Chapter 4: Passing through the Dungeon, Power Surge

Glancing at the system prompt, Zi Liyuan continued on his way with the Skeleton Army.

In low-level dungeons, it's just a straight path to the end, where you defeat the guardian BOSS to clear it.

Plowing through everything, the two or three Jungle Poison Scorpions they encountered each time were no match for the dishonorable group assault by the Skeleton Army, all meeting a gruesome dismembered fate.

The monster density in this dungeon was about two every 10 meters, with monster levels ranging between 1 and 5.

By the time Zi Liyuan pushed his way to the BOSS, his level had reached 5 with 60%, and his basic three-dimensional attributes had increased by another 3 points.

At this moment, he had a total of 14 mutated Skeleton Warriors, of which 4 were Shield Combat Skeletons, and 10 were Berserk Skeletons.

As for the monster loot, apart from the BOSS, the other monsters in the dungeon only dropped materials, and thanks to his many connections with the goddess of luck, Zi Liyuan's drops were always the best blue rare materials, and always in the maximum quantity.

One could say that even his collection of materials alone was at least five times more than that of a Luck Emperor, and as for the unluckiest of the unlucky, there was simply no comparison.

Zi Liyuan didn't rush to start the BOSS fight. Instead, for the first time since entering the dungeon, he stopped to check his status.

Only after his status had recovered to its optimum did he command Rib No. 1 and No. 2, the Shield Combat Skeletons, to step forward.

The size of the final BOSS was several times that of the Jungle Poison Scorpion, akin to a small sedan, and it was also shrouded in a dark green poisonous mist.

The two Shield Combat Skeletons, one on the left and one on the right, each withstood one of the BOSS's large pincers, while a group of Berserk Skeletons was ordered to encircle from behind and start attacking the BOSS's flanks and rear.

[Venomous Jungle Poison Scorpion (BOSS)]

[Level]: Level 10

[Attributes]: Physical Damage 20, Physical Defense 10, Health 1000.

[Skills]: Venom Erosion, Sweep, Scorpion Tail Thrust

[Combat Power]: 25

Seeing the attributes and skills displayed by the BOSS, Zi Liyuan breathed a sigh of relief.

The basic attributes weren't high, and only its health was somewhat abundant. As for the skills, the one that would have been the biggest threat to the team, "Venom Erosion", had been rendered useless as the undead were immune to poison.

As for the "Sweep" which could knock targets back, he wasn't worried in the slightest; he had specifically reserved Ribs No. 3 and No. 4, two other Shield Combat Skeletons, to taunt and hold the BOSS's aggro when Ribs No. 1 and No. 2 were knocked away.

The only annoyance for Zi Liyuan was that each of the BOSS's attacks, with its two large pincers swinging left and right, could take away at least 10 points of health from the Shield Combat Skeletons with every hit.

Together with the BOSS using skills on cooldown, basically the two tank Shield Combat Skeletons could only last 6 to 7 rounds before being taken down.

Zi Liyuan's task was to timely replenish the number of Skeleton Warriors, especially the Berserk Skeletons, who were the main force in terms of output.

The Shield Combat Skeletons had low damage output, essentially not breaking the BOSS's defense, relying entirely on taunting skills' cooldowns to keep the BOSS's aggro.

The Berserk Skeletons, however, barely broke through the defense, consistently inflicting a compulsory 1 point of damage, but could deal 5 points of damage when using the skill, "Heavy Strike," which had a cooldown of 15 seconds.

But the BOSS's "Scorpion Tail Thrust" skill had a high-damage, high-poison special effect, which could shatter a fragile Berserk Skeleton in just two hits if it struck them in the face.

Luckily, low-level dungeon BOSSes lack intelligence; just following a methodical routine of output was enough to bull through.

Half an hour later, as Zi Liyuan numbly repeated the summoning of Skeleton Warriors, the BOSS let out a sharp wail of despair and fell to the ground with a thud.

[Killed Venomous Jungle Poison Scorpion (Level 10, Rare BOSS), Experience +1000.]

[Obtained equipment, Scorpion Tail Whip (Blue), Scorpion Pincer Shield (Green), Scorpion Claw Sword (White) X8]

[Obtained materials, Scorpion Tail (Blue) X1, Scorpion Pincer (Green) X2, Scorpion Shell Fragment (White) X10]

Although Zi Liyuan couldn't see the BOSS's loot, he knew that the drops were definitely squeezing the BOSS dry.

Just as he finished picking up the BOSS's drops, the system prompt sounded once again.

["Poisonous Scorpion Jungle" instance cleared successfully, initiating reward settlement.]

[You've received 10,000 experience points.]

[You may stay in the instance for ten minutes, or teleport out immediately.]

The substantial amount of experience caused a golden light to flash once again around him.

Having just killed the BOSS and leaping from LV5, 60% experience, straight to LV6, 20% experience, he now made another leap to LV9, 10% experience.

Zi Liyuan opened his panel.

[Player]: Zi Liyuan

[Level]: LV9 (640/10,000)

[Profession]: Necromancer (Apprentice)

[Talent]: Star of Fortune (Orange)

[Attributes]: Physique 9 (+3), Spirit 10 (+9), Spiritual Power 9 (+9).

[Overall Attributes]: Health 1200, Spiritual Energy 1800, Physical Damage +17, Magic Damage +28, Physical Defense +17, Magical Resistance +28

[Cultivation Technique]: Great Xia Empire's 9th Set of Broadcast Exercises (White) LV3 (Experience 388/400)

[Skills]: Skeleton Summoning (LV1, 0/100)

[Spatial Backpack]: Nether Crystal Core (Multicolor), etc...

Humans' attribute growth bestows an all-attribute increase of +1 with each level, as well as the ability to learn cultivation techniques to boost their base attribute dimensions.

The "Great Xia Empire's 9th Set of Broadcast Exercises" was jointly developed by several Realm Masters of the Great Xia Empire and is solely fit for those with the Yan Huang Bloodline.

This is the only cultivation technique available on Blue Star that can strengthen the base attribute dimensions before an awakening class change and can be trained to a maximum of LV9, adding a total of +9 to all attributes.

This is one of the reasons why the Great Xia Empire is targeted by other nations on Blue Star.

After awakening and class changing, cultivation techniques can leverage the experience gained by oneself to rapidly level up!

Zi Liyuan clicked on the cultivation technique column, then invested 12 experience points, upgrading the "Great Xia Empire's 9th Set of Broadcast Exercises" from LV3 to LV4 (0/500) and adding +4 to all his attributes.

Glancing at the remaining 628 experience points at LV9, he pumped another 500 experience points into the exercises, taking them to LV5 (0/600).

Seeing there were still 128 points left in the experience pool, Zi Liyuan opened the skills column, aiming at the "Skeleton Summoning" skill.

Skills strengthened by mutation are based on "Skeleton Summoning," so only the level of this fundamental skill needed to be raised for the others to improve in tandem.

Three conditions must be met for skills in the skill column to level up.

The first is related to one's own profession, as only skills matching one's profession can be elevated, aside from universal skills.

The second is tied to the level of one's profession, with the skill level able to be increased once every five levels.

The third is experience points, which require a specific amount to be consumed to raise a skill's level.

"Skeleton Summoning" was at LV1 (0/100), perfectly meeting the requirements for leveling up.

There was no reason to hesitate when it came to strengthening oneself, so he immediately deposited the experience into it.

[Skeleton Summoning (LV2, 0/1000)]: Using the Spirit as a conduit and consuming 10 units of Spiritual Energy, summon 2 Skeletons from the Netherworld Realm Territory to battle for you. (The summoned Skeletons gain +2 Physical Damage, +2 Physical Defense, +20 Health, and variant skills receive the same benefits.)

With the skill at level 2, the summoning amount doubled in one go and came with attribute enhancements, boosting the combat effectiveness of Zi Liyuan's Skeleton Army by at least twenty percent.

This sensation of growing stronger on one's own, truly exquisite!