A person’s elemental affinity and strength level can both be classified into the following levels from low to high: Disgust, Low-grade, Medium-grade, Upper-grade, High-grade, Perfect. If both of them are at Disgust, you could judge the person as being unable to learn this element.
For low-grade, this person could learn some low level magic but would have to expend several times more effort than others. Medium-grade is the average level for mages in this world and formed the bulk of mages. Upper-grade meant that one was an elite while High-grade meant that one was a genius at that element. As for Perfect…it is usually only found in pure elemental elves.
——From A Magic academy’s Student’s Handbook to Magic <<The Relationship between Elements and Mages>>
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Does this devil self of mine not have any talent in undead magic? No way! Shouldn’t devils and undead have an inseparable relationship? According to the legends, this world’s undead was created by the devils!
Forget it, now isn’t the time to think about undead magic. That dark alchemy on the other hand…
I used the skeleton I summoned as materials for the alchemical process and began channeling my mana into them. A rounded, black mirror began to form as I channeled my mana. As I slowly lowered the mirror onto the bones, the mirror ripped into the pale white bones like a paper shredder, grinding it into dust with every move forward.
A few seconds later, the skeleton and mana mirror was completely gone, instead a bone broadsword took its place.
The broadsword had the same shape as Roscar’s broadsword, but notably differed in both material and weight. One was made of bone while the other, iron. I wonder which would fare better…
Under the confused and worshipful eyes of my subordinates, I scooped up the bone broadsword lying on the floor. It was lighter than Roscar’s broadsword. Giving it a couple test swings, I estimated that it was about 10kg. In order to create this sword, I expended five darkness arrows worth of mana.
Next I tested the sharpness of the bone sword by stabbing it into the hardened ground. It wasn’t a satisfactory result; it took considerable effort to do so which meant it wasn’t too sharp.
“Big 1, One-eye, I need both of you to hold onto this bone club from each end. I’m going to test out the new weapon’s strength.”
With the bone club firmly secured, I raised the bone sword up to my shoulders and lowered my hips as I brought the sword down in a decisive slash.
The next second, the two bone weaponry collided into each other. I didn’t look too favorably on the bone sword being able to cut through the club, but surprisingly, it managed to do so albeit with some difficulty.
“Ooooh!!”
The devils gasped in wonderment as they looked at the “divine” bone weapon in my hands.
“Master, Master! What’s that? It’s amazing!”
No.3 was the first to speak, and with him as the lead, the others began clamoring as well. Soon, the situation spiraled out of control as the excitement overtook them.
“Master! This lordship wants a bone like this as well!”
“Master, can I have that bone please!”
“Master Master…”
Oh boy, that escalated quickly. Thank god, these guys still have some self-control left and know not to snatch it from me.
“It’s a broadsword, because it’s made from bone, you guys can call it a bone broadsword.”
Whether it was summoning a skeleton or this dark alchemy, they were all the outermost pages of the grimoire and could only be considered lower ranking spells. While the summoned skeleton wasn’t too good, this dark alchemy was pretty formidable. If I had this with me as I went into that battle at the steps, the outcome wouldn’t have been so razor thin.
A large imp who wielded this bone broadsword could’ve easily cut down a head imp!
However, mana was an issue. Bones were found everywhere but my mana was limited. In order to prevent any in-fighting over these swords, I decided to give them out according to seniority.
“Creating a bone broadsword requires a substantial amount of mana so I can’t mass produce it. I’ll give it out according to who joined me first.”
“The first one is me!” No.3 had followed me since the beginning and naturally had no issue with this.
Seeing that I was set on this method, the others didn’t object as well and went along with it.
“Then this lordship is second!”
One-eye swatted Nine-finger’s hand down and assertively said: “I’m third, you’re fourth.”
As for No.5…*cough**cough*
There’s two goals for now: creating more bone weapons and leaving this undead region. Truth be told, I suspect that we are in Gehenna based on the stories Roscar had told me.
For example, he said that hell was split into three regions: Purgatory, Gehenna and Abaddon. Purgatory was a fiery world so the blood sea shouldn’t be a part of Purgatory. Gehenna sounded like the North Pole, but that was merely my own impression of it. Gehenna was the world of the undead and was crawling with the them. This description fit our current location, which meant that we might just be in Gehenna after all. As for Abaddon…Abaddon was too mysterious…even Roscar didn’t know anything about it.
Either way, whether this was Gehenna or not, there was only one way for me to proceed, and that was forward! Whether it’s for my sake or for the sake of meeting Nicole, I have to advance forward! No matter the cost!
“Let’s continue, there’s no time to waste. Oh that’s right, leave some traces behind so No.5 can find us easier.” I tossed the bone broadsword to No.3 and eyed the tower ruins a kilometer away: “Find some skeletons for me on the way, I want to test if the strength of the weapon has anything to do with the strength of the bones.”
As we set off on our journey, we hunted all the undead we encountered along the way, especially bone-type undead. After a couple more tries of my dark alchemy, I came up with three conclusions.
While creating the same broadsword, when using a bone imbued with soul flames as the material for the sword; reduced the mana consumption of the alchemical process. This means that the soul flames was consumed as part of the process in order to aid me.
When I used the bones of skeletons who did not serve me, there would be resistance; the speed of the mirror would slow down. Furthermore, it had gotten so troublesome, that I had to get No.3 and the rest to toss the bones into the mirror…
During the alchemical process, adding in special materials increased the power of the sword produced. For example, while I was forging One-eye’s weapon, I had a sudden stroke of inspiration, and decided to throw the black pearl I had obtained from the ghosts into the mirror. It disappeared and the resulting broadsword was no longer bone-white but a black sword surrounded by an ominous black aura.
This black sword wasn’t much sharper than its white cousin, but had the added effect of weakening any healing/regeneration effects. How did I know of this, you might ask. Well, that’s because we recently encountered a group of devils.
At the head of this group were two head imps with over 300 large imps as their subordinates. Upon seeing me, the two head imps screamed about making me their female devil without even giving me a chance to say anything and charged over.
On our side, we already had three bone swords namely the ones held by No.3, Big 1 and One-eye’s evil looking black sword.
In order to test the effectiveness of these weapons, I got these three to face off against the head imps, with No.3 and Big 1 taking on one while One-eye takes on the other alone. As for me, I stood nearby ready to lend them some fire support. As for the 300 large imps, I left them to my 500 plus large imps.
The head imps weren’t blind either, they knew from a glance that we had no two-star imp holding down the fort. So as long as they captured me, subjugating the rest of my subordinates would be easy. It was a good idea, but they picked the wrong opponent.
One-eye wielded his brand new weapon with the excitement of a child having just gotten a new toy. He immediately started the fight with a leaping chop towards the head imp. The head imp who had never seen such a weapon before, mistook it for a stick and tried to block the black sword with his body.
The black bone sword easily sliced through the hide of the devil and right into its right arm, finally stopping after slicing through half of the arm. Judging from this result, it wasn’t especially sharp and was around the level of the weapons made in a human kingdom.
“Ahhh…”
The head imp had never in his wildest dreams, imagined that we would possess such a strong weapon and ended up suffering for it. However, these head imps were still veterans who had killed their way up to this state. He gritted his teeth and counterattacked. With a punch from his left fist onto One-eye’s chest, he sent him flying back.
After tumbling a while, One-eye got to his feet and fearlessly pounced back onto the head imp, his black sword wildly slashing as he pressed down upon the imp. However, the head imp had learnt his lesson and did his best to avoid the sword. While he was in a miserable state, at least he didn’t get hit by One-eye.
On the other side, No.3 and Big 1 had managed to severely injured their enemy in the initial clash as well. Their swords had sliced into the left and right arms of the devil. Like the other head imp, he started avoiding the swords as well. However, unlike that imp, he was facing two swords. Defending for long wasn’t an option.
As they fought, he got injured several times by their swords without any chance of retaliating. However, having fought with them for that long, he managed to find a counterplan. He grabbed a nearby large imp and used him as a club, swinging wildly. The bone broadswords weren’t heavy weapons after all, and both of them together still weren’t able to match a head imp’s strength. As a result, the tide of battle changed.
The battle had now shifted in our enemies’ favor.
On One-eye’s side, upon seeing his companion use a “devil club” so effectively, his opponent mimicked him as well. He grabbed a large imp and began swinging wildly while pressing onto One-eye. One-eye had no choice but to retreat, knowing that his sword wasn’t suited for such a head on fight. All this while, the head imp had a taunting smile on his face.
However, idiots were in the end still idiots. His newfound ferocity had blinded him to the fact that while his companion was similarly injured as he was, scabs had long since formed on those wounds while his own injuries were still bleeding non-stop. This coupled with his furious swings rapidly weakened the head imp, to the point where he could no longer keep up with the speed and began to showing signs of passing out. A short moment later, his body came crashing down with a loud bang.
One-eye was initially taken aback by this developed and had used several rocks to test if his opponent was still conscious, but after a minute, he was finally sure that his opponent was truly out of strength. He finally walked up and pointed his black sword at the back of the head imp’s heart. With a forceful stab downwards, he shouted: “Die!”
While he had taken care of his opponent, No.3 and Big 1 were still busy being chased by that head imp. He immediately joined their battle. Under the cover of his companions, he took the risk of getting hit by the devil club and bravely stepped in, slashing at the head imp’s arm.
After that, the battle was pretty much set. The bleeding on the head imp’s arms didn’t stop and finally caused him to collapse from severe blood loss.
One-eye lifted his sword into the air and prepared to drive it through the imp’s throat. Before he could deal the finishing blow, the head imp turned to me and pleaded in a weak voice: “Please forgive me…let me become your slave…”
“Do you regret it?”
“…Yes…”
“Too bad we don’t sell any medicine for regret.” I snatched the sword from One-eye as I said so. I stamped triumphantly on his chest and aimed the sword at his heart, and shoved the sword down!
Because of his severe blood loss, there wasn’t much blood splattering from the wound. The blood slowly flowed out of the wound as I coldly withdrew my foot from his chest: “I really hate being treated as a woman.”
