The Dean’s words had a certain effect on Lyle’s heart, and when he returned to the Necromancer Figure Club, the horrifying sensation still lingered, with his hair standing on end as if nesting on his spine.

"Dean, could it be that you’ve known my identity all along?"

The deeper Lyle delved into his thoughts, the more hesitant he became. He looked at the Lich Crown in his hand... the crown that was in Nia’s hands, after the end of the Spiral Corridor, the ownership of the crown had easily changed.

Lyle looked at the crown, the poor thing now drenched in Nia’s saliva.

"It sure doesn’t look like an artifact should," but Lyle still remembered that brief sensation, when the crown came into his own hands, the flow of magic power inside him was instantaneous and structured. More orderly than when under his own intervention, as if... as if soldiers had seen the monarch they had sworn loyalty to.

"My magic power comes from the Spirit Summoning Studies taught by the Giant Dragon, so it’s no surprise that the Lich Crown works," he thought.

But it was too little, like a few kernels spilt from a full barn, a feeling not even a mouse would be satisfied with.

Lyle pinched his chin, frowning at the saliva-covered Lich Crown.

"I have to find a way to extract the power inside..."

Lyle snatched the "collar" from the raging "puppy’s" mouth and placed it on his desk.

Standing to one side was Lyle, Nia was focused on the other, and Medusa too squatted on another, forming a triangular stance.

"Andrei’s Crown of the Lich, we need your power."

Most things at Andrei Academy were negotiable, perhaps because those misbehaving Liches liked to stuff soul power everywhere.

There was no response; the dazzling crown was like any mundane object.

Time to pull out the big guns.

"Actually, we could be friends, dear crown, after all, we are both friends of the holy light..."

The holy light... some flashes of light appeared on the crown.

How cheap, you Lich Crown, chasing after the holy light! But this made things convenient for Lyle.

"I must confess I am a purifier of the holy light, and Mr. Raymond is my senior." Lyle showed off the ring of Andrei’s in his hand, the beautiful gold line on the ring acted like a switch for the crown. As he rubbed it, the crown’s light became more intense.

Time to bring out the trump card.

"We’re friends, and friends should help each other, right?"

"You help me complete the experiment, and I’ll take you to see Mr. Raymond, keeping your body intact," Lyle bargained.

With a rumble, the radiant glow of magic power poured out, and Andrei’s Crown of the Lich floated in mid-air, bobbing up and down as if nodding.

This crown was beyond saving.

So, when Lyle left the Necromancer Figure Club once more, bustling around for his experimental project, the members such as Mr. Shiny watched their club president march with a dazzling crown on his head. Despite Nia’s desperate efforts, its position would not budge even slightly, and the glaring light scattered everywhere as if it cost nothing, along with that peculiar feeling of submission that the Liches found strange.

Oh, it turns out the Plague Doctor has gotten his hands on the Lich Crown.

The observing Liches were astonished at Andrei’s glowing dots and the crown’s performance. Possibly, Andrei might have another remarkable experimental result soon.

I could well be... perhaps one of the first few people at Andrei to tame the Lich Crown.

With this thought, Lyle headed to the site of the Blood Nest Great Tree.

Since the Giant Dragon had already informed Mr. Crimson in advance, the mass of blood nearly conformed to Lyle’s arrival in his Hive room.

"Peace be with you, Mr. Crimson."

"Peace be with you, Plague Doctor." Mr. Crimson wrapped his body with a cloak made of blood, exuding a refined elegance despite actually containing nothing inside. He was an exhibitionist, and even his very essence was completely exposed. However, madness sometimes accompanies extraordinary knowledge.

"Since the first lesson you attended, I have been pondering when this day would come. Never grow accustomed to Andrei, for you cannot. You have proven this perspective correct once again."

Mr. Crimson snapped his fingers, and the skeletal frame of the room shuddered as flesh-and-blood conduits wriggled and crawled into the room, as abundant as corals reaching out at the bottom of the sea.

"The Blood Nest will impart the knowledge of flesh to you, an ability you would not have understood even upon graduation, which is why the Giant Dragon is only partially aware." Mr. Crimson dissolved into blood and vanished from the room, but his voice still echoed. "Inheriting the spirit and flesh isn’t so simple, but luckily, I am a qualified teacher, so I have prepared everything."

"I submitted an application to the Soul High Tower, and their response was quicker than I had anticipated."

"The transfer of flesh will guide the soul, and an excess of knowledge can lead to the soul being torn apart, potentially driving you mad or worse."

"Therefore, certain assistance is indispensable—a bit of help, a teacher, a protector."

Something was tossed in front of Lyle, and even the brilliance of the Lich Crown couldn’t eclipse it.

A red pillow?

And something inside it.

A soul stone reflecting the face of a child.

Troy.

"Long time no see! My student! I’m still delighted to see you after you’ve missed so many Soul Summoning Studies classes."

It was the mysterious soul stone of the Soul High Tower, Troy, also the private tutor for the Necromancer Figure Club. The first lesson had been profoundly memorable for Lyle. Hopefully, his prolonged absence hadn’t left Troy to confine himself in a little dark room of fear.

"Teacher Troy..."

"Now, let’s attend to what we must!"

From the soul stone drifted a mist of ashen white, staining Mr. Crimson’s bloody chamber with a layer of color, like adding a filter to the surroundings, a filter that was ever spreading.

Before Lyle could react, as the color touched him, he began to float just like Nia Medusa.

Becoming ethereal always brought with it a novel sensation.

"Shed your mortal flesh and immerse yourself fully in the knowledge to come, Plague Doctor."

Within the Blood Nest Great Tree, Troy created a room resembling that of the Soul High Tower, as if he had transported the tower itself.

After dematerialization, Troy still resembled that soul stone.

"Don’t worry about the soul being torn; she and I will ensure its integrity, and yes... the process will be painful." Troy glanced at Nia and Medusa floating in the air.

"You might consider it the torment of force-fed learning."

Mr. Crimson stood outside the differently colored space, smiling and waving at Lyle, who floated within.

The writhing conduits of flesh poured into that space, gradually morphing into the size of syringes within the soul space, slowly injecting the knowledge into Lyle’s body.

Groans and soulful shrieks began to resonate through the Blood Nest Great Tree, though as faint as a breeze.

The magic chains of Andrei’s Crown of the Lich tightly linked Lyle’s figure, binding his ethereal form and corporeal body closely together.