Chapter 858: Bone Strengthening Magic and Bone Corrosive Potions |
The plan to use the Bone-Melting Palm technique failed.
After listening to Old Morgan’s detailed explanation and learning various combat techniques from the warriors, Garrett finally understood one thing: the methods of weakening bones employed by the War God Temple primarily involve using various techniques to induce high-frequency vibrations in the bones.
The vibrations reach a certain level, causing violent damage or destruction. In short, these methods are highly unsuitable for spinal surgery. One slap could cause the bones to crack into fine fissures, likely rendering the spinal cord and nerves useless...
Garrett silently turned to Plan C. That is, he would review all the magic spells to see if there were any alternative approaches. If nothing worked, a reverse approach might do!
He began to examine the bone-strengthening spells, contemplating how to reverse the magic arrays to weaken bones instead.
Garrett started checking each spell one by one. Bull's Strength enhanced muscle strength, eliminated; Stone Fist enhanced muscle strength and skin toughness, eliminated; Rage Spell, which increased muscle strength by stimulating adrenaline, eliminated...
Wait!
There was one!
Stone Bone Spell!
Garrett was greatly encouraged and began to study this magic. The description of the spell read:
"A brief flash of light engulfs your undead ally, allowing you to see through their decayed flesh to their skeleton. The bones now emit a faint gray glow. With the power of the spell, the undead skeleton becomes thicker and more solid like stone."
It seemed useful?
Unfortunately, Lynn wasn't in the Mage Tower, so Garrett couldn’t bring him and his summoned skeletons over for research. He had to resort to using the dark gold skeleton given to him by the Immortal Lord, Anokin. Concentrating slightly, he activated the spell model—
A flash of magical light passed, and Anokin stood still, completely unmoved. The dark gold skeleton seemed to show no apparent change?
Sigh... The spell level was too low to affect the high-level dark gold skeleton. To test this spell on a lower-level undead, Garrett had none at hand...
Luckily, the Black Crow Swamp was always open to Garrett. He directly approached Archmage Edgar there and asked about the principles of the Stone Bone Spell. The archmage enthusiastically demonstrated:
He summoned a newly created zombie, of moderate level, made from the corpse of a level 5 knight. A Stone Bone Spell was cast, covering the zombie, and Edgar gestured to Garrett:
"Go ahead, you can feel it."
Garrett first cast Detect Magic to carefully observe. He examined it thoroughly and hesitantly looked at Archmage Edgar:
"It seems... its bones... have more concentrated energy?"
Not only were the bones more energized, but the entire zombie appeared brighter in the magical field than before the spell was cast. Overall, the energy concentration was a notch higher.
"Exactly!"
Archmage Edgar nodded happily. Seeing Garrett’s hesitant expression, he encouraged him with a smile:
"Do you want to cut it open and see?"
"Can I?—If I can cut it, that would be best!"
As a surgeon, Garrett trusted his scalpel and his own eyes the most. With permission, he quickly cut open the zombie’s forearm, exposing a section of the ulna. Instantly, he got his answer:
In the magical view, the ulna was covered with a grayish layer. Sawing through a section, he could tell from the feel of the saw that the bone’s hardness and strength had increased.
However, visibly, the bone structure and density hadn’t changed. The real increase in strength came from the grayish magical energy permeating the bone.
"Uh... Is there any magical energy that can reduce bone strength?" Garrett asked hopefully:
"Is there anything that can safely affect living beings?"
Archmage Edgar gave a helpless gesture. Necromancy spells typically target undead creatures, which are already dead, so there's no concern about sudden revival. They don’t care much about safely affecting living people.
"However, you might want to check out the Transmutation School," the archmage suggested a new path:
"In the Transmutation School, spells like Enlarge Person, Reduce Person, and various transformation spells might have some bone-softening applications. They might have the solution to your problem?"
Garrett thanked him and left. Although he had already searched through the spell library and research papers, every place has its secrets.
Just like Thunder Horn offered him several rare meditation methods not found elsewhere!
Garrett went straight to the Alchemy Workshop. Although they didn’t focus on biological transformations, they were happy to refer him. Soon, Garrett received a spell under development:
"Amorphous Form (in development)
Target: Willing, tangible creatures
Description:
You sprinkle animal glue on your ally and quietly trigger the spell. The target’s bones begin to soften instantly, and they, along with all their belongings, collapse into an amorphous, mud-like form.
The target and their equipment transform into an indeterminate, liquid form, allowing them to pass through openings as small as 2 inches in diameter..."
Garrett held his breath, almost reverently reading the description. Then, trembling slightly, he asked the Transmutation mage introducing the spell:
"So... what if the spell fails?"
"They can’t revert," said the mage, his eyes bloodshot from sleepless nights:
"Or they might return with bones grown in the wrong places. Generally, mages avoid casting such spells on themselves unless absolutely necessary. For squeezing through tight spots, there are always followers or others..."
Apologies for the interruption.
Using magic and potions to turn bones into a soft liquid state, or having no bones at all, was truly a transcendent idea. This potion could be considered a new type of Bone Corrosive Potion, one that dissolves bones completely...
But the question remains, can it guarantee safety?
Garrett thanked him and fled in embarrassment. Sigh, the Transmutation School was also a dead end. Making some progress was truly difficult.
It seemed borrowing others' methods was impossible; he could only rely on his ingenuity. Self-reliance and hard work, he had to come up with a new plan!