Chapter 64: Skeletons Battle Monsters, the White Bone Silver Python Appears

The valley where the Dark Scale Tribe resides lies to the northeast.

Looking down from the sky, a continuous black line moves across the ground.

Upon closer look, they are indeed the soldiers of the Dark Scale Tribe.

Dozens of Swamp Giant Warriors, each nearly four meters tall, lead the way, clearing away blocking branches and trampling obstructive shrubs, forging a wide path through the wild forest.

Behind the Swamp Giant Warriors is a massive club-wielding army composed of thousands of goblins and gnolls.

The so-called club-wielding army means that each soldier's only equipment is a single wooden club.

The Dark Scale Tribe is not without iron mining; in fact, gnolls discovered a semi-open-pit iron vein there several years ago.

Thereafter the Dark Scale Tribe organized over a thousand gnoll miners to extract iron ore day and night.

But smelting iron is also troublesome; having iron ore does not immediately yield large amounts of steel, requiring multiple processes to produce steel.

Limitations in infrastructure and technology prevent the Dark Scale Tribe from equipping all its warriors with steel weapons and armor; only a small portion can be armed, the rest either wear leather armor made from monster or beast hides, or have nothing at all.

The elite warriors' weapons are forged from demon steel, specifically third-rank demon steel.

The source of this third-rank demon steel includes the demon stone provided by Lai Ang, which is one of the many rewards given by the Academy.

Although a box containing a hundred third-rank demon stones seems plentiful, after Ai Di refines them into demon steel, only enough for about a hundred demon steel weapons can be made—those are the weapons used by ordinary-sized monsters.

For a swamp giant that stands three or four meters tall, if its weapon were made of demon steel, only a few could be forged.

Goblins and gnolls previously wielded spears, but this time they face not living beings but skeletons.

Against skeletons, blunt weapons inflict the most damage, after all they cannot bleed.

Do not underestimate their wooden clubs; though they appear light, they are made of ironwood, guaranteeing hardness—one strike can shatter the bones of unranked skeleton undead.

Further back are the jackalfolk army clad in leather armor, specially prepared to fight skeleton undead; they have temporarily exchanged their original weapons for thick ironwood clubs, and though their leather armor looks thin, it can indeed block the attacks of unranked skeletons.

At the rear of the army are only a few dozen warriors, mainly grey-scaled dragonfolk and jackalfolk, also bear monsters, swamp giants, and snakefolk.

They wear a layer of leather armor underneath, with an outer set of iron armor, and their weapons are all forged from demon steel.

Their ranks are all third rank or higher.

These elite warriors consist partly of previously summoned retainers, partly of those who have pledged allegiance in the wild, and partly of monster students brought from the Emerald Academy.

Several retinue leaders gather together, discussing something.

"Huo Ge Leader, do we need to hide in the dark or stay in the light? Once that hidden spellcaster launches a sneak attack on us"

A third-rank male vampire, a monster student from the Emerald Academy and also a retainer of the Black Dragon 'Aierduo', said anxiously.

"Huo Ge glanced at the vampire, his expression calm: 'Let that fellow act—that is our purpose; if we hide in the dark, the enemy may not necessarily reveal themselves.'"

"Without these elite troops, merely ordinary soldiers and gnoll-goblin forces would likely be unable to inflict heavy casualties on the skeleton army."

"Among the skeleton undead are not only low-ranking unranked skeletons, but also first-rank, second-rank, and even third-rank ones."

"Their numbers are relatively small, though."

"Moreover, you must understand that the enemy is a spellcaster; our so-called hiding in the dark might already be seen by them, and without a large army nearby to interfere, they would find it easier to launch a sneak attack against us."

"The vampire pondered briefly and realized this was indeed the case."

"Nevertheless, he still felt some worry—mainly a fear of death; as a vampire, fighting beings of flesh and blood is fine, but against skeletons and undead? His strongest ability is blood magic, as the name suggests—drawing blood and condensing it into a 'weapon' for attack."

"It can be the enemy's blood or his own, but now the vampire seems able to use only his own."

"Oh heavens!"

"Just thinking about using his precious blood to fight a pack of painless skeletons makes the vampire 'Weite' feel resentful and headache."

"The army continues its advance."

"Meanwhile, hidden in the forest, the controller behind the skeleton undead, the skeleton caster 'Ma Lei', also noticed the outside commotion."

"An illusory mage's eye formed, rose to over a thousand meters high, then drifted toward the forest outside."

"Swamp giants, goblins, gnolls, dragonfolk, jackalfolk and other figures appeared one by one in Ma Lei's 'eye'."

"What is this? Are they trying to annihilate my skeleton army? Ma Lei watched this scene, and the soul fire in his eye sockets flickered."

"He merely found it amusing."

"Ma Lei noticed the elite troops at the rear of the monster army, especially the jackalfolk of fourth rank with whom he had clashed several times."

"Could this jackalfolk be the strongest retainer of that evil dragon? Ma Lei pondered."

"Having previously led small-scale forces to attack his skeleton undead was fine, but this time the disturbance is obviously huge, the monster army massive, and it appears to be commanded by this black-furred jackalfolk."

"The cautious Ma Lei sensed something amiss, wondering whether the enemy's strong ones might be hiding within this monster army; he began to scrutinize the army carefully with his mage's eye."

"Although the mage's eye cannot determine the exact rank and strength of these monsters, their equipment and aura still reveal some clues."

"In this observation, Ma Lei saw no sign of hidden strong ones elsewhere in the army."

"The most conspicuous are the black-furred jackalfolk and the dozens of stern, ruthless warriors gathered around them."

"They appear to be the strongest; whether in equipment or aura, if there exists someone stronger than the black-furred jackalfolk hiding, it is likely among them."

"Or perhaps they are not in the army but lying in ambush around it? Ma Lei suddenly thought."

"Without hesitation, the Ma Lei hiding in the cave released two more mage's eyes, sending them flying toward the left and right forests of the army."

"He did not know that a nearly transparent mage's eye concealed in the forest had silently noticed the mage's eye he had released."

"Ten kilometers away, at the riverbed, a black beast opened its amber vertical pupils and bared its ferocious dragon teeth: 'Looks like my mage's eye cultivation has reached perfection.'"

"Lai Ang was quite pleased that he had mastered the 'mage's eye' first-circle spell to perfection."

"Otherwise, he might truly have been unable to observe the trajectory of that illusory mage's eye flying out of the forest."

"Clearly at least a fourth-rank spellcaster, yet he hasn't even mastered a first-circle spell—truly lazy." Lai Ang muttered.

"For a fourth-rank spellcaster, going back to study a first-circle spell is not difficult; it just takes some time."

"Lai Ang himself has actually fallen into a misconception."

"He thought that practicing and raising a spell from level 1 to level 10 was normal."

"But other spellcasters cannot do that."

A normal spellcaster, when cultivating a spell, first learns it, then through practice and study becomes increasingly proficient with the spell, thereby increasing casting speed.

If one wants to increase a spell's power or effect, the only way is to output more magical power to forcibly boost it.

To put it plainly, Lai Ang's cultivation of a spell is an optimization and improvement of the spell's structure.

Other spellcasters, or normal spellcasters, merely increase their proficiency with the spell to achieve faster casting; the kind that can raise a spell's power without increasing magical power or mental power consumption is something only genius spellcasters can do, and this is usually called—spell innovation.

But it's not Lai Ang's fault for lacking common sense; sometimes things that seem like common sense are the most prone to misunderstanding. The knowledge inherited from the dragon lineage is largely something one must selectively view, and it's impossible to cram it all into one's mind at once; in the basic spell knowledge that Lai Ang chose to view, there really was no dedicated record of this common sense.

There's no need to record it, because other novice spellcasters certainly cannot optimize or innovate spells during their learning process.

Lai Ang is so special precisely because of the hidden influence and alteration of the idle slot.

The idle slot possesses the characteristic of optimizing structure.

Lai Ang silently directed his mage's eye toward the jungle where mage's eyes were flying out to scout.

Once it finds the spellcaster's position, it becomes a case of the enemy being clear while we remain hidden.

On the other side, the army led by Hog has already entered the mountains and forests.

The skeletal undead broke through the soil, grabbing the ankles of goblins and kobolds with their bone hands.

Then, in the next second, the reacting goblins and kobolds struck the bone hands with a wooden stick, breaking them.

The beast-shaped skeletons possess immense strength, roaring as they charge toward the monster army.

The fierce melee began.

From time to time, kobolds and goblins are killed by the skeletal undead, but likewise, many more skeletal undead are slain by them.

Being equally non-ranked creatures, kobolds and goblins with suitable weapons can be somewhat stronger than the skeleton monsters, because they possess intelligence, they can gang up, and they can help each other.

What intelligence do low-rank skeleton monsters have? They merely swing bone swords and bone knives foolishly; some even lack weapons and can only grab with broken bone hands.

But skeleton monsters also have their own advantage: no matter how they are slaughtered, they feel no fear, and the desire to deprive the living of life occupies their sole instinct.

Mare, who had been observing from the rear, unable to find any ambush around, seeing his painstakingly assembled skeleton army being slaughtered wantonly, could no longer stay still.

"Go, tear them apart for me." Under Mare's remote control, in several concealed caves several kilometers from its cave, pallid skeletons wielding bone knives emerged one after another.

White bone skeleton swordsmen, First Rank skeleton creatures.

After hundreds of white bone skeleton swordsmen surged forth, dozens followed, wielding white bone great swords and white bone shields—Second Rank shield-sword skeletons.

This is merely the number of skeletons emerging from one cave; when several caves are combined, thousands of elite First and Second Rank skeletons instantly join the battlefield.

The dark-scaled warriors who had conserved their strength, occasionally slaying skeletons to rescue kobolds and goblins, upon seeing this scene also had to go all out.

Otherwise, these elite skeleton monsters could completely shatter the thousands-strong "wooden stick army".

The towering trolls held a huge, crude wooden shield, planting the oversized shield into the ground to block a large area of skeletons.

Kobolds, goblins, and the stronger gnolls and gray-scaled dragonfolk then took the opportunity to slay the skeletons pouring through the gaps.

Although the wooden shield is thick and its defense not weak, facing the stronger, more powerful strikes of the white bone skeleton swordsmen and shield-sword skeletons, cracks and notches appeared.

With a crack, the huge wooden shields held by the troll warriors shattered one after another.

With no hindrance, the skeleton army surged forward in a swarm, attempting to encircle and annihilate them.

The sharp bone swords and knives slashed at the trolls' bodies; even though their skin is thick and flesh tough, wounds appeared, blood flowing out.

Within a few breaths, these minor wounds were fully healed by the trolls' powerful regenerative ability.

But during this time, new wounds kept appearing.

"Roar!" Dozens of troll warriors suddenly erupted, swinging their several-meter-long iron-wood clubs into a whirlwind that blasted all surrounding skeletons to pieces and flung them away.

Even the stronger, harder-boned white bone skeletons and shield-sword skeletons were no exception.

But after the outburst, plus recovering from injuries, these large beings' stamina had dropped significantly, and they began to pant heavily.

The crude dou qi cultivated within them also began to be used. Trolls' minds are mostly overly simple, and with their large size, their dou qi cultivation speed is much slower than that of gnolls and gray-scaled dragonfolk.

Since the establishment of the dark-scaled tribe, eight years have passed, but the trolls who first inherited the dou qi cultivation method have at most reached Second Rank peak.

As for the earliest gray-scaled dragonfolk and gnolls, after eight years of cultivation they have basically reached Third Rank, and many of those who later joined the dark-scaled tribe have also attained Second Rank.

"Come on, it's time to reinforce the front line."

Hog noticed that the troll warriors on the front line were gradually losing stamina, with more and more kobolds and goblins being killed by the incessantly arriving skeletons, and he knew he had to act.

Under Hog's leadership, dozens of Third Rank elite warriors sped through the battlefield and reached the front line.

They wielded weapons forged from demon iron, specifically targeting the white bone skeleton swordsmen and shield-sword skeletons to kill them.

First and Second Rank skeletons, under the slashes of the dark-scaled warriors' demon-steel weapons, could be killed in a single blow.

In midair, Mare watched this scene through his mage's eye, instantly becoming irritable.

"Demon-steel weapons, again demon-steel weapons."

Before, it was that hateful Fourth Rank black-furred gnoll leading a group of warriors wielding demon-steel weapons who continually purged its skeleton army, causing it considerable losses.

Mare's anger rose, and he also felt pity for the white bone skeletons and shield-sword skeletons he had painstakingly accumulated; he finally made a decision.

"Reginald, go kill that gnoll and all the warriors beside him!"

Behind the skeleton caster, the soul fire serving as a great lamp surged upward, burning brighter.

Within the coiling giant bone serpent soul fire lingered residual wisdom; it obeyed its master's command and crawled out of the cave.

Only now could one clearly see how huge its size was—thick as a water tank, twenty-some meters long.

The color of its bones was a metallic sheen with a silvery-white tint.

This is a Fifth Rank silver bone serpent.

Mare watched the silver bone serpent's departing figure, feeling smug and smiling.

Forging this creature consumed nearly all of the silver and dark-attribute magic cores it had accumulated over decades of wealth.

The silver bone serpent's original form was a Fourth Rank thunder serpent; after many years of refinement it became a Fifth Rank skeletal undead, and its original thunder-type spell ability mutated into a dark-attributed gloomy thunder.

Compared to ordinary thunder spell power, it is slightly weaker, but the paralysis ability remains, and it also gains a corrosive effect; those struck by the gloomy thunder, if weak, may even be directly turned into undead creatures, and even if not weak, their bodies will begin to necrotize and corrupt, transforming toward undead traits.

Lai Ang, who had been using his mage's eye to scout this forest, felt a strong aura drilling out from some corner.

Then its mage's eye saw a silver-white giant bone python appear in the jungle.

Lai Ang immediately locked onto the spot where it emerged.

"Found you."

The black dragon's thick nostrils exhaled a stream of white mist.

From now on, there will be two to three chapters per day, with a word count of six thousand to ten thousand.

The update schedule isn't finalized yet; for now, it should be one update during the day and one at night.

(End of chapter)