It was already midnight when Han Shuo woke up. The magical yuan was back to circulating in an irregular pattern, but there seemed to be something extra in his brain. Everything seemed much clearer now, compared to before, when he looked around.
A sudden thought struck Han Shuo and he resettled into meditation. He carefully extended his senses according to the instructions in "The Foundations of Necromancy", and finally confirmed that because the magical yuan had traveled to his brain when the Agony of the Soul had hit, he had bafflingly trained some mental strength into existence.
"Hahaha… I am definitely a genius. I meditated and gained some mental strength in such a short amount of time. Heh heh, perhaps it's time to try out the lowest level of necromancy magic. Let's see if I can summon a skeletal warrior!"
He hastily hauled out "The Foundations of Necromancy" and flipped through the pages. He still couldn't find the incantation to summon a skeletal warrior after searching for a while. It was only then that Han Shuo realized "The Foundations of Necromancy" was a reference for only basic necromancy knowledge, and didn't contain any incantations or spells.
Han Shuo furrowed his brow in thought and recalled Lisa's incantation with some effort. He immediately raised his hands up high, concentrated his mental strength, and started chanting, "Souls of the fallen soldiers, heed the dark herald's call and reveal your existence!"
When he finished chanting, he felt the insubstantial amount of mental strength in his mind rapidly fade away. It seemed that he also perceived something in that moment, but then his head suddenly started to hurt and he sat wearily on the bed, panting heavily and completely drained.
When Han Shuo slumped over his bed, a black shadow flashed through his little warehouse, and a starkly-white skeleton, half the height of the one Lisa had summoned, appeared afterwards.
Han Shuo felt sheer elation when he saw the snow-white skeleton holding a bone dirk and staring back at him with two empty, hollowed out eye sockets. Despite the difference in size, this was still a skeleton and was proof that his necromancy spell had succeeded.
His body felt completely drained and his mind was woozy. Upon referring to "The Foundations of Necromancy", Han Shuo surmised that his mental strength was too weak, and thus had his mental strength completely depleted when he had summoned the small skeleton.
Han Shuo felt a strange connection with the small skeleton standing in front of him, but his mental strength was so weak, that he couldn't even issue an order, much less send it back to another dimension.
Thus, a human and skeleton stared blankly at each other for a while. No one would come to Han Shuo's warehouse anyway, and it made no difference if the skeleton was here, since it wouldn't do anything without his orders.
It was already well past midnight by the time Han Shuo was done with everything. He was exhausted beyond belief, and once the surprise had worn off, Han Shuo fell into a weary, befuddled sleep.
The next day, not yet daybreak.
Han Shuo had already woken up and was planning on clearing out the trash as usual before anyone else had gotten up. He was just about go through the same routine when his eyes landed on the small skeleton standing next to the trash heap.
His mental strength seemed to have recovered a bit after a night's sleep, but it was still definitely not enough to send the little skeleton back to another dimension. However, it seemed to be enough to give it a single command — throw away the trash.
The little skeleton immediately stretched its legs out when the order was given, and slowly extended its five bone fingers to pick up the heap of trash next to it. It pushed the door open and walked outside.
"Heh heh, no wonder everyone wants to learn magic. Everything is so much easier with magic. In the future, this small skeleton can throw away trash for me early in the morning!"
Han Shuo noted that it was still quite early and flung himself back onto the little bed to resume chasing sheep. Over the past few days, this was the first morning he'd been able to sleep in.
When Han Shuo opened his eyes again after going back to sleep again, he discovered that the skeleton had returned and appeared to dispose of the trash according to his commands.
As Han Shou washed his face after getting up from bed, he noticed that the black and blue bruising had miraculously disappeared, and even some of the scars on his arms seemed to have faded away. Aside from feeling a bit lightheaded from expending all of his mental strength yesterday, his body seemed to be in fairly good shape.
The solid realm of demonic magic was a process of reforming the practitioner's body. Ascension beyond the solid realm was marked by erasure of all the scars on the practitioner's body and vastly increased bodily strength and resilience. Either Bach or Lisa would suffer a quick loss if they tried to beat up Han Shuo with skeletal warriors then.
Han Shuo remained deep in thought as he washed up and watched the necromancy students hurry to class again. He grabbed his tools as well before running to dust off the statues of Babylon Academy notables.
"Athena, I went to the restroom before the sun rose today and saw a small skeleton carrying two bags of trash. It was walking slowly towards the trash dump, what an odd sight!" Magic apprentice Amy chatted with Athena as they walked towards the department of dark magic's classroom building.
"Weirdo, who would be so bored as to summon a skeleton to pick up trash. Doesn't that half mad, half village idiot Bryan do all that?"
"It's true, I really saw a very small skeleton carrying two garbage bags. And also, I feel so bad for Bryan. It was bad enough for him already, now he's suffering from Lisa's aftereffects and gets beaten up by Bach every day!"
"You must have been half asleep and saw incorrectly. Bryan is an errand boy, and a slave in fact. It's good enough that he can survive. You're way too kindhearted, worrying about Bryan!"
The two girls had walked far enough and Han Shuo could no longer hear their conversation. Jack swung back after a while and dusted the same statute with Han Shuo. After Jack had busily wiped for a while, he looked at Han Shuo a bit dazedly, "Han Shuo, I think you've gained a bit of weight. And didn't Bach beat you up yesterday? Your face was still bruised yesterday, why does it look fine now?"
"Bach must have over exercised recently. You can see that dull look in his eyes and how weak he looks. He doesn't have any strength! At this rate, he won't be able to beat me up anymore!" Han Shuo felt that his stomach was particularly empty after that declaration and said to Jack, "My appetite is bigger these days, give me some more of that food that you're hiding."
"Eh? How did you know I was hiding bread on me?"
"The entire major's errand boys know about your habit of hiding food. You're the only one who thinks it's still a secret. Quit wasting time and give me some bread. I'll return it to you in the future!"
Jack reluctantly took out a piece of bread after listening to Han Shuo, took a careful look, and broke off a piece for Han Shuo.
As Han Shuo sat aside his work and hungrily devoured the bread, Jack suddenly said, "Sh… Bach's coming, eh?! Lisa's with him!"
Bach held two exquisite, white boxes in his hand and was following behind Lisa with a fawning smile on his face. He kept trying to win her over, "Lisa, these are special snacks from my family and they are fabulously delicious. You haven't had breakfast yet, right? Please have some."
When Bach was beating Han Shuo up yesterday, Bach's face accidentally connected with the latter's fist. Even now there was some bruising on his right cheek, with it spasming every time he tried to smile, turning the grin into a grimace.
"Humph. I'm not hungry. Don't you try that act with me, I hate people like you – people who flatter me to my face and then talk trash about me behind my back!"
Lisa stalked off without even glancing at Bach. When she passed Bryan and Jack, she glared coldly at Bryan, "Bryan, I'll come find you for target practice again in a month when the Agony of the Soul ends!"
It wasn't until Lisa brought this up that Han Shuo remembered that he hadn't suffered from the Agony of the Soul since this morning. He guessed that the magic from the Agony of the Soul had been cancelled out when he successfully cultivated mental strength last night, otherwise he should have suffered an attack by now.
Lisa was about to walk away, while Bach, on the other hand, exclaimed in surprise after he saw at Bryan, "Eh? How is that possible? I remember I pounded tons of bruises into your face yesterday, why is that there are none there today?"
Damnit, you remember that well. Han Shuo looked at Bach stupidly and then gave a mad giggle, "Hehe, I have a good skincare routine!"
Lisa gave a small splutter of laughter when she heard Han Shuo's words and halted her footsteps, not in a hurry to leave anymore. Her beautiful eyes creased into half moons with her smile. It was quite adorable actually. That idiot Bryan had gotten much more interesting after he went mad, Lisa thought. He doesn't just stand there in silence anymore.
Jack knew Han Shuo wasn't crazy, and that he'd said that to make fun of Bach. He tried to hold in his laughter, but just couldn't and gave a light, "Haha." By the time he realized he did something wrong, it was already too late.
Bach was already pissed off, thinking the bruise on my right cheek hasn't healed, but that idiot's has already faded. He hadn't dare say anything when Lisa laughed, but Jack's laughter completely triggered Bach. He sprinted towards Jack and cussed loudly, "You pathetic servant, how dare you laugh at me! I'll beat you to death!"
Jack knew things were bad, but he didn't dare run away. He could only stand there limply as Bach rushed over and waited for a beating. It was then that Han Shuo suddenly clutched his head and yelled, "It hurts!" and lumbered over in front of Jack. When Bach saw that the person in front of him had changed to Han Shuo, he mentally shrugged as it didn't make a difference to him who he beat up, and swung his fist straight towards Han Shuo's face.
Don sounded out as Han Shuo took a fist to the face, but Bach's fist didn't seem to hurt as much as it had yesterday. Han Shuo even managed to keep his frail little body from swaying back and forth in response.
But he still continued to howl in pain, "That hurts!" and wildly flailed his arms in front of him as if he'd gone into a mad fit. Pilipala rang out as Bach took three hits in a row, and his left eye immediately blackened into a bruise. He clutched his stomach with both hands and jumped up and down, "Worthless slave, how dare you hit me! I'm going to kill you with necromancy today, even if that's the last thing I do!"
"Bach, you're picking on Bryan again. It's class time, hurry up and go back to the classroom."
Suddenly, a gentle voice admonished sweetly from afar as a tall, lithe beauty with a head full of light purple, wavy hair came sashaying into view.
She looked to be 24 or 25, had a firm nose, an oval face, and sexy red lips. Her lightly tanned skin looked very healthy, and she wore a slightly form fitting master's robe trimmed with gold.
The tight master's robe perfectly showed off her well rounded chest and long legs. She was talking to Bryan as she held several books of magic in her left hand and a stylish emerald staff in her right.
"Eh… Master Fanny, you forgot your glasses again. You're pointing at Bryan!" Lisa's lip curled and she spoke with some resignation.
"Glasses are the kiss of death for a beautiful woman, I'm not wearing those things everyday," Fanny smiled in return and finally located Bach, using the staff in her right hand to make a motion as if she'd tapped him on the head. She said sternly, "Go back to class immediately, or you'll face the consequences!"
After Fanny had spoken to Bach in a bit of a temper, a mellow smile found its way to her face again and she smiled at Lisa, "Lisa, you need to hurry to class too. Frequent tardiness does not a good student make. I need to prepare for today's lesson, I'll see you later!"
Fanny turned her head to glare at Bach once more, then glided forward with her lean legs, striding with a grace unmatched by thousands. Her full butt swayed as she walked, creating an alluring silhouette.
"Eh… Master Fanny, that's not the classroom building, you're walking in the wrong direction. Oh gosh, put your glasses on!"
Lisa called out lightly and paused when she was about to leave. She turned back and raked a cold gaze across Bach, sneering contemptuously, "What a worthless guy, you can't even beat up an errand boy!" Lisa glanced at Han Shuo again and hurried off in pursuit of Fanny.
Bach was ablaze with anger and pointed venomously at Han Shuo and Jack, "Just you wait you pathetic wretches, you'll get what's coming to you!" It would seem that Fanny's threat had a great effect on him as he ran off to class in a great hurry.
Han Shuo gazed lecherously in direction that Fanny had departed in, watching until she was out of sight. He paid no mind to Bach's threat, and muttered to himself after she had completely disappeared, "That Master Fanny is something else alright. No wonder that silly kid Bryan had a crush on her. Bryan's taste in girls is actually quite similar to mine!"
"Bryan, stop looking. I know you've liked Master Fanny for a long time, and she's also stopped some students from bullying you, but, you're only an errand boy, and she's a highly ranked adept mage in the academy. Do you know how powerful adepts are? Although Master Fanny is nearsighted, there are way too many people who have a crush on her in the academy. Wake up already!"
Jack waved two plump hands in front of Han Shuo as he reminded the latter to wake up and face reality.
"I'm already drunk, I can't wake up!" Han Shuo said with a leer. He paused and added, "I'll get her one day!"