Cloud Raising Little Zombies: Chapter 37

NECROMANCER GOD’S CULTIVATION

37. Contracting Skeleton Soldiers

Ye You sensed that his skeleton army was close.

Casually, he said to the girl beside him, “What a coincidence. I also know the location of the nearest skeleton soldier group.”

With his S-level mental power, he could cover an area the size of a large nation.

As long as he wanted, Ye You could not only sense the locations of undead creatures but also know exactly what all the undead within millions of square kilometers were doing.

Lucy hadn’t expected such a response.

The realm of the undead was vast. Even in the Bone Plains, where low-level undead gathered, it would take months to travel through.

In this endless expanse, pinpointing the location of a particular undead creature was extremely challenging.

This task would require a necromancer to spend months or even years in exploration.

And unless a necromancer had personally encountered these creatures, only those from necromancer families would possess inherited records of such locations.

Lucy didn’t believe Ye You came from an ancient magical family.

If what he said was true, she could only think of two possibilities.

Either he was extraordinarily lucky and happened to come across a skeleton soldier group in the Bone Plains…

Or he had a necromancer teacher even before entering the Empire’s First Magic Academy, and his teacher had informed him of the location of these skeleton soldiers.

Lucy recalled the aura of death she had felt upon meeting Ye You for the first time.

She leaned more towards the second possibility.

—Ye You had a mysterious necromancer teacher backing him!

In a brief moment of reflection, Lucy heard a “clack-clack” sound.

The sounds were highly synchronized, the kind produced only when numerous skeletons moved together.

She looked toward the source of the sound.

A thousand meters ahead, tens of thousands of Level 1 skeletons were moving toward them, their eye sockets flickering with eerie blue soul flames.

Masterless skeletons would usually roam aimlessly and wouldn’t gather like this.

These skeletons clearly had a master.

Was there another necromancer nearby?

Lucy grew cautious and controlled her contracted skeletons, positioning them protectively around her.

Just as she was about to call Ye You, she saw him walking straight toward the massive skeleton army.

She froze, quickly realizing that those skeletons were Ye You’s contracted undead.

This realization left her stunned, her eyes widening in shock.

Ye You was only a Level 1 mage. Just how much time had he spent to form a contract with so many skeletons?

If she had tens of thousands of skeletal minions, why would she need to find a partner? She would have already used a “sea of bones” tactic to overwhelm any skeleton soldiers.

Lucy felt a surge of hesitation.

She had assumed that Ye You had fewer undead creatures than she did, but the reality was quite the opposite.

In this case, even if they cooperated, the control would lie in his hands.

No, the first assessment since entering school was coming up in a week.

She needed to become a Level 2 apprentice mage before then.

For a necromancer, contracting an undead creature of a higher level than oneself was the fastest way to advance.

Lucy bit her lip and followed him.

【This girl has real determination, still daring to follow him.】

【Eh? Has she not noticed that our Zai Zai doesn’t need cooperation?】

【Zai Zai’s skeletons outnumber hers by at least tenfold. The difference in quantity is just too vast.】

【But what’s with that girl’s skeleton soldiers? Are there different kinds of skeletons?】

【Of course. You Zai has a huge book called 《Undead Creatures》.】

【I saw an illustration of skeleton soldiers in Ye You’s 《Undead Creatures》 book. They’re humanoid skeletons carrying swords and shields.】

【Sounds pretty cool.】

Ye You was aware that the platinum-blond girl was still following him.

He didn’t mind.

Her earlier words had reminded him that there was no need to stay fixated on Level 1 skeletons; he could aim to contract higher-level undead creatures.

Expanding his mental reach, Ye You quickly located the nearest group of Level 2 undead creatures.

They were about five kilometers ahead on the right.

Ye You led his skeletal minions, urging them to their maximum speed.

Lucy, watching Ye You’s skeletal army disappear into the distance, bit her lip in frustration.

Her own skeletons could actually keep up with Ye You’s, but she couldn’t.

What necromancer would be skilled at running on two legs?

Half an hour later, Ye You reached the group of Level 2 undead creatures.

Amid the endless, dreamlike skeletal army, two hundred skeletons armed with weapons and marching in formation stood out.

These were the skeleton soldiers the girl had mentioned earlier.

Skeleton soldiers, Level 2 undead creatures, carried round bone shields in their left hands and sharp bone knives in their right, typically moving in groups.

【Coolness explosion!】

【They actually have weapons!】

【Wuwuwu my order contract bone skeletons seem so basic now.】

【Zai Zai! I want to order! One skewer—no, ten skewers of tanghulu to trade for the lead skeleton soldier!】

Ye You could sense that the mental strength of these skeleton soldiers was comparable to that of D-level zombies.

If he released his S-level mental strength, he could forcibly contract them.

But Ye You wasn’t planning on doing that.

He wanted to contract undead creatures using the methods of a necromancer.

Only by doing this could he more quickly familiarize himself with a necromancer’s combat style.

Ye You separated a thousand skeletons.

He commanded them to attack the skeleton soldiers from the flanks.

The nimble skeletons sprinted forward, their elongated bony claws raised in front.

The skeleton soldiers quickly spotted the approaching skeletons.

They didn’t choose to retreat; instead, they turned in unison to face the oncoming skeletons, actively meeting them head-on.

Two hundred skeleton soldiers faced off against a thousand skeletons.

Roar—

Both sides’ skeletons let out a soul-level roar.

As the distance closed, the skeletons swung their claws, aiming at the skulls of the skeleton soldiers.

The skeleton soldiers raised their bone shields to block and swung their long swords, slicing off half the skull of a skeleton in one strike.

The soul flame of the skeleton drifted out and quickly dissipated in the air.

Ye You watched the undead creatures’ battle from afar.

The skeleton soldiers cut down the skeletons as if harvesting wheat.

One after another, the skeletons fell.

Finally, as one skeleton soldier raised its bone shield to block a claw from the left, two skeletons from other directions clawed its skull simultaneously.

A wisp of soul fire floated out from the skeleton soldier’s skull, soon dissipating.

【Ahhh! The skeleton soldier I wanted just died!】

【No worries, the next one will be even cooler.】

Ye You calculated in his mind that around two thousand skeletons should be enough to kill all the skeleton soldiers.

But his goal wasn’t to kill the skeleton soldiers; it was to contract them.

Ye You ordered the skeletons to target the arms of the skeleton soldiers.

At this point, half of the thousand skeletons had already been lost.

It was fine if more skeletons were lost.

If there’s one thing Ye You had plenty of, it was skeletons.

What mattered was disabling the skeleton soldiers while keeping them alive.

Ye You summoned another two thousand skeletons, commanding them to join the fray.

Meanwhile, Ye You began chanting the necromantic spell he had just learned in a low voice.

“Hell Fire!”

Several wisps of ghostly blue flame ignited around Ye You and, under his control, flew toward the skeleton soldiers’ arms.

The Hell Fire struck the skeleton soldiers’ right arms holding the long swords, setting the bones ablaze in ghostly blue fire.

A skeleton clawed at the bone of the flaming skeleton soldier’s arm, snapping the bone instantly.

The claw of the attacking skeleton also caught fire.

【What the hell is with this dog game, no friendly fire immunity between team members?】

【Coming, coming, I’m killing myself.】

The chaotic battle raged on for an hour, flames spreading wildly.

Ye You managed to prevent total annihilation on both sides only by using his magic to encase the skulls of the undead creatures.

Once the flames died down, Ye You finally walked over.

On the scorched ground, the skulls of the skeletons, still wrapped in magic, and the skulls of the skeleton soldiers were biting each other.

【What fierce skulls.】

【I can’t even tell which ones are the skeleton soldiers anymore.】

【No, this is all wrong. These aren’t the skeleton soldiers I wanted, sob sob sob.】

Ye You released his mental strength, directing it into the soul fire of the nearest skeleton soldier.

The skeleton soldier’s will immediately attempted to resist.

But under Ye You’s overwhelming mental force, the skeleton soldier’s resistance was futile; a contract mark was forcibly etched into its soul fire.

The moment the contract completed, a massive surge of undead magic poured into Ye You through the link with the skeleton soldier.

Ye You could feel the “container” in his body for storing undead magic expand several times over.

This was an upgrade.

Ye You had advanced from a Level 1 apprentice necromancer to a Level 2 apprentice necromancer.

The remaining contracts became easier.

In just a few minutes, Ye You had contracted all 195 surviving skeleton soldiers.

The only downside was… his skeleton soldiers were left with only heads.

Ye You silently pulled out 《Necromancy》 and looked at the peacefully resting skulls on the ground.

He wanted to find a way to grow bodies for these skulls.

After quickly flipping through the entire book, he found no relevant spells.

The records in this magic book were too sparse.

For instance, the spell “Undead Realm” only explained how to go to the realm of the undead but didn’t mention how to return to the magical world.

Ye You couldn’t tell if these omissions were intentional secrets by the author or simply common knowledge everyone else understood.

Clack, clack—

A loud sound of skeletons marching came from behind, and Ye You turned around.

He saw a platinum-haired girl, panting heavily, with her own skeletons in tow.

Lucy was so exhausted she could barely stand, but her eyes were glowing as she looked at Ye You.

Skeleton soldiers reduced to mere skulls and Ye You flipping through his magic book all pointed to one thing:

Ye You didn’t know how to repair undead creatures!

A smile appeared on Lucy’s pale face.

Her desperate rush had finally paid off; she had caught her chance.

Not daring to get too close, Lucy called out from a distance to Ye You, near his skeleton horde:

“I know how to repair undead creatures!”

Ye You closed the book, standing up and walking toward her.

When he was within twenty meters of her, Lucy quickly commanded several dozen skeletons to stand in front of her, her gaze fixed on Ye You, completely on edge.

Ye You obligingly stopped and asked, “What do you want?”

He believed that she knew how to repair undead creatures.

But he didn’t think she’d share it out of kindness or generosity.

Surrounded by her skeleton guards, Lucy replied, “I’ll tell you the method, and you give me one skeleton soldier.”

Trading one skeleton soldier for the repair method was tempting, but…

“I’ve already contracted these skeleton soldiers,” Ye You said.

No necromancer would ever want an undead creature someone else had already contracted, right?

“No way,” Lucy replied, unconvinced.

They had only been apart for a little over an hour.

What could he have accomplished in that short time?

Ye You arriving here with his skeletons and defeating the skeleton soldiers had already surprised Lucy.

Contracting skeleton soldiers too?

Contracting undead creatures wasn’t easy.

It required wearing down the will of an undead creature bit by bit with mental strength until it was too weak to resist, allowing one to imprint the contract mark onto its soul fire.

This process often took an hour or more.

Seeing Lucy’s skeptical gaze, Ye You said, “You can go see for yourself.”

Lucy pursed her lips slightly before finally leading several dozen skeletons toward the field of skulls.

She knew that even with all her skeletons, they couldn’t stand against Ye You’s skeleton horde

.The few dozen skeletons surrounding her were just for buying time.

If Ye You actually attacked her, these skeletons could give her enough time to withdraw her undead magic and leave the Undead Realm.

But no attack came.

Lucy successfully reached the skulls. Cautiously, she chanted softly, casting “Undead Contract.”

For lower-level necromancers, the best way to determine if an undead creature is already contracted is to use the “Undead Contract.”

If it’s an uncontracted creature, the spell might succeed, or it could fail if the creature’s will is too strong.

If it’s already contracted, the necromancer using the spell will sense the contract mark left by the creature’s master.

The “Undead Contract” sent a wisp of magic into the skeleton soldier’s soul fire.

When it hit the contract mark, it dissipated instantly.

Lucy was a bit surprised.

She looked back at Ye You, who was quietly waiting, and tried the spell on several other skeleton soldier skulls.

Each time, her “Undead Contract” was blocked by the contract mark.

Lucy’s expression wavered.

It couldn’t be bad luck that she kept picking contracted skeleton soldiers.

So all these skeleton soldiers had really been contracted by Ye You.

Lucy felt completely deflated.

Facing Ye You’s crimson eyes, she pursed her lips and said:

“By channeling undead magic through the contract mark, you can restore the contracted undead.”

Ye You directed undead magic and tried it on one skeleton soldier.

As undead magic passed through the contract mark, the skeleton soldier began to regrow its body.

In just a few seconds, a skeleton soldier holding a round bone shield in its left hand and a slender bone sword in its right stood before him.

Lucy turned and ran.

A fully restored skeleton soldier! A Level 2 undead creature!

Her little frame wouldn’t even survive one hit from that.

After running about a hundred meters, Lucy slowed down and glanced back.

She saw nearly a hundred skeleton soldiers now standing beside Ye You.

Lucy drew a sharp breath and hurriedly gathered her skeletons, slipping away quickly.

【Stop playing with skeletons, streamer! The girl’s escaping.】

【Why’s she so scared? Our Zai Zai is so gentle and adorable!】

By the time Ye You finished restoring all the skeletons, Lucy had already regrouped with her skeleton horde and was trying to sneak away.

“I still owe you a skeleton soldier,” Ye You called out, raising his voice due to the distance between them.

Lucy stopped in surprise, looking back at him. “So, will you pay me back?”

Ye You replied, “There’s a group of skeleton soldiers ten kilometers away.”

Lucy glanced at the imposing skeleton soldiers standing beside Ye You, then at her own group of far less intimidating skeletons.

Clenching her teeth, she decided to go for it.

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