Death City?
Seeing the prompt pop up, Gu Xi was also taken aback.
He clearly remembered that during class, he learned that Death City, alongside Death Lords and Death Avatar, is called the Undead Mage's Three Divine Skills at the beginning.
[Death Lord: All neutral undead creatures in the wild (excluding Black Rider and Mummy) will join the player's troops, with an initial joining rate of 50%. The Death Lord skill increases the joining rate by 2% with each level up.]
With the Death Lord skill, when you have no troops at hand, you just need to take a spin in a graveyard or undead type of game or dungeon, and your troops will be replenished swiftly upon return, faster than expanding the army with Soul Summoning Skill.
[Death Avatar: The player can spend all their mana to summon a Death Avatar on the battlefield. The Death Avatar's level is the player's level +8, and at certain levels, it has various traits.]
For instance, at Level 1 the Death Avatar possesses undead creature attributes, at Level 5 it has the curse attack special skill, at Level 9 it gains the no physical body trait, at Level 13 it has the death fear trait (all enemy troops' morale -1), at Level 17 it has the grief attack trait (target's morale and luck -2 when attacked), at Level 21 it has the life drain trait, and at Level 25 it has the deadly strike trait.
With a Death Avatar, it's like having a powerful bodyguard by your side, almost invincible in its own way.
To be considered on par with these two awesome skills, Death City naturally has its awesome properties.
[Death City: The player controls a personal portable Undead City, with the city level limit being the player's level +8, and at certain levels, the Death City will provide support to the player in different ways.]
For example, at Level 1, you can open the city gates of Death City to rapidly aid the player's undead corps, at Level 5 you can deploy a Soul Summoning Tower on the battlefield to aid the player's Soul Summoning Skill by absorbing battlefield souls, and at Level 9, directly send the city wall and moat to the battlefield, etc.
If a player starts with Death City, they are almost invincible in large-scale campaigns.
After all, they can always turn a field battle into a siege fight.
This is a super-strong skill that even tens of thousands of Undead Mages might not randomly start with.
Initially, Gu Xi never thought he would encounter such an opportunity when taking the position.
In his idea, successfully getting the job and returning would already count as mission accomplished.
Encountering something like Soul Hunter or a death-and-rebirth type of special skill would already be a bonus.
But now, with one of the Three Divine Skills before him, Gu Xi's eyes turned red.
He drew out the curved saber, raised it above his head, "Gather everyone, prepare to engage."
At Gu Xi's command, all the skeletons turned to look at him.
At this moment, Gu Xi was no longer concerned with them; instead, he took out the Deceitful Energy Pearl previously retrieved from the Skeleton Boss and distributed it among the four Skeleton Bosses.
"Strengthen yourselves rapidly, we have a tough battle ahead. Also, do not idle; go demolish nearby houses and set up roadblocks. The enemy might be numerous, don't let them get close."
The Skeleton Bosses even considered handing over the Deceitful Energy Pearls they acquired in the previous fight to Gu Xi.
Now seeing Gu Xi directly distributing the Deceitful Energy Pearls, they simply held onto theirs, rapidly fortifying their weapons or bodies. The combat squads that lost skeletons swiftly replenished their numbers from the stragglers.
After distributing the items, Gu Xi finally had a moment to glance at his troops.
He discovered that during his brief time inside the small building, the skeletons had already undergone a great battle.
The enemy levels were relatively high, but their combat experience was limited.
They weren't as stiff as the Black Robe Cultists previously killed, who only reacted when hit, but almost as bad.
They would only attack enemies blocking their path; if you didn't stop them from advancing, even if you followed behind and hacked at them, they wouldn't counterattack.
Initially, the skeletons blocked these Deceitful Shadows and clashed, losing more than twenty skeletons.
It was only after discovering the Deceitful Shadows' attack pattern that their losses slowly dwindled.
However, the previous losses were irrecoverable, and most importantly, these Deceitful Shadows left no corpses upon death, making many of Gu Xi's methods unusable.
It's important to note that many of the Undead Mage's skills require a corpse.
Without bodies, Gu Xi couldn't even use Summoning, let alone his forte, Corpse Burst.
Watching the skeletons busy themselves, Gu Xi's expression grew somewhat grim.
At this very moment, from the other side of the street, a strange sound was heard.
Gu Xi turned his gaze in that direction and found about three hundred black silhouettes clustering together, advancing toward him and his group.
These black silhouettes didn't appear special, but Gu Xi discerned some differences from their movements.
The black silhouettes were evidently more agile, and most had weapons of some sort in their hands.
However, contrary to normal understanding, the weapons these black silhouettes wielded were actually limbs from their own kind.
And amidst this group, one particularly tall black silhouette carried a long spear made up of over ten arms.
It was clear that this should be the boss among the black silhouettes.
"Combat squad, prepare yourselves, the rest of the skeletons, what are you standing around for, set up those roadblocks."
While keeping an eye on the advancing direction and speed of the black silhouettes, Gu Xi commanded his subordinates to prepare for battle.
Having just absorbed more Deceitful Energy Pearls, although the combat squad hadn't significantly leveled up, their weaponry or physique had improved.
Some skeletons even acquired light armor on their bodies, notably the four bosses, whose armor was already quite complete.
This demonstrates that Gu Xi's skeletons are constantly growing.
"No corpses, so be it, it's just the beginning, getting a start is enough. Even if all are sacrificed, as long as I can obtain a Divine Skill, I wouldn't mind."
Gu Xi mentally braced himself, then lifted his head, pointing the curved saber forward.
"Combat Squad 3, long spears, charge!"
Under Gu Xi's command, Combat Squad 3 moved forward swiftly, heading to a spot where the roadblocks weren't yet in place.
This combat squad wielded long spears, and once halted, they quickly formed two rows, under the direction of the Skeleton Boss, lowering their spears to face the oncoming black silhouettes.
"Thrust!"