"Talent skill: [Gale Step]?! Wait—is it the same skill I'm thinking of?!"
The moment Liang Chuan saw the talent skill appear, he immediately pulled up the detailed description.
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Skill: [Gale Step]
Effect: Upon activation, enter stealth for 10 seconds.
Attacking breaks stealth and deals 200% damage.
Cooldown: 1 minute
Cost: 10% Spirit
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"Is that really that skill?!"
Liang Chuan grinned so wide it was harder to suppress than rifle recoil.
With [Gale Step], he no longer had to worry about dying!
If he got surrounded by these Abyssal Hilichurls, he could just go invisible and bail out!
He immediately used [Throat Slash] to extract the ability—
his skill bar now had three abilities!
Now that he had a life-saving move, he could start pulling enemies without fear.
Just then, three players came running over, carrying the axes and pickaxes the Hilichurls had been using to chop trees and mine rocks.
Seeing them, Liang Chuan waved his hand.
"Don't worry about me! Just haul the Abyssal Hilichurls I killed over to the Bio-Energy Terminal and start converting them!"
The players obeyed immediately—
they preferred doing grunt work anyway.
After all, facing those monsters head-on was a good way to get sent back to the spawn point.
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Conversion of Hilichurl (Abyssal) successful.
Bio-Energy +9.9
Conversion of Hilichurl (Abyssal) successful.
Bio-Energy +9.9
Conversion…
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Three conversion notifications flashed through Liang Chuan's mind.
His total Bio-Energy now sat at 40.59.
Without hesitation, he chose to summon more players!
–30 Bio-Energy.
Three players descended!
But what happened next almost made him spit blood.
All three new players… were Elementalists.
And not just that—
They were all Fire Elementalists.
According to them,
"Wizards are always the meta."
Water Elementalists were healers.
Wood Elementalists provided crowd control.
And Fire Elementalists had the highest burst damage of all.
So, of course, they all picked fire.
It was "common knowledge" among veteran gamers—
and it had led to the ridiculous situation now before him.
Six players:
Four fire mages, one tank, and one assassin.
Liang Chuan nearly cursed out loud.
"Is this even a human-assembled team?!"
"System! I can specify players when summoning—can I specify their class too?"
System: [You may specify player class type or even exact class, but specifying exact classes will significantly increase summon response time.]
"Just being able to pick the type is enough!
For the next batch, prioritize summoning Tanks, Archers, and Supports.
Supports have the lowest priority—if no Tank or Archer is available, then summon a Support."
System: [Your summon settings have been updated accordingly.]
Liang Chuan nodded in satisfaction.
He had his reasons.
Mages were practically useless early on without strong offensive skills.
Better to form a Tank + Ranged DPS duo and sprinkle in a few supports.
As for those four Fire Mages… they could just fool around for now.
With axes and pickaxes as makeshift weapons, the six players could still put up a fight.
A single Abyssal Hilichurl couldn't last more than a few seconds under their combined assault.
When the Hilichurls counterattacked, [IReallyEatBeef] would step up to tank with his body.
He'd get punched so hard his face twisted in pain—
but his teammates quickly jumped in to finish off the creature.
After killing and converting four more Hilichurls,
Liang Chuan's Bio-Energy reached 50.19.
He spent 40 points to summon four more players.
This time, the results finally met his expectations—
He got a Guardian, a Bodyguard, and two Archers.
He immediately checked their talent skills:
Guardian – [Base Defense]: Increases all stats by 150% while inside base territory.
Bodyguard – [Proxy]: Bind to one player and absorb 25% of their damage.
Archer – [Archery Mastery]: Increases ranged attack accuracy.
Of the three, only the Bodyguard's skill didn't benefit Liang Chuan directly.
The other two were perfect for his current situation.
Now that they were inside the base area,
his own stats were boosted to:
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Physique: 48
Strength: 19.5
Agility: 16.5
Spirit: 15
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With stats like these, he could literally rip an Abyssal Hilichurl apart with his bare hands!
After another round of conversions,
Liang Chuan had built up a ten-player squad.
Facing the Abyssal Hilichurls didn't seem nearly as hopeless anymore—
they finally had the power to fight back!
But just as they were ready to go all out—
A massive silhouette appeared near the base.
It was a Mitachurl—
wielding a gigantic axe.
And judging from the icon on the Global Map,
this one was also corrupted by Abyssal energy!
Liang Chuan's brow furrowed tightly.
A giant-axe Mitachurl—an Abyssal version, no less.
"Just a few swings from that thing and we're all toast…"
"This… yeah, this is the kind of fight you run from."
He took a deep breath, feeling genuinely relieved.
"Good thing I've got [Gale Step] now.
Otherwise, I'd really die here.
Keep the green hills standing—there'll always be firewood to burn later.
Retreating is definitely the smart move right now."
He turned to the players.
"Are you all ready?"
"Ready!" the ten players shouted in unison.
"Good. Then—"
Before he even finished the sentence,
Liang Chuan activated [Gale Step], turned invisible,
and bolted in the opposite direction of the giant Hilichurl.
Leaving ten utterly dumbfounded players behind.