Supreme Magus novel Chapter 1724

"Once closed, the mana channels cannot be opened again because your spell can't pass through the bones anymore, leaving their shape and properties fixed. An incompetent Forgemaster will ruin your bones, giving you equipment that has lost most of its mana conductivity, becoming barely better than silver.

"A scammer will give you bones with the perfect shape but no mana flow that have no Forgemastering value."

The Hydra focused on Second Life, moving her hands like an orchestra director, to better exert surgical precision in controlling the elemental flow through the bones.

After a few seconds, most of the skeleton had turned white again while the emerald energy was now condensed in the mana channels, making them perfectly visible to the naked eye.

"This is what you can expect when you do Second Life right." Faluel moved her fingers as if she was kneading something and the bones fused together, turning from a pile of bones into a single ivory-colored piece.

Yet the emerald flow through the mana channels didn't change in either number or intensity.

"This is when you are doing it wrong." The bones changed into a two-handed broadsword and three of the mana channels lost half of their radiance. "Here you can still salvage the situation, but if you screw up Second life any further…"

All the mana channels disappeared at once and the emerald energy now flowed solely along the surface of the blade.

"That's an irredeemable failure that would turn even the bones of a bright violet cored Awakened into a tool worthy of a caveman at best. Now it's your turn to give it a try."

Faluel pointed at the massive plate where the remains of her breakfast lay.

"Can I work with Lith as a team?" Solus asked.

"No. Be your own person. Especially now that you have gotten your body back." Faluel shook her head. "I'm training Solus, not Lith's accessory."

"Yes, Professor." Solus sighed as her flesh disappeared, replaced by a humanoid stone doll barely 1.3 meters (4'3") tall.

The sunlight that Faluel's arrays allowed to enter her lair had suddenly lost its warmth while the world around Solus seemed to have become painfully distant. Her sense of touch was dulled as if she wore surgical gloves while every noise reverberating through her stone skin sounded like an echo.

"I'm sorry, Solus, but I'm doing this for your own good." Faluel said.

"I'd better get to work. The sooner I understand Second Life, the sooner I can use my body again." The silver lining was that thanks to the latest model of the Sage Staff, Solus could keep her stone doll form indefinitely.

The flow of energy that the artifact provided her surpassed the consumption caused by being away from Lith, giving her the best next thing to Invigoration.

"Professor, there's something I don't understand." Lith said. "You said that we need this complex spell because Necromancy would destroy the mana channels, making them useless.

"Then how can undead use magic? What's the difference between these bones and Nyka?"

"It is true that Necromancy creates life, but it happens in two steps." Faluel replied. "First darkness magic destroys everything and then the combination of light and darkness gives birth to an undead.

"We are not going to reanimate these bones so only step one takes place. It's the same reason why turning a living into an undead takes time. The process destroys the mana channels the thralls used as living beings and creates new ones.