Master's mission, how many times now!

Finally one perfect completion without any screw-ups!

This made Purple Vortex pumped as hell—it wasn't easy!

It carefully placed the ancient bone chest on the ground, Dark Purple Force Field slowly opening it, revealing the dense, intricate formation patterns on the chest's surface.

"Master, what is this?"

Ginya looked curiously at the bone chest.

After all that effort, they'd only brought out this one chest.

With master's clear purpose, this had to be something big.

"This contains important materials for your next evolution."

Carlos explained briefly,

then placed both hands on the ancient bone chest.

It felt ice cold, and instantly an extremely frigid necromantic energy surged into his body.

"Evolution materials!"

Both retainers' eyes lit up like Christmas trees, unable to resist the powerful temptation, staring hard at the chest.

Carlos's expression remained unchanged.

The Dawn Flame within him seemed ticked off, surging out and instantly devouring and melting this cold alien energy.

The formation on the chest's surface, beaten down by time, only managed one burst before losing response and going dark.

Creak!

Opening the bone chest, wisps of pitch-black mist rose.

This was precious gas that effectively prevented air corrosion, commonly used to preserve manuscripts.

Inside the bone chest lay only a roll of bone-white parchment.

Protected by the black mist, even after endless years, it remained in mint condition.

"This is it—the necromantic archmage's manuscript!"

Carlos reached out, covering his hand with a thin layer of Death Herald spiritual power, carefully picking up the parchment.

It felt soft and cold in his hands. Starting from the opening, he unrolled it bit by bit.

Numerous strange patterns were clearly printed on the parchment, constructing the image of a unique skeletal creature.

The outline resembled a young horse, but the bone structure was drawn with ghostfire symbols.

"The necromantic archmage skilled in alchemy, through countless experiments,

finally cracked the code on

necromantic alchemy that perfectly fused and evolved

incorporeal wraiths,

lifeless bones,

and mindless Umbral Stone!"

Carlos closed his eyes, soul power drawing forth, falling upon this necromantic archmage's manuscript.

The various patterns on the manuscript immediately came alive, following his soul power and continuously flowing into Carlos's mind.

Carlos focused his thoughts.

Deep in his soul, the blank runes representing two remaining skill points

immediately moved forward to receive them.

One received the alchemical pattern flood,

One received the necromantic pattern flood.

Gradually, the two blank skill runes began undergoing completely different changes.

Just as the initial changes began,

the two blank skill runes attracted each other and suddenly collided.

As the runes collided, the two pattern floods began converging and merging...

Simultaneously,

the completely new rune formed by the collision rapidly began changing.

First slowly constructing a strong bone horse with a dark bone structure.

After several breaths, soul fire blazed up,

and a layer of strange ghostly flames wrapped around the bone structure, ice-cold.

Just as the rune's final transformation completed,

a notification sounded in Carlos's mind.

Successfully inherited Necromantic Alchemy - Ghostly Dark Steed (Light Gold)

Necromantic Alchemy - Ghostly Dark Steed (Light Gold):

Using wraith ashes, bones, and Umbral Stone as materials,

can craft and fuse to evolve the exotic mount: Ghostly Dark Steed (Light Gold)

Note: Crafting success rate is influenced by spirituality - higher spirituality means higher success rate.

"Jackpot!"

This was the most important piece of the puzzle for evolving Dark Knights. Carlos's lips curved up, feeling pretty damn pleased.

"Ghostly Dark Steed, as high as Light Gold quality."

This was the highest quality mount Carlos could most easily snag at the current stage.

Not just getting one, but the complete crafting recipe.

This meant that future evolutions of Skeleton Shield Guards would no longer be bottlenecked by mounts.

"However, crafting mounts of this quality

seems unrestricted, but actually each one crafted eats up a certain amount of soul power.

Higher spirituality allows crafting more."

This was

common knowledge among psionics who possessed mount crafting or mount cultivation arts in his previous life.

Carlos steadied his mind.

"To craft Ghostly Dark Steeds requires wraith ashes, bones, and Umbral Iron."

Bones were a piece of cake—the dark mist regions were crawling with monsters, as many as needed.

Umbral Iron, though precious and rare as hen's teeth, could be obtained through various means available to the current Valois family.

Most troublesome were wraith ashes...

Wraith ashes: ashes remaining in the Material Realm after wraiths get wasted.

Carlos frowned slightly, then a flash of inspiration crossed his mind.

"If I remember correctly,

Gray Spirit Monsters are also a type of wraith."

Wraiths—

mutated creature souls, often packing extremely terrifying resentment, with extreme hatred for living beings.

Immune to physical attacks, depending on their nature, usually only specific attacks could hurt them.

Gray Spirit Monsters were exactly one such type.

"Hold up,

logically speaking, the necromantic archmage

must have stockpiled massive quantities of 'materials' in advance to research the Ghostly Dark Steed."

The Gray Spirit Monsters floating above the Necromantic Tower should be one such source of 'materials.'

If so, Umbral Iron very likely also exists within the ruins.

Carlos's brow smoothed, his face showing satisfaction.

If that was the case, the materials for crafting Ghostly Dark Steeds wouldn't require busting his ass to obtain from other sources.

Umbral Iron was precious and rare—even the Valois family would need serious time to collect it.

Thinking this,

Carlos felt the urge to explore again.

"Gray Spirit Monsters—this type of monster is scared shitless of fire damage."

If Red Spirit were here, that would be perfect.

Its powerful talent Fire Spirit Flame

was terrifying fire that could burn souls!

Greatly increased damage to Spirit Realm creatures, greatly increased soul damage.

Not only fire damage, but soul-targeted damage was the bane of ghost-type monsters.

Unfortunately, Red Spirit was sent by Carlos to help his sister and couldn't return anytime soon.

As for Purple Vortex and Ginya,

though they also didn't fear Gray Spirit Monsters, their killing efficiency wouldn't be through the roof.

And they still needed to explore other parts of the Necromantic Tower.

After much thought, only by getting his hands dirty himself, using Dawn Flame combined with both retainers could seriously accelerate the clearing.

"With Teleportation Scrolls as backup, there shouldn't be too much danger."

Moreover, after both retainers' initial scouting and testing,

no Controller-level monsters appeared in the ruins—the danger wouldn't exceed Carlos's expectations.

After Carlos beamed his thoughts to both retainers,

"Roar!"

Purple Vortex indicated it would keep master safe.

...

"Master, the Necromantic Tower only explored the right corridor.

After Ginya and I finish exploring the remaining parts and confirm there's no nasty surprises..."

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