Chapter 353 - 128: Lifebound Profound Corpse! Success

Chapter 353: Chapter 128: Lifebound Profound Corpse! Success

But back then, his summoning level was relatively low, and he could only summon Tier One units.

Most importantly, his contract slots were full.

His original four contract slots were firmly occupied by four Skeletons: Bone Valor, Bone Jade, Bone Youji, and Bone Shield.

So, even though those Skeletons were rare, he had no room for them.

Lynch could only watch helplessly as he sent them away.

The feeling was like pulling an SSR in a gacha game, only to be forced to dismantle it on the spot because his inventory was full.

He didn’t even have the chance to just keep it around.

But things were different now.

He now had an extra contract slot, which meant he could keep this Skeleton Mage.

This was exactly why Lynch had gritted his teeth and continued grinding tonight, even though his skill had already broken through to LV4 and there was no way he could reach Level 5 so soon.

He just wanted to take advantage of his newly upgraded skill to grind out a rare Skeleton.

He wasn’t aiming for anything too rare. Skeleton Archers would have been fine, and he wouldn’t have complained about a Skeleton Scout. Even a Skeleton Shield Guard, if he nurtured it, could one day become a formidable force on its own.

And the result?

His luck was off the charts.

He went and pulled a master Skeleton Mage.

Lynch flopped back into his armchair, gazing up at the night sky, unable to keep the corners of his mouth from curling into a grin.

’A master Mage...’

Sure, it was only a measly Tier Two right now; even Bone Youji could shatter half its ribs with a single arrow.

But with these Netherworld Skeletons, the most valuable thing was their potential for growth.

As long as he was willing to invest resources—like Negative Energy Crystals, reinforced bone powder, and so on—reaching Tier Three or Tier Four in the future would be no problem at all.

It even had a decent chance of pushing for Tier Five.

A Tier Five Skeleton Mage. What did that even mean?

It was a strategic unit capable of acting as an army unto itself in large-scale battles, blanketing the battlefield with Magic.

A piece of mobile artillery within the Undead Calamity framework.

A being that would prove troublesome even for human Mages of the same tier.

And tonight, in this backyard piled high with bone fragments, he, Lynch, had just pulled such a top-tier prospect.

Lynch turned his head to look at the Skeleton Mage standing silently nearby.

Under the moonlight, it wore a crown of bone and held a bone staff, its skeletal frame tinged with a faint, ashen gray.

"Come." Lynch sat up in his armchair and beckoned to it. "Let’s see what you can do."

The Skeleton Mage’s Soul Fire flickered. It obediently took two steps forward, planted its staff on the ground, and assumed a casting stance.

Lynch shouted to the group of Giants, "You, the one with the horn on your forehead. Step forward."

"That’s right, one-on-one. You go all out. Take whatever it throws at you, just don’t smash it to pieces." Lynch paused, then added, "If you win, your meat rations will be doubled for the next ten days."

The Long-Horned Giant’s eyes instantly lit up.

It rolled its shoulders, then hefted its massive iron Wolf Fang Club and strode to the center of the backyard. It crooked a finger at the Skeleton Mage and said in broken Common Tongue, "Come on, little bag of bones. Let your grandpa see what you’re made of."

The Skeleton Mage didn’t move.

It just stood there silently, the Soul Fire in its eye sockets locked onto the Long-Horned Giant.

Lynch issued the command. ’Attack!’

The next instant, the Skeleton Mage moved.

It didn’t chant or gather power; it simply pointed its staff forward.

The pale Crystal Stone at the tip of its staff flared to life, and a grayish-white beam, as thick as a thumb, suddenly lanced out like a laser!

The Long-Horned Giant’s pupils shrank as it instinctively brought the Wolf Fang Club up to defend its chest.

TSSSS—!!

The grayish-white beam instantly struck the iron shaft of the Wolf Fang Club—a weapon as thick as a child’s arm. Like a red-hot needle through butter, it sizzled as it corroded a hole straight through the weapon.

Without losing momentum, the beam then struck the Long-Horned Giant’s pauldron.

Under the assault of the grayish-white beam, the plate armor forged from refined steel might as well have been made of paper, as it too was instantly pierced.

SZZZZZZZ—

The beam struck the Giant’s shoulder, and a torrent of extremely concentrated Negative Energy began pouring into its body.

"AAAAARGH—!"

The Long-Horned Giant shuddered and let out a piercing shriek of pain.

Its massive body stumbled backward, the Wolf Fang Club slipping from its grasp and hitting the ground with a loud CLANG.

But the strange thing was, the wound showed no signs of bleeding. Instead, the flesh had taken on a deathly, ashen color. It was as if all the life force in that spot had been instantly drained away, leaving it shriveled and withered, like a piece of meat that had been air-dried for years.

Moreover, the ashen color was slowly spreading outward from the wound at a rate visible to the naked eye.

"That’s enough!"

Lynch hastily used his mental link to stop the Skeleton Mage’s continuous damage, then rose and hurried over to the Long-Horned Giant, leaning down to inspect its wound.

He already recognized this spell—Death Ray!

This spell was notorious within the Negative Energy Magic system as a "brute-force damage" spell.

It offered no crowd control effects, simply and brutally condensing Negative Energy into a laser-like beam to pierce or slice through targets in its path, all while injecting vast quantities of Negative Energy into their bodies.

Often, victims of a Death Ray didn’t die from the physical trauma, but from widespread tissue necrosis and the complete depletion of their life force.

’Good thing I stopped it in time...’ Lynch breathed a sigh of relief. With a flip of his hand, he produced a bottle of Holy Light System healing potion from his Space Ring and poured it directly onto the Long-Horned Giant’s wound.