally, Energy Fire came in different levels. At the moment, a Level 1 Bone Conversion Pool could only produce Level 1 Energy Fire, which contained roughly the same amount of energy as a Level 4 Soul Fire.
"Interesting. I like this stuff!" Zhao Lun's eyes sparkled as he realized the potential of Energy Fire.
Excited by the discovery, Zhao Lun ordered Ollis to bring him a level 3 skeleton skull, which he placed into the Bone Conversion Pool. As soon as the Soul Fire was added, the magical runes on the pool's surface began to glow with a faint white light.
From the information transmitted by the pool, Zhao Lun knew that the conversion process for Energy Fire was slow, taking about half a day. The pool would harvest bones from the surrounding area and refine them into Energy Fire. There was a way to speed up the process: by adding more skeletons to the pool. Zhao Lun planned to do just that.