In less than half an hour, Lu Ming had already reached level 2.
It's worth noting that over 90% of new players with average aptitude take at least half a day or even a full day to level up from 1 to 2 without assistance!
In comparison, Lu Ming's leveling speed was like he had an accelerator.
To address the early game mana shortage, Lu Ming allocated all 3 attribute points from leveling up to his Spirit.
As a result, with the automatic increase of 10 mana and 1 Spirit point from leveling up, Lu Ming's mana jumped from 20 to 70! Moreover, with a total of 5 Spirit points, Lu Ming could now regenerate 0.5 mana per second, offsetting half of the War Tread's per-second consumption!
At the same time, as Lu Ming leveled up, the War Tread skill automatically upgraded to Lv2.
The attack boost effect for allies within range increased from (Trickster 10% attack +3) to 10% attack +5.
On the surface, it seemed like only a 2 point attack increase. But for Lu Ming, who had a tenfold skill amplification, it was actually a 20 point attack boost!
Additionally, the Undead Warrior's level also rose to 2 along with Lu Ming.
Like player growth, the Undead Warrior gained mana +10, health +20, all attributes +1, and 3 free attribute points upon leveling up.
War Tread had already greatly ensured the Undead Warrior's output capability. Thus, Lu Ming set the Undead Warrior's attribute allocation to 2 agility and 1 strength to enhance its maneuverability.
After completing the allocation, he opened the panel to take a look.
> [Undead Warrior] (Tier 1)
>
>
>
> [Level: 2]
>
>
>
> [Master: Nether]
>
>
>
> [Physical Attack: 61] (including 57 points from War Tread bonus)
>
>
>
> [Speed: 4]
>
>
>
> [Armor: 2]
>
>
>
> [Magic Resistance: 2]
>
>
>
> [Mana: 40]
>
>
>
> [Health: 90]
>
>
>
> [Skills: None]
>
>
>
> ...
As Lu Ming reached level 2, the maximum number of Undead Warriors he could summon increased to 20.
So, he opened the summoning panel and used the accumulated 90 soul points to summon.
Whoosh-! Whoosh-! Whoosh-!
...
Dozens of shadow vortices blossomed around Lu Ming, and ten fully armored Undead Warriors emerged from the darkness, responding to the call.
Immediately, under Lu Ming's command, all twenty Undead Warriors, bearing the War Tread aura, spread out in the Shadow Forest, commencing their slaughter.
With the additional attack boost from War Tread increasing from 36 to 57 points, an Undead Warrior needed only a single basic attack to instantly kill a level 1 Jungle Spider with just 50 health!
Lu Ming began to mentally control the undead legion to delve deeper into the Shadow Forest, hunting more advanced level 2-3 Jungle Spiders.
Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on Royal Road.
Even the level 2 Jungle Spiders with 90 health or the level 3 ones with 150 health couldn't withstand 2-3 hits from the Undead Warriors. Moreover, with 2 points added to agility, the Undead Warriors, with 4 speed, completely outmatched the level 1-3 Jungle Spiders. So, in terms of both damage and speed, the Undead Warriors were dominant.
Within the War Tread domain, it was practically a slaughterhouse for the Undead Warriors!
The twenty Undead Warriors advanced unstoppably, slaying every level 1, 2, and 3 Jungle Spider in their path!
During the process of remotely controlling the Undead Warriors with his mind, Lu Ming discovered that he could share the vision of all the Undead Warriors! Wherever the Undead Warriors passed, a map gradually formed in Lu Ming's mind!
However, once they were more than 500 yards away from Lu Ming, the Undead Warriors would stop moving as if they had lost power.
"It seems the maximum control range for the Undead Warriors is 500 yards, which coincidentally matches the effective range of the War Tread skill."
Additionally, under the strict order to obey all commands from their master, the Undead Warriors possessed a small amount of autonomous awareness, knowing to collect loot for their master after battles. All loot collected by the Undead Warriors would be directly transferred to Lu Ming's backpack.
Everything was fully automated! There was no more comfortable way to level up than this!
Unfortunately, the drop rate in Sky Abyss was too low. So far, after killing hundreds of Jungle Spiders, Lu Ming had only collected 15 Copper Coins, with no equipment drops at all!
Although Lu Ming knew that making money wasn't the most important thing early on, leveling up and increasing strength were. Once he had the strength, money would be easy to come by.
However, at the moment, Lu Ming urgently needed money to cover the rent he had spent on buying skill scrolls and equipment. Otherwise, he would be kicked out by the landlord!
Just as Lu Ming was thinking about this, battle notifications flooded in.
[Ding~ Killed a level 1 Jungle Spider, experience points +1!]
[Ding~ Killed a level 3 Jungle Spider, experience points +4!]
[Ding~ Killed a level 2 Jungle Spider, experience points +2!]
...
In less than an hour.
Whoosh-!
Another golden light descended.
[Ding~ Congratulations on reaching level 3, all attributes +1, mana +10, health +20, free attribute points +3; next level requires 500 experience points!]
Lu Ming repeated the process, allocating all 3 free attribute points to spirit, raising it to 9 points, and his mana to 120!
After War Tread upgraded to Lv3, the attack boost effect for allies within range increased to (Trickster 10% attack +8).
Aside from the mana cost to activate the skill increasing from 3 to 4 points, the subsequent per-second mana cost remained at 1 point.
And with the 0.9 mana regeneration per second from Lu Ming's 9 spirit points, he could finally keep up with the continuous consumption of War Tread without having to stop frequently to recover!
With the maximum number of Undead Warriors he could summon increasing from 20 to 30, Lu Ming's monster-killing speed was maximized!
By nine in the evening and again at eleven-thirty, he leveled up once more—
> [Player ID: Nether] (Lv5, Trickster)
>
>
>
> [Account Aptitude: Ten-Star]
>
>
>
> [Strength: 7]
>
>
>
> [Agility: 5]
>
>
>
> [Spirit: 17]
>
>
>
> [Endurance: 5]
>
>
>
> [Constitution: 5]
>
>
>
> [Physical Attack: 10]
>
>
>
> [Armor: 5]
>
>
>
> [Magic Resistance: 5]
>
>
>
> [Speed: 5]
>
>
>
> [Mana: 220]
>
>
>
> [Health: 180]
>
>
>
> [Money: 0 Gold 0 Silver 83 Copper]
>
>
>
> [Experience: 13/1200]
>
>
>
> [Skills: Reconnaissance (F-grade), War Tread (F-grade)]
In one night, he leveled up four times, reaching level 5 from level 1, achieving in a single night what would take ordinary people three to five days.
The strength of this Ten-Star account, was simply outrageous!
It was worth the five years of humiliation and endurance in his past life, crawling under others' feet to reach level 200 and obtain the Scroll of Deification!
And it proved that giving up the system-recommended mage class and choosing the Trickster profession was an extremely wise decision. Otherwise, even if he could summon more Undead Warriors, they would just be a bunch of cannon fodder.
But now, each Undead Warrior, enhanced by Lu Ming the Trickster, was like a demon god from hell!
Upon reaching level 5, Lu Ming could summon up to 50 Undead Warriors! War Tread Lv5's attack boost effect for allies within range reached (Trickster 10% attack +15). Combined with Lu Ming's 10 physical attack, after receiving the tenfold [Comprehensive Amplification], it meant a massive 160 attack boost for the Undead Warriors! Plus the Undead Warriors' own 11 attack points. Making the Undead Warriors, even at just level 5, have a terrifying 171 attack power!
Lu Ming couldn't help but click his tongue, "A level 10 Second Transition warrior with full strength allocation and complete equipment might struggle to break three-digit attack power."
The thought of such terrifyingly powerful Undead Warriors obeying his commands, and being able to control fifty of them at once, filled Lu Ming with excitement!
In such a violent state, even the highest level 5 Jungle Spiders in the Shadow Forest couldn't withstand two basic attacks from the Undead Warriors!
"According to Sky Abyss's settings, players who kill monsters lower in level than themselves only gain 1 point of forced experience, and the drop rate significantly decreases."
"This place doesn't have much value for improvement anymore."
Having lived another life, Lu Ming now had a clear goal.
As he knew, each major novice village area had an 8-10 level dungeon called the [Scarlet Zone].
This dungeon was far more famous than others, known worldwide for a century!
Because it had a special difficulty division: Normal, Elite, Epic, Legendary, Nightmare, and Hell, with each level's difficulty increasing exponentially.
And each player only had one lifetime opportunity to enter the dungeon.
The Scarlet Zone was independently divided by the national server.
According to historical records, in the hundred years since Sky Abyss descended, the highest clearance record in the Great Xia server reached Nightmare difficulty.
Although it was already far ahead compared to other countries, it was still one step away from Hell difficulty clearance.
Reportedly, last year, the United States simultaneously produced a top player with a six-star aptitude and two with five-star aptitude accounts. With strong national support, they joined forces to finally clear the Hell difficulty of the Scarlet Zone in the United States server, earning the reward: a skill scroll with unlimited growth potential!
It's known that all skills in the Sky Abyss world cannot be upgraded in quality later on; whatever quality they start with is permanent.
Unless a higher-quality skill of the same type is used to overwrite the lower-quality one.
In his previous life, after five years in the Sky Abyss world, Lu Ming's highest skill was only D-grade. And unlimited growth meant that this skill could reach the highest level: SSS-grade! So the market valuation of that skill scroll was reportedly over a billion dollars!
Thus, Lu Ming's first goal was to achieve the first Hell difficulty clearance reward in the Great Xia server's Scarlet Zone dungeon!
Therefore, Lu Ming's current goal was to quickly reach level 8 to meet the entry requirements for the Scarlet Zone dungeon!
He checked his current status, found that under the Undead Warriors' slaughter, the [Who Stole the Ring] quest had reached the highest tenth tier: a cumulative kill of 300 Jungle Spiders!
At this point, it was already half-past eleven at night, and Lu Ming was feeling a bit hungry.
"I'll head back to the novice village to turn in the quest, log off for a late-night snack, and then come back to level up in a higher-level area." With this in mind.
Just as Lu Ming was about to mentally recall all the Undead Warriors and head back, he suddenly noticed through the shared vision of one of the Undead Warriors scattered throughout the Shadow Forest that several figures were rapidly approaching!