Undead Mage: I Have a Skeleton Clone

Chapter 823 - 523: Developing New Skills, Another Promotion! (Part 2)

It’s also worth mentioning that all the Undead Mages who joined the Undead Mage research project team had naturally already cultivated the Spiritual Remains Knight Meditation Method that Fang Zhou had inferred up to the Bronze Tier, using Fang Zhou’s Spiritual Remains Clone as their meditation visualization target.

Because of this, they also naturally became Apostles of the Spiritual Remains Clone.

The sparks of inspiration that burst forth in their minds were continuously absorbed and accepted by Fang Zhou’s Spiritual Remains Clone through this channel, becoming all kinds of material for Fang Zhou’s Inference Skills.

.....

After staying a few days in the Undead Mage research project team, Fang Zhou checked in with the other Undead Mage researchers about the phased results they had achieved during this period.

After consuming a large amount of contribution points and Soul Power, Fang Zhou successfully inferred two new Skills.

One was a Corrosive Poison Series Skill, [Rotting Curse].

This Skill can greatly reduce all kinds of Shields and physical Defense of a single target, infecting them with an Undead toxin.

If the enemy’s Constitution Attribute is not strong enough to resist this effect, they will be in unbearable agony, their Four-dimensional Attributes will slightly decrease, and their Skill-casting success rate will plummet.

The effect of Rotting Curse is more or less the same as Rotting Aura.

The only difference is that Rotting Aura is a large-area group debuff Skill, while Rotting Curse focuses on single-target pinpoint armor-breaking enhancement.

This was also something Fang Zhou realized after many battles: as elite enemies grew stronger and stronger, relying only on means like the Skeleton Heart-Piercing Flying Spear and Skeleton Prison, it was very hard to complete pinpoint behead-and-blast kills.

He needed the support of a powerful armor-breaking Divine Skill.

This feeling had already surfaced back in the Forest of Nature, when he cooperated with Hong Yang, captain of the Thunder Team, to take down that Dark Bear Monster Leader with terrifying Defense Power.

Now, after repeated accumulation and refinement, he finally inferred this Undead Mage–exclusive single-target armor-breaking Divine Skill.

Besides Rotting Curse, there was another new Soul Series Skill, [Spirit Body Transformation].

The moment this Skill was inferred, Instructor Su Xinyan and Master Sandro both determined that it was a core Skill of the Undead Mage Soul Series.

Its effect is very simple: it imitates the Death Spirit Body Talent of a Ghost, turning the user into a Spirit Body state for a short duration.

In Spirit Body state, an Undead Mage’s various Soul Series Skills will see their effects greatly enhanced, and they will have a very high chance to resist and evade pure Physical Attacks.

Not only that, a Spirit Body’s affinity with and control over Undead Attribute Energy will also increase sharply.

This means that in Spirit Body state, all Summoning Series, Skeleton Series, and Corrosive Poison Series Skills released through Undead Energy will also receive small to medium buffs.

Of course, such a powerful Skill has its weaknesses too.

The first drawback is that entering Spirit Body state consumes a large amount of Mana to maintain, so it cannot last very long.

The second drawback is that while in Spirit Body state, the damage taken from Holy, Light, and other positive Energy will moderately increase.

Of course, Holy, Light, and other positive Energy Attributes basically only appear within the Lawful Good Faction.

Chaotic Evil Abyssal Demons could never master that kind of Attribute Energy.

For a Blue Star Human Undead Mage like Fang Zhou, all Lawful Good Faction forces are his potential allies.

The second drawback of Spirit Body Transformation can generally be ignored.

In Fang Zhou’s own judgment, Spirit Body Transformation is equivalent to a Rune Resonance Harvest Festival that can be used at any time, but with correspondingly reduced power.

It requires no special conditions—just Mana to activate and maintain—and can greatly boost an Undead Mage’s combat power for a short time.

And for Fang Zhou, these two buffs—Spirit Body Transformation and Harvest Festival—do not conflict with each other.

Right now, with Fang Zhou going full firepower, he can completely activate Harvest Festival and Spirit Body state at the same time, likely erupting with combat power that would shock everyone.

If he were to encounter those three Demon Champion Power Projections from the High Tower blood battle again, Fang Zhou would definitely not be as battered and miserable as before.

........

Another early morning, at the Undead Mage research project team.

Just as Fang Zhou was preparing to press on and continue inferring new Undead Mage Skills, Lu Hu’s arrival interrupted his research.

But Fang Zhou accepted it gladly.

Because the High Tower Base blood battle reward he had been waiting for had finally been issued.

Pushing the door open, Lu Hu’s rough voice echoed throughout the entire lab, drawing everyone’s attention.

"Fang Zhou, Fang Zhou!

Good news, good news!

The Federation Military Department has issued you another special promotion document!"

With Lu Hu’s sonorous words, all the researchers and research assistants in the project team turned their gaze to Fang Zhou by the operation console.

These researchers were all Undead Mages recruited by Instructor Su Xinyan and Master Sandro.

They all had their own information channels and had long since learned that Fang Zhou had rendered outstanding service in the High Tower blocking battle on the Beast Fighting City battlefield.

Therefore, they already knew in advance that Fang Zhou would receive a huge reward from the Longxia Federation Military Department, so their expressions were relatively calm, just a bit expectant.

But the other research assistants in the lab were in an uproar.

These research assistants were all current students of Sea City Military Academy.

Just like Bai Xiaochan and Meng Hongzhuang used to be, their strength was basically at Black Iron and Apprentice Tier.

Now Bai Xiaochan and Meng Hongzhuang were already second-year students, and their strength had advanced to Lower Black Iron.

They were currently performing various live-combat missions outside the academy, so they weren’t staying with the Undead Mage research project team.

That said, back when they were still in the Apprentice Stage, they had earned their first bucket of strength-growth capital through this very project team that Fang Zhou had founded.

Coupled with their own excellent Talent, with both factors working together, they now counted as standouts among the second-year Seed Students.

It’s worth mentioning that among this batch of project team research assistants was Fang Zhou’s little oval-faced fangirl.

Ever since Fang Zhou first Awakening, she had been quietly watching him, cheering him on.

However, after Fang Zhou skipped a grade to become a second-year student, then advanced to Black Iron and Bronze like a rocket, this oval-faced fangirl was left far behind.

To follow in Fang Zhou’s growth footsteps, he put in a lot of effort just to successfully apply to become a research assistant in the Undead Mage research project team.

Only after Fang Zhou returned to campus did he occasionally get to see him a few times.

Now, seeing Instructor Lu Hu pushing the door open and rushing into the Undead Mage research project team, waving a special promotion document excitedly, this oval-faced fangirl suddenly looked a bit dazed.

It was as if she saw the scene from the first-year Seed Student arena challenge a year ago.

She knew every one of Fang Zhou’s deeds over these two years like the back of her hand.

In that Seed Student challenge she had personally watched, Instructor Lu Hu had, in front of the instructors and students of the entire year, awarded Fang Zhou a special promotion document from the Longxia Federation Military Department.

It allowed Fang Zhou to leap from a newly Awakened Junior Sergeant straight to Senior Sergeant.

This was unprecedented among first-year students of Sea City Military Academy.

But everyone accepted it wholeheartedly.

Because in the hunting competition of Cave No. 1, Fang Zhou not only discovered in the first instant the Desecration Torch—a highly dangerous Abyss Desecration Creation—and promptly reported it to the academy instructors for resolution.

He also, during the exploration of the Refining Stone vein, found the remains of Berserker Pioneer General Ning Feihu, confirming the place where this great hero had fallen.

Now that Fang Zhou was already a Bronze-level Lieutenant, what earth-shaking deeds had he done to once again receive a special promotion document from the Federation Military Department?

A Lieutenant’s promotion to Captain doesn’t require a special promotion document.

Could it be that Fang Zhou was going to leap straight to the rank of Major?

In the history of Sea City Military Academy, there had never been a student who became a Federation Major before graduation, right?

No matter which battlefield or which army, officers at the field-grade level were generally all Silver-level Professionals.

Fang Zhou was not even twenty yet and was already becoming a field officer.

While the oval-faced fangirl was still in a bit of a daze, the female student beside her rubbed her ear and asked in some confusion, "Special promotion? What do you mean, special promotion?"