Another 3 years passed since Beth became a rank 1 magus.
Tirus had modified their bodies and now they could transform themselves into the ashen gray zombies.
Tirus had bought several grand knight slaves and converted them into branded swordsmen, he now had a total of 20 of them. With each of them possessing the strength to kill a magus with less than 50% elemental essence conversion.
And if they were to all fight the same opponent, then they could easily kill peak rank 1 mages as well.
Number 1 and Number 2 were his female branded knight slaves and the rest were men. All of them were given orders mostly by Beth.
It wasn't that Tirus didn't like ordering his slaves, in fact, Tirus really liked it when he asserted dominance over others, it was just that he didn't want to waste all his time ordering them when he could just instruct Beth to have something done.
His acolyte slave, number 6, was replaced by a branded swordsman and then he was taken to his underground lab for experiments, which eventually led him to his death.
Tirus and Beth had made considerable progress in their cultivation. Tirus was now at the peak of rank 1.
"A.I. chip, show me my stats." He commanded the A.I. chip as a 3D projection of himself appeared before his eyes.
[Name: Tirus Van Elrod, Occupation: rank 1 magus , strength: 18.1, agility: 21.3, vitality: 19.6, spiritual force: 80.4 (magic power is in sync with spiritual force) status: Healthy, Elemental essence conversion rate: 90%]
"Although my body cultivation has reached a bottleneck, but my spiritual force has reached the peak of rank 1 and my elemental essence conversion rate has reached 90%."
Years of using the same method of body refinement had made him reach a level where he could take a blow from even a rank 2 magus without using any defensive spells and survive.
But lately, his progress has become excruciatingly slow, so he had focused on his magus cultivation instead.
'According to the A.I. chip, I need a stimulant to increase my body's capability to improve itself, and that stimulant is the radiation at the level of a rank 3 magus, huh.' He pondered whether he'd be able to get such a strong source of radiation.
'A.I. chip, scan Beth.' He mentally commanded the A.I. chip to scan her.
[Name: Beth, occupation: rank 1 magus strength: 7.8, agility: 8.3, vitality: 10.1 spiritual force: 49.7, Elemental essence conversion rate: 38% (spiritual force is in sync with magic power)]
Although Beth had the resources, she was only interested in her magus cultivation rather than body refinement.
"Master, I already have that zombie transformation ability, and cultivation is already quite a slow process, I ask you to let me focus on my magus cultivation." Was the response he got from her when he asked her why she didn't want to cultivate her body.
Actually, it made sense as her cultivation talent was just average, and thus she needed to focus cultivation a lot more than Tirus did.
Tirus didn't want her to be a mindless slave. He had told her to share some of her ideas with him and advice him time to time if she wanted to be more useful. If he made an organization in the future, then he would definetly require an advisor, so she had to be ready for that.
'It is time to leave.' He thought.
In the inheritance he got almost a decade ago, there was mention of a teleportation formation which could lead one to the third layer of the subterranean world, the Twilight Zone.
It was mentioned that the teleportation formation could be used by multiple people at the same time, but only once. Thereafter, it would destroy itself.
'Really, though, that nameless wanderer who set up the inheritance really had a thing for self-destruction mechanisms.' Tirus joked internally as a wry smile appeared on his face.
.....
The next day,
In the underground laboratory,
Tirus was holding a necklace, this was a magical artifact which he had planned on giving to Beth.
"Thanks for all your work, now, be honored that you're going to be useful to even after dying."
Looking at the small blue mist like creature inside the crystal ball, along with hundreds of others.
These were all the souls of the slaves who died during his experiments in the last decade.
Soon, Tirus arranged everything in an orderly manner and then started chanting in the ancient Byron language.
Blood-red mist filled the entire room as the wails of countless souls resounded in the entire mansion.
One by one, each soul lost all of its facial features, completely erasing their memories and emotions. Turning them into blood-red colored vengeful spirits that entered the emerald necklace one by one.
After this ended, the A.I. chip loyally intoned
[Beep! Refinement of the mid-grade magic item, 'Necklace of the ghost mother' has succeeded without any issues]
[Necklace of the ghost mother:
A mid-grade magic item refined by official magus Tirus Van Elrod. It can be used to store up to 999 souls of ordinary humans and 1 soul of an acolyte at once, these vengeful spirits are completely loyal to the one who wears this.
Can be used to defend against attacks that target the user's sea of consciousness.
Can only be worn by women.
Souls: 1000/1000]
"Great!" He exclaimed after reading the description of this magic item. He had also studied the subject of magic treasure refinement in his spare time.
And this refinement technique was recorded in the inheritance. But it was advised not to use this too much since it was a bit too cruel and had actually caused a lot of trouble for 'The nameless wanderer' when he was journeying in the western region of the surface world.
He thought that before he goes to the Twilight Zone together with Beth and his other slaves, he should increase their battle strength as much as possible. Taking number 6, a weak grade 2 acolyte with him, had no use, so he thought he could use him this way.
.....
After a few hours, at night
The residents of the magus city of Longburg noticed a huge black carriage was exiting the city, there were a total of 20 grand knight slaves all around the carriage. Wearing heavy black armor.
They couldn't see what was inside the carriage, but if they could, then they'd notice a handsome man with black hair sitting proudly
This was the carriage of the official magus Tirus.
He casted a concealment spell on his slaves and the carriage after they exited the city.
Hours went by in a blink of an eye, and they arrived at their destination, the Gulphia Cliff.
To be continued...