Chapter 433 – The Little Skeleton Death Servant

Mo Lan was already quite proficient in the Metal Shaping spell, so after just a bit of casual practice, she met the standard required for the silver plating method.

However, there was still one problem.

After silver plating, the silver layer would completely separate the bones from the outside environment, thereby slowing oxidation and wear on the bones, which saved the step of applying anti-corrosion oil.

But there was a catch — once the silver was plated on, it would be inconvenient to soak the skeleton in the Bone Spirit potion.

Mo Lan had plenty of Bone Spirit potion — low-grade, Intermediate, and Advanced — and planned to have the skeleton death servant soak in them daily in progressive stages.

But she didn’t want to plate and strip silver from the skeleton death servant every day either. It felt just as tedious as applying anti-corrosion oil to the bones.

Could she make a machine that could automatically plate and remove the silver coating from the skeleton?

Mo Lan thought it over and felt it should be feasible. She took out a sheet of Parchment and began designing.

The core was the Metal Shaping spell, supplemented by other alchemical rune combinations. Piecing things together bit by bit, she actually managed to design an “automatic silver plating” Alchemy blueprint all on her own.

Although it only involved existing alchemical rune combinations and the overall difficulty wasn’t particularly high — at most the level of an Intermediate magical item — this was still the first time Mo Lan had used the Alchemy knowledge she’d learned to design an Alchemy blueprint based on her own needs.

Before, she had always followed existing blueprints, copying them step by step.

The blueprint came together so smoothly that Mo Lan checked it over several times, yet found no gaps or omissions. The success rate should be very high. Only then did she realize that all this time spent crafting magical items from blueprints had elevated her understanding of rune combinations to a whole new level.

Although she still couldn’t design rune combinations from scratch, she could now employ them freely and fluently.

Delighted by her own progress, Mo Lan immediately brought out her Alchemy workbench and got to work.

Considering that the skeleton was nothing but a frame of bones, accessories like necklaces, bracelets, or belts might all impede its movement. So what Mo Lan made was an automatic silver-plating crown.

After looking it over from every angle, she felt that only a little crown sitting atop the little skeleton’s skull wouldn’t get in the way of its movements.

She also added an anti-fall function, so no matter how much it tilted its head, the little crown wouldn’t fall off.

By the time she finished making the little crown, it was already the next morning.

The bone frame had also finally completed its first soak in the Bone Spirit potion.

Mo Lan fished the bone frame out of the potion basin and dried it with a drying spell.

After an entire night of soaking, the bone frame’s appearance had barely changed in any visible way — only its hardness had increased ever so slightly.

This was perfectly normal. The Bone Spirit potion required long-term use before producing noticeable results.

The first soak was mainly to let the bones acclimate to the Bone Spirit potion, deepen the connections between all the various parts, and prepare them to receive the soul fire.

She took out the little crown and placed it on the skull.

The small silver crown was inlaid with a gold elemental gemstone. Petite and delicate, it fixed firmly onto the skull the moment it was placed there.

The soul fire had been fed overnight but still hadn’t fully matured, so for now the skeleton was just an immobile bone frame, and the skull could only lie on the ground.

But that was fine — this little silver crown didn’t require energy to activate.

“Zhizhi, press the yellow gemstone on the silver crown,” Mo Lan said.

Hearing this, Zhizhi carefully poked the little gemstone that was only slightly thicker than her finger.

The gemstone immediately flickered, and the crown dissolved like water, flowing across the skeleton’s entire body.

Zhizhi thought she had caused an accident. Frightened, she leaped into Mo Lan’s arms, grabbed Mo Lan’s hand, and covered her own eyes with it.

By the time she peeked through the gaps between Mo Lan’s fingers to check on the little skeleton, the yellow-gemstone silver crown atop its skull had vanished. The entire skeleton was now coated in a layer of silvery metallic sheen, with only a small yellow gemstone still fixed on the forehead of the skull, like a beautiful eye.

Zhizhi poked her head out in surprise. “Zhi?”

“It’s fine! The automatic silver-plating crown activated successfully,” Mo Lan said, reaching over to poke the yellow gemstone on the skull with her finger.

In an instant, the silver plating on the skeleton’s bones flowed and gathered back to the top of its head, reforming into that little crown.

Zhizhi understood this time. Filled with wonder, she poked it again, watching the silver crown transform back into a silver coating, then poked again, turning it back into the little crown. She played with it endlessly.

It wasn’t until the alarm clock rang that Zhizhi snapped to attention, sprinting over to the oil lamp’s basin and filling it to the brim with soul essence.

Seeing that the green in the small flame had grown a little larger again, she smiled with satisfaction, the corners of her mouth stretching wide.

Then she went back to playing with the little crown.

She even tried to pry the crown off the skull to put it on her own head. When she couldn’t get it off, she pointed at her own bare little head and looked at Mo Lan with pitiful eyes.

“You can’t wear this one! If you got silver-plated all over, you could say goodbye to your fur,” Mo Lan said.

Zhizhi thought about a certain species of monkey in the troop that had been burned bald by an Infernal Explosion Demon Bear, and immediately lost all interest in the crown.

Mo Lan said to her, “If you just want a matching crown as a decoration, I could make one identical to the little skeleton’s.”

Zhizhi gently tugged at her own silky, satin-smooth fur. “Zhi?” Won’t it make me go bald?

“It won’t!” Mo Lan said.

Mo Lan took out silver ore and a gold elemental gemstone, and casually shaped a crown identical to the skeleton’s for Zhizhi, even engraving it with an anti-fall rune combination.

Placing the crown on top of Zhizhi’s head, Mo Lan nodded with satisfaction. “That looks much better!”

Everything about Zhizhi was wonderful, except that aside from the Rainbow Belt, she refused to wear any other accessories.

Her image management was focused entirely on her fur.

Sometimes when Mo Lan got the urge to braid her little pigtails or put a flower clip on her, Zhizhi would squirm as if she had fleas, and within seconds everything would be wrecked and scattered.

Wearing clothes was completely out of the question.

She felt these things undermined her mighty and majestic aura.

Zhizhi was a little female monkey who aspired to become a war goddess. Her pursuit of strength far outweighed everything else. She had always believed that accessories only hindered her combat ability and regarded such things with disdain.

Unexpectedly, she rather liked this little crown. After putting it on, she immediately ran to the full-length mirror and admired herself again and again.

Seeing how much she liked it, Mo Lan began thinking about when she could make a crown-shaped magical item with powerful functions for her.

If there was only one type of accessory she’d actually wear, it would be such a waste for it to have no functions at all.

As for the Rainbow Belt — in Mo Lan’s eyes, that didn’t count as a proper accessory at all.

Once Zhizhi was done preening, Mo Lan said, “Alright, it’s breakfast time. Let’s head down!”

Today it was Vasida’s turn to prepare the three daily meals.

“Zhi!” Zhizhi clutched the alarm clock and pointed at the oil lamp to remind her.

“I know.” Mo Lan used the Levitation Spell to float the oil lamp into the air, keeping it hovering beside Zhizhi so she could keep an eye on it.