The wind is warm and the flowers fragrant, the sun is just right, and the family is in harmony.
Unknowingly, the taut strings of Fang Zhou's heart slowly relaxed.
For the past half month, he had been voraciously absorbing the knowledge from Sea City Military Academy while controlling his skeleton clone to explore and slaughter in the Undead Realm.
The mental pressure was indeed quite significant.
Snatching a small half-day of leisure amidst the busyness, he vaguely felt that his soul seemed to have become much tougher.
...
In the afternoon, after watching the training equipment being installed at the welfare home, Fang Zhou bid farewell to Grandma Yun and the two reluctant little girls, and returned to the Sea City Military Academy.
Sitting cross-legged on his dormitory bed, he focused his attention on the skeleton clone.
After more than an hour of continuous fighting, he finally felt a sense of fatigue.
Fang Zhou estimated silently, his continuous combat time had increased by a fifth compared to the previous hour.
Alternating work and rest, the way of civil and military skills.
The ancients truly didn't deceive me, Fang Zhou sighed in his heart.
Having accumulated another batch of Soul Power, Fang Zhou decisively exchanged for the apprentice-level skill of the Undead Mage, [Touch of Corrosion].
As a series of skill projections appeared on his personal terminal, changes were made in the Skills Bar of the attribute panel.
"Detected sufficient skill materials to perfect the skill, expected to consume 10 points of Soul Power."
"Proceed with perfection?"
Fang Zhou immediately confirmed.
With a burst of inspiration, Fang Zhou quickly mastered the casting principle of the [Touch of Corrosion] skill.
Both Touch of Corrosion and Skeleton Flying Spear are products of undead mana, so there is a possibility of complementary advantages.
If so, attribute panel, deduce it for me!
"Successfully perfected skill [Skeleton Flying Spear]!"
[Skeleton Flying Spear] (Apprentice-level, Skilled): Condenses a skeleton flying spear to hurl at enemies, possessing armor-piercing physical damage, corrosive poison damage, and death energy damage. The number, power, and range are determined by Spirit Attribute and Skill Proficiency.
The triple-damage attribute of the white Skeleton Flying Spear, if tested using a dummy, the attack ability is estimated to breach a hundred.
Fang Zhou nodded in satisfaction, his offensive capability had once again experienced a small leap.
He organized his knowledge once more, and both his clone and the main body had relatively complete combat systems, with practical abilities already being sufficient for now.
Next, the main body needs to work hard to increase the Spirit Attribute, break through to Middle Rank Apprentice, and elevate the [Summon Skeleton] skill to [Instinct] Proficiency.
Meanwhile, the clone needs to hunt frantically to quickly advance to the Black Iron Tier, providing more attributes to nourish the main body.
...
Ten days later, Burial Wilderness.
Spirit +0.01, Soul Power +0.2.
In the white fog, the jawbone of Fang Zhou's skeleton clone moved slightly, emitting a piercing friction sound.
These days, he hunted day after day in the Burial Wilderness.
With four-dimensional attributes far surpassing ordinary skeletons, powerful skills, coupled with the deadly weapon of a skeleton long spear, Fang Zhou was invincible even when facing countless strong skeletons of Middle Rank Apprentice strength.
Every stab of the skeleton long spear contained such immense power that it was enough to tear apart a Middle Rank Apprentice skeleton into a pile of bones.
After hunting hundreds of strong skeletons, Fang Zhou finally raised all four-dimensional attributes to 10.
"Four-dimensional attributes have reached the skeletal racial limit, receiving the Undead Realm blessing!"
Suddenly, a dense blood moon light was guided down, gathering on the skeleton clone.
Just as Fang Zhou was filled with uncertainty, a hint from the attribute panel appeared.
Undead Realm blessing? He looked at the attribute panel and indeed there was a new change in the skill column.
[Skeleton Monarch] (Apprentice-level, Instinct): A blessing from the will of the Undead Realm to the strong, only the mightiest individuals of the skeleton race have the chance to receive it. Slightly increases damage dealt to skeletons and their evolutionary species, and slightly reduces damage received.
"Attributes have reached the racial limit? No wonder my strength has been stuck at 10 points for so long."
Fang Zhou carefully read the description of this skill, feeling very excited in his heart.
He is about to evolve from a skeleton to a Skeleton Warrior; his future hunting targets will naturally become Black Iron level Skeleton Warriors.
Whether it's Skeleton Warriors or Skeleton Archers, are evolutionary species of skeletons and will naturally be affected by [Skeleton Monarch].
This will undoubtedly be very helpful for him to improve his efficiency in grinding levels later.
Moreover, this is yet another skill that has reached [Instinct] Proficiency.
According to the experience with Skeleton Armament, by consuming a small amount of Soul Power, Fang Zhou can deduce it into a skill usable by the main body.
Fang Zhou was pondering the direction for deducing the [Skeleton Monarch] skill when a pleasure from the depths of his soul almost caused him to lose himself.
"Detected four-dimensional attributes have reached the racial limit, Soul Power can be consumed to initiate racial evolution."
"Current race Apprentice-level [Skeleton], evolution direction Black Iron level [Skeleton Warrior], estimated to consume 100 points of Soul Power."
"Commence evolution?"
Fang Zhou looked up at the blood moon, the auspicious time had come, begin evolution!
With the consumption of Soul Power, countless deposits of essence in the bones surged through Fang Zhou's body.
Memories of the past twenty or so days of hunting and growth churned in his mind, and he had an epiphany.
The Path of Death is the Path of Slaughter.
The Path of Slaughter is the Path of Evolution.
"[Skeleton Warrior] evolution succeeded, four-dimensional attributes underwent a transitional leap."
A few minutes later, Fang Zhou's Soul Fire flickered as he emerged from the pleasure of evolution.
He looked at the attribute panel; strength, constitution, agility, and spirit—these four-dimensional attributes were no longer limited by the Apprentice-level limit of 10 points, and all underwent a significant leap.
The current attributes of the skeleton clone are strength 30, constitution 30, agility 30, spirit 30.
According to Fang Zhou's estimation, even among all the lower Black Iron Skeleton Warriors, the attributes of the recently evolved skeleton clone are considered upper-middle.
Not to mention, the clone's attribute surge will also feed back to the main body.
Fang Zhou was about to check the main body's attribute panel when he heard another pleasant prompt.
"Racial evolution, talent enhancement, new Skeleton Armament can be acquired."
Fang Zhou looked at the clone's skill bar; indeed, the [Skeleton Armament] skill had been upgraded from Apprentice-level to Black Iron-level.
He had a realization in his heart; with each major Tier breakthrough, he could condense a piece of exclusive equipment belonging to himself through Skeleton Armament.
So, what kind of equipment should he craft?
Shield, javelin, bow and arrow, short dagger...
Fang Zhou pondered for a moment and then made his choice.
He planned to forge a set of his own Skeleton Armor!
In terms of attack, with the skeleton long spear and various powerful Combat Skills from human civilization, crushing a bare Black Iron-level skeleton should be more than sufficient.
However, in terms of defense, his skeleton clone still had a shortcoming when facing Skeleton Warriors or Skeleton Archers who also possessed [Skeleton Armament].
Firming his mind, Fang Zhou activated the [Skeleton Armament] skill.