Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio
“Uuu uu uuuu uuu uu uuu!!!!”
The yelling Skeletal Soldiers charged up the outer stairway, rushing all the way to the top of the tower. However, Ye Kong was already waiting for them at the top of the stairs, fully prepared in a combat-ready stance—
Whoosh!
A sword slashed out toward the Skeletal Soldier in the lead, immediately dealing 29 points of damage, and sending the Skeletal Soldier staggering. Another strike quickly followed, and in the blink of an eye, Ye Kong’s opponent had already lost half its health!
To the Skeletal Soldier’s credit, it was no punching bag, and it swung its sword in the attempt to counterattack and save some face.
Unfortunately for the Skeletal Soldier, Ye Kong’s movements were faster. He raised his sword to block the attack, then followed up with two more basic attacks, easily killing off the Skeletal Soldier.
“Uuu uu uuuu uu!!!”
The Skeletal soldier’s companions were queued up behind him, filling up the stairs like a long train. Unfortunately for them, because of how narrow the stairway was, they could only come at Ye Kong one at a time.
In this type of environment, their numerical advantage was completely nullified!
“As expected of these brainless Skeletal Soldiers, I just needed to taunt them a little, and they’ve all come rushing up to their doom.”
Ye Kong continued to swing his long sword, taking his enemies’ lives at an insane pace. Skeletal Soldiers’ Strength attribute was generally lower, and their Resistance wasn’t that high.
As such, Ye Kong could attack or block their weapons head-on without losing any health— even if he did, it was an inconsequential amount.
In Demon Realm, the Resistance attribute determined the result of weapon collisions.
If two combatants had similar Resistance values, weapon collisions from basic attacks wouldn’t do any damage. However, if it was a collision from a skill, then even if they had the same Resistance, both parties would take a fixed amount of damage.
Bang!
Ye Kong slew another Skeletal Soldier.
System Notification: You have received 13 points of experience (high-level mob kill).
The experience awarded for killing a Skeletal Soldier was normally 10 points. Ye Kong was one level below them, so he enjoyed a 30% experience bonus (the greater the level difference, the greater the experience bonus), bringing the kill reward to 13 points of experience.
The amount of experience Ye Kong received for killing a single Skeletal Soldier was equivalent to a regular player killing 13 Gray Wolves!
This kind of leveling efficiency made for a much more comfortable experience than hunting mobs in the wilderness!
As Ye Kong happily picked off his enemies one by one, he also began to analyze the situation:
“Skeletal Soldiers and Qingmu Town soldiers are some of the weakest level-five mobs.
“As such, the experience awarded for killing them is also the lowest.”
This was a blessing for Ye Kong. If it were otherwise, he wouldn’t have had such an easy time killing a bunch of level five mobs one after the other.
“Cleave” skill proficiency +4
“Cleave” skill proficiency +4
As he continued farming the mobs, Ye Kong used his skills as much as he could, which in turn raised his skill proficiency levels. The Swordsman class had the “Swordsmanship” passive innate skill, which provided a 30% bonus to all skill proficiency gained by sword-fighting skills.
With the Bard class as the sole exception, none of the other classes received this effect from their passive innate skills. For this reason, the Swordsman class was the fastest at gaining skill proficiency.
Interrupt and Tempest Sword weren’t upgradeable.
However, Cleave and Ground Slam were upgradeable, improving the effects of the skill. Presented with such a good training opportunity, Ye Kong wouldn’t let it slip by.
Bang! Bang! Bang!
In a short time, Ye Kong had cleaned up more than half of the Skeletal Soldiers. It seemed like the fight would be over soon, when suddenly, in one of the Skeletal Soldier’s eyes, a ghostly flame sparked up!
Huff!
Ye Kong’s vision blurred, and everything grew distorted!
“Oh no! This skill is the ‘Blind Spell’!”
Drawing from his experience with the game, Ye Kong determined what his opponent had done to him. It was the Blind Spell!
The Blind Spell was a Magician skill, and generally speaking, only Intelligence-type classes could cast it. However, mobs (excluding human NPCs) weren’t subject to class restrictions, and just needed a certain base amount of Intelligence to use spells.
Coincidentally, aside from their intelligence attribute, which was amazingly high, skeletal-type undead mobs had very poor attributes. Furthermore, among skeletal-type undead, the magic-using mobs were much stronger than regular mobs!
If a Skeletal Soldier was lowly and weak, then a Skeletal Mage was a chillingly fearsome mob!
The real information about the skeleton was—
Deceased of Theus City – Skeletal Mage (Level 5)
Undead, HP 70/70
Among the large pack of Skeletal Soldiers, there was actually a Skeletal Mage! It had even deliberately disguised itself as a soldier, hiding under the cover of the huge army!
It was a cunning mob!
Mobs in the world of Demon Realm also had ways of disguising themselves. In the same way that Lilith had disguised herself as an old beggar, the Skeletal Mage could disguise itself as an ordinary Skeletal Soldier, successfully deceiving Ye Kong’s “sight”—The mob information available to players was automatically changed based on “known information.”
As such, if a player’s senses were fooled, the “mob information” the game showed them would also be false.
At the same time…
The Skeletal Mage had successfully cheated Ye Kong, and immediately stretched out its hand, a green glow lighting up the tip of one of its fingers—
Touch of Anguish!
It was the signature skill among undead type magic spells. The conditions for casting the spell were extremely harsh, as the caster needed to physically touch the enemy. However, in return, the spell’s power was incredibly terrifying!
A 0th Rank Touch of Anguish had the same power as a 1st Rank spell—The same power as a level-10 player’s spells!
Due to the fierce battles he had endured, Ye Kong’s HP was now below 40 points. He couldn’t withstand the damage from the Touch of Anguish. If it touched him, he would surely die!
The Skeletal Mage swung its arm and pointed its finger toward Ye Kong!
The sharp, bony finger drew closer and closer, and was about to make contact with Ye Kong’s body…
At that instant…
Ye Kong’s clouded eyes suddenly became clear, and his vision was restored!
Thankfully, he had the City Guard’s Headgear equipped, which gave him Intelligence +2 and Willpower +6. In addition, the Swordsman class had a good starting Intelligence attribute, which all helped to reduce the effective duration of the Blind Spell. Aside from Intelligence-type classes, the Swordsman had the highest starting Intelligence!
The Swordsman class was extremely lackluster early in the game, so to balance out its weaknesses, the designers of the game gave it good starting attributes!
With excellent starting attributes and the bonuses from his Bronze Equipment, Ye Kong could recover to normal much earlier than expected!
Whoosh!
Ye Kong drew his long sword, activated “Interrupt,” and put the sword in the way of the bony finger—
Bang!
The Skeletal Mage’s finger was blown aside. In the next moment, Ye Kong pushed the long sword into the mage’s chest and activated “Cleave”!
-36!
Like other Intelligence-type classes, the Skeletal Mage had cloth armor. When hit by a Dexterity-type weapon (such as a long sword), the damage taken would be increased by a fixed amount!
“Uuuuu!”
The Skeletal Mage let out a blood-curdling scream as he turned to escape, but the only escape route behind him was blocked off by his skeletal comrades, and he had no choice but to face Ye Kong.
What happened when a Dexterity-type class got into close quarters with a Magician?
The results went without saying.
The Skeletal Mage wasn’t able to cast another spell, as Ye Kong interrupted its chanting. A round of attacks landed on the mage, emptying its health bar as it disintegrated into a cloud of sparkling dust and vanished.
“That was close…”
Ye Kong heaved a sigh of relief. Riding high from his victory, he quickly dispatched the rest of the Skeletal Soldiers, clearing them off one after the other. When he was finished, he looked to the spot where the Skeletal Mage had died. Something was glowing on the floor.
In the entire skeletal army, only the Skeletal Mage dropped an item. The rest were very stingy, giving him nothing for his troubles.
Ye Kong walked over and picked up the vividly fluorescent item. It was a Jewel—
Olenna’s Orb (Artifact – Unique)
Equipment Attributes: Maximum Soul Essence +2
Special Effect – Underwater Breathing: When the player is underwater, they gain the ability to breathe like a fish, and won’t run out of oxygen.
Note: This orb has borne witness to important events in history.
“Unique equipment?!”
Ye Kong was overjoyed, and he equipped the orb right away. This equipment’s attributes were outstanding, especially with the Maximum Soul Essence +2 attribute. Its value was a whole tier above the “Emblem of Potential”!
Even in his past life, Ye Kong had yet to find a piece of equipment that could increase a player’s maximum Soul Essence!
“This Illusory Realm is already rewarding me so generously…”
Ye Kong sucked in a deep breath and turned to look at the top of the clock tower—
“Up there…
“What could be waiting for me there?”