Looking at his status, Ethan found several things he deemed important, things he needed to focus on improving if he wanted to become much stronger than he was now.
First, he had to obtain a passive skill similar to [Undead Graveyard], one that would allow him to store and carry his [Undead Spirits] with him at all times.
His greatest weapon was his Undead Spirits, especially the Undead Mirror Spirit, which could reflect the attributes and skills of any target.
His summons could become as powerful as a legion in an open-world dungeon or a team-raiding dungeon, where he would have enough time to recharge his spiritual energy and continuously summon them.
But if he were ever caught in a tight situation or a field-control battle, where time was not on his side, he would be utterly screwed.
While he could rely on his Undead Knights to fight, their attributes were too average, and any mid-grade professional could defeat them without much effort.
Ethan had confirmed this during his battle alongside Jonathan, the Flame Swordsman, in the [Skeletal Chamber] Dungeon.
A combat-class professional of Jonathan's level could defeat his Undead Knights single-handedly without facing any difficulty.
For one, his Undead Knights did not possess strong attributes.
And secondly, unlike his Undead Spirits, they did not possess any skills of their own.
This was another problem he knew he had to address.
There was yet another issue. Aside from his spiritual energy, his personal attributes were pathetically low.
While it was true that spiritual energy and sense were the core strengths of his profession, that did not mean an awakener could not improve their base attributes later on.
Ethan desperately wanted to improve his strength, stamina, and dexterity so he could fight with a sword in hand instead of always standing behind his summons.
He was ashamed to admit it, but he had started to feel useless.
The only truly valuable thing about him seemed to be his summons, not him, and even though he was the one who summoned them, it still felt like he was not doing enough.
At least, not enough to satisfy his own conscience.
He had already been thinking of ways to overcome his shortcomings, and for that, he needed those [Skill Enhancement Cards], which he could use to increase the capacity of his [Undead Graveyard] skill and enhance his Undead Knights, maybe even granting them skills and boosting their base attributes so they would not be as ordinary as they were now.
"First things first… let's acquire a skill." Ethan raised his hand, which glowed with the faint green energy of the undead. "Let's see how long it takes to clear a strong tier-1 dungeon on hell difficulty."
Ethan began by summoning his 20 Undead Knights from his [Undead Graveyard].
Then, he used his high spiritual energy reserves to activate [Summon Undead Spirits], summoning six undead Wood Spirits.
As soon as they appeared, he had them use their [Bloom Beam] on him.
Within a few seconds, his spiritual energy was fully recharged, and Ethan used it to resummon more [Undead Wood Spirits], who also activated their skill on him, replenishing his spiritual energy to the limit.
This cycle continued for over an hour as Ethan kept summoning, forming a massive legion of his undead summons.
By the end, there were 100 Undead Wood Spirits, 120 Undead Fire Spirits, 120 Undead Lightning Spirits, 120 Undead Earth Spirits, 120 Undead Ice Spirits, 120 Undead Dragon Spirits, 120 Undead Wind Spirits, 120 Undead Water Spirits, and 300 Undead Knights.
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[Undead Water Spirits]
[Level: 9]
[Skills]
-Water Manipulation: The spirit can freely generate, shape, and control water at will.
-Tidal Wave: Summons a massive surge of water that crashes forward, knocking back enemies and reducing their movement speed.
-Soothing Veil: Wraps the summoner and all allied summons in a dense layer of water-type energy, increasing resistance to fire-type attacks, reducing fatigue and stamina consumption, enhancing resistance to negative status effects, and boosting all healing received.
-Water Chains: Creates binding chains formed from concentrated water energy that restrain and immobilize the target.
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[Undead Wind Spirits]
[Level: 9]
[Skills]
-Wind Manipulation: The spirit can freely generate, shape, and control wind, allowing it to create cutting gusts, focused wind blades, or compressed air bursts at will.
-Wind Burst: Releases a burst of condensed wind energy. Upon impact, it explodes into an expanding sphere of wind that sweeps everything in its path.
-Wind Blessing: Surrounds the summoner and all allied summons in a layer of wind-type energy, increasing movement speed.
-Wind Blades: Summon one or more blades of wind that slice through flesh effortlessly. The fewer the blades summoned, the greater their power.
---
The Undead Wind Spirits and Undead Water Spirits were the only spirits he hadn't used until now, aside from the Undead Morpher Spirit, which only possessed one skill called [Imitate] and wasn't particularly useful.
"They're more support-oriented than combat, which is good, since all the other spirits focus on magic and control," Ethan muttered as he glanced at his summons, which numbered in the hundreds.
They looked quite imposing.
"Did I overdo it again?" Ethan wondered.
"Let's see if I can reach the last record," he said, giving a command.
His summons fell into formation, with the Undead Knight leading the Undead Spirits behind, ready to provide support, and Ethan, the lord of this legion, at the very back, surrounded by Undead Dragon Spirits whose sole job was to protect their lord as the legion began to advance.
Within a few meters of entering the forest, they came across monsters.
---
[Forest Snake]
[Level: 10]
[Skills]
-Venom Bite: Bites the target, injecting deadly venom that instantly weakens them and gradually leads to death.
-Tail Attack: Swings its massive tail to strike one or more targets.
-Constriction: Coils its long body around the target's neck or body to immobilize and crush them.
---
"The lowest-level monster in this dungeon is level 10. So what about the elite monsters? And the boss monster… looks like it's going to be tough." Ethan glanced at the snakes.
There were two dozen of them in the same area.
Some were coiled around the large branches of the tree, some slithered on the ground, and others seemed to be hiding beneath the layer of soil and grass.
But as soon as they sensed Ethan's presence, they immediately readied themselves to attack, hissing menacingly and showing sharp fangs that dripped with green venom.
Ethan gave a series of commands in his mind, which were instantly transmitted to his summons.
The water spirits moved first, using their [Soothing Veil] skill.
A layer of water energy appeared around Ethan and his summons.
In the next instant, it began to grow denser and stronger as, one by one, all 120 undead water spirits activated the same skill.
Their effects stacked upon each other, amplifying their power on Ethan and his summons by 120 times.
Next, the wind spirits used their support skill [Wind Blessing], enveloping Ethan and his summons in a veil of wind energy.
They felt lighter and faster than before.
All the wind spirits used this skill simultaneously, giving Ethan and his summons 120 times the effect of the skill.
As soon as the wind and water spirits activated their skills, the wood spirits used [Verdant Blood] on them, replenishing their spiritual energy.
This allowed them to maintain skill self-sufficiency.
The Wood Spirits continuously replenished the spiritual energy of Ethan and his summons while passively regenerating their own energy through the [Wood Heart] skill, which absorbed spiritual energy from the surroundings for themselves.
The forest snakes didn't wait.
They immediately charged at Ethan, but to reach him, they first had to face his legion of summons.
Another command went out from Ethan.
About 100 undead knights rushed forward to confront the incoming snake monsters.
But before they clashed head-on, more skills were unleashed from Ethan's spirits, targeting the snakes one after another.
A dozen fire spirits used their [Heat Wave] skill.
Waves of fire energy spread in every direction, burning everything in its path and dealing fire-attribute damage.
"Let's try the skills of the new summons," Ethan commanded.
Then he made a dozen water spirits use [Tidal Wave].
Waves of cool water energy surged in all directions.
But then suddenly the both the [Heat Wave] skill and the [Tidal Wave] skill began to weaken out of nowhere.
Ethan narrowed his eyes as he noticed something strange. "Why is the skill suddenly weakening?"
Focusing more, he discovered the reason.
The fire energy released by the fire spirits was disrupting the water energy released by the water spirits, and vice versa.
"I can't believe I didn't consider elemental affinity before using the skills," Ethan muttered, slapping his forehead.
The water and fire skills canceled each other out, leaving the undead knights to face the forest snakes head-on.
They began to take heavy damage from the snake monsters, whose massive bodies delivered physical attacks, their fangs biting and tearing the undead bodies apart.