Chapter 704 The Magic System
The Grimoire of Lich Salin
Spell 2
In Kazumi’s sight at this moment,
the System Panel displayed only
a simple
line of text. Yet, these few
simple words were like a boulder
thrown into a calm lake,
instantly stirring up massive
waves deep within her long-frozen
heart.
Kazumi’s indifferent face
couldn’t help but twitch. Her lips
curved slightly as she stared
intently at the thin, ancient book
before her eyes.
After so long!
She had finally obtained the
thing she had long been longing
for and awaiting!
Though Kazumi had no idea of
the origin of this “Grimoire of
Lich Salin,” as there were countless
magic books with various backgrounds
in the game, even she couldn’t
remember them all.
But the “Spell 2” annotation
that followed was something she
was all too familiar with—it
originated from another core system
in the game “Undead Lord,” which
was also crucial for her personal
power development: the Magic System!
“Undead Lord” itself was an
excellent ultimate hybrid game
combining farming, construction,
army operations, and gacha draws.
It inevitably “borrowed” settings
from many classic games. The “Army
Operation Lord” mode, in particular,
drew heavily from the extremely
classic turn-based strategy game
series “Heroes of Might and Magic.”
In this mode, players, as lords,
could release various powerful
spells to strengthen allies, weaken
enemies, or directly cause devastating
area-of-effect damage, while also
commanding their undead armies
in battle.
Unlocking this system was relatively
simple in the game: merely build
a “Magic Tower” in the territory
and recruit undead units with spellcasting
abilities, such as Corpse Mages
and Liches, to automatically unlock
some basic spells.
Higher-level, more powerful
spells required finding specific
spell scrolls or, as in this case,
acquiring magic books that recorded
their mysteries to learn.
However, due to certain deficiencies
after the system became somewhat
realized, Kazumi couldn’t directly
build a “Magic Tower,” making even
the most basic spells impossible
for her.
Kazumi had been yearning for
the spells she could use for such
a long, long time.
Reality was different from the game.
Although she could attack, defend,
or influence objects in reality
like a mage by controlling death
energy, this method was ultimately
just the most primitive and crude
outflow of energy.
Even with her own efforts and
some relevant technology in her
territory to refine her control over
death energy, it was far from the
level of magic, lacking the power
of rules and the explosive force
to instantly turn the tide of battle.
SF Light Novel
Kazumi’s current ability was at
best comparable to the normal attack
of a lord unit in the game, not even
a proper skill.
She had also tried to ask for
guidance from her readily available
teacher, the Lich Governor Lei, to
learn some of the spells mastered by
this Frost Lich.
But the results were discouraging.
It was as if the rules of their two
different world systems were incompatible.
No matter how Lei broke them down
or demonstrated them, even the simplest
trick-like spell, Kazumi couldn’t
comprehend or master its core principles,
let alone cast it successfully.
Regarding sacrificial rewards that
could directly grant spells to lords,
Kazumi, with her memories of the game
from her previous life, knew some ways
to obtain them and some relatively rare
spells.
— OCR End —
with material combinations. It’s just that those materials were extremely rare, and she had long ordered Lei to pay attention to collecting them, but she hadn’t managed to gather any of them yet.
Unexpectedly! She never expected it! Just when she had almost given up hope on regular sacrifices, she unexpectedly obtained this long-dreamed-of magic book through Lei’s casual sacrifices!
Of course, this book’s green color definitely couldn’t record high-level lord spells like “Death Plague,” “Demon Curse,” or “Hellfire Descent.” However, for Kazumi, the most important thing wasn’t the spells themselves, but what they represented: not the spell system that had been unlocked. Although, according to the game, this system was already unlocked.
Thinking of this, Kazumi could hardly conceal her excitement and no longer hesitated. With a slight movement of her mind, pure death energy lifted the ancient magic book, which flew up from the attendant’s hand and landed steadily in her palm.
Then, holding the spine of the book with her right hand, she unhesitatingly tapped her forehead!
As if a drop of clear water merging into the ocean, the not-too-thick magic book, the moment it made contact, suddenly transformed into countless tiny runes and light points, gleaming with a dark green light. As if they had a life of their own, they rushed into her brows, integrating into the depths of her sea of consciousness.
The girl slowly closed her eyes, her long eyelashes fluttering like butterfly wings. Countless unfamiliar pieces of knowledge, profound rune structures, and techniques for driving death energy into rule-based transformations surged into her mind like a tide, and were quickly understood and absorbed.
A moment later, she reopened her eyes. Deep within those dark, profound eyes, there seemed to be a bit more ineffable enlightenment and a sense of control.
She raised her right hand, and without even needing to chant incantations, with just a thought.
A familiar dark green portal rapidly opened not far in front of her—this was her innate [Kimokado] ability.
But the subsequent operation was completely different. From the other end of the portal, a corpse, which seemed to have just been selected from a graveyard, was dragged out by an invisible force and fell to the cold, hard stone ground with a “thump!”
Then, Kazumi raised her hand again, her slender index finger precisely pointing at the corpse!
A surge of death energy, completely different from the previous pure energy impact, imbued with some bizarre rule-based power, shot like an invisible arrow into the corpse!
“Ugh…”
The originally dead and silent corpse seemed to be instantly infused with a large amount of corrupting gas, swelling and twisting violently at a visible speed! The skin was stretched so thin it was translucent and shiny, its limbs straightened unnaturally, and its chest cavity bulged like an imminent explosion!
The entire process was astonishingly fast!
The next moment—
“Boom!!!!”
A muffled but extremely powerful explosion suddenly rang out! Mutilated body parts, shattered bones, and foul-smelling blood and entrails splattered everywhere like a rainstorm! The powerful shockwave even caused the ground to tremble slightly!
“My Lord!”
Almost at the same instant the explosion occurred, a thick, crystal-clear wall of ice rose from the ground before Kazumi! This was Lei’s subconscious protective reaction upon sensing the burst of dangerous energy. The splashing filth and shockwave were all blocked by this instantly formed ice wall.
“It’s fine, Lei,” Kazumi’s voice remained calm, even with a hint of satisfaction. “I was just testing a newly acquired spell.”
She nodded to the Lich Governor, who looked like he was facing a great enemy, signaling him not to be so tense.
Then, she stepped forward, her figure lightly passing through the gradually dissipating ice wall, and carefully examined the results of the [Corpse Explosion] spell.
Where the corpse had been moments ago, the hard marble floor had been blasted into a considerable pit! Within a radius of several meters, there were scattered scorched and fragmented bone and flesh, as well as splattered dark red bloodstains. The air was filled with a nauseating, burnt, and foul smell, and faint wisps of dark green toxic gas could even be seen slowly dissipating.
“As expected of a war spell…” Kazumi nodded with satisfaction. The power of [Corpse Explosion] far exceeded her expectations. Not only was the explosive force considerable, but it also clearly had strong corrosive and toxic effects. Such area-of-effect instant kill spells would definitely have a terrifying effect of instantly changing the local battlefield situation.
After experimenting with the first spell, Kazumi didn’t pause at all and immediately began to try the second one.
She raised her hand again, and a rule-based energy fluctuation, similar but slightly different from the one that detonated the corpse earlier, was transmitted towards the messy center of the explosion.
*Hum…*
A strange thing happened. The scattered minced meat and remains seemed to be summoned, trembling slightly. Even more astonishingly, from beneath the soil at the bottom and around the pit blasted open by the explosion, came a dense, teeth-grinding “crackling” sound!
The next second!
*Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!*
Pale, yet remarkably sturdy and thick skeletal arms, suddenly broke through the soil and emerged from underground! These arms had strange shapes, not the standard five fingers of humans, but more twisted, like multi-jointed bone claws designed for grasping and restraining!
Immediately afterward, dozens of uniquely shaped skeleton soldiers struggled to climb out of the ground! They were pale white all over, and their bones were visibly thicker than ordinary skeleton soldiers. Most conspicuously, each of them possessed three or even four pairs of these strange bone arms!
These newly born “Bone Guard Sentinels,” upon emerging from the ground, without any hesitation, swarmed towards the target area designated by the spell!
They interlaced their multiple pairs of exceptionally flexible bone arms, hooking and piecing them together tightly. In mere moments, they formed a dense, impenetrable cage constructed of pale bones, completely sealing and restraining that area!
The entire cage exuded a cold death aura and powerful restraint force, as if once imprisoned within, escape would be extremely difficult.
“Mmm, very good,” Kazumi said to herself, looking at the rapidly forming bone cage. “A high-damage area-of-effect Corpse Explosion, and a powerful single-target control spell, the Bone Cage. Both are very practical.”
She reined in the fluctuating death energy around her body, feeling very satisfied with the effects of these two newly acquired spells.
She turned to Lei, who was standing by quietly waiting, and Lei seemed to be waiting for her next instruction. Seeing that Kazumi had no intention of continuing spell experiments, the waiting undead servants immediately sprang into action, bringing along a few ghoul laborers to quickly clean up the mess on the ground. Following closely behind were repair teams pushing stone carts and carrying tools, which skillfully began to fill the pit that had been blasted open and repair the damaged ground with astonishing efficiency.
“Lei,” Kazumi called out.
The Lich Governor immediately bowed slightly, indicating that he was listening.
“You’ve done very well,” her tone carried clear praise. “This magic book, I’m very satisfied with it.”
“Everything for the Lord’s might!” The soul fire within Lei’s bones vibrated intensely again due to the high praise, emitting waves of joyous and excited mental fluctuations. For Lei, who was absolutely loyal to Kazumi, receiving such direct affirmation from his Lord multiple times in a day was the ultimate glory. At this moment, even if Kazumi ordered him to self-destruct, he would probably do so without hesitation.
“Mmm… Keep it up. You can go busy yourself with your own matters. I’ll take a look around myself.” Kazumi waved her hand, not bothering to appease the excessively excited Governor, and indicated that he could leave.
Then, without waiting for Lei’s response, the dark green light beneath her feet suddenly flickered!
The next moment, her figure vanished from beside the Dark Altar and instantly appeared in the sky above Hades City!
The sound of rushing wind instantly filled her ears, and the cold air brushed against her cheeks. Below, Hades City rapidly shrank, becoming as exquisite as a model. She could clearly overlook the entire city’s layout: the towering Great Graveyard at the center, the orderly streets, the district divisions, parks, newly cultivated agricultural zones, and the majestic city walls and the huge Ghost Gate. Her gaze continued to extend, and she could see the vast, silent Ghoul Wasteland outside the city, the lake shimmering with a dark green glow, and the adjacent graveyard hill.
The places she cared most about had been inspected. At this moment, she simply wanted to admire her creation from this vantage point, a world of death that she had built with her own hands and was rapidly developing under Lei’s management.
Her body began to freefall, the wind whistling past her ears.
However, just as the effect of her previous [Kimokado] teleportation ended, and her body began to accelerate downward under gravity—
“ROAR—”
A heaven-shattering roar erupted from behind the Great Graveyard like thunder! This roar contained endless deathly majesty and power, instantly overpowering all other sounds in Hades City!
Following this, a colossal shadow soared upward at an astonishing speed. Just its spread wings seemed to obscure half of Hades City’s sky!
It was the Composite Dragon Beast! Its massive body, pieced together from countless purple-black bones, exuded oppressive power. The pained, screaming human face runes on its spine flickered with a ghostly light, and its empty eye sockets burned with an overwhelming, dark blue soul fire. Each beat of its enormous bone wings stirred up a hurricane that tore at the air.
It accurately predicted Kazumi’s landing spot. Its huge head tilted upwards sharply and, with a gentleness and precision completely incongruous with its massive size, it perfectly caught the falling Kazumi.
The girl landed lightly on the dragon beast’s hard skull, covered in sharp bone spurs. The strong wind whipped her short hair wildly, and her clothes flapped noisily, yet she stood as steady as a mountain.
The Composite Dragon Beast let out another long, satisfied dragon roar, as if immensely honored to carry its creator and master. Then, with a powerful beat of its huge bone wings, it soared into the sky, carrying Kazumi on its back, transforming into a shadow of death towards the grey, misty heavens of the territory!
