Undead Mage: I Have a Skeleton Clone-Chapter 499 - 360: Attribute Explosion, Sequence Challenge!

Although I could occasionally sense the soul fluctuations of some mutated undead creatures during meditation, I had never successfully summoned one. This left me somewhat disappointed, but it also ignited a burning fighting spirit within my heart. At the Black Iron tier, the combat methods of all major Professionals and various Black Iron-class Demons had grown far more comprehensive. Although my Skeleton Warriors possessed their bone armor, and the zombies’ powerful bodies and Corrosive Poison Attribute were quite effective, they still couldn’t fully meet my needs. I especially yearned for cavalry-type and flying-type Undead Creatures, but they remained out of reach. While browsing the Undead Creatures Atlas just now, I did discover some that might come in handy. Next, I plan to combine the hunting experience of my corpse Clone to attempt some new deductions.

Su Xinyan then inquired about Fang Zhou’s attribute leap after he broke through the bottleneck and advanced to Black Iron.

It was common knowledge that after a human Professional broke through a Great Realm, their Four-dimensional Attributes would experience a significant surge, with the magnitude depending on their individual Talent. This was a vivid manifestation of the principle that a strong foundation allows for explosive growth in a Professional’s cultivation journey.

In fact, at the very beginning of the Era of Myth, some Professionals deliberately suppressed their advancement to gain the greatest possible attribute leap. However, these individuals often met tragic ends, as they couldn’t keep up with the progress of the mainstream and were unable to cope with the challenges that followed. Besides, forcibly suppressing one’s cultivation ran contrary to the natural laws of letting things take their course, and it didn’t even produce a significant amplifying effect. Moreover, against the backdrop of the great Human-Demon Blood War, such an approach was a foolish waste of resources and talent.

Therefore, after several more decades of development, cultivation theories had matured. Today, the old method of "suppressing one’s realm to enhance one’s foundation" had been abandoned. Cultivation was all about science now—and scientific cultivation brings boundless mana. A natural breakthrough that came when the time was right, like the one Fang Zhou had tonight, was proven by countless pioneers to be the most beneficial path for personal development and long-term prospects.

Fang Zhou estimated his Four-dimensional Attributes, arriving at a rough figure. He hesitated for a moment but decided to be slightly conservative.

So he replied to Su Xinyan, "Strength, Constitution, and Agility... Instructor Xinyan, you should have felt it deeply during the massage. They’ve all roughly doubled. As for our most important attribute as Undead Mages, the Spirit Attribute, its growth is somewhere between two to three times." 𝕗𝗿𝕖𝐞𝐰𝗲𝕓𝐧𝕠𝕧𝗲𝐥.𝚌𝐨𝚖

Fang Zhou thought this statement was conservative enough, but Su Xinyan’s face was still a mask of shocked disbelief.

"How much? How much did you say your Spirit Attribute increased? Two to three times? Do you know what that means? It means that right from the start, you’re already a huge step ahead of all the other Professionals who have just broken through to the Lower Rank of Black Iron. Even back when I..."

At this, Su Xinyan suddenly realized something and clamped a hand over her mouth, falling silent.

Fang Zhou smiled reservedly and asked with curiosity, "Instructor Xinyan, when you broke through the bottleneck to Black Iron, how much did your Spirit Attribute leap?"

Su Xinyan took a few deep breaths, unnaturally averting her gaze. She huffed lightly and said, "Why are you asking? Even if I can’t compare to you, I wasn’t that far off."

Despite her words, Su Xinyan knew the truth. In the small community of Undead Mages, the two-to-three-fold increase in Spiritual Power Fang Zhou achieved after breaking through a Great Realm bottleneck was completely unprecedented. In comparison, her own had only increased by about eighty percent back then. Even so, that boost had saved her a great deal of time and effort in her cultivation.

Fang Zhou glanced at his attribute panel. His Spirit Attribute had already reached 30, giving him a direct and clear understanding of just how heaven-defying his Talent was.

He couldn’t help but sigh. So I’ve really become this powerful.

It took Su Xinyan a long moment to calm down and accept that Fang Zhou’s talent had once again completely crushed her own. She viciously pinched the soft flesh at Fang Zhou’s waist, puffing her cheeks as she said, "With your potential, as long as your cultivation resources can keep up, it won’t be long before you break through to the Middle Rank of Black Iron."

Fang Zhou caught her hand and held it tightly. He smiled, "That’s true. That’s why I just splurged all of my thousands of contribution points on a massive batch of cultivation resources. For example, the New Star Mage Set, Profession Specialty Training Manuals, Attribute Secret Medicines, and over a dozen Black Iron-tier Skills..."

Hearing Fang Zhou’s well-organized cultivation plan, Su Xinyan relaxed and began to analyze his choices with him, sharing her own experiences with those Profession Specialties and Black Iron-tier Skills.

As she spoke, she also exclaimed, "Then again, only a big shot like you could afford such a spending spree. Especially those four bottles of Attribute Secret Medicine. I bet that even among the second-year seed students who have already reached Black Iron, many haven’t gathered enough contribution points to exchange for them. Any other student would be carefully saving up their contribution points, exchanging them one by one for the skills and equipment they want. But you exchanged for so many skills at once. Can you even learn them all?"

Fang Zhou replied with confidence, "With my talent, Instructor Xinyan, do you really need to worry? Rest assured, these are all premium Skills that I meticulously selected and am sure to use. To build up my combat power as quickly as possible, these Skills are essential. I will definitely not bite off more than I can chew."

Su Xinyan nodded. "That’s true. The Skills you exchanged, whether they’re Undead Mage Profession skills or universal Magic Professional skills, are all very useful for you. Even if the power of some skills isn’t quite up to your standards, they will serve as excellent material for you to deduce new skills from."

At that moment, Fang Zhou seemed to recall something. "By the way, Instructor Xinyan, I saw that the Sea City Military Academy’s resource library recently stocked a new batch of Undead-attribute resources that can be used as alchemy reserves. And since I’ve just broken through to the Black Iron Tier, my Apprentice Alchemist sub-profession can be leveled up as well. When you have time, please teach me alchemy properly. If I can advance to a Basic-level Alchemist, I can try to upgrade or craft White-grade, Common-quality Marvels myself. In that case, those Gray-grade, Inferior-quality Marvels I have that were useless before might finally come in handy. Even just using them as enhancement materials would be an excellent choice."

"No problem," Su Xinyan nodded. "I didn’t expect you to break through so quickly, so I don’t have any alchemy learning materials prepared. Give me a few days to sort and organize everything, and then I’ll give you systematic instruction."

Speaking of which, she changed the subject. "By the way, the end of the term is approaching. According to the plan Lu Hu made, you can already apply for the skip-grade assessment. With your cultivation at the Lower Rank of Black Iron, I think you can apply for an exemption from the combat assessments. The rest are just theory and knowledge-based exams, which should be no problem for you."

Fang Zhou nodded. "I’ll go apply for the skip-grade assessment with Instructor Lu Hu tomorrow. If everything goes smoothly, I can skip to the second year of the academy next semester."

Su Xinyan smiled. "You were the undisputed number one seed among the first-years. However, once you skip to the second year, I wonder if you can continue your previous dominance. At least, I’ve heard the current number one seed in the second year, Gu Yueyuan, has an Insect Nest Walker Profession, which is an incredibly formidable and tricky combat Profession. He broke through several months before you did. Although he hasn’t reached the Middle Rank of Black Iron yet, he frequently participates in the various combat missions issued by the academy. His mastery of the new Black Iron-tier Skills is surely far more profound than yours is right now. If you two were to face off, I wonder if you could seize the title of the second year’s number one seed from him."