The air was warm and fragrant with flowers, the sun was just right, and the family was enjoying a happy time together.
Without realizing it, the taut strings of Fang Zhou's heart slowly relaxed.
For the past half-month, he had been voraciously absorbing knowledge from Sea City Military Academy while simultaneously controlling his Skeleton Clone to explore and kill in the Undead Realm.
The mental pressure had been quite significant.
After stealing half a day of leisure amidst his busy schedule, he vaguely felt that his soul had become much tougher.
...
In the afternoon, after watching the training equipment being installed at the welfare home, Fang Zhou bid farewell to Grandma Yun and the two reluctant little girls and returned to Sea City Military Academy.
Sitting cross-legged on his dormitory bed, he focused his attention on the Skeleton Clone.
He fought continuously for over an hour before he finally felt a sense of fatigue.
Fang Zhou silently estimated that his continuous combat time had increased by a fifth, up from the previous duration of one hour.
A balance of tension and relaxation is the true way. The ancients were right after all. Fang Zhou sighed to himself.
Having accumulated another batch of Soul Power, Fang Zhou decisively exchanged it for the Undead Mage's Apprentice-level Skill, [Touch of Corrosion].
As a series of Skill projections appeared on his personal terminal, the Skills Bar on his attribute panel updated.
"Detected sufficient Skill Materials to enhance the Skill. Expected to consume 10 points of Soul Power."
"Proceed with enhancement?"
Fang Zhou immediately confirmed.
With a Burst of Inspiration, Fang Zhou quickly mastered the Casting principle of the [Touch of Corrosion] Skill.
Both Touch of Corrosion and Skeleton Flying Spear were products of undead Mana, which meant they could have complementary advantages.
In that case, attribute panel, deduce it for me!
"Successfully enhanced Skill [Skeleton Flying Spear]!"
[Skeleton Flying Spear] (Apprentice, Skilled): Condenses a Skeleton Flying Spear to hurl at enemies, possessing Armor-Piercing physical damage, Corrosive Poison Damage, and Death Energy damage. Its quantity, power, and range are determined by the Spirit Attribute and Skill Proficiency.
If I were to test the triple-damage white Skeleton Flying Spear on a training dummy again, its attack power would likely break one hundred.
Fang Zhou nodded in satisfaction. His offensive capability had once again taken a small leap.
He reviewed what he had learned. Both his Clone and his main body now possessed relatively complete combat systems, and their practical combat abilities were sufficient for the time being.
Next, his main body needed to focus on increasing its Spirit Attribute to break through to Middle Rank Apprentice and raise the [Summon Skeleton] Skill to the Instinct Proficiency level.
Meanwhile, the Clone needed to hunt frantically to advance to the Black Iron Tier as quickly as possible, to feed back more Attributes to the main body.
「Ten days later, in the Burial Wilderness.」
Spirit +0.01, Soul Power +0.2.
In the vast white fog, the jawbone of Fang Zhou's Skeleton Clone moved slightly, emitting a piercing, grating sound.
These past few days, he had hunted day after day in the Burial Wilderness.
With Four-dimensional Attributes that far surpassed those of ordinary skeletons, powerful Skills, and the deadly weapon of a bone long spear, Fang Zhou was invincible, even when facing countless strong skeletons at the Middle Rank Apprentice level.
Every thrust of the bone long spear contained enough immense power to tear a Middle Rank Apprentice skeleton into a pile of bones.
After hunting hundreds of strong skeletons, Fang Zhou finally raised all his Four-dimensional Attributes to 10.
"Four-dimensional Attributes have reached the skeletal racial limit. Receiving blessing from the Undead Realm!"
Suddenly, a dense ray of light from the Blood Moon was drawn down, gathering upon the Skeleton Clone.
Just as Fang Zhou was filled with shock and uncertainty, a prompt appeared on the attribute panel.
A blessing from the Undead Realm? He looked at the attribute panel, and sure enough, there was a new change in the Skills column.
[Skeleton Monarch] (Apprentice, Instinct): A blessing granted by the will of the Undead Realm to the strong; only the mightiest individuals of the Skeleton race have a chance to receive it. Slightly increases damage dealt to skeletons and their evolved forms, and slightly reduces damage received from them.
Attributes have reached the racial limit? No wonder my strength has been stuck at 10 for so long.
Fang Zhou carefully read the skill's description, feeling very excited.
He was about to evolve from a Skeleton into a Skeleton Warrior. His future hunting targets would naturally become Black Iron-Tier Skeleton Warriors.
Both Skeleton Warriors and Skeleton Archers were evolved forms of Skeletons, so they would naturally be affected by [Skeleton Monarch].
This would undoubtedly be very helpful for improving his efficiency in grinding and leveling up later.
More importantly, this was yet another Skill that had reached Instinct Proficiency.
Based on his experience with Skeleton Armament, Fang Zhou could deduce it into a Skill usable by his main body by consuming just a small amount of Soul Power.
As Fang Zhou was pondering the potential deduction paths for the [Skeleton Monarch] Skill, a wave of pleasure from the depths of his soul almost made him lose himself.
"Detected that Four-dimensional Attributes have reached the racial limit. Soul Power can be consumed to initiate racial evolution."
"Current race Apprentice-level [Skeleton]. Evolution path: Black Iron-level [Skeleton Warrior]. Estimated cost: 100 Soul Power."
"Commence evolution?"
Fang Zhou looked up at the Blood Moon. The auspicious time is here. Time to evolve!
As the Soul Power was consumed, countless strands of essence that had settled in his bones surged through the Clone's body.
Memories of the past twenty-odd days of hunting and growth churned in his mind, and a realization dawned on him.
The Path of Death is the Path of Slaughter.
The Path of Slaughter is the Path of Evolution.
"[Skeleton Warrior] evolution succeeded. Four-dimensional Attributes have undergone a significant leap."
A few minutes later, Fang Zhou's Soul Fire flickered as he snapped out of the evolutionary ecstasy.
He looked at the attribute panel. Strength, Constitution, Agility, and Spirit—these Four-dimensional Attributes were no longer constrained by the Apprentice-level limit of 10 points. They had all undergone a significant leap.
The Skeleton Clone's current Attributes were now: Strength 30, Constitution 30, Agility 30, and Spirit 30.
According to Fang Zhou's estimates, even among all Lower Black Iron Skeleton Warriors, the Attributes of his newly evolved Skeleton Clone could be considered upper-middle tier.
Not to mention, the Clone's surge in Attributes would also feed back to his main body.
Just as Fang Zhou was about to check his main body's attribute panel, he heard another pleasant prompt.
"Racial evolution and Talent enhancement complete. New Skeleton Armament can be acquired."
Fang Zhou looked at the Clone's Skills Bar. The [Skeleton Armament] Skill had indeed been upgraded from Apprentice-level to Black Iron-level.
A realization dawned on him: with each major Tier he broke through, he could use Skeleton Armament to condense a piece of exclusive equipment for himself.
So, what kind of equipment should I craft? A shield, javelins, a bow and arrows, a short dagger...?
Fang Zhou pondered for a moment before making his choice.
He was going to forge a set of his own Skeleton Armor!
In terms of offense, his bone long spear and the various powerful Combat Skills from human civilization were more than enough to crush an unequipped Black Iron-Tier Skeleton.
On the other hand, his Skeleton Clone was still lacking in defense. It would be at a disadvantage when facing Skeleton Warriors or Skeleton Archers who also possessed [Skeleton Armament].
With his mind made up, Fang Zhou activated the [Skeleton Armament] Skill.