Dragon Hermit

“Women are really more fearsome than men when they team up!” Xia Yan sighed ruefully and then went to the corner of the room to pick up the bag he had left there. He then took out all the bones from inside and arranged the skeleton frame on the floor.

This skeleton had undergone special treatment as it was initially intended to be used as a specimen in a medical school, so it was spotless and didn’t have a weird smell. From the size of the skeleton, Xia Yan speculated that it might have belonged to a tall man.

If it were before, Xia Yan would have been scared of seeing a skeleton. However, after obtaining the inheritance of the necromancer, he had gained memories of much more terrifying things. Such things had become the norm for him now, so seeing a mere skeleton obviously didn’t affect him much.

Xia Yan took the Skeleton Horcruxes he had prepared in advance down his neck and placed it in his hand. If one were to look inside the skull’s sockets, they would be able to see a wisp of blue soul fire frisking about.

He then wore the other two Horcruxes back on his neck again and just held one of the Skeleton Horcruxes in his hand and supplied it with magic power from his magic tower. Soon after, the soul fire within the Skeleton Horcrux began to thrive with vigor and finally gushed out from the seven apertures of the skull, portraying a very creepy and mystic scene.

He touched the glabella bone of the skeleton with the Skeleton Horcrux gently. Then, he began casting an arcane spell, and as he progressed further into the incantation, the soul fire kindled fiercer and fiercer.

“Skeleton Summoning!” At the moment he finished the incantation of the spell, the soul fire gushed out from the Skeleton Horcrux and entered the skull of the skeleton through its seven apertures. In the next instant, the interior of the entire head raged with flames, and the lower jaw of the skull actually began to move up slightly.

In the living room, Zhang Shufen suddenly turned her head and looked towards Xia Yan’s room.

“Did the thing inside come out again?” Le Wenqing asked nervously after seeing Zhang Shufen’s actions.

“Mhm!” Zhang Shufen nodded, “It seems stronger this time!”

“Would Xia Yan be fine?” Le Wenqing asked promptly.

“There shouldn’t be any problem for now. Xia Yan still has military training, so he wouldn’t be spending the night here,” Zhang Shufen shook her head and stated indifferently, “He might just experience a scare today, that’s all.”

“He won’t stop renting because of it, right?” Le Wenqing asked worriedly, “We have a remainder of ¥200 each month after he hands over the rent for water, electricity, gas, and the internet!”

“He won’t… probably.” Zhang Shufen also felt a bit anxious, “We’ll know once we see his reaction when he’s leaving.”

Xia Yan obviously wasn’t aware of the calculations of the two girls. He was feeling quite excited right now as he had succeeded in performing the Skeleton Summoning spell that was one of the most essential undead magic spells. He withdrew the Skeleton Horcrux and observed the human skeleton on the floor with an expectant gaze.

The egg-sized soul fire within the skeleton’s skull was pulsating at this moment and caused a faint blue light to shine through its seven apertures, portraying a bizarre and scary scene.

The skull’s lower jaw kept opening and closing unceasingly. Then, the entire skeleton’s body shook suddenly as it tried to crawl up from the floor. Its limbs danced around along with its neck as it slowly sat up from the floor and then tried to stand up.

The moment it stood up, the blue light in its skull flared up, and its radiance enveloped all of its bones within it. Followed by a cracking sound, the originally loosely fixed bones pulled closer, making it exude an aura of strength. The skeleton also shrunk a notch and seemed to roughly have a height of around 185 cm now.

As just the skeleton was so tall, it was imaginable that its owner might have been a muscular man whose height was close to 2 m during his life.

[I finally have my first skeleton soldier!]

Xia Yan felt emotionally overwhelmed as the skeleton soldier was the most faithful implement to a necromancer and also their finest combat weapon. A necromancer’s strength leaped by bounds with it on their side.

A recently summoned skeleton soldier had a light blue color illuminating their bones, and this was the most basic grade 1 skeleton soldier. However, its color would turn darker and darker along with the continuous nourishment of the soul fire, and its strength would also increase synchronously. It could even evolve to become an iron, bronze, or silver skeleton soldier and perhaps even a gold skeleton soldier.

The current strength of the grade 1 skeleton soldier was roughly twice as that of ordinary humans, and its bones were as sturdy as hardwood, so it had a powerful offensive and defensive strength.

The skeleton soldier’s head spun around a few times before it discovered Xia Yan’s existence. The natural suppression of the soul fire instilled an instinctive allegiance within the skeleton soldier. Hence, it moved towards Xia Yan with its creaking bones and kneeled on one knee along with a bow of its head before him.

A bean-sized wisp of soul fire flew out from its sockets and entered inside the Skeleton Horcrux. In the next instant, Xia Yan realized that his consciousness had become linked with the skeleton soldier.

He focused his thoughts and transferred his consciousness outwards. In the next moment, he saw the floor of the room and felt a weird sensation all over. He knew that he had entrusted his consciousness to the skeleton soldier’s soul fire and was now sharing the same field of view as the skeleton soldier.

He raised his head and saw his own body before him. This feeling was a fantastic one as even though he could switch his consciousness between the two mediums, he couldn’t control the two points of view simultaneously.

In other words, when Xia Yan and the skeleton soldier were acting at the same time, it could only accept simple orders, and move based on its inherent instincts.

But this alone was already a pretty heaven-defying act.

Xia Yan took the magician’s robe out of his backpack and dressed the skeleton soldier in it. As the hood covered the entire skull, it made it impossible to see what was under the hood even under the lighting. Xia Yan felt pretty satisfied with the results, as this meant that the skeleton soldier could operate outside under cover of the night without any issues.

“However, this magician’s robe is a bit too eye-catching, so it might make people panic at night if they were to see it. Fortunately, I have the Skeleton Horcrux with me!” Xia Yan disrobed the skeleton soldier and then held the Skeleton Horcrux within his hand. He then cast a short spell silently and followed by a flicker of blue light within the Skeleton Horcrux, the skeleton soldier disappeared into thin air.

At the same time, Xia Yan discovered a new wisp of soul fire within the Skeleton Horcrux. It was the skeleton soldier that had entered inside it.

This was one of the marvelous uses of the Skeleton Horcrux — Skeleton Conversion.

The skeleton soldier experienced a transformation on the fundamental level once it gained a soul fire. Hence, its bones were no longer the same, ordinary ones as before, and instead fell under the category of the undead element. Thus, the skeleton soldier could freely shift between a physical and elemental state and could be stored within the Skeleton Horcrux in its undead elemental state.