Sophia quickly opened her eyes and was stunned to see that the damage floating above Alexander's head was a forced -1.
"Oh my God, when did this skeleton get such insane defense?" She rubbed her eyes in disbelief and looked again at the attributes of the skeleton wolves.
Skeleton Wolf
Level: 3
Attack: 10-12
Defense: 2
Health: 50
Skills: Bite
Summary: Feral skeleton wolves outside the undead village. They maintain their pack behavior from when they were alive, are ferocious, and have average speed.
"It's definitely a level 3 skeleton wolf," Sophia reconfirmed, still in disbelief.
A level 3 wolf with an attack range of 10-12 was only causing 1 point of damage to the skeleton?
"What kind of defense is this? This skeleton is amazing!"
Sophia, now at level 3 with a pathetic 5 defense points even after wearing beginner's cloth armor, marveled at the skeleton's defense exceeding 12 points.
However, she remained alert. Despite his high defense, Alexander attacked slowly and could still be overwhelmed by eight wolves.
Suddenly, her screen displayed:
"-126!"
"Your experience has increased by 10 points."
"-82!"
"Your experience has increased by 10 points."
"-42."
"-126!"
"Your experience has increased by 10 points."
Sophia was dumbfounded. "What's going on? This skeleton seems even stronger than I am."
She watched as Alexander effortlessly killed off the eight skeleton wolves and was left speechless. As she watched Alexander continue to advance toward the next pack of wolves, gaining experience all the while, the excitement in her eyes never ceased.
"The next evolution needs 1000 evolution points. Killing just skeleton wolves will take a while," Alexander thought.
Alexander glanced around, noticing other players starting to appear in the area, and made a decision. He was going to try his luck in the level 5 skeleton bear area.
With players struggling to find monsters in the level 1 wilderness, they're likely to come here like Sophia did, hoping for better luck. Soon, this area will be swarming with players.
The more players, the higher the chance of something going wrong. He can't risk exposing his secret too soon. Who knows how these players will react upon discovering his unique abilities?
Will they openly attack him, gang up, or try to kill him? It's all possible.
While he's currently stronger than most players, players aren't dumb beasts. They won't just stand there and let him attack.
With his slow movement speed, the most likely scenario is that he'll be kited by players. And if surrounded, it would be hard for him to counter-attack. Moreover, players have unlimited lives. If he angers a major guild, his safety would be in serious jeopardy.
On top of that, the experience he gains from the skeleton wolves is diminishing. Now it's just 8 points. So, moving to the level 5 wilderness is the best option.
"Eh, where are you going? This place is great, why are you leaving?"
Sophia realized Alexander was moving again. This amazing skeleton, capable of single-handedly fighting off eight wolves, is leaving just as they should be farming experience and leveling up.
"Oh my God, he's heading towards the area with the level 5 skeleton bears?"Sophia was full of curiosity and concern.
She watched Alexander cut down wolves effortlessly, his experience constantly rising. But she was also worried.
"Why take the risk with level 5 skeleton bears? Why not play it safe? I apologize for thinking you were cautious; can we level up slowly, please?"
Sophia followed behind Alexander, her fists clenched and her face pleading. She felt neglected as Alexander completely ignored her.
"Roar!" A bear roar resounded.
A level 5 skeleton bear had noticed them.
Skeleton Bear
Level: 5
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Attack: 15-30
Defense: 5
Health: 100
Skills: Roar
Summary: Wild bears in Bear Mountain that turned into skeletons after death. They are incredibly strong, have high attacks but slow attack speed.
Sophia's face turned even more worried, but Alexander didn't seem to care.
"It's over, it's over, how can the Skeleton Bear have such a high attack? How do even fight this?" Sofia quickly summoned ten undead skeletons to take the hits, but they were swatted away by the Skeleton Bear in seconds.
Alexander, however, didn't seem to care. He carefully examined his stats panel.
"Evolve Quick Slash skill!"
"Congratulations, you've spent 100 evolution points to level up your Quick Slash skill to level two."
He suddenly realized that he could also evolve skills using evolution points!
Skill: Quick Slash (Level 2)
Increases attack speed by 60%, lasts 10 minutes, consumes 10 mana points.
Great, the attack speed increased from 30% to 60%!
"Evolve again!"
"Congratulations, you've spent 200 evolution points to level up your Quick Slash skill to level three."
Level three Quick Slash kept other effects the same but increased attack speed to 90%!
With this, he had used up all his recently earned evolution points, but the effect was astonishing.
Alexander muttered an incantation, and the skill effect activated. Suddenly, his attack speed became one hit every 1.58 seconds. Much faster.
Alexander slowly approached the Skeleton Bear.
"Roar!"The Skeleton Bear let out a low growl as if warning him.
"You are affected by the Skeleton Bear's roar, your attack is reduced by 10%."
"A roar has this effect?" Intrigued, Alexander slightly picked up his pace.
Next moment!
Just as the Skeleton Bear was about to swat him with its paw, Alexander dodged and slashed at the bear's hind leg joint!
"Crack!"
"-39."
Not much health was lost, but Alexander's strike had severed the bear's leg, causing it to fall.And as it fell to its right, Alexander swung his blade at its neck, severing the head!
Critical hit! Double damage!
"-78!"
"Congratulations, you've gained 30 experience points, 30 evolution points."
After using the Quick Slash skill, the speed factor played a huge role.He had killed the Skeleton Bear without taking any damage.
Sofia watched in awe.
"This skeleton, this aggro pulling technique, it's multiple times better than mine!"
"That blade technique, that speed..."
"This skeleton must have mutated!"
"How on earth did he do that?"
Watching Alexander's amazing one-hit kill of the Skeleton Bear, Sofia mimicked the moves with her hands, mumbling to herself.
"First, draw the Skeleton Bear's aggro, wait for it to stand upright and swing its paw, then dodge."
"Then, slash its leg joint, severing the leg. When it falls, decapitate it, triggering a critical hit..."
"Is this even possible?"
Previously, she watched as Alexander effortlessly slaughtered the skeleton bears on Bear Mountain, just like slicing vegetables. This gave her a bold idea.
She thought, "If Alexander can do it so easily, can I?"
But... What seemed simple in Alexander's actions was the result of prolonged practice, top-tier awareness, and experience.
When Sofia tried, her mind thought she had learned, her eyes believed they understood, but her limbs betrayed her.
She couldn't manage the aggression range of the skeleton bears, attracting three at once and nearly being sent back to her respawn point.
Even when she only attracted one, full of confidence, she tried to dodge its blow, but was sent flying several meters, landing painfully on a rock. This made her realize the vast gap between her skills and the skeleton bear's.
For three hours, Sofia swung between confusion, joy, and disappointment.
By then, her level had reached 7. Checking the leaderboard, she was far ahead of every other player.
First place: Level 7, Sofia.
Second place: Level 6, Anthony.
Third place: Level 5, Tony.
Only those level 5 and above were listed. In three and a half hours, only these three players reached such heights. She was number one.
"Did I actually surpass one of the 'Twelve True Gods', Anthony?" she thought in disbelief.
Anthony, renowned as a gaming deity and one of the 'Twelve True Gods', was known for his relentless leveling.
In his words, "In my life, I have money, people, skills, strength — I feel like I have everything. Yet, I find no genuine happiness. Life is so mundane and dull, only leveling up in games brings me fulfillment and excitement."
Such was the caliber of this legend who spent every day immersed in gaming, expending all resources just for the thrill of leveling up and dominating the leaderboards of various games.
Yet, a mere average player surpassed him?
With the assistance of a skeleton, she became the top-ranked player in the server! She surpassed the God of Rankings, Anthony!
As an ordinary gamer, she once dared not dream of such a feat. The Twelve Great Gods of the online gaming world were entities she used to only look up to. Now, she's ahead of them all.
Sofia gazed at Alexander, slaying the skeletal bear with admiration in her eyes. Now, she had become a mere cheerleader standing behind Alexander.
"Could this skeleton be the reincarnation of my idol, Alexander? Why are his maneuvers and skills so outstanding?"
Alexander was her idol from the past. Sofia always saw Alexander as the benchmark she aimed to surpass. His gaming skills and intuitive strategies once swept all major games, constantly topping their respective leaderboards, and was hailed as the Ladder's Great Demon King.
Once, in a game with 60% realism, he singlehandedly created sixteen professions, leveled all of them to the max, and subsequently climbed to the top of the ladder leaderboard with each!
He was a legendary figure even before the era of the Twelve Great Gods. Had it not been for a tragic accident caused by someone's treachery, which severely injured him, the so-called Twelve Great Gods would merely be in his shadow.
To this day, her greatest admiration still lies with this legend, Alexander. Alas, just a week ago, tragic news spread on Twitter: The once-mighty Alexander, due to excessive late-night gaming, had suddenly passed away.
Upon hearing this, Sofia was devastated. She cried relentlessly for three days and nights, unable to recover.
"Sigh, if only the Great Demon King could reincarnate." Sofia looked at the skeleton fighting solo, a deep sadness in her heart.
Of course, she knew such a thing was impossible; it was just a fanciful thought.
How could one be so fortunate as to reincarnate into a game world after death, and coincidentally become the skeleton she summoned?
The very idea seemed absurd.