Dark Wizard: Rise! My undead army!

Carl seemed unfazed by Lynn's coldness. He glanced back at the square with lingering fear, then turned back, his voice still trembling with apprehension:

"That was really dangerous! If you hadn't lured away most of the zombies, my 'Mutual Aid Society' would probably..."

He shook his head, not finishing his sentence, but the meaning was clear.

"Thank you, Lynn."

His words of gratitude were truly heartfelt.

"It's nothing, it's just a matter of each person having their own skills."

Lynn gave a brief reply, then looked at Thomas, clearly not wanting to be polite with Carl.

The next round is a one-on-one fight against a zombie. It's uncertain whether Karl can survive it, so why waste his breath?

Thomas gently tapped the rotating bone wheel of his modified zombie with the handle of his warhammer, and strands of wrapped flesh fell out.

This flesh and blood needs to be cleaned up promptly, otherwise, if it accumulates too much, it will affect the rotation speed.

Seeing Lynn looking over, he quickly stopped what he was doing and said with shining eyes:

"Lynn, that guy you were wielding with a hammer and a shield was really cool! He was practically a work of art!"

"Combined with my 'Necromancer's Forging Technique,' it's a match made in heaven! How about it? Give me two days to study it after the assessment, and I'll give you a free 'enhancement'!"

Lynn shook her head, declining Thomas's offer.

"Never mind, I don't plan to modify it anytime soon. I'll come to you if I need to in the future."

After finishing speaking, Lynn turned and left, not giving the two a chance to reminisce.

He doesn't intend to modify the "Bonebreaker" right now, at least not Thomas.

That was just an excuse.

The Bonebreaker has extremely high bone density, making it much stronger and more defensive than other undead, and it is also much heavier.

Adding a small amount of ordinary metal would not make much difference, and metal is also difficult to integrate into such high bone density.

His biggest weakness is speed. If metal were added to his skeleton, he would probably become even more cumbersome and only be a stationary target.

This would be counterproductive; what good is having high attack and defense if you can't hit the enemy?

Unless there are ways to increase speed or agility in the future, it might be worth trying to modify it.

Otherwise, with an apprentice-level modification ability, it would probably be less effective than the "Bonebreaker" growing on its own, and would instead diminish its potential.

Thomas was quite disappointed to see Lynn refuse.

What great material! It's a waste to follow Lynn!

...

He packaged up the out-of-control undead he had "captured" and sold them to a stall that offered a reasonable price, freeing up space in the undead ring.

They're all ordinary undead, level 0 or 1, not worth wasting time selling.

The stall owner was overjoyed, as many apprentices had lost their undead spirits in this level due to combat or loss of control, and they needed to be replenished.

These undead are in high demand nowadays, and they can all be sold at a premium in no time, making a small profit.

Unfortunately, he made some miscalculations.

The apprentices did indeed need to replenish their undead, but in order to get through these "three life-or-death trials," they all desperately improved and armed themselves, basically exhausting all their resources.

At this moment, most of the apprentices were penniless and could only look at plums to quench their thirst.

Some apprentices even took out all their equipment and potions, hoping to exchange them for an undead.

This left the stall owner feeling quite helpless.

Well, the more we sell, the more products we have!

...

Two hourglasses later, the surviving apprentices gathered again at the Bone Square.

The square had been completely transformed. All the corpses and obstacles from the previous round had vanished without a trace, and the ground was as smooth as ever, with only a cold luster.

Instead, there are hundreds of neatly arranged individual cages surrounded by black bars.

In each cage was a living corpse that kept banging against the bars and howling.

The instructor, riding a chimera, hovered in the air, his voice still icy:

"Round 2, one-on-one battle."

"Everyone chooses their own cage. Once inside, the fence closes. Killing or completely controlling the zombies inside is the way to pass."

"The time limit is one hour of sand in an hourglass. Now, begin!"

As soon as he finished speaking, the apprentices rushed towards the cages without hesitation.

It's not that they're in a hurry to die, but these zombies also vary in strength. If they're lucky enough to choose a weak one, their chances of passing the test will greatly increase.

The apprentices frantically scanned the surrounding cages, comparing the strength of the zombies, and scrambling for those that looked weak.

"This old man is hunched over; he must be moving very slowly!"

"This woman is petite; she definitely can't withstand my voluptuous figure! Don't even try to take her from me!"

"Hey! There's a guy over there missing an arm! He's mine!"

"And there's a child... no, that baby zombie! Don't take it! It's mine!"

...

Carl struggled to push his way through the crowd, no longer caring about the other members of the "mutual aid society".

Since it's a separate test, I can only rely on myself.

He was lucky; thanks to his relatively agile physique, he managed to rush ahead of the cage containing the infant zombie.

The zombie was only a little over half a meter tall, with grayish skin. It was curled up in a corner, sucking its fingers, and looked to be the least threatening.

"Haha! This is truly a stroke of luck!"

Karl was overjoyed, a relieved smile spreading across his face.

I am simply the chosen one!

With such luck, I'm sure I'll have a place among the future official wizards!

He eagerly stepped into the cage, and the energy barrier closed silently behind him.

Carl had been preoccupied with the issues of the "mutual aid society" and had not been able to unite its core members.

He was wearing a full set of simple bone armor, gripping a bone shield in one hand and drawing a bone sword in the other, ready to fight the zombie with his speed.

He couldn't handle ordinary zombies, but this baby... could it possibly fly to the heavens?

I only need to make a slight move to...

Holy crap! This little brat is so fast!!

The moment Karl stepped into the cage, the infant zombie in the corner seemed to be startled, slowly raising its head to reveal a rather sinister face.

The finger that had been sucking was pulled out of the mouth; the flesh and blood on the fingertip had been completely sucked clean, revealing the pale finger bone.

The next moment, it landed on all fours and darted out like a gray lightning bolt with a terrifying speed that surpassed that of ordinary zombies!

The gray figure instantly circled to the side, its sharp nails slicing towards Karl's back of the knee!

"What the hell is that?!"

Karl was shocked and hurriedly raised his shield to turn around, but the heavy bone armor severely hampered his agility.

The bone shield missed its mark, and the infant zombie was launched to the other side, biting at his sword-wielding wrist!

"Damn it, get out of my way!"

Karl swung his sword, but the infant zombie's agility was absurd, and it easily dodged the attack.

The fingernails left a harsh scraping sound on his nails before disappearing again from his blind spot.

Karl's heart sank.

Oh no, I chose an "abnormal species"!