By now, over twenty skeletons had already been broken, and only three of them had survived the Liquid Fire.
But immediately afterward, during the second round, Lucia had stuffed some kind of strange crystal into their chests.
The ghostly blue flames in their chests and eye sockets instantly turned orange-red, and they were cleanly incinerated into piles of black ash by the fires raging within their own bodies.
And now, the skeletons around Li Xiuman were all gone, leaving him as the only skeleton left.
Damn it, I'm way too conspicuous.
Li Xiuman had been staring at the skeleton roasting session the entire time, failing to notice that the skeletons around him had all been taken.
He quietly turned his head, trying to blend in by aimlessly wandering toward an area with more skeletons.
If he could buy a bit more time and observe how the other skeletons fared in their roasting, he might stand a better chance of surviving.
But he had barely moved before two succubi clamped down on his shoulder blades from both sides.
Damn it, I can't move.
Suppressing his physical urge to struggle, Li Xiuman pretended to be brainless as he was dragged toward Lucia.
He absolutely could not reveal that he possessed intelligence. Otherwise, he would undoubtedly die.
Li Xiuman was forced down in front of Lucia. Looking at her from this close, she was indeed a top-tier beauty with an extremely smoking-hot figure. Her horns, tail, and bat wings only added a touch of exotic allure.
But at this moment, Li Xiuman didn't care how attractive this demon was.
He suppressed his trembling mind and prepared for the onslaught of fire.
Lucia glanced at Li Xiuman, not paying him much attention. To her, these skeletons possessed only basic instincts, no different from wild beasts or insects.
She pressed her right hand against his smooth skull, and then her voice sounded in his ears.
“Liquid Fire.”
Mana outlined a magic circle in her palm, and as more mana was continuously poured in, lava-like flames poured down and flowed over his skull.
Soon, it covered every inch of his entire skeletal frame, acting like a film of fire coating his bones.
This was the first time Li Xiuman had felt pain since becoming a skeleton.
The ghostly blue flames in his chest and eye sockets swayed and trembled violently.
An uncontrollable, bizarre sound came from his throat, like the grating of scraping bones.
“Clack, clack, clack...”
His bones were constantly charred, only to be healed over and over.
[Fire Resistance] greatly weakened the effects of Liquid Fire, allowing him to endure until the spell ran its course.
At this moment, his bones glowed with a faint red hue and steamed, looking like a piece of iron heated to the perfect temperature, ready to be forged.
“To think such a weak presence could actually survive Liquid Fire.”
Lucia studied Li Xiuman with a hint of surprise.
Then, two succubi hoisted him up again, though this time they used invisible hands formed of mana rather than their actual hands.
After all, the temperature of his bones right now was exceptionally high.
“I hope you can bring me another surprise.”
Lucia took out a crystal. Whether it was just Li Xiuman's imagination or not, this one seemed to be a size larger than the ones used on the previous three unlucky fellows.
Special treatment? A reward for excellence?
The crystal was shoved precisely into the ghostly blue flame inside his chest.
Instantly, the flame flared up and surged violently.
In an instant, the flames in his eye sockets were also dyed orange-red, and his entire body burned fiercely like a pile of ignited kindling.
It hurt like hell. Compared to this, the previous Liquid Fire felt like soaking in a hot spring.
“Crack, crack, crack!”
The sound of fracturing bones echoed continuously as cracks spread across his entire body, turning his whole skeletal frame a glowing red.
He was like a piece of over-fired porcelain in a kiln, on the verge of shattering to pieces at any second.
[Self-Healing Lv.1] tried desperately to regenerate his collapsing body, but its speed was just a drop in the bucket compared to the rate of destruction.
The only reason he had not disintegrated into dust by now was probably because [Resilience], [Hard Bone], and [Fire Resistance] were barely holding him together.
“So it still failed.”
Lucia showed a look of disappointment as she watched the skeletal frame collapse to the ground, engulfed in flames.
This demon had deliberately increased the dosage of the crystal she stuffed into his body.
She was inserting lethal doses of crystals based on how well each skeleton performed in the first round of Liquid Fire.
She had never intended for them to survive. Most likely, she just wanted to collect experimental data on their deaths.
Li Xiuman endured the agonizing pain, opening his status panel.
Even amidst the burning flames, the panel remained perfectly clear, completely unaffected.
“Free Stat Point, put it in Constitution!”
He still had one attribute point left over from his last level up, which he had been saving all this time just for a moment like this.
[Ding! Constitution +1]
Allocating points into Constitution could heal a certain amount of injuries.
Like a warm current rushing through his bone marrow, the spreading of the cracks finally ground to a halt.
Then, [Self-Healing] and his Constitution points took effect simultaneously, gradually sealing the cracks and resisting the burning flames.
Breaking, healing, breaking, healing.
A literal tug-of-war was playing out on his skeletal frame.
All the while, his bones let out agonizing clacks in pain.
It was not until the intensity of the flames gradually began to weaken that Li Xiuman felt a sense of liberation, as if he had just crawled out of hell.
[Ding! Constitution +1]
[Acquired skill: Fire Magic Lv.1]
[Unlocked Lv.10 Class Choice: Elementalist]
[Elementalist] A type of Mage who wields dangerous elemental magic, masters of destruction and ruin.
[Unlocked Evolution Path: Low-Tier Fire Skeleton]
[Low-Tier Fire Skeleton] A special variant of skeletons. Unique skeletons that have mastered the power of flame. Level cap: Lv.20.
The flames finally receded into his body, and the orange-red fire slowly returned to a ghostly blue.
Lucia's expression shifted from pleasant surprise to disappointment.
“Did the transformation still fail?”
“But to think it actually survived... what a lucky fellow.”
Lucia kicked Li Xiuman on the ground before looking back at the remaining skeletons.
“Next.”
Li Xiuman stood up shakily, continuing to wander around while pretending to be brainless.
However, a flash of orange-red flickered across the two ghostly blue flames in his eyes.
Fire Magic, acquired.
Resisting the urge to try out this legendary magic, Li Xiuman continued his aimless wandering.
Concealing himself, biding his time, and looking for opportunities.
He now had another trump card.
Out of all the skeletons, in the end, only Li Xiuman survived the experiment, yet even his transformation was deemed a failure.
None of this was outside Lucia's expectations. She had never expected to succeed in one go anyway.
She began scouting the canyon for a new batch of experimental skeletons.
Soon, the testing ground was filled with skeletons once again.
After this first round of experiments, Li Xiuman was certain of one thing: Lucia was not keeping a head count of the skeletons.
To Lucia, these mindless, instinct-driven test skeletons were no different from pigs.
She would not bother remembering how many pigs she had caught.
Within this batch of skeletons, Li Xiuman locked onto five targets: four Lv.5s and one Lv.6.
He waited until Lucia left again to collect more materials, leaving only a few low-tier succubi on guard. Then, Li Xiuman quietly slipped over to his first target.
He slammed his palm directly over the skeleton's face.
“Flame!”
Activating his Fire Magic, a ghostly blue flame that was barely noticeable in the dark night instantly engulfed the skeleton's head, burning furiously inside its skull.
With his other hand, he plunged deep into the skeleton's ribcage, grasping the soul fire within its chest to incinerate it.
[Ding! Slain Low-Tier Skeleton, EXP +50]
Li Xiuman carefully scanned his surroundings before detaching this skeleton's left leg, then detaching his own left leg, which possessed the [Fire Resistance] skill.
However, even after detaching his left leg, Li Xiuman realized that [Fire Resistance] had not vanished from his status panel.
Perhaps because he had endured the fierce, burning fire, he had permanently acquired [Fire Resistance] himself.
Aligning the new left leg with his hip joint, he activated [Bone Manipulation].
[Ding! Acquired skill: Quiet Steps Lv.1]
Even the faintest rustle of sound in the air vanished.
Next, Li Xiuman disassembled the remaining skeleton into various-sized bones, carefully wrapped them in flame, and slowly incinerated them into powder, scattering it across the ground.
By the time he had completely disposed of all the bones, Li Xiuman felt a wave of mental exhaustion wash over him.
“Is magic linked to my Mind stat...?”
Li Xiuman felt fortunate that his Mind stat was decent, and then he fell into a deep sleep.
Rate on N.U.
