Mu Yuan chose to evolve Deathbone after careful consideration.
He first ruled out the option of evolving all the Little Skeletons. Most of them were still Level 1 or Level 2, and even after evolving, their combat power wouldn't increase by much.
That was also because he was poor.
Although his daily Soul Sand income had already exceeded 300g, he still couldn't supply every unit with enough resources for uninterrupted cultivation. He could only prioritize his Trump Cards and main forces.
Bone Three, Bone Four, and the other first-generation skeletons were already fairly high-leveled, generally at LV4.
Moreover, they had already mastered the use of skill energy. After evolving, it wouldn't take them too long to learn Charge Spear Throw. In other words, he could quickly produce a batch of powerful units with ranged attack capabilities.
But,
Mu Yuan still chose Deathbone.
With Deathbone's already astonishing Level 6 of the zero rank, along with its energy reserves and skill-use techniques far surpassing those of the other skeletons, evolving Deathbone was definitely worth it.
He was also very curious about what skill Deathbone would learn upon evolving.
What if he gambled and got some divine skill?
This was a huge gamble!
Autumn Wind Soughing, Deathbone, and the entire village's skeletons carried their expectations as they slowly walked toward the Lord Altar.
Mu Yuan had been waiting there for quite some time.
With the excitement of drawing a card, he had bathed and burned incense early on. Everything was ready. All that remained was a miraculous evolution!
"Let's begin."
Deathbone was filled with anticipation as well.
This was the power of the Great Lord. This time, it swore that it would reclaim the glory of playing it safe and become a skeleton that could truly act cautiously.
Evolve.
Evolve!
Blazing white light enveloped Deathbone's body. Amid the dazzling radiance, the notification chimes rang out one after another.
"Cling!"
"Notification: Your unit 'Skeleton Warrior (Rare ★)' has bathed in the light of miracles, undergone a transformation, and evolved into 'Skeleton Warlord (Rare ★★★)'..."
The advanced unit of the Skeleton Warrior was the Skeleton Warlord. Mu Yuan had expected this.
He had read through a great deal of information.
There had once been a player who used the Skeleton Soldier Inheritance Stone and met a rich woman while exploring. With the rich woman's financial support, the player spent a fortune buying countless treasures and fusing higher-grade Inheritance Stones, finally advancing his own class to Skeleton Warrior and then further to Skeleton Warlord.
Occasionally, some Great Lords would cherish their old comrades and invest vast resources into nurturing the former trump-card skeleton soldiers and Skeleton Warriors who had rendered them outstanding service in the early days.
And among the many records, all of them indicated that the Skeleton Warlord was the pinnacle of the Little Skeleton series.
It had reached the top.
Of course, the Skeleton Warlord was already a powerful Rare Three-Star unit, an existence that the vast majority of players could only dream of obtaining.
But,
"Perhaps this really is the limit of the Little Skeletons, but it definitely isn't the limit of Evolution Points. Next time, we'll continue investing points."
As his thoughts raced, Mu Yuan's heart gradually tightened.
"Notification: During the evolution process, your unit 'Skeleton Warlord' awakened the talent 'Death Absorption'."
--
"Death Absorption: By killing enemies, it absorbs their essence of death, slightly increasing the unit's strength and spirit, and moderately increasing the unit's energy. These increases are permanent, but have a limit. The limit is related to the unit's own rank."
"It's a talent, not a skill?"
"Legend has it that units above the Outstanding Grade have a chance of possessing talents... Compared to skills, talents have broader prospects and applications, and are likewise much rarer."
"Deathbone actually awakened a talent during this evolution?"
"And this talent seems extremely powerful. Even if the increases to strength and spirit are ignored, it still means that killing monsters can increase its maximum energy. That's incredibly fierce!"
He was practically shouting, What the hell!
But then he thought about how even a mere Skeleton Soldier could possess a skill upon evolution. It was only reasonable for the Skeleton Warlord to awaken a talent, wasn't it?
This wasn't because Deathbone was so impressive. It was because Great Lord Mu was awesome.
It was precisely because of Great Lord Mu's persistence and hard work that he could nurture one extraordinarily gifted skeleton after another, and even cultivate the future Skeleton Emperor.
As expected of me~!
He had been surprised by Deathbone so many times these past few days that he had almost forgotten that he was the most awesome person in the entire territory.
Wait a moment. Why hadn't the white light of evolution dispersed yet?
Previous evolutions had ended in the blink of an eye. Perhaps this time, because more Evolution Points had been consumed, the special effects would last longer?
As Mu Yuan thought this, another familiar "ding-dong" notification rang out before him.
"Cling!"
"Notification: During the evolution process, your unit 'Skeleton Warlord' experienced intense fluctuations of will and additionally comprehended the special skill 'Undead Rebirth'."
--
"Undead Rebirth: It can resurrect skeleton-type creatures from corpses and command them to fight on its behalf. Resurrected creatures can only exist for a certain period of time before returning to dust. At the same time, this skill can be used on Undead System targets that have been dead for no more than half an hour, allowing them to revive. Reviving a target consumes several to dozens of times more energy than resurrection, depending on the target's rank."
Mu Yuan: "..."
What the hell! What the hell! What the hell!
He seemed to have gotten two golds from a single pull!
But judging from the notification, it seemed, possibly, probably, perhaps... that comprehending Undead Rebirth was inseparable from Deathbone itself.
Because it wanted to play it safe so badly, it learned Resurrection Spell?
As expected of you, Deathbone.
Mu Yuan's mouth twitched. At that moment, the white light of evolution finally faded away, revealing a Skeleton Warlord whose general appearance was similar to that of its warrior days, but whose armor was clearly much heavier and whose body had grown to over two meters tall.
It leaned on a massive sword as broad and thick as a door panel. Wisps of Netherlight flowed across the blade, and merely staring at it seemed to reveal countless wailing souls.
Its silver-gray armor was countless times more extravagant than its predecessor's. The two skulls carved onto its shoulders made it look even more imposing and fearsome.
Even through the medium, the Skeleton Warlord version of Deathbone remained an incredibly striking sight.
Of course, that wasn't what Mu Yuan cared about. What he cared about was that he could forget giving Deathbone a head pat now—even his little fists could barely reach Deathbone's chest.
If he dared summon Deathbone inside the house, a home demolition incident would probably occur.
But setting all that aside, Deathbone's evolution this time could truly be described as a complete transformation. With the Death Absorption talent, Deathbone would soon be able to shed the title of Two-Shot Skeleton and become a Four-Shot Skeleton, then an Eight-Shot Skeleton, leaving all others far behind in terms of endurance.
Although it seemed that the Undead Rebirth skill consumed even more mana?
Having comprehended Undead Rebirth on its own, Deathbone was very satisfied.
With this skill, it would indeed be much safer when going out to subjugate enemies in the future. It would no longer have to worry about Bone Two Fool and Bone Three Lang, among other skeletons, suddenly dying.
But Deathbone wasn't completely satisfied.
That was because Undead Rebirth had certain restrictions. It could only revive Undead System targets, and was ineffective on the human lord.
Deathbone was troubled by this.
Admittedly, it could lead a team out to explore on its own and leave the lord at home. However, their territory was far from safe enough. Not to mention distant dangers—what if the nearby Gargoyle awakened while it was away? Wouldn't that mean the lord was doomed?
That was far too dangerous!
These Gargoyles truly had a death wish!
Before you continue