After upgrading the Gold Bone Sword to Tier 8, the weapon's material transformed, becoming a Crystal Bone Sword.
Simultaneously, Ares unlocked his spine and immediately invested all his remaining evolution points into it, boosting it to Tier 6.
As he had anticipated, the spine significantly enhanced his defense.
[Name: Ares]
[Race: Human]
[Status: Skeleton]
[Identity: NPC]
[Faction Hunt: Human Players: 100]
[Reputation: Human Faction -1000, Undead Faction +1000, Demon Faction +0, Divine Faction +0, Dragon Faction -100000000]
[Note: Killing a player from a faction decreases reputation by 10. Helping a faction's players with various tasks can earn reputation points. The lower the reputation, the higher the hostility from that faction, reducing the chance of gaining experience and loot. Conversely, higher reputation increases loot chances.]
Attributes:
[Level: 7]
[Attack: 3221]
[Strength: 4437]
[Defense: 1221]
[Agility: 3437]
[Magic: 1221]
[Intelligence: 10]
[Health: ∞]
[Inventory: Available Space 2/10000]
Body Evolution:
[Crystal Bone Sword: Tier 8, 10,000,000 evolution points needed for next tier]
[Golden Bone Right Arm: Tier 7, 1,000,000 evolution points needed for next tier]
[Golden Bone Left Arm: Tier 7, 1,000,000 evolution points needed for next tier]
[Golden Bone Right Leg: Tier 7, 1,000,000 evolution points needed for next tier]
[Golden Bone Left Leg: Tier 6, 100,000 evolution points needed for next tier]
[Golden Bone Skull: Tier 6, 100,000 evolution points needed for next tier]
[White Bone Spine: Tier 6, 100,000 evolution points needed for next tier]
Traits:
[Talent 1: Infinite Evolution (UR Grade)]
[Infinite Evolution: Leveling efficiency decreased by 99.99%, but defeating enemies grants evolution points to enhance personal strength.]
[Talent 2: Invincible (GR Grade)]
[Invincible: Personal strength receives a boost equal to 2 raised to the power of the level.]
Ares watched as his once-golden bone sword transformed into a crystal-like structure, the flames in his eye sockets flickering with joy.
Although his attack attribute only increased by 1000 points, the boost from his second talent meant his power had surged significantly. And his defense had finally reached a respectable baseline.
Eagerly, he charged into the wild creature horde, pulling wave after wave, cutting them down with a single swing. Evolution points flowed in like a river, and his body showed no signs of wear.
The creatures couldn't get close, and even if one or two slipped through, their minor attacks were negligible. His defense attribute completely negated such small damage.
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In two hours, Ares had swept the entire wild zone, clearing all creatures except for a few wild bosses. Not a single one was left standing. He managed to upgrade his right arm to Tier 8, adding another 1000 points to his strength.
However, wild creatures took time to respawn, and the higher their level, the slower the respawn rate.
After two sweeps, Ares found that the zone couldn't keep up with his clearing speed. Fewer creatures meant slower leveling.
So, when he passed by an instance, he turned and entered without hesitation.
The scenery changed abruptly from lush green plains to a misty swamp.
[Instance: Nether Swamp] & Solo Mode!
[This was once an ancient battlefield where countless heroic souls fell. They are trapped here, wailing in the depths of the swamp, longing for a hero to release their souls and grant them peace. Every traveler who enters is haunted by these ghosts, and those with weak wills gradually fall and become one of them. Great hero, do you dare to accept this daunting task, uncover the truth of their imprisonment, and free their souls?]
Ares read the instance's background description and chose "Yes" without hesitation.
The panel disappeared, and the instance's light dimmed to pitch black, making it impossible to see anything. The only sound was the soul-piercing wails echoing from all directions.
In the darkness, the steady flicker of the flames in Ares' eye sockets stood out. His eye flames were like beacons in the night, drawing countless ghosts like moths to a flame.
Ares felt the wailing grow louder, as if an endless stream of ghosts was converging on him. He raised his sword and casually swung it forward. The wails turned to shrieks, and the next second, Ares received a notification of evolution points gained.
To his surprise, the evolution points here seemed more abundant. Unable to see the ghosts, Ares swung his sword in a circle around himself, executing a 360-degree attack. The area around him quickly cleared, the wails ceased, and he gained 1200 evolution points!
He had noticed earlier that there were at least a hundred ghosts here. This was a level 30 zone instance, and players had mentioned that the creatures inside matched the outside levels but with doubled attributes.
Outside were regular creatures; inside were elite.
There was also talk of a more challenging Hell Mode.
However, one had to clear the instance once to unlock Hell Mode. In Hell Mode, creature attributes would skyrocket, but so would experience and loot chances.
The darkness was a hindrance, but Ares wasn't deterred.
He felt around for a nearby dead tree, pulled it up, and carved a groove with his crystal bone sword. He then cut a branch as thick as his arm, stuffed it with leaves, and used the branch to create friction.
With his high agility and strength, sparks quickly flew from the branch. Soon, with a "whoosh," the branch caught fire. The torch was made.
Starting a fire with friction wasn't hard. As long as the speed was fast enough, even damp wood could ignite.
Ares swept the torch around, revealing a pile of materials—ores, plants, and some D-grade equipment.
The lowest F-grade white equipment provided one smelting stone when melted. Green E-grade equipment gave two, and so on.
Blue D-grade gave three.
But from purple C-grade upwards, smelting wasn't worth it for low-level players. Even red A-grade, which doubled to 10 smelting stones, wasn't worth it.
A-grade gear wasn't easy to farm in instances unless one tackled Hell Mode.
Above A-grade were even more powerful S, SS, and SSS-grade gear.
Rumor had it there were god-tier items beyond SSS, but no one had ever seen them.