Alex smiled, pleasantly surprised by the large benefit he received from rescuing Erza. He also had a general understanding of the amount of psychic energy possessed by trainee or apprentice-level super humans. For example, killing a senior evil priest apprentice would yield 600 units of psionic energy. Intermediate apprentices, like Boaz and Orson, had a psychic energy range of between 100 and 200. Throck and Henry, as beginner apprentices, had a range of around 30–40 units of spiritual energy.
However, Alex's excitement was short-lived as he realized that he still had very little psychic energy, with less than 1000 units, and he couldn't afford to build or upgrade anything in the cemetery.
Alex realized that he had suffered a small loss of three ghouls in the battle, but the overall harvest was worth it. However, he also recognized that his own strength was a problem, as he was not much stronger than a regular person aside from his bone spur technique.
This is a common issue among magicians, as evidenced by the evil priest's reckless use of a decapitation tactic against Alex at the beginning of the fight, which could have been easily stopped if he had more personal strength. In fact, Alex relied on luck to successfully sneak attack and kill the evil priest this time. The entrance to the abandoned tower that generates ghosts costs 2000 units of psionic energy, and upgrading the crypt also requires 1500 units.
Alex was fortunate that, despite the dilapidated state of the cemetery, it still had a fully upgraded town hall and cemetery, as the initial construction and upgrades would have otherwise bankrupted him. He took a moment to reflect on the events of the battle before withdrawing from the cemetery.
It is easy to identify the problem of vulnerability faced by magicians like Alex, but finding a solution is more difficult. Historically, magicians have used two main methods to address this issue. The first is to practice defensive magic, such as the energy shield of sculptors, the ice shield of water magicians, the soil barrier of earth magicians, and the bone shield and bone armour of necromancers.
The second method is to tame extraordinary creatures and use them as mounts to provide protection, either through their agility in avoiding attacks or their powerful melee abilities in repelling attackers. This is why high-level light magicians are often seen riding unicorns bathed in holy light, and high-level necromancers are frequently accompanied by bone dragons.
For Alex, neither of these methods is a quick fix. While bone shield and bone armour are standard defensive magics for necromancers, Alex and Dr. Fauci do not yet have access to them, as they require a significant amount of money and merits within the magician association. While the money issue can be resolved by borrowing from Alvis, accumulating merits within the association can only be done slowly through completing tasks.
Alex considered the possibility of using a mount to improve his protection, but he realized that it would be difficult to find an extraordinary creature with both high agility and sufficient strength. He pushed aside these impractical thoughts and decided to focus on improving his own strength instead.
As he looked at the wall that had been smashed by the evil priest's sacrifice, he noticed a strong smell of blood and went to investigate. When he looked into the room through the hole in the wall, he was shocked by the scene he saw. The room was about 30 square meters and had four lit braziers in the corners, illuminating the windowless space.
In the centre of the room, there was a magic circle that was more than three meters in diameter. The red magic circle pattern was highly intricate and seemed to dance in the flickering flames. What caught Alex's attention the most, however, was that in the centre of the magic circle, there were three neatly placed people, or more accurately, three naked female elf corpses.
The deaths of the elves were extremely gruesome, as they had been disembowelled while alive and their hearts, livers, spleen, lungs, and kidneys were removed and placed in specific positions on the magic circle. Alex did not see these three elves at the auction, but he was almost certain that these were the same elves, as the probability of six female elves appearing at the same time in a small town like PARSLOV City was low.
Alex was wondering if the elves who had disappeared from Baron Albert house were already dead and used as sacrifices in some sort of ritual. He suspected that the ceremony was meant to summon the Void Yin Spirit, but it had failed.
Rather than rushing forward, he sent a skeleton soldier to retrieve the elf corpses and examined them himself. Elves are long-lived creatures with magical constitutions, and Alex had hoped to find some residual spiritual energy in their bodies.
However, he was disappointed to find that the elf corpses were completely drained of psychic energy. He surmised that the people in the Tower of Yin Spirits had sacrificed the elves to provide a large amount of psychic energy for the Void Yin Spirits they worshipped.
Alex was wondering why there was no response from the void spirits(Yin spirit) after sacrificing three elves. He believed that the void Spirits, who were served by the tower of Yin spirits, would definitely respond when they received sacrifices.
Alex suspected that either he or Erza had interrupted the sacrifice process, which could be why there was no response. As a result, he decided to withdraw most of the skeleton soldiers, leaving only two guards for emergency purposes. A few minutes later, Erza arrived at the tower with a group of police officers and two officers from the local special bureau in PARSLOV city, who were dressed in black trench coats.
They had responded to Erza's call for help and were seeking the person in the Tower of Yin spirits in order to claim the large reward offered by the city government. If it weren't for Alex's efforts in resolving the conflict, only a few people would have been able to escape.
Erza asked Alex if he was okay, showing concern for his well-being. Alex reassured her with a warm smile, but Erza noticed that his pupils were green and his smile was a bit strange due to his transformation into a lich as a necromancer. Erza then looked around and saw no corpses, and asked Alex where they were and if the person who had rushed in at the end had escaped.
Alex explained that he had disposed of the corpses and killed the person, but the corpse had been contaminated by the power of the ghost(yin spirits)and couldn't be turned into a zombie puppet. Erza was surprised by this revelation, staring at him with round eyes as she tried to comprehend what had happened.