The next day, Han Shuo was rudely awakened by a heavy garbage bag being dumped on top of him.
He had been dreaming sweetly when he felt a heavy mountain crashing down on him. Alarmed, he scrambled up from the bed and rubbed his eyes to see that there was an extra heavy garbage bag on the bed. He realised immediately that someone must have thrown their rubbish in through the warehouse window.
He grumbled and cursed randomly and kicked the bag of rubbish off the bed. The bag landed with a thud and rolled towards the door. Han Shuo was about to fall back asleep when he realised that it must have been late for someone to have thrown in a bag of rubbish.
The sun had indeed risen high into the sky as Han Shuo pushed open the windows to take in the view. He sighed again, thinking that he had overexerted himself with the training last night. He had definitely overslept today and was about to rush out the door when he suddenly remembered last night's dream. He seemed to remember that the little skeleton had taken revenge on Fitch for him. Han Shuo's heart jumped in fear as he remembered that the last time he had a similar dream, the events had actually happened. His eyes quickly searched the wooden bucket.
He was greeted by the sight of the skeleton resting two bony black hands on the sides of the bucket, its left leg bone crossed over its right leg bone, lazily rocking back and forth as if enjoying a sauna. It looked very comfortable and looked every bit the dapper rogue.
Han Shuo breathed a sigh of relief when he saw it still in the wooden bucket and thought for a moment. He stood up and shoved the bucket under the bed, only leaving the warehouse to tackle his day's tasks after grabbing a rubbish bag to plug the space under the bed.
"Hi Bryan, what took you so long today?" Jack was dusting the statues as he greeted Han Shuo from afar with a smile.
Han Shuo looked around and knew that he was late because there were no students passing by on this path. Classes must already be in session.
"Oh, my mind is groggy after Fitch's two knocks yesterday. That's why I overslept."
"Heh heh!" Jack suddenly gave a light, gloating laugh and laid his head confidentially next to Han Shuo's. He said softly, "Bryan, there's no need to be angry. I heard the students talking on the way to class today. That the black seven-winged skeleton that appeared last time beat up Fitch last night. His face is bruised and swollen!"
Han Shuo, "...."
So the dream had really happened, with a few distinct differences from what he'd imagined. This time, the little skeleton was noticeably faster and had already finished executing his commands. No wonder that when he checked the bucket this morning, the little skeleton was in a different position to the one it had been in the night.
Hey, Bryan. Why don't you say anything? Are you too happy? Haha, I guess I am. This black skeleton is really something. Once Fitch had been jolted awake, all he could see was the flapping of the seven wings. The skeleton jumped straight out of the window and escaped. Oh! Fitch lives on the fourth floor. It's amazing that the skeleton didn't land in pieces!"
Han Shuo gave two dry coughs and felt quite satisfied. He glossed over the issue and said, "Well done! I wonder who summoned that little skeleton to take revenge for me? I've been so lucky lately!"
For the next few days, Han Shuo had no more bad luck, and no one came looking for him to practice magic. During these days, Han Shuo took advantage of the rare calm to stand outside the necromancy classrooms early in the morning, broom in hand, eavesdropping on Gene's lectures.
Perhaps it was because of his beating at the hands of the Skeleton, but Fitch hadn't shown up for class in those few days. Han Shuo eavesdropped on Gene's explanations of magical knowledge every day and was enlightened on many theories that he simply did not understand before.
At night, Han Shuo practised the 'Mystical Glacial Spellfire' and gradually circulated the magical yuan towards his right palm and fingertips according to the method prescribed in the spellfire. It burned with pain each time, but over the course of these few days, Han Shuo had almost circulated the magic yuan to his wrist.
He continued to study the 'Fundamentals of Necromancy', mentally noting down the parts he didn't understand to see if Gene would happen to mention any of these topics when Han Shuo eavesdropped on his lessons.
Now that Han Shuo's rations had increased and his body was receiving more nourishment, not to mention training his magic yuan, Han Shuo's originally delicate body was unconsciously undergoing some fundamental changes. He began to build muscle and even seemed to grow a little taller, while his temperament changed as well.
The necromancy students all dismissed Han Shuo's changes as the aftermath of him going mad. Basking in the ease of no one paying much attention to him, Han Shuo continued to work and practise magic in secret. He was happy to see the changes in his body.
"Oh endless darkness, turn into destructive bone arrows and destroy according to my will, bone arrows!" A length of razor-sharp bone arrow materialised out of thin air as the incantation finished and flew towards a straw figure in front of Han Shuo with a flick of his finger. However, halfway through it suddenly shivered
Pa!
The bone arrow suddenly exploded halfway to its target, and judging by the direction it had taken, it was way off course. It wasn't aimed at the straw stuffed figure at all.
Han Shuo let out a deep sigh as he shook his head, thinking that understanding the theory was one thing, actually using it was another. Han Shuo had practised this lowest level of bone arrow magic near the graveyard these days, and he'd never been able to cast it successfully. Either he wasn't able to summon the arrow, or the direction of the arrow was way off course and it would explode mid-flight.
Han Shuo understood that repeated practice was necessary to successfully cast necromancy magic. Only through constant practice would he be able to fully grasp the details of a spell and successfully cast it without any errors or mistakes.
These days, whenever night fell, Han Shuo would train his magic yuan for a while, then sneak over to the graveyard where he had once been dumped as a corpse to practice necromancy in the middle of the night. The small skeleton would stand motionless after he had carried two bags of rubbish and thrown them away.
Just as Han Shuo was thinking about the incantations and hand seals he had just used, trying to figure out where he had gone wrong with his mental power, he suddenly heard hurried footsteps in the distance. He started and quickly hid in the randomly scattered rocks next to the graveyard.
The graveyard was vast and completely silent at night. Few visited it, except for Han Shuo, who stopped by to dispose of discarded magical ingredients. He practised magic here in secret, not wanting to be discovered, and of course he hid when he heard footsteps.
After a while, a tall, solidly built, blue-haired, middle-aged man, his clothes stained crimson with blood and a bloody froth on his mouth, came into Han Shuo's line of sight. He brandished a broadsword and staggered forward with an anxious look on his face. He stumbled aimlessly, looking behind his back.
His body trembled as he reached the area where Han Shuo had practised earlier and his footsteps swayed as he fell to the ground. He fished a grey handbag out of an inner breast pocket, kicked the ground twice at random and stuck the bag into the dirt. He got up and continued walking after he had smoothed over the earth.
"Dylan, where can you run to now?" A benevolent voice came from afar as a black light flashed and materialised into a thin, frail old man behind the middle-aged man. He wore a compassionate smile on his face, and his master's robes were trimmed in gold. He carried an obviously precious staff set with a ruby, a sapphire and a topaz.
A ball of dark green light quickly flew in from a distance after the frail, old, kindly mage had appeared. When it reached the clearing, the dark green light abruptly disappeared and a well-built, muscular-looking swordsman with a long sword appeared.
"Master Duke, how shall we deal with Dylan?" The swordsman stood politely beside the mage and asked humbly upon his arrival.
The compassionate old mage, Duke, wrinkled his sparse eyebrows and looked at the figure collapsed on the ground, blood gushing from his mouth. "Poor Dylan... he's probably at the end of his rope. He should not be in this kind of pain. Erick, send him on his way!"
"The master is too kind!" The swordsman praised Erick with a strange expression on his face and suddenly flashed towards the still running Dylan. Han Shuo caught a fleeting glimpse of a ball of dark green light as blood spurted from Dylan's back and he finally fell to the ground, motionless.
Erick sheathed his longsword and immediately bent down to search Dylan's body. His face grew uglier and uglier as he stood up and said resignedly, "Master Duke, it's not him!"
"How is that possible?" Duke was shocked and his expression changed. He summoned Dylan's corpse with a wave of his staff, chanted a wind magic incantation, and several sharp blades of wind appeared to rip the corpse's clothes to shreds
Han Shou saw all this clearly as he hid behind the rock outcropping. The dark green light blossoming from Erick's longsword indicated that he was a senior knight.
For such a senior knight to show such respect to this duke meant that the identity or ability of this person was even higher. It was the first time Han Shuo had seen a murder committed, and his heart pounded as it raced with panic.
"It's really not him!" Duke muttered to himself, throwing Dylan's naked body to the ground like garbage with another wave of his staff.
Duke waved his staff again and a strong pulse of mental power surged towards Han Shuo. Han Shuo's body flew up against his will and landed in front of Duke.
"Huh? How did you know I was there?" Not only was Han Shuo panicking internally, his mouth was panicking as well. He flailed his limbs in the air and shouted in disbelief.
"Heh, what a cute, innocent little boy! Judging by your clothes, you're from the Babylonian Academy of Magic and Strength?" Duke glanced at Han Shuo kindly and threw him to the ground after uttering these words.
"Yes, I'm an errand boy from the Babylon Academy. I was here to dispose of magical waste. I didn't see anything just now. Eh, it's getting late. You guys keep chatting, I'll go back now.
Han Shuo got up from the ground and replied with a face full of naivety. He took two measured steps towards the academy grounds, then increased his speed and ran away with all his might. Those two weird guys might do something to harm me, so I better get out of here as soon as possible.
"Heh, this guy is a bit cunning. Erick, why don't you send him on his way?" Duke said benevolently, laughing lightly behind Han Shuo's back.
As soon as Duke had finished speaking, Han Shuo felt a strong breeze coming towards him.