In the end, Zhao Lun had to admit that his excitement was all for nothing. It seemed like the system was still a half-finished product.
Although there were four attribute pages identical to those in the game, this system had only one page, and it was the most useless one—the first page. The second, more practical page was still "loading." How could this not make Zhao Lun feel frustrated?
It was like winning the lottery, getting excited about a big prize, only to suddenly realize that you missed the deadline. That kind of feeling would shatter anyone's excitement.
Despite this, Zhao Lun still had to keep moving forward. Though he was a bit disappointed with the incomplete system, life had to go on.
Days passed, and Zhao Lun's strength gradually grew. Over the past few days, Zhao Lun had reached level 2. While this was certainly something to celebrate, Zhao Lun wasn't overly happy. The reason? His recent luck had been awful. Despite leveling up, he hadn't awakened a talent spell.
Zhao Lun knew that the chances of awakening a talent spell were only about 10% at each level, except for at level 5 and level 10, where the chances were 100%. His "Servant" spell at level 1 had been pure luck, but not awakening a new talent spell at level 2 had been quite painful for him. As a mage, this felt like a huge setback.
To alleviate his frustration, Zhao Lun had devoured all the leftover soulfire from the skeletal mages he had encountered before. He even took his skeleton minions on a hunt for more skeletal mages. However, no matter how many mages he hunted down, his pain only deepened because none of them had awakened a new spell.
Thankfully, Zhao Lun's efforts weren't entirely in vain. Not only had he reached the peak of level 2, but he also filled all the available spots for his skeleton minions. Now, he had a total of seven skeleton minions. Yes, seven. After reaching level 2, his mana increased, and with it, he could command more minions.
Among Zhao Lun's seven skeleton minions, five were skeletal archers, one was a greatsword skeleton, and one was a bone shield skeleton. All of them had leveled up to 2 under his careful nurturing. The most surprising development came when Greatsword One, upon leveling up, awakened the special skill "Cross Slash." This gave Zhao Lun a bit of hope for the system.
Whether that hope would turn into despair was still a mystery, but what Zhao Lun would do next was not.
One day, Zhao Lun and his seven minions set out again from their cave, this time heading south.
He sent his five skeletal archers ahead, while the bone shield and greatsword skeletons walked behind. Zhao Lun himself sat comfortably in the middle, stretching lazily.
"Ever since 'Catastrophe' was removed, I've realized the Underworld's weather isn't so bad. There's no harsh sun, it's not too dark, and the scenery isn't half bad either."
Looking at the vast, white expanse before him, Zhao Lun had gradually gotten used to the bone-filled world. In fact, he found it quite appealing. The area was a plain with no notable elevation changes, so the view stretched wide. The snow-white ground and the dim sky in the distance merged into a surreal scene, creating a unique kind of landscape.
"Let's go!" Zhao Lun called out energetically, waving his hand to signal his skeleton minions forward, paying no attention to any nearby skeletons.
"It's been two days. I wonder if that guy is still there?"
The reason Zhao Lun was heading south was because, a few days ago, he had encountered a level 4 greatsword skeleton there. At that time, Zhao Lun only had three skeletal archers and one greatsword skeleton, all at level 1. After calculating his odds, he realized the risk of confrontation was too high, so he had abandoned the idea of killing the greatsword skeleton and returned home.
Now, feeling more confident after his recent power boost, Zhao Lun planned to seek out the level 4 greatsword skeleton. Not only would he gain its soulfire to strengthen his own Greatsword One, but it was also quite close to his location, so taking it down would be a matter of self-defense. Zhao Lun had begun to feel like he was playing a game, and this encounter felt like a mini boss battle. The excitement was real.
The location of the level 4 greatsword skeleton wasn't far from where Zhao Lun was. In less than 20 minutes, Zhao Lun and his minions arrived at the place where they had encountered the skeleton before. From a distance, Zhao Lun could already see the greatsword skeleton patrolling back and forth.
"Odd, why is it still here? Wait, something's off." Zhao Lun's heart skipped a beat as he observed the greatsword skeleton.
At first, Zhao Lun had only planned to check if the skeleton was still around. Although he had a bit of hope, he hadn't expected it to still be here.
"Now that I think about it, last time, it was walking around in this same area. What's it doing?" Zhao Lun was starting to get curious. Instead of rushing in, he decided to keep his distance and observe with his seven minions.
After watching for a while, Zhao Lun grew even more curious. He realized that this greatsword skeleton was different from the others. Most skeletons would attack on sight, but this one seemed to have its own boundary. As long as someone stayed five meters away, it wouldn't attack.
"It's marking its territory?" Zhao Lun was completely puzzled. However, he soon realized that there was no point in observing any longer. It made more sense to take it down, especially since it was so close.
With that in mind, Zhao Lun boldly led his skeleton minions toward the greatsword skeleton. Just as he had expected, although the greatsword skeleton saw them approaching from a distance, it didn't attack. Instead, it stopped and stared at Zhao Lun with its ghostly, white fire-filled eyes.
The moment their gazes met, Zhao Lun froze. He stared at the skeleton in disbelief. "It has intelligence!"
Zhao Lun could swear that this was the most intelligent soulfire he had ever seen. There was no sign of pure aggression, just a hint of confusion. It seemed to be wondering why Zhao Lun and his minions had grouped together.
"What should I do? This guy seems different from the others. It might have intelligence. Should I still kill it?" Zhao Lun hesitated. Until now, he had always been quick to eliminate any skeletons without a second thought, but this one seemed... different. The idea of killing it suddenly felt wrong.