Pillar of Yita

More precisely, the effect the ritual currently displays is absorbing the life force from the units killed by oneself, and converting it into one’s own magical power. However, Undead don’t actually possess life force, which left Fang Hong a bit at a loss on how to account for this; or could it be that what’s being absorbed is simply the literal meaning of ’life’—meaning, regardless of the target’s type, as long as the Summoners System deems it to be ’living,’ it can provide magical power?

In other words, no matter if it’s a Flexible Construct, Necromancy, or something else of the sort, he can absorb a certain amount of magical power through the power of the ritual after killing them, corresponding to dead objects like stones, tables, and buildings. But he still didn’t know how to classify trees, leaving Fang Hong completely baffled.

As thoughts flickered through his mind like lightning, he suddenly drew a Short Sword from the Sword Sheath of a nearby Xiangzi and slashed his own arm, causing beads of blood to seep out and almost crying out from the pain. The teenager beside him watched in bewilderment: ”What are you doing?”

”Conducting an experiment,” Fang Hong gritted his teeth and replied. He wanted to test if the so-called life force was actually Life Points, and whether it was necessary to absorb magical power from a deceased subject. But since the Undead only had a Structural Value and couldn’t be tested in this way, he had to test on himself, though, unfortunately, whether it was because the ritual didn’t affect oneself or for some other reason, not a bit of magical power was absorbed with the cut.

He couldn’t help but glance at the Xiangzi resting beside him, who promptly stepped back warily, exclaiming, ”What are you doing!?”

Fang Hong couldn’t help but sigh, thinking if he had known earlier, he should have acted directly; he was still a bit too soft-hearted.

Though the experiment declared a failure, unintended success followed, as Fang Hong quickly realized an unexpected and delightful occurrence on the battlefield. He noticed that ever since he started to absorb the ’life force’ from those disassembled Skeleton Frames and convert them into magical power, those ribs no longer rose again.

They laid lifelessly on the ground, as if they had truly become a pile of decayed bones.

The pervasive fog seemed to be dissipating ahead of time as well; in just a mere few minutes, the dense white mist began to thin, and Fang Hong even felt the surrounding temperature rising a few degrees, no longer bone-chilling as before.

This discovery was an unexpected joy; it was as though a pie had fallen from the sky. Who could have guessed that Asuka’s blessing would have this effect? It was naturally a bane to the Ancient Monarch Hunter, no, it should be said, a bane to all bosses of this kind.

It even included Summoners with the same abilities, making Fang Hong feel that he could now bear a shining title: Summoner’s Bane—at least, until the Sea of Light extinguished.

The others seemed to have noticed this too, as everyone glanced in Fang Hong’s direction. After the intermediate Crow’s Claw Guards surrounded them, everyone was under great pressure, and so no one spoke, only turning back to quietly quicken their pace in killing the Undead.

Since the BOSS’s power was restricted, it was naturally time to strike while the iron was hot—

On the other hand, having shed the hindrance of magic power, Fang Hong appeared much more at ease. The power output of a Flexible Construct came solely from the Core Crystal’s Magic Power Output, which in turn was replenished by the manipulator’s magical reserve—of course, any Main Core Crystal has an upper limit to its Magic Power Output, but it’s rare for any profession to reach this limit in combat.

The reason being, it’s too extravagant.

After all, everyone’s Magical Points are limited, depending on the Quality and Level of their Magic Guided Reactor, as well as the number of Magic Storage Crystal interfaces. But even a Combat Artisan couldn’t possibly fill every interface with Magic Storage Crystals.

Like Fang Hong’s two Walker III types, if he maxed out the Magic Power Output every time he exerted effort, not to mention the reduced lifespan of the Core Crystal, the manipulator’s own magical reserve would be unable to sustain prolonged combat.

Based on Fang Hong’s original magic reserve, it was sufficient to maintain full-power combat for no more than five minutes.

But now it was different; since his Ether Knowledge was the spider-web Law, its effect was to significantly boost the recovery rate whenever the Magical Points dropped below forty percent; and as with all other types of Ether Theory, this enhanced recovery rate affected not only the natural recovery but also compounded the benefits from other sources.

Thus, a bizarre scene occurred with two Walkers plunging into the sea of bones under his control, like tigers descending the mountain. With full-power unleashed, the ordinary Skeleton Warriors couldn’t stand in their way. As the speed of kills further increased, the resulting stream of benefits grew larger. The faster the magical power was used, the quicker it was replenished.

The baseline within the Magic Storage Crystals fluctuated between twenty and ten percent but stubbornly refused to bottom out.

With Walkers operating at full capacity, the Combat Strength increased by at least twenty percent, enough to stand against the Crow’s Claw Guards. Normally, Fang Hong would only occasionally push his limits during a fight to add Burst Strength, but who could afford to splurge like the present moment?

It felt as if he, accustomed to a frugal life, suddenly found himself with an endless supply of money, leaving him breathless from the thrill.

He simply activated the overload as well, since after all, the Emerald Bird αAE model belonged to the stable type of Magic Guided Reactors with a moderate overload but a long duration and not much damage to the Main Core Crystal. As for the state of the Walker III type’s Core Crystal, he couldn’t worry about that—this was a moment to fight with everything they had. Besides, the Main Core Crystal of a Flexible Construct wasn’t so fragile; at most, it might affect its maximum lifespan.