Undead Mage: I Have a Skeleton Clone-Chapter 530 - 378: Skill Advancement, Top-tier Marvels, and Explosive Power Boost! (Part 2)
Take the Black Iron-level Brutal Aura, for example. The advancement of this skill signified that Fang Zhou had taken another major step forward as an Undead Mage.
[Brutal Aura] (Black Iron, Mastery): Passive Skill. Slightly increases the movement speed, attack frequency, and damage of subordinate Undead Creatures. Can consume Undead Mana to actively trigger a stronger buff, adding multiple energy attributes like Physical Armor-Piercing, Death Energy, and Corrosive Poison to subordinate Undead Creatures. The magnitude of the buff, its duration, and its area of effect are determined by the Caster’s Spirit Attribute and Skill Proficiency.
Furthermore, the two Soul Series Skills that Fang Zhou had mastered also advanced accordingly.
Soul Enemy automatically advanced to a Black Iron-level skill, requiring little of Fang Zhou’s attention.
The Soul Vision Skill, thanks to Fang Zhou’s diligent efforts, also successfully advanced to the Black Iron-level [Soul Eagle Eye].
[Soul Eagle Eye] (Black Iron, Mastery): Consumes Undead Mana to briefly open a window to the Soul Domain, allowing Perception of soul fluctuations in the surrounding environment and the precise marking of more active souls. The Perception distance, effect, and the number of marks are determined by Soul Strength, Spirit Attribute, and Skill Proficiency.
This dazzling array of Black Iron-level skills greatly enhanced Fang Zhou’s combat ability, making him a formidable figure even among all Black Iron Lower Tier Professionals.
No one would have believed that such a luxurious list of skills could be mastered by a Professional who had just broken through the bottleneck and advanced to Black Iron less than two months ago.
However, as a consequence of Fang Zhou’s Burst of Inspiration, the substantial Soul Power he had accumulated previously and during his recent hunting was completely exhausted.
Although he still had some contribution points remaining thanks to the rewards for completing skills, his rate of progress had inevitably slowed.
This left Fang Zhou privately troubled.
If only there were a way to obtain a large amount of Soul Power. It would be well worth exchanging his contribution points for it.
Of course, during this period, Fang Zhou had not only mastered the Artificial Skeleton skill developed by Master Sandro but had also applied it to his own training.
However, as Fang Zhou’s strength continued to climb, these Apprentice-tier Undead Creatures were evidently no longer able to keep up with his current combat requirements and were gradually being phased out of his combat roster.
Furthermore, several Undead Mages were still at a loss regarding the creation of the Personal Undead Space, having made no substantial progress.
Therefore, research on both Artificial Undead and the Personal Undead Space had temporarily hit a bottleneck.
Due to the scarcity of Soul Power, Fang Zhou could no longer extravagantly burn it as he had before to enter a Burst of Inspiration and chase that fleeting flash of Spiritual Light.
As an ancient saying goes, "A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush."
Faced with this situation, Fang Zhou made a pragmatic choice: he would invest his limited Soul Power into enhancing his current combat capabilities.
Besides the deduction and enhancement of his Undead Mage skills, Fang Zhou had also made remarkable progress in the field of Alchemy over the past two months.
Just as Chu Chengxiu, the Void Splitter Warlock instructor at Sea City Military Academy, had taught, Alchemy not only helps Magic Professionals better understand the essence of the world but also provides additional support in actual combat.
Under the meticulous guidance of Instructor Su Xinyan, Fang Zhou’s Alchemy level swiftly progressed from apprentice to the Basic Level.
Of course, Soul Power also provided considerable assistance in this process, making Fang Zhou more adept in his studies and practice.
With his advanced Alchemy level, Fang Zhou could now refine White Common-quality Marvels.
Furthermore, with strong support from the Longxia Federation’s military, the resource stores of the Sea City Military Academy’s logistics department had been gradually replenished with a variety of Undead Attribute alchemy materials.
This abundant supply, coupled with the reserves provided by Master Sandro and Silvanas Academy, ensured that Fang Zhou would not lack Undead Attribute alchemy materials for a good while. This provided a solid foundation for his alchemical practice.
As the saying goes, "To do a good job, one must first sharpen one’s tools."
Based on this principle, Fang Zhou fully utilized his improved Alchemy level and the ample Undead Attribute materials to meticulously craft a set of exclusive Undead Mage Marvels for himself.
During this period of Cultivation and study, Fang Zhou gradually realized that although Marvels for Professionals weren’t as restrictive as Equipment, one couldn’t just blindly stack their numbers or mix and match them randomly.
Real combat wasn’t like a turn-based game with fixed sequences and patterns. On the Human-Demon Battlefield, battles were often in constant flux. In the life-and-death struggles on the battlefield, the time for a Professional to react was extremely limited.
Under such high-pressure conditions, a Professional had almost no opportunity to contemplate which skill or Marvel was best to resolve a crisis. If a Professional wasn’t familiar with their own skill combinations and lacked a clear understanding of their Marvels’ specific uses, an overly cluttered configuration would severely hinder their combat performance. On the Human-Demon Battlefield, this kind of hindrance could often mean the difference between life and death.
Therefore, under the guidance of Instructor Su Xinyan and Master Sandro, Fang Zhou began to refine the various Marvels in his possession, striving to maximize their effectiveness in combat.
Aside from keeping a few Marvels for daily life and Cultivation, Fang Zhou re-crafted five White Common-quality Marvels, each with a different purpose and specifically for combat. The design of each Marvel was carefully considered, aimed at enhancing his survivability and combat efficiency on the battlefield.
They were the Bone Armor Phylactery, the Flash Bracelet, the Ring of Shock, the Bone Prison Seal, and the Skeleton Warhorse Rein.
The first was the [Bone Armor Phylactery]. This Marvel was an enhanced upgrade of the Bone Shield Crystal Stone, which Fang Zhou had previously created by reinforcing a Rock Shield Crystal Stone. It inherited the original refinement principles and was further upgraded using Undead Attribute Alchemy Essence.
[Bone Armor Phylactery] (White Common, Marvel): An Undead Mage-exclusive Marvel upgraded from the Bone Shield Crystal Stone using Undead Attribute Alchemy Essence. Can be used to cast [Skeleton Armor] at Black Iron Lower Tier power twice at no cost. Once all charges are depleted, it requires a full day to recharge naturally.
Next was the [Ring of Shock]. This Marvel was also an enhancement built upon its original foundation. It was upgraded from the Ripple Ring—which itself was an enhancement of the Ring of Burning Fire—by inheriting the original refinement principles and using Undead Attribute Alchemy Essence.
[Ring of Shock] (White Common, Marvel): An Undead Mage-exclusive Marvel upgraded from the Ripple Ring using Undead Attribute Alchemy Essence. Can be used to cast [Skeleton Shock Wave] at Black Iron Lower Tier power twice at no cost. Once all charges are depleted, it requires a full day to recharge naturally.
As for the Flash Bracelet and Bone Prison Seal, these were Fang Zhou’s latest alchemical achievements.
Unlike inscribing direct-damage spells into Alchemy Marvels, Fang Zhou preferred to choose functional skills such as mobility or control. After all, with the bonuses from his Equipment and Talent, the attack spells he cast himself were far more powerful than any skill cast directly from an Undead Attribute Marvel.
[Flash Bracelet] (White Common, Marvel): Undead Mage-exclusive Marvel. Can be used to cast [Skeleton Flash] at Black Iron Lower Tier power twice at no cost. Once all charges are depleted, it requires a full day to recharge naturally.
[Bone Prison Seal] (White Common, Marvel): Undead Mage-exclusive Marvel. Can be used to cast [Skeleton Cage] at Black Iron Lower Tier power twice at no cost. Once all charges are depleted, it requires a full day to recharge naturally. 𝕗𝕣𝐞𝐞𝘄𝐞𝚋𝚗𝗼𝘃𝗲𝗹.𝚌𝕠𝚖
The Bone Armor Phylactery, Flash Bracelet, Ring of Shock, and Bone Prison Seal.
These four exclusive Undead Mage Marvels covered various combat roles, including area-of-effect attacks, defense, mobility, and control.
For an Undead Mage at the Black Iron Lower Tier stage, this already represented a top-tier, even luxurious, configuration.
