As the Bone Amalgam Colossus's massive frame crashed to the ground, the entire fog region finally fell completely quiet.
Mo Fan stood amid the wreckage of bone covering the ground and let out a long breath.
Looking at the flashing lines of text, his heartbeat quickened despite himself, and anticipation stirred in his eyes.
And just then, the experience calculation finally completed.
[ Experience calculation complete! ]
[ Ordinary Gray Mist Bone Soldiers slain... ]
[ Enhanced Gray Mist Bone Soldiers slain... ]
[ Bone Amalgam Colossus slain! ]
[ Total experience gained from this expansion: 1920 XP! ]
Looking at that "1920" popping up at the bottom of the panel, Mo Fan froze for a beat—then his eyes lit right up.
"Holy shit!"
"That much?!"
Mo Fan couldn't help cursing out loud, his voice brimming with undisguised euphoria.
Consider this: at his current level, thanks to the System's brutally strict level-suppression mechanic, an ordinary early-stage Foundation Establishment demon beast now gave him a measly 1 XP.
Yet these Gray Mist Bone Soldiers he'd run into, while not absurdly strong individually, had somehow provided several times the experience of ordinary demon beasts out in the world!
Mo Fan forced down his excitement and cooled off enough to study the numbers.
He quickly discovered that while expansion within the Necrotic Realm did provide substantial effective experience, the System's original level-suppression mechanic hadn't been voided.
If he wanted to keep leveling through this expansion function, he'd have to continuously challenge deeper, stronger targets.
Once his level climbed too far above these perimeter bone soldiers, their experience yield would plummet all the same.
Still, even so, this much experience was enough to keep Mo Fan happy for quite a while.
The experience calculation had barely finished, and before he could properly savor it, the second heavyweight reward arrived.
[ Necrotic Realm expansion complete! ]
[ Previous controllable area: 1000 square meters ]
[ Newly added controllable area: 2000 square meters ]
[ Current controllable area: 3000 square meters ]
"Three thousand square meters?"
This time, Mo Fan was genuinely surprised.
A full two thousand square meters of new territory vastly exceeded his expectations.
When he'd first awakened the Necrotic Realm, he'd had barely a hundred-odd square meters under his control.
Later, upon breaking through to Tier 3, he'd managed—with no small difficulty—to expand it to the current thousand square meters.
Yet now, after just one expansion battle, the space's area had tripled outright!
Mo Fan immediately closed his eyes and tried extending his consciousness outward in every direction without limit.
Soon, he discovered to his delight that the disordered death energy that had once occupied this region was growing calm and obedient.
The fog zone he'd previously been utterly unable to probe had now thrown its gates wide open to its sovereign.
That familiar sensation of control—as natural as moving his own arm—spread rapidly outward as the gray mist continued to retreat.
Mo Fan then turned and walked back to the bone palace, settling onto the bone throne.
Through his perception, he once again looked down upon the entire Necrotic Realm.
The shadowed earth, once not particularly large, now stretched out in the direction he'd just expanded into a vast new expanse.
The magnificent bone palace still stood silently where it always had, but the territory surrounding it had clearly become far more spacious, far deeper.
Mo Fan tried touching the cleared region with his consciousness again and found it had passed entirely into his control.
So [ Expand ] is territorial conquest in the truest sense. Whatever you take, you keep. If I want more experience and resources, I have to keep pushing into the other unknown boundary fogs.
Having worked out the mechanics, Mo Fan didn't let victory go to his head and rush into a second expedition.
Rather than risk pushing deeper into fog of unknown depth, it was better to fully digest today's spoils first and convert them into solid, tangible combat power.
Once he'd confirmed the territorial expansion was in order, Mo Fan turned his attention back to the settlement notifications.
A clear materials list surfaced before his eyes.
[ First Expansion spoils calculation complete! ]
[ Gray Mist Bone Material: 80 units ]
[ Gray Mist Soul Crystal: 1 ]
A thought stirred, and the two items materialized before the throne, giving off a faint, eerie sheen.
He picked up a piece of Gray Mist Bone Material and examined it closely.
He soon found that this bone material was completely unlike the ordinary demon beast bones out in the world.
Not only did an exceedingly peculiar aura of death linger inside it, but even the microscopic structure of the bone itself had grown denser and tougher from prolonged erosion by the gray mist.
And what truly gave this bone material its high value wasn't its quantity.
It was that the Necrotic Realm recognized it as [ Exclusive Necrotic Material ].
As for the Gray Mist Soul Crystal—no larger than a pigeon's egg—it had come from the Bone Amalgam Colossus he'd killed at the end.
Held in his palm, it was bitingly cold, and the death power condensed inside it was noticeably purer and denser, a clear tier or more above that of the bone materials.
Mo Fan activated [ Death Vision ] and studied it repeatedly, but still couldn't fully determine its specific hidden use.
Better not waste something this rare before I know what it's really for.
Mo Fan sensibly put the soul crystal away, deciding to hold onto it for now.
After all, this kind of quality drop from a boss—he only had one. If he burned it recklessly and later discovered a better use for it, he'd be kicking himself.
But regarding that respectable stack of Gray Mist Bone Material, a new idea was gradually taking shape in Mo Fan's mind.
Because not long ago, through this very bone throne, he'd discovered several mysterious functions that had always been grayed out and unusable.
And one of them seemed closely tied to the repair and enhancement of undead.
A thought stirred, and the familiar four options floated up before his vision once more.
[ Forge ]
[ Nurture ]
[ Expand ]
[ Recruit ]
This time he didn't bother examining the others, locking his attention squarely onto [ Nurture ].
Hummm——
Completely unlike before, when it hadn't responded at all, the moment Mo Fan opened the function, the previously dim resource slot finally lit up with a faint glow!
Delighted, Mo Fan turned his gaze toward Unit 004, standing outside the hall with cracks still marking its bone shield.
He tried designating Unit 004 as the Nurture target.
The next moment, a new set of prompts slowly surfaced:
[ Nurture Target: Unit 004 ]
[ Required Material: Gray Mist Bone Material ×20 ]
[ Estimated Time: Twelve Hours ]
[ Expected Result: Repair major structural damage to the composite bone shield ]
Reading the description, Mo Fan quickly picked up on the enormous distinction here.
The Necrotic Realm already had a minor passive effect of its own, able to slowly and automatically repair combat damage on his undead using the realm's abundant death energy.
But this actively triggered [ Nurture ] function clearly went far beyond that!
By investing dedicated, same-origin materials, it could channel death energy in concentrated form directly into a specific undead.
Not only would this cause recovery speed to skyrocket, it could even improve and reshape the undead's baseline bone strength and soul flame!
Of course, that kind of deep-level tempering didn't come out of thin air.
Beyond consuming large quantities of material, it also required a corresponding investment of time to settle.
Furthermore, Mo Fan noticed that during the Necrotic Realm's Nascent Stage, [ Nurture ] could only prioritize one target at a time.
"Repair 004's bone shield!"
With that, Mo Fan confirmed without the slightest hesitation.
As the Nurture command was formally issued—
Rrrumble——
The death energy within the bone palace began converging slowly, like an enormous vortex.
Under Mo Fan's watchful gaze—
The clearly visible cracks across the surface of 004's bone shield actually began sprouting fine threads of bone at a rate visible to the naked eye, weaving together and suturing shut!
The bones loosened by the colossus's crushing blow were gradually becoming as solid as before—tougher, even!
"Now that's useful!"
Mo Fan nodded in satisfaction.
With [ Nurture ] available, as long as he had the materials, his undead would no longer have to rely solely on the Necrotic Realm's painfully slow passive recovery.
Of course, Mo Fan also understood that if he wanted Unit 004 to undergo a true qualitative change and step into Golden Core tier, repairs alone wouldn't be enough. He'd still need to hunt more powerful demon beasts and obtain higher-tier materials.
Once the Nurture process was formally underway, Mo Fan didn't rush to exit the Necrotic Realm.
He lounged back against the bone throne, watching Unit 004 outside the hall, wrapped in dense death energy and slowly recovering, and a remarkably clear sense of understanding suddenly rose in his chest.
In the past, while he'd commanded an undead army of no small strength, his use of this Necrotic Realm had honestly stayed at a fairly rudimentary, foundational level.
Those functions were practical, but ultimately too one-dimensional.
Until today.
For the first time, he genuinely realized that as his Tier 3 permissions were progressively developed, this Necrotic Realm hidden deep in his soul seemed to be forming a growth system entirely its own.
First came [ Expand ].
By selecting a direction in the fog and going on the offensive to crush the enemies there, he could not only gain a new source of meaningful experience, but also continuously claim new land and expand his own "Shadow Empire."
Second came the newly activated [ Nurture ].
Take the special materials captured during expansion and feed them back into the undead legion, accelerating recovery from injury and even laying a solid foundation for higher-tier enhancements down the line.
Which meant—
Combat, plunder, expansion, growth...
Had finally formed a perfect closed loop in this dead silent world!
Of course, Mo Fan didn't let it all go to his head.
Every expansion meant facing genuine unknowns head-on.
What other horrors lurked in that deeper gray mist out along the perimeter, nobody could say.
Besides, today was only the first test of the waters, and he'd already run into a Bone Amalgam Colossus whose power faintly brushed the Golden Core threshold.
Push further into the depths later, and the difficulty would likely climb exponentially.
At that thought, Mo Fan reined in some of the excitement and fervor in his chest, his gaze returning to its deep, cool composure.
Still, however treacherous the road ahead, today's haul was more than enough to fill him with confidence about the future.
"Time to head back."
And just as Mo Fan slowly rose, preparing to leave the bone throne and return to the real world—
His gaze happened, entirely by accident, to sweep across the four System options suspended in the void.
Mo Fan's movement abruptly stopped.
His eyes locked hard onto the word beside [ Nurture ].
[ Forge ].
He stared at it, momentarily blank.
If [ Nurture ] used materials to repair and strengthen existing undead...
Then this [ Forge ]—always listed alongside [ Nurture ], yet never activated...
"Hold on..."
Mo Fan rubbed his chin, his expression gradually turning strange.
And in his eyes, gradually...
An intensely fervent light began to burn once more.