In this way, every time Ryan Carter was beaten, he would immediately return to the small storage room and start practicing demonic arts right away. The bit of demonic energy inside his body also, unknowingly during this period, grew a little larger.

It seemed that every time Ryan Carter got beaten and came back to practice, his body was slowly being tempered, and the demonic energy gradually grew from the size of a fingernail to that of a thumb.

This made Ryan Carter both excited and afraid—excited because the demonic energy was growing, and his body and mind were getting better and better; afraid because as the demonic energy slowly increased, Ryan Carter sometimes found it harder and harder to control his temper, easily doing things he would later fear and regret.

He pulled out the book "Fundamentals of Necromancy" from under the small wooden bed. After reading for a while, Ryan Carter habitually began to meditate again. The demonic energy in his body continued to wander irregularly through every part of him, and wherever it passed over the painful spots, Ryan Carter felt extremely comfortable.

While Ryan Carter was meditating, slowly, that wisp of demonic energy flowed from his neck into Ryan Carter's brain. At that moment, a familiar pain suddenly erupted from Ryan Carter's head—he knew that the soul-pain spell cast by Lisa had flared up again.

Suddenly, as Ryan Carter's head throbbed with pain, that wisp of demonic energy seemed to enter the very center of the pain. This was the first time the soul-pain had struck while the demonic energy happened to enter his brain. Ryan Carter only felt a thunderous explosion in his head, then a sharp pain, and he fainted once more.

Chapter 6: Sooner or Later, I'll Win Her Over

When Ryan Carter woke up, he found it was already late at night. The demonic energy in his body was still flowing irregularly, but it seemed there was something new in his mind, and everything around him appeared much clearer.

With a thought, Ryan Carter held his breath and focused, entering meditation again. Following the basics of necromancy, he carefully sensed within himself and finally confirmed that because the demonic energy had entered his brain during the soul-pain episode, he had somehow managed to cultivate spiritual power.

"Wow, hahaha... Looks like I'm a genius after all, to have developed spiritual power so quickly through meditation. Heh, maybe I should try the lowest-level necromancy spell and see if I can summon a skeleton warrior!"

He hurriedly grabbed "Fundamentals of Necromancy" from the bed and flipped through it for a long time, but couldn't find the incantation for summoning a skeleton warrior. Only then did Ryan Carter realize that this book only recorded the basic knowledge of necromancy, with no spells or incantations at all.

Frowning in thought for a while, Ryan Carter remembered the summoning incantation Lisa had used before. He immediately raised both hands in imitation, focused all his spiritual power, and recited the necromancy summoning spell: "Fallen undead warrior, at the call of the messenger of darkness, reveal your presence!"

As soon as Ryan Carter finished the incantation, he suddenly felt the faint spiritual power in his mind drain away rapidly, completely exhausted in an instant. In a daze, he sensed something, then his head throbbed with pain, and his body collapsed weakly onto the bed, gasping for breath.

As Ryan Carter slumped down, a flash of black light appeared in his small storage room, and a white, bony little skeleton appeared—half the height of the one Lisa Buck had summoned last time.

Looking at this snow-white little skeleton, holding a small bone knife like a dagger in its hand, its hollow eye sockets staring at him, Ryan Carter was overjoyed. Although the skeleton was smaller than the one others summoned, it was still a skeleton, which meant his necromancy had succeeded.

His body felt weak and his mind was groggy. Through "Fundamentals of Necromancy," Ryan Carter knew it was because his spiritual power was too weak—even summoning such a tiny skeleton had drained all his strength.

Looking at the little skeleton in front of him, Ryan Carter felt a strange connection with it. But right now, his spiritual power was so pitifully weak that he couldn't even issue a command, let alone send the little skeleton back to the other dimension.

Man and skeleton stared at each other for a while. Ryan Carter thought to himself that since no outsiders ever came to this storage room, and the little skeleton wouldn't run around without his orders, it was fine to leave it here.

It was already the middle of the night. After all this, Ryan Carter was exhausted. Once the excitement faded, he felt tired and soon drifted off to sleep.

The next day, before dawn.

Ryan Carter was already awake. Lately, he had gotten used to taking care of the trash piled up in the storage room before anyone else woke up. After waking up today, he was about to do the same when he suddenly saw the little skeleton beside the pile of junk.

After a night's sleep, Ryan Carter's spiritual power had recovered a little. He definitely didn't have enough to send the skeleton back to the other dimension, but it seemed he had just enough to give it a command. Thinking of this, Ryan Carter gathered his spiritual power and gave the little skeleton its first order—to help him throw out the trash.

As soon as the command was given, the little skeleton straightened its leg bones, slowly stretched out five bony fingers, grabbed a pile of trash nearby, opened the door, and walked out.