leonardwarren Chapter 366: Body Size Surges, Bones Pierce the Heart with Spears!
Chapter 366: Body Size Surges, Bones Pierce the Heart with Spears!
Chapter 366: Body Size Surges, Bones Pierce the Heart with Spears!
Nevertheless, the energy contained in these points of light remains an indispensable source of replenishment.
Therefore, even though the rate of improvement has slowed significantly, Ark has not given up on continuing to devour.
He started from one end of the valley and swallowed the light spots one by one until he had taken all of the more than one thousand light spots into his body.
As the last point of light disappeared from his body, Fangzhou could clearly feel the increase in energy within him.
At this moment, its internal energy increased by about 1.2 times, and the cold, deathly energy on its body became even stronger.
Although the data on the attribute panel did not change significantly, the increase in the energy limit greatly enhanced his ability to fight for extended periods as a corpse clone.
It must be due to another evolution that the corpse clone's ability to devour and transform has become even more terrifying, and its body has grown at an alarming rate with ample energy.
His black armor grew thicker and heavier, making a clattering sound. The armor continued to expand, and his figure became increasingly broad and fierce.
In a short period of time, his height increased by more than ten centimeters, reaching almost three and a half meters.
The fact that his extraordinary energy had more than doubled made him feel that today's gains were simply unbelievable.
It would be a real shame to leave this valley now.
These white light spots coexist with the glowing bone pillars and grow rapidly, making them a renewable resource.
Although the benefit from consuming a single point of light each time is negligible, if you continue to harvest them, the cumulative effect over time will be considerable.
In the future, we only need to wait for a period of time until the light spots grow luxuriantly again, and then we can continue to devour them.
Repeating this process multiple times can increase the energy ceiling several times over.
A few days later, Fangzhou spent several hundred contribution points again to carefully select and exchange several offensive skills for Black Iron-level mages from the vast array of skills in the Black Iron-level skill library of Haicheng Military Academy.
At the same time, Ark, combining the instinctive level of the Corpse Armament skill of the Corpse Clone, and expending a large amount of soul power, finally succeeded in propelling the Apprentice-level "Bone Spear" skill to the Black Iron rank.
【Bone-Piercing Spear】(Black Iron, Mastery): Condenses death magic into bone spears, which are then hurled at enemies to target vital points. The spears deal armor-piercing physical damage, shield-penetrating damage, corrosive damage, and death energy damage. Upon impact, they explode; the number, power, and range depend on Spirit attribute and skill proficiency.
Although there are not many changes in the skill description, the "Bone Piercing Spear" has been greatly enhanced in terms of direct single-target damage under the Iron level upgrade, especially in penetrating various energy shields and accurately attacking the enemy's vital parts.
Starting from the Iron rank, whether human professionals, demons, or various monsters, they will all possess various energy shields, which can greatly reduce the damage they suffer.
Therefore, if you cannot penetrate the enemy's energy shield, it is difficult to directly cause effective damage to the enemy's body.
Based on this, Ark focused its simulation and enhancement efforts on the penetrating power of the "Bone Spear".
He conducted in-depth research on the structure and characteristics of various energy shields and found that most shields did not provide good protection against death-attribute energy.
Furthermore, the spell structure of the Bone Piercing Spear combines physical entity damage with energy damage.
Therefore, the Skeleton Heart-Piercing Spear, after being meticulously refined and enhanced by Ark, is among the top-tier single-target damage skills for Black Iron-level mage classes.
Its single-target damage capability has reached the top level among Iron-tier mage skills.
Fangzhou carefully examined the skill descriptions on the attribute panel and nodded in satisfaction.
After reaching the Iron rank, to deduce and refine a skill, one needs not only more skill materials, but also profound theoretical knowledge and practical experience.
Searching for suitable materials in that vast and complex skill library by one's own efforts would undoubtedly be a needle in a haystack.
At this moment, he couldn't help but miss his two former assistants, Bai Xiaochun and Meng Hongzhuang.
Their presence greatly reduced his workload.
However, at the threshold of the Black Iron rank, apprentice-level professionals simply cannot comprehend the complex spell structure of Black Iron skills.
Even if he wanted to continue using their help, it would be impossible.
After all, those who are left far behind by him will never catch up with him.
If we really have to wait until Bai Xiaochun and Meng Hongzhuang advance from apprentice to the Black Iron rank, the Ark will probably have already advanced to who knows what level by then.
Therefore, Fangzhou could only look forward and search for a suitable candidate to become his research assistant.
Aside from Sylvanas, the elven female apprentice of Master Sandru that Instructor Su Xinyan once mentioned, the research assistant candidate that Ark currently favors the most is Liu Diewu, the second-year seed student who has been interacting with him frequently during this period.
Based on recent interactions, Liu Diewu demonstrates remarkable abilities in both theoretical knowledge and understanding of Black Iron rank skills, making her more than capable of serving as a research assistant.
Looking out the window, the moonlight on this winter night is serene and beautiful.
Why not go find Liu Diewu, sit around the stove, brew tea, and pour out your heart?
Without further ado, Fang Zhou picked up his personal terminal and sent a message to Liu Diewu.
【Ordinary Black Iron】(Ark): Senior Sister Butterfly Dance, are you free lately? I want to talk to you about something.
Shortly after the message was sent, Liu Diewu replied.
【青青子衿悠悠我心】(Liu Diewu): "Oh Fangzhou, you have already broken through the Black Iron level and passed the grade skipping test, becoming a second-year student."
Why are you still calling me "senior sister"?
I'm currently practicing my skills in the greenhouse garden. Feel free to come find me anytime if you need anything.
[Ordinary Black Iron] (Ark): "Okay, I'm coming right now."
I mainly wanted to discuss with you whether you would be interested in becoming a research assistant for our necromancer research group.
Fang Zhou stood up, quickly drafted a research assistant agreement, and then hurried to the greenhouse garden.
Although it was a bitterly cold winter outside, the greenhouse garden in the Natural Professionals Association remained as warm as summer all year round.
Fangzhou and Liu Diewu sat facing each other, with exquisite tea sets laid out in front of them. The aroma of tea wafted through the air, and the two of them relaxed.
"Fangzhou, your breakthrough to Black Iron level so quickly has exceeded the expectations of all of us students."
In just one semester, less than half a year, you've gone from a complete novice who just awakened the Necromancer class to the Iron rank by leaps and bounds.
This is unprecedented in the history of Haicheng Military Academy.
Liu Diewu raised her slender hand and poured Fang Zhou a cup of tea, her face showing a hint of disbelief as she exclaimed.
Fang Zhou smiled slightly and said modestly, "Mainly because Haicheng Military Academy has received a lot of resources from the Federal Military during this period, my cultivation speed has also increased a lot."
"Speaking of which, I must thank Senior Sister Butterfly Dance for your selfless sharing of cultivation experience with me before; it truly helped me a great deal."
Liu Diewu took a sip of tea, shook her head, and smiled, "During this time, especially after you passed the grade-skipping exam and officially became a second-year student at the military academy, many classmates have been asking me about you."
Everyone is very curious about you.
Although your combat videos have been saved on our school's intranet, everyone is still very curious about what kind of image you have in life and in your training.
Even our instructors couldn't resist, some even itching to take you away from the first-year instructors.
"Is this the treatment a genius like you gets?"
Fangzhou lowered his head and drank his tea, without replying.
In fact, he was well aware of the immense shock his breakthrough to Iron rank and skipping grades to second year had brought to the students and instructors of Haicheng Military Academy.
Although his reputation was already well-known throughout the entire Haicheng Military Academy after he led the team to win the title of the best military academy, he was still a household name after leading the team to victory.
But this sudden attention and expectation still put some pressure on him.
Fangzhou's growth and progress were expected by everyone, but no one expected that he would reach his current level so quickly.
Liu Diewu looked at Fang Zhou with a smile of admiration on her face and continued, "Now everyone is eagerly waiting to see which of our second-year students you are going to challenge next."
Currently, about fifteen of our second-year students have broken through to the Iron rank and can serve as your opponents.
Some people believe that, given your personality, you would never be content to be second to anyone, and might even directly challenge the number one seed, Gu Yueyuan.
Some people think you have a calm and steady personality, and that you plan ahead before acting. They believe you might challenge the lowest-ranked Iron-level student to secure a spot as a seeded student in the second year.
Fangzhou, what are your plans now?
Fang Zhou raised his head, looked at Liu Diewu and smiled, "I just broke through the bottleneck and advanced to the Black Iron rank, and it's only been a little over a week."
They haven't even had time to build the basic combat system for Black Iron level necromancers.
The skills that were quite good during the apprenticeship stage are now unusable.
Especially, as you know, senior sister Butterfly Dance, our necromancer's skill tree was quite incomplete before.
I still need to spend a lot of energy on deduction and reinforcement.
It's hard to say how to tackle the challenges next.
If I can develop a basic combat system within the two-month timeframe, I might try to challenge Senior Brother Gu Yueyuan.
However, if there's no significant progress in skills within these two months, a more conservative approach might be taken.
Upon hearing this, Liu Diewu nodded and said, "That's similar to what I was thinking."
Ark, your potential is limitless, but realizing that potential requires the infusion of resources and the nurturing of time.
There's no need to rush.
With your talent, it probably won't be long before you leave us behind again.
By the way, what did you mean by "research assistant in the necromancer research group" that you mentioned before?
Getting down to business, Fang Zhou went straight to the point and took out the research assistant agreement he had prepared, handing it to Liu Diewu.
"Senior Sister Butterfly Dance, please take a look."
This is the research assistant agreement I have prepared for you.
If you are willing to become a research assistant in our necromancer research group, I will provide you with 100 per month.
Basic contribution point compensation.
In addition, there will be a reward mechanism based on your contributions to our research project.
The specifics are all clearly stated in the agreement.
Fang Zhou explained the rights and obligations of a research assistant to Liu Diewu in detail, patiently guiding her: "Senior Sister Diewu, you should be very familiar with Meng Hongzhuang."
During my apprenticeship, I hired first-year students such as Meng Hongzhuang, Bai Xiaochuan, and Shen Ziwei as my research assistants.
They really helped me a lot, especially in helping me collect skill materials for deduce necromancer skills, which saved me a lot of effort.
I also rewarded them with a lot of contribution points or other cultivation resources in accordance with this research assistant agreement.
This is a win-win situation.
However, now that I've broken through to the Black Iron level, Meng Hongzhuang and the others can't help me much for the time being.
I was thinking, could you please help me, senior sisters?
I believe that with your experience and abilities, you will definitely be able to bring more help to our research projects.
Fang Zhou paused, his eyes filled with anticipation.
Liu Diewu took the agreement and quickly glanced through it.
Her expression gradually changed from initial surprise to seriousness, and finally a slight smile appeared.
She looked up at Fangzhou and said, "No problem, Fangzhou."
I've carefully reviewed the contents of the agreement, and as you said, it's a win-win situation.
I will provide you with scientific research assistance, and you will provide me with corresponding compensation.
This is a great job!
After all, I'm just like you now, having only recently broken through to the Iron level, and I haven't yet developed a stable and mature combat system.
They need to spend some time in the safe environment of military academy before they can go out and take on some real combat missions.
At this stage, the part-time job you provided is a considerable amount of contribution points for me.
Liu Diewu thought for a moment and continued to say to Fang Zhou, "Actually, I had heard about the conditions you gave Bai Xiaochun and Meng Hongzhuang before."
If I had been an apprentice at that time, I would have been very envious.
According to Meng Hongzhuang, in addition to the research agreement, you and Bai Xiaochun also have a buff agreement.
Bai Xiaochun plays lullabies and triumphant songs for you every day, providing you with a boost in the speed of mental energy recovery and soul nourishment.
In return, you will provide her with a monthly contribution point as part-time compensation.
Fangzhou, do you still have this idea now?
My Nature Druid class, while not as specialized in support as Bai Xiaochun's Chanting String, still has two support skills that specialize in mana regeneration and soul nourishment.
If you are interested, I would be happy to replace Bai Xiaoxiaochan and provide this service for you at the Iron rank.
Of course, this requires additional compensation.
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