Undead Mage: I Have a Skeleton Clone-Chapter 497 - 359: Mutant Summoning, Undead Creatures Atlas

Fang Zhou watched from the side, his heart surging with emotion and a smile tugging at the corners of his mouth.

He sat on the living room sofa with a smile and started a game of *Demon Extermination Total War*. Only then did a blushing Su Xinyan lower her head and quietly slip into the bathroom.

A short while later, she emerged, having washed up and changed into clean, tidy clothes. She sat primly before Fang Zhou, her fair face tinged with pink, looking particularly captivating.

"So, were you able to solidify your talent skill?"

Fang Zhou nodded calmly. "I was fortunate to succeed. I solidified the ’Summon Undead Creatures’ skill."

Upon hearing this, Su Xinyan’s brow furrowed slightly, a puzzled expression on her face. "’Summon Undead Creatures’? Isn’t that just ’Summon Skeleton’?"

There was a hint of confusion in her words, but she quickly seemed to realize something. "Could it be," she exclaimed in surprise, "that your ’Summon Skeleton’ skill underwent a beneficial mutation when you solidified it as your talent?"

Fang Zhou nodded, a hint of uncertainty in his eyes. "It seems so. I feel there’s immense potential to be unlocked within the solidified ’Summon Undead Creatures’ skill in my mana core. Skeletons are just one small part of it. I’ve already redeemed the Black Iron skills ’Summoned Skeleton Warrior’ and ’Summon Zombie’ to see if they can benefit from my solidified talent."

Su Xinyan replied, "That shouldn’t be a problem. Do you know how we Undead Mages came to summon our various types of undead creatures?"

Fang Zhou shook his head. "I’m not too clear on that. The Profession materials I’ve reviewed didn’t explain it."

Su Xinyan stood up and began pacing, as if recalling some important knowledge. "In truth, the upper limit of an Undead Mage’s power is determined by our most powerful practitioner. Currently, the strongest is Master Sandro, a Golden Upper Rank mage. Therefore, the highest-level undead we can summon are only Gold-rank. The variety of undead creatures that we can master into mature, reliable skills is actually quite small."

Her tone was tinged with regret as she continued, "We start with the Apprentice-level ’Summon Skeleton.’ At the Black Iron level, we get ’Summoned Skeleton Warrior’ and ’Summon Zombie.’ At Bronze, it’s ’Summon Ghoul’ and ’Summon Ghost.’ Next is the Silver level with ’Summon Wailing Resentful Spirit’ and ’Summon Vampire.’ Finally, at the Gold level, we have ’Summon Vampire Noble’ and ’Summon Corpse Witch.’

"In total, we can only reliably summon creatures from a few categories: the Skeleton series, the Zombie series, the Ghost series, the Vampire series, and the still-developing Corpse Witch series. Human Undead Mages perceive these creature types during meditation by establishing a mysterious link with the Undead Realm. We then deduce the relevant summoning skills based on this connection, and the very act of creating these skills deepens our link in return.

"Furthermore, when we explored the ruins of the Naraku Civilization, we found records confirming this. Their mainstream summoned undead were the same types we are familiar with today. This might mean that some inherent rule within the Undead Realm dictates that the vast majority of its inhabitants exist along these classifications.

"It is precisely because of this rule that we Undead Mages can deduce specific summoning skills for creatures like Skeletons, Skeleton Warriors, and Zombies. However, besides these mainstream types, we sometimes summon rare, mutated undead. But their appearances are always sporadic and never form a coherent system."

A light flashed in Su Xinyan’s eyes. "For example, after being inspired by you, I once managed to summon a Gold-level Stone Golem. It’s a massive and extremely powerful undead creature, with combat strength far exceeding an ordinary Vampire Noble—it can even rival a Gold-level Corpse Witch. However, my connection to the Undead Realm isn’t strong enough to guarantee I can summon a Stone Golem every time."

Here, Su Xinyan looked up and stared at Fang Zhou, her expression solemn and earnest. "Do you understand now? Your solidified talent is ’Summon Undead Creatures,’ not merely ’Summon Skeleton’ or ’Summoned Skeleton Warrior.’ This is an extremely rare phenomenon.

"Before now, both Master Sandro and I have tried to integrate the different tiers of summoning skills into a single, more universal ’Summon Undead Creatures’ skill. However, the mana fluctuations and summoning frequencies for each creature are vastly different, so we could never achieve this. It’s impossible to build different Summoning Arrays from the same spell model.

"But based on your talent, I believe you have a genuine chance to achieve the dream that has eluded every Undead Mage before you."

Fang Zhou’s heart stirred at her words, his mind immediately flashing to the mutated undead he had encountered and hunted in battle.

The Beheading Giant Sword Skeleton Warrior, Tidamia, a formidable figure swinging its massive sword; the Skeleton Divine Archer, Verus, with its incomparably accurate arrows; the Skeleton Warrior, Sain, with his solid tower shield and unbreakable defensive stance; the Double-bladed Skeleton Warrior, Yongen, with his lightning-fast attacks; and all those Giant Zombies, Zombie Wolves, and Stiffened Spiders... Although they could be roughly categorized into the Skeleton and Zombie series, their combat power and internal energy intensity far surpassed ordinary undead of the same tier.

Su Xinyan’s words made him realize something. If he could summon these mutated undead onto the battlefields of Blue Star or the Mythical World, it would drastically enhance the direct combat strength of Undead Mages. Thinking of this, Fang Zhou couldn’t help but ask, "Instructor Xinyan, I’ve also sensed the soul fluctuations of some mutated undead during meditation. How can I turn them into my own summoned creatures?"

Su Xinyan sighed softly. "It is incredibly difficult. The prerequisite for a successful summoning is a deep understanding of the creature in question. The reason we can summon common undead like skeletons, zombies, and vampires with relative ease is due to the tireless efforts of our profession’s pioneers, combined with our repeated exposure to the soul fluctuations of these ordinary undead during daily meditation.

"Take the ’Summon Stone Golem’ skill I’ve been trying to deduce lately, for example. The success rate is low, and it isn’t a mature skill that can be widely taught. On one hand, it’s because I can only occasionally capture the soul fluctuations of a Stone Golem during meditation; I’m nowhere near as familiar with them as I am with Gold-tier creatures like Vampire Nobles or Corpse Witches.

"On the other hand, every Undead Mage captures different soul fluctuations during their meditation. Even if I perfected the ’Summon Stone Golem’ skill, I can only guarantee a high success rate for myself. If another Undead Mage—even the Golden Great Mage Sandro—were to use the skill I deduced, they wouldn’t necessarily be able to summon a Stone Golem." A hint of helplessness crept into her voice as she finished, "This particular challenge isn’t limited to the Undead Mage’s summoning skill tree. Other Summoning Professions face similar problems as well."