"Seriously now…"
Having just barely prevented the tragedy of Greatsword No. 1 being skewered by Phyllis in one shot, Zhao Lun habitually patted his own skull. At this point, he wasn't sure if he should be glad to have such a loyal little skeleton under his command—he only knew that if Phyllis were just a little smarter, life would be much easier.
"Let me see your spoils."
Zhao Lun looked at Phyllis, who seemed to realize she'd just done something stupid and now stood there with a faint air of awkwardness.
The moment she heard this, Phyllis perked right up, leading Zhao Lun toward the squad of one hundred skeleton archers. Her efficiency was impressive—barely an hour had passed since she left, yet she had already hunted down dozens of skeleton mages. But what she proudly presented to Zhao Lun was the skull of a Level-4 skeleton mage.
The sight of it made Zhao Lun's soul-flames flare with delight. Level-4 skeleton mages were rare to begin with; finding one for him to kill was even rarer. This was the first time Zhao Lun had ever seen such a skull. He could feel the powerful soul energy radiating from it and nodded in satisfaction. Still, having just completed his mutation, with his own soul-flame still digesting much of the energy he'd absorbed during the process, he wouldn't be able to consume this one just yet.
"Not bad. Store those skulls properly and keep going."
A simple bit of praise left Phyllis stunned for a few seconds before her soul-flames blazed brightly—an unmistakable sign of happiness. She happily directed the squad of archers to clumsily stash away the skulls, then rushed off again.
Once she left, Zhao Lun suddenly realized… he didn't have anything to do.
Wait—wasn't he busy just a moment ago? Why was he suddenly idle?
After thinking for a while and trying to find himself a task, Zhao Lun remembered something—he'd sent out thirty skeleton archers earlier, and there should still be twenty-five left. He quickly used the altar to sense their presence.
The result made him freeze. At some unknown point, all twenty-five had been wiped out, and it had happened so suddenly that, tangled up in his breakthrough earlier, he hadn't even noticed. Now, it was impossible to figure out where they had died. In other words, those archers had died for nothing.
Which left him… idle again.
It wasn't that Zhao Lun truly had nothing to do—it was just that in the last eight hours, too much had happened, too many changes all at once. He hadn't yet adjusted, and the plans he'd made earlier had been completely disrupted. Standing in his previous position now only made him feel at a loss. But once his mindset settled, Zhao Lun would no doubt be busy again. After all, keeping himself occupied was practically instinct for him.
At the moment, however, his thoughts turned to something he had been anticipating before he set out—the Flames of Energy.
Before heading out, Zhao Lun had set the Bone Conversion Pool to produce them. By his estimate, seven or eight hours had passed, so they should be ready by now. With that in mind, he headed straight to the pool.
"This… this is way too much, isn't it?"
Standing on the bone platform above the pool, Zhao Lun saw an entire basin full of Flames of Energy—white flames the size of both his fists, quietly flickering side by side. A quick estimate put the number at no less than five hundred.
"No wonder the bone layer on the ground looked so much thinner when I came back…" he muttered, suddenly feeling a little sorry for all the bones that had been used up. Still, what he wanted to know most right now was—just how effective were these flames?
Too cautious—or perhaps too wary—to try them himself, Zhao Lun turned and summoned Greatsword No. 1, the same skeleton who had been bullying him so gleefully earlier, to serve as a test subject.
According to the information the Bone Conversion Pool had provided, these were all Level-1 Flames of Energy, with reserves equivalent to a Level-4 soul-flame, and could be fully absorbed in less than a minute. Zhao Lun found that speed almost absurd.
With a hint of petty revenge in his heart, he picked up one flame and shoved it toward Greatsword No. 1. Not that the order was necessary—any skeleton would instinctively devour such a thing. With a soft whoosh, Greatsword No. 1 absorbed the flame.
Zhao Lun could practically see it being refined at terrifying speed. The skeleton's frame glimmered faintly—not with the light of mutation, but with the distinct glow of bone-tempering unique to melee-type skeletons. It lasted for about a minute before fading.
"It actually works!" Zhao Lun exclaimed in amazement. Just as he was about to say more, he suddenly sensed that Greatsword No. 1 felt… stronger. Reflexively, he cast a sense spell.
⸻
Territory Resident: Greatsword No. 1
Race: Lesser Undead (Greatsword Skeleton)
Strength: Level 4 (Black Iron) Elite
Talent: Gray
Skill: Cross Slash
Evolution Path: ???
Description: Just a pile of bones with no potential worth cultivating.
⸻
"Leveled up?" Zhao Lun blinked. "No way… just one flame did that? Let's try another skeleton."
Without hesitation, he called over his entire elite greatsword squad. Most of them were peak Level-3, just one step from Level-4—close enough for a little push.
"I wonder if these flames can push them straight to Level-5. If they can… well, having an entire squad of Level-5 elites would be insane. I can't even imagine how strong they'd be."
With that thought, Zhao Lun fed each of the dozen or so skeletons a single Flame of Energy. As expected, within a minute, they had all advanced to Level-4.
But when he tried to push further, he hit a wall. Each skeleton could only absorb two flames at most—after that, no matter how he ordered them, they simply couldn't take any more.
Not one to admit defeat, Zhao Lun grabbed a bone-shield skeleton and forcibly commanded it to take a third flame.
The poor thing managed to swallow it… and then promptly exploded into a pile of scattered bones.