The first thing Rex did upon returning to his dormitory was lock the door and draw the curtains tight.
He sat cross-legged on his bed, his fingertips tracing the modified spell model that Professor Chris had guided him through in the air. Those complex magical nodes now looked much clearer, like lighthouses suddenly illuminating a fog.
"Third and fifth nodes share a magic pool..."
He muttered to himself, his right hand unconsciously mimicking spellcasting motions as the necromantic magic within his body flowed with his intent, condensing in his palm.
"Dark Chain!"
As the incantation was spoken, three slender black chains shot forth from Rex's palm.
Though each was only finger-thick and less than two meters long, they indeed maintained their complete form, serpentining through the air.
"Success!"
Rex excitedly swung his arm, and the chains danced with the motion, wrapping around the iron candlestick at his bedside. With a thought, the chains suddenly tightened, leaving deep gouges in the metal candlestick.
"The power is weakened, but the binding effect remains."
He withdrew the spell with satisfaction, glanced at the magic clock on the wall—still several hours until dark—and quickly began meditating to restore his mental power.
After fully recovering, he took out his handheld console.
[Welcome back, Rex]
[Proceed to the second floor?]
[Yes]
The moonlit grassland scene unfolded before him. Rex and his undead legion appeared where they had left last night. The skeleton wolf king immediately raised its skull alertly, silver-white soul fire dancing violently.
"Looks like they've been waiting for us."
Rex looked ahead.
In the distant grass, dozens of glowing green eyes watched menacingly. With a wolf howl, the silver wolf pack surged forth like a tide—more numerous than last night, with fiercer attacks.
"Grom, engage head-on! Wolf King, command your subordinates to flank!"
Rex quickly issued orders while retreating several steps to maintain distance. He needed to conserve magic power for that crucial moment.
Grom let out a silent roar, his executioner's blade sweeping across and instantly cutting three pouncing silver wolves in half.
The skeleton wolf king led the other skeleton wolves in a flanking assault from the side, their sharp bone claws easily tearing through the silver wolves' fur.
The battle was one-sided.
The well-equipped undead legion against flesh-and-blood silver wolves was like harvesting wheat.
Just then, Rex noticed a silver flash in the depths of the grass—the wolf king with the crescent markings was quietly retreating.
"Want to run? That's not up to you."
Rex grinned and thrust his right hand forward.
"Dark Chain!"
Three black chains burst forth, pouncing toward the wolf king like living serpents, binding it tightly.
"Awoooo!"
The wolf king struggled desperately.
The chains stretched and nearly snapped repeatedly, but ultimately held it fast. Rex felt his magic power draining rapidly, cold sweat beading on his forehead.
"Grom! Quickly!"
The giant skeleton immediately abandoned its current enemies, turning to charge toward the bound wolf king. The executioner's blade fell with a whistling sound, severing it with a single strike.
Once again, that pale green soul drifted up from the corpse.
Rex's gaze focused, and he wrapped it with Dark Chain, successfully trapping the wolf king's soul.
The moment the chains bound the soul form, the wolf king let out a heart-rending howl, and the pale green soul began twisting and deforming.
[Warning: You are attempting to capture a guardian soul]
The system prompt flashed, but Rex ignored it, continuing to increase his magic output.
Part of the wolf king's soul was forcibly torn away, becoming a dancing green flame suspended in the air, while the main body took the opportunity to break free from the chains and disappeared into the depths of the grassland with a piercing wail.
[You have angered the second floor guardian 2/12]
"It still escaped." Rex panted heavily, looking at the green flame with a smile curling his lips. "At least it wasn't for nothing."
He commanded Grom to step forward and devour this soul fire.
The giant skeleton greedily grabbed the flame and stuffed it into its chest cavity. Its bones immediately erupted with "crack crack" sounds, and fine blood-colored patterns appeared across its entire skeletal frame.
[Minion: Grom (Growing 15%)]
"A direct increase of 12%?" Rex looked at the status bar with delight. "Guardian souls are much more nourishing than ordinary undead."
By now, the battlefield had fallen quiet.
The silver wolf pack had scattered after losing their leader, leaving over twenty corpses. Rex didn't waste them, casting "Bone Summons" on each one and gaining five more skeleton wolves.
"Grom, dinner time."
He generously let Grom devour four newly transformed skeleton wolves. The growth progress only increased to 17%—unlike the rapid growth at the beginning, progress slowed in later stages.
The remainder were incorporated under the skeleton wolf king's command.
[Obtained: Silver Wolf Claws ×3]
[Obtained: Complete Silver Wolf Pelt ×1]
[Obtained: Damaged Wolf Fang Necklace ×1]
[Category: Accessory]
[Effect: Agility +1]
Rex examined his spoils when he suddenly noticed faint light flickering in the direction the wolf king's soul had escaped.
He walked over and parted the grass, discovering a cave. Going deeper inside, vines hung from the ceiling with three smaller Moon Dew fruits growing on them.
"As expected, there are more."
Rex picked the fruit and swallowed it in one bite, but frowned—this time the improvement was negligible, probably only increasing Intelligence by 0.2.
[Moon Dew effect has diminished to 10%]
"This thing is useless to me now."
Rex thought for a moment, carefully storing the remaining one, then looked toward the depths of the grassland.
Based on the direction of the wolf king soul's escape and the system prompts, he guessed that activating the second floor's boss room required defeating all 12 guardians.
"Just keep farming."
Rex rubbed his temples as fatigue from continuous spellcasting began to emerge. He mentally calculated that at the current pace, it would take nearly a week to see the guardian boss.
...
Time passed quickly. In the blink of an eye, five days had passed, and tomorrow was the day he'd agreed to meet Senior Monica.
Today he needed to visit the exchange office.
Morning light filtered through the curtain gaps onto Rex's notebook. Many books lay on his desk—necromancy knowledge he'd borrowed from the library.
After completing the final spell formula, Rex closed his notebook and grabbed a piece of dry bread from his bedside, stuffing it into his mouth. His life over the past week had been routinely outrageous—classroom, dormitory, handheld console world, cycling through these three points endlessly.
After leaving his room, students in the corridor still pointed and whispered about him, but Rex had learned to completely ignore them.
Arriving at the exchange office again, there were already people queuing today.
Rex silently waited at the end of the line. He visited the exchange office every other day to sell spoils.
Worth mentioning was that wolf drop materials weren't as valuable as ghoul poison glands—usually just a few silver coins. After all, rare things were precious, and ghouls had become quite scarce nowadays.
After queuing briefly, the two female students ahead turned to look at him, whispered among themselves, then one of them spoke to him.
"Senior, why don't you go ahead of us?"
Rex looked up: "I'm not a senior... never mind, are you serious?"
"It's fine, we're not in a hurry."
The two female students quickly stepped aside. Passively, Rex enjoyed a privilege.
"Heh heh, Student Rex, you've become famous."
Inside the exchange office, the elder smiled as he began examining materials. Initially he'd wanted to probe Rex's secrets, but the steady output of large quantities of materials later made him abandon that idea.
Why offend a stable customer? Merchants only sought profit—it was better to pretend not to see unreasonable things.
"Not exactly good fame."
Rex pursed his lips, picking up the money pouch to count. After calculating, he'd saved 25 gold coins from selling poison glands and wolf materials these past days. He looked up and asked: "Did the thing I asked you to prepare arrive?"
"It arrived, it arrived, but magical items suited to necromancy aren't easy to find—took quite an effort."
The elder placed a large wooden box on the table and opened it.
A magic wand lay quietly inside. Rex couldn't look away after one glance.
The wand shaft was made of beech wood corroded by undead magic power, presenting an ominous grayish-white color throughout. The top was inlaid with three crow skulls arranged in a triangular pattern, with weak green phosphorescent fire dancing in their hollow eye sockets.
"You can try it."
The elder was very confident.
Rex wasn't polite, and when he held it and infused necromantic magic, the skulls' jaws began opening and closing irregularly, producing "clack clack" sounds.
This wand looked sinister but had quite practical effects.
[Name: Gravcrow's Beak]
[Category: Wand]
[Quality: First-tier]
[Effect: Reduces magic chanting by 10%, increases power by 5%, can consume magic to summon gravcrows for shared vision]
[Evaluation: Gravcrows watch you and bring disaster]
Rex held it fondly: "How much?"
"Ordinary first-tier wands cost around 30 gold coins, but this one... heh heh, you decide."
The elder smiled.
Rex was somewhat conflicted—he didn't have that much money now. After thinking, he took a Moon Dew from his chest and placed it on the table: "This thing can improve mental power. I think one is worth 5 Kingdom gold coins, no problem."