Chapter 277 Advancing to Archmage Necromancer

The eastern section of Ossen city was where the business organizations had gathered and associations were established. Aside from all kinds of shops, the Magic Association, the Swordsman Association, the Archer Association, the Thief Association, and the Mercenary Association were all located in the eastern part of the city.

These large and small guilds were extremely influential and spanned the entire Profound Continent. They were in every single country and acted as accredited organizations for all professions. As long as any mage or swordsman was accredited by the association, they would be able to receive an appropriate rank that was recognized by any country in the Profound Continent.

The Magic Association’s building resembled a tall tower. From afar, it looked like a magic citadel. Unlike the Swordsman Association and Mercenary Association buildings, its entrance was not filled with endless people. Instead, very few people entered, causing the Magic Association’s entrance to appear rather deserted.

Mages were the most mysterious group of people on the Profound Continent. In terms of numbers, they were naturally incapable of comparing with the vast number of swordsmen and knights. That was why there appeared to be so few mages that came to the Magic Association to be tested.

Since Phoebe was too tired right now and had yet to wake up, Han Shuo arrived at the Magic Association by himself after he had properly put her on her bed after daylight broke. Right now, Han Shuo had the mental strength of a grand magus, but was still an adept mage in name. Furthermore, Han Shuo had fully assimilated Clarendon’s soul and could now proficiently use all the necromancy spells the latter had known after several days of endless practice inside the cemetery of death.

However, aside from the magic abilities that Clarendon possessed, he’d also gained knowledge of two new spells, “Plague” and “Soul Shock”, from the book titled “Necromancy Magic” that he had found inside the Cemetery of Death. “Plague” was similar to “Corpse Reanimation”. It was one of the most notorious, as well as the feared, large-scale killing magics. The spell “Plague” was one of the greatest contributors to the reason necromancers were so feared.

“Plague” was a purely destructive magic. The scale of this magic wasn’t large, but its true terror lay in its ability to spread quickly. As long as one person was affected by “Plague” within a town or city, unless they were immediately burnt to death and buried, the spell would follow the person wherever they went, infecting more and more people and cause them to die as their bodies rotted away.

As long as the affected village, city, or even an empire did not quickly deal with it, the place would devolve until it became a hellhole. If coupled with the spell “Corpse Reanimation”, an archmage necromancer would be able to reanimate all of those people who’d succumbed to “Plague”, creating a terrifying zombie army out of nowhere.

Han Shuo did not plan to practice “Plague” yet, since this spell was truly too terrifying. Once “Plague” was casted, even Han Shuo himself would find it hard to control the devastation that would ensue. This sort of pure destructive magic was a nightmare for any country. If he were to cast such a spell, it was only a matter of time before he’d become the public enemy of the entire continent if he were to cast such a spell, so he decided not to practice it after careful consideration.

“Soul Shock” was a spell that directly affected the soul. Archmage necromancers had a higher understanding of the soul, and could use their own mental strength to attack the opponent’s soul as a kind of surprise attack.

Normally, a mage’s mental strength was far stronger than that of a swordsman or a knight. In the face of this sort of direct attack against the soul, mages were still able to defend a bit with their mental strength, but swordsmen and knights would be at a huge disadvantage.

Han Shuo was currently practicing “Soul Shock”, but since Clarendon’s memories did not have any experience in using this spell, it was impossible for him to quickly grasp it. Spells of the archmagus level were far deeper and difficult to understand than spells of the previous levels. Even if one knew the incantation, it was still very difficult to cast it correctly. Only when their recognition and understanding of the soul reached a very high level would they be able to cast it successfully. Although Han Shuo had yet to reach this realm, it would not be able to stop him from advancing to the archmage level.

“Excuse me, did you come to advance your level?” Seeing Han Shuo walk into the Magic Association, a young woman, wearing a sky blue one-piece, asked with a smile.

Han Shuo nodded, and replied with a smile as well, “That’s right, I plan on advancing to a necromancer archmage, so where should I start?”

“First, you need to provide proof that you are indeed an adept mage. Then you have to pay a thousand gold coins as a testing fee. Regardless of whether you succeed or not, this fee will not be refunded. Do you accept?” This girl replied politely with a kind smile, while looking at Han Shuo with a bit of shock. There were not many mages that practiced necromancy. It surprised her that such a young man had the confidence to advance to the rank of archmage.

A thousand gold coins. It seems that this Magic Association is very profitable! Han Shuo momentarily blanked, then asked directly, “No problem, when can we start?”

“Give me your certificate and the gold coins, I’ll only be able to tell you after going upstairs and checking!” The young woman replied, her smile an almost permanent fixture on her face.

Han Shuo handed over his graduation certificate from the Babylon Academy of Magic and Force, as well as two bags of gold coins to the girl. After a glance at Han Shuo’s proof, her expression became very odd, and looked at Han Shuo as if she’d seen a monster before quickly saying, “Wait a moment, I’ll be right back!”

The moment she finished speaking, the girl hiked up her skirt a little, then ran up the magic tower. Her expression was extremely strange, causing Han Shuo to be a bit surprised.

There were five floors in the Magic Association in total, with large-scale boundaries on every floor. There was dense magical essence within the boundaries. Although Han Shuo felt a bit confused by the girl’s actions, he didn’t release a yin demon to go and pry due to the existence of those magical boundaries.

After a while, a kind-looking old man with white hair hurried down the stairs. From the magical symbol on his chest, Han Shuo could tell that he was an earth grand magus. There were also a few mages behind the old man, two water archmages, two thunder archmages, and four adept mages.

“I am Ares Hosein, the person in charge of the Magic Association in Lancelot Empire. I’m in charge of the advancement exams for mages in Lancelot Empire. Are you planning to advance to the rank of necromancy archmage?” The old man walked over with Han Shuo’s certificate and looked at him with glittering eyes, as if he was a bit surprised.

Han Shuo nodded and said with certainty, “That’s right, are there any problems?”

“No-no problems at all!” Ares quickly said and looked at Han Shuo’s certificate. “You advanced from a mage apprentice into an adept mage in less than two years. This-This is practically a miracle! Especially since you practice necromancy. If it weren’t for that fact that I’m familiar with your dean, Emma, and recognize that she created this certificate, I would definitely think that you had faked it.”

So that was the case! Han Shuo thought with surprise. Then he smiled, “Then, can I start?”

“Of course, of course. Our test is different from your academy’s. We only need to test your precise mental strength. You just need to release the strongest magic you are capable of unleashing in order for us to determine if you’ve passed or not,” Ares’s attitude was surprisingly good. He said amiably, “Come with me to the second floor, we’ll be conducting the test there.”

There was a blue boundary in the middle of the second floor, while the hard wall was engraved with all sorts of magic symbols. After arriving at the second floor, Ares took out a magic stone used to test mental strength and handed it to Han Shuo, “Pour your mental powers into it. We can use the data from it to confirm whether your mental strength surpasses the criteria.”

As Han Shuo slowly infused mental strength into the magic stone, it began to glow. When Han Shuo noticed that Ares was revealing a satisfied expression, he stopped infusing mental strength in order to not pass the archmage mental strength test in a surprising manner.

“Not bad, your mental strength has indeed reached the level of an archmage. Next, please stand inside the boundary and cast one of the strongest spells you know. We can determine through the spell whether you have truly reached the level of an archmage!’ Ares’ attitude towards Han Shuo was extremely good as he pointed towards the boundary.

With the level of development of Han Shuo’s brain, his speed in gathering and releasing mental strength was ten times that of normal mages. Last time at the Babylon Academy of Magic and Forces testing, Han Shuo had understood that when other people tested their mental strength, the magic stone would glow slowly. But because Han Shuo’s brain differed from normal people’s, the speed at which he gathered mental strength was extremely quick. Thus, he could almost instantly force the magic stone to shine at its brightest luminosity.

However, during this test, Han Shuo intentionally released his mental strength slowly, and didn’t completely release his mental strength of a grand magus in order to avoid unnecessary trouble. Therefore, his passing wasn’t marked with any surprises.

“No need to stand in the boundary. Us necromancers don’t need to be that troublesome!” Han Shuo smiled lightly, then properly chanted out a necromancy spell. An evil knight in pitch black armor, riding a warhorse whose eyes spurted fire and carrying a huge bone stick appeared on the ground out of nowhere.

It was a publicly acknowledged fact that evil knights could only be summoned by archmage necromancers. When Han Shuo’s evil knight appeared, it basically proved his level as an archmage. This was even more convincing than other powerful spells.

“God, you actually became an archmage from a magic apprentice in less than two years. This is too unbelievable! Oh yes, why did Dean Emma allow you to leave the Babylon Academy of Magic and Force? Her necromancy major shouldn’t have an archmage necromancer yet. She should’ve tried hard to keep you,” The moment Ares saw the evil knight appear, he knew that there was no need to say anything more. Han Shuo truly did possess the power of a necromancy archmage.

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