Chapter 243: Magic Ring Forged

Of course, this primitive heating method is only temporary.

Every so often, Rod goes to the Magic Control Union market district to buy a batch of heating stones and heating charms to distribute to the girls.

After all, I am someone with a little money now; there is no need to stubbornly endure winter using only spiritual energy or mana.

Rod's constitution is powerful.

The source within his body is like a furnace burning nonstop, so he doesn't need these external items.

He made his way to Zombie Selena's experimental hut.

This was originally one of the huts where Rod used to spend the night while patrolling the forest; he stopped using it after obtaining 【Tree Walker】.

Now, from the outside, it looks even tidier than before.

He knocked on the door.

Zombie Selena opened it almost immediately with a creak.

Her expression was blank, and the rotting flesh on one side of her face still had not healed.

She wore a thin mage robe, trimmed so it wouldn't drag on the floor.

After all, she turned into a zombie at age twelve; her body never changed, making her a little shorty.

"Good morning. Want some bread?"

Rod said with a smile.

The Overload Ring might be his main source of funds later; it was hard not to be happy when facing a goose that laid golden eggs.

But the Zombie Young Lady took no offense, shook her head, and returned to the laboratory.

He took the opportunity to glance inside.

All the simple furniture in the living room had been cleared out, and the partition wall separating it from the bedroom was removed; the freed-up space now held a long table along each of the four walls.

Various magical instruments, simply operating arrays, and spellcasting materials were neatly sorted.

Even the floor was equally tidy; in fact, two cleansing rituals had been set up, alternating operation every fifteen minutes.

"Wow-ah—"

Rod exclaimed softly, "I didn't expect that after spending twenty years in the Demon Nest, you would still have such hygiene awareness. Not bad, not bad."

It was just a bit cold.

There was absolutely no heating equipment indoors.

Spellcasting materials and operating arrays were all placed in corresponding temperature-controlled boxes best suited for them.

Vivian was unwilling to expend the effort to run spiritual heating; she leaned against Rod, her soft Bai Tu on one side pressed tightly against his arm.

Rod simply put his arm around her shoulders and gently rubbed her slightly cool lotus arm.

"Why is there no bed? Where do you sleep?"

"Zombies don't need to sleep."

"Is there such a thing?"

He knew that zombies gained 【Undead Body】 upon transformation; so they were actually perpetual motion machines that didn't need rest!

Then I'm rich!

Making magic rings for me day and night!

Rod laughed and waved his hand.

That was just a thought; after all, she was someone under his command.

"That's not right; I remember Tally once stripped your shorts while you were resting. How can you not need to sleep?"

He suddenly remembered.

Selena, who was currently retrieving something from a box under the table, froze upon hearing this.

She turned around like a zombie, although she really was a zombie.

She said, word by word:

"Stripped, my, shorts?"

Rod sensed she was a bit angry, so he immediately changed the subject.

"Is there any difference between resting and not resting?"

Selena took a deep breath; it was clear she was trying hard to calm down.

She took two wooden boxes from the container; inside each box lay ten Shi Mei Mo Fa rings.

"The focus required for spellcasting will differ; it's not that I don't want to sleep, but after transforming into a zombie, it has become very difficult to fall asleep."

"A side effect of the transformation?"

"No. Never mind; let's test the results."

New items naturally needed a test fire; the best location was naturally the nearby Death Desert.

Rod felt inexplicably excited, as if he were test-firing military ordnance.

At the same time, he noticed that before departing, Selena pulled a large hood over her head, raised her scarf to cover half her face, took the long gloves she had received the day before from the wall, and covered her brass-colored alchemical prosthetic limb.

Although her expression was blank and she had actively severed her emotional points, she must care quite a bit about being different from others.

"Coincidentally, I comprehended 【Plague Domain】 last night."

Rod stepped closer and pulled away her scarf and hood.

His right hand gently pressed against the face scorched and ruined by resentful fire.

Selena looked up to meet his gaze; in her emotionless pupils, a trace of some inexplicable expression could faintly be seen.

【Jealousy +5】

Rod couldn't help but smile: "Very good; you indeed weren't castrated completely."

【Symbiosis of Decay and Life】 activated.

A faint yellow-green glow seeped from his palm, and the reddened muscle and skin immediately began to rot.

Selina paused slightly.

"Plague Domain?"

She tried to step away, but Rod held her down.

"Don't rush."

Naturally, she didn't dare resist—anyway, her sense of pain was very weak, so do as you please.

After a short while.

Back and forth between rotting and regenerating.

Rod stopped the domain.

By now, half of the zombie's ruined face had already recovered to its original state.

He looked around and didn't find a single mirror in the laboratory.

So he took out a small hand mirror with a brown wooden back from his pile of collected accessories.

"Look, isn't it much better?"

Selina stared at the no-longer-terrifying face in the mirror, slightly dazed.

"Your constitution is the issue—the domain is working very slowly. In a while longer, it should be able to heal you completely. The mirror is yours. A young lady with no mirror at home—whatever will people think?"

"So, the succubus really did steal my shorts?"

"Uh—"

【Selina's obedience to you +5, current obedience: 43】

They didn't chat further.

The three of them moved to the edge of the Sand Willow Zone and stepped onto the desert.

The desert in the daytime is still fairly tame, but once night falls, the harsh weather along with the 【Dark Vortex Rift Barrier】 will bring strong spiritual fluctuations to the desert.

I'm afraid only the Land Naga—a race adept at living on the desert—could afford not to care.

Rod looked into the distance and saw several tents to the north.

The guards among those rebel Land Naga saw him—or perhaps saw Vivian—and rushed back to report as if they'd seen a ghost.

It seemed they really had been scared out of their wits by Vivian.

Rod couldn't be bothered to deal with it.

He turned to the trial detonation of the magic rings.

This was the first batch—nine magic rings and nine overload rings each.

All used Su Neng Xi Fa spells that could clearly show differences; the spells for both batches of rings were the same, being three each of 【Sound Blast】, 【Fire Brand】, and 【Solid Stone Sphere】, each serving as its own reference control.

Selina had long been prepared, setting up a recording and testing formation ritual off to the side to measure power and Xiao Guo De Fa.

First, of course, 【Fire Brand】—a spell that creates an explosive ball of fire.

Rod held one ring in each hand—one normal magic ring and one overload ring.

As mentioned before, the overload ring has undergone special treatment; the spiritual energy or mana needed to activate it is greatly reduced, but the price is that its power and effect are only 80%.

However, this kind of ring is about 20% to 35% more expensive than a normal ring, and is the key product Rod wants to build.

"Let's go."

Rod channeled spiritual energy.

The magic ring immediately erupted with a powerful glow, and the energy of the flames rapidly condensed in midair.

Boom!!!

(End of chapter)