After a fierce battle, Hu Tao lost 11 Skeletons and completely wiped out the opposing group of over thirty Zombies.
[Necromancy activated. 7 Skeletons have joined your army.]
"…Huh? Why so many?"
Hu Tao blinked in confusion.
Didn't Basic Necromancy only convert 10% of the fallen enemies into Skeletons?
So why were there four extra?
"That's strange… Could it be that Necromancy isn't calculated by headcount, but by total HP?"
She thought it over, but the numbers still didn't quite line up.
In the end, Hu Tao arrived at a single, terrifying conclusion—
Necromancy was based on numbers, but HP was being factored in as a modifier.
She lost 11 Skeletons and gained 7 back.
Which meant…
She only lost 4 Skeletons in total.
Staring at the Skeleton count on her panel, Hu Tao felt like she'd just grasped something extremely important.
"…Let's test it."
"Charge!!"
Once Hu Tao broke free of her earlier predicament, the wilderness became a disaster zone.
Every strange monster she encountered—wolves, beasts, aberrations—fell beneath the relentless tide of Skeleton blades.
"Wahahahaha! Why even bother building cities?! As long as I've got Skeletons, there's nothing I can't bulldoze!"
The nonstop slaughter quickly pushed Hu Tao to Level 7, upgrading her Necromancy from Basic to Advanced and massively boosting conversion efficiency.
Looking at her panel—
Over 400 Skeletons.
Hu Tao felt invincible.
No wild monster could withstand even a single charge from her army.
Her resources piled up at an absurd rate as well. After all, no one else could farm the wilderness like she could.
Other players, when facing higher-tier monsters, had to carefully weigh their losses. If the cost was too high, they'd detour and come back later.
Hu Tao?
She didn't care.
Whatever it was—
It died.
"You kill some of mine, I'll just get them back later."
"Even if I lose a few, I'll just go bully weaker monsters and refill my Skeletons."
As a result, Hu Tao had become the richest player on Teyvat's side.
But even she ran into a problem.
She had no mercury.
Wood, ore, crystal, sulfur—she had everything.
Except mercury.
And Necropolis just so happened to be a mercury-hungry city.
This meant that aside from Skeletons, she couldn't recruit anything else.
Luckily, she had finished building a Marketplace.
[Hu Tao: Uh… does anyone have mercury?]
[Yae Miko: Oh~ three hours in and you already have a marketplace?]
[Hu Tao: Hmph! Not just a marketplace—I've got a Capitol!]
[Xiangling: WHAT?! How did you do that?!]
[Keqing: That's impossible. How did you build a Capitol in just three hours?!]
Everyone was stunned.
A Capitol didn't just give 4,000 gold per day—it also required 10,000 goldand the prior construction of a Castle.
Wasn't Hu Tao the one who'd been trapped at her gate earlier?
How did she suddenly become this rich?!
[Raiden Ei: …How did you pull that off?]
[Hu Tao: Farming monsters and taking resources? What—can't you guys do that?]
Pure smugness.
Utter, shameless smugness.
Serves you right for laughing at me earlier—now look who's the boss.
[Zhongli: ...]
[Nahida: ...]
[Furina: ...…]
No one had anything to say.
[Alhaitham: Director Hu Tao, I have mercury—I can give it to you. But I'd like to ask… what exactly are you commanding?]
[Hu Tao: Just Skeletons.]
[Furina: Skeletons are… this strong?]
[Xiangling: That can't be right. I fought them before—they were easy.]
[Beidou: Yeah. Even with Wyverns, I can't grab resources this fast.]
[Hu Tao: How many Wyverns do you have?]
[Beidou: Two. Why?]
[Hu Tao: I've got over 400 Skeletons.]
[Zhongli: ...]
[Raiden Ei: ...]
There was no arguing with that.
Most players barely had under 100 Tier-1 units.
And Hu Tao?
Four hundred.
[Nahida: Director Hu Tao… are you able to recruit Skeletons from fallen enemies?]
After thinking for a long time, this was the only explanation Nahida could come up with.
Necropolis had looked so ominous that it'd been unanimously avoided at the start. No one really understood its mechanics.
But seeing Hu Tao now…
[Hu Tao: Yep! My Skeletons just keep increasing the more I fight.]
[Xiangling: I'm so jealous… they just keep growing.]
[Hu Tao: Serves you right for not choosing Necropolis.]
[Xiangling: I regret everything… I should've listened to you.]
Xiangling was on the verge of tears.
If she'd chosen Necropolis too, Teyvat's side would already have over 800 Skeletons.
[Zhongli: Director Hu Tao, may I see your unit tree?]
[Hu Tao: Sure, go ahead.]
They were allies anyway—Hu Tao wasn't worried about sharing.
She uploaded a screenshot.
"…Hmm. Why does it look so… underwhelming?"
Zhongli stared at the image, puzzled.
By all logic, a city's Tier-7 units were supposed to be its ultimate trump cards.
So why did Necropolis's Bone Dragons and Ghost Dragons look so mediocre?
Were these really Tier-7 units?
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