Chapter 240 - Reality (4)

"We have been trying to pass all of our mana to the crystal, but it is hard to make people come and go all the time," Julia said.

"I imagined that… it can't be helped, we will have to sacrifice some monsters," Luke said.

"Really? All of them have helped us…" Julia said with a sad expression on her face.

While she was allergic to cats, Julia liked them and pretty much all kinds of animals. The monsters tamed by Luke and their offspring were much the same to her… and that complicated things. He wanted to make things right and protect his family, so he couldn't afford to be picky about the how.

"Mom, the crystal only accepts the sacrifice of loyal creatures, so I can only use those that are obedient to me," Luke explained.

Luke also didn't like that method, it left a bad taste in the mouth just by thinking about it, but it couldn't be helped. If there was another solution, he would accept it, but he couldn't even use his skellies. Such was the difficulty of that.

"What if we use the Whip of the Magic Thief?" Julia asked.

"... I Never heard of that," Luke frowned. "Did you obtain it somewhere?" 

"No, Richter mentioned it when he was checking the shop," Julia explained. "It is an item that steals the mana of those that keep contact with it. With that, I can take the mana of the monsters without killing them."

If it was an item that Richter could buy after returning home from the elves' world, then it must be pretty expensive. It would take a while for Julia to obtain coins for that, and they didn't have that time.

Whip of the Magic Thief

Upon contact with a target, it grants you the power to steal mana of the target that will be equal to your INT divided by ten per second.

INT + 30, SPE + 30

Durability: 40/40

Price: 208.000

It was a tier thirteen weapon, so it was that expensive. Still, it was a low price in order to avoid his mother getting sad and depressed. There are only a few things that hurt more than making your mother feel sad, after all. Still, Julia would have to spend the day going back and forth, draining the mana of monsters. That would be too impractical. Unfortunately, connecting her with Magic Link wouldn't work if he weren't nearby. So aside from the whip, he also bought a skill book.

Magic Boost

It grants you the power to stock mana beyond your limits by one thousand points per level. The stocked mana can't be used in combat.

Price: 104.000

Luke was going to get poor again, but it was unavoidable… it was weird how come he didn't hesitate in buying those when he was so stingy to purchase skills and weapons for himself as of late.

"Thank you, Luke," Julia said and then hugged him. "I love you!"

"I know, now you should stop because dad is annoying when he is jealous," Luke said. 

Julia still was going to lose a lot of time working to preserve the monsters, time that she could be used to get stronger. Still, at least she was doing what she wanted, and Luke won't lose his dangerous pets. Regardless, she immediately left to start working.

"I have heard of men that spent tons of money on women, but not on their mothers, Oedipus complex?" Mark asked.

"Don't be a moron, speaking of morons. Where are Amanda and the others?" Luke asked.

"They returned to the elves' work to make sure that their allies will be fine while you three are away," Mark replied. "Anyway, my apologies for putting so much pressure on you even after created suck a place to protect us. Even spending so many resources for the sake of your mother… you are turning into a man even better than me."

"Stop it… so much praise makes my back all itchy," Luke said. "Regardless, we will return once a day to check things here, but it will probably take a while to find those two morons. We searched for an area of hundreds of kilometers, and we didn't find any traces of them."

"I see… keep your guard up, and good luck," Mark said. 

Luke nodded, and then he gave Shalia the sign for them to return. With the skeleton army, their speed would decrease a little, but they would waste a lot less time dealing with enemies.

Shalia said that further south, there was an area with some crystals. It wasn't an area that had many dark elves camps, but they could use it to increase the size of the skeletons army. Luke could tell that the more the army grows and keeps fighting, the more skill will level up. Besides, he also needed them to scare anyone that might try to pick up a fight with him. Even if their level was relatively low, one thousand skeletons could cause quite a lot of destruction. Moreover, adding the skill level with the bonus of the Necromancer's Staff, the skill was at level eleven. Yet… the skeletons were at level 120. That means that once the skill reaches the next level rank in rarity, their levels will increase by twenty with each level up.

"By the way, Shalia," Luke said while they were heading toward their next location. "Do you know how many overlords decided to create a base here?"

"A lot more than on her world," Shalia replied. "Sometimes, enemies would appear out of nowhere, like they had fallen from the sky, thousands of them at night. We didn't know about the flying fortress then, but now I can understand what they did. Many species of monsters attacked us that way and kept going since our numbers are high."

Hopefully, they won't have to deal with a coalission of overlords again… otherwise, Luke will need thousands upon thousands of skeletons since the dark elves don't want to obey him.