Chapter 28 – Exploring the Era of Twenty

Deadbone was not a skeleton prone to self-pity.

Since the combat style combining these two skills wasn’t stable enough, he would simply find a way to improve it until it became reliable.

Mu Yuan was quite satisfied with the destructive power of this strike.

He had never seen a Professional Tier unit go all out, but he reckoned even a Professional Tier expert would have a hard time taking Deadbone’s attack head-on.

High proficiency Cleave combined with high proficiency Charge truly demonstrated how brute force could create miracles.

Of course, the energy consumption of this strike was also significantly higher than usual.

Not only had Deadbone combined two skills, he had even further increased the energy output of the skills.

“Even if regular rare units possess skills, they can only use them in standard ways. But once a unit awakens spiritual wisdom, they can gradually discover more advanced applications of their skills.”

“For example, increasing energy output when using skills.”

This was no easy task.

Skills were like pre-programmed models – any slight modification could cause the program to crash. To increase a skill’s energy output, the user needed to experiment independently and find the balance point.

Yet Deadbone had not only increased energy output but also combined two different skills.

The difficulty of this went far beyond simply doubling the challenge.

At this level, few units could achieve this, though many veteran players who had used Inheritance Stones could master techniques like energy output adjustment and skill combinations.

After all, players were essentially units with awakened self-awareness, with reference materials available, and the ability to pay experts for guidance. After years of practice, learning these techniques was quite reasonable.

As for Deadbone… well, he did possess the potential of an Emperor. Mastering these techniques in just two or three days seemed equally reasonable…

Reasonable my foot!

Mu Yuan was utterly shocked, while also giving himself credit for his cultivation abilities.

Without the encouragement and treasure expenditures from Lord Mu, could Deadbone have achieved this level?

At best, he’d be halfway there.

Ahem

Of course, Deadbone had consumed considerable resources these past days. Just the precious Replenishing Fruits alone – this skeleton had eaten over ten of them, making Dolai nearby drool with envy.

But precisely because of these Replenishing Fruits, Deadbone’s energy reserves had significantly improved.

Now, using only the Cleave skill, he could execute eight consecutive strikes before running out of energy.

He was no longer the “Three-Shot Skeleton.”

However,

if he combined Cleave with Charge while increasing energy output… well, Deadbone would still only have enough for two strikes.

Still rather short.

Deadbone didn’t care about being short though – he only cared about reliability.

Deadbone took out the Shaman Staff again, waving it to cast Fireball.

Something as simple as Fireball magic – of course he could use it immediately upon acquiring it, and his casting chant was much shorter than a Goblin Shaman’s.

But no matter how short, chanting was still required.

The fireball’s flight speed wasn’t particularly fast either. While the power was sufficient, Deadbone seriously doubted whether this thing could actually kill anyone.

This move wasn’t reliable enough either.

But how could he achieve foolproof reliability? He turned to ask for advice from his reliability mentor, Lord Mu.

Mu Yuan: “…”

Your dedication to reliability surpasses even mine. I can’t teach you, I really can’t teach you anything.Mu Yuan could only continuously search through his memory bank, combining it with his extensive experience of devouring three thousand web novels, finally fabricating… no, finally compiling some reference suggestions.

He relayed them to Deadbone.

Deadbone seemed to have an epiphany.

Mu Yuan wiped his sweat, thinking he had finally managed to gloss over it. Wait a moment, could this skeleton actually comprehend something from that?

……

Deadbone had always been reliable in terms of reliability. Mu Yuan didn’t think Deadbone could come up with anything substantial, but he also didn’t worry about him going astray.

Most of Deadbone’s time was still spent on cultivation, absorbing Soul Sand.

Mu Yuan, on the other hand, tirelessly patrolled the territory over and over again.

Occasionally, he bathed a certain troop type in the light of evolution.

Bone Two evolved under this Miracle Light, becoming the second Skeleton Warrior in the territory.

“Now, the territory has two Skeleton Warriors and twelve Skeleton Soldiers. With this lineup, even a straightforward Charge could easily overwhelm the Goblin Camp from that day.”

“Next, should I evolve more Skeleton Soldiers, promote Bone Three to a warrior, or accumulate a bit more and let Deadbone advance to the next stage?”

“Let’s wait and see, depending on the situation.”

Compared to the skeleton faction, the number of Slimes was smaller, but after nearly half a day of accumulation, it had already reached one unit.

Mu Yuan called over a small Slime that caught his eye.

He also called Dolai over to watch.

Dolai opened its foolishly adorable big eyes. The next moment, white light bloomed, and a tiny Slime rapidly expanded, swelling to about the same size as it.

“Σ(°△°|||) Eek!”

It scurried backward a few steps, but soon couldn’t resist inching forward again, circling around this fellow kin.

“So, did you suddenly learn anything, or have any insights?”

“Guji?”

What insights, guji? It’s just a Slime, guji.

Mu Yuan fell silent.

He shouldn’t have expected anything from a Slime. This Dolai was even dumber than Bone Two! He called Dolai over to see if observing the evolution could help it complete its missing skills.

It sounded somewhat far-fetched, but if it were Deadbone, it might not be impossible.

For a Large Slime, it was just wishful thinking.

After sending the foolishly adorable Dolai away, Mu Yuan turned his attention to the regular Slime before him.

「Prompt: Your troop ‘Slime’ has bathed in Miracle Light and evolved into ‘Large Slime’.」

「Prompt: Large Slime has learned the skill ‘Leap Strike’.」

——

「Leap Strike: Instantly unleashes several times the jumping force, leaping high and crashing down to inflict massive impact damage on enemies.」

“This skill, paired with the Large Slime’s weight, is quite impressive.”

“Sitting down with that kind of force would be unbearable for ordinary monsters… It’s a pity Dolai didn’t acquire this skill.”

Dolai still had promising potential for the future.

However, in a couple of days, he might try letting Dolai evolve to the next stage to see what changes occur.

……

The next day,

Mu Yuan studied the map, gazing at the vast stretches of dark areas outside, and began planning the most efficient scouting routes.

The times were changing.

Before, they could only explore on foot, which was not only slow but also required extreme caution, as he feared accidentally stumbling upon some powerful monster and meeting an immediate end.This wasn’t him scaring himself, nor was it due to Deadbone’s excessive caution rubbing off on him—there were indeed such documented cases.

The player guide “Eighteen Techniques for Beginners” mentioned an excellent whale player from three years ago who had accumulated several rare-tier military units even before the novice trials.

Perhaps due to overly smooth progress or excessive confidence in his own strength, the rookie whale charged forward with his troops, sweeping through surrounding monsters until one day he hit a wall.

He encountered a wandering Black Knight.

The Black Knight slaughtered the whale rookie’s troops as easily as cutting melons and vegetables, finally beheading his game character with one Sword strike under the rookie’s horrified gaze.

To this day, the grass on this textbook rookie’s grave has been harvested crop after crop.

This was indeed an accident, but also resulted from the rookie’s recklessness.

Players as a species cannot afford to be the slightest bit reckless.

Mu Yuan silently engraved this lesson in his mind. Of course, there was no need to share this case with Deadbone—the skeleton was already cautious enough.

“Normal exploration remains challenging, but starting today, the territory will enter Exploration 2.0 era.”

“Let me see your limits, War Falcon!”

A large bird spread its wings and soared, circling twice above the territory before plunging straight into the thick gray mist beyond the village.

The era of aerial reconnaissance had begun.

Thanks to ‘Chen Weimian’ for the 500-coin tip~

(End of Chapter)