I, the wizard, the foolish Buddha

In the northwestern corner of the Black Abyss Academy, a row of large houses stood quietly.

This was the academy's temporary dormitory area, which was very lively a few months ago when the new students first arrived.

Because this was one of the safest places in the academy, some poor apprentices living in the wizarding settlements would occasionally come to stay.

However, many things had happened in the academy recently, and the night watchmen often extorted people they saw at night. Therefore, those apprentices who lived outside, in order to avoid losses, did not dare to stay in the academy anymore.

Inside one of the large houses, a young wizard sat on the floor, constantly chanting a spell.

Not far in front of him, seven candles were placed, forming a magic circle. A wailing ghost floated above the magic circle. It kept darting around, but the black smoke from the burning candles bound it within the magic circle.

As the incantation continued, the black smoke seared patterns of runes onto the ghost's body. These runes constantly wriggled on its body, like black tadpoles.

Half an hour later, the runes wriggling on the ghost's body became more and more numerous. When the last rune was seared onto its body, all the runes on its body flashed, and then disappeared.

The wizard waved his wand, and the candles stopped burning. After gaining its freedom, the ghost pounced fiercely at the wizard, but crashed headfirst into the shield in front of the wizard.

"It seems that the lantern can block ghosts."

Roland stroked his chin and recited a spell. Then, the ghost wailed in pain and began to wander around the room following his instructions.

"Finally succeeded with one."

Roland revealed a satisfied expression.

He had been busy for more than two hours, continuously trying to enslave five ghosts, but had only succeeded with one.

If it was just ordinary enslavement, it was actually relatively simple. However, Roland found that after the ghosts were enslaved, they were not so obedient, and if they encountered a necromancer stronger than himself, they could easily take away his undead.

Black Bone mentioned a solution in the Soul Stitching spell. That was to leave runes in the undead's body and split off a trace of one's own mental power, stitching it into the undead's soul.

The runes and this trace of mental power would form a double insurance.

From then on, if someone tried to forcibly strip the control of the undead servant, they would have to first crack the runes. And the master's will only needed to move slightly, and the arrangement of the runes would change.

The runes were the first encrypted lock, and the master's mental power could change the password on this lock at any time.

Moreover, the undead servant would nourish the master's mental power. Although the servant was powerful, this trace of mental power would also become stronger. When the master no longer needed the undead servant, he could retrieve the mental power at any time.

Black Bone's spell was very powerful and could be used in conjunction with many necromantic spells.

Soul wax and magic circles were all things used for soul stitching. The runes on the ghost's body were also part of the runes in the Soul Stitching spell.

Roland checked the ghost and found that its body was already so weak that it was somewhat blurry.

It seemed that it had suffered a lot of damage in the ritual just now.

Roland tapped the soul niche in front of him with his wand, and then a strange ghostly fire, like a shadow, flew into the ghost's forehead.

That ghostly fire was soul essence. After the ghost absorbed this essence, it did not completely digest it. Roland recited a spell to help it complete the devouring.

A moment later, the ghost's body solidified a lot, and the room suddenly became a bit colder.

"The effect is good. But it's a bit expensive. A portion of soul essence costs three magic stones."

"But if you regularly feed them soul essence, these ghosts can advance to evil spirits."

Ghosts were rank 0 monsters, while evil spirits were rank 1 monsters. The latter belonged to the category of low-level apprentices. In a one-on-one fight, evil spirits were definitely not as good as apprentices, but if there were a large number of them, they would still be very terrifying.

After thinking for a while, Roland took out the soul tear, hesitated for a while, and then put the soul tear back.

"This thing is definitely better than soul essence, but I'll save it for more advanced pets. When I collect more soul garlic during patrol and ripen the soul tear, then I'll feed the excess soul tear to the ghosts."

Roland put the ghost back into the soul niche, and then threw out a puppet from his bag.

This puppet had some resemblance to the Ballet Ghost, but it was just a puppet. If Helena were here, she would definitely find this puppet familiar.

It was originally placed in the Defense Against the Dark Arts classroom. When Roland went downstairs, he made a special trip to that classroom and borrowed one to play with.

Roland adjusted the position of the candles and placed the puppet in the middle. Then he lit the candles and recited another spell.

During the process of reciting the spell, Roland constantly threw the soul essence from the soul niche onto the candles. This time, the candles burned with a ghostly blue smoke.

Blue smoke seared dense runes onto the puppet. These runes were much more complicated than those on the ghost's body, and the entire ritual was even longer and more complex.

But fortunately, the puppet was an inanimate object, so there was no problem of failure. Even if the runes were engraved incorrectly, it could be changed. Unlike ghosts, once an error occurred in the runes, the ghost would perish in the chaotic magic power.

Several hours later, Roland threw a trace of his mental power into the puppet, completing the final rune imprint. Then, the puppet danced at his command.

Roland moved his mind, and the puppet floated up like a ghost. It passed through the wall without any obstacles and wandered around the big house.

The big house suddenly became much colder, and even tiny frosts condensed in the places the puppet passed through.

"I'm exhausted, I failed so many times."

Roland wiped the sweat from his forehead and said, "From the perspective of soul power, this magic puppet has already reached the category of a rank 1 monster. This is the most basic magic puppet."

The reason why it was said to be just a basic magic puppet was because Roland's work was not yet finished.

Because the completed magic puppet could cast spells.

But this work was more complicated, requiring the engraving of some magic circles and a spell model. After that, as long as a few magic stones were inlaid, the magic puppet could cast spells like a low-level apprentice.

Although the magic that the magic puppet could cast was limited by the magic circles and spell model on its body, and the types of magic could not be compared with low-level apprentices, this thing was as elusive as a ghost, could pass through walls, and could become invisible. It would not be an exaggeration to say that it was a low-end version of a pixie, and it was not something that ordinary low-level apprentices could deal with.

"I'll do it tomorrow."

Roland looked out the window and saw that the sky was already slightly bright.

Continuous high-intensity work made Roland extremely tired. He tidied up the room, lay down, and fell asleep.

It was autumn now, but the midday sun was still very strong. Roland slept until after ten o'clock before being woken up by the sun.