Chapter Twenty-Five: Serpent, Wolf, and Skull (Vote Requested)

Continuing to seek recommendations~

The special clothing prepared for the registered disciples by the Houghtonklin family not only possessed a certain degree of defensive strength but also had tracking sensors embedded within. This allowed the rescue teams to monitor the disciples’ progress and swiftly locate anyone in danger.

These were details inadvertently revealed by Xie Zhan, who often roamed the Blackwater Mountains, and indirectly led to Xu Wen’s actions this time...

Perhaps even the higher-ups of the Houghtonklin family never imagined that the defensive gear they so carefully designed would be willingly abandoned by a registered disciple. Xu Wen did so to avoid attention, venturing alone into the Blackwater Mountains under the cover of night to practice necromancy.

He took off his inner garments, folded them neatly, and carefully buried them beside a marked tree, concealing them with dry leaves.

At night, the absence of a layer of clothing made the air noticeably cooler, but as Xu Wen summoned a thread of fire element, the chill dispersed instantly.

Having made all necessary preparations, Xu Wen took a deep breath. Sensing something, the fire element around him suddenly dissipated, replaced by a faint, bone-chilling cold.

"Come out, my servant."

At his call, the skeletal minion that had been sealed away in an alternate dimension for over a month emerged silently from a small, shining hexagram array, blending seamlessly into the surrounding darkness with a dense aura of the undead.

Whether it was from being confined for so long, or perhaps sharing in Xu Wen’s current sense of ease and exhilaration, the skeleton let out a small, cautious growl to curry favor.

Xu Wen smiled, tapping its skull with his short sword.

"Enough! Don’t act spoiled. Our time is limited; we need to find your companions before they’re all devoured..."

The skeleton whimpered unconsciously, then trotted ahead, leading the way. Man and skeleton, they crept quietly in the direction of a two-star magical beast’s corpse that Xu Wen remembered.

Without the special garment, Xu Wen had to rely on his Flame Shield for protection. The subdued, crimson shield guarded his left, while his right hand wielded a short sword wreathed in blazing fire, both warding off the chill and lighting the way ahead.

Perhaps thanks to the skeleton’s presence, or maybe because no other magical beasts had crossed their path, the journey was unusually calm. They reached the corpse of a two-star magical beast—a Wind Fox—without incident.

Xu Wen quickly dismissed his "Flame Hand" spell, approached the charred body, kicked the severed leg back onto it, and, chanting softly, flicked a wisp of eerie green flame onto the remains.

In an instant, a ghostly wind howled...

The green flame rapidly "dissolved" the flesh of the Wind Fox, leaving only its pale, gleaming bones.

The process was strange and unsettling, but in Xu Wen’s eyes, the skeletal Wind Fox—retaining seventy percent of its former power—was clearly a cut above his original minion, its combat strength likely at the ninth tier of one-star magical beasts, something the first skeleton could never match!

The skeletal Wind Fox, once its bones were reassembled, took over the vanguard position, relegating the original skeleton to the rear, now trailing Xu Wen and guarding the back.

With the Wind Fox at his side, Xu Wen felt a newfound confidence.

Now, even if they were ambushed, he need not worry: the "Skeletal Wind Fox" would block the front, the "Skeletal Stench" would alert him from behind, and positioned in the middle, Xu Wen would have ample time to react.

As if to test this confidence, two faint red glows suddenly appeared in the forest...

The eyes of a magical beast, reflecting the light of his Flame Shield.

Roar!

Before Xu Wen could react, a low growl sounded, and a shadow leaped from behind a cluster of low shrubs ten meters away.

"Woof!!"

The Skeletal Wind Fox, leading the way, couldn’t return in time, but that didn’t mean the loyal Skeletal Stench, always at Xu Wen’s back, would miss it. With a dry grunt, it sprang up, intercepting the attacking beast mid-air.

Crack!

The crisp sound of shattering bone.

The Skeletal Stench, with the strength of a third-tier one-star, was smashed apart in mid-air, bones scattering everywhere.

But the minion’s sacrificial charge wasn’t in vain—the attacking beast’s pounce was forcefully interrupted, its momentum broken, landing five meters short of Xu Wen.

Whoosh!

The blazing "Flame Blade" immediately brought pain to the attacker. Before it could regain its footing, Xu Wen’s sword struck its head, sending it tumbling with a wail.

A two-star, sixth-tier magical beast—not bad at all.

Xu Wen watched with delight as the "Snake Wolf" picked itself up, swiftly flicking its tongue as it triggered a magical surge. He called back the Wind Fox, commanding it to stand guard—this mid-ranked two-star beast was no real threat to him.

What drew his attention was the Snake Wolf’s unique makeup: a snake’s head on a wolf’s body, inheriting both the venomous attacks of snake-beasts and the water magic of wolf-beasts.

"Fortune smiles on me," he murmured.

He deftly blocked the Snake Wolf’s ice blades and poison darts with his Flame Shield, confirming its abilities matched those described in the books. Xu Wen wasted no more time—his fingertip flicked out a silent droplet of liquid...

Half a minute later!

A cold, ghostly flame engulfed the Snake Wolf’s corpse, burning with green light in Xu Wen’s eyes. Soon, its odd little head and the skeletal body of a magic wolf stood up from the flames. Xu Wen examined its formidable claws and the dense aura of death enveloping it, a smile playing on his lips.

Though he lost the Skeletal Stench, the gains were substantial!

The "Skeletal Snake Wolf" retained about first-tier, two-star strength, and its claws carried a poisonous aura. The venom alone could boost its close-combat power by at least two ranks! If another ambush were to come, this new minion would turn the tables.

With both the Skeletal Wind Fox and the Skeletal Snake Wolf, even a high-tier two-star magical beast would find them formidable opponents!

Destroying the scattered bones of the Skeletal Stench, Xu Wen pressed on with his two new skeletal guards...

His newly-formed squad—himself, a seventh-tier two-star fire mage, a ninth-tier one-star, and a first-tier two-star skeletal undead—was enough to make most magical beasts retreat, even if he trespassed into their territory.

Thus...

Following the map of corpses in his memory, Xu Wen quickly located six more high-tier two-star magical beast remains, including a Rhinoceros and a Blue Light Panther, raising them one by one as second- and third-tier skeleton guards.

His undead squad now boasted fifteen members, several of which possessed mid-ranked two-star strength. With this troop of skeletal magical beasts marching through the Blackwater Mountains, Xu Wen couldn’t help but recall his days in the gaming world. Back then, after switching to a hidden class, he was brimming with pride—hundreds, even thousands of skeletons, a swarm of undead, a flight of ghostly dragons swirling overhead. Even the elite guild teams would detour when encountering him, afraid of being overrun by the relentless tide of undeath!

Shaking off his reverie, Xu Wen glanced at the fifteen loyal skeletal guardians standing vigil around him and sighed again...

In those days,

Even the most casually summoned skeleton warrior under his command rivaled a high-tier three-star magical beast. This little group wouldn’t have caught his eye at all.

"Alas..."

Despite his sighs, Xu Wen knew his path would never be so simple.

A necromancer might possess terrifying summoning power, but everything was governed by their level. With only two-star strength, he could never hope to control three-star magical beast skeletons—such an attempt would result in the tragic backlash of the undead. If his mental strength ever faltered, the undead would not hesitate to turn on him.

Every necromantic summoning cost him an equal measure of mental energy. These little creatures might seem well under his control now, but if he recalled them to the alternate dimension, summoning them again would be difficult. At his current level, he could summon at most four at a time; the rest he could only just suppress. He would have to restore his mental strength before summoning others again.

In the virtual game world, this weakness could be offset by many high-grade potions, quickly amassing an army of the undead. Here, though, summoning was a thousand times more difficult, and if Xu Wen truly raised an undead army, the crime would be akin to treason!

For now...

He merely sought to accumulate as many undead resources as possible, to prepare for emergencies and ensure he was never caught unprepared.

With his troupe of undead, Xu Wen rampaged through the outskirts of the Blackwater Mountains for hours, finally returning his minions to the alternate space before heading back to the spot where he’d hidden his clothes.

He dressed himself, just as the first light of dawn crept into the Blackwater Mountains.

Inside the house at the mountain’s entrance, Sang Long, who had spent the night monitoring the crystal board to prevent Xu Wen from acting alone, finally relaxed. He spared one last glance at the little red dot moving steadily toward the outer reaches of the mountain before returning to the lounge to rest.

[bookid=143648, bookname="Online Game: Resurrection"]