Since there was an option for a hidden evolutionary path, Alexander naturally wouldn't miss out. What's the big deal with using twice the evolutionary points? He currently had 130,000.
"Selection of hidden evolutionary path successful. This will cost 30,000 evolution points. Do you wish to proceed?"
"Three times the points?" A tremor ran through the corner of Alexander's mouth. What would it be next, four times?
According to the system's characteristics, the next evolution would likely cost 400,000 points, a four-fold increase!
"Ah well, evolution points are meant to be spent."
"Congratulations, you have spent 30,000 evolution points to evolve in the hidden direction of 'Blood Prison Assault Skeleton Captain.' Evolution time will be 10 minutes."
"Begin evolution."
Upon the system's prompt, Alexander fell into a deep sleep. The blue flames in his eyes gradually dimmed. His entire body was immersed in a pool of crimson light.
Sofia stood at the mouth of the cave, peering through the gaps in the skeletal form to see what Alexander was up to. When she saw him drenched in that bloody hue, she finally understood.
"My God, Mr. Skeleton is evolving again. No wonder he needed me to summon a skeletal guard," Sofia had an epiphany.
She put down her staff and propped her chin with her hand. Her gaze at Alexander intensified with curiosity. "Just who is Mr. Skeleton?"
His combat style was methodical and steady, as if it were a type of muscle memory ingrained within him. His consciousness and responsiveness were extremely strong.
Every time she saw Alexander make some strange move, she initially thought he was wandering aimlessly. However, she later realized that every one of Alexander's steps yielded unexpectedly effective results.
It was well-known that skeletons moved rather slowly; usually, they could hardly dodge a monster's attack after striking. Yet, the erratic steps Alexander took always managed to dodge the stone man's attacks perfectly, causing the creature to pause and seldom landing Alexander any injuries.
If not for the fact that he was inherently a skeleton, thus limiting his performance, his skill level could have been even more terrifying. These steps, Sofia felt, seemed oddly familiar.
Subconsciously, Sofia thought of a divine skill created by her idol: Gale Step. This technique allowed the user to take a step instantly after a strike, effectively throwing off the enemy's line of sight and positioning oneself in a blind spot.
She had only seen her idol use Gale Step in videos; within the game, her own skills weren't good enough to encounter such elite players.
However, Mr. Skeleton's technique seemed slightly different from what her idol used. So, she wasn't entirely sure: was this Gale Step or not?
"I wonder if I could learn it," Sofia mused, hopeful for a moment. But then she shook her head.
Her genius classmate, who was renowned as a gaming expert at school and had been engrossed in games for years, had only managed to master it to about 15%. As for her, she was far from it.
Just as she was contemplating, her consciousness suddenly went dark. "Oh no!" Her heart skipped a beat. The warning sound indicated that her headset had run out of power.
"Damn it! What about my Mr. Skeleton?" Sofia shrieked as she pulled off her headset. "Is anyone there? Why did the power go off?"
"What are you screaming about?" The wooden door to the room burst open, and a plump middle-aged woman walked in. "Have you paid the rent? What about the utilities?"
"Uh... I..." Sofia was speechless for a moment.
A grumbling sound came from her stomach. Only then did she realize that she wasn't just hungry in the game; she hadn't eaten in reality for quite some time either.
"Fine, I've cut off your utilities. Pay your rent, then we'll talk." The door shut with a 'thud,' leaving Sofia alone in her room, looking forlorn.
Despite feeling dejected, Sofia couldn't really complain. Although her landlady was fierce in both tone and appearance, she was actually quite generous at heart and had often helped her out.
After some thought, Sofia decided she would first call her good friend to borrow some money.
Grappling with her antiquated phone that had been in service for over five years, Sophia finally managed to dial her best friend Jenny's number after enduring several crashes and intolerable lags.
"Hey, Jenny, I have something to discuss with you," she began.
"Uh... oh... yeah, what is it?" Jenny's voice sounded peculiar, making Sophia slightly uncomfortable.
"Are you busy with something?"
"N-no, not at all! Just say it. You know how incredibly... generous... I am! I never say no to... anyone... Ah!"
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Sophia, with an uneasy feeling, replied, "Yeah, I know you're generous; you're my best friend, after all. The thing is, I need to borrow..."
"Beep beep beep."
The call abruptly ended.
Sophia's frustrated scream reverberated through her room. "What's going on? Can't you be away from your boyfriend even during daylight?" Furious, her eyes bulged, and her mood turned sour.
"Gurgle... gurgle..." Her stomach protested with hunger pangs, reducing Sophia to the brink of tears.
Should she return to her home? She couldn't stomach the thought.
Sell her in-game equipment? That felt like betrayal to Alexander; he had helped her acquire all those virtual assets. Plus, she was out of power anyway.
"What do I do now?" Sophia agonized.
A click and a series of clanking noises filled the room as her old air conditioner stuttered back to life. The power was back.
"Last day today! If you don't pay the rent, get out!" Her landlord's harsh voice echoed from the other side of the door. "Don't forget to come over for dinner tonight; I have some leftover food."
Though the landlord's tone was harsh, warmth flooded Sophia's heart, and her face broke into a radiant smile. "Landlord Auntie really is tough on the outside but soft on the inside," she mused.
A shadow of concern flitted across her face. "Looks like I need to discuss this with Mr. Skeleton, or else..."
She darted to the sink, gulped down some tap water, and donned the gaming headset her friend had given her, plunging back into the virtual world.
Inside the game, less than a minute had passed and Alexander still lay motionless. She noticed alarmingly high indicators for her game character's hunger and thirst levels.
Three hours earlier, she was already in trouble; her outdated headset didn't provide in-game supplies like the newer models. Although she had passed by some water sources in the game, she abstained, fearing she would slow Alexander down.
She knew nothing of Alexander's relentless monster-killing, but didn't want him to see her as a burden, so she had pushed herself to the limit.
Now, due to severe in-game hunger, an alert was triggered, initiating a dizziness mechanism that granted her 20 minutes of offline recovery time. Sophia fainted in front of Alexander in the game.
Nine minutes later, the hollow sockets of Alexander's skeletal face suddenly filled with a crimson flame. His entire skeletal form also took on a blood-red hue, radiating a sanguinary aura.
"Evolution successful!"
"Congratulations on evolving into the Blood Prison Assault Skeleton Captain."
"Acquired the Blood Captain's Blood Armament."
"Detected possession of Ruin-Splicing Boneblade Steel Blade, now upgraded to Ruin-Splicing Blood Armament."
"Acquired Blood Prison Assault Skeleton Captain skills: Bloodlust and Crimson Slaughter."
"Life and Mana increased by 500, Attack and Defense increased by 50 points, Strength and Agility increased by 50 points."
After the system prompts, the flames in Alexander's eye sockets surged upward, their hue deepening to an even more vivid shade of red.
His surroundings morphed; a dark abyss emerged all around him. Confirming that there was no immediate threat, Alexander began to inspect the changes that had come over his own body.
Alexander's entire skeletal frame had transformed from a dull gray to a blood-red color, as if he had just clawed his way out of hell, commanding awe and trepidation from all who beheld him.
On closer inspection, one could see nearly invisible flames of blood clinging to the surface of his bones. Sharp bone spurs had sprouted at the joints of his limbs.
His bone steel blade had also metamorphosed, trading its previous metallic sheen for a blood-red bone blade. Like his skeletal frame, the blade also bore the eerie, clinging flames of blood.
And what was this? A blood-colored cape sprouting from the shoulder blades on his back? This was not a cape in the traditional sense; it seemed to have grown out of his skeletal structure, becoming a part of his own body.
The purpose of this new appendage was a mystery even to Alexander. Experimentally, he gave the cape a slight flick, and in an instant, his blood armament vanished! With another flick, a new one, aflame with crimson fire, reappeared in his hand.
"This cape... is actually a sheath?" Alexander mused, delight filling his heart.
The ingenuity of this sheath was extraordinary. Who would ever suspect a cape? If he were to suddenly draw a weapon from it, his opponents would likely be shocked and unable to react immediately.
"I wonder if it can hold bone arrows?" Taking a bone arrow from the ground, Alexander placed it into the cape. As expected, the arrow disappeared. This makes things much easier.
Before, while using the assault armor, managing the bow and arrow form was the most cumbersome, chiefly because he couldn't carry bone powder with him.
He had to preemptively convert the bone powder into arrows and affix them to his ribs, a process that limited him to carrying only 20 at a time.
Whenever he used them, his skeletal frame would be filled with protruding arrows, a sight that had induced Sophia to giggle more than once. Now, this issue was resolved perfectly!
He checked his stats again.
Name: Alexander
Level: 14 (Experience 31,588/40,000)
Race: Blood Prison Assault Skeleton Captain
Health: 1530
Mana: 1230
Attack: 165 (Strength bonus +50, Ruin-Splicing Blood Armament +90)
Defense: 140
Strength: 50 (Attack bonus +50)
Agility: 80 (Attack Speed: 2.5 seconds per strike, Movement Speed: 1.5 seconds per step)
Active Skills: Bloodlust (1), Assault Armor (2), Quick Slash (8)
Passive Skills: Crimson Slaughter (Non-upgradable), Plunder (Non-upgradable), Split (4)
Evolution Points: 101,588
Enhancement Points: 0
[Bloodlust]
Skill Quality: Rare
Skill Effect: After use, increases attack power by 30% and attack speed by 30% for 30 minutes.
[Crimson Slaughter]
Skill Quality: Rare
Skill Effect: Passive effect with a 5% chance to trigger a death blow, draining 0.1% of the enemy's total health.
Alexander was elated. His overall attributes were approximately five times greater than a Level 14 player equipped with a full set of legendary class gear.
On top of that, he had two rare-level skills. His current attributes far surpassed the top player in the game by more than tenfold. Coupled with such a plethora of skills, he was virtually invincible.
Both rare-level skills were incredibly potent. While Bloodlust’s attack and speed boosts might not seem particularly high, they could stack with Quick Slash, and the skill could be further enhanced with evolution points. Crimson Slaughter was a boss-slaying super skill.
Against true bosses, which often had more than ten times the health of elite monsters, it took a considerable amount of time to whittle down their health, no matter how high one's attack power was.
For instance, when he had previously taken on the ultimate boss, despite having the tenth-highest attack power in the server, it still took him over two hours to secure the kill.
With Crimson Slaughter now at his disposal, Alexander was certain he could cut that time down to just an hour. Though 0.1% might seem insignificant, the ultimate bosses in this game had health points measured in the billions or even trillions.
Triggering Crimson Slaughter could mean draining a whopping 100 billion health points in a single strike!
This extended to special bosses like instance bosses, guild bosses, challenge bosses, and world bosses, all of whom had health points calculated in the billions—a staggering amount of health.
While this skill might not be as impactful in the early stages of the game, it promised to be a game-changer in the endgame.
"Now, let's see how my weapon has evolved," Alexander mused, turning his attention to the attributes of his Blood Prison Blade.