The Silent Forest, in reality, is not a forest but a mountain range.
It is many times larger than the Koro Mountain Range, almost the size of a super-large country, spanning between two major countries and several smaller ones. Each ridge of the range marks the boundary of a nation, including the Principality of Felic, where Rody resides.
Why is it called the Silent Forest? Rody asked Granny Ann, the oldest and most knowledgeable person in town. She explained that at the heart of the Silent Mountain Range lies a sacred mountain, where the corpses of dragons, angels, and other high-level beings are buried. Any human who dares approach is torn to pieces, devoured, or slain by the terrifying guardians. The gods have decreed that no one shall enter the mountain, in order to preserve the tranquility of this eternal graveyard.
Thousands of years ago, it was known as the Silent Ruins. Now, it's covered in forests with towering trees, so people started calling it the Silent Forest.
Granny Ann's story intrigued Rody.
As a necromancer, he needed the corpses of higher life forms to create more powerful undead servants. The stronger the life form before death, the greater the potential and combat power of the undead servant, and the more room for improvement. Rody understood this through his enhancements of Marcus and Emma. He didn't expect a lumberjack like Marcus to become a Sword Saint, and he knew it would be infinitely more difficult and time-consuming to train an undead to that level than to find a Sword Saint's corpse.
Rody realized that finding the corpse of a powerful being wasn't his immediate need. Instead, he had to enhance the abilities of his undead servants. Without the ability to protect himself, no task could be successful.
Rody calmed his mind and settled in Whitestone Town, practicing month after month, gradually improving his skills.
Due to the uniqueness of the undead servants, Rody's training methods were not only unique but also extreme. Ordinary people might be crippled, burst, or even die from the qi that permeated their bodies during training, but Rody repeatedly experimented on Marcus, Emma, and even Nicholas. Despite repeated failures, with the undead often breaking bones, losing teeth, or even exploding skulls, Rody was undeterred. What did the dead have to fear from pain?
Once the trials were successful, the combat capabilities of the three undead servants would leap to a new level.
Finally, not only the bone rabbit but also the two mantises were forcibly infused with qi. The bone rabbit wasn't suitable for qi, as its flesh turned to mush and fell off, but the mantises successfully absorbed a type of qi called 'Whirlwind'. Due to their small size, they couldn't form a full whirlwind, so their attacks were more like wielding tiny daggers or sickles. Proudly, Rody named this new skill 'Scythe Wind,' allowing the two mantises to share this unique type of qi.
The bone rabbit couldn't learn qi, but Rody taught it the most basic water magic. Although it could only use 'Acid Spray' once, and its corrosive power was weak, affecting only the eyes, Rody was quite satisfied.
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Every so often, Rody would go into the forest alone to chop wood or gather herbs for his mother, taking these opportunities to practice his fastest-improving skill, necromancy. While he had the ability to subjugate more fierce beasts or magical beasts as his undead servants, his storage space was far from sufficient for such experiments.
The storage space expanded slightly as Rody's mental power increased, but it was still too small to fit another magical beast undead alongside Nicholas, Marcus, and Emma. Most importantly, Rody discovered he could forcibly merge the bones of magical beasts and humans into a new undead servant. He was continually searching for the most suitable magical beast to reconstruct a sturdy skeletal frame for Nicholas and the others to enhance their power.
In the outskirts of the Silent Forest, there were hardly any magical beasts, mostly just herds of herbivores and a few carnivorous predators.
Rody wanted to venture deeper to hunt magical beasts, but he felt the safest approach was to first improve his necromancy. Otherwise, revealing his powers carelessly could lead to a fate similar to Nicholas's tragic end.
Time flowed like water, quickly passing day by day.
Unknowingly, three years went by.
Rody, now nearly sixteen, had grown into a slightly slender but valiant young man. His continuous hard work had paid off handsomely. His once frail and weak body had gradually become stronger. While he was not as robust as a bull-like warrior, Rody, who consistently exercised daily, was no longer the poor child who coughed at the slightest breeze.
Although he couldn't use qi, when his undead servant Marcus ascended to a five-star qi swordsman, Rody's body also strengthened. After all, all the qi in Marcus was cultivated by Rody, and his body, to some extent, benefited from this.
The most significant enhancement was in Rody's mind. When he meditated, he could sense his mental power becoming as thick as a whip, easily controllable at will. If he wished, Rody could use his mental power to form an invisible whip to lash at wild beasts, breaking the leg of a wind wolf or knocking out a horned goat with a hard skull with a hammer-like form.
The only regret for Rody was that Nicholas was originally a four-star necromancer, and he only knew necromancy up to the four-star level.
Rody had already broken through the four-star necromancy level half a year ago, and his learning had almost reached its limit.
There were a few five-star and six-star necromancy spells, but Nicholas's records were not detailed. Rody eagerly wanted to learn new necromancy spells to reach higher realms. A four-star mage was only a mid-level mage on the continent, not particularly noteworthy among the many strong. Rody didn't want to live comfortably; he refused to be satisfied with being just a four-star mage for life.
His ambition was to become a powerful being, a formidable figure looking down upon the world. Five stars, the Hexagram, the Big Dipper - these levels of magic were not Rody's ultimate goal. He aimed for heights ordinary humans dared not dream of: the eighth-order Moon Halo Mage King, the ninth-order Moonlight Golden Robe Grand Mage King, or even the tenth-order Glorious Sun High Mage...
"Rody, you've grown up. I don't think you should spend your whole life here, you understand? I hope you go out and learn, broaden your horizons. You're grown now, you need to soar like an eagle, fly freely. My dear, I used to worry about you and wanted to be by your side every day, but now, I think you should leave me and go out..." One day, Rody's mother said this to him.
"I think so too," said the one-armed swordsman Gavin, who seemed to have taken an interest in Rody's mother over the past two years, often coming by under various pretexts to help.
"Mom, let's go out together then!" Rody suggested, nodding.
"My dear, is there a place more suitable for me to live than here? I don't want to leave, I like the simple life here, working at sunrise and resting at sunset. Besides, I would only be a burden if I went out, why would I tie you down like a rope? Dear, when you're tired of being outside, come back, I'll always be here waiting for you..." Rody's mother said with a gentle smile.
"I arranged with the merchant Fingal who came last month to enroll you, and you should be able to report to the Felic Magic Academy next month," said the one-armed swordsman Gavin, which greatly annoyed Rody.
"Don't you think you're meddling too much, Mr. Gavin?" Rody retorted coldly.
"Son, my dear, it was actually me who asked Mr. Gavin to do this, please don't be angry," Rody's mother quickly interjected, "Mr. Gavin means well, Rody, you should thank him."
"Hey, is the Rody little brother with a serious Oedipus complex at home?" The only ones who would say something like that were the succubus sisters.
"Who's the little brother?" Rody immediately bristled upon hearing this.