Huff, huff~
Maybe it was just his imagination, but Mu Yuan suddenly felt the temperature drop quite a bit, with cool breezes blowing one after another.
In front of him, deep-blue patterns swiftly darted about, outlining and interweaving.
In the blink of an eye, a door covered in profound array patterns materialized inside the bedroom and swung open with a boom.
A figure clad in silver-gray armor, with a greatsword and a bone spear strapped to his back, walked out. The next moment, the door dissolved into countless specks of light.
"Skull?"
Deathbone stood there in a daze for a moment, bewildered. Then, in the next instant, he saw the familiar figure and sensed an incomparably close aura that came straight from the depths of his soul.
Deathbone was tall, after all, and could barely stretch out in Mu Yuan's tiny bedroom.
On top of that, he was wearing full-body armor of extraordinary weight. He would probably make a clanging noise whenever he moved, so Mu Yuan could only store him in Mark Space.
The good news was that Mark Space could also store books such as Nine-Year Compulsory Education materials. It simply couldn't transmit them to the game world.
Deathbone could use this opportunity to read and memorize more.
For example, he could memorize them, then find paper and a pen to write them down from memory after returning to the Eternal World. That would both train Deathbone's abilities and transport precious books to the Eternal World for free. Wouldn't that be killing two birds with one stone?
Mu Yuan thought it was a great idea.
He recalled the entire summoning process. "Sure enough, the whole process was incredibly smooth. Summoning troops doesn't require controlling them through the game interface, either. I only need to follow that mysterious connection and supplement it with some Soul Sand."
"Moreover, the cost of the summoning process is much lower than I expected."
It wasn't as if his body had been drained. Mu Yuan felt that his expenditure at this moment was equivalent to running four hundred meters at most.
And that was at a jog.
With his current physical fitness, jogging four hundred meters was practically no expenditure at all.
"The expenditure for other players to summon troops seems to be far greater than this. At the very least, it should be equivalent to running three thousand meters. My expenditure is low, and the process is fast, so when I need them, summoning a few troops over should be much easier."
That was pretty good.
After summoning Deathbone to the real world and personally experiencing extraordinary power, Mu Yuan was somewhat stirred up. However, the real world offered Deathbone no room to display his abilities, and Mu Yuan had no time to waste. He quickly suppressed his excitement, put on a little disguise, and left.
Perhaps because more and more newcomers had registered, the Association market was even livelier today than it had been the day before yesterday.
Mu Yuan had come here once before, so rounding up, he was practically an old player. After being steeped in the forum's atmosphere, he no longer looked like the clueless newbie he had been that day.
He pretended to be an experienced player, strolling past the various stalls, selling materials and exchanging Remnant Souls.
Mu Yuan spotted Boss Zhang from a distance but didn't greet him.
Boss Zhang no longer had any Little Skeleton Remnant Souls in his hands. He had no value left. After searching several times, Mu Yuan finally bought four Little Skeleton Remnant Souls from one stall owner and six from another.
And then... that was it. There was nothing more.
You veteran players are way too useless! Didn't you say Little Skeleton troops were trash and that their Remnant Souls couldn't be sold? Why didn't you stock up on more cheap goods for him to buy? Damn it!
Mu Yuan also understood that the number of players in Baijiang City was limited. No matter how large the Trade Market was, it naturally couldn't be all that large.
Moreover, the people willing to painstakingly set up stalls were all veteran players who were doing merely average. True lord players had no need to sell such odds and ends.
Little Skeleton troops were trash? Then send them to the mines to dig! There was always a job suited to someone.
He had heard that the truly large-scale markets, where all kinds of treasures were sold, weren't on Blue Star but in the Eternal World. Only there could one glimpse the bearing of Great Lords and top-tier powerhouses.
Unable to buy any Little Skeleton Remnant Souls, Mu Yuan changed his appearance again and bought four Slime Remnant Souls from the third stall owner.
He also sold the useless Goblin Remnant Souls and some Common Star materials cheaply, then bought a small amount of Cultivation Materials that would help Deathbone train.
However...
"This is way too expensive!"
Mu Yuan's teeth ached.
The most common auxiliary cultivation material was called Pure Crystal Dust. It was of Common Star quality, and when mixed with Soul Sand and absorbed at a one-to-one ratio, it could increase a troop's leveling speed to 1.5 or even two times.
However, the cost of this kind of cultivation was several times that of using Soul Sand alone.
Originally, raising Deathbone from level four to level five would only cost around fifteen grams of Soul Sand. With this set of materials, the required Soul Sand had risen to over a hundred grams.
He had only earned two hundred Soul Sand in the entire day yesterday!
He still had to cultivate his other skeletons, too!
After hesitating for a while, Mu Yuan still bought a small amount for Deathbone to try.
There was no need to rush cultivation. As Deathbone continued evolving, his cultivation efficiency would also improve. However, he absolutely had to buy more cultivation materials like Abundant Fruit.
Deathbone consumed them very quickly.
He also had to set aside some resources to cultivate Bone Two and Bone Three.
This was a huge expense.
Normally, players only invested large amounts of resources into other aspects to raise their Trump Card and main troops' combat power when their main troops' levels became difficult to increase.
Apart from Whale Players, no one would invest in Cultivation Materials during the newcomer period.
Even Whale Players would feel the pain when spending this much. After all, troop quality was generally low in the early stages. Three-star troops would eventually be replaced by the mid-game and reduced to ordinary city guards.
Some top-tier newcomers recruited Rare Troops early on, but with their abilities, they would sooner or later recruit troops of an even higher tier.
Nurturing them intensely would be somewhat wasteful.
But not nurturing them would leave them behind others.
Mu Yuan didn't have this problem. He didn't feel the slightest bit of heartache spending money on his own little ones... Well, fine, he did feel a little heartache.
When he arrived, there had still been over two hundred Soul Sand in his account. He had figured that he still had plenty of materials to sell, so his wallet should be even fatter when he left.
He hadn't expected it to be flat-out empty.
Of course, he hadn't sold the most precious Shaman Inheritance Stone. He hadn't found an opportunity to offload it, and it was too conspicuous.
After completing the transactions, Mu Yuan quickly withdrew and headed home.
The entire process had gone incredibly smoothly. He hadn't been followed or ambushed by veteran players, hadn't run into some arrogant rich second-generation heir during the transactions, and hadn't encountered any powerful wanted criminals causing trouble.
The 108 contingency plans he had prepared never got the chance to be used.
That was great.
He was a man of peace. Fighting and killing were absolutely out of the question.
"Pfft—"
With Bone Two slaying the final Cave Dweller, Mu Yuan's territory—which still wasn't qualified to have a name—once again achieved a glorious "defensive battle" victory.
At this moment, Deathbone had also returned to the Eternal World through Lord's Mark.
Looking at the corpses of the Cave Dwellers and Thorny Cave Dwellers scattered before him, Deathbone's expressionless face grew solemn again. "My lord, this is a little troublesome. The number of Cave Dwellers attacking us has increased by 1.5 times compared to last time. If this trend continues, our territory will face a major crisis before long."
Mu Yuan: "..."
Ah, yes, yes, yes.
Looking at the powerful, well-equipped skeleton troops and the Cave Dwellers lying dead all over the ground, Mu Yuan had no way to refute him. He could only agree to Deathbone's "grand strategy of strengthening the territory's defenses."
With a general who was so devoted to the territory, what else could he say? Naturally, he agreed to everything.
Arranging the defenses was Deathbone's responsibility. Mu Yuan's own task was simple.
Recruit!
Evolve!
Soon, ten newly born, foolishly adorable Little Skeletons walked down from the Altar. At the same time, four adorably stupid Slimes appeared as well.
Even though newcomers still couldn't enter the Eternal World in person and could only observe from in front of their computers, watching his troops grow stronger and larger bit by bit filled Mu Yuan with lofty ambition.
Falcon: one.
Slime-type: five. One of them was a three-star Great Slime.
Skeleton-type: twenty-five. Among them, there was one Skeleton Warrior and thirteen Skeleton Soldiers.
That was right. He had already evolved the Skeleton Soldiers to "Bone Fourteen." They tirelessly patrolled the territory, crushing any enemy that came to invade.
Compared to them, the naturally lively Slimes were more troublesome to manage than the Little Skeletons.
Mu Yuan planned to use the "older ones leading the newer ones" method.
He had previously let Deathbone guide the Great Slime, so now he would let the Great Slime guide the Little Slimes. That should solve the problem perfectly, right?
Oh, right. Where was the Great Slime? It was such a huge lump that he couldn't have missed it.
Mu Yuan's gaze shifted, and he saw the Great Slime at the edge of the territory, swallowing some unidentified object in one gulp.
Its body suddenly stiffened, taking on an unhealthy color. It looked as if it was suffering terribly.
Mu Yuan: "!!!"
"Eating everything will only hurt you!"
Before you continue