Rune Evolution

Chapter 97 Rune Evolution

Ancient Su City.

Bai Qijia.

A secret realm.

A dozen or so skeleton soldiers stood in a neat row, motionless, with only the flickering flames of their souls in their eye sockets proving they were not statues.

"No wonder the Federation attaches more importance to the undead calamity than other disasters; the suppression effect of high-level undead on low-level undead is really excessive."

Seeing the skeleton soldiers, who were as docile as little rabbits under the Alpha Deterrence skill, Bai Qi finally understood the distinct class differences among undead creatures.

"Fortunately, Alpha mastered deterrence before fighting Zhang Kai, otherwise it might not have been a match for that Dead Ape."

Bai Qi was somewhat relieved. He then put on his rune glasses, took his rune carving knife, and walked toward the first skeleton soldier.

"Shuke, you're in charge of compiling the experimental data. Alpha, remember to keep these guys under control."

On the day he returned to Gusu City, Chairman Qin sent him fifteen skeleton soldiers, letting Bai Qi experiment with them. Bai Qi was happy to have free test subjects and accepted them all without hesitation.

"Then, let's try the first set of runes."

Bai Qi pushed up his glasses, picked up a carving knife, and began carving on the body of a skeleton soldier.

Compared to the Crimson Iron, the skeleton soldiers' bones were significantly weaker, and Bai Qi felt almost no resistance.

However, Bai Qi also noticed that when he was carving with the carving knife, his spiritual power unconsciously flowed into the runes along the carving knife.

"Besides the energy of pets, can the mental energy of beast tamers also be used as an energy source?"

Bai Qi had a vague guess, but because of this distraction, he moved his hands a little too roughly, and the runes that had already been drawn to a certain extent were completely ruined.

Indeed, carving runes is a delicate task; only someone as single-minded as Alpha could spend an entire day carving them.

Bai Qi let out a breath and calmed down to start carving again.

This time there were no problems, and a brand new rune quickly took shape in Bai Qi's hands.

"Yes, yes, it flows smoothly, it has the style of a master."

Looking at his first piece of work, Bai Qi nodded in satisfaction.

"Universal Rune: Hardening, Similarity: 67%, Beastmaster, you still need to work harder."

Just as Bai Qi was feeling smug, Shu Ke's cold electronic voice suddenly rang out, pulling Bai Qi back to reality.

"Tsk... That's the downside of mechanical life forms, they're not very sensible."

Bai Qi smacked his lips, gave Shuke a disdainful look, then looked at Alpha and said, "Alpha, let it guide the energy to activate the runes."

Crackling.

(OK.)

Alpha nodded, walked up to the skeleton soldier, and a flash of soul fire appeared in his eye sockets. The skeleton soldier shook its head, looked at the runes on its arm with some confusion, and then made no further move.

Crackling.

(Master, it doesn't seem to understand your commands.)

Bai Qi remained silent upon hearing this. The intelligence of these skeleton soldiers was far too low. They didn't even know how to guide energy.

Looking at it this way, Alpha is quite clever.

She's just a bit quiet most of the time.

"Fine, Alpha, you can activate it for it."

Bai Qi sighed helplessly and walked aside to let Alpha take over the activation.

Alpha nodded, grabbed the skeleton soldier's arm, and carefully injected a wisp of energy. The hardening runes immediately lit up, and a faint light slowly enveloped the skeleton soldier's arm.

This is almost exactly the same as the hardening skill of pets.

"Shuke, test the hardening effect and record the duration."

Bai Qi had Alpha disconnect its energy supply and then had Shuke step forward. After some tapping and banging, Shuke quickly gave a response.

"It's basically similar to the Hardening skill, but much weaker. If a Beastmaster can achieve 100% similarity, it should be able to reach the level of beginner proficiency."

Is it just the beginning and still in the proficiency stage?

Bai Qi couldn't help but feel a little disappointed. Hardening is a common skill that many pets can master through training. If it only has the effect of beginner proficiency, then it's a bit useless.

"Well, at least it proves that runes can be widely used on skeletal creatures."

Bai Qi comforted himself for a moment, and then began to try the second rune.

This time, to avoid a repeat of the previous embarrassing situation, Bai Qi practiced writing on the wooden board several times beforehand, and only began to write after confirming that there were no problems.

"Shadow Rune: Concealment, 89% similarity, extremely high similarity, congratulations Beastmaster."

Hearing Shuke's praise, Bai Qi nodded in satisfaction, then gestured for Alpha to come forward and activate it.

boom!

The moment Alpha infused its energy into the stealth rune, the skeleton soldier's bones immediately cracked and then exploded into countless fragments.

Crackling.

(Boss, I'm sorry, I didn't mean to.)

Seeing the skeleton soldier explode in his hand, Alpha immediately lowered his head and apologized to Bai Qi with some grievance.

"It's nothing, the problem must be somewhere else."

Alpha's energy control is quite precise, and it won't have excessive energy levels. The problem must lie with the runes.

Bai Qi patted Alpha's head, pondered for a moment while looking at the fragments scattered on the ground, then went to another skeleton soldier and carved another concealment rune on it.

"Alpha, try again."

Alpha nodded and carefully channeled energy into the skeleton.

This time, the skeleton did not explode; its form slowly merged with the surrounding shadows.

If it's not a problem with the rune's properties, then it must be a problem with the number of runes.

Bai Qi took out his carving knife and engraved hardening runes on the second skeleton again, then activated Alpha.

Sure enough, the skeleton soldier was blown to pieces.

"Can it only withstand one rune? No, it should be that it can only withstand one rune at a time, and it should also be related to the level."

Alpha had already used multiple runes in actual combat, and in the battle against the Ancient Mountain, it even had four bone cages covered with explosive runes. If it were just a simple quantity restriction, Alpha would have exploded long ago.

However, this means that Alpha will need to be more careful when using runes in the future.

Thinking of this, Bai Qi summoned two more skeleton soldiers to try again. The result was as he expected: the skeleton soldiers could only withstand one type of rune. If they encountered more than one, it would cause them unbearable damage.

However, increasing growth level and bloodline level should increase the amount that can be endured, and Alpha is the best proof of this.

"We've finally made some discoveries, but the energy expenditure is quite high."

Four skeleton soldiers were worn out in just over ten minutes, and Bai Qi seriously doubted that these skeleton soldiers would last until he had lunch.

"Let's try runes with other attributes first to see if they work."

Looking at the remaining eleven skeleton soldiers, Bai Qi temporarily put aside his experiment with shadow runes and began to turn to runes of other attributes.

"Let's try ice-attribute runes first."

Bai Qi selected from the runes provided by the Rune Cube and finally chose a relatively simple ice-type rune: Low Temperature.

Bai Qi tried this rune; it can lower the temperature within a certain range, but as for its effect, it's barely enough to function as an air conditioner.

After carving several runes in succession, Bai Qi clearly got the hang of it, and his carving speed and quality improved significantly. He quickly carved ice runes on various parts of the skeleton soldier.

"Alpha, let's see what the skeleton soldiers' maximum tolerance is this time."

Alpha nodded, and the azure ice energy spread from his fingers to the skeleton soldier, illuminating the first rune, then the second, the third...

Soon, the runes all over the skeleton soldier's body lit up, and a chill began to emanate from the otherwise unremarkable skeleton soldier.

Become!

Seeing that the skeleton soldiers had successfully demonstrated their ice-attribute abilities, Bai Qi nodded in satisfaction.

He had initially worried that the skeleton soldiers wouldn't be able to activate the ice runes because they didn't have ice-type abilities like Alpha, but now it seems he was overthinking it.

Crackling.

(Master, this skeleton soldier seems to be actively absorbing my energy. Should I stop it?)

Just as Bai Qi was about to try out higher-level ice runes, Alpha suddenly sent him a message.

"Actively absorbs your energy? This thing can even backfire?"

Bai Qi frowned slightly, just about to have Alpha stop supplying energy, when Shuk suddenly spoke up to stop him.

"The skeleton soldiers' energy circulation is very stable, and it seems to be undergoing some kind of change. I suggest that you, Beastmaster, observe it for a while."

Shuke scanned the skeleton soldier with his mental energy and immediately grasped its condition. He then projected a graph of the skeleton soldier's energy level changes into the air.

"My equipment is still too rudimentary and cannot monitor more detailed data. I suggest that the Beastmaster hurry up and purchase materials. I need to upgrade it properly."

"Oh……"

Bai Qi nodded somewhat blankly, a sudden pang of unease settling in his heart.

Who exactly is the beast tamer...?

Soon, the skeleton stopped absorbing Alpha energy, and a blue-ice energy slowly seeped out from the runes, gradually covering the skeleton's entire body, while the temperature around the skeleton rapidly dropped.

If it was just the refrigerator's fresh food compartment before, it should now be the freezer compartment.

Click.

The frost dissipated, revealing the skeleton soldiers, but their bodies were no longer the ghastly white they had been; instead, they had turned a pale blue, and the runes that had been carved on them had all disappeared.

Looking at the skeleton soldiers in front of him who were constantly breathing out cold air, Bai Qi was somewhat surprised. Shu Ke also provided the current data of the skeleton soldiers at the right time.

[Name]: Ice Bone

[Attribute]: Ice, Undead

[Bloodline Level]: Medium Servant

[Description]: Undead born from frost, whose attacks are imbued with freezing power.

"Is this... evolution?"

Upon seeing the data provided by Shuke, Bai Qi couldn't help but exclaim in surprise.

Runes can actually promote the evolution of skeleton soldiers?

(End of this chapter)