It was 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 as he looked around.
A sudden thought struck Han Shuo and he fell back into meditation. He carefully expanded his senses according to the instructions in 'The Fundamentals of Necromancy', and finally confirmed that he had inexplicably trained some mental power into existence because the magical yuan had travelled to his brain when the soul torment had struck.
"Hahaha... I am definitely a genius. I meditated and gained some mental strength in such a short time. Heh heh, maybe it's time to try the lowest level of necromancy magic. Let's see if I can summon a skeleton warrior!"
He hastily pulled out the 'Fundamentals of Necromancy' and flipped through the pages. After searching for a while, he still couldn't find the incantation to summon a skeleton warrior. Only then did Han Shuo realise that 'The Foundations of Necromancy' was only a reference for basic necromancy knowledge and didn't contain any incantations or spells.
Han Shuo's brow furrowed in thought, and with some effort, he remembered Lisa's incantation. He immediately raised his hands high, concentrated his mental power and began to chant: "Souls of the fallen soldiers, heed the call of the dark herald and reveal your existence!
When he finished chanting, he felt the insubstantial amount of mental power in his mind quickly disappear. It seemed as if he also perceived something at that moment, but then his head suddenly began to hurt and he sat wearily on the bed, panting heavily and completely drained.
As Han Shuo slumped over the bed, a black shadow flashed through his small camp, followed by a stark white skeleton, half the size of the one Lisa had summoned.
Han Shuo felt sheer elation as he saw the snow-white skeleton holding a bone dagger and staring back at him with two empty, hollowed out eye sockets. Despite the difference in size, this was still a skeleton and proof that his necromancy spell had been successful.
His body felt completely drained and his mind was fuzzy. Referring to the 'Fundamentals of Necromancy', Han Shuo surmised that his mental strength was too weak, and thus his mental strength had been 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 give an order, let alone send it back to another dimension.
So the human and the skeleton just stared at each other for a while. No one would come to Han Shuo's camp anyway, and it didn't make any difference if the skeleton was here, since it wouldn't do anything without his orders.
It was well past midnight by the time Han Shuo was done with everything. He was exhausted and once the surprise had worn off, Han Shuo fell into a tired, confused sleep.
The next day, not yet dawn.
Han Shuo had already woken up and was planning to take out the rubbish as usual before anyone else got up. He was about to go through the same routine when his eyes landed on the small skeleton standing next to the pile of rubbish.
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 rubbish.
The little skeleton immediately stretched out its legs and slowly extended its five bone fingers to pick up the pile of rubbish beside it. It pushed open the door and walked out.
"Heh heh, no wonder everyone wants to learn magic. Everything is so much easier with magic. In the future, this little skeleton can throw away the garbage for me early in the morning!"
Han Shuo noticed that it was still quite early and threw himself back onto the small bed to continue chasing sheep. For the past few days, this was the first morning he'd been able to sleep in.
When Han Shuo opened his eyes after falling asleep again, he discovered that the skeleton had returned and seemed to be disposing of the rubbish according to his orders.
As Han Shuo washed his face after getting out of bed, he noticed that the black and blue bruises had miraculously disappeared, and even some of the scars on his arms seemed to have faded. Apart from feeling a little dizzy from having used up all his mental energy yesterday, his body seemed to be in pretty good shape.
The solid realm of demonic magic was a process of reforming the practitioner's body. Ascending beyond the solid realm was marked by the eradication of all scars on the practitioner's body and a vast increase in physical strength and resilience. Either Bach or Lisa would suffer a quick defeat if they tried to beat up Han Shuo with skeleton warriors.
Han Shuo remained deep in thought as he washed up and watched the necromancy students hurry back to class. He also grabbed his tools before running off to dust off the statues of Babylon Academy's notables.
"Athena, I went to the toilet before sunrise today and saw a small skeleton carrying two bags of rubbish. It was walking slowly towards the dump, what a strange sight!" Magic apprentice Amy chatted with Athena as they walked towards the Dark Magic classroom building.
"Crazy, who would be so bored as to summon a skeleton to pick up rubbish. Isn't that half-crazy, half-village idiot Bryan doing all that?"
"It's true, I really did see a very small skeleton carrying two garbage bags. And besides, I feel so sorry for Bryan. It was bad enough for him, now he's suffering from Lisa's after-effects and getting beaten up by Bach every day!"
"You must have been half asleep and mistaken. Bryan is an errand boy, and a slave. It's good enough for him to survive. You're far too kindhearted to worry 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 statue with Han Shuo. After Jack had been busy wiping for a while, he looked at Han Shuo a bit dazedly, "Han Shuo, I think you've put on 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 trained too much recently. You can see the 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 this declaration and said to Jack: "My appetite is bigger these days, give me some more of that food you're hiding.
"Huh? How did you know I was hiding bread?"
"All the Major's messenger boys know about your habit of hiding food. You're the only one who thinks it's still a secret. Stop wasting time and give me some bread. I'll pay you back in the future!"
Jack reluctantly took out a piece of bread after listening to Han Shuo, looked at it carefully and broke off a piece for Han Shuo.
As Han Shuo put down his work and hungrily devoured the bread, Jack suddenly said, "Sh... Bach is coming, eh?! Lisa's with him!
Bach held two exquisite white boxes in his hand and followed Lisa with a cuddly 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, have you? Please have some."
Yesterday, when Bach was beating Han Shuo, Bach's face accidentally collided with Han Shuo's fist. Even now, there were some bruises on his right cheek, and every time he tried to smile, it twitched, turning the grin into a grimace.
"Humph. I'm not hungry. Don't 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 so much as a glance at Bach. As she passed Bryan and Jack, she glared coldly at Bryan, "Bryan, I'll be back in a month for target practice when the agony of the soul is over!"
It wasn't until Lisa mentioned this 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 soul torment 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 leave, while Bach, after looking at Bryan, exclaimed in surprise, "Huh? How is that possible? I remember I gave you a lot of bruises yesterday, how come there are none today?
Damn, you remember that well. Han Shuo looked at Bach stupidly and then gave a crazy giggle, "Hehe, I have a good skin care routine!"
Lisa let out a small laugh as she heard Han Shuo's words and stopped her footsteps, no longer in a hurry to leave. Her beautiful eyes creased into crescents as she smiled. It was actually quite adorable. That idiot Bryan had become much more interesting after he went mad, Lisa thought. He doesn't just stand there in silence anymore.
Jack knew that Han Shuo wasn't crazy and that he had said that to make fun of Bach. He tried to hold back his laughter but couldn't and let out a light "Haha". By the time he realised he had done something wrong, it was too late.
Bach was already angry because he thought the bruise on my right cheek hadn't healed, but that idiot's had already faded. He hadn't dared say anything when Lisa laughed, but Jack's laughter set Bach off completely. He sprinted towards Jack and cursed loudly, "You wretched servant, how dare you laugh at me! I'll beat you to death!"
Jack knew it was bad, but he didn't dare run. He could only stand there limply as Bach rushed over and waited for a beating. It was then that Han Shuo suddenly grabbed his head and shouted "It hurts!" and staggered in front of Jack. When Bach saw that the person in front of him had turned into Han Shuo, he mentally shrugged his shoulders, as it didn't make any difference to him who he was beating up, and swung his fist straight at Han Shuo's face.
Don sounded out when 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 rocking back and forth in response.
But he still howled in pain, "That hurts!" and flailed his arms wildly in front of him as if he'd gone into a rage. Pilipala rang out as Bach was struck three times in a row, and his left eye immediately turned black and bruised. He clutched his stomach with both hands and jumped up and down, "Worthless slave, how dare you hit me! I'll kill you with necromancy today if it'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 soft voice admonished sweetly from a distance as a tall, lithe beauty with a head of light purple wavy hair came sashaying into view.
She looked to be 24 or 25, with a firm nose, an oval face and sexy red lips. Her lightly tanned skin looked very healthy, and she wore a slightly formfitting, gold-trimmed master's robe.
The tight robe showed off her well rounded chest and long legs perfectly. She was talking to Bryan while holding several magic books in her left hand and a stylish emerald staff in her right.
"Ah... 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 don't wear those things every day," Fanny smiled in return and finally located Bach, using the staff in her right hand to make a motion as if she had tapped him on the head. She said sternly, "Get back to class immediately or you'll face the consequences!"
After Fanny had talked to Bach in a bit of a temper, a gentle smile found its way back to her face and she smiled at Lisa, "Lisa, you need to hurry to class too. Frequent lateness does not make a good student. I have to prepare for today's lesson, I'll see you later!"
Fanny turned her head to glare at Bach once more, then glided forward on her slender legs, striding with a grace unmatched by thousands. Her full bottom swayed as she walked, creating a seductive silhouette.
"Uh... Master Fanny, this isn't the classroom building, you're going the wrong way. Oh dear, put your glasses on!"
Lisa called out lightly, pausing as she started to walk away. She turned around and gave Bach a cold look, sneering contemptuously, "What a worthless guy, you can't even beat up an errand boy!" Lisa glanced at Han Shuo again and hurried off after Fanny.
Bach was burning with rage 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 looked lecherously in the direction Fanny had gone and watched until she was out of sight. Paying no attention to Bach's threat, he muttered to himself after she had completely disappeared, "That Master Fanny is something else altogether. No wonder that silly boy 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 just an errand boy, and she's a high-ranking adept mage in the academy. Do you know how powerful Adepts are? Even though Master Fanny is shortsighted , there are far too many people at the Academy who have a crush on her. Wake up!"
Jack waved two chubby hands in front of Han Shuo, reminding him to wake up and face reality.
"I'm already drunk, I can't wake up!" Han Shuo said with a glare. He paused and added, "I'll get them one day!"