Chapter 9 Level 20 Rare Instance "Goblin Tribe

[Available Sub-dungeons: Dark Forest, Underground Caverns, Terror Forest, Land of Blood…]

Filtering out Level 20 sub-dungeons, the entire selection interface, from several hundred low-level dungeons, instantly shrinks to only five.

[Goblin Tribe, Gnoll Mine, Shadow Wolf Pack, Spider Demon Lair, Ogre Plains]

Mines and lairs like these are very unfavorable for the Skeleton Army, which is the first to be excluded.

Ogres are tough-skinned and hard-fleshed, which might mean our attacks can't penetrate their defense, making them the second exclusion.

Shadow Wolves come with dark elemental damage, which is a type of semi-magical beast, posing too great a threat to skeletons without magic resistance, so they're the third exclusion.

Therefore, the only choice left is the "Goblin Tribe" sub-dungeon.

[Are you sure you want to enter the "Goblin Tribe" sub-dungeon? Yes/No?]

After selecting "Yes," Zi Liyuan once again sees a portal emitting a faint green glow.

[Please choose the dungeon difficulty: Normal, Elite, Rare. Once the difficulty is confirmed, teleportation will begin immediately.]

For a Level 20 low-level dungeon that only has three difficulties, Zi Liyuan doesn't hesitate to choose the "Rare" difficulty.

After a moment of disorientation, Zi Liyuan appears in a dark forest.

Grass up to half a person's height and huge trees that block the sunlight make the surroundings extremely dim, making it difficult to spot monsters hidden in the undergrowth.

Holding the [Bone Staff], Zi Liyuan begins to summon the Skeleton Army.

Shield Combat Skeletons, numbers 1 through 8, with 3 to 8 leading the way and 1 and 2 staying by Zi Liyuan's side for protection.

After that, he summons all Crossbow Skeletons, a total of 22, arranged in a circle around Zi Liyuan, always ready to focus fire and attack the enemy.

The last slot is temporarily reserved for emergencies.

In low-level dungeons, there is still only one path to follow until the end.

After the Skeleton Army is fully assembled, the sweeping push begins once more.

However, compared to the previous sweeping through the Scorpion Jungle, this time the advance is much slower.

[Goblin Warrior (Rare)]

[Level]: Level 15

[Attributes]: Physical Damage 25, Physical Defense 10, Health 300.

[Skills]: Cleave, Heavy Strike

[Combat Power]: 35

————

[Goblin Champion (Rare)]

[Level]: Level 18

[Attributes]: Physical Damage 30, Physical Defense 12, Health 400.

[Skills]: Double Cleave, Heavy Strike

[Combat Power]: 40

There are no isolated Goblins; all of them form squads of 3 to 5, led by a Goblin Champion.

There's a huge level gap and a significant difference in strength between both sides, and even with Shield Combat Skeletons at the front, surrounding the Goblin squads and relying on shields to block and reduce damage, the situation is just barely maintained.

There's no way around it; Shield Combat Skeletons only have 10 points of physical resistance, and while the shield can block attacks and reduce damage, it can't stand up to the high physical damage of the Goblins.

Basically, even with a successful shield block, they still suffer 5 to 8 points of damage; without a block, it jumps to 15 to 20 points of damage, not to mention when Goblins use skill attacks.

Generally, in a one-on-one situation, after exchanging blows for four rounds, a Shield Combat Skeleton falls apart into a pile of bony fragments.

The only piece of good news was that Zi Liyuan had summoned 8 Shield Combat Skeletons, while a Goblin squad only had 3 to 5 members. He could rely on the Taunt skill to pull one on one, and he was always ready to fill the gaps when a skeleton broke apart.

As long as no more than 3 skeletons broke at once, Zi Liyuan could quickly replenish the numbers of the tank squad through summoning.

The task of dealing damage naturally fell to the Crossbow Skeleton platoon.

With a threefold Sunder Armor effect stacked, a Crossbow Skeleton could deal 5 to 7 points of damage, and a volley from 22 Skeletons could inflict 110 to 154 points of damage.

A Goblin warrior could generally be taken down in two rounds, while a Goblin brave would require four rounds.

Most importantly, these Goblins didn't quite play by the rules; once they suffered heavy casualties, they would even flee.

Running away was one thing, but they also knew to call for reinforcements, drawing other Goblin squads over.

If it were a normal player's party of five, being surrounded by two Goblin squads all of a sudden would almost certainly result in death.

Fortunately, Zi Liyuan's Skeleton Army was numerous. They overwhelmed the Goblins with their sheer numbers, not giving them a chance to escape before shooting them down.

[You have killed a Goblin Warrior (Level 15, Rare), experience +150]

[You have killed a Goblin Warrior (Level 15, Rare), experience +150]

...

[You have killed a Goblin Brave (Level 18, Rare), experience +200]

[Received materials: Goblin Claw (Blue) x2, Goblin Leg Bone (Green) x2, Bloodvine Fruit (White) x4]

...

A rare dungeon indeed gave much more experience than ordinary monsters in the wilderness. If he cleared out all the monsters in the dungeon, he could gain at least two or three levels.

As for the dropped materials, Zi Liyuan was not interested in them for the time being, simply throwing everything into the spatial bag to deal with it uniformly after exiting the dungeon.

Powered by the Skeleton Army, and after obliterating four Goblin squads, they finally arrived outside a huge Goblin Tribe.

Tattered tents became denser toward the center, and a circle of stone walls over two meters high was piled up around the outskirts of the tribe, enclosing the entire tribe within.

Zi Liyuan did not rush to attack the camp, but instead, he opened his character panel.

At this moment, as a Level 10 (3350/20,000), he clicked again on the "Summon Skeleton" skill.

[Skeleton Summoning (Level 2, 0/1000)]: Using the Spirit as a medium, it consumes 10 units of Spiritual Energy to summon 2 Skeletons from the Netherworld Realm to fight for you. (The summoned Skeletons have +2 to Physical Damage, +2 to Physical Defense, +20 to Health; mutation skills enjoy the same effects.)

Without hesitation, he poured in 1000 experience points, raising Skeleton Summoning to Level 3 (0/5000).

The number of Skeletons he could summon at once doubled again to 4.

Summoned Skeletons gain +4 Physical Damage, +4 Physical Defense, and +40 Health, with mutation skills receiving the same enhancements.

An overall increase in the Skeleton Army's combat power was a significant help for the upcoming battles.

That wasn't all, he then opened his Cultivation Technique tab, ["Huaxia Empire's 9th Broadcast Exercise" (White) Level 5 (0/600 experience)]

He continuously poured in 2100 experience points, pushing "Huaxia Empire's 9th Broadcast Exercise" to Level 8 (0/900), adding +3 to all attributes.

Zi Liyuan, Level 10 (250/20000), Physique 18, Spirit 34, Spiritual Power 33

If it weren't for the lack of experience points, Zi Liyuan would definitely have maxed out "Huaxia Empire's 9th Broadcast Exercise" to its highest Level 9.

Even now it wasn't bad, having spent only 2100 experience points, it was tantamount to gaining the attributes of a 3-level increase.

This time, 9 Shield Warrior Skeletons took the front lines, followed by 25 uniform Crossbow Skeletons.

Instead of directly entering the Goblin camp, he cleaned up the Goblin patrols around the stone wall perimeter.

It was after clearing these patrolling Goblin squads that Zi Liyuan managed to pour in another 900 experience points, pushing "Huaxia Empire's 9th Broadcast Exercise" to Level 9 (MAX), thereby gaining +1 point to all attributes once more.

It was only after breaching the perimeter did Zi Liyuan, accompanied by the Skeleton Army, cautiously enter the Goblin Tribe.