Chapter 278

Unfortunately, just because I looked like a necromancer didn’t mean that I could just destroy them. Indiscriminately. The way the necromancers acted showed that they had a complicated web of alliances between them, and while the betrayals were common, I could also see several that was not being touched despite the chaos around them.

Considering they were not particularly strong among the necromancers, it was not hard to guess that they were servants of the stronger beings. For the moment, I left those alone as well, looking for more appropriate prey.

As my skeleton knights spread around, I started looking around, looking for prey. Soon, I found my first one, a necromancer that was rushing back, chased by two mounted skeletons, his wounded state proving just how badly he had been defeated.

“Aner!” he shouted desperately as he shouted at a distance, probably to the controller of the skeletons, who had been doing his best to retreat. “Do you think you can just kill me without consequence? The others will make you pay!”

“Only if they survive,” Aner shouted back, several hundred feet away while his minions rushed forward, one of them carrying the crystal. I sent a skeleton forward, doing my best to empower it with speed...

But the skeleton shattered halfway.

“Okay, better be careful,” I murmured, realizing necromancy might be a tad more complicated than I had assumed. I didn’t have necromancy as a skill, so I was roughly copying the way I had animated the treants, using the necrotic mana to enhance the skeletons.

However, I had missed one important detail ... treants were still living beings, and the excess nature mana just made them grow and strengthen.

Necromancy was the exact opposite. Necrotic mana corroded even the remains, and the excess mana hurt the skeletons. The true strength didn’t come from the physical power of the shell, but from the soul, whose power was forcibly plundered through the connection.

And, since I had no intention of mutilating the souls of the poor dead elves — I had my limits — I needed to find an alternative path.

Luckily, unlike the necromancers that were using the opportunity to kill and massacre, I had different options. The skeleton shattered after the empowerment, because it was weak, which meant, there was an easy answer.

Use a stronger skeleton.

Luckily, I didn’t need to go around with a shovel and dig to find a stronger skeleton. Instead, I just targeted one of the shattered and abandoned zombies, and cast a spell to separate the flesh from the bones. Then, I targeted the bones with a flood of mana, using my full range of biomancy abilities.

The treatment cost me a pretty chunk of mana, but considering the ordinary bones soon received a strength that could rival bone dragons, it was acceptable.

“Arise, my minion,” I muttered as I chuckled, finally raising a skeleton that could rival a strong skeleton warrior.

Though, I had no doubt that any necromancers would have been maddened by watching me waste such an absurd amount of mana, easily touching ten thousand barriers, just to raise a weak minion. It went against the whole principle of necromancy, its greatest advantage was its absurd mana efficiency.

During my experimentation, the skeleton knights had already managed to deal with the escaping necromancer, and captured its spark into a crystal container. They were already returning back to their owner, when they were ambushed by my new skeleton knights, and smashed.

And, before the necromancer could even react, it covered the distance and brought it to me.

“Thanks for the crystal,” I shouted happily as I used my mana to repeat the same process on the bones of a horse, and started running away.

Predictably, the angry necromancer chased me. “Stop, you bastard!” he shouted, but as I ignored him, he continued to chase me.

“Catch me if you can,” I shouted, a little absurd, but the allure of the crystal in my hand was enough to anger him. A good excuse, I decided as I used my empowered skeleton to steal a few crystals, and soon, I was being chased by a large group of necromancers.

The first few that joined the crowd were the ones that lost their crystals, but after a few, some greedy necromancers joined the mess without needing me to anger them.

However, the selfish nature of the undead worked well, and fifty necromancers that had been happily chasing a great harvest turned to try and run ... allowing me to easily harvest them.

{+3190 Purified Spark}

“Not a bad harvest,” I murmured as I took down the last necromancer. Not a bad one indeed, especially since I just stole their Divine Spark, and not the crystals they had carried. I had rapidly absorbed the Necrotic Spark first, turning it into Purified Spark, absorbing it easily, while I channeled the Nature Spark they had captured into God Forest.

{+2420 Purified Spark}

{+5128 Nature Spark, God Forest}

“They had been working harder than I expected,” I said with a frown, realizing that I still need to protect the tribal elves that had been retreating back. But not immediately.

I first needed to deal with the large chunk of the undead army reacting to my latest move...

{Strength: 16 Charisma: 22

Precision: 16 Perception: 16

Agility: 16 Manipulation: 22

Speed: 16 Intelligence: 16

Endurance: 24 Wisdom: 16}

{Purified Divine Spark: 6475}

{Pseudo-HP: 5800 Mana: 15000}

{ADDITIONAL SPARKS

Light - Chosen 7.4

Necrotic - Chosen 99

Nature - Chosen 10}

{MINIONS

Guardian God Forest - 23305}

Elven Priestess - XXXX}

[Level: 36 Experience: 631374 / 666000]