After defeating Lord Sog, Eddie remained vigilant, as there was still the Gold Level Seven Reaper Mantis to deal with.
Although weakened, being a Gold Level Seven war beast, it posed a significant threat.
The Reaper Mantis, evidently in its most vulnerable state, didn't attack Eddie, unable to determine his strength and unsure if he was its prey.
After breaking free from the ice, the Reaper Mantis lay on the ground, despairingly giving birth to numerous white foam-like substances containing many golden eggs, all shattered.
The mother Reaper Mantis searched desperately for an intact egg, her eyes filled with maternal grief and despair, which deeply moved Eddie. He had considered killing the Reaper Mantis to obtain its magic crystal, but witnessing such sorrow changed his mind.
Eventually, the Reaper Mantis flew away, emitting a sharp, almost inaudible cry, circling the white foam thrice before vanishing.
Eddie lamented the loss of the golden eggs, which could have been valuable Gold Level Reaper Mantis war beast eggs, all destroyed by the Ice Soul Orb.
With the Reaper Mantis gone, Eddie focused on the Witch Lich's ring.
He needed to remove Sog's residual consciousness and contract with his innate true energy before he could use the ring.
Eddie estimated it would take at least a day to cleanse it fully.
He handed the ring to the metal creature, warning it not to consume the ring, or he would flatten it and sell it as scrap metal.
The metal creature seemed to ignore Eddie, swallowing the ring and then spitting it out along with several mouthfuls of dirty water, as if disgusted.
Eddie quickly praised the metal creature, claiming it had earned a second-class merit, while Wenli had earned a special-class merit.
The ring was now cleansed of Sog's residual consciousness and contract.
Eddie petted the metal creature's head, despite its inability to express its disdain for his fickle behavior.
Resigned to its fate with Eddie as its master, the metal creature transformed back into a wrist guard and returned to Eddie's hand.
Eddie quickly put on the Witch Lich's ring again and sensed its interior, finding a space filled with various corpses and bones. He disgustingly threw them all out, forming a small mountain.
After some hesitation, he harvested the Frost Giant Dragon's horns, teeth, and claws, storing them in the ring.
He also salvaged the headless Venom Dragon's remains, compensating for the unusable dragon skin with fresh dragon hide.
With the Witch Lich's ring, Eddie conveniently gathered all valuable items from the battlefield, including the Headless Knight's black sword, the Golden Puppet's hammer, the Blood Wing Guard's corpse and blood-axe, and the skulls of Sog and Luben.
He planned to sell these items to the wealthy Hessian or extract secrets from the skulls using necromantic memory reading techniques at the academy.
Debating whether to collect the forming white foam from the Reaper Mantis' eggs, Eddie decided against it, feeling uneasy about using the remnants of a creature he had fought alongside as fodder.
Wenli then handed him a cracked golden egg, suggesting it might still be salvageable.
Eddie tried desperately to mend the egg with his innate true energy, but with little success. His abilities were more attuned to attack rather than healing.
Wenli then cut his finger, allowing a drop of his blood to fall on the egg.
Miraculously, the egg absorbed his blood, healed the cracks, and transformed into a whole egg, glowing golden.
The Bloody Queen, intrigued by the power of Eddie's blood, grabbed his finger and began sucking it fervently, seemingly strengthened by the blood.
Eddie felt drained as his blood and innate energy were rapidly drawn out.
After kicking the Bloody Queen away and healing his wound, Eddie noticed her increased power, almost reaching Gold Level Four.
Eddie wrapped the now-whole golden egg in the white foam, hoping it would hatch into a cute Gold Level Reaper Mantis.
He felt a sense of achievement for saving a life, even if it wasn't human, but rather a tiny creature's.
After tidying everything up, Eddie found that his silver grimoire emitted a ten-meter-tall column of light.
This time, it wasn't an upgrade, but a sign that Eddie had finally advanced from a high-tier apprentice to a junior warrior.
This promotion was significant as it allowed Eddie to summon two beasts daily, up from one. Moreover, his level-up enhanced his third-level Insight ability, bringing him closer to achieving his dream of "X-ray vision."
Eddie reluctantly put away the Bloody Queen and let Wenli rest.
He searched the surrounding corpses and bones but found nothing more of use.
With slight disappointment, he collected the core mechanics of the shattered Golden Puppet.
He was sure even the most frugal scavenger couldn't find anything else useful on the battlefield.
While sighing over the loss of the rotten dragon skin and the dragon skeleton that couldn't fit into the Witch Lich's ring, Eddie noticed a purple-black flash in the space.
The Swordswoman Sister appeared, carrying the skull of the gray-robed man.
Surprised, she asked, "What happened?"
Eddie replied, "It's a long story."
He noticed that the Swordswoman Sister's clothes and hair were perfectly intact and asked jokingly, "Princess, you didn't let that old pervert harass you, did you?"
"You mean him? I entered the duel space and killed him with one strike before he could summon his beast. He was pathetically weak! The duel space has time and space rules, so I had to wait at least an hour to return. I could have used a teleport scroll, but I decided to wait and see your battle. It looks like you had a tough fight? There was even a Frost Giant Dragon. Not bad, you crafty wolf. Where's the dragon crystal?" the Swordswoman Sister curiously inquired.
"What? You're asking about the dragon crystal? It was the Reaper Mantis that killed the Frost Giant Dragon. You're asking me for the dragon crystal? I didn't take it!"
Eddie spoke the truth. Indeed, it was the Reaper Mantis that killed the Frost Giant Dragon, and he didn't take the dragon crystal. It was the metal creature that took it.
The Swordswoman Sister sympathized with him, saying, "Don't be too upset. If there's no dragon crystal, it's fine.
Next time, I'll steal one from the treasury for you as compensation, but you must keep it a secret. It's impressive you killed all these zombies and skeletons.
I never thought the gray-robed necromancer could summon so many undead creatures, nor did I expect you to do so well.
Since that's the case, let's forget about our previous issue!"
"I told you, touching your chest was a reflex! I didn't mean it!" Eddie sighed in relief, glad she was no longer angry.
"What? When I said I forgive you, I meant for grabbing my hand earlier. I will never forgive you for touching my chest on purpose. Don't bring it up again, or I can't control my temper and might end up cutting you down with one strike!"
The Swordswoman Sister couldn't help but get angry thinking about Eddie's sly smile and roaming hands.
"If you really hate me that much, just push me down. I promise I won't resist," Eddie muttered under his breath.
"What did you say?" The Swordswoman Sister's keen ears caught Eddie's whisper, but she pretended not to hear.
"I said you're more beautiful than flowers, charming and pretty, with a perfect figure, tall and slim, curved in all the right places, resembling a graceful violet mink, with a wafting silhouette, and a non-temperamental, always smiling disposition," Eddie rambled on without taking a breath.
"It's hard to imagine how you, who were as quiet as a mute at home for years, have become so talkative now," the Swordswoman Sister commented, initially intending to scold him but ended up smiling at Eddie's amusing words.
"What are your plans next? Going to the Tower of Trials to train? Or shall we team up again for the World Tree quest?"
"I'm sorry, beautiful princess, but as an illiterate, I've never been to school. I need to spend a couple of years at the academy to learn the basics, or I won't even know how to write you a love letter," Eddie confessed.
He really did plan to fill in his knowledge gaps at the academy. He might be powerful enough to kill a lich now, but he didn't recognize the plants or beasts around him.
"Ignorance hinders progress," Eddie thought.
"For example, I could have acted earlier with the Reaper Mantis to kill the zombie dragon before it evolved into the Frost Giant Dragon if I had known about the Ice Spirit Crystal Ball's ability to merge and evolve creatures. There are also many advanced potions and elixirs in my mind that I can't concoct due to my lack of basic knowledge."
Eddie believed that a few months of intensive study at the academy would lead to a significant leap in his abilities. "
As for the academy's beauties, that's just a bonus.
If there are any pure beauties there, I might try my luck. Otherwise, it's fine; I already have a beauty with me, like asking Inan to study with me.
Just imagining studying with her, resting on her lap while she explains things to me, and sneakily caressing her..." Eddie's thoughts trailed off with a mischievous smile.