Undead Mage: I Have a Skeleton Clone

Chapter 791 - 507: Skeleton Mage Materials, Rare Magic Book!

Under normal circumstances, other Summoning Series Professionals of the same tier could only summon a single-digit number of same-level summoned creatures. Even a rare Natural Summoner like Meng Hongzhuang could only summon and control a little over ten summoned creatures at once.

Someone like Gu Yueyuan, an Insect Nest Walker renowned for the sheer number of his summons, could call forth an army of hundreds from his Insect Nest while at the Black Iron Tier. However, each individual insect’s strength was merely at the Apprentice Tier. Only a dozen or so Insect Kings that he had meticulously cultivated could reach the Black Iron Tier. Despite this, Gu Yueyuan was practically invincible among ordinary Professionals with his overwhelming insect tide, only meeting his match after encountering Fang Zhou.

With a slight shake of his head, Fang Zhou cast a Close Friend skill, clearing away the lingering stench of blood in the cave. The battles had been too frequent recently, causing him to unconsciously think of Meng Hongzhuang and Gu Yueyuan, reminiscing about the peaceful days during his studies at the Sea City Military Academy.

It was a shame. Despite the impressive talents of classmates like Meng Hongzhuang and Gu Yueyuan, they still fell far short of Fang Zhou. His former companions had unknowingly been left far behind, their figures no longer visible in the distance.

Take Meng Hongzhuang, for example. When Fang Zhou had last returned to the Sea City Military Academy, he met with her and Bai Xiaochan. She had just advanced to a Lower Black Iron Professional and was competing with Ye Fan, Gu Zhiqiu, and others for the position of the Number 1 Seed Student of the second year. Upon learning that Fang Zhou had already reached the terrifying strength of a Bronze Middle Rank, Meng Hongzhuang and Bai Xiaochan were silent for a long time before finally offering a smile of resignation.

Taking a deep breath, Fang Zhou dispersed the drifting thoughts and looked again at the description of the [Demon Slayer] title on his attribute panel. Its specific effects still awaited testing in actual combat. As for the hatred from Abyssal Demons, it seemed intimidating at first glance, but in reality, it wasn’t a big deal.

Abyssal Demons were inherently the enemies of humanity and order. Gaining more of their hatred hardly mattered—it was like piling more debt on someone already bankrupt. A little more was inconsequential.

It was said that in their own Bottomless Abyss, demons possessed special rules and a degree of immortality. There, even if they were killed, they wouldn’t perish completely. Instead, they would be transformed into the lowest-tier Abyssal Worms and would have to fight their way back up, evolving into various types of demons through continuous slaughter. It was also said that some powerful demons could retain a portion of their power even in death, allowing them to avoid becoming worms and instead restart their climb from a Middle-High Tier demon.

The strongest of them all, like the Demon Lords and Demon Princes, would not truly die even if they were killed outside the Abyss. They wouldn’t even degenerate; instead, they would merely suffer significant, long-term damage to their power. It was for this reason that despite the many civilizations of the Era of Myth knowing that demons were the shadow of evil in the world, they were powerless to change the status quo.

Of course, the world was always fair. For demons to possess such a special benefit, they naturally had to pay a price. One of these costs was the difficulty they faced in leaving their lair and entering the Mythical World. Although not an absolute restriction, their powers would be suppressed to some extent. Typically, the more powerful the demon, the harder it was for them to enter the Mythical World and the greater the price they had to pay.

The Blue Star civilization, on the other hand, had been exceptionally unlucky. In the process of entering the Era of Myth and integrating with the Mythical World, they had torn a rift connecting to the Bottomless Abyss, creating a border with a surface Abyssal Plane. This directly led to a crisis that threatened the extinction of their race and triggered a bloody war that had lasted for decades.

Shaking his head, Fang Zhou cast these historical thoughts aside, focusing instead on his current gains, which brought him far more joy.

First, many of these Abyssal Demons possessed casting abilities, such as the Mad Eagle Demons, Fiery Demons, and Fire-Throwing Demons. Fang Zhou would naturally preserve their corpses carefully to attempt crafting Skeleton Mages. Previous artificial undead technology did not include a process for creating undead casters. However, after he, Master Sandro, and Instructor Su Xinyan unraveled the Soul Box left behind by Naraku’s Skeleton Mage and successfully created the Frost Skeleton Mage, Ryze, Fang Zhou had figured out a method for crafting Skeleton Mages with a relatively high success rate.

Most crucially, after his clone had parsed the Death Spirit Body skill, his own understanding of the Soul Series skill tree had deepened substantially. With these two advantages combined, Fang Zhou now had some confidence that he could turn the corpses of these rare caster demons into Skeleton Mages.

By this time, Yan Yan and his team had nearly finished cleaning up the battlefield. Since demons didn’t use the Magic Stones of humans, their currency was a special kind of Soul Coin. As the name implied, they were a special currency created by sealing the incomplete or complete souls of various organisms, filled with emotions like pain and grief. They weren’t just for trade; they could also enhance the strength of low-tier demons. Because of this, Yan Yan’s team hadn’t found a single Magic Stone.

However, these Soul Coins could be sent to the military for purification, and the military would award a certain number of Magic Stones or Contribution Points in exchange. This served as an indirect way of obtaining Magic Stones. Moreover, since most of the demons in this wave were of the Flame Attribute, Fang Zhou had collected a large amount of Magma Sulfur and a small number of Micro Fire Element Crystal Stones after defeating them. In total, these Flame Attribute resources were worth a substantial amount.

Besides these, there were also materials like the giant horns of Horned Demons, the chain flails of Abyssal Beastmen, the fangs of Ape Demons, and the hides of Hellhounds. However, most of these were low-quality items, only good enough to be turned over to the military for recycling.

What truly caught Fang Zhou’s eye were the spoils from the Fiery Demon squad and the Mad Eagle Demon.

Blaze Seeker Bracelet [Green-Excellent, Ornament]: When using Flame Attribute skills, slightly increases damage, critical hit rate, and critical hit damage.

Flame Resistance Ring [Green-Excellent, Ring]: Moderately increases resistance to Flame Attribute damage but slightly decreases resistance to Ice Attribute damage.

Even though there were only about a dozen Fiery Demons in total, they dropped several different green-quality items. The drop rate was remarkably high, and the items themselves were quite useful. The former could increase his Attack Power, while the latter would be very advantageous in future battles against Fire Series enemies like demons.

However, they paled in comparison to the equipment dropped by the Mad Eagle Demon.

Mad Eagle Demon’s Tactical Manual [Green-Excellent, Marvel]: An item exclusive to Summoning Series Professions. Moderately reduces the casting cost of Summoning Series magic skills; can designate up to 20 summoned creatures, moderately enhancing their attack capabilities while slightly reducing their defensive capabilities.

Equipment that provided attribute bonuses to summoned creatures was exceedingly rare. Therefore, even though the manual’s boost was not massive and came with a trade-off, Fang Zhou was very satisfied. He was particularly pleased with the command effect. Combined with his ring, various specializations, and a series of buffs, his summoned creatures alone could probably sweep through an elite demon squadron. This was something that other Professionals of the same level could never hope to achieve!

In any case, with the tactical manual in his left hand and a Magic Staff in his right, Fang Zhou now looked even more like a true Mage. Even with just the effect that buffed his summons, he was already content; anything else was just a bonus.

The second piece of equipment was the Magic Book that the Mad Eagle Demon had been holding. It contained 20 blank pages, where 20 different magic skills could be temporarily transcribed for later learning.

In the Era of Myth, Magic Books like this were an important way for Magic Professionals to learn skills. However, Professionals from the Blue Star Human Alliance had a more convenient and efficient Skill Key System, which allowed them to quickly master skills through their personal terminals. This was an incredibly powerful technological breakthrough, making their learning efficiency much higher than with these primitive Magic Books. But in Fang Zhou’s hands, they were still quite useful.