Chapter 10: A demon practitioner does as he wishes
The students had gone to class, but Han Shuo and Jack had yet to begin tackling their duties for the day. After everyone had left, the two also separated to complete their respective work.
Han Shuo felt the heaviness in his chest dissipate when he’d finished cleaning the statues. He found a deserted corner and undid the top of his rough, linen shirt. He looked down at his chest and saw that there was an undercurrent of pale-green specks of light being expelled from his body. It seemed that Claude’s pale-green fighting aura was being handled in this manner under the influence of the magical yuan.
Breathing a small sigh of relief, Han Shuo laid his worries to rest and marvelled at how miraculous the magical yuan was. From the knowledge that he’d recently gained, knights were also divided into various levels. Their fighting auras would be different at each level, such as knight apprentice (pale-blue), companion-at-arms (dark blue), sergeant (pale-green), senior knight (dark green), earth rider (white), sky rider (silver), and divine knight (gold).
Claude’s fighting aura color was pale-green, indicating that he really did have the strength of a sergeant level knight. If a sergeant level knight gathered his fighting aura and attacked a normal person, it would have dealt a fatal blow to the target with no exceptions whatsoever. The fact that he had survived without major injury was a clear testament to the fact that he had been training his magical yuan.
Han Shuo breathed a sigh of relief upon feeling the magical yuan firmly enclose the pale-green fighting aura, but didn’t dare engage in more training. He was deathly afraid that if the magical yuan circulated to other parts of his body according to his wishes, then the pale-green aura would be free of its restraints and suddenly burst into action and injure his internal organs.
Thankfully, as time passed, the magical yuan was slowly expelling the aura in the form of specks of light. This helped Han Shuo breathe a bit easier.
Due to the fact that classes had already started, no one searched the trash heap that the little skeleton had taken refuge in, but this matter wasn’t about to blow over that easily. Seeing as it was broad daylight, Han Shuo didn’t dare command the skeleton to return to the warehouse, for fear of inopportune discovery.
Late afternoon, within the department of dark magic’s training field.
The Babylon Academy of Magic and Force had very extensive facilities. Each department had its own independent training field. The training fields were a place for students to test their magic. All sorts of mental testing rocks to test mental strength, and equipment to measure the strength of a magical blast could be found within.
The necromancy major also had a few spacious rooms reserved specially for students to conduct magic experiments. Han Shuo happened to have a mop in hand and was cleaning the necromancy training room floors when he suddenly saw a few necromancy students walk over.
One of them was someone who had not come looking for Han Shuo in quite some time — Bach. His face was mottled with bruises and he looked quite miserable. It would seem that Irene and Lisa had already found him and made him pay. Bach swiftly grew livid when he spotted Han Shuo mopping the floor. His already ugly face became even more twisted, until it was almost impossible to make out his original features.
Han Shuo was gleefully jumping up and down inside, but continued to plaster a dumb, silly smile on his face. He was even humming a few lighthearted folk songs as he clutched the mop in his hands, twirling it this way and that.
“You damned Bryan, when did you see that little black skeleton run out from my room?!” Bach’s face had twisted ferociously as he roared angrily at Han Shuo.
Han Shuo lifted a completely clueless face and glanced at Bach, giving him a dumb smile. He didn’t answer and rapidly walked off with the mop.
“Come back here, you’re not getting away today!”
“Bach, how many times have I told you not to bully Bryan. Do you ignore even my words now?” Fanny immediately stuck her hands on her waist and yelled sternly after she’d walked in through the door, and glimpsed Bach about to chase after Han Shuo.
“Master Fanny, look at my face! It’s all because Bryan started some rumors that Lisa and Irene beat me up. Bryan’s the bully here!”
“Oh, I’ve heard about what happened this morning. Maybe Bryan was confused and saw incorrectly. He’s already like this! Why are you creating more trouble for him? Hmph. With your magical ability, you really don’t have the ability to summon such a strange and strong skeleton.” Fanny started talking to herself after this point. “Who on earth summoned it? I am very curious as well. There are rumors flying that our necromancy major has had a major breakthrough, and has discovered a way to make our dark creatures immune to light magic attacks.”
Han Shuo had run to the corner of the room and was gazing upon the glamorous Fanny from afar. Fanny had tied her light purple hair up into a bun today, leaving only a few purple strands resting on her forehead. This added a striking charm to her looks, causing Han Shuo to silently sigh multiples times in wonder.
“Bryan, your Agony of the Soul should be over by now and can help me practice my zombies today. Come, go to training room three.” Lisa flicked her gaze to the figure in the corner and commanded arrogantly.
“Lisa, practice is fine and all, but you can’t do what you did last time and directly attack him with a ghoul.” Fanny rebuked gently, worried that something might happen to Han Shuo after hearing Lisa’s words.
“I know, Master Fanny!” Lisa tossed out a careless reply and walked towards training room three.
It was the duty of the errand servants to help students practice their magic. Han Shuo also wanted to take to chance and enact some revenge, so he docilely put down the mop and walked towards the training room.
Lisa closed the training room door with a loud clatter after Han Shuo had entered the area. This indicated that she wished to reserve the room for her own use today. She stood cockily in front of the door and stared Han Shuo down, “You can’t run away today.”
She immediately raised her hands and started chanting when she had finished speaking, “Zombie warriors of the fallen, heed the dark herald’s call and reveal your existence!”
A muscular zombie warrior with a dark green body, wielding a thick wooden club, materialized as soon as the incantation had finished.
Zombie warriors were a level higher than skeletal warriors. They weren’t necessarily rotting corpses, but rather had muscular and tough bodies.They moved faster than skeletal warriors and their strength was greater. Only novice mages were able to summon them, so therefore a mere apprentice, like Bach, would have been completely unable to do so.
Summoned dark creatures could attack enemies if the summoner gave a mental command. However, low level dark creatures usually possessed extremely low intelligence, and could only engage in the most basic attacks. A summoner would have to continuously exercise mental control if they wanted the dark creature to attack up to its full potential. Only then would the dark creature follow the summoner wishes and attack in a variety of complex ways.
However, repeated practice was needed in order to become proficient and adeptly control a dark creature’s attacks through mental strength. Therefore, the necromancy errand boys often became practice targets. Up until now, Lisa and co. had used skeletal warriors to practice on the errand boys. This time however, she had summoned a zombie warrior. It was plain to see that she was up to no good.
Han Shuo was dumbfounded when he saw that Lisa hadn’t summoned a skeletal warrior, but a stronger, higher level zombie warrior. He inwardly cursed Lisa’s name a couple dozen times and backed up, on high alert.
“Hehe, I see you’re running faster Bryan, and that your strength has grown. It seems to be a bit of an insult to practice skeletal warriors on you. So today, you have the honor of helping the future necromancer archmage, Lisa, learn how to better control zombie warriors.”
Lisa’s pretty cheeks were tinged with pink and an unholy glee shone in her eyes. Under her commands, the zombie warrior had already started running towards Han Shuo, while she talked.
The zombie warrior was wielding a thick wooden club and thundered towards Han Shuo, according to Lisa’s instructions. Its speed was quite fast, and closed the distance quickly. The club flew directly towards Han Shuo’s head.
This club was thicker than Han Shuo’s arms, and the zombie warrior possessed great strength. Even if he didn’t die, Han Shuo would be gravely injured if he was hit.
For reasons unknown, Han Shuo wasn’t afraid at all as he watched the club descend. In fact, he felt a kind of bloodthirsty excitement. It was a very odd feeling, as if his body and soul craved battle.
His eyes narrowed slightly as the dumb look vanished from his face, replaced with a sharp glint in his eyes. He tensed his left leg and sprang off it, shifting his body to the right by a meter.
Bam went the zombie warrior’s wooden club as it smacked solidly into the floor, where Han Shuo had just been standing.
“Ee?!” Lisa gave a shocked squeal from the sidelines, where she had been controlling the zombie warrior. For the briefest of moments, the feeling she normally received from Han Shuo drastically changed, causing her heart to stutter. She had never seen the expression and the look in his eyes before this moment, and so had emitted a startled sound of bewilderment.
She forgot to give the zombie warrior further commands after that moment, and rubbed her eyes nervously. She stared closely at Han Shuo again.
Strangely, Han Shuo was wearing a silly expression again, and seemed to be instinctively fearing the zombie warrior. He cowered and trembled as he backed up, giving off the very appearance of an idiot.
I must have seen incorrectly. That damn Bryan, how is it possible… how could he have… that kind of aura, that kind of gaze? Lisa thought silently and gave a cold snort. She started to gather her mental strength again and commanded the zombie warrior to chase Han Shuo.
Although Han Shuo was chased every which way by the zombie warrior, he did not reveal it second time, the aura and look that had surprised Lisa, but he always managed to avoid the zombie warrior’s club at very last second. This peaked Lisa’s curiosity and competitive spirit, and so she fully concentrated on manipulating the zombie warrior as she thought, “Bryan’s actually gotten a lot faster and stronger since he’s gone crazy.”
As the widely pursued target, Han Shuo started developing a strong desire for vengeance on Lisa at some point. Even though Han Shuo tried to reason that he couldn’t and shouldn’t pursue vengeance, and tried to stop the thought in its tracks, he just couldn’t turn it off entirely.
And as the zombie warrior became more and more agile, and chasing after him with greater speed, Han Shuo’s thirst for revenge became stronger as well. “A demon practitioner does as he wishes… A demon practitioner does as he wishes…” A memory suddenly resurfaced in Han Shuo’s mind. He seemed to spontaneously understand the true meaning behind demonic magic, and the sentence “a demon practitioner does as he wishes” seemed to coalesce into a voice that echoed endlessly in his mind.
Finally, Han Shuo gave a low roar as he bent his head and arched his body. He changed his body’s trajectory from avoidance and made straight for Lisa’s direction.