Chapter 30: skeletons, so many skeletons

- Ding, congratulations for levelling up your skill 'seeking fire missile'-

- The skill will now do 5% more damage -

- The skill will move 5% faster-

- the anti heal effect is slightly more powerful-

" Oh, what's this" Richie asked the system

-thats the upgrade menu, I'm not going to explain it, I have better things to do -

" like what?"

- Babysitting you and preventing the millions of different things that want to kill from getting anywhere near you-

Richie just ignored the system, how could the system protect him when it can only talk to him and annoy him

Richie opened the status menu and under the 'battle techniques' section there was his fire missile, he focused on that tab and it opened.

it showed lots of stats that he didn't understand, like 'combustion effects per qi(s) (law)' But he didn't focus on the stuff he couldn't understand, instead he looked at the little exp bar at the very bottom, it was around 20% full and the phrase 'level 2' was plastered to the left of it.

" I can level up my battle techniques, how?" usually one can only raise the power of a battle technique by increasing their comprehension of the technique or by advancing in their cultivation.

- don't ask me, I don't know either, I only manage this system, I swear the actual system has a mind of it's own and is just playing with me, making me do all the hard work-

Well, since the 'system' didn't really know how the system worked, Richie could only accept it as one of the system's great mysteries.

There was another tunnel connected to the cavern, it led forwards, Richie was starting to feel very thirsty, he hadn't drank anything in like a ... day?

And since the system shop doesn't actually sell and food or drinks, Richie could only press onwards, if the end of this tunnel led to a dead end, too bad, Richie would have to try again, if he died of thirst before getting out of this odd cave, also too bad.

There was nothing particularly interesting about the new tunnel Richie was travelling in, it was just endless rocks all around him.

Though the end of the tunnel came very quickly, it was as Richie expected, a dead end.

However on the stone wall marked in front of him, there was a sentence engraved into the stone. It read ' 357, LEAVE NOW, BEFORE IT'S TOO LATE'

Then suddenly the wall blocking him from advancing further slid open, behind it was a horde of bloodthirsty demonic skeletons.

- Ding, emergency task given-

- escape-

- reward: nourishment pill, low grade-

- failure penalty: death-

Nourishment pills were not very valuable pills,

they were created for the mortals in cities by the genius alchemist 'qin Jiang'

Qin Jiang was one of the only alchemists born in the Xinjiang Empire to be able to refine a pill at the 'peak' grade, this was extremely impressive as Qin Jiang was actually a commoner and had no background, it wasn't until he was recognized and accepted by the alchemy guild that his true talent for alchemy showed.

Qin Jiang is still alive to this day, he is just not in the Xinjiang Empire as he went out to other empires to further his knowledge of alchemy.

the nourishment pills were basically not useful to cultivators above the 4th realm as they didn't need food or water to function. It is for this reason that the nourishment pills are not classified under the normal alchemy standards, there are three levels of nourishment pills.

The low level pill provides enough nutrients and vitamins (along with other essential bodily needs) for a person to survive a week without food or water, the intermediate level pill can sustain a human for 5 weeks, and a high level pill can sustain a human for 3 months.

" this is NOT THE TIME FOR A MISSION" Richie shouted at the system

Richie couldn't even fathom how many skeletons there were, he turned around to run as fast as he possibly could, it was like a scene out of a zombie apocalypse, except the zombies were skeletons and moved a hell of a lot faster.

Richie ran frantically down the tunnel, sustaining multiple injuries from the protruding rocks, Richie didn't care though, if he stopped at all, the skeletons would instantly reach him, they were only about a meter behind him.

Richie turned one final corner and saw the exit to the tunnel, it led to the cavern where he fought the previous skeletons.

Wait a minute, Richie had his defensive talisman, if he activated that he would be safe, right?

- don't even think about using the talisman, the skeletons' cultivation realms' are way above the third realm-

The system didn't even let Richie think about using his talisman and immediately crushed Richie's intention of sitting in front of the skeletons as they try to break through his defensive talisman.

Richie saw the light of the oil lams in the cavern, Richie was getting closer and closer to the exit, he didn't know if he would be safe there, but he didn't have any other ideas.

Suddenly the exit started closing, Richie immediately dived forward, the exit was closing quickly, the rocks were mechanically moving inwards, just as Richie's exit was almost sealed, he dived right through the hole, just barely making it to the other side.

*BANG* the exit was shut completely by the rocks.

But this wasn't the end of it, the floor, bo the entire cavern started shaking.

The cavern was collapsing in on itself...