This necromancer is going to seduce the beautiful girls who are already dead.

"How can you be so sure that facing the Shadow Demon will loosen your muscles?" Larry was still arguing, but he also took action, picking up his staff and slowly walking out.

Davidz nodded slightly and headed towards the exit. To be honest, although he preferred to quietly study his magic, he was still happy to get up and move around when needed for battle, and also to test the feasibility of his newly developed moves.

These necromancers didn't see the unusual migration of the shadow demons as a problem; all they needed to do was eliminate them. Although shadow demons couldn't be killed outright—they would resurrect in another location after a while if killed in one—they didn't hold grudges. Such enemies were perfect practice tools for these skilled individuals.

After the three people in front of him left the room, the elven necromancer who had been sitting in the corner drinking a potion casually threw away an empty bottle, stood up, and said to a staff member behind him, "I'm going out too. You stay here. If I give you a signal, ask the other senior councilors for help."

"Master Gleinike, this... a request for assistance?" The staff member was startled. "Excuse me..."

"There are so many shadow demons heading this way this time..." The elven necromancer shook his head, his long ears twitching. "Strange..."

Chapter 295 The Encounter Between a Master and a Novice

When the four necromancers walked out of the exchange, they were all stunned by the sight before them.

"How...how can there be so many Shadow Demons?!" Bono, who was just full of fighting spirit, stared wide-eyed, unable to believe what he was seeing.

"My God... When I came out just now, I could tell that the footsteps covered a large area. How could so many Shadow Demons suddenly be rushing this way? Did they migrate ahead of schedule?" The elf Gleinike, who was the last to emerge, was also stunned and somewhat at a loss. "The number is just too large?"

"And they seem to be heading straight for us!" Larry's voice rose several octaves. "What's going on!? Is there something here that's attracting their attention!?"

"Does anyone have anything strange with them?" Davids frowned, looking at his colleagues.

“We’re necromancers, we have all sorts of strange things on us, how would we know what attracted their attention? Speaking of which, when you came here today, did you get targeted by some high-level shadow demons?” Bono said anxiously. “No, that’s not what we should be worrying about right now. These mindless monsters won’t stop running once they start. We need to think of a way quickly!”

"Stop them!" said the elf Gleinike. "I'll go find their leader!"

"Will killing the leader stop those shadow demons?" Larry wasn't very confident in the elf. He asked, "What if killing their leader still doesn't work?"

“Then let’s run!” Gleinike gritted his teeth. “At worst, we’ll get punished by the council. I haven’t studied these Shadow Demons either. These monsters from another world can’t be measured by common sense. Someone tried to use them for experiments before, but they didn’t get any results, did they? It’s said that under the same conditions, they can produce different results every time. I don’t know if there are any patterns to follow with these strange things.”

The necromancers exchanged glances and nodded. As high-ranking council members, choosing to flee when the exchange was in danger might result in punishment from the council of elders, but at most a fine—far better than losing their lives.

A bone spear appeared beneath Grennick's feet. Just as he was about to circle around to a safer spot to observe the movements of the shadow demons, his eyes suddenly caught sight of two unusual figures.

“Two people are approaching us.” Glein frowned in confusion. “Why are they coming from the same direction as the Shadow Demon?”

The two approaching figures were moving quite quickly, and soon they could see each other clearly. Before they even landed, they were already urgently shouting to the four necromancers, "It's bad! Shadow demons are attacking us! Run!"

The four necromancers were all somewhat bewildered by the scene before them.

The Shadow Demons are indeed here, but do you think we need to tell you that? A dark mass of them came rumbling towards us from behind. Do you think we're blind or stupid?

"Who are you!" Bono shouted. "Did you lure the Shadow Demon here?"

"It wasn't us! It wasn't us!" The two young necromancers, a man and a woman, descended from the sky to the ground. They appeared extremely flustered and even stumbled when they landed.

These two people were none other than Anita and Spin, whom Abyss and Sophia had disguised themselves as.

Sophia scrambled to her feet, saying frantically, "You're from the Council of the Dead too, right? Run! We just spotted a lot of Shadow Demons heading this way, and we were hoping to warn them if we ran into anyone. There are just too many of them! No one can possibly stop them!"

"Where are you from? Whose apprentices are you?" Davidz was also a skilled fighter, and he appeared somewhat arrogant when facing these flustered and clearly unreliable juniors. "Don't you know where you are?"

"Huh? Where is this place?" Sophia's eyes widened, looking completely confused.

The four necromancers remained silent, exchanging glances instead. These two juniors, of course, couldn't possibly know about the high-level underground exchange; such a secret was beyond the comprehension of someone of their rank.

The shadow demons were getting closer and closer, and the necromancers knew they couldn't waste any more time. Gleinick rolled his eyes at Abyss and Sophia and quickly left, while the other three necromancers each unleashed their abilities.

Davidz summoned a horde of enraged spirits from his ring, who fearlessly charged at the approaching Shadow Demons; Bono waved his hand and created a large number of giant skeletons with bone powder, who then charged towards the enemy with bone weapons; while Larry summoned a large number of bone spears around him and launched them at the enemy, creating a dense barrage of projectiles all by himself.

"So powerful!" Sofia was so shocked that she fell to the ground with a thud.

Abyss also opened his eyes wide, watching the three necromancers use their magic to hold back the Shadow Demon.

The number of shadow demons was enormous, turning the distant hillsides black. These various monsters charged towards this direction without fear. The three necromancers were all Supreme-level, and their strength was indeed considerable. The leading shadow demons were quickly torn to shreds by magic.

The evil spirits howled, unleashing terrifying shockwaves. Giant skeletons, several meters tall, wielded enormous weapons and clashed head-on with the shadow demons, a dense rain of bone spears shattering large swathes of them. This made it difficult for the monsters to advance their lines for a time.

"When did you discover these Shadow Demons? Did you alert them, or were they already rushing this way when you discovered them?" Davidz coldly stared at Abyss and Sophia, demanding, "Tell me, what happened!"

“We are the apprentices of mid-level councilor Hollick. Today, my junior sister and I came out to study the Shadow Demons. Everything was going smoothly until, for some reason, they suddenly seemed to be attracted by something and started running this way like madmen. We wanted to leave quickly, but we were worried about the damage they might cause along the way. If the council investigated, we would be finished, so we came to inform them!”

"You're even researching Shadow Demons? Is that something people like you, with your limited skills, can research?" Bono scolded from the side. "Young people these days always aim too high. What exactly are you two researching?"

Abis and Sophia exchanged a glance, a hint of cunning flashing in their eyes.

Chapter 296 Director Abis and His Extras

“Our strength is actually enough to enter the Intermediate Council, so we wanted to study something that others haven’t studied much, in order to make a name for ourselves and enter the Intermediate Council,” Sophia said. “But magic is not something we can study, so we thought of studying Shadow Demons.”

“I led this research,” Abyss interjected. “I wanted to study the habits of Shadow Demons, and we’ve already made some breakthroughs.”

The three necromancers laughed disdainfully upon hearing this.

This young girl, who looks to be only in her twenties or thirties, actually claims to have made a breakthrough in her research on Shadow Demons. How is that possible? Shadow Demons are monsters from another world. Their physical composition and lifestyle cannot be judged by common sense. The Council of the Dead has been on this continent for so many years but has not yet produced a sufficiently compelling research result.

Now these two young people are shamelessly claiming that they have made some research breakthroughs? The three necromancers naturally do not believe it.

"You should focus on studying magic. Once you've killed your master, you'll have a chance to join the Intermediate Council." Bono sneered dismissively, directing his skeleton soldiers to hold off the Shadow Demons. "You're studying Shadow Demons? The Undead Council has a history of over a thousand years, living alongside Shadow Demons on this continent. What's there to study?"

“But if we figure out their habits, maybe we can use these monsters in the future?” Sophia argued. “Really, my junior sister and I have done quite in-depth research. We’ve also looked at some other people’s research, and while those studies have some merit, we felt their methods weren’t reasonable enough, so the two of us have put together our own theoretical system for studying shadow demons…”

"That's hilarious. What could you two young people possibly come up with?" Bono was completely unimpressed.

Indeed, this is the case. One difference between the Necromancer school and other mage schools is that the Necromancer school has a very low rate of knowledge sharing.

While mages from other schools of thought on the continent might temporarily withhold a small portion of their more specialized research findings, most share their knowledge with the entire school. A new theory, once proposed, is quickly published as a paper within the school; a new spell, once developed and perfected, is also announced.

This academic model of knowledge dissemination originated from a theory proposed by Flora's ancestor three hundred years ago. After being promoted by the Holy See, it significantly accelerated the development of magic on the continent over the past three hundred years, while also effectively weakening the monopoly of magic by royalty and nobles and balancing the power on the continent.

On the other hand, in the Shadowlands, the necromancers prioritized using the results of their research themselves before considering passing them on to their disciples. They were unwilling to share them, fearing that other necromancers might learn them and use them against them. This directly resulted in necromancy, despite its extremely radical and unscrupulous experimental methods, not progressing as rapidly as magic on the continent.

“Ignore them, Bono. These two have shown us from the start that they’re not very bright,” Larry said to Bono, then turned to Abyss and Sophia, sarcastically adding, “You say other people’s methods are unreasonable, but how do you prove their methods are unreasonable, and how do you prove your methods are reasonable?”

“Because we have indeed made progress in our research,” Sophia quickly replied.

"Is this all you've accomplished? Interfering with us senior councilors in our fight against the Shadow Demons?" Davyz also disliked Abyss and Sophia.

“We…sigh.” Sophia was speechless and pulled Abyss to sit down beside her.

They were, of course, putting on an act. The shadow demons weren't summoned by anyone else; they were summoned by the Abyss using the language he had learned from the god of magic.

Upon returning to the Shadowfall, he didn't rest. While Hollik was still fast asleep, he searched the Shadowfall extensively, eventually finding a rather high-level shadow demon. Just as the God of Magic had said, it was possible to communicate with these seemingly incomprehensible shadow demons using the language of the Lord of the Dead. The high-level shadow demon quickly understood the Abyss's meaning, and because the Abyss contained a part of the Lord of the Dead, it was very willing to cooperate with the Abyss.

Meanwhile, Abyss also used his ability to discover underground cavities to find several facilities belonging to the Council of the Dead, the purpose of which was unknown. After discovering these facilities, he began monitoring the people entering and leaving them. This was not a difficult task for Abyss—he quickly deduced that people with high magical abilities frequently visited this place, thus concluding that it was a place frequented by high-ranking members of the Council of the Dead.

So Abyss had the high-ranking Shadow Demon summon all its minions—Shadow Demons cannot be killed, so there was no such thing as casualties. The high-ranking Shadow Demon's minions came out in droves, numbering in the tens of thousands.

So many shadow demons charged towards the exchange. Their mission was simple: just get here. But that was enough to draw out several high-ranking members inside. Abyss and Sophia arrived before them at that moment.

Their plan was very simple—today, they had to get a mid-level councilor, and if possible, they also had to get to know these senior members, which would make infiltration much easier later.

“The shadow demons seem to have been provoked by our attack…” Davyd suddenly frowned and said to the other two mages, “Can you feel it?”

“My skeletons are starting to struggle… What is that guy Gleinick doing? Why hasn’t he found the enemy commander yet? Are we supposed to wipe out all these Shadow Demons?” Bono also started complaining.

The Shadow Demons were once so powerful that they could even kill seven Moon Knights, and the three Sorcerers Supreme could only withstand a portion of their attacks. As the Shadow Demons gradually gain momentum, their offensive will only grow stronger. These fearless individuals have no concept of morale; no matter how many cannon fodder are killed, they will not retreat an inch.

Abis and Sophia, on the other hand, pretended to be frightened and sat there.

It's not the right time yet; let's wait until these three guys have it a bit harder.

Chapter 297 Rookie Helps

"Damn it! My head is about to explode! You two, put in a little more effort!"

While maintaining his magic to remotely control the skeleton soldiers, Bono spoke to the two equally sweaty people beside him.

"Do you think we have time to let you rest right now?" Larry roared at Bono as he fired a barrage of bone spears at the Shadow Demon. "I feel like my head is going to split open too!"

"That idiot Gleinick! Where did he go? Why isn't he back yet!" Davidz, who had been very calm before, was now getting a little irritated because of the mental strain required to maintain the magic.

The three necromancers had been holding out for a full five minutes, but the shadow demons' offensive hadn't weakened; in fact, it had become even more ferocious. Their attacks had only eliminated a portion of the front-line shadow demons, but many more, stronger ones were still behind. Especially since some of the powerful shadow demons were enormous and slower than the relatively weaker ones, they arrived later.

The three of them stood there, enduring the pressure, which gradually became unbearable. These three supreme mages hadn't experienced this kind of mental overload caused by excessive calculation in a long time.

"Is there any powerful magic that can take them down in one move?" Bono asked impatiently.

"How could there be such magic? You know how powerful the Shadow Demons are. Even if there were, how can you guarantee that you could take them all down in one move? Even if you could take them all down in one move, how do you know that the cost would be less than if we just ran away?" Larry retorted in rapid succession.

"You're still arguing even at a time like this!" Bono roared.

"Stop arguing! Save your brainpower! Think more about how we can successfully protect..." Davidz started to say, but then remembered that there were two people beside him who weren't high enough to know the type of facility here, so he swallowed back what he was about to say, "...the merit we can make in protecting this facility! What's the point of arguing here!"

Larry blurted out, "How do you know arguing is pointless? Arguing might actually open up some new ideas..."

"Masters, are you tired? Would you like some water?" Sophia approached with a water bag and asked solicitously.

"Give me a sip!" Bono was already exhausted and furious with Larry beside him. He was so thirsty that he immediately ordered loudly.

"Alright!" Sofia unscrewed the cap of the water pouch and fed Bono a mouthful.

Bono turned his head and finished drinking the water, letting out a long sigh: "Phew...refreshing! But why does this water taste a little off?"

“Spin, you’ve taken the wrong water bag. This seems to be the drinking water we brought out. The one you’re holding is contaminated water that we brought back from the river outside to use for experiments.” Abyss’s voice finally came slowly from behind.

"Oh dear, Master, look at my brain!" Sophia slapped her forehead.

"What?! You idiot! I... Ouch! My stomach! Ugh..."

Bono wanted to get angry, but the polluted water in the Shadowfall was undrinkable and highly toxic. He felt his stomach suddenly tighten and then he vomited violently.

The skeletons that were fighting the Shadow Demon on the front lines were also destroyed at this time due to Bono's poor condition, and many of them could not be reassembled.

Having lost nearly a third of their fighting force, the defensive line established by the three necromancers became much looser. The shadow demons wouldn't give them a chance, and taking advantage of the weakened defenses, they began to slowly advance. At this moment, the burden on the other two necromancers who were still safe and sound became much heavier. This was not as simple as dividing three by two, and the two immediately felt immense pressure.

"You two are useless! You're just making things worse!" Larry yelled angrily.

"I'm so sorry! I'm so sorry! Master, I have a special potion here! You'll be fine after drinking it!" Sophia quickly took out a bottle of potion from her waist. This potion was an antidote to the poison of the polluted water.

Bono snatched the potion and gulped it down. However, this potion was a cheap one that even peripheral mages could easily buy, and it contained a lot of alchemical solvents, so its effect wasn't very strong and wouldn't take effect immediately.

"Spin, quickly give the drinking water we brought out to the other two masters!" Abis commanded again.

"Hey! They're here!"