Zane hurriedly opened his personal status panel.
[Name: Zane]
[Identity: Lord of the Howling Castle]
[Combat Power: 15]
[Unlocked Talent: Vampiric Touch — The Host can, through physical contact, steal others' Vitality and Spirit and use it for themselves.]
[Negative Emotion Points Collected: 106 points; Negative Emotion Points Available: 56 points]
[Unlockable Talents:
1.Enhance Vampiric Touch — requires 50 Negative Emotion Points to unlock
2.Gargoyle's Skin — requires 50 Negative Emotion Points to unlock
3.Curse of the Black Wizard — requires 100 Negative Emotion Points to unlock]
At this moment, the only Talent he could unlock was Gargoyle's Skin. Judging by the name alone, this Talent should be a defensive skill.
Actually, for Zane right now, defensive skills were somewhat redundant since, up to this point, he didn't have to face anyone head-on.
But having more skills was always better; after all, who knew how strong that Chris's trump card really was?
So without a second thought, Zane used his only fifty-six available Negative Emotion Points to unlock the Gargoyle's Skin Talent.
[Ding! The Host has successfully unlocked the Talent: Gargoyle's Skin!]
As the system's voice rang out, Zane suddenly felt as if his skin was covered in a layer of stone armor, but the sensation faded instantly. The next moment, he returned to normal.
"Is that it?" Zane found it strange and glanced at his personal status panel again.
[Name: Zane]
[Identity: Lord of the Howling Castle]
[Combat Power: 20]
[Unlocked Talents:
Vampiric Touch — The Host can, through physical contact, steal others' Vitality and Spirit and use it for themselves.
Gargoyle's Skin — When the Host suffers a fatal attack, Gargoyle's Skin activates automatically, hardening the Host's skin to prevent death. This skill has a cooldown of three days after activation.]
[Negative Emotion Points Collected: 106 points; Negative Emotion Points Available: 6 points]
[Unlockable Talents:
1.Enhance Vampiric Touch — requires 50 Negative Emotion Points to unlock
2.Blood Curse — requires 100 Negative Emotion Points to unlock
3.Curse of the Black Wizard — requires 100 Negative Emotion Points to unlock]
He hadn't expected Gargoyle's Skin to be a passive skill, essentially giving Zane a piece of resurrection armor.
Well, having a life-saving skill like this was definitely not bad.
Just as Zane was quietly pleased, the system's voice rang out again.
[Congratulations! The Host has spent 100 Negative Emotion Points! Achievement unlocked: Rookie Debut!]
[System Reward: Talent Three — Curse of the Black Wizard — unlocked for free for the Host!]
What? There was even an achievement system? And the system just gave him a Talent worth a full 100 Negative Emotion Points for free?
This system didn't seem so terrible after all!
Zane was ecstatic. The next second, a black magic book suddenly appeared out of thin air before him. On the cover was a large skull, glowing faintly with a pale purple light, enticing Zane to reach out and touch it.
Zane inexplicably reached out and touched the black magic book.
The moment his hand made contact with the book, an ancient and evil voice suddenly echoed in his mind, chanting a spell in a language he couldn't understand at all.
[Ding! Host has successfully unlocked the Talent: Curse of the Black Wizard.]
[Curse of the Black Wizard: The Host can cast the Curse of the Black Wizard on intelligent creatures within a 500-meter radius. Creatures afflicted by this curse have their agility reduced by 5%, and upon death, can be resurrected as skeleton guards! Using this skill consumes 10 Spirit points each time.]
So this Curse of the Black Wizard was basically a debuff applied to enemies.
Reducing agility by 5% sounded like a mediocre effect, but resurrecting as skeleton guards...
Was this really saying he could build his own undead army?
The corner of Zane's mouth twitched as he held back a laugh.
But what was Spirit anyway? He hadn't noticed that attribute on his panel before.
Zane hurriedly pulled up his personal panel again and discovered that, below his combat power attributes, there really was a new attribute called Spirit!
But he currently had only a pitiful ten Spirit points…
Well, ten points was ten points — at least enough to use the skill once.
If he was going to use it, he had to make it count!
So Zane shifted his gaze toward the suspension bridge in the inner Outer City, where the battle was still raging.
Although the vanguard's numbers had been reduced from ten at the start to eight now due to casualties,
those eight fighters, aside from Chris, probably all bore a death wish! So they were fighting with exceptional bravery!
As for Chunk of Flesh and Evan, the two of them had already received Zane's orders early on not to kill Bart and Chris directly, but those two were the bravest fighters in the vanguard's forward squad, so for the time being, neither side could gain the upper hand.
Evan used his sharp teeth and claws to hold the eight knights in place head-on, while Chunk of Flesh continued to move stealthily through the shadows and occasionally launched a few unexpected fireballs from hidden spots!
Seeing this, Zane was somewhat surprised.
He hadn't expected Chunk of Flesh to be not just an assassin, but a mage-assassin!
"He looked kind of goofy before, but his fighting style is actually so graceful. I really underestimated him. Looks like I need to dig deeper into his potential from now on!"
However, as time went on, maybe in two or three hours, dawn would break, and Chunk of Flesh's advantage would disappear.
"Looks like I have to join the fight."
Zane dusted off his clothes and headed toward the suspension bridge.
On the suspension bridge, after dodging another cold arrow shot from the shadows by Chunk of Flesh, Bart felt somewhat puzzled inside.
He was certain that Chunk of Flesh had more than one chance to deal him a deadly blow, yet every time, he waited until Bart noticed him before releasing the Fireball Spell.
"Strange... why is that?"
Bart thought briefly and came up with two possible reasons.
One was that Chunk of Flesh didn't want to kill him, and the other was that Chunk of Flesh might be restricted by certain rules, meaning he could only attack after Bart had discovered him.
But in the next second, Bart dismissed the first possibility.
He simply couldn't understand what reason such a disgusting monster would have to spare his life.
Since it wasn't the first possibility, the only option left was the second...
So Bart shouted loudly to the Vanguard.
"Don't bother with that guy hiding in the shadows! Let's focus on taking down this damned Ghoul first!"
Although Chris held a higher position than Bart, when he heard Bart's order, he was the first to act. He let out a fierce roar and rushed to Evan's side, firmly grabbing one of Evan's arms. Then he shouted to the others nearby.
"I need two more people here to control his claws! The other claw needs a few people to hold it down too! As long as one person can chop off his head, that's all we need!"
Everyone present immediately understood Chris's intention.
According to myth and legend, blades and swords could indeed harm monsters like Ghouls, but they couldn't completely kill them.
There was only one way to truly get rid of such a monster — chop off its head!
This plan was feasible!
Bart immediately showed his support by action. He quickly took a step forward and grabbed Evan's other arm.
The remaining knights split into two groups, one on the left and one on the right, fully restraining Evan!
Although Evan had superhuman strength, his hands and feet were now held down by seven knights who didn't care about their lives, and for the moment, he couldn't break free!
"Roar!" Evan let out a deafening angry roar, desperately trying to break free from the reckless knights.
"Damn it!"
Bart used every ounce of his strength but was nearly thrown off balance. He turned to the only subordinate who hadn't yet rushed forward and shouted furiously.
"Quick! Luca! Chop off this monster's head! We won't hold on much longer!"