...

What happened next in the battle was rather unremarkable.

Ganged up on in a righteous beatdown, the unlucky Hellhound from the lower realms couldn’t escape its demise, no matter how tough its hide.

The only thing that surprised Lynch was...

The final, fatal blow was actually delivered by the Fishman Priest Skeleton.

Just as the scarred, near-death Hellhound opened its massive, sulfur-stenched maw to roar, intending to spit one last wave of Hellfire to take some Skeletons down with it...

The Fishman Priest Skeleton, still looking dazed, casually fired a Water Arrow Skill, which shot with pinpoint accuracy deep into the Hellhound’s throat.

"Guh... Urk?!"

The Hellhound’s roar was forcefully choked back.

The searing flame that had gathered at the back of its throat, stimulated by the cold energy of the water arrow, actually caused a small internal explosion.

SQUELCH... BOOM~

A muffled pop echoed from within the Hellhound’s neck. Its head snapped back, its eyes instantly widening in agony and disbelief.

In just a moment, its neck went limp and flopped down. Bits of flesh mixed with black smoke spewed from its nostrils.

The light in its eyes rapidly faded.

It was dead!

Even more bizarrely,

Two faint, ghostly green sparks slowly lit up in the Fishman Priest Skeleton’s once-vacant, hollow eye sockets.

Was that...

Soul Fire?

Lynch’s eyes nearly popped out of his head. He couldn’t believe it.

’This sneaky, useless Fishman Priest Skeleton actually ignited its own Soul Fire?’

Although the Soul Fire was so minuscule and its light so dim as to be insignificant compared to the Soul Fires of Bone Jade and Bone Mage...

But...

It was, after all, a Soul Fire!

The mark of an Undead Creature gaining rudimentary intelligence.

"Damn it." Lynch was speechless for a moment.

’No wonder this Skeleton was so cowardly and sneaky from the very beginning. Turns out it had the potential to ignite a Soul Fire all along.’

’Its foundation was probably too weak before, so its Soul Fire was in a critical state, on the verge of igniting but never quite getting there.’

’But after battle upon battle, continuously absorbing the dissipating aura of death—especially after taking down a Hellhound this time and absorbing a significant amount—it finally succeeded in igniting its Soul Fire.’

’Well, what do you know.’

Lynch’s feelings at this moment were quite complicated.

He would have preferred it if the goblin warrior Skeleton or the magic-wielding Shaman Skeleton had ignited a Soul Fire. The boost to his Death Legion’s strength would have been immediate.

But of all his minions, it had to be this Fishman Priest Skeleton, which was utter trash in every aspect besides its one low-level Water Arrow Skill...

"Ah, well. It’s better than nothing," Lynch could only console himself. ’So now I finally have a fourth Soul Fire Skeleton under my command... even if this fourth one seems a bit useless.’

He shot the Fishman Priest Skeleton a disdainful look.

Even with its Soul Fire ignited, it still looked just as dazed as ever, showing no immediate signs of becoming brilliant or mighty.

Instead, Bone Mage walked up and patted its scapula in encouragement. The Fishman Priest Skeleton obediently nodded its head, as if thanking its boss for the praise.

’Fine, whatever.’

Lynch had almost forgotten that this guy was now Bone Mage’s underling.

’Besides, since it has a Soul Fire now, it deserves its own name. I’ll just call it [Fishman Priest] for now.’

Lynch couldn’t be bothered to recall it to his main force for special training, so he decided to just let Bone Mage continue to lead it.

As an aside, Lynch assigned it ten goblin Skeleton grunts to lead. It wasn’t that he was unwilling to give it more, but its Soul Fire was simply too weak. Leading just ten low-level soldiers already made its Soul Fire flicker, as if it were struggling.

’As expected, a weakling is a weakling. It’s even a notch weaker than the crippled Skeletons summoned by a Lv. 0 Skeleton Summoning Skill.’

Next up was everyone’s favorite part: the unboxing.

Lynch rubbed his hands together and walked over to the Hellhound’s corpse, slightly excited.

He had to admit, even in death, the creature’s physique was still impressively robust. Its dark red scales and knotted muscles radiated a sense of power.

He eyed the outline of its skeleton and mused to himself, ’After I convert it into a Skeleton, the frame should be... big enough to ride, right?’

However, this Hellhound was a Tier One magical beast, and its corpse alone was a small fortune.

Lynch called out, "Don’t just stand there. Come help me process this."

The three girls approached, each in their own way. Ophelia strode over swiftly, while Lilith’s eyes lit up, clearly curious about the materials from a rare magical beast like a Hellhound.

Avril, on the other hand, dawdled over while pinching her nose.

But Lynch clearly didn’t care about their moods. He took out a bone dagger and, with the three of them helping, spent a good deal of effort to finally strip the Hellhound of its most valuable parts.

Although the hellhound hide was damaged in many places, its texture was tough, and it seemed to have decent fire and physical resistance. After some repairs, it could be made into a good leather armor lining or tanned to serve as a base material for Magic Scrolls.

Additionally, they extracted a pigeon-egg-sized, dark-red Crystal Core from its body. It was warm to the touch, and it looked as if lava was slowly flowing within it.

"A Tier One Fire Element Crystal Core. The quality looks pretty good. Should be worth a bit," Lynch said, weighing the Crystal Core in his hand. He felt the active Fire Element contained within and couldn’t help but nod in satisfaction.

This thing could be used to create Magic Items, serve as a spellcasting component, and was also useful to alchemists.

Afterward, Lynch glanced at the remaining flesh and blood with a hint of regret.

Hellhound meat was said to be extremely tough and stringy, full of sulfur and fire toxins, with a truly awful taste that was completely inedible for humans.

Otherwise, he would have definitely tasted it to see what Hellhound meat was like.

After harvesting the valuable loot, Lynch finally took out the flask of water he carried and carefully washed his hands.

As he washed, he prayed silently in his heart, ’Senior Sandro, as a legend of the Undead System, you wouldn’t want to see the Undead Major continue to decline like this, would you?’

’For the sake of this junior who has been diligently grinding mobs, painstakingly amassing a skeleton army, and single-mindedly working towards the great revival of the Undead System... please bless me with good luck this time.’

His prayer finished.

With a focused expression, he raised his skull-topped Magic Staff and cast the Skeleton Resurrection Skill on the Hellhound’s mangled, fleshy remains.

BANG~

With a dull thud, all the filth was purged.

A Hellhound Skeleton slowly rose to its feet.

Its entire skeleton was a pale red. The frame was large and strong, with a shoulder height reaching a grown man’s chest and a body length of over two meters. It looked like an agile, skeletal pony.

Although it had lost its flesh and blood, its ferocious and savage aura had not diminished much.

Lynch’s eyes lit up, and he was ecstatic.

Deep within the Hellhound Skeleton’s eye sockets, two ghostly green flames flickered.

That was...

Soul Fire!

’Excellent, excellent, excellent.’

...

(To all my brothers and sisters, please keep up with the daily reads recently. Mwah!)