Ander had a good memory, and it only took him a little over half the time to return, finishing digging the trap by the middle of the night.
After a brief rest, Ander carefully covered the trap with blood-arrow grass and then set off to find some prey.
On the edge of a rotting swamp, Ander finally found a suitable target—a giant axe skeleton wandering aimlessly.
Rebirth of the Bones—
Stealthily, Ander made the first move. He swung his bone staff, and a red mist emerged, accurately hitting the giant axe skeleton's right knee. When the red mist dissipated, the right knee was at least one-third thicker than the left, and the giant axe skeleton, unable to maintain its balance, fell face-first into the swamp.
The giant axe skeleton finally climbed out, utterly enraged, swinging its axe wildly and charging at Ander... it was struggling to adapt to the difference in thickness between its two leg bones, stumbling through the filthy mud.
Seeing the charging skeleton, Ander cracked a silent grin... then turned and ran.
After upgrading, Ander was much faster, and he managed to run at the same speed as the limping giant axe skeleton.
Leading the skeleton in a chase, Ander successfully lured it to the edge of the trap he had dug.
The giant axe skeleton looked stunned at Ander, who had suddenly stopped and faced down. Then, in the classic "inviting you into the trap" gesture, the skeleton fell into the pit with a loud crash.
Losing its giant axe, the skeleton frantically grabbed at the edge of the pit with both hands, its half-exposed head hanging, silently growling at Ander, transmitting a clear thought full of resentment.
"Despicable... Skeletons fighting... cheating!"
Ander, enjoying himself, didn't care about what the skeleton thought. He quickly walked over to the edge of the pit, kicked the giant axe skeleton into the bottom, then pulled out the bone staff hanging from his neck and threw Necromantic Control at the skeleton's head.
After throwing a dozen or so Necromantic Control spells, Ander's already pitiful magic reserves were completely depleted. It wasn't clear whether it was due to the poor quality of the skeleton's bones or something else, but the last Necromantic Control spell was the only one that succeeded.
"Master—"
The giant axe skeleton, frustrated, lay in the pit and sent its thoughts to Ander. The voice in Ander's mind was hoarse, sounding almost like a sulking old man. As it surrendered, a wisp of soul fire flew from its mouth and drifted toward Ander.
Ander grabbed the soul fire and casually threw it into his eye socket. In an instant, a death god's phantom holding a dripping blood sickle appeared out of thin air. The phantom glanced at Ander and the giant axe skeleton in the pit, pulled out a parchment, and from nowhere produced a black goose feather pen, swiftly writing something on the parchment.
After the phantom of the death god vanished, Ander felt something new in his soul fire. It was the fragment of the soul contract that the giant axe skeleton had offered.
"Master, faithful servant Dargama salutes you. What are your orders?"
The giant axe skeleton, now deeply submissive after touching the soul fire fragment, immediately transmitted a respectful greeting.
It seemed that after accepting a necromantic servant, its intelligence had increased? Ander was confused. When Dargama had first chased him, its thoughts had been chaotic and frantic, with no clear structure.
"Master, faithful servant Dargama salutes you. What are your orders?"
Not sensing any response from Ander, the giant axe skeleton in the pit sent the same thought again.
"Stay there. I'll get you out soon." Ander casually responded without thinking too much about the skeleton's sudden increase in intelligence.
"By the way, Dargama, what did you do before?" While directing Dargama to climb out of the pit, Ander asked the question. He suddenly realized the name "Dargama" sounded familiar.
"I don't know, master," Dargama answered humbly.
"Well..." Ander thought for a moment but couldn't recall anything and decided to let it go.
After much effort, Ander finally got Dargama out of the pit. He was excited to direct Dargama to take a few steps. But then Ander felt frustrated—now that Dargama was limping, its combat ability was seriously compromised.
Ander knew it was due to the imbalance in Dargama's leg bones, but solving it was simple—he just needed to cast Rebirth of the Bones on Dargama's left knee. The problem was that Ander had no magic left, and with the crimson twin moons still far from rising, he couldn't do much.
With no choice, Ander instructed Dargama to sit down, then began communicating with it idly. After days of no communication, Ander was about to burst with boredom!
However, after a while, Ander grew disappointed. Dargama only knew three phrases:
The first was: "Master, faithful servant Dargama salutes you. What are your orders?"
The second was: "I don't know, master."
The third was: "Yes, master."
...
Exchanging such basic thoughts wasn't exactly exciting.
Feeling bored and with no magic to risk running off, Ander ordered Dargama to keep watch while he sat cross-legged to check the Yin-Yang Fish within his soul fire.
Finally, as the crimson twin moons rose, Ander regained a bit of magic. He immediately cast Rebirth of the Bones on Dargama's left leg. Watching Dargama walk normally again, Ander smiled—now with his first skeletal servant, the future didn't seem so bleak.
After absorbing most of the moonlight throughout the night, Ander couldn't resist any longer. Excited, he led Dargama on a hunt for suitable prey. By this point, he had already forgotten the encounter at the Skeleton Mage Temple and was focused solely on gaining energy to ensure his survival.
After wandering aimlessly for a while, Ander finally found his second target, a skeleton axe warrior. He directed Dargama to take the blows while he stayed behind, casting Necromantic Control spells. However, this skeleton axe warrior was no weakling. Despite being only level 1, it dealt massive damage to Dargama, causing bone shards to fly and much of the dry mud on its body to be knocked off.
That wasn't all—the skeleton axe warrior occasionally used a Shield Bash, knocking Dargama back repeatedly and even causing a dizzying effect. Had it not been for Ander's timely Rebirth of the Bones spells, Dargama would have been defeated.
Having given up on capturing the soul fire of the skeleton axe warrior, Ander reluctantly tossed it to Dargama. The skeleton eagerly jumped up and swallowed the soul fire like a dog chasing a bone.
Ander kicked Dargama in frustration. "Why didn't you jump like that earlier during the fight?"
How many skeletons would he need to defeat before he could assemble five servants?
Ander was starting to feel a bit overwhelmed.