Rex stared at the black-covered "Dark Chain" skill book in his hands, his fingertips tracing the yellowed pages. The ancient necromantic script looked particularly obscure in the dim light, those twisted symbols seeming to writhe like living things on the paper.
"With shadow as guide... bind enemies in the netherworld..." He frowned as he translated word by word. The original body's residual spellcasting knowledge could barely recognize these characters, but understanding them was like solving advanced calculus.
Taking a deep breath, Rex began attempting according to the book's description.
He extended his right hand, imagining magic power condensing into chain shapes in his palm. The necromantic magic within his body slowly flowed, but suddenly became chaotic when passing through a certain node.
With a "poof," a black chain as thin as a finger limply drooped from his palm. Before it could extend half a meter, it "splat" fell to the ground, lying motionless like a dead snake.
"Seriously? This could restrain who exactly?"
Rex had a head full of black lines and waved his hand, causing the chain to disappear.
His magical energy shaping was poor to begin with, so it seemed learning this spell would require more effort.
Just as he was about to try again, his peripheral vision caught Grom's broken ribs. Two bone spikes had been snapped by the wolf king in the recent battle, with cracks extending to the spine.
More serious was the crack at the left arm joint—every swing of the executioner's blade produced teeth-grinding friction sounds.
"Almost forgot about you." Rex quickly commanded: "Grom, go eat those skeleton wolves. My dormitory can't fit them anyway."
The giant skeleton immediately turned around, all six undead eyes lighting up with greedy green light.
It grabbed the nearest skeleton wolf, bone claws directly piercing the opponent's eye socket to extract the soul fire. Greenish flames flowed along the finger bones into Grom's body, making its entire skeletal frame emit "crack crack" sounds.
What happened next was even more terrifying.
Grom opened its jaw and actually bit the skeleton wolf's skull with a "crunch," like eating a cookie.
The shattered bone fragments were swallowed into its body, forming a spinning white light in its chest cavity. As more and more bones were devoured, the white light began flowing toward the injured areas, and the broken bone spikes visibly regrew.
[Minion: Grom (Growing 2%)]
Rex watched the new progress bar that appeared in the status display with surprise.
When Grom finished devouring the third skeleton wolf, the progress jumped to 3%, and the soul fire in its eye sockets was obviously more vigorous than before.
"So it can evolve like this?"
Rex looked thoughtfully at the remaining skeleton wolves. It seemed he'd need to catch more similar undead as "snacks" for Grom in the future.
Rex led his undead legion out of the cave. The silver grass waves on the moonlit grassland continued their undulating motion.
The path they'd trampled coming here was clearly visible, but more eye-catching were several other small trails faintly visible in the grass—these traces formed by some creatures' long-term trampling extended in all directions like a spider web.
Looking at this scene, Rex quickly understood.
"It seems to activate the second floor's boss room, I need to clear out all the other wolf packs."
He turned to look at his undead legion.
Grom was playing with a companion's skull, staring directly at the soul fire within its body. If not for prior orders, it would definitely be having its meal on the little skeleton.
The wolf king skeleton lay quietly at his feet, its silver-white soul fire appearing particularly mysterious in the moonlight.
Despite having just experienced a fierce battle, the entire team's momentum was actually stronger than when they arrived.
"Let's call it a day."
Rex suddenly shivered. The aftereffects of excessive magic consumption were beginning to show—his temples throbbed, and black spots occasionally flashed before his eyes.
At the same time, a long wolf howl came from the distance.
Then came the second, the third... One after another, howls came from different directions, forming an eerie chorus across the vast grassland.
With things as they were, Rex didn't hesitate and directly used the Return Scroll.
Soon, by the time the wolf packs surrounded them from all sides, they had vanished from the spot.
Saint Lor Academy first-year student dormitory south building—Rex opened his eyes, with his skeletons' skull fires burning behind him.
"Mmm~"
He stretched and climbed into bed to begin meditation.
Spellcasters generally didn't need sleep—meditation could substitute for rest and was also the main way for ordinary people to improve themselves and touch the threshold of first-tier.
If you were a swordsman, you'd need to temper your body and break through limits.
The night passed without incident, and dawn broke outside the window.
When Rex opened his eyes, he found the skeleton wolf king loyally lying beside him.
"Even after being transformed into a skeleton, it can't change the protective instincts bred into canine bones?"
Rex patted its smooth bones, then got up, tidied himself, and went out alone.
Rex pushed open the dormitory door. Morning sunlight slanted across the stone pathway.
After just a few steps, he noticed several students gathered not far away, whispering among themselves.
Rex unconsciously slowed his pace, wanting to eavesdrop. Just then, one of the students suddenly looked up, their eyes meeting.
That person's face instantly turned deathly pale. He tugged at his companion's sleeve, and all of them turned to look at Rex in unison, then quickly dispersed, hurrying away as if avoiding a plague.
"News travels fast." Rex shrugged and headed toward the academic building.
Since necromancers were so rare—he was the only student in the entire year—according to academy regulations, he needed to attend large lectures with other spellcasting schools.
Today was a theory class with the Transmutation school in the East Tower.
The moment he pushed open the classroom door, the originally noisy discussion fell silent. Dozens of pairs of eyes looked at him in unison, then quickly looked away.
A large area in the back of the classroom immediately emptied.
Rex was quite accustomed to this treatment and walked directly to the most remote corner.
The instructor on the platform frowned but said nothing.
The class soon began, covering basic transmutation theory.
"The third node of Fireball requires attention to magic circulation..."
The instructor's voice gradually blurred in Rex's ears. He pulled out the "Dark Chain" book from his pocket and began calculating in his notebook.
No matter what, he had to learn this spell. This thing might help him capture the wolf king's soul.
[Shadow energy diversion at nodes—]
[If reducing magic supply in the third segment]
[Perhaps can maintain form but shorten distance]
He was completely absorbed in the spell model, not even noticing that surrounding classmates were secretly glancing at him, exchanging uneasy looks with each other.
The class ended quickly. When Rex looked up from his research, the other students had all left.
A shadow fell across his notebook—the instructor had somehow appeared before him.
"Student, can you tell me what you're researching?" The instructor's voice revealed no emotion.
Only then did Rex realize his rudeness, somewhat embarrassed as he closed his notebook: "Sorry Professor Chris, I was researching... uh, necromancy spell models."
Professor Chris was a third-tier Transmutation spellcaster, skilled at changing various elements into different shapes for release.
He was of common birth and very strict with students. Even noble children didn't dare skip his classes, let alone Rex who had no background.
To his surprise, Chris didn't get angry. Instead, he leaned down to look at Rex's densely filled notes.
Those complex formulas were interspersed with countless revision marks, some places even repeatedly modified until the paper was wrinkled.
"If the students in my classroom had one-tenth of your diligence, they could pass their examinations on their own."
Chris suddenly spoke.
"Uh... not really."
"Very much so. What do you think Saint Lor Academy is? This is a playground for noble offspring."
Chris made no effort to hide his disdain, but when looking at Rex showed appreciation: "But you work hard. I like children like you."
Rex was stunned.
This was the first time since enrollment that a teacher had shown him understanding.
Well, it could only be said that when most people were terrible, just being slightly diligent made him stand out like a crane among chickens.
"What specific problems are you encountering?" Chris pulled over a nearby chair and sat down. This third-tier spellcaster had no airs whatsoever.
He had no obligation to provide answers outside of curriculum time, and the academy couldn't constrain him—it was purely based on personal preference.
And when a big shot said they had "shallow understanding," they were probably being modest—equivalent to "knowing a thing or two."
After a moment's hesitation, Rex pointed to a red-marked spot in his notes: "My problem is, with insufficient mental power, how can I completely cast this spell? I've tried many times, but it always ends in form collapse."
Chris only glanced at the spell model Rex had constructed based on texts before giving his conclusion: "You're too obsessed with standard procedures."
He drew out a quill and sketched several auxiliary lines on Rex's notes: "Look, these secondary nodes can actually share magic pools. If you reduce the magic output of the third and fifth steps by 20%, while overall power will decrease, it can guarantee complete casting."
Rex stared at those lines, like finding the end of a tangled thread, suddenly feeling enlightened. He'd been trying to perfectly replicate the model in the skill book but had ignored flexible adaptation.
"Thank you!" Rex sincerely expressed his gratitude.
"Don't thank me, thank your hardworking self."
Chris waved his hand.
The two chatted briefly before Rex gathered his notes and left.
When he walked out of the classroom, students in the corridor still instinctively avoided him, but he didn't care anymore. Now his head was full of the modified spell model, and he couldn't wait to find somewhere to experiment.
Professor Chris watched him leave.
The female teaching assistant nearby, holding books, seemed puzzled: "Don't you usually hate giving students guidance?"
"Even if I hadn't said anything, he would have worked it out himself by tonight at the latest... that child is a genius."
"A necromancy genius?"
The female assistant muttered quietly: "That's not good news..."
Professor Chris glanced at her meaningfully: "Necromancy is indeed dangerous, but undeniably, it has irreplaceable uses."