Excellent! The very first spell - casting attempt has borne fruit!
Kael couldn't suppress his admiration as his eyes fell upon the skeleton in front of him.
A green soul fire flickered and wavered within its skull.
"Arise," he commanded, his spiritual power stirring ever - so - slightly to convey the order.
In immediate response to the command, the skeleton rose to its feet.
Although the creation of this skeleton through spell - casting was successful, the quality of the corpse utilized for its making was abysmal.
Even with Kael's proficient spell - work, this skeleton currently boasted merely the strength of a low - level apprentice.
To be perfectly honest, it was highly debatable whether it could triumph over a nocturnal zombie in a one - on - one fight.
Nonetheless, this wasn't a cause for great concern.
After all, this skeleton held the potential for further enhancement.
Subsequently, Kael took a moment to restore some of his magic power and then unleashed the fifth spell.
Bone Armament
Once the spell was cast, he placed his hand gently on the skeleton's skull, infusing the spell runes deep into the skeleton's soul fire.
As the spell's effects waned, Kael withdrew his hand.
"Go forth and absorb the corpses to arm yourself," Kael directed through his spiritual connection.
"As you command, my lord!"
The skeleton's jaw moved soundlessly, as if articulating the words.
It then shuffled over to another corpse and placed its bony hand on the zombie's head.
With a surge of soul power, the soul essence within the zombie's body was forcibly drawn out by the skeleton.
This was an inherent ability of undead creatures.
They could fortify their soul fire by assimilating the soul essence from corpses.
As the soul essence was absorbed, the soul fire within the skeleton's skull danced more vigorously.
Not stopping at the soul essence, the skeleton also began to greedily absorb the essence of the corpse's flesh and bones.
After over ten minutes, the skeleton had completely consumed the corpse before it, leaving behind only a smattering of grayish - white bone powder.
Evidently, after absorbing the soul essence, flesh, and bone essence of this corpse, the skeleton had grown marginally stronger.
Moreover, by making use of the absorbed bone essence, it forged a bone battle knife for itself.
Kael approached, grasped the bone battle knife, and gauged its strength.
Currently, the battle knife wasn't particularly sturdy; it was about as strong as an average bone.
But this was merely the starting point. The skeleton could continue to absorb corpses and augment its might.
Kael issued an order to the skeleton, instructing it to keep absorbing the remaining corpses to enhance itself.
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If there were no corpses left, it was to slay the other zombies in the building and continue the absorption process.
After that, Kael exited the building and made his way to another structure not too distant.
The skeleton was simply too slow in absorbing the essence of the corpses.
It took over ten minutes for each one, and Kael didn't have the luxury of such patience.
He intended to create several more skeletons to hasten the pace of his power - building.
Before long, another skeleton materialized before Kael.
With a faint smile, he issued the order for it to absorb and evolve.
At that precise moment, a tiny glimmer of light soared dozens of meters from the neighboring building, hurtling straight towards Kael.
Upon witnessing this, Kael couldn't contain his elation.
It seemed that there was a chance to obtain potential points from the zombies slain by the skeleton.
This was truly wonderful.
...
It took Kael the entire morning to craft five skeleton warriors.
These undead beings, initially of lowly strength, were now continuously engaged in slaying zombies, absorbing the essence to fuel their growth.
As evening descended, Kael led these five skeleton warriors back to his lair.
The appearance of these skeleton warriors now was a far cry from when they were first created.
All five skeleton warriors had now reached the pinnacle of the apprentice rank.
Through the attribute panel, Kael could easily check their stats.
Skeleton Warrior
Name: Skeleton Warrior
Bloodline: Undead Bone Race
Rank: Zero - level Apprentice Warrior
Strength: 9.5
Constitution: 7
Agility: 6
Soul Power: 9
Skill: Basic Combat Skills of Skeleton Warriors
In terms of strength, they were on par with the most powerful apprentice - ranked warrior apprentices.
However, aside from strength, their constitution and agility left much to be desired.
Nevertheless, this was an inevitable outcome.
After all, relatively speaking, skeleton warriors were typically considered cannon - fodder in the grand scheme of combat power.
These attributes represented the upper limit for their apprentice rank.
To further boost their stats, they needed to advance to the Black Iron rank.
In contrast to these skeleton warriors, the warrior apprentices in the school boasted far more impressive attributes.
Generally, for these warrior apprentices to progress to the Black Iron rank, they needed at least one of their three primary attributes—strength, constitution, or agility—to reach 10.
Some gifted and ambitious individuals would even suppress their urge to advance, waiting until all three attributes reached 10 before commencing the advancement process.
This way, they could achieve a more substantial physical enhancement upon advancing.
However, for these skeleton warriors under Kael's control, suppressing their realm was no longer necessary.
Their current attributes could no longer be increased through ordinary means.
Advancement was their sole path forward.
Of course, advancing for skeleton warriors was no easy feat.
Based on Kael's estimation, for these skeleton warriors to break through to the Black Iron rank, they would need to slay and devour at least four to five hundred zombies.
The task of enhancing the strength of these skeleton warriors was indeed a long and arduous one.
Nevertheless, for the time being, the combat power of these skeleton warriors had already provided Kael with some assistance.
After a day of relentless killing and growth, these five skeleton warriors no longer resembled bare - boned skeletons.
They were now clad in armor.
These blackish - gray bone armors were the result of the Bone Armament spell.
The skeleton warriors had condensed the absorbed bone essence into their own weapons and protective gear.
Currently, this armor offered a commendable level of defense.
If it were armor crafted by other creatures and worn on these skeletons, given that the skeleton warriors lacked flesh and blood, it would surely rattle and sway.
But at this moment, these armors had grown from the very bodies of the skeleton warriors, with numerous hollow bones inside providing structural support.
Thanks to these hollow bones, not only was the armor kept stable, but it also had a certain shock - absorption effect against enemy attacks, which was rather remarkable.
Among the five skeleton warriors, three were equipped as knife - and - shield soldiers, wielding a bone knife in one hand and a bone shield in the other.
The remaining two were spear - and - shield soldiers, holding a shield in one hand and a four - meter - long bone spear in the other.
On the backs of these five skeleton warriors were strapped four bone short spears.
This served as the skeleton warriors' long - range attack method.
Since they were skeleton warriors, they were unable to fashion bowstrings from bone.
Moreover, purchasing bows and crossbows for the skeleton warriors to use simply wasn't cost - effective.
Therefore, throwing short spears was an excellent long - range attack option.
With the combined strength of the skeleton warriors and their soul power, the attacking power of these thrown short spears was quite formidable.
The power of the short spear attacks could reach 7 - 9 degrees.
With the protection provided by these skeleton soldiers, Kael's combat power had been significantly boosted, allowing him to cast spells and launch attacks with greater composure.
