Chapter 90: The Skeleton Carpenter

“Let’s give it a try.”

Wade crouched down and laid the skeleton flat. 

The bones were already quite worn. With its soul fire having leaked out, the connecting force between bones had disappeared, causing the joints to loosen and finger bones to start falling apart. 

It scattered like a skeleton truly eroded by time. 

A pile of disassembled bones couldn’t be used. Before summoning a soul, Wade needed to repair this shell first. 

He pieced the fallen small bones back into their original positions, then used his own soul fire to fuse the broken parts together. 

The process resembled assembling building blocks. Mia imitated him, picking up fallen bones and placing them back where they belonged. 

She immersed herself in piecing together the small bone fragments – for a child, this counted as a kind of game. 

However, she hadn’t yet learned how to use soul fire to fuse bones. As a phantom, she didn’t need a skeleton to exist. 

She didn’t understand how to use spiritual energy to bond bones, but fortunately she had another method – extending her small hands to use freezing magic. 

The little ghost used frost to fix the bones in place. With her help, Wade’s workload decreased significantly. 

The pitted surfaces were smoothed over by the little ghost’s frost, even the cracks Wade had smashed into the skull were plugged with her ice. 

Before long, Wade and Mia had pieced the skeleton back together. 

Most of the sand had been brushed off the bones. Covered in fine frost, the skeleton now sparkled slightly. Under the blood moon’s glow, it took on a dark red texture that inexplicably gave off an advanced feel. 

Quite handsome actually, resembling some kind of high-level skeleton capable of wielding frost or blood power. 

Pity it only looked the part – currently it remained an empty shell unable to move on its own. 

Wade first propped up the skeleton, making it stand on both legs. 

Next he tested each joint’s flexibility. He bent the knee joints into a running posture, then adjusted the elbows and shoulders to test waving motions. 

Finally came the neck and waist tests – twisting the skull and rotating the skeleton’s waist. 

He posed the skeleton as a running man, then shifted it into a thinker’s posture. 

Wade manipulated its arms to shoulder height with clenched fists, head turned right, striking a strongman’s standard pose. 

Mia clapped her hands nearby, giggling. The little one seemed to find this hilarious – in her eyes, the skeleton had become an oversized toy. 

She wanted to pose the skeleton too, but her strength proved insufficient. Though capable of freezing magic, her lifting power equaled barely a gentle breeze. 

Even pushing with all her might, Mia could only barely raise the skeleton’s arm slightly before getting stuck. 

Squinting with effort as she floated upward, she couldn’t budge the arm further until Wade, unable to bear watching, gave an assisting push. 

Seeing the arm move, Mia immediately beamed with joy, flying up to perch on Wade’s head. 

Wade scratched her chin, and she settled motionless atop his head. 

Having apparently played enough, she seemed tired now. 

Wade let her rest there while confirming the skeleton passed quality inspection, then began summoning the souls residing in his mental space. 

This involved vague, abstract mental communication. These souls had lost normal human thinking capabilities – no longer reasoning like living people, composed instead of instincts and obsessions. 

They existed purely. When Wade called, every soul responded. 

Without verbal exchange, they understood each other’s intentions better than words could convey. 

Wade presented the skeleton to the souls, who rustled with disorderly murmurs. 

The souls demanded tangible experience, so Wade placed his palm on the skeleton. Dozens of soul specks queued to enter the shell testing compatibility. 

The process proved incredibly fast – as quick as human thought. Within seconds, the souls conveyed their impressions. 

Some found the shell too cramped, others too heavy. 

About thirty souls disliked this shell. 

Over a dozen felt indifferent toward it. Only three souls found it reasonably comfortable. 

Wade asked these three who wanted first turn. 

After internal discussion, they selected one themselves. 

Most had forgotten their names, but certain things remained engraved in their obsessions – skills practiced day after day, year after year, nearly carved into instinct. 

Wade witnessed the soul’s perspective – calloused hands gripping mortise saws, using hand planes to smooth pine from forests, cutting lumber with tenon saws and bow saws. 

Amid clanging and hammering, those powerful hands chiseled mortises and slots into cut wood. Holding small knives, they carved and trimmed edges, crafting chairs, stools, cabinets, and wheeled carts. 

This was a carpenter’s soul – a dexterous old woodworker. 

The souls deemed the carpenter’s skills most useful, recommending him for this suitable shell. 

“Then I’ll trouble you.” 

Wade pressed his palm firmly against the skull. The chosen soul departed his mental space, entering its new body. 

Wade simultaneously transferred a portion of his flame to power the shell’s movement. 

His flame now burned vigorously. Each time Mia consumed a soul, she shared power with him. Since the Sven incident, his flame had reached capacity – let alone after Mia later devoured the sewn beast and mage’s souls. 

Having broken through his limits, just a sliver of flame sufficed to animate the souls. 

By necromancer standards: a fifth-circle necromancer could control about a thousand undead; fourth-circle mages managed hundreds. 

Without straining himself, Wade could distribute enough flame to animate roughly a hundred skeletons – yet currently only half that number of souls followed him. 

Animating all fifty souls posed no problem. 

The main constraint wasn’t flame, but finding suitable shells for the souls. 

Even after repairs, this skeleton remained too fragile for heavy use. 

If only stronger, sturdier skeletons could be found… As Wade contemplated trying Skeleton Sands, the skeleton before him slowly stirred. 

No soul fire burned in its skull – fundamentally different from wasteland-wandering skeletons. 

The soul merely inhabited this shell. Even if the skull shattered, the soul remained unharmed. Conversely, shell damage couldn’t be repaired like skeletons could. 

A broken arm would stay broken like a human’s – this shell served as disposable housing until breaking forced abandonment. 

Fortunately, the shell hadn’t deteriorated that far yet. 

The carpenter’s soul could normally control the skeleton’s movements. Facing Wade, it slowly bowed. 

After over a hundred days, Wade finally gained another skeletal companion in the wasteland. 

And a rare skeleton carpenter at that. Wade couldn’t help marveling at this strange world.