Outside Moonfall Town.
As far as the eye could see, the city lay in ruins, smoke rising everywhere, a scene of utter devastation, like a hell on earth. Strange-looking mutated creatures roamed the ruins with impunity, eyeing the passing players nearby with predatory intent.
The sky was filled with rolling black clouds, lightning flashing and thunder roaring. The scent of death permeated the air.
Navigating through the ruins, Lu Ming headed straight for the level 1-5 wild zone: Shadow Forest.
Within the vast forest, many level 1-3 players had accepted the "Who Stole the Ring" quest, forming small groups to hunt the forest monsters: Jungle Spiders.
Being novices, they could only inflict minimal damage of 3 or 4 points, making it difficult to take down the Jungle Spiders even with several people attacking together.
Lu Ming bypassed them and headed to the other end of the Shadow Forest. He stopped only when there was no player in sight.
Roar...
With a low growl, a giant spider, as large as an adult bull and covered in black hair, appeared in his line of sight.
Lu Ming cast a Reconnaissance:
> [Jungle Spider] (Physical Type · Common Monster)
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> [Level: 1]
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> [Physical Attack: 4]
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> [Armor: 1]
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> [Magic Resistance: 0]
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> [Speed: 1]
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> [Health Points: 50]
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> [Skill: Venom (Grade F)]
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> [Description: A spider corrupted by dark forces, highly aggressive. Beware! Its venom can corrode your skin at any moment...]
Sizzle—
A green acidic liquid dripped from its gaping maw, quickly corroding the ground and sending up wisps of smoke.
Generally, new players entering Sky Abyss for the first time would need an adaptation period of at least three to seven days when facing such terrifying monsters.
But having died once already, Lu Ming was fearless. He drew his sword and stepped forward with a calm expression. With a deft maneuver, he dodged the Jungle Spider's long-range venom attack and, as he closed in, swung his sword.
Slash!
Green blood splattered instantly. A blood-red damage number appeared above the Jungle Spider's head—
-5!
Before activating the Soul Slash talent to summon the Undead Warrior, it was a bit challenging.
Lu Ming was mentally prepared for this. After all, as a Trickster, he was primarily a support role and didn't expect to deal much damage.
At this moment, the Jungle Spider shook its head and launched a counterattack. It opened its maw wide, lunging at Lu Ming.
He stepped back to dodge the attack and swung his sword again with a "swish."
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-5!
Swish!
Swish!
-5!
-5!
Even with five years of experience in his past life, Lu Ming still had to exert considerable effort to take down the Jungle Spider.
Roar~ With a wail, the Jungle Spider collapsed, twitching a couple of times before going still.
[Ding~ You have killed a level 1 Jungle Spider, Experience Points +1]
At this moment, a silver glow appeared over the Jungle Spider's corpse. Simultaneously, a prompt panel appeared before Lu Ming.
[Ding~ Do you wish to refine the Jungle Spider?]
Lu Ming felt a surge of joy. He immediately chose to refine it.
In the next moment, the Jungle Spider's body evaporated into starlight, drifting into Lu Ming's hand and disappearing.
[Ding~ You have gained 1 Soul Power!]
At the same time, a summoning panel appeared before Lu Ming, which displayed: You can currently consume 1 Soul Power to summon a tier 1 Undead Warrior!
So, Lu Ming clicked to summon. The next second.
Whoosh!
A three-meter-high shadow vortex tore through space before Lu Ming, materializing. Following that, a dark warrior clad in heavy metal armor, wielding an iron sword, stepped out of the vortex!
Beneath the fully enclosed helmet, its eyes glowed with a blue light. Its entire body exuded an aura of death, like a messenger from the netherworld. Under its gaze, Lu Ming even felt as if he was facing death itself! The Undead Warrior's presence was overwhelmingly powerful.
In the next moment, the Undead Warrior knelt on one knee before Lu Ming, demonstrating absolute obedience to its master!
> [Undead Warrior] (Tier 1)
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> [Master: Nether]
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> [Level: 1] (Synchronized with master's level)
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> [Strength: 3]
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> [Agility: 1]
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> [Intelligence: 1]
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> [Constitution: 1]
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> [Endurance: 1]
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> [Physical Attack: 3]
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> [Armor: 1]
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> [Magic Resistance: 1]
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> [Speed: 1]
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> [Mana Points: 20]
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> [Health Points: 60]
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> [Skills: None]
...
Since it was only tier 1 and level 1 for now, and mass-produced, the initial stats of the Undead Warrior seemed quite ordinary. However, once the quantity and quality increased, the Undead Legion under Lu Ming, a ten-star Trickster, would be invincible and unstoppable!
Most importantly: having an Undead Warrior meant Lu Ming's spring was about to arrive!
"Let's test the strength of this ten-star talent!"
[War Tread]
Whoosh!
Lu Ming planted his sword into the ground, and a red aura radiated from beneath his feet, spreading outward. Under the tenfold enhancement of Comprehensive Amplification, a massive formation with a radius of 500 yards instantly enveloped the entire Shadow Forest, turning the ground blood-red!
To avoid drawing too much attention, Lu Ming immediately set the skill effect display range to normal. The original 500-yard super aura shrank back to 50 yards. But the effective range of the skill remained 500 yards.
Despite this, the brief moment of skill effect coverage still caught the attention of players leveling up in the Shadow Forest.
"What just flashed on the ground?"
"Holy crap! Who the hell cast a forbidden spell??"
...
Meanwhile.
Lu Ming commanded the Undead Warrior: "Go kill monsters."
The Undead Warrior gripped its iron sword and quickly charged at a nearby level 1 Jungle Spider.
Swish!
With a swift strike, it slashed the Jungle Spider.
-38!
The tenfold amplified War Tread provided an attack boost of (100% Trickster's attack power + 30) points to allies. Combining Lu Ming's 6 attack points, it granted the Undead Warrior an additional 36 attack points! This increased the Undead Warrior's attack power from 3 to 39 points!
The strike on the Jungle Spider, which had only 1 armor point, instantly wiped out most of its health bar! Before the Jungle Spider could react, the Undead Warrior swung its sword again.
-38!
Thus, the Jungle Spider that took Lu Ming quite some time to whittle down was instantly killed by the Undead Warrior in just two strikes! This power was already comparable to a fully armed level 5 player!
The kill benefits from the Undead Warrior were directly attributed to the master.
[Ding~ You have killed a level 1 Jungle Spider, Experience Points +1!]
Lu Ming repeated the process, refining the Jungle Spider's corpse and using the gained 1 Soul Power to summon a second Undead Warrior! Under Lu Ming's command, the two Undead Warriors automatically hunted for prey.
The outskirts of the Shadow Forest were mostly level 1 Jungle Spiders. With the War Tread boost, the Undead Warriors could easily kill a Jungle Spider with just two strikes. Thus, the Undead Warriors roamed and hunted, while Lu Ming refined the corpses.
[Ding~ You have killed a level 1 Jungle Spider, Experience Points +1!]
[Ding~ Refinement successful, Soul Power +1!]
[Ding~ You have killed a level 1 Jungle Spider, Experience Points +1!]
[Ding~ Refinement successful, Soul Power +1!]
[Ding~ You have summoned a tier 1 Undead Warrior!]
[Ding~ You have summoned a tier 1 Undead Warrior!]
...
Before long, Lu Ming had summoned ten Undead Warriors, reaching the maximum summon limit for level 1. Meanwhile, the number of Jungle Spiders killed reached ten. Lu Ming also successfully retrieved the quest ring, marking the current quest as completed.
However, Lu Ming didn't rush to submit the quest. Because most ordinary quests in Sky Abyss had a tiered mode. Generally divided into ten tiers. For example, the quest Lu Ming accepted required killing 10 Jungle Spiders for the first tier. The second tier required killing 30; the third tier required killing 50... The higher the tier, the richer the rewards. Each quest in Sky Abyss can only be completed once per player in their lifetime, so naturally, those with the means aim to complete the highest tier possible.
Thus, under Lu Ming's command, the ten Undead Warriors advanced in a fan formation, unstoppable and invincible within the War Tread domain with their high attack power! Throughout the process, Lu Ming didn't need to lift a finger, simply reaping the benefits.
Even though the number of summoned Undead Warriors had reached the maximum, he could still continue refining Soul Power for future upgrades to unlock more summon slots, storing it in advance.
The only downside at the moment was the rapid mana consumption. Lu Ming's mere 20 mana points couldn't sustain the War Tread's continuous 1 point per second consumption. So, whenever his mana was depleted, Lu Ming had to take a break, waiting for the 0.1 mana recovery per second granted by his 1 intelligence, slowly restoring his mana before continuing to kill monsters.
There was no other way, except for those with money, who could buy large amounts of Copper Coins, Silver Coins, or even Gold Coins at the trading market anytime, anywhere.
Otherwise, players with average economic conditions could only endure this in the early stages. After all, not everyone could afford the 3 Copper Coin cost of a level 1 mana/health potion.
When he had killed thirty Jungle Spiders, a pleasant notification sounded.
[Ding~ Congratulations on completing the second tier of the "Who Stole the Ring" quest, rewards upgraded: Experience Points +100, Copper Coins +10, small chance of whiteboard equipment +1!]
[Ding~ Continue killing Jungle Spiders to reach 50 for the third tier reward upgrade!]
Under the Undead Warriors' onslaught, Lu Ming successively killed 50 and 70 Jungle Spiders, completing the quest to the fourth tier! Rewards upgraded to 250 Experience Points, 30 Copper Coins, and a high chance of obtaining a piece of whiteboard equipment.
Meanwhile.
Whoosh! A beam of golden light descended on Lu Ming's head.
[Ding~ Congratulations on reaching level 2, five attributes +1, Mana Points +10, Health Points +20, free attribute points +3; next level requires 250 Experience Points!]